DC Universe Executive Editor Dan Didio recently noted that an appearance by President Barack Obama in the DCU isn’t quite their thing.
5. Something that is timely given what we’ve seen in comics up to and including Tuesday – when will President Obama be appearing in a DC Comic?: There are no plans at all. The reason why is that over the past ten or more years, we have never gone to any lengths to include actual political figures into any of our books, and see no reason to change that right now. The world that our characters exist in is a fictional world that touches upon ideals and sensibilities of the real world, but we don’t like to mix it to any great level in regards to real people and real events. My feeling on it is that I have always preferred that the President in the DC Universe, if not one of our characters such as Luthor, be a character that reflects the sensibilities and attitudes of the current Administration, without ever featuring individuals in the books themselves. It’s just my opinion. I’m pretty comfortable with how we do it, and even though it seems to be the flavor of the day in a way, I prefer just to concentrate on the books we’re doing and the stories we’re telling now.
DD
However, he didn’t say anything that ruled out this sequence of pages from Final Crisis #7, as seen in the preview on the motherhship front page. Somewhere, Alex Ross is smiling . . .
January 26th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Well, it does feel as if, since Luthor, the DCU was finally going its own way as a fictional universe. Divergence from real political history can only help matters, I think, from a creative/editorial freedom point of view. Fictional presidents for DCU’s America for me from here on.
And that’s just the start of the changes that can be made if the will and the vision’s there…
January 26th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
That was exactly my thought as I read that first page of the preview: “They’ve gone and put Obama in here w/o naming him!”
The next page makes that somewhat less the case, but it was still a pretty cool moment.
David Palmer (of “24″ Seasons One and Two) was such a predecessor of Obama’s!
May 20th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Let’s just call it what it is (because apparently no DC staffer would never openly admit it): DC painted itself in a corner with the whole Lex Luthor for President story line. The cost of that creative laziness? No 9/11 stories, no Bush stories no Obama stories. This isn’t an issue of politics, it’s just an issue of plan short-sightedness. September 11th was big! And DC just ignored it, (except for a couple of token commemorative comic books).
Imagine DC without references to World War I (no Enemy Ace), no references to World War II (no Sgt. Rock or Haunted Tank tales), no references to Reagan (no “Legends” story line and no explanation to the origin of the late 80′s Justice League).
Sure you don’t want a complete mirror of the real world, but at least Marvel comics can craft stories around real global-altering events that are important. No, what does DC do? Luthor for president: talk about the same old wine in a different bottle. Just lazy.