Month: November 2024

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Black Friday Arrives. DC’s Cyber Monday Sale; The Best of Marvel Omnibuses; Dark Horse Line-Wide Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, the actual Black Friday is upon us. DC drops a Cyber Monday sale. We look at the best of Marvel’s omnibus discounts. Dark Horse cuts prices line-wide.

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 Best of the Marvel Omnibus Sale

Avengers Omnibus  Captain Britain Omnibus  Miracleman Omnibus

The Marvel Omnibus Sale runs through Monday, 12/2.

Last week, we looked at what’s new in this year’s Omnibus Sale. This time, we’re going to look at the best volumes available. After all, not all omnibuses are created equal and this is about great runs and low duds.

  • The Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 1 – Stan Lee / Steve Ditko; Amazing Spider-Man was a rock solid title for a very long time, so it’s hard to go wrong with the available omnibuses, but V.1 is the complete Lee/Ditko run and that’s a really nice package.
  • Avengers Omnibus Vol. 5 – Steve Englehart / Sal Buscema / George Perez / George Tuska; Arguably the best run of the original Avengers is here, with the Giant-Size issues that were integral. The Celestial Madonna Saga. Kang. Ultron. The Squadron Sinister/Supreme. The Serpent Crown. There are other great runs, but this is at or near the top for most people.
  • Avengers by Busiek & Perez – Kurt Busiek & George Perez, with a little Roy Thomas / Roger Stern / Carlos Pacheco / Alan Davis / Jerry Ordway; Another one of the top runs is when Busiek & Perez took over after the Heroes Reborn experiment ended. The 2-volume set also includes Avengers Forever, The Ultron Imperative and Maximum Security
  • Black Panther by Christopher Priest – Christopher Priest / Mark Texeira/Sal Velluto; You’ll want both volumes for Priest’s brilliant run. Smaller volumes (this _almost_ could have been compressed into a single volume), but one of the best of the late 90s/early 00s.
  • Captain America Omnibus Vol. 3 – Steve Englehart / Sal Buscema / Frank Robbins; A few issues into this volume and Englehart’s legendary run begins. Contender for best Cap run overall (along with Waid/Garney and Brubaker/Epting/Lark). The return of the 50s Cap. The Viper. The Secret Empire. The Red Skull. Good stuff.
  • Captain Britain Omnibus – You’re looking at this for the back half with Alan Moore / Alan Davis and Jamie Delano / Alan Davis; This has all the UK material, but once Moore shows up, it turns into something special and also debuts the designation “616” for the Marvel Universe. Which is to say, a highly influential run that ended up absorbed into the X-books and is very infrequently reprinted.
  • Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson Omnibus – Roger McKenzie / Frank Miller / Klaus Janson; The full original Miller run in one volume. (Folks often forget McKenzie wrote the first portion of the run.) Legendary for a reason.
    • Daredevil by Frank Miller Omnibus Companion – Frank Miller / John Romita, Jr./ David Mazzucchelli / Bill Sienkiewicz; More Miller tales, including Born Again (possibly his finest DD moment), The Man Without Fear and Love and War.
  • Defenders Omnibus V. 2 – (Mostly) Steve Gerber / Sal Buscema. This is a smaller page count that most omnibuses, but it’s a very strategic selection: all of the Steve Gerber run. Which is to say, Nebulon, The Guardians of the Galaxy and The Headmen all turn up. Classic run that’s over the top strange as only Gerber could do it.
  • Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol. 2 – Stan Lee / Jack Kirby; Look, you can’t really go wrong with V.1-4 (Lee/Kirby wraps up ~1/3 of the way into V.4), but V.2 is roughly where things kick into second gear. The Frightful Four lead into The Inhumans, which leads into Galactus, then Black Panther debuts, followed by more Inhumans and Victor Von Doom. Great slice of Lee/Kirby.
  • Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 – John Byrne; Generally considered the next classic take on the FF, Bryne’s run (plus crossover issues and related items like The Last Galactus Story) is collected across two volumes.
  • Immortal Hulk Omnibus – (Mostly) Al Ewing / Joe Bennet; The modern classic complete in one volume. Listed as 1480 pages of this horror take on Hulk and the secret of the Green Door. Excellent series.
  • The Incredible Hulk by Peter David: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4 and Vol. 5 – Peter David / Todd McFarlane / Jeff Purves / Dale Keown / Sam Keith / Gary Frank / Liam Sharp / Angel Medina / Mike Deodato, Jr ; Yes, when you’re on a title for as many years as PAD was, you end up working with a lot of artists and he had a better roster than most! It’s also a high quality run that’s a pain to collect in the “normal” volumes. 1-4 collect the actual Hulk run. V. 5 collects some side titles and PAD’s brief return to the main title.
  • Miracleman Omnibus – Alan Moore / Garry Leach / Alan Davis / John Totleben / Rick Veitch; One of the key post-modern revivals of the early 80s as Moore and company revive a 50s UK knock-off of Captain Marvel (as in Shazam!) and remake it into something special as a middle-aged man discovers his past has been hidden from him and superheroics take on horrific aspects. Highly influential work that was out of print for years, due to court battles
  • Thor by Walt Simonson Omnibus – Walt Simonson / Sal Buscema; An awful lot of folks (most?) consider this the best Thor run for a reason: it’s pretty great. All in a single tome
  • Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 2 – Chris Claremont / John Byrne / Dave Cockrum; The Phoenix Saga is probably the high point of the “New” X-Men. This also gives you the introduction of Kitty Pryde, Days of Future Past, and an encounter with Doctor Doom. Honestly, we think that once Claremont has a couple issues to settle in, starting with issue #97 or so, it’s consistent excellence and a big story arc that comes to a natural breaking point with #200 (which is maybe 2/3 of the way through V.5), so Omnibus 1-5 are all a big thumbs up from us.

Temporal Displacement Sale
The Flash Kamandi  Wonder Woman

The DC Cyber Monday Sale runs through Monday, 12/2.

Which day is Cyber Monday this year? If the Black Friday Sale ran last week, wouldn’t that mean this past Monday was Cyber Monday, even though this sale didn’t appear until Tuesday morning? Well, if this coming Monday is Cyber Monday be warned that these sales can come down mid-evening if you’re on the West Coast. Timey-wimey, indeed!

Let’s run through this sale, which has some recent items and not so recent items. If you’re looking at a series page, keep an eye on the prices, which are a little all over the place this week. Yes, even within the same series.

