Outside the Beltway

Arnold Schwarzenegger ‘Governator’ Comic Book

Arnold Schwarzenegger has mastered the worlds of bodybuilding, show business, and politics. Next, he's going to try his hand at being a Marvel superhero.

James Joyner · Thursday, March 31, 2011 · 1 comment

Arnold Schwarzenegger has mastered the worlds of bodybuilding, show business, and politics. Next, he’s going to try his hand at being a Marvel superhero.

Entertainment Weekly (“Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as ‘The Governator’“):

He’s been a famous body builder. He’s been a killer cyborg from the future. He’s been Governor of California. And now, in this week’s exclusive cover scoop, Arnold Schwarzenegger reveals his plans for the next phase of his extraordinary career: He’s going be a cartoon superhero, known as The Governator. “When I ran for governor back in 2003 and I started hearing people talking about ‘the Governator,’ I thought the word was so cool,” Schwarzenegger, 63, tells EW in his first press interview since leaving office last January.

[…]

The animated TV show and comic book, being co-developed by no less a superhero authority than Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee (pictured, right), won’t be out until next year, but this week EW offers an exclusive early look at Arnold’s cartoon alter-ego. “The Governator is going to be a great superhero, but he’ll also be Arnold Schwarzenegger,” Lee says of the semi-fictional character. “We’re using all the personal elements of Arnold’s life. We’re using his wife [Maria Shriver]. We’re using his kids. We’re using the fact that he used to be governor. Only after he leaves the governor’s office, Arnold decides to become a crime fighter and builds a secret high-tech crime-fighting center under his house in Brentwood.”

[…]

Along with the Arnold Cave, the Governator will have a fleet of super vehicles at his disposal, a closet full of “Super Suits” that allow him to fly and perform other super stunts, and a team of colorful sidekicks, such as Zeke Muckerberg, the precocious 13-year-old computer whiz who acts as the Governator’s cybersecurity expert. Naturally, there will also be recurring supervillains — including an evil organization called Gangsters Imposters Racketeers Liars & Irredeemable Ex-cons (or G.I.R.L.I.E. Men, for short).

This strikes me as incredibly lame. Then again, Marvel put out one-shot comics about the rock band Kiss and Pope John Paul II when I was a kid and I scooped them up.