In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel has discounts on Venom and Young Avengers while DC’s Superman sale returns.
Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?
(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn a commission.)
In case you’re having troubles with the new UIX (a LOT of people have been):
- The new releases page is here.
- The “Comics Deals” page is here.
- The Kindle Deals comics page is here.
No, Not Bane’s Juice
The Marvel Venom Sale runs through Monday, 8/18.
This is a fairly scattered sale, with multiple formats and a lot of random early miniseries floating around. Browse for a better accounting of the listings.
For the early stuff, the better values are the somewhat scattered Epic Collections.
The early (mostly) Spider-Man appearances can be found in Venom Epic Collection: Symbiosis. That’s largely the David Michelinie / Todd McFarlane / Erik Larsen material. That’s followed by Venom Epic Collection: Lethal Protector which has a few more villainous appearances and the original Lethal Protector mini. And then Venom Epic Collection: Carnage Unleashed continues the 90s appearances.
Eventually Venom gets his own series:
- Venom (2003-4) – The Daniel Way era
- Venom (2011-3) – Rick Remender/Tony Moore, then Cullen Bunn/Declan Shalvey
- Venom (2016-8) – Mike Costa / Tradd Moore / Mark Bagley
- Venom (2018-21) – Donny Cates / Ryan Stegman
- Venom (2021-24) – Al Ewing / Ram V / Bryan Hitch
- Venom War (2024) – Al Ewing / Iban Coello
Let’s talk about the last 12 years or so. The ’11-’13 series is more interesting than you might think. That’s when Flash Thompson has the symbiote and uses it (among other things) to replace the legs his lost in the war. There are some interesting pathos floating around, particularly in the Remender/Moore run.
The Cates/Stegman run is probably the most famous right now. That’s where Venom gets Cosmic and leads into the King In Black Event.
The current Ewing / V / Hitch run, is an evolution and big leap forward from the groundwork laid by Cates. Al Ewing drives the Cosmic elements, which are the most interesting part. Eddie Brock is dead. But he isn’t. He’s separated from his body and he’s bouncing around in time as his son becomes Venom in the present. It’s a much, much stranger take on Venom than most others and really dives into the King in Black mythos and timeline, eventually culminating in Venom War.
Did Anybody Card These Heroes?
The Marvel Young Avengers Sale runs through Monday, 3/3.
We can sum this sale up succinctly. You’re looking at three volumes:
- Young Avengers by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung: The Complete Collection
- Avengers: The Children’s Crusade (effectively Heinberg/Cheung V.2)
- Young Avengers by Gillen & Mckelvie: The Complete Collection
The creator names are even in the title(s)!
Seriously, though: the Heinberg/Cheung original series was a buzz book that seem to come out of nowhere when it dropped. Hulking and Wiccan have gone on to get pretty fully integrated into the Marvel Universe.
A couple notable spin-offs also in the sale:
- Hawkeye (’16-’18) – Kelly Thompson / Leonardo Romero; Note: this is the Kate Bishop Hawkeye
- Empyre – Al Ewing / Dan Slott / Valerio Schitti; Wiccan and Hulkling are right at the center of this Event
Superman Returns?
The DC Summer of Superman 2025 Sale runs through Sunday 8/31.
“Wait,” you’re asking yourself, “didn’t this sale run last month?” It did! Mostly. This isn’t an exact clone of last month and as we’re eyeballing it, it appears to us that some of the pricing has improved. To the tune of some scattered $2.99 volumes.
Here are the base links:
- Action Comics (’37 – ’11) – Are there a few $2.99 tpbs hidden in this listing? Yup!
- Action Comics (’11-’16) – Best known for the opening arc by Grant Morrison & Rags Morales
- Action Comics (’16-present) – The better Superman title for _most_ of this period. The Phillip K. Johnson Warworld sequence is particularly good.
- Luthor – Brian Azzarello / Lee Bermejo – Again with the $2.99
- Superman (’39 – ’11) – prices a little more scattered here
- Superman (’16-’18) – Peter J. Tomasi / Patrick Gleason
- Superman (’18 – ’21) – Brian Bendis / Ivan Reis and then a bit of the Phillip Kennedy Johnson run
- Superman (’23 – Current) – Josh Williamson / Jamal Campbell
- Superman and the Authority – Grant Morrison / Mikel Janin; Effectively a prelude to the War World saga
- Superman ’78 – Robert Venditti / Wilfredo Torres; Continuing the continuity of the original film series (i.e. Christopher Reeves)
- Superman Adventures – Paul Dini / Scott McCloud / Mark Millar; based on the 90s animated series continuity
- Superman: American Alien – Max Landis / Francis Manapul / Jock / Jae Lee
- Superman: Birthright – Mark Waid / Leinil Francis Yu
- Superman: The Death of Superman – The whole sequence through “Return” cordoned off as a series
- Superman: Earth One – J. Michael Straczynski / Shane Davis – $2.99@
- Superman: Lost – Priest / Carlo Pagulayan
- Superman: The Man of Steel (’91-’03) – John Byrne / Marv Wolfman / Jerry Ordway; The John Byrne era
- Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby
- Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? – Matt Fraction (Author), Steve Leiber
- Superman: The Phantom Zone – Steve Gerber / Gene Colan – $2.99
- Superman: Red Son – Mark Millar / Dave Johnson / Kilian Plunkett; What if baby Kal-El’s rocket landed in the Soviet Union?