That said, here are some things we found interesting:

  • Action Comics – The Warworld sequence in Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 – Phillip Kennedy Johnson / Daniel Sampere / Riccardo Federici; Mongul baits a trap for an ailing Superman in a darker than usual tale that has a little Spartacus in it; Under most radars, but quite good
  • The Flash Vol. 1: Strange Attractor – Si Spurrier / Mike Deodato, Jr.; Flash is recast as a cosmic horror book as Grodd tries to pierce the veil between dimensions and all is NOT well in the Speed Force; (Also maybe read Beast World first, as there’s an interlude that’s VERY confusing otherwise and also not part of the main story)
  • The Human Target – Tom King / Greg Smallwood; A noir mystery with the bwa ha ha Justice League as suspects… that’s still noir while servicing the bwa ha ha ha elements? Yes, it is. And Smallwood gets special praise, too
  • Justice League: Last Ride – Chip Zdarsky / Miguel Mendonca; $1.99 – cheap
  • Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth – Jack Kirby; Kirby’s riff on Planet of the Apes yielded a more fully realized world of animal men, is a ton of fun, and was his most successful DC work in the ’70s. Sure, Darkseid is bigger now, but not in the 70s.
  • Nightwing – The series page has the excellent Tom Taylor / Bruno Redondo series buried at the end, so let’s simplify it. The ones on sale are  Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4
  • One-Star Squadron – Mark Russell / Steve Lieber; A biting satire of the gig economy as Red Tornado tries run a hero-on-demand app. (Hey, Luke Cage is busy being mayor, so somebody had to step up.) Recommended
  • Prez: Setting a Dangerous President – Mark Russell / Ben Caldwell; When the vagaries of the Electoral College place the subject of a viral social media video in the White House, all hell breaks loose. Yes, this is from ’15. No, it hasn’t gotten less relevant since then. Also… the line about how one should select a VP is killer
  • Sandman – Neil Gaiman and a rotating cast of artists; You’ve probably heard of this one
  • Shazam! Vol. 1: Meet the Captain! – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; In another of their Justice League warm-ups (collect them all), Waid & Mora do us all a favor and start steering Captain Marvel/Shazam back towards the original tone and concepts of the feature; Emphasis on pure fun
  • Shazam and the Monster Society of Evil – Jeff Smith; That’s right, the man behind Bone updates the classic 1940s Monster Society serial from Captain Marvel Adventures. It’s Jeff Smith, so you should have a decent idea what it’ll be like
  • Superman – Josh Williamson / Jamal Campbell; The current Superman series is a much needed and well executed return to the classic Superman format that was missing for a few years
  • Superman: Camelot Falls – Kurt Busiek / Carlos Pacheco; Superman encounters a prophecy fingering him as the agent of the apocalypse
  • Swamp Thing – Ram V. / Mike Perkins; The origin of the new, current incarnation of Swampy… and his family problems
  • Swamp Thing by Rick Veitch Book One: Wild Things – Rick Veitch / Alfredo Alcala; The entire series is on sale, but Veitch’s “restored” run is a more recent collection
  • Titans Vol. 1: Out of the Shadows – Tom Taylor / Nicola Scott
  • Titans: Beast World – Tom Taylor / Ivan Reis / Travis Moore; The recent Event was definitely a Titans story and you kinda have to love a character named “Dr. Hate” who resembles Dr. Fate. For all practical purposes, you should treat this as Titans V.2.
  • Wonder Woman  Vol. 1: Outlaw – Tom King / Daniel Sampere; An Amazon is fingered for murder and the situation spirals out of control amidst a possible coverup. As Wonder Woman is declared an enemy of the state, Amanda Waller and Sarge Steel lie in wait
  • World’s Finest: Teen Titans – Mark Waid / Emanuela Lupacchino; Much like “regular” World’s Finest, this is an early tale of the Silver Age original Teen Titans and traffics in fun

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

X-Men '97  Avengers  Immortal Thor

The trend continues. New releases at lower than expected price points and discounted pre-orders. Is this the new normal? We’re not sure, but let’s run them down.

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

Unannounced Sales

Hellboy  Martha Washington  Minor Threats

It appears that Dark Horse has most of their collected editions on sale, but not the newest material and not the single issues.  Here’s a link that will *eventually* get you through their catalog in a very laborious way and with the single issues mixed in. (It’s not perfect, but we’re trying.)

Here are some direct links to various series:

Under the radar alert: you don’t hear about this much anymore, butThe Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century is a Frank Miller / Dave Gibbons collaboration with a different tone than Miller’s commonly associated these days. It’s a lot closer to Halo Jones than it is to Sin City or the later Dark Knight volumes.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Black Friday Sales, Part 2: DC’s “Black Friday Sale” w/ Batman, Birds of Prey and John Stewart; Plus, The Black Hammer

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Black Friday sales are early this year. In Part 2, DC offers up its “Black Friday Sale” with plenty of Batman. Dark Horse plays along with theme by extending The Black Hammer sale.

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):

Important Black Friday Administrative Notes:

This week, the Black Friday sales are out a week before Black Friday. (Everyone’s doing it!) There were some problems with the sale prices that were posted the morning of Tuesday, 11/19. If you bought something off the Deals page On Tuesday, double check and make sure the price isn’t a little lower right now. All the new sales were removed from the deals page Tuesday evening and reposted a few hours later. The new prices should be correct.

We also covered all of this year’s new entries in the Marvel Omnibus Sale in the previous post.

I See a Red Friday and I Want It Painted Black

Batman '89  Green Lantern War Journal  World's Finest

The DC Black Friday Sale runs through Monday, 11/25.

“But… if the Black Friday Sale is this week, what’s happening next week?” You ask.

We’ll all find out together.

As for this week, there’s no real theme (and the Deals page display is as jumbled as it gets), so here are a few things that caught our eye:

  • Batman Vol. 1: Failsafe – Chip Zdarsky / Jorge Jiménez; The start of the Zdarksy run for $2.99
  • Batman ’89 – Sam Hamm / Joe Quinones; The writer of the Tim Burton Batman films returns with what he had planned for Harvey Dent
  • Batman: The Adventures Continue – Alan Burnett / Paul Dini / Ty Templeton; A continuation of the ’90s animated series by people qualified to do so. Good stuff
  • Batman: Killing Time – Tom King / David Marquez; A noir caper as The Penguin, Riddler and Catwoman try to double cross each other while Batman keeps getting closer
  • Batman: Reptilian – Garth Ennis / Liam Sharp; Guess who’s running amok in the Gotham sewers? $1.99
  • Birds of Prey – Kelly Thompson / Leonardo Romero; The new series has Black Canary recruiting some heavy hitters for a raid on Paradise Island; Alternates between suspense and quirky
  • Crisis on Multiple Earths Book 3 – There’s more Justice League on sale, but this one gets you three of the better Justice Society team-ups, featuring the influential return of Darkseid, a Secret Society of Supervillains encounter and the All-Star Squadron team-up
  • Detective Comics Vol. 1: Gotham Nocturne: Overture – Ram V / Rafael Albuquerque; We’re enjoying this slow burn, gothic horror take on Batman a lot
  • Danger Street – Tom King / Jorge Fornés; Decidedly odd series tying together all the characters from the ’70s First Issue Special series. You already know if this is for you or not, based on that and the creators
  • Death: The High Cost of Living – Neil Gaiman / Chris Bachalo; Dream’s sister gets a spin-off miniseries
  • Gotham City: Year One – Tom King / Phil Hestor; A superior and dark noir private eye tale leading up to Gotham’s decline as Slam Bradley searches for a kidnapped baby with the last name of Wayne
  • Green Arrow (’23) – Josh Williamson /  Sean Izaakse; The current series, emphasizing a “Green Arrow Family,” similar to the “Flash Family” of recent years
  • Green Lantern: War Journal – Phillip Kennedy Johnson / Montos; John Stewart finds himself the target of a particularly horrific extra-dimensional incursion
  • World’s Finest – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; The early adventures of the Batman/Superman pairing; Lots of fun (with occasional patches of darkness) and a must-read if you enjoy Silver Age mythos

