As hard as it is to believe, this week marks the 10th anniversary of The Amazing Spider-Man #583's publication on Jan. 14, 2009. While the main story, written by Mark Waid and illustrated by Barry Kitson, featured a one-off tale about Peter Parker's trials and tribulations with single life after the magical undoing of his marriage to Mary Jane Watson, it was the five-page backup story that propelled the issue into headlines and to the top of sales charts.

Commemorating the inauguration of 44th President of the United States Barack Obama, the short story, "Spidey Meets the President!," saw the friendly neighborhood Web-Slinger travel to Washington, D.C. to cover the inauguration as a photojournalist for The Daily Bugle.

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Once inside the nation's capital, Peter Parker assumes his superhero alter ego after discovering a plot by the Chameleon to impersonate the incoming president and be sworn into office instead. Faced with two seemingly identical president-elects, Spider-Man quizzes the Barack Obamas on the true president's personal history and basketball trivia, exposing the fraud.

With his imposter arrested by the Secret Service, Obama shares a fist bump with the Wall-Crawler before Spidey observes the new president being sworn into office while perched atop the Capitol Buildig.

The backup story was written by Zeb Wells and illustrated by Todd Nauck and Frank D'Armata, with the creative team first working in a digital comic prologue that showed Peter Parker's arrival in Washington as the Chameleon attempted to detain the real Barack Obama while he enacted his master scheme.

Something may be lost on readers today is that the cover for the issue, illustrated by Phil Jimenez and featuring the new president giving a thumbs up, was actually a variant. The standard cover actually highlighted the date night story serving as the issue's main feature.

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At the time, sales for a single issue of The Amazing Spider-Man would average around 70,000 copies. Published a week before the inauguration, The Amazing Spider-Man #583 would go on to sell over 350,000 copies and become the bestselling regularly numbered ongoing series single issue of the '00s.

The issue would go through five printings, with the variant cover becoming highly prized after a subsequent reprintings made changes, like adding the American flag to the background or recoloring the backdrop entirely.

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As sales for the issue soared, one retailer commented that they hadn't seen such runaway excitement over a single issue since the death of Superman in 1993. The Washington, D.C.-based comic shop Fantom Comics, then located in Union Station, would see the best sales for their business to date during inauguration week, largely fueled by the Obama/Spider-Man team-up issue. While presidents had certainly appeared on comic book covers before, the sales bump in The Amazing Spider-Man #583 was unprecedented.

Interestingly, Barack Obama's first appearance on a major comic book cover wasn't The Amazing Spider-Man, but rather Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon #137. Released in September 2008, the variant cover featured the titular extraterrestrial cop standing by the then-presidential candidate, heartily endorsing him for the presidency. However, while a flagship Image Comics title, this was overshadowed by the mass recognition that Spider-Man carries.

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The astonishing sales success of the Obama variant led to a minor wave of similar variant and presidential exploitation comic titles. The new president would return to Savage Dragon, this time for Issue #145, as well as fellow Image Comics title Youngblood.

Dynamite Entertainment would publish the four-issue miniseries Army of Darkness: Ash Saves Obama, written by Elliott Serrano with Nauck illustrating the series, largely thanks to his previous success on The Amazing Spider-Man backup story.

Archie Comics and Mad Magazine would each feature special Barack Obama issues, and several comic book biographies of the president would be released by different publishers. Perhaps the most offbeat Obama comic appearance was the Devil's Due Publishing miniseries Barack the Barbarian.

Reimagining the 44th President as a muscular sword-and-sorcery character in the same vein as Conan the Barbarian, the series was written by Larry Hama and illustrated by Christopher Schons. The miniseries saw the warrior president face fantasy versions of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin.

The inauguration of Barack Obama was widely celebrated event in American history. With the 44th president an admitted comic book fan and Spider-Man reportedly his favorite superhero, it was a no-brainer to feature a team-up of sorts between the two, but its success exceeded anyone's wildest expectations.

Ten years later, at a time when American politics is at its most volatile, the issue hearkens back to a more joyous, effusive time where a deliberately corny story (seriously, how does the Chameleon know so little about basketball?) could capture the excitement of hundreds of thousands of readers around the country.

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"Spidey Meets the President!" is written by Zeb Wells and illustrated by Todd Nauck and Frank D'Armata. The short story can be found in The Amazing Spider-Man #583. It is also collected in Spider-Man: Death and Dating, available on digitally and in trade paperback.