And now, a message from Paul Ryan:

Oh, there is so much wrong on this one. For one thing, this panel isn't from that Paul Ryan. Or that one. And I'm pretty sure Election Day isn't the eighth, unless you plan on voting for that assclown...

Nope, this panel is from the artist Paul Ryan, who may well be a conservative, but drew about a ton of issues of Superman, Fantastic Four; and with writer Mark Gruenwald, Quasar and D.P. 7; so he gets a pass.

I read D.P. 7 from the start, but I really wish I had all the issues together in one place. This issue, the former head of the paranormal Clinic turned power-copying Overshadow, Philip Nolan Voigt, gets his presidential campaign into high gear. He's ahead in the polls, which is surprisingly easy when you have mind-control powers; as he demonstrates by taking over the CIA's paranormal surveillance team.

Only Dave and Randy (or Mastodon and Antibody, if they used their super-hero names) know Voigt is a power-hungry lunatic and are immune to his mind-control. Randy because he's trapped inside one of his Antibodies; and Dave because of a run-in with a paranoid band of psychics who put a 'mental block' in his head to protect their secrecy. (More than once in the series, Dave is invulnerable to mental attack, but he has no idea why.)

I do like Dave punching out the straw campaign hat Voigt gave him.

Unfortunately for them, the CIA's team is made up of their friends Stephanie, Charly, Merriam, and Jenny. As usual, the guys are unwilling to fight their friends, but in a subversion the girls are running full-tilt under Voigt's control, completely unhindered. The mind-control is really matter-of-fact: it's like Voigt simply makes them switch sides. In the end, Voigt tells the beaten guys if he sees them again, he'll make the girls kill themselves. So beat it...and don't forget to vote.

Although Dave calls Voigt a neo-Nazi at one point, and he's the Democratic candidate here; I can't recall exactly what his evil deal was. He's a model for affably evil, and he may have pretended to have been interested in paranormal rights, but I kind of have the feeling Voigt was running for President less because he had the powers and more because he thought he was entitled to the office. A sense of entitlement, that's a good reason to run for office. That doesn't sound like anyone I can think of...

From 1989, D.P. 7 #28, "The Candidate" Written by Mark Gruenwald, pencils by Paul Ryan, and inks by Danny Bulanadi.