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Amazing Spider-Man  Deadpool  X-Men '97

The trend continues. New releases at lower than expected price points and discounted pre-orders. Is this the new normal? We’re not sure, but let’s run them down.

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

Unannounced Sales

Black Hammer Omnibus  The Art of Daniel Clowes  Dramacon

Dark Horse still has the world of Black Hammer on sale this week.

This would be — we think it’s OK to call it a superhero universe at this point — the indie superhero saga by Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston and friends. There are a couple branches to how this saga unfurls.

The main Black Hammer series is here and that’s where you should start the journey. But, as with many long running titles, there are a few different editions to it and this is what we think the cheapest (if messy to sort) way to read the series is.

There are currently 7 volumes under the main series + a collection of specials + 2 volumes of “Visions” with guest creators playing in the Black Hammer standbox.

So what you want to do to cheap out is go to the omnibus page first.

Black Hammer Omnibus V.1 is basically the same thing as the first Library edition. That gets you the first two “regular” volumes (issues 1-13) + the Annual.

Black Hammer Library Edition V. 2 gets you the equivalent of “regular” volumes 3 &4 (“Age of Doom”) plus the Streets of Spiral material not in the Ominbus.

Then you can pick up again with V.5 of the regular editions.

Then you’ve got the World of Black Hammer collections, which are solo tales about the various heroes and villains like Barbalien and Sherlock Frankenstein.

And finally, there’s Black Hammer / Justice League: Hammer of Justice, the Lemire / Michael Walsh team up between… well, that’s in the title, isn’t it? This one offers savings in the single issue format.

Also on sale, Dark Horse’s comics adaptations of BioWare’s Dragon Age line of video games:

Also on sale (and branded as “Black Friday” sales, though we’re not sure if that’s out of mere convenience or not):

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Black Friday Sales, Part 1 – The Annual Marvel Omnibus Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Black Friday sales are early this year. In Part 1, it’s the annual Marvel Omnibus Sale and we break out what’s new to the sale since last year.

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):

Important Black Friday Administrative Notes:

This week the Black Friday sales are out a week before Black Friday. (Everyone’s doing it!) There were some problems with the ones that were posted the morning of Tuesday, 11/19. If you bought something off the deals page On Tuesday, double check and make sure the price isn’t a little lower right now. All the new sales were removed from the deals page Tuesday evening and reposted a few hours later. The new prices should be correct (although we need to take a closer look at the reposted DC sale).

Because of the size and all the hubbub around the (now) Annual Marvel Omnibus Sale, we’re looking at that right away and will come back at the usual time for the DC sale and anything else that pops up.

The Annual Marvel Omnibus Sale (Omni-Man is Elsewhere)

Avengers Omnibus  Daredevil Omnibus  Spider-Man Brand New Day Omnibus

The Marvel Omnibus Sale runs through Monday 12/2.

The Marvel omnibuses will run as long as ~1200 pages / 50 issues, although page and issue counts vary per issue. They’re mostly running in the $10-$15 range, instead of the $30-40-ish range, so the prices are slashed and 50 issues for $15 would be $0.30/issue.

There are a few things here that aren’t in other collections, but the reason we keep hearing that folks like the digital versions is that they’re easier to sort. That is to say, fewer items in your digital library.

So first, let’s run down the list of what we think are all the Omnibuses released since last year’s sale (or rather, getting discounted the first time since then). Did you think Marvel was releasing quite a few Omnibus editions in the last year? Yeah, you might be surprised. And this doesn’t include Rom or Micronauts, neither of which appear to be discounted. Annotations added when appropriate:

Is that enough Omnibus activity for one year? Only David Gabriel’s opinion of that matters! At any rate, the omnibuses have historically gone on sale once a year and that’s now, so it’s worth your time to have a browse through the actual sale at some point before 12/2. The official page is NOT well organized, so you can also use the above list to get quicker access to some of the series, just click on the series link on the book page.

A few “older” items we would make sure you’re aware of:

  • Captain Britain Omnibus – This has everything from the beginning of the 70s UK run through Captain Britain Magazine and the early X-Men appearances. What you’re really getting this for are the excellent and groundbreaking Alan Moore/Alan Davis and Jamie Delano/Alan Davis runs from the end of this period, which we’re not currently seeing available elsewhere. The rest is a bonus.
  • Incredible Hulk by Peter David Omnibus 1-5. That would be Hulk by David with that ridiculous sequence of artists he had, including Todd McFarlane, Gary Frank, Dale Keown, Angel Medina and Liam Sharp. 1-4 collect his original run and V. 5 collects some of the many times he’s revisited Hulk since the original run ended. Why the omnibus? Because this is a weird run to pick up in collected editions. It starts out in “Marvel Visionary” editions and eventually switches over to Epic Collections. This is just a drastically easier way to grab an exceptionally long run and probably cheaper than waiting to score the Visionary editions on sale. We also don’t mind tipping our hat to Peter David when he’s recovering from some health problems.
  • Knights of Pendragon Omnibus was out of the Marvel UK office. Knight of Pendragon was a Captain Britain-adjacent title. Dai Thomas, the supporting character from the main strip, is more of the central character with Captain Britain and Union Jack along for the ride. This was largely a Dan Abnett/John Tomlinson/Garry Erksine feature. You get some Brian Hitch art from Mys-Tech Wars and Carlos Pacheco art from Dark Guard. This is another where if you want the comics, it’s Omnibus or the back issue bins.
  • Miracleman Omnibus is the 80s revival of the British character Marvelman by Alan Moore, Gary Leach, Alan Davis, John Totleben and Rick Veitch. Another of Moore’s pre-Watchmen superhero deconstructions with a Captain Marvel (Shazam)-like character rediscovering his magic word after years of a normal life and very bad things following that. A landmark book that fell to the wayside after years and years of legal battles over who held which rights. This one isn’t on sale very often and it’s roughly as cheap as you’ll find it.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Amazing Spider-Man  Deadpool X-Men '97

The trend continues. New releases at lower than expected price points and discounted pre-orders. Is this the new normal? We’re not sure, but let’s run them down.

