RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Presidential appearances in comics

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Several comics I've either read or re-read in recent months have portrayals of JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, G H W Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, and Trump. The only one I don't recall portrayed anywhere (although I could have just not seen it ) is Biden
I like the portrayals, capturing the personalities of the various presidents, and of the times in the eras portrayed.

One I've read many times is X-MEN 108, where Phoenix almost destroys the entire universe. And Jimmy Carter in a heavy drawl is speaking by telephone/video with scientists, the Avengers and the FF, all struggling to understand why the universe is coming apart..
All this in Byrne's first X-MEN issue. So many great elements in that issue, and this little bit with Jimmy Carter just added to the mix of great stuff in this issue.
I especially like the small but powerful robot that Wolverine underestimates. And in the next panel the robot punches Wolverine off the planet and into orbit, rescued by the Starrjammers' spaceship flying in space above the planet.



https://readallcomics.com/x-men-v1-108/

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Uncanny-X-Men-1963/Issue-108?id=22747

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When I dug out the actual issues, the above panel of President Carter is from X-MEN 136, August 1980, when Dark Phoenix re-surfaced to again threaten the universe.

I love Claremont's scripted drawl for President Carter, in both appearances.
It's not hokey, it captures well how Carter actually sounded.


https://readallcomics.com/x-men-v1-135/
https://readallcomics.com/x-men-v1-136/
https://readallcomics.com/x-men-v1-137/

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Uncanny-X-Men-1963/Issue-136?id=22810

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Then there's Jack Kirby's CAPTAIN AMERICA 193-214 run, the first issue of which has Henry Kissinger, who served as secretary of state for both the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations.

https://readallcomics.com/captain-america-v1-193/
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Captain-America-1968/Issue-193?id=9434



With some unlikely Kirby-scripted dialogue for Kissinger:
"Hah! You dreamer, you. The test isn't over yet. We'll have our chat --if you survive this final hurdle."
and
"Dot's right boys. If he's a superhero, let him prove it."

Wow, that sounds just like Henry Kissinger, don't ya think?



Plus a continuing story in issues 193-200 that has an underground colony of British monarchists still wearing knickers and powdered wigs 200 years later, who want to bring colonialism and the Briitsh Monarchy back into power over the United States in 1976.
And the monarchists try to send Captain America and the Falcon off to their final fate in a women's underground roller derby gladiatorial arena of death.
Hey, it could happen !
Along with the "madbomb"... I won't even try to explain that one. Reading it is believing.


Plus the 1976 Marvel treasury CAPTAIN AMERICA'S BICENTENNIAL BATTLES, out about the same time, that has Cap duking it out with Adolf Hitler and his inner circle.
Along with other scenes of Cap having a dialogue and/or fists with Benjamin Franklin, abolitionist John Brown, the Alamagordo nuclear test in 1945, Cap filmed in a Busby-Berkeley-type classic Hollywood dance musical, and other assorted historical craziness.
The best part of which for me is the 11 opening pages by Jack Kirby, inked by Barry Windsor-Smith !

https://readallcomics.com/captain-america-bicentennial-battles-tpb/
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Captain-America-Bicentennial-Battles/Full?id=130693

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In an unlikely story in CAPTAIN AMERICA 215, by Roy Thomas with Tuska/Marcos art, a retro-fitted story tells of events after Captain America's seeming death in 1945, where he was frozen in a block of ice and worshipped by Eskimos for 20 years.
Until he was revived by Lee and Kirby in AVENGERS 4 in 1964.
https://readallcomics.com/avengers-v1-004/

But Roy Thomas expanding onto that story in CAPTAIN AMERICA 215, back in 1945 with Cap appearing to be dead, then-president Harry Truman arranges an imposter to pretend to be Captain America, to stand in and boost the U.S. military's war effort in the closing months of World War II. Along with a less than spectacular re-telling of Cap's origin.
You could argue Roy Thomas did a valiant job of tying up all the loose threads, referencing over a hundred issues or so of past continuity. But for me it was a bit half-hearted.

https://readallcomics.com/captain-america-v1-215/






I much prefer the flashback stories in CAPTAIN AMERICA 250 and 255
In issue 250, by Roger Stern and Byrne/Rubinstein, Cap is pressured to run for president.

