"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, beat up Lex Luthor."
A President (or otherwise Chief of State) of a sovereign country (most likely the good ol' US of A) who happens to have superpowers — and does use them for heroics as a side job. Or who, alternatively, fights crime in a Batman-like fashion. Quite often a result of Asskicking Leads to Leadership (and sometimes of the opposite).
If it's a supervillain who rules a country, see President Evil.
Sub-Trope of Action Politician. Compare God-Emperor, Sorcerous Overlord, Benevolent Mage Ruler, and Emperor Scientist.
See also Royalty Superpower; unlike a monarch, the presidential superhero will generally not try to legitimise his rule by virtue of his powers.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Fullmetal Alchemist: The Fuhrer President of Amestris, "King" Bradley, is a Lightning Bruiser who still punishes crime by himself, even when he's got an eyepatch and pushing past middle age. Even when his army is made up of State Alchemists with elemental powers, he still surpasses them easily with little more than super-speed, super-strength, and his sword. As it turns out, he's actually an artificial homunculus bred by Father for being the leader of the country, hence his superhuman attributes and all-seeing eye beneath his patch, making him more of a President Evil.
Comic Books
- The Boys: Subverted by an interviewed women saying she wouldn't vote for a super in the White House, as it'd be like voting for Jesus. The Homelander does briefly sit behind the presidential desk after brutally murdering the previous occupant, but his sanity's long gone by then.
- Captain America:
- Near the end of the Ultimate Marvel line, Captain America was elected to the presidency of the United States, and apparently did a very good job aside from his complete lack of diplomacy resulting in incidents like telling state governors to solve disputes between themselves on their own instead of asking for his mediation or preventing them from seceding by force. However, he resigned following the "Divided We Fall" arc.
- At least two issues of Marvel's What If? explore what would have happened if Captain America were elected President, one after being thawed from the ice, the other in the 40s after winning the war at the head of an entire army of Super Soldiers. Except in the latter story, the president was actually the Red Skull's brain in a clone of Cap, and the real Cap ultimately dies in a Heroic Sacrifice to defeat him after Namor thaws him out of a block of ice. Incidentally, the first story also ends with Cap sacrificing himself to defeat the Red Skull.
- In Marvel Zombies, that world's Captain American (here Colonel America) served as president sometime before the outbreak, apparently only serving a portion of a term. It comes up as his fellow zombies ask if he knows of any secret continuity-of-government facilities where they could find more living humans (specifically Congress) to devour.
- In Civil War II #0, James Rhodes meets with the President for what he thinks is a standard briefing, but which turns out to be an appeal for Rhodey to hang up the War Machine suit and run for President himself, in order to head off a rumored campaign by Tony Stark.
- Ex Machina: After retiring as the Great Machine, the world's only superhero, Hundred runs for mayor of New York City off of his fame and wins. The series follows his tenure in the role and his future political aspirations. It ends with him becoming President John McCain's vice president, with implications that he will soon rise higher.
- The Exiles once visited an Alternate Universe where Tony Stark is President, but it's not clear if he's Iron Man in this reality.
- Green Arrow was one of these during his brief tenure as mayor of Star City, dealing with political problems while still maintaining his superhero identity.
- The Immortal from Invincible is Abraham Lincoln as a superhero.
- The Legion Of Superheroes: Millennium miniseries that documented the centuries between the present day and the Legion had Kara Danvers become President Supergirl by the mid-21st century.
- In Lord Havok And The Extremists, Tin Man (the Iron Man expy) was elected President of the United States of Angor after proposing a Superhuman Registration Act, with Americommando (Captain America) as VP. Following Tin Man's death, Americommando becomes President and appoints Blue Jay (Ant Man) as his Vice-President, while continuing the draconian policies. He ends up stripped of office and imprisoned, with President Blue Jay presumably following a more moderate course.
- In the comic books based on Miraculous Ladybug, it's shown that Camilla Hombee, the President of the United States, moonlights as a Captain America expy named Victory. Apparently, she revealed her secret identity to the public to win the election.
- In The New Universe, an attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan fails because The White Event has given him regenerative powers.