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

🤞 Don’t miss these tips!

We don’t spam! Read more in our privacy policy

Still on Sale

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales – Star Wars; More $1.99 DC Collections; Old Man Logan; Department of Truth; Black Hammer

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts Star Wars Epic Collections and Old Man Logan. DC has comics that have been adapted for TV and film as low as $1.99. Plus, The Black Hammer and Dragon Age.

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):

[Note: we looked at the X-Men/Krakoa and Thunderbolts sales earlier in the week.
Also, by popular nagging demand, we are at @comicscheap.bsky.social]

We Will Control the Vertigo Vertical

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters  New Teen Titans  DC: The New Frontier

The DC on TV Sale runs through Monday, 11/18.

Once again, we find ourselves in the midst of holiday pricing. Yes, we’re sad, too. There’s more to the sale (500+ books), but we’re going to focus on some good options at the rock bottom $1.99 and $2.99 price points.

$1.99

  • Deathstroke ’16 – ’20 – Christopher Priest / Carlo Pagulayan / Larry Hama / Diogenes Neves; Very under appreciated character piece. Highly recommended.
  • Doctor Fate – Paul Levitz / Sonny Liew; Superior reimagining of the character that leans into Egyptian mythology. Would that all reinventions of a classic character work this well…
  • Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters – Mike Grell relaunches Green Arrow without the trick arrows as more of a thriller.
  • Green Arrow (’88 – ’98) – Mike Grell / Ed Hannigan / Dan Jurgens / Rick Hoberg; Grell’s regular series follow up to The Longbow Hunters
  • Harley Quinn (’13-’16) – Amanda Connor / Jimmy Palmiotti / Chad Hardin; A slapstick / absurdist take on Harley
    • Harley Quinn (’16-’20) – Amanda Connor / Jimmy Palmiotti / Chad Hardin / John Timms; For all intents and purposes, it’s the same series at the ’13 iteration through V.5
  • Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass – Mariko Tamaki / Steve Pugh; OGN
  • Hawkworld – Tim Truman / Enrique Alcatena; The first post-crisis reimagining of Hawkman, emphasizing the science fiction elements of the Silver Age version
  • Justice Society of America (’07-’11) – Geoff Johns / Dale Eaglesham; Bill Willingham / Jesus Merino; Mixed pricing w/ $2.99; Includes an Alex Ross follow-up to Kingdom Come
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Alan Moore / Kevin O’Neill; Ignore that ridiculous movie. Moore & O’Neill raid Victorian literature to assemble a supergroup of Alan Quartermain (King Solomon’s Mine), Mina Harker (Dracula), Captain Nemo  (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), Edward Hyde (Doctor Jeckyll and Mister Hyde) and Hawley Griffin (The Invisible Man) as they do a spot of work for the government. Literate and witty. And no bloody Tom Sawyer.

$2.99

  • DC Meets Looney Tunes – You’re getting this for the SHOCKINGLY GOOD Batman Vs. Elmer Fudd by Tom King and Lee Weeks. Weeks cannot be praised enough for pulling this off with such style.
  • New Teen Titans (’80-’88) – Marv Wolfman / George Perez / Eduardo Barreto; Did this classic run save DC in the early ’80s? Quite possibly.
  • Preacher – Garth Ennis / Steve Dillon; God’s gone missing and Jesse Custer would like to have a word with him; Double volumes
  • Saga of the Swamp Thing (’82-’96) – Alan Moore’s legendary run and, for most practical purposes, the birthing of the Vertigo imprint
  • Sandman – Neil Gaiman and a rotating cast of artists
  • Y: The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan / Pia Guerra; Double volumes for $2.99 as the last living man on Earth searches for his girlfriend as the rest of the world searches for him

$3.99 (and we still recommend it)

  • Batwoman by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams – You can figure out the creators yourself; Contains the full and excellent run from Detective Comics
  • DC: The New Frontier – Darwyn Cooke’s stone cold masterpiece about the dawn of the Silver Age
  • Doom Patrol: The Silver Age – Arnold Drake / Bruno Premiani; Essentially DC’s answer to the original X-Men, though it seems like they were developed simultaneously. More pathos than most DC’s from the period and good stuff.
  • Doom Patrol (’87-’95) – Grant Morrison / Richard Case; The legendary run in three double volumes
  • Flash (’87 – ’09) – Geoff Johns/Scott Kolins; The original Johns run was where he started to get noticed
  • Flash (’16 – ’20) – Josh Williamson / Carmine di Giandomenico / Howard Porter; Mixed pricing with some scattered $1.99/$2.99

Sing Along With Nick

The Marvel Star Wars Epic Collections Sale runs through Monday, 11/18.

The headline here should probably be that the current Marvel run is starting to get Epic Editions.

Star Wars Epic Collection

Star Wars Modern Era Epic Collection: Skywalker Strikes collects the first 14 issues of the Jason Aaron / John Cassaday (RIP) run, plus the Vader Down crossover issues.

You might be asking “where’s the Vader Epic Collection?” A fine question, too. The answer is the first one is coming out at the end of the month.

Agent of Empire   Dark Empire   Star Wars Newspaper Strip

As for the Epic Collections of the original Marvel run and the Dark Horse material, there really aren’t title-specific links here, which is super annoying.

These Epic Collections are _all_ in this link.

A few things we’ll call out as particularly good.

The original Marvel Star Wars, #49-69, the under appreciated, post-Empire period with Walt Simonson and/or David Michelinie.  Most of it is in this DH Omnibus.

John Ostrander’s “Agent of Empire” is collected in this Epic. Think “what if James Bond spied for the Empire.” It’s fun.

Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy reinvigorated the franchise in the 90s when they did Dark Empire. That and Dark Empire II are collected in this Epic.

Also fun, the Ostrander/Jan Duursema “Legacy” series, wherein the down and out last heir to the Skywalker legacy finds himself embroiled with a resurgent Sith Empire. 4 volumes, starting here.

And finally, there’s nothing quite like Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson on the Star Wars newspaper strip. Yes, that’s Russ Manning who comes first. 2 volumes starting here.

And finally a list of Epics we don’t think were on sale the last time these prices rolled around:

Wolverine… and the Sea?

Wolerine: Old Man Logan   Wolverine: Old Man Logan

The Marvel Old Logan and the Wasteland Sale runs through Monday, 11/18.

