Who owns Barack Obama?

Obama-mania has birthed some unusual projects in the comic book industry, most famously a biography from IDW, a team-up with Spider-Man from Marvel Comics, meeting Savage Dragon and Youngblood from Image and...well, DC Comics aren't in touch with the real world.

But now Devil's Due Publishing is in the mix with their new mini-series Barack the Barbarian. On the surface, this sounds like an obvious idea (Obama is a self-identified Conan fan) and a horrible idea. But I bought Barack the Barbarian#1 on the strength of its writer, Larry Hama (GI Joe, Bucky O'Hare), not just a one-time Conan writer/editor but also a pretty good humour writer. I don't know how well Barack the Barbarian will sustain itself as a mini-series, but the first issue takes a one-joke premise and gets at least one funny joke per page.

However, the indica of issue one contains what we might term a dangerous slip of the tongue:

The key phrase is "Any similarities to persons living or dead is purely coincidental."

...Coincidental?

...Random happenstance?

...Separated at birth?

...Accidental?

No, there's only one possible way to interpret the indica of Barack the Barbarian#1: Devil's Due Publishing is the rightful owner of John McCain, Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, Dick Chaney, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

I mean, look no further than this month's Drafted one-shot, also from DDP:

DDP has a valuable commodity in Obama and they're quick to farm him out to their entire line. I'm sure he's due to appear in Hack/Slash shortly. But by giving away their ownership of Obama in the indica, they've effectively unmasked themselves as the true power behind the throne, the movers and shakers controlling the leaders of both US political parties, rendering them more powerful than the Illuminati, Elders of Zion, the Black Hand and the New World Order combined! Heed the stride of Devil's Due's boots for where they move, so moves their nation!