Captain America Elected President

Yes, you read that headline correctly.

If you haven’t been reading Marvel’s Ultimate line of comics, let me bring you up to speed: the nation is in shambles. Sentinels have taken over, Texas left the Union and is just itching to detonate a nuke -- not to mention the president has lost the faith of the American people. Someone needs to save the day and rebuild the country. As Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso told me, “Who better than a guy dressed in red, white, and blue to come back and try to sew America back together?”

In Ultimate Comics Ultimates #15, on sale tomorrow, Captain America will win the presidency via a special election by the American people. In the following issue, Cap will take “office” and do his best to lead the nation on the path to recovery. I put office in quotations because Marvel has made it quite clear that Steve Rogers has no plans to sit in the Oval Office and be buried in paperwork – he’ll still very much be out in the field.

“Cap is a soldier, not a politician. He's been called by the people to unite America,” Ultimates writer Sam Humphries said. “He's going to reinterpret the job of president to fit the crisis at hand, and to align with what he feels is the right thing to do. From his point of view, sitting in a giant mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue is not going to be the way to get the job done. There are very compelling fictions about the presidency through the lens of realism, but this is not one of them. This is a story told through the lens of super heroic fantasy, and it won't resemble any presidency we've seen before, fact or fiction. If you see him behind a desk, you know something is wrong.”

“We saw an opportunity to tell a very different type of story about the presidency; about the pact between the American people and its leader, what it means – the fact that it’s a two-way street,” added Alonso.

Of course, the immediate worry is that having Steve Rogers identify with a political agenda could alienate certain readers depending on their own political affiliations. Marvel was quick to put those worries to rest. “Cap does not have a party affiliation. He is not a political president,” explained Humphries. “He did not run an election or even ask to be nominated. But this is not the first time America has asked him to lead the country out of a dark hour. This is a calling Cap feels compelled to answer because of who he is, not what his political platform is.”

The writer continued, “Cap is answering a call, the people's call. They're scared, their country is splitting apart, and they're having a leadership crisis. They want a leader who will focus on doing what needs to be done. Cap steps up and accepts the mandate -- not for the glory, or for power, but because he believes it is the right thing to do. In that sense, he is the right man for the job.”

“What the presidency means to him is free of the trappings of politics,” underlined Alonso. “There’s nothing Democratic or Republican about his position or what he stands for. In fact, I would think that both candidates – Romney and Obama – would both seek to emulate what Cap stands for.”

Of course, the impending real world presidential election that Alonso referenced makes this an ideal time to run a storyline like this, but Humphries said, “One thing I heard from Marvel early on in the process was, ‘Cap's been around since 1941. We're not the first people to talk about making him president. There's some very good reasons why it hasn't happened yet.’ Right off the bat I knew that if we couldn't do this story right, we shouldn't do it at all. It's a big moment for a huge icon, and I'm excited and honored to get to tell it.”

That being said, the writer admits that this story adheres to Marvel’s overall devotion to reflecting the real world. “Right now, outside our windows, we're evaluating two people who have put themselves up for the job of president. With a real-life election on everyone's minds, it's a good time to take the subject down a different path.”

If the Ultimate Universe is known for one thing, it’s that it can undergo drastic changes like this without worry of having to be undone at a later point. That sentiment will continue with President Cap. “Part of my mandate coming onto the book was to do things with the characters we can't get away with in the regular Marvel Universe books, or the movies, or the video games. Shake these icons up a bit, see if we can get to know them in new ways,” said Humphries. “I figured President Cap fit pretty well within that mandate. President Cap is not just a consequence of where we've been before, but it is a catalyst for where we're going. There's no sweeping this one under the rug. President Cap will have a long-term effect on Cap, the Ultimates, and the Ultimate Universe as a whole.”

Alonso reiterated that just because Cap is going to be president doesn’t mean we’ll see him slow down in terms of active duty on the Ultimates. “Rest assured, when he’s elected president, he gets right into a jet to go and continue what he’s already been doing. He says, ‘America is my White House.’ It’s not going to be him sitting behind a desk stamping bills and listening to politicians. It’s going to be about him out there in the field actively looking to punch, kick, and fight the bad guys.”

“But ultimately he, Thor, and Iron Man will learn that not all problems can be punched,” concluded Alonso.

Ultimate Comics Ultimates #15 is on sale tomorrow, with issue #16 to follow on September 26.

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator himself. Follow Joey on Twitter, or find him on IGN. He loves superhero pets so hard.

Source : ign[dot]com