Obama is a longtime comics fan, preferring angst-ridden superheroes like Spider-Man and Batman. And the comics industry, which has often added famous Presidents into its stories, has been eager to capitalize on the new President's popularity in the months since his election.
Many modern U.S. Presidents have "guest-starred" in comic books, including Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and John F. Kennedy. Even Abraham Lincoln shared a few panels with Batman in the Elseworlds graphic novel The Blue, The Grey, and The Bat (1993).
Often such appearances have been critical of the Commander-in-Chief. For instance, Ronald Reagan had an unflattering supporting role in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns (1986). George W. Bush, likewise, appeared in issues of Marvel's The Ultimates, the post-9/11 reboot of The Avengers.
Richard Nixon is another favorite for comics satire. Among his most notable comics appearances are in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen (1985), where Nixon is serving an unprecedented fifth term, and in John Byrne's Star Trek: Assignment Earth #5 (2009), in which aliens clone Nixon in a bid for world domination.