Month: December 2024

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s $1.99 Mania Pt IV – Mister Miracle to World’s Finest

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, part 4 of our look at DC’s $1.99 Mania – Mister Miracle through World’s Finest in the $1.99 catalog. Plus, a Dark Horse line-wide 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):

Administrative Notes

Ho, ho ho – the holiday sales march on. This is the fourth holiday sale installment. The DC sale is running through 12/30. The Marvel sales are all running through 1/6.

  • Installment one of the holiday columns covered what’s new in this year’s Marvel Epic Collection Sale and the current DC titles in the $1.99 sale
  • Installment two covered 1st Issue Special through Fables of the DC $1.99 sale, Marvel’s Star Wars Omnibus Sale, Best of ’24 Sale and What If? Sale
  • Installment three covered Far Sector through Marshal Law of the DC $1.99 sale.

DC $1.99 Mania Continued (Part IV)

Mister Miracle  New Gods by Jack Kirby  Night Force

The DC Holiday All eBooks Sale runs through 12