- Deconstructed in PS238, Principal Cranston used to be POTUS for a short time, having used his secret Psychic Powers to get there. When exposed, this resulted in a near-coup and him resigning from office. It's implied a revised Constitution outright bans metahumans, or at least metahumans-in-hiding or those with certain power sets, from holding office.
- In the original Squadron Supreme Kyle Richmond is the President while also secretly being the Batman expy Nighthawk.
- Superman:
- The concept of Supes possibly being president goes back to the Silver Age when Jimmy Olsen had a dream about it. Some aspects of it are examined as to how Superman being the president would be different; for instance, the splash panel shows an emergency situation. President Superman tells the Secret Service men to get behind him. Also, at the end, when the possibility is mentioned in some way to the Man of Steel, Supes points out that he couldn't be president as the U.S. president has to be a native, and he wasn't born in the United States.
- Happened with the "main" reality's Superman, in one of the Armageddon 2001 possible futures explored by Waverider.note And as if being Supes and Prez weren't enough, he also ends up with a Green Lantern ring. He resists and manages not to get Drunk with Power.
- In Earth-23 of the post-52 multiverse, a black Superman named Calvin Ellis is President of the United States in his secret identity.
- In the Elseworlds story Superman: Red Son (later Earth-30 of the post-52 multiverse), the Soviet-raised Superman becomes Premier of the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin. He uses his powers to both fight crime and improve the living standard of every citizen in the expanding Soviet state, but also eliminates all free will.
- Über: After the Soviet leadership attempts (but fails) to have Maria killed because of her unreliability, she flattens the Kremlin before killing Stalin. She then decides to rule Russia by herself and replace communism with anarchism, declaring herself the "Protector" of the new state.
- Ultimate Fantastic Four: One story had The Mighty Thor as President. He agreed to let the Skrulls give everybody on Earth superpowers, which turned out to be a planetwide poisoning plot (Ben Grimm, who'd gotten rid of his powers and didn't want new ones, ended up as the only human able to fight back as a Badass Normal). Grimm then goes to the past and prevents the invention that allowed Earth to contact the Skrulls, and thus he Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
- Wonder Woman Vol 1: In issue 7 Diana views a possible future through the Magic Sphere in which she is elected president of the U.S. in the year 3000 in her secret identity as Diana Prince while still acting as Wonder Woman.
- The epilogue of X-Men: The End reveals that Kitty Pryde has eventually become President of the United States.
- Cyclops is President in a possible future seen in an issue of X-Men.
- In the fourth issue of Roy Thomas' Anthem, it's revealed that FDR survived the bombing of the White House... sort of. His brain was intact, but his body was too damaged, so Agent 76 transferred his brain into a robot body. He became the first Anthem, managing to put down enough Axis forces to keep the American Midwest free, but the robot body eventually burned out, too, necessitating another radical procedure.
Fan Works
- Downplayed but invoked by Roy Mustang in the post-series fic How Ed Became President and it was all Mustang's Fault
. While 35-years-old Edward Elric doesn't have his alchemy and is focused on raising his family, he still has the reputation and fame he had as the Fullmetal Alchemist, hence why Mustang makes him run to be Amestris's first presidentnote . Ed denies being an effective president, despite not only running for two turns but also improving Amestris throughout, such as approving funds for education and improving relations with neighboring nations.
- Played straight with Roy, who stepped down as the Fuhrer and ran for the Prime Minister's office.
Film — Animated
- In Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Slade Wilson is President. Still no match for an evil Justice League, obviously.
Film — Live Action
- If you believe what Magneto says in X-Men: Days of Future Past, John F. Kennedy was a mutant. And Magneto didn't assassinate him, but was actually curving the bullet in an attempt to save his life that was stopped by someone knocking him out. According to the filmmakers, if he was telling the truth, JFK's powers were likely a form of Mind Control by way of Telepathy.
Literature
- Animorphs: In the final arc, Marco mentions that Jake could have run for President and everyone would have voted for him, but Jake's guilt over his actions is too heavy for him to accept that kind of responsibility.
- President Touches Clouds in the Wearing the Cape series is a downplayed example. As a founding member of the Chicago Sentinels Super Team she parlayed her the prestige from her time working on the team into a successful political career that by the time the series has started has seen her elected as US President. Downplayed because the series recognises that her position is a full-time job in of itself that leaves her with no time for heroics.
