"Without giving away too many of the surprises," Waid continued, "essentially what's happened is Stephen Colbert has been convinced by J. Jonah Jameson that the people of New York don't love him enough to swing the election. And he needs New York as a state, so he throws his suit and his tie into a trash can and stalks up from an alley proclaiming, 'Stephen Colbert no more!'"
Laughing again, Waid acknowledged that the scene pays obvious homage to the now-classic image of Spider-Man throwing his costume in a trash can in "Spider-Man No More," a story from Amazing Spider-Man #50. The iconic cover image by John Romita was also featured in the movie Spider-Man 2.
"And so the rest of the story is him running across Spidey and being inspired by Spidey to get back on the horse and to embrace the philosophy that WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY," the writer said with another chuckle.
And although the story does fall within regular Spider-Man continuity, Waid said there's nothing outlandish since it's only eight pages. "We're not going to change the fundaments of the Marvel Universe. There's not a Secret Invasion touch there. We're not going to go into space. It's not anything like that," said Waid, who is one of several regular writers of the thrice-monthly Amazing Spider-Man series. "But it involves Jonah, it involves Spidey, and it involves a long-time Spidey villain who is perfect for the story."
What about McCain and Obama choosing super-hero surrogates? McCain might go for the Green Lantern in an attempt to beat Obama on his own turf, but the Sarah Palin pick looks closely resembles Rogue: powerful potential, but anything she touches is drained of value. Obama might go for Professor X—the whole mind-reading thing would be clutch in "pre-conditioned" talks—but the whole professorial/elitist meme is too powerful. Look for the Illinois senator to go with either the Hulk as a part-time attack dog or Magneto as a way to reach across the aisle.