Yes, the Old Man Logan storyline has spawn a series of miniseries set in “The Wasteland” setting from the original.

That’s what the real spread is here with the rest of the sale being side attractions you may or may not be into.  The original storyline of a cranky, aged (“Old Man”) version of Wolverine living in a dystopic future came off as a sort of Elseworlds tale and is fairly well regarded as a standalone tale.

It was popular enough that the “Old Man Logan” version of the character was contrived to appear in the present (his past… before the disaster that spawned a dystopia) in the period when Wolverine was supposed to be “dead.” It even lasted 50 issues. We’d say give the Jeff Lemire issues a look if it sounds interesting, particularly the Lemire/Sorrentino issues. This was one of their pre-Image collaborations and it’s much more entertaining than the editorial premise sounds.

Don’t Feed the Sale-Naming Trolls

Department of Truth   The Fade Out  Sam and Twitch

The Un-be-leafable Image Comics Sale runs through Black Friday.

Do not encourage whoever’s naming these Image sales. Moving right along to the actual sales, this is another one with a mystery/horror bent to it. Lots of good stuff and it’s worth a browse. A few things we’ve read and are happy to recommend:

  • The Department of Truth – James Tynion IV / Martin Simmonds; Possibly our favorite Tynion series. There’s an X-Files-esque setup, but this series is about the power of belief and myth to shape reality, not an alien invasion
  • The Fade Out – Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips; A Hollywood blacklist era noir thriller about the cover-up of a starlet’s murder from the ever-reliable team of Brubaker & Phillips
  • The Fix – Nick Spencer / Steve Lieber; A farce about two crooked cops and a much more reliable drug sniffing dog by the Superior Foes of Spider-Man team
  • Sam & Twitch – Brian Bendis / Angel Medina / Ashley Wood / Alex Maleev; Spawn’s detective companions investigate weird mysteries. The Bendis issues are a creepy delight
  • Stray Bullets – David Lapham; Lapham’s crime series was basically Criminal, but a decade earlier. A classic “if you know, you know” series

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Ghost Rider  Amazing Spider-Man

The trend continues. New releases at lower than expected price points and discounted pre-orders. Is this the new normal? We’re not sure, but let’s run them down.

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

Unannounced Sales

Black Hammer Omnibus  Dragon Age  The Hunger and the Dusk

Dark Horse has the world of Black Hammer on sale this week.

This would be — we think it’s OK to call it a superhero universe at this point — the indie superhero saga by Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston and friends. There are a couple branches to how this saga unfurls.

The main Black Hammer series is here and that’s where you should start the journey. But, as with many long running titles, there are a few different editions to it and this is what we think the cheapest (if messy to sort) way to read the series is.

There are currently 7 volumes under the main series + a collection of specials + 2 volumes of “Visions” with guest creators playing in the Black Hammer standbox.

So what you want to do to cheap out is go to the omnibus page first.

Black Hammer Omnibus V.1 is basically the same thing as the first Library edition. That gets you the first two “regular” volumes (issues 1-13) + the Annual.

Black Hammer Library Edition V. 2 gets you the equivalent of “regular” volumes 3 &4 (“Age of Doom”) plus the Streets of Spiral material not in the Ominbus.

Then you can pick up again with V.5 of the regular editions.

Then you’ve got the World of Black Hammer collections, which are solo tales about the various heroes and villains like Barbalien and Sherlock Frankenstein.

And finally, there’s Black Hammer / Justice League: Hammer of Justice, the Lemire / Michael Walsh team up between… well, that’s in the title, isn’t it? This one offers savings in the single issue format.

Also on sale, Dark Horse’s comics adaptations of BioWare’s Dragon Age line of video games:

Also on sale:

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Men – The Krakoa Era; Thunderbolts; Winter Soldier

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel puts the Krakoan age of X-Men on sale, plus Thunderbolts and Winter Soldier.

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):

Administrative Note

The holidays are approaching and that means the sales are likely going to get larger and more numerous, which means we’re probably going to be breaking the weeks into multiple posts from time to time. Since we’ve been getting asked about X-Men sales, here’s the full Krakoa sale and the Thunderbolts sale. We’ll be back at the usual time for DC, Star Wars, Old Man Logan and whatever else turns up. (This would be WAY long if we put in one post.)

Ghosts of X-Mas-Men Past

X-Force  Dawn of X  Sins of Sinister

The Marvel X-Men: The Krakoan Age Sale runs through Monday, 11/25.

If you want to call it the Hickman Era or the HoX/PoX Era, don’t let us stand in your way. We find those names valid.

Let’s talk about the overall arcs and “… of X” editions first. These are the collected editions that approximate reading the Hickman era as single issues. Roughly speaking they cycle through X-Men, Wolverine, X-Force, Marauders, etc. etc.

While this effect dissipates after time, we think this is the better way to read the Hickman X-Men titles. Story elements originally floated between books and their sum was greater than their parts. The order does something like this:

Inferno is the last arc for Hickman before leaving and it fits in roughly after The Trial of Magneto ends, so you can read it somewhere between Trials of X V.3-6.

We’re not as adamant about reading this in issue-to-issue format after Hickman leaves… although X-Force and Wolverine are certainly intertwined at times. Through Inferno, though? Yes. If you do jump off at that point, be sure to add Way of X to your individual title list.

The next “act” of the Krakoa age was “Destiny of X,” but that’s apparently only available in this format in French?

Our recommendations for your optimal Destiny of X reading is clustered around two tracts:

Track One: the Axis of Gillen/Spurrier/Ewing – the writers of the three “big concept” X-titles that eventually converge in the truly X-cellent Sins of Sinster Event that we might even put ahead of the also X-cellent X-of Swords.

These books are:

  • Immortal X-Men by Kieron Gillen / Lucas Werneck; we’d personally consider this the flagship title for the Destiny of X sequence
  • Legion of X by Si Spurrier / Jan Bazaldua / Rafael Pimentel; The explorations of Legion and Nightcrawler’s crews
  • X-Men: Red – Al Ewing / Stefano Caselli / Juann Cabal; Storm’s adventures leading Arakko (Mars) as Ewing keeps a finger in the cosmic side of Marvel

Track two: Ben Percy continues to keep X-Force and Wolverine intertwined in interesting ways, particularly as the long-running saga of Hank McCoy comes to a head.

Pick up X-Force starting with Vol. 5.

Pick up Wolverine starting with Vol. 4.

A mini-series worth mentioning in the “Destiny” period: X-Terminators by Leah Williams / Carlos Gomez manages to be lighthearted with really dark and occasionally off-color humor as Dazzler, Boom Boom, Laura Kinney and Jubilee get mixed up with vampires in the most humiliating ways.

