Matthew Ellis (Earth-11584)

History
"'Heroes and villains? Life was a lot simpler when it was just nation vs. nation. Now...now things are getting a lot more complicated.'"President Matthew G. Ellis is the 45th President of the United States of America, first elected in 2012 following the Battle of New York and re-elected by a narrow margin in 2016. Born in December 1961 in Shaker Heights, Ohio, Ellis was the middle child of a wealthy electronics store owner. Despite his wealthy early childhood, Ellis learned the hard way when his parents separated at the age of 9 about economic hard times. This gave him a natural empathy with the plight of the working man, and helped propel him on the road to politics. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1994 at the young age of 33, and would serve six terms in the House before a failed gubernatorial run of his home state in 2006. He became a political consultant after that, flirting with a run to the White House in 2008 but ultimately getting re-elected to the House in 2010, before finally running for the Presidency and winning in 2012. Ellis thus became the first House member to be directly elected to the Presidency since James Garfield.

Becoming President in the age of Heroes, Ellis found himself increasingly on the outside looking in with a world dominated by paramilitary organizations like SHIELD and private groups of heroes like the Avengers. This left him somewhat uneasy concerning their activities, but felt they were overall beneficial. Thus, he attempted to quell international pressures between nations by launching a series of peace initiatives and budget cuts concerning military hardware. He also commissioned Air Force Col James Rhodes to become the Iron Patriot, a personal bodyguard working with the Secret Service. However, this proved to be nearly fatal when AIM forces under orders from Dr. Arnim Zola hijacked the Iron Patriot armor (even with Rhodes inside) and attempted to kill the President, so as to install the Vice President (who was an AIM patsy) and take advantage of a new arms race. This incident somewhat changed Ellis views on super heroes, something exacerbated by further incidents involving Project Insight and the Battle in Sokovia and Johannesburg. As a result, he eventually helped the UN draft the Avengers Protocols, for better oversight over the organization. This controversial issue proved to be unpopular, but ultimately did not cost Ellis the election in 2016, as he was re-elected to a second term with little to no difficulty.

Powers & Abilities

 * Political Acumen: Ellis has been a politician for over 20 years, and has survived defeat and been reelected several times. He always has a gauge for the political pulse of the nation, but is steadfast in his own believes as well.

Weaknesses
Ellis possesses no special abilities or powers that make him any less vulnerable to bodily harm. His feelings concerning heroes and vigilantes tend to be colored by his own personal experiences, most notably the Air Force One incident.

Film Details
President Ellis has appeared in the following films within the Earth-11584 continuity. In all cases he is portrayed by actor William Sadler.
 * Iron Man 3 (2013)
 * Captain America: Civil War (2016) [mentioned only]
 * Iron Man 4 (2016) [mentioned only]