(tones)
(applause)
- Thank you.
It's good to be here.
My fellow comic book lovers and members
of the Nerd Sync Nation.
In 2008, Barack Obama was elected
President of the United States, and the Marvel Universe
was quick to embrace it.
Even before his inauguration,
Obama had already made a debut in Marvel Comics
when he met Spidey in Amazing Spider-Man number 583.
However, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has a different man
in the White House, President Matthew Ellis.
At first thought, it might be easy to assume that since
this is a fictional universe,
they needed a fictional president.
But again, that never stopped the comics.
Not to mention there are many direct references
to Obama throughout the movies and TV shows
from Marvel Studios, which raises the question
Was Barack Obama ever president in the MCU?
(rock music)
First things first, we need to prove whether
or not Obama exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Thankfully, we have some pretty definitive evidence
for that.
For Obama’s 2008 campaign,
the street artist Shepard Fairey created an iconic poster
featuring the candidate painted in patriotic colors
with the word Progress which was later
changed to Hope.
The design was a viral success,
which spawned countless parodies and imitations.
For example, you may have noticed a play on this image
in both Iron Man two and the Avengers.
Does this on its own prove that Obama exists
in the MCU?
No.
I suppose Shepard Fairey or his movie universe
counterpart could have had the same idea while
being inspired by Iron Man.
But we’re just getting started.
Let’s linger on that news montage sequence from Avengers.
If you look closely, you can see this man pop up
on a screen.
He is Jay Carney, real-life former press secretary
for Obama from 2011 to 2014.
You can even see that he’s
issuing a statement about the Battle of New York
as the White House Press Secretary.
But does this prove that Obama exists
in the Cinematic Universe?
Again, you could argue that whoever the president
was at the time be it Obama,
Ellis, or somebody else still could have theoretically
hired on Carney regardless.
We’re looking for clear and explicit references
to the man.
No grey areas or speculations.
I just wish I knew where to look.
What’s that?
Luke Cage?
What does Luke Cage have to do with any—
- Take diet Obama upstairs.
- Well then probably could have started there.
Saved us all some time.
And hey, just for further evidence so you don’t think
it’s simply some random person who is not a politician
but just so happens to have the same name as Obama,
I will point your attention to Captain America.
The Winter Soldier.
In a brief shot, we can see Steve Rogers’ bookshelf,
to which my editor can apply advanced CSI image enhancing
techniques, allowing us to see this book,
Barack Obama, The Story, a biography
written by David Maraniss.
So, we have our proof that Obama at least exists
in the MCU, but so far there have been no references
to him specifically as President.
A popular theory known as the no re-election theory
states that Obama was elected as President in the MCU
in 2008 for his first term,
but lost the following election in 2012
to Matthew Ellis after the Battle of New York
shook up the entire world.
That would explain why we see the Iron Man posters
inspired by the Obama campaign, and the book
which was published in 2012.
Plus, it just makes sense, right?
A huge, world-shattering event
that was the Chitauri invasion would more
than likely put things into perspective,
and spark a political battle over who could better protect
the nation from these new threats.
Matthew Ellis might have ran against Obama
with a campaign that aimed to safeguard the country
from aliens.
Build a wall in the sky.
A tremendous wall, and the Chitauri will pay for it!
The event would catapult Ellis into winning the 2012
election and becoming President of the United States
in 2013 and for the rest of the MCU after that.
Starting with Iron Man three where he plays a key role
as a kidnapped victim of Aldrich Killian
But wait.
Iron Man three was released in May of 2013,
but it is set during Christmas time.
So either the movie flashes forwards to December of 2013,
or took place in the past during December of 2012.
And if we look at the evidence,
you can see that it points towards the latter.
For starters, the beginning of the movie gives us one
of the only fixed dates in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It’s New Year’s Eve of 1999 going into New Year’s Day
of the year 2000.
While the transition into the modern day is vague,
we get hints from a couple characters as to
how many years have passed since then.
Both Aldrich and Maya say it’s been 13 years since
they last saw Tony.
- Please don't tell me there's a 12 year old kid
waiting in the car that I've never met.
- [Woman] He's 13.
- You know I invited Tony to join AIM
13 years ago?
- 13 years from 1999 would be December of 2012.
If the movie were set during 2013,
it would make more sense for them to say it’s been 14 years.
We also know that the entire movie was being told
in past tense because of the post-credit scene.
Iron Man three features a voice over,
which was explained as Tony
recapping the events to a stressed out Bruce Banner
who doesn’t exactly
have a winning temperament.
This scene lets us know that even though
the movie was released in
the real world during the Spring of 2013,
the actual story takes place the previous Winter, in 2012.
Which also makes a lot of sense because
it’s a direct sequel to the Avengers,
as Tony is experiencing PTSD from the battle.