- Superman: Secret Identity – Kurt Busiek / Stuart Immonen
- Superman: Son of Kal-El – Tom Taylor / John Timms; The adventures of Jon Kent
- Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent – Tom Taylor / Clayton Henry
- Superman Smashes the Klan – Gene Yang / Gurihiru
- Superman: Up in the Sky – Tom King / Andy Kubert
- Superman: Year One – Frank Miller / John Romita Jr.
- Man and Superman 100-Page Super Spectacular – Marv Wolfman / Claudio Castellini; A Year One-type tale; $2.99
And a bit of space for the supporting cast of the upcoming film:
- Green Lantern Corps: Recharge – Geoff Johns / Dave Gibbons / Patrick Gleason – $2.99
- Green Lantern Corps ’06 – ’11 – Dave Gibbons / Peter J. Tomasi / Patrick Gleason – three more at $2.99
- Green Lantern Corps ’11 – ’15 – Peter J. Tomasi / Robert Venditti / Fernando Pasarin
- Hawkgirl Vol. 1: Once Upon a Galaxy – Jadzia Axelrod / Amancay Nahuelpan
- Metamorpho: Two Worlds, One Destiny – Aaron Lopresti – $2.99
- Mister Terrific Vol. 1: Mind Games – Eric Wallace / Gianluca Gugliotta – $2.99
- The Terrifics – Jeff Lemire / Evan “Doc” Shaner / Ivan Reis – Mr. Terrific, Plastic Man and Metamorpho (and Phantom Girl) teaming up in a quirky book… gosh, do you think James Gunn is aware of this?
What’s good?
We’re huge fans of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? – a masterpiece of humor and a good mystery, too.
One of the somewhat rare ’80s reprints that we’ve enjoyed is Superman: The Phantom Zone by Steve Gerber and Gene Colan. This is a very odd, horror-flavored Superman tale as he confronts something unnatural that’s been living in the Phantom Zone… but you weren’t expecting Gerber & Colan to give you the ’50s TV version, were you? Waid also references this series in World’s Finest.
Emperor Joker is a 2000 storyline from Jeph Loeb / Ed McGuinness / Joe Kelly / Doug Mahnke that finds the Joker acquiring godlike powers and remaking the world in his image. Not an Elseworlds, but entertainingly over the top.
Superman Smashes the Klan has Gene Yang and Gurihiru revisiting and revising the original Superman radio show arc, “Clan of the Fiery Cross.” It’s on the YA side of Superman, but has picked up a LOT of good reviews.
Superman: Man of Tomorrow is an very witty collection of tales by Robert Venditti and Paul Pelletier that went under most radars because it was originally serialized digitally.
Superman, the current series by Josh Williamson and Jamal Campbell is also on sale and it’s a good one.
And for something under the radar, the Warworld saga from a couple years back is worth a look. Phillip Kennedy Johnson wrote Action Comics for a spell and there was very little discussion on it. We’ve since had it recommended a couple times and just finished reading it. Severely under-rated and we’d go so far as to call the first two volumes great. The set up is there’s a new Mongul running Warworld. Mongul has been subjugating a lost tribe from Krypton and uses them to lure Superman to Warworld (with The Authority in tow). A trap is sprung and Superman has to lead a rebellion.
Now, you might be saying “haven’t we seen this before on Apokolips? And the answer is, not exactly. Kennedy Johnson takes a full arc to set this up with signs of portent and excels at creating an atmosphere of foreboding leading into the final act. The characterization is strong and there’s an interesting thread about the problem of leading a revolution when the underclass has never known freedom. (And a bit of political skullduggery in the background.) Several artists tag in and out, but the more prominent ones are Daniel Sampere, Riccardo Federici and Will Conrad.
This storyline is collected across three volumes:
The optional fourth volume to the arc, which takes place in the background during Warlord Rising, is Superman and The Authority by Grant Morrison and Mikel Janin. This is where Superman recruits The Authority for his mission to Warworld… and trust us, this series works better in the greater context of the Warworld arc than it does as a standalone.
“Normal” Unannounced Sales
As usual, we’re not sure when these sales are ending, but here’s what we’re seeing:
- Daredevil Epic Collection: Fall From Grace – D.G. Chichester / Scott McDaniel
- Dramacon, Volume 1 – Svetlana Chmakova
- Over My Dead Body: A Witchy Graphic Novel – Sweeney Boo
- Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir – Ai Weiwei / Gianluca Costantini
Additionally, it looks like most of the Wolverine and Deadpool material from recent weeks is still on sale. The Under $5 Page has the lower priced volumes. Go back a couple columns for the links to find the Epic Collections.
Still on Sale
- The Marvel Phoenix Sale runs through Monday, 8/18
- The Kodansha Dog & Cat Days of Summer Sale runs through Monday, 8/18