Live-Action TV
- In an alternate future of Heroes, Nathan Petrelli (who can fly) has been elected President. He uses his Presidential powers to round up all the other people with powers and get rid of them.
- Real Time with Bill Maher: Mocked by Maher in his "New Rules" segment where he bemoaned the glut of superhero-themed movies and television series, not just for most of them being Strictly Formula, but because it instills a mindset that The Only One can save the day. He then portrayed Donald Trump's presidency as the story of a superhero named "Orange Sphincter".
- The X-Presidents from Saturday Night Live. Hey, a President who has left office is customarily called "President" forever, so they do count.
Video Games
- In Fate/Grand Order, within the Fifth Singularity, the mages of 1783 America summon the heroic spirit Thomas Edison (albeit a giant and Large Ham version of him with a lion's head and electric powers) to lead America after the invading Celtic Spirits kill the Founding Fathers. However, Edison is focused on defending America by controlling it like an industrialized factory and protecting America at the cost of the rest of the world not helped that his mind was combined with every American President up to 2015, driving him mad.
- Mike Haggar's ending in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has him being president with Tony Stark aka Iron Man as his vice president.
- Metal Wolf Chaos: Michael Wilson, veteran of the Arizona Conflict and 47th President of the United States, has been deposed in a military coup by his running mate, Richard Hawk. Now, he must take up the guise of Metal Wolf and take back America city by city, armed only with his Mini-Mecha and the power of burning American freedom!
- Played With in Saints Row IV: The series' protagonist, the Boss, is elected to the U.S. presidency after the prologue and technically remains the President throughout the game (never mind that Earth is destroyed half-way through). Before that happens, however, the Boss gains superpowers... but only in the Simulation, where nobody recognizes them as the president. They eventually get superpowers in the real world, too... but become the God-Emperor of the Universe almost immediately thereafter.
Web Comics
- The president of the United States and head of the government-run The Company in Evil Plan is Emmie Oakley, cowgirl superhero.
- League of Super Redundant Heroes: Mayor Kurgh is an alien warrior who actually conquered Shitropolis in an Alien Invasion, but has overall turned out to be a better mayor than the guy he replaced. One surmises a town with more supers per block than Marvel's New York City needs a super to run it properly.
- Poked fun at by Mandatory Roller Coaster in this Oval Office daydream
Web Original
- Parodied by JibJab with their video "He's Barack Obama", which makes fun of the nearly messianic view some had of President Obama when he came to office in 2009 by portraying him as a literal superhero who arrives to fix all of the United States' problems.
- Some of the NFTs released by Donald Trump depict him as a superhero. Notably one of him doing a Dynamic Akimbo pose in a wrestling ring and another where he's unbuttoning his shirt to reveal the superhero costume underneath while shooting Eye Beams.
Western Animation
- Ben 10: Ultimate Alien: In the Ultimate Alien future timeline, Ben 10,000 mentions that he was briefly President of Earth, "just long enough to defeat the third Vilgaxian invasion", but that apparently Gwen was better at the day-to-day stuff. In Ben 10 (2016), we see her as the president in that timeline. As of the "current" future timeline by the end of Ben 10: Omniverse, Argit seems to have become President of Earth instead, which probably doesn't bode well.
- Victory from Miraculous Ladybug is president of the United States in her civilian identity.
- In the Recess episode, "A Career To Remember", TJ wants to be president when he grows up and also Senõr Fusion.
- One sketch in Robot Chicken has George W. Bush as a Texas-themed Superman expy "Captain Texas" who personally thwarts a nuclear attack by a cartoonishly evil terrorist. Of course it's then revealed that it's all an Imagine Spot by Bush himself.
- The 1960s cartoon Super President. President James Norcross has powers very similar to those of Metamorpho, and he isn't afraid to use them. It was apparently supposed to be a secret that Super President was, in fact, the President of the United States, though.
- What If…? (2021): In "What If... Ultron Won?" the battle between Ultron and Uatu takes them to a universe where a jumbotron screen shows Steve Rogers being inaugurated as President. Serves as a Mythology Gag to the above-mentioned "President Captain America" examples under Comics.