Sabretooth: The Adversary and Sabretooth and the Exiles by Victor LaValle and Leonard Kirk are a pair of horror-edged (see: LaValle, Victor) tales about what Sabretooth was really up to when he was exiled into The Pit, along with the other mutants down there. These took us by surprise and they lead right into the X-Force and especially Wolverine finales.

And for the science fiction fan in your family, New Mutants: Lethal Legion is written by Hugo/Nebula/Locus Award-winner Charlie Jane Anders and drawn by Enid Balám.

Summing this up – while you can definitely go through the sale and pick up the individual titles, we strongly feel there’s an additive effect to reading things in the Dawn/Reign/Trials omnibus format and taking in the universe building. After Hickman exits, that cohesion wanes after a bit and the line isn’t quite as consistent.  And you have to pick up individual titles after the end of “Trials,” regardless. This sale takes you to the end of like for era. There are a few more titles out listed in the sale – the X-line hasn’t been known for brevity in decades – but those are the highlights and the best of the Krakoa era really is top notch.

Thunder. Thunder. Thunderca… Whoops, Wrong Series!

Thunderbolts  Winter Soldier  Taskmaster

The Marvel Thunderbolts Sale runs through Monday, 11/18.

OK, given the upcoming film, this is really a Thunderbolts and Winter Soldier sale. That’s cool. We’ve had a Neapolitan milk stout before.

The Thunderbolts have been through several iterations since they began in ’97, originally having been the Masters of Evil laying the groundwork for nefarious deeds. And yes, there’s a film in the works.

Thunderbolts

The original series was written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by Mark Bagley. Eventually Fabian Nicieza tagged in as writer and Patrick Zircher became the lead artist a bit after that. Alas, these volumes jump around a bit after issue #50. The  omnibus editions are more complete, but aren’t on sale right now.

New Thunderbolts was the ’04-’06 relaunch, and yes, it’s included in the third omnibus of the original. Fabian Nicieza/Tom Grummett is the creative team, here.

This then turns back into (no adjective) Thunderbolts for ’06-’12, starting Nicieza/Grummett and then including runs by Warren Ellis / Mike Deodato and Jeff Parker/Kev Walker/Declan Shalvey

Thunderbolts relaunched for ’12-’14 with Daniel Way and then Charles Soule writing it. The artist rotation included Steve Dillon and Phil Noto.

Jim Zub and Jon Malin were behind the ’16-’17 Thunderbolts run.

’20 saw King in Black: Thunderbolts by Matthew Rosenberg/Gerry Duggan/Juan E. Ferreyra/Luke Ross.

’22 saw Thunderbolts: Back on Target by Jim Zub and Sean Izaakse.

The most recent volume in the sale is Thunderbolts: Worldstrike by Colin Kelly / Jackson Lanzing / Geraldo Borges.

With Thunderbolts, we feel pretty strongly you need to read the first sequence or two and get a flavor for the concept before jumping into the later evolutions.

Winter Soldier

The originating storyline runs in the 2004 series of Captain America by Ed Brubaker and a rotating squad of artists including Steve Epting, Michael Lark, Butch Guice and Mike Perkins. There are a couple omnibuses available, but this doesn’t really have a definitive larger collection like, say, the Hickman Avengers era. We’d probably point you to the Captain America Modern Era Epic Collection: The Winter Soldier volume. It’s a couple bucks more, but it gives you #1-19 straight through and that’s a very good run.

For solo series, the first choice is Winter Soldier by Ed Brubaker, which is Brubaker and Butch Guice in a spin-off.

Also of possible interest:

And two bonus recommendations:

  • Taskmaster: The Rubicon Trigger – Jed MacKay / Alessandro Vitti; A very funny adventure finds Taskmaster blackmailed into doing a job for Nick Fury. Alternately, the Black Widow will likely hunt him down and kill him.
  • U.S.Agent: American Zealot – Christopher Priest / Georges Jeanty; In something of a deadpan political satire, John Walker develops some issues with his handlers when sent to a small town threatened by a corporate entity… if only the optics matched reality. Smart, but you figured that with Priest involved.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Ghost Rider  Amazing Spider-Man

The trend continues. New releases at lower than expected price points and discounted pre-orders. Is this the new normal? We’re not sure, but let’s run them down.

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s First Holiday Sale w/ Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman; Iron Man; X-Men

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has the first holiday sale of the season with their “Trinity” sale of Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman… as low as $1.99/book. Plus, Marvel puts almost the entire Iron Man catalog on sale, as well as some X-Men and Storm titles. Dark Horse chips in with an Erik Powell sale.

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):

DC’s First Holiday Sale Is Here

Batman: The Detective  Superman: The Man of Steel  Wonder Woman

The DC Trinity Sale runs through Monday, 11/11.

This sale is often the first holiday sale. Why are we saying it this year? $1.99 collected editions. The rule of them is if a collected edition is $2.99, go ahead a pull the trigger. $1.99? Yeah, that’s rock bottom for DC in recent years.

As such we’re going to be taking a look here at the vast swatch of $1.99 and $2.99 books. (This is comics.CHEAP, after all.) There are definitely newer books on the sale, but they might be — gasp — $3.99 or $4.99.

Batman

  • All-Star Batman (’16 – ’17) – Scott Snyder / John Romita, Jr. / Jock / Rafael Albuquerque
  • Batman (’40 – ’11) – mixed pricing
  • Batman (’11 – ’16) – Scott Snyder / Greg Capullo; That’s right, you can stick the full Snyder/Capullo run in somebody’s stocking for $1.99@
  • Batman (’16 – present) – Most of the Tom King and James Tynion IV runs are $1.99@
  • Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – Frank Miller
  • Batman: The Detective – Tom Taylor / Andy Kubert; (yes, the first Taylor run for $1.99. Happy holidays.)
  • Batman: The Killing Joke – Alan Moore / Brian Bolland
  • Batman: Three Jokers – Geoff Johns / Jason Fabok
  • Batman: Year One – Frank Miller / David Mazzucchelli
  • Batman/Superman (’13 – ’16) – Greg Pak / Jae Lee
  • Detective Comics (’37 – ’11) – Mixed pricing
  • Detective Comics (’11-’16) – Tony Daniel, then John Layman / Jason Fabok
  • Detective Comics (’16 – present) – James Tynion IV / Eddy Barrows through Mariko Tamaki / Dan Mora (before the price starts inching up)

Superman

Wonder Woman

  • Wonder Woman ’87 – ’06 – Mixed pricing. Perez is one of the definitive runs, though not as cheap. The first Greg Rucka run is cheap, though, and it’s great.
  • Wonder Woman (’11-’16) – You want the first 6 volumes of the Brian Azzarello / Cliff Chiang / Goran Sudzuka run. It’s a divisive take on the character (see: Azzarello, Brian), but it’s a solid yarn. Treat it like an Elseworlds, if you like.
  • Wonder Woman (’16 – ’20) – You want the *excellent* first four volumes by Greg Rucka, Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp

This is one you want to take some time and browse. Some interesting things in these lower price points? Sure.

