Grant Morrison's last major work for DC, in the midst of his epic Batman run, was the Final Crisis crossover. We're still not entirely sure what actually happened in that event - which saw the cosmic villain Darkseid infiltrate Earth and somehow trigger the collapse of the entire multiverse - but we did know that it involved Superman joining with alternate versions of himself from a bunch of other dimensions, including the thirties rip-off Shazam and evil Nazi double Overman. He also called upon Calvin Ellis, the Superman of Earth-23, who just so happened to split his time between protecting the Earth with his alien powers and being the first black president of the United States. He since survived the recent universal reboot and popped up in an issue of Action Comics during Morrison's brief tenure on that title, with a fairly similar origin to "our" Kal-El - sent from a dying Krypton to Earth, raise by kindly midwest couple - and has saved his country on a number of occasions, both in and out of his super suit. The writer has gone on record saying that he was inspired to create the character by current US President Barack Obama, thinking his election to commander-in-chief was "a fitting end to all the darkness in America recently" and slotted him into a similar role at the climax of Final Crisis. Pretty weird, but pretty rad.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
