Baracksploitation in comics

Baracksploitation continues to run rampant.

I work in downtown Atlanta, so I'm somewhat numbed to the droves of obviously unauthorized t-shirts, prints, and doo-dads plastered with the image and slogans of our most recently elected head of the executive branch. "Yes we can," "Yes we did," and "Commemorative edition (name the doo-dad here)" are everywhere in the A-T-L.

(By the way, who is "we"? And if it means what I think it does, why is this not considered racist? If a white person is elected next cycle, can I wear a "We undid it" T-shirt and get away with it?)

But what is mind-numbing to me is that the phenomenon has particularly caught on in the realm of...comic books.

Really? Comics?

I can imagine the editorial meetings: "Forget Milestone Comics, this is how we get black people interested in comics!"

Now, I don't mind Presidents being portrayed in comics - in fact, I've always been interested when it happened in the past, ever since the May, 1977 issue of Marvel Two-In-One #27, pencilled by underrated comics artist Ron Wilson (who, incidentally is black, and if anybody should be able cash in on this trend, I wish it could be him - he his inexplicably out of comics). As a youngster, it really blew my mind that the President would appear in a comic book! And not a fictional President, but the real deal!

But the current comics explosion of Obama appearances - and not just cameos, but full-blown titles - is a bit beyond the Presidential bit parts and cameos comics readers have become accustomed to. The "Special Inauguration Edition" of Amazing Spider-Man definitely falls into the category of "Commemorative edition ________"-type Baracksploitation that has struck Atlanta so hard. (Heck even our local paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution got in on the action by hawking prints and t-shirts of their inaugural editions. But I guess comics and newspapers, like many print media, are on the downswing and will do anything to turn a buck, especially in a bad economy.)

But you know what? Every U.S. presidential inauguration is special and historic. There have only been 43 individuals to take the oath of office over 220 years. (I phrase it that way since Grover Cleveland - the only President to hold two "numbers" - is only one individual, and many other Presidents were two-termers and took the oath more than once.)

Yet this past inauguration received more than it's due. Why? Because there was a market to exploit. Pure and simple.

Why does it bug me? Besides the fact that I did not like this candidate and the (in my opinion) lies he campaigned - and won - with, the son of gun cheapened my memories of one of my favorite comic issues of all time. What's worse, he's a comics fan himself.