January 10, 2009

Spider-Man Vs. Obama: This is Gonna Be Lame

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obama_spidey300.jpgMarvel Comics has announced that it’s cashing in on—excuse me, commemorating—a “Brand New Day for the United States” by sticking Barack Obama into its next issue of Spider-Man. The story, set on Inauguration Day, “finds one of Spider-Man’s oldest foes attempting to thwart the swearing in ceremony of the 44th President of the United States.” Wait, Spider-Man has done battle with these kooks? Actually, the baddie is the Chameleon, which I think is one of Dick Cheney’s aliases.

Nothing good can come from superheroes meddling in politics. Last year, DC Comics released a series of election-themed comics. Our in-house comic collector-slash-webmaster lent me his copies and, wow, were they bad. So my spidey senses are tingling with something less than anticipation about the Webslinger going to Washington. From the online previews, it looks like the episode’s highlight is Spidey doing a terrorist fist-jab with some black guy in a suit. Seriously, if Marvel’s going to suck up to the president, it could have at least found an artist who can draw a reasonable likeness of him. Or wait—maybe that’s really Cheney before he rips off his cheap Obama mask and reveals himself?

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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