Great Presidents in Geek Culture

Happy Presidents Day Everyone! Or, those of you in the U.S. anyway. For the rest of you, happy Monday. You might find this interesting too.

In honor of the U.S.’s founding fathers (and those that have filled their shoes since) we are going to take a look at some of the most famous Presidential appearances in geek culture.

The Dead Presidents in Deadpool

With the most recent volume of Deadpool coming from Marvel’s “Marvel Now” campaign, Deadpool becomes an unofficial agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. to do the things that the agency needs done but cannot be officially affiliated with. In this first arc, Deadpool finds himself taking on the dead Presidents of the United States.

Not just one or two, but all of them. Teamed up with the ghost of Ben Franklin, the Merc with the Mouth chases down a wheel chair riding zombie FDR, dresses up as Marilyn Monroe for zombie JFK and goes head to head in a MMA ring against zombie Abe Lincoln to stop the dead Presidents under the leadership of zombie George Washington from taking back the USA.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

No, not a prequel to Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a novel turned movie based on a behind the scenes fictional tale of the famous leader. As it turns out, Lincoln’s mother was killed in retaliation of a young Lincoln standing up for a slave boy he befriended. Years later, Lincoln attempts to kill the man who killed his mother only to find out he is actually a vampire.

Surviving the encounter, Lincoln takes the steps to eliminate the vampiric threat which has coincidentally been using the slave trade to keep their ranks well fed. In addition to abolishing slavery, Lincoln would help save generations of Americans from the vampire threat as well.

Richard Nixon in Watchmen

Say what you will about his real life time as President, comic book Richard Nixon ended the war in Vietnam like a true leader. In Watchmen, Tricky Dick pulled out his biggest trick as he used his own walking nuclear weapon of Doctor Manhattan and to him to work in almost singlehandedly ending the war. Interestingly enough in the Watchmen world, the 22nd Amendment which sets a Presidential term limit is repealed.

There are also suspicious deaths behind Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (you know, the guys who exposed Watergate) and as a result, Nixon remains President until the events of the book in 1985. After the catastrophic events caused by Ozymandias, Robert Redford is nominated for Presidency implying that Nixon won’t be aiming for a 6th term.

Barack Obama in Comics

Our current President Barack Obama has had his fair share of appearances in comics since his election. Aside from small press books like President Evil and Obama: The Comic Book, he has also made some major appearances in everything from Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters from IDW, Archie and Veronica from Archie, Youngblood and Savage Dragon from Image and being saved by Norman Osborn’s new team in the Thunderbolts from Marvel.

Marvel would find out that Obama was a real life Spider-Man collector and featured him in a story entitled “Spidey Meets the President!” in The Amazing Spider-Man #583 in January of 2009. With Obama and Spider-Man on the cover, high grade copies found their way to eBay selling for hundreds of dollars within a day of their release.

Thomas J Whitmore in Independence Day

Who cares if he wasn’t a real President or even a real person? Bill Pullman proves to be one of the most badass Presidents in fictional US history. A veteran of the Persian Gulf War, Whitmore doesn’t hunker down and let Will Smith have all the action as his country and the world are invaded by the alien menace. Instead, he gives one of the most inspirational speeches in action movie history before getting in the cockpit of a jet fighter himself to take on the aliens himself.

The rallying call for every underdog, Bill Pullman left us with the phrase to never forget: “We’re fighting for our right to live, to exist and should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice, ‘We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on, we’re going to survive. Today we celebrate our Independence Day!”

We were going to look into George Washington’s appearance in the Assassin’s Creed III DLC where he becomes the tyrant king of the early US, but we decided to leave that one alone.

Happy President’s Day everyone! Enjoy the day off if you get one.