255, the last issue by Stern and Byrne/Rubinstein is a more straightforward re-telling of Cap's origin.
Along wih Cap again clashing with Adolf Hitler, and meeting reverently with president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who before meeting Cap also orchestrated the experiment that gave Steve Rogers the super-soldier serum, that made him into Captain America.
A really nice aspect of 255 is, the flashback segments to World War II are reproduced from Byrne's un-inked pencils, whereas the modern-day portions are inked by Rubinstein, that gives an interesting texture and contrast to the art, and gives a more Golden Age-compatible look to the flashbacks.

https://readallcomics.com/captain-america-v1-250/
https://readallcomics.com/captain-america-v1-255/

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Captain-America-1968/Issue-255?id=9497

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One of the examples from my early collecting days is DOOMSDAY PLUS ONE issue 1, July 1975 :

https://readallcomics.com/doomsday-1-001-1975/
or
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Doomsday-1-1975/Issue-1?id=153140




At least back to the 1950's and 1960's, the president would be shown in comics stories but in shadow with his face not shown, and not named. I don't know if this was done in the Golden-Age and Silver-Age era out of reverence, or maybe for liability reasons, not wanting to show a president's name and likeness without permission, or for some other reason.

The CAPTAIN AMERICA 193 one I listed above by Kirby was done almost the exact same time as this one, but was not shy about naming political leaders.


This DOOMSDAY +1 issue would have been the period Gerald Ford was president, but to me the guy in the shadows looks more like Nixon.
And you also can see the Russian Premier, who more visibly looks like Leonid Breshnev.
I like how both presidents are shown as they each launch nuclear strikes, each thinking their nation is under full nuclear attack, and each think they have to launch an all-out counter-strike before their nation and its military are completely destroyed, but each manifest great sadness about having to give the order.

Rarely does a comic show you the complete destruction of the world in such vivid detail.
In 1975, at age 11, that was a little scary
It also has the bonus of being very early work by John Byrne. But I had no idea who Byrne was back then, and it wasn't until I started reading X-MEN in 1980 that I made the connection Byrne was the same artist who did DOOMSDAY +1.
Byrne did art on 1-6, and 7-12 reprint the first 6 issues.

The series has been reprinted multiple times since then too
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?q=doomsday+%2B1..&pubid=&PubRng=
and
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=262071

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( page from AVENGERS 181, March 1979 )


In a hilarious portrayal of off-panel presidential authority, this offering from AVENGERS 186, on pages 23 and 26, where overzealous FBI agent Peter Gyrich has been tightening his bureaucratic micro-management of the Avengers since issue 181, and a fed up Captain America leaves because he "has to make a phone call", and a few minutes later butler Jarvis interrupts Gyrich's argument with the Avengers to tell Gyrich there is an important call for him. And the aftermath of that call instantly changes the situation.

https://readallcomics.com/avengers-v1-186/

The Gyrich sub-plot runs from AVENGERS 181-191, mostly by Michelinie and Byrne, and is very much worth reading.







Agent Gyrich also appears again in X-MEN 142, meeting the president in the basement of the White House in a highly classified meeting of top secret importance.
While the president is again shown anonymously and in shadow with his face unseen, Jimmy Carter was president at the time of both these AVENGERS and X-MEN storylines.

https://readallcomics.com/x-men-v1-141/
https://readallcomics.com/uncanny-x-men-v1-142/



I also enjoyed X-MEN inclusion of then-Canadian president Pierre Trudeau, shown meeting with and also directing operations of Alpha Flight in their missions as Canadian military agents.
Who could have guessed that Trudeau's son Justin Trudeau would become Canada's president roughly 40 years later?
I would guess that John Byrne, a Canadian native of Calgary, Alberta, and creator of Alpha Flight, is also responsible for Pierre Trudeau's inclusion in the story.
Pierre Trudeau appears in X-MEN 120 and 121, the issues where Alpha Flight were first created ( and Vindicator alone in issue 109, without Trudeau).

And then again in X-MEN 139-140.



https://readallcomics.com/x-men-v1-109/

https://readallcomics.com/x-men-v1-120/
https://readallcomics.com/x-men-v1-121/

https://readallcomics.com/x-men-v1-139/
https://readallcomics.com/x-men-v1-140/

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I think Ronald Reagan is the most frequently portrayed president in comics.

Here's a fun appearance by Mike Grell in JON SABLE FREELANCE issue 1, June 1983, where Reagan is similarly portrayed in the shadows, but barely left in the shadows and easily recognized, in a clever exchange of dialogue between Jon Sable and the President. Reagan hires Sable to investigate and stop an assassination attempt on Reagan's life.

This story appeared on the stands about a year after an ACTUAL attempt on Reagan's life. And the wounds were so severe that (hidden at the time from the public, but we know now) Reagan never fully recovered.

full issue at :
https://readallcomics.com/jon-sable-freelance-01/

or at :
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Jon-Sable-Freelance/Issue-1?id=98833

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Jusin Trudeau I found out also had an appearance in comics, on the cover of CIVIL WAR II: CHOOSING SIDES, by an artist I'm unfamiliar with named Ramon Perez .
Trudeau's moment of comics fame, if only on an obscure cover (variant cover 5-B).

http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/2016/06/prime-minister-justin-trudeaus-civil.html

https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=37315607


Justin Trudeau also appears in the interior story :
https://readallcomics.com/civil-war-ii-choosing-sides-005-2016/

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One of my favorites, from the Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams run, GREEN LANTERN 83, April-May 1971, where the two villain characters are given the faces of then Vice-President Spiro Agnew, and the litle girl with enormous power he controls has the face of Richard Nixon.

full issue at :
https://readallcomics.com/green-lantern-v2-083/


I don't really know how much to read serious commentary into the Agnew and Nixon characters. The Agnew character (Grandy) is prone to law and order rhetoric of the real Agnew while he was VP. He exerts power and control over the actions of the little Nixon girl (Sybil), which might be just a plot device and have no serious political commentary. Or it could be commenting that Spiro Agnew had control and ideological influence over the actions of Nixon, with ramifications that hurt a lot of innocent people. But I don't see a basis for that in the known facts about Nixon and Agnew's White House policy.

But this much is certain: Dennis O'Neil, Neal Adams, and Dick Giordano all were liberals whose views tilted to the far left, and they sure weren't fans of Nixon and Agnew. I think they injected Nixon and Agnew likenesses just to vaguely portray the two Republican leaders in a silly way. And the ambiguity of any possible deeper meaning is left up to the reader, and maybe makes it more memorable and better received, by not being too heavy handed in forcing any particular message.

Agnew was removed from office for corruption charges, investigated for crimes committed years before he was VP, when he was a government executive in Maryland, and resigned as VP in Oct 1973.
More famously, Nixon was involved in covering up the Watergate scandal, and was forced to resign in August 1974.

Alfred Hitchcock also makes a cameo appearance, delivering the mail on page 4.

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INCREDIBLE HULK ANNUAL 11, 1981
https://readallcomics.com/incredible-hulk-annual-10/

by Bill Mantlo, pencilled by Rick Leonardi, with a small platoon of inkers


When Hulk wanders across Kansas into the grounds of a nuclear missile base and rips things apart, combined with a missile base commander who for fanatical reasons wants to use the situation to launch a nuclear attack, sends an ICBM missile into the air, that as a result has Ronald Reagan on the presidential hotline with then-Soviet premier Leonid Breshnev, trying to advise Breshnev of the situation, and avoid an all-out Soviet counter-strike on the U.S.
The situation is dire, but some of their conversation is quite funny, especially once they've narrowly averted all-out nuclear armageddon, and rulers on both ends of the hotline conversation breathe a deep sigh of relief when the crisis passes. I thought both leaders' personalities were portrayed well.

A nice time capsule of a story, of the Reagan era.

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I think Ronald Reagan is the president who had he most appearances in comics I can recall.

But especially in JSA and other Golden Age comics, Franklin Delano Roosevelt has a ton of appearances.

I was looking recently through the Thomas / Buckler ALL-STAR SQUADRON issues (1-5) and saw quite a few in those early issues. And here's FDR again in issue 7.

https://www.comicsrecommended.com/articles/seventeen/all-star-squadron-007.html





Full issues to read online at :

https://readallcomics.com/all-star-squadron-007/

The Atom walks in on FDR beginning on page 6.
With some Winston Churchill tossed in on page 18.

"Good Lord <choke> !!"

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In ALL-STAR SQUADRON 1, the group busts into the White House to meet with FDR the first time, on pages 22-24.

https://readallcomics.com/all-star-squadron-001/

( And also appearing in the preceding ALL-STAR SQUADRON preview, in JLA 193 :
https://readallcomics.com/justice-league-of-america-v1-193/ )

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Buried amid Roger Stern's 1977-1979 run on INCREDIBLE HULK is a Jimmy Carter appearance in issue 238, cover-dated August 1979. In the opening scene, President Carter, alongside then-governor Jerry Brown of California, examinie the ruins of several devastated city blocks after the latest Hulk battle hit the area.

Writers always had fun capturing President Carter's southern accent in dialogue, with golden nuggets like:
"I'm Afraid his powah is far beyond the limits of ouah imagination."

And driving away in his presidential limo, Carter further contemplates in silent thought:
"Something must be done about this "Hulk problem'. It could become a bigger issue than inflation!"

Which is really funny in retrospect, because we know inflation was never more of an issue than when Jimmy Carter was president. Arguably the issue that cost him re-election in a Reagan landslide just a year later in Nov 1980.

https://readallcomics.com/incredible-hulk-v1-238/

Love the Bob Layton cover too.