January 10, 2009

Spider-Man Vs. Obama: This is Gonna Be Lame

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obama_spidey300.jpgMarvel Comics has announced that it’s cashing in on—excuse me, commemorating—a “Brand New Day for the United States” by sticking Barack Obama into its next issue of Spider-Man. The story, set on Inauguration Day, “finds one of Spider-Man’s oldest foes attempting to thwart the swearing in ceremony of the 44th President of the United States.” Wait, Spider-Man has done battle with these kooks? Actually, the baddie is the Chameleon, which I think is one of Dick Cheney’s aliases.

Nothing good can come from superheroes meddling in politics. Last year, DC Comics released a series of election-themed comics. Our in-house comic collector-slash-webmaster lent me his copies and, wow, were they bad. So my spidey senses are tingling with something less than anticipation about the Webslinger going to Washington. From the online previews, it looks like the episode’s highlight is Spidey doing a terrorist fist-jab with some black guy in a suit. Seriously, if Marvel’s going to suck up to the president, it could have at least found an artist who can draw a reasonable likeness of him. Or wait—maybe that’s really Cheney before he rips off his cheap Obama mask and reveals himself?

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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