This timeline is all the evidence we need to prove
that Barack Obama was never president
in the MCU.
Here’s why.
Even though a president would have been elected in 2012,
they would not have been sworn into office until 2013.
Meaning, if the theory that states Obama served
one term as President in the MCU immediately
before Matthew Ellis is true,
then it would have been Obama who was kidnapped
in Iron Man three, not Ellis.
He would still have been the sitting President
during December of 2012 despite having lost
the re-election.
But that’s not what we saw.
Ellis was the sitting president during the Winter of 2012,
which means he had to have been elected in 2008
instead of Obama, and presumably re-elected
for a second term as we continue to see
and hear of him as President in the MCU to this day.
And there’s more evidence to back this up.
Captain America was presumably unfrozen in 2011 or 2012,
before the first Avengers movie.
Why is this important?
Well, take a look at this scene from Captain America.
Winter Soldier when Steve visits the Smithsonian
exhibit about himself.
On one of the walls, you can see a quote that says
“Welcome back, Cap.”
And who is credited with this quote?
None other than President Matthew Ellis.
If Ellis became President in 2013,
then this wouldn’t make much sense.
They would have only been citing a presidential candidate.
Sure, they could have just updated the sign once Ellis
was elected the same way they definitely had
to update the rest of the exhibit after the revelation
that Cap was alive.
But there are other clues.
We get the most evidence from Iron Man three,
since it features the most screentime of President Ellis.
When Killian is trying to convince Pepper
to invest in Extremis, she declines,
believing it to be dangerously weaponizable.
She was
- I am the Mandarin.
- [Scott] Kind of right.
Aldrich goes on to explain that part of his
development of Extremis involved him
and his company AIM dodging the President’s stance
against bioweapons for years.
- After years of dodging the president's ban
on moral biotech research, my think tank
now has a little something in the pipeline.
- Years!
This detail let's us know that Matthew Ellis,
who, again, was President at this time in 2012
had to have already been in office for the past few years.
Not newly elected after the battle of New York,
but an already established Commander in Chief.
Later on in the film when Killian is holding Ellis hostage
with the intent to kill him in a grand display
of evil power, Aldrich explains that he
needs a reason to murder the President
that would play well in the media.
The narrative he lands on is to make it
look like the Mandarin is killing President Ellis
over an oil spill that happened during his time in office.
A fictional Marvel company called Roxxon Oil Corporation
caused a devastating oil spill that occurred off
the Florida coast years before Iron Man three,
but still during Ellis’ presidency.
Thanks to Roxxon’s political connections to Ellis,
every Roxxon executive was absolved
of their irresponsible actions that led to the oil slick.
None of them saw a day in court.
This piece of dialog again lets us know that Ellis has been
President in the MCU for years before 2012,
probably being elected all the way back in 2008
during the start of this whole movie universe.
He wasn’t first elected after the alien invasion
in the Avengers, but rather re-elected.
Which means, more than likely,
that Barack Obama was never elected President
in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
What about that book by David Maraniss?
Well, even though it was published in the real world
after Obama’s first term, the biography mostly
focuses on his family and his early life
before the Presidency.
You don’t have to win the election
to get a book about your life.
Ask almost any former presidential candidate.
Or anyone else with a biography, for that matter.
We do know that Obama at least ran for office, thanks to
the Hope poster parodies and how characters
in Luke Cage brought up the time he sang Al Green
at a campaign fundraising event.
- Remember when Obama sang Al Green?
♫ Ahhhh
(cheering)
♫ So in love with you
- But when you look through all of the obvious references
to the politician, he’s never specifically referred
to as President Obama.
Just Obama.
He likely was or continues to be a popular senator
who ran for office perhaps both in 2008 and 2012,
but lost out to Ellis both times.
If this theory is correct, it would mean that
Ellis is on the last legs of his final term as President.
Unless the MCU never established the 22nd amendment
setting the two-term limit on a presidency
which is certainly possible in a universe
that features magic, super soldiers, and talking ducks.
Matthew Ellis’s days as Commander in Chief
are coming to an end.
Which makes me wonder who the next President of the MCU
will be, and if they’ll be modeled after who we’ve
elected this year.
Or perhaps we’ll see one of our favorite characters
run for office.
Captain America?
War Machine perhaps?
Even Loki!
That's crazy, but that is exactly what we’ll be exploring
in a few weeks in part two
of this presidential series.
Make sure you hit that big sexy subscribe button
and turn on notifications so you don’t
miss the next episode.
In the meantime if you are feeling patriotic,
click right here to watch our entire playlist
about the star-spangled man with a plan,
Captain America.
Or click on the right to see more comic book theory videos.
Until next time, my name is Scott,
reminding you to read between the panels
and grow smarter through comics.
See ya!