Colbert Speaks: So What DO He and Obama Have in Common?...

Stephen Colbert, our favorite fake-news anchor on TV (he once stood still long enough to let us caricature him in person), is no mere mortal. Not since he's been immortalized in "Spider-Man."

Early this year, Marvel honcho Joe Quesada, appearing on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," told the host he would weave Colbert's presidential bid into "Spider-Man." (For months, Colbert's campaign paraphernalia popped up in the backgrounds.) Then last week, a headline declared Colbert the popular-vote winner of the Marvel Universe presidency ... until the headline was "corrected" to read that Obama had beaten Colbert.

Comic Riffs caught up with Colbert yesterday to ask him about his campaign spread in the new "Amazing Spider-Man."

"After I got kicked off the ballot in South Carolina by the Democrats," Colbert told 'Riffs contributor Manuel Roig-Franzia, "Joe Quesada called me and said: 'Hey, what if you continued to run in the Marvel Universe, because we had talked about doing it in conjunction? What if in Marvel, you didn't get kicked off the ballot, and you ran it as a national campaign?' "

Colbert appears on the cover of Spider-Man issue No. 573. But how does it feel to lose to Obama in the Marvel world as well as the real one?

"It turns out, President Obama -- this is true -- collects Spider-Man comics. Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics. ...," Colbert says. "I read it in the Telegraph."

So what if Colbert were made all-powerful leader? Would he rather rule over a country with mortals, or a country where even Iron Man has to do what you say?

Replies Colbert: "I'd much rather rule over the Silver Surfer."

Colbert mused on Marvel on "The Colbert Report" last night. See the clip below, or click here to watch on colbertnation.com.