Spider-Man, Obama team-up comic sells out

PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. comic book retailers said a Spider-Man comic featuring President-elect Barack Obama on the cover flew from shelves faster than you can sling a web.

Dan Tabayoyon, an employee of Excalibur Books & Comics in Portland, Ore., said copies of "Amazing Spider-Man #583" sold out "before the door opened" Wednesday and hundreds of people lined up outside of Midtown Comics in New York's Manhattan borough in the hopes of snagging a copy, The (Portland) Oregonian reported Thursday.

Tabayoyon said his store ordered 70 copies of the issue for regular subscribers and four additional copies stocked by the store were quickly claimed by callers. He said the store did not know the issue was going to feature Obama on the cover and as a character in the story until it was too late to re-order.

"We actually had no clue," he said.

He said the comic features a plot by Spider-Man's enemy The Chameleon to impersonate Obama at his inauguration and take over the country. The super hero and the politician team up to foil the plot.

"Honestly," Obama says in the comic after the villain's plot is foiled, "I'm more upset by the Chameleon's shockingly deficient understanding of the electoral process."