Trinity by Matt Wagner teams up Batman / Superman / Wonder Woman as Ra’s al Ghul has a plot involving Bizarro, a rogue Amazon and some nukes. Also… it’s Matt Wagner. $2.99

Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia by Greg Rucka and J.G. Jones finds Wonder Woman and Batman having a little trouble agreeing to disagree. $2.99

Batman: Venom – Denny O’Neil / Trevor Von Eeden / Russ Braun / Jose Luis Garcia Lopez; About a year before Bane appeared, this was the Legends of the Dark Knight arc that introduced “venom,” the super-steroid that bulked up Bane. (With as good a creative lineup as you could reasonably ask for.) $1.99 – cheap.

Does Whatever An Iron Can…

Iron Man: The Man Who Killed Tony Stark  Iron Man: Heroes Reborn  Iron Man: Big Iron

The Marvel Iron Man Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 11/11.

This would be one of those sales where most of the hero’s run is on sale, so we’re going to follow our usual protocol and start out by breaking out the primary titles and volumes. ‘Ole Shellhead hasn’t had as many relaunches as some titles, but there is a volume where the collection options are a little… odd. Note: the Masterworks aren’t included in this sale, so you’re looking at Epic Collections and “regular” collections for the classic material.

  • Tales of Suspense – Iron Man debuted here in what was a split book with Captain America for most of the run.
  • Iron Man ’68-’96 – The original solo run in the era before constant relaunch gimmicks

OK, sit tight. The ’98 -’04 run is collected in VERY odd ways and poorly cataloged for browsing.  The truly excellent Kurt Busiek/Sean Chen/Patrick Zircher run lasts from 1-25. We can’t find 15-25 collected? (That entire run should be!)  You can catch 1-14 and the Mike Grell run (50-59)  in cheap omnibus form here.  You can catch Joe Quesada’s scripting run (26-32) and the Avengers: Disassembled tie-in late in this run in single volumes here. (But get the omnibus version for Busiek.)

  • Iron Man ’04-07 – Best known for launching with the “Extremis” storyline
  • Invincible Iron Man ’08-’12 – The excellent Matt Fraction / Salvador Larroca run. Save some money with the omnibus collecting the first 3 volumes.
  • Iron Man ’12-’14 – The Kieron Gillen run with Greg Land as initial artist
  • Superior Iron Man ’14-’15 – Tom Taylor / Yildiray Cinar
  • Invincible Iron Man ’15-’16 – Brian Bendis and David Marquez/Mike Deodato, Jr. start out with Tony Stark in the armor
  • International Iron Man ’16 – Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev (And yes, we’re in the thick of the relaunches now)
  • Invincible Iron Man ’16-’18 – Brian Bendis and Stefano Caselli with Riri Williams/Ironheart filling Tony Stark’s shoes (yes, parallel substitute Iron Man runs)
  • Tony Stark: Iron Man ’18-’19 – The Dan Slott era with Valerio Schiti as the principle artist in the rotation.
  • Iron Man ’20-’22 – The Christopher Cantwell / Cafu run.
  • Invincible Iron Man ’22-current – Gerry Duggan / Juan Frigeri

If you’re keeping score at home, you’ll have notice Infamous Iron Man are not on sale. Why? We cannot say. Too close to Doom assuming the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme?

So what’s good?  We haven’t read ALL the Iron Man out there, but we’ve read a lot of them.

In our opinion Iron Man starts hitting it’s stride when Archie Goodwin arrives toward the end of the Tales of Suspense run and then is pure gold through issue 28 of the ’68 Iron Man series. Artists for this run include Gene Colan and George Tuska. (That’s collected in both Masterworks and Epic formats, but only the Epic is discounted right now..)

The next “all-star” run is #116-157 of the original Iron Man, that’s the David Michelinie / John Romita, Jr. / Bob Layton run that’s most famous for the “Demon in a Bottle” alcoholism arc, but there’s more to the run than just that arc.  The Denny O’Neil / Luke McDonnell run that follows is solid (make sure you get a collection that includes #200!!!), but Michelinie & Layton return for #215-250 with a few artists, including Mark Bright and Jackson Guice… with Layton even switching to penciller, instead of his usual inking post, for parts of it.  This second run is most famous for “Armor Wars” (originally known as Stark Wars).

When Heroes Return hits, Kurt Busiek and Sean Chen are pop in for the excellent 1998 run, of which only 1-14 are currently collected.

The ’08 – ’12 run by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca is particularly good. You know how modern Marvel titles can get sidetracked by Events. Fraction and Larroca lean into it and produce a lengthy and self-contained arc with Tony Stark on the run and attempting to overwrite his brain to keep everyone’s secrets out of the hands of Norman Osborn. Yes, an honest to goodness great Event tie-in arc. It’s a rare thing.

We were quite happy with the  Christopher Cantwell/Cafu run. Tony Stark chases Korvac into outer space and meditates on the nature of godhood, good intentions and addictions. Lots of character work and action.

The Calm Before?

X of Swords  X-Men: Red  Resurrection of Magneto

The Marvel Storm Sale runs through Monday, 11/11.

It might be better to break up the highlights as pre-Krakoa and Krakoa era.

Pre-Krakoa

  • X-Men: Magik – Storm & Illyana – Chris Claremont / Brent Anderson / John Buscema; extra dark tale of Illyana’s abduction by demons
  • Storm (’06) – Eric Jerome Dickey / David Yardin; prequel to her marriage to T’Challa
  • Storm (’14-15) – Greg Pak / Victor Ibenez

Krakoa Era

  • Marauders (’19-’22) – Gerry Duggan / Matteo Lolli / Stefano Caselli; Kitty becomes a pirate captain w/ Storm in tow
  • Giant-Size X-Men by Jonathan Hickman (’20) – Jonathan Hickman / Russell Dauterman / Alan Davis
  • X of Swords (’20) – Hickman showrunning the full creative staff
  • X-Men: Red (’22-’23) – Al Ewing / Stefano Caselli; Storm rules Arrako (Mars)
  • Resurrection of Magneto (’24); Al Ewing / Luciano Vecchio; An X-Men: Red end cap of sorts, as it’s time for Magneto to return from the dead

What’s good? We’re partial to the Krakoa era. X of Swords is a satisfying Event – yes, that’s possible, it just doesn’t happen often enough. X-Men: Red was a highlight of the late-stages of Krakoa and Resurrection of Magneto was interesting… although if you’re a regular reader, you’ll know we’re usually in the bag for Al Ewing. (Mmm… ZOMBO!)

Villains of the Atom

X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga Complete Collection  Mystique  X-Men: Age of Apocalypse

The  Marvel X-Men Villains Sale runs through Monday, 11/11.

It’s true. The X-Men have villains and sometimes the villains eventually become friends. And sometimes friends become villains and then become friends.

The best thing here is the utter classic X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga Complete Collection by Chris Claremont & John Byrne. Yes, the comic is definitely better than the film in this case and that edition has some extra issues that are worthwhile.  (For Jean Grey’s initial resurrection, there’s also X-Men: Phoenix Rising)

Best thing under most radars? Mystique, where she’s repurposed as Xavier’s spy. The first Brian K. Vaughan / Jorge Lucas / Michael Ryan omnibus is particularly good.

You have a couple options for the Age of Apocalypse arc. X-Men: The Complete Age of Apocalypse does appear to be slightly more complete.

The sequel is filed under the two volume X-Men Vs. Apocalypse.

Also under the radar: Magneto (’14-’15 ) by Cullen Bunn & Gabriel Hernandez Walta goes to some dark places.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Ms. Marvel  Ghost Rider

The trend continues. New releases at lower than expected price points and discounted pre-orders. Is this the new normal? We’re not sure, but let’s run them down.

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

Unannounced Sales

Big Man Plans  1984  Godzilla: The Half-Century War

Dark Horse has a sale on Eric Powell’s comics:

Also on sale:

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC Villains; Red Hulk; The Joker; Reckless; Moonshine; Halo

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC highlights their villains (with discounts). Marvel cuts prices on the Red Hulk. Image promotes arguments.

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):

They’re Not Bad, They’re Just Drawn That Way

Batman: Tales of the Demon  Deathstroke  Lobo

The DC Darkest Villains Sale runs through Monday, 11/4.

Let’s try something a little different and organize some of the highlights by the Villain(s) in question:

The Court of Owls

Deathstroke

Hush

The Joker

Lobo

  • Lobo – Keith Giffen / Alan Grant / Simon Bisley; Our preferred Lobo in the outrageous and offensive original solo incarnation; perhaps more anti-hero than villain, but that might be pedantic

Mongul

  • Superman Vs. Mongul – Len Wein / Jim Starlin; Paul Levitz / Curt Swan; Alan Moore / Dave Gibbons; The original DC Comics Presents tales, plus the immortal “For the Man Who Has Everything”

Ra’s al Ghul

  • Batman: Tales of the Demon – Denny O’Neil / Neal Adams / Irv Novick / Don Newton; The original ’70s al Ghul saga, including the later follow-up in Detective
  • Batman: The Demon Trilogy – Mike W. Barr / Denny O’Neil / Jerry Bingham / Tom Grindberg / Norm Breyfogle; The graphic novel trilogy of Son of the Demon, Bride of the Demon and Birth of the Demon

Red Hood

Secret Six

  • Secret Six V.1 – Gail Simone / Dale Eaglesham; A team of villains is assembled to tangle with Luthor’s “Society” of villains
  • Secret Six ’08-’11 – Gail Simone / Nicola Scott; The ongoing series begins

The Secret Society of Supervillains

  • The Secret Society of Supervillains – Gerry Conway / David Anthony Kraft / Bob Rozakis / Rich Buckler / Pablo Marcos; For completists, the ’70s villain team as Captain Comet pursues them

Suicide Squad

  • Suicide Squad – John Ostrander / Luke McDonnell / Geoff Isherwood; The original series and best take on villains pressed into government service

What are the real highlights? Priest’s Deathstroke has never gotten it’s due. Very smart comic and makes no bones about his status as a villain.

The original Suicide Squad run should be read for the more nuanced portrayal of Amanda Waller and her motivations.

Red Light Series

Red Hulk Scorched Earth  Fall of the Hulks - Red Hulk  U.S.Avengers

The Marvel Red Hulk sale runs through Monday 11/4.

Only three titles in this sale. The main one by far is the ’08 – ’13 Hulk series. 16 years after the series launched, we’ll risk the spoiler of the opening arc and say this is where Thunderbolt Ross becomes the Red Hulk.

You can save a little money on the Jeph Loeb / Ed McGuinness run by getting the omnibus editions. And if you’re doing that, you might want to add Fall of the Hulks: Red Hulk and read it before you get to issue #18. It’s part of the larger “Fall of the Hulks” event that’s not totally collected in the Hulk series. This is by Jeff Parker and Carlos Rodrigues.

After Loeb leaves, Jeff Parker takes over writing and we actually prefer the Parker take on the character. The artists move around a little (it’s that era of Marvel) but Gabriel Hardman / Patrick Zircher / Dale Eaglesham is a pretty good rotation. (And you should have a look at Zircher’s Solomon Kane over in the recent Savage Sword of Conan.)

The other series in the sale is U.S.Avengers by  Al Ewing and Paco Medina, wherein Red Hulk joins up with Squirrel Girl and Sunspot.

The Other Kind of Fighting

Newburn  Pulp 

The Image Fall-icious Argument Sale runs through Friday, 11/15.

The title might be a stretch, but there’s some good books in here. A few things we’ve enjoyed over the years and can happily vouch for:

  • Moonshine – Brian Azzarello / Eduardo Risso; The 100 Bullets team brings you a horror / gangster / historical mashup as a prohibition era gangster heads to Appalachia looking for a hooch supply and finds a werewolf.
  • Newburn – Chip Zdarsky / Jacob Phillips; Thriller about an ex-cop who polices internal conflicts between mob factions. Spoiler: One doesn’t make many friends doing that.
  • Nita Hawes’ Nightmare Blog – Rodney Barnes / Jason Shawn Alexander; A paranormal investigator/blogger with a family interest in the occult runs afoul of demons. It runs parallel to Killadelphia.
  • Pulp – Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips; A writer of Western pulp novels with a little personal knowledge of the subject rubs up against Nazis in ’30s NYC. Despite the name, this is one of the deeper Brubaker & Phillips works as it meditates on aging.
  • Reckless – Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips; The excellent opening installment of the OGN series about an off the books fixer in ’80s LA.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Incredible Hulk  Miles Morales: Spider-Man Ms. Marvel

The trend continues. New releases at lower than expected price points and discounted pre-orders. Is this the new normal? We’re not sure, but let’s run them down.

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

Unannounced Sales

Halo: Legacy Collection  Halo: Rise of Atriax  Hellboy

Dark Horse has a sale on the adaptions of the Halo video game:

We also *think* the Dark Horse horror titles should be on sale through Monday or Tuesday.

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