Gallery: Attack of the Lincolns: Honest Abe in Sci-Fi, Comics and More
01star-trek-abelincoln
If you think the [deathly serious popcorn film adaptation](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/underwire/2012/06/review-abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter/) of Seth Grahame-Smith's alt-history novel [Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln,_Vampire_Hunter) is the first cross-genre riff on America's greatest president, we've got a stovepipe hat's worth of speculative exercises for you to check out. We still haven't seen the Illinois Railsplitter blasting aliens with a railgun, but we've collected some of Honest Abe's best (and strangest) appearances from comic books, TV shows and movies in this genre-hopping gallery. __Above:__ Star Trek's 'The Savage Curtain' -------------------------------- Placed near the end of the original Star Trek's somewhat clumsy third (and final) season, "[The Savage Curtain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Savage_Curtain)" opens with a seated Lincoln floating through space, and concludes with a good-versus-evil endgame conducted by a volcanic rock come to life called an Excalbian. While Lincoln's interstellar reality isn't fully established, he's evidently real enough to be felled by a spear in the back. From John Wilkes Booth to "The Savage Curtain," evidently no assassin in the universe has the stones to confront the president face to face.
02red-dwarf-lincoln
Red Dwarf's 'Meltdown' ---------------------- Sci-fi television can't stop reanimating Lincoln, but the 16th president's most uproarious moment (so far) occurs in the Red Dwarf episode "[Meltdown](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meltdown_%28Red_Dwarf%29)," in which he appears as a waxdroid caught up in a war featuring Elvis, the Pope and other icons on theme-park planet Waxworld. At least Lincoln doesn't go out in front of a firing squad like poor Winnie the Pooh.
03clone-high-lincoln
Clone High ---------- Honest Abe made for a sublime audio-animatronic robot in Disneyland's venerable attraction [Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moments_with_Mr._Lincoln), but he also excelled as a military experiment in 2001 cartoon series [Clone High](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clone_High), which survived just a single season but has since become a cult favorite. Alongside fellow clones like JFK, Cleopatra, Gandhi and Joan of Arc, Lincoln anchored a riotous send-up of serious-issue teen and sci-fi soaps that managed to insult almost everyone.
04bill-and-teds-excellent-adventure-lincoln
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure ---------------------------------- This 1988 time-travel spoof features two now-timeless dude adventurers rounding up historical figures in a slipstreaming phone booth piloted by the late, great [George Carlin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_carlin). While a surly Napoleon provides most of the historical gags in [Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Ted%27s_Excellent_Adventure), Lincoln saves the day with a stirring speech to the stoners and straights of San Dimas High School. The closer? "Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!"
05superman-nation-divided-lincoln
Superman: A Nation Divided -------------------------- When it comes to comics, even the Man of Steel bows down to the Great Emancipator. Part of DC Comics' [Elseworlds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elseworlds) series, [Superman: A Nation Divided](http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Superman:_A_Nation_Divided) rebooted Superman as Atticus Kent, President Lincoln's most powerful champion during the Civil War. (Supes also serves as savior, preventing John Wilkes Booth from assassinating Lincoln, who gets another term to fortify his presidential legacy.)
06spiderman-lincoln
Gettysburg Distress ------------------- Marvel Comics has resuscitated Lincoln, too. Writer Matt Fraction and artist Andy MacDonald's [Gettysburg Distress](https://marvel.com/digitalcomics/view.htm?iid=12217) was an earnest comics hagiography, but it also offered Captain America the chance to go back in time to witness Lincoln's immortal [Gettysburg Address](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address) and kick robot ass with Spider-Man.
07venture-bros-lincoln
The Venture Bros.' 'Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner?' -------------------------------------------------------- The Venture Bros. episode "[Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner?](http://venturefans.org/vbwiki/Guess_Who%27s_Coming_to_State_Dinner%3F)" reboots both Lincoln and the weepy supernatural sleeper [Ghost](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_%281990_film%29). The dead president haunts the White House's Lincoln Bedroom, looking for a chance to pass the pearly gates, in a patently geeky romp that ends in disappointment because, in the words of [Lincoln's Ghost](http://venturefans.org/vbwiki/Lincoln%27s_Ghost), saving a "repressed masturbator isn't enough to get you into heaven these days."
08robotchicken-bush-lincoln
Robot Chicken's 'Massage Chair' ------------------------------- Honest Abe's hilarious lightsaber battle with a rampaging George W. Bush from the Robot Chicken episode "[Massage Chair](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0814992/)" is one of the stop-motion parody series' finest historical smackdowns. That's what Bush 43 gets for tagging the Lincoln Memorial with crap like "W Wuz Hear."
09new-adventures-lincoln
The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln ------------------------------------- Thanks to notable non-fiction analyses like his 1993 book Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, author [Scott McCloud](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_McCloud) has been referred to as the "Marshall McCluhan of comics." But even that hallowed nickname couldn't save his [The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln](http://scottmccloud.com/2-print/older/abe/index.html) from (perhaps premature) ill repute. From its computer-generated artwork to its satirical yarn about a suspiciously resurrected Lincoln and nefarious aliens, McCloud regarded his comic — unlike the president it is based upon — a "noble failure."
10time-lincoln
Time Lincoln ------------ No stranger to shotgun slipstreaming in sci-fi and beyond, the [Illinois Railsplitter](http://americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/small_exhibition.cfm?key=1267&exkey=696&pagekey=701) takes center stage as the patriotic protagonist of Antarctic Press' alt-history comic Time Lincoln. Collected last year in the trade paperback [Time Lincoln: Fate of the Union](http://www.antarctic-press.com/html/version_01/viewitem.php?id=5709&bk=), writer and artist Fred Perry's good-humored sci-fi escapade teams up Honest Abe with George Washington Carver, Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, who have been scattered across time, to defeat the interstellar threats of Void Stalin, Mephitler and Apocalypse Mao. Someone get that space elevator pitch to Hollywood!
