There’s a noticeable lack of POW! And WHAM! in the newest comic book to hit the market, but publisher Bluewater Productions hopes that its latest offering, out tomorrow, will entice younger readers not into the realm of superheroes, but rather into the somewhat more mundane world of party politics.
Titled “Political Power: Rand Paul,” the new comic biography tells the life story of the Kentucky Senator who announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination last week.
Related: Rand Paul Takes Direct Aim at Hillary Clinton
The cover shows a confident-looking Sen. Paul staring off into the distance, while behind him an extremely cranky looking President Obama and a peevish-looking Hillary Clinton stare angrily. Up in the clouds, above the capitol, hovers a ghostly image of Rand Paul’s father, the former Texas Congressman Ron Paul who, by all accounts, is alive and well.
Darren G. Davis, the president of Bluewater, says he hopes the comic book format will help make political issues more accessible to younger readers and to people typically uninterested in politics.
Rand Paul Comic
“Growing up, I was a reluctant reader,” Davis said in a release. “We hope to reach kids in similar situations that may be more apt to read when a comic book is placed in front of them.” Can a comic book format make presidential primary politics interesting to young people? Or to anybody, really, other than hardcore activists and political reporters? It’s a tough sell.
Related: Rand Paul and GOP Gain as Clinton Loses Altitude
Here’s what passes for action in the preview panels released to the media. In one scene, Paul faces down a smarmy journalist, preemptively asking his interviewer, “Are you conducting Political Profiling?”
The puzzled reporter asks, “Political Profiling?”
“Discrimination based on political opinions,” Paul informs him, with a weary look on his face. “Similar to profiling people for the color of their skin, but now we’re profiling people for the color of their thoughts.”
When the journalist tries to turn the conversation to controversial comments Paul has made about civil rights legislation, Paul springs his trap: “There’s a good example of what I mean. My comments have been mischaracterized by the liberal media.”
In another clash, this time with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Paul’s efforts to uncover information about the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya during Congressional hearings devolve into questions about whether the U.S. is involved in the shipment of weapons from Libya to Turkey by boat. In the gripping denouement, Clinton says, “I don’t know. I don’t have any information on that.”
While making elections more understandable to younger or less engaged voters is laudable, Spiderman and Thor probably don’t need to start worrying about their circulation numbers.
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