Obama has said he collected Spider-Man comics as a child, and fellow comic book enthusiasts are excited about the prospect of having one of their own in the White House. "How great is that? The commander in chief to be is actually a nerd in chief," John Quesada, Marvel's editor in chief, told the Associated Press. "It was really, really cool to see that we had a geek in the White House. We're all thrilled with that." Adding to his nerd status, AP reports Obama's Senate Web site also used to have a photo of him posing in front of a Superman statue.

According to AP, in the comic Spider-Man alter-ego Peter Parker is taking photographs at the inauguration before spotting identical Obamas. He decides "the future president's gonna need Spider-Man" and uses basketball to determine which Obama is the real one, and punches out the imposter. The real Obama thanks Parker with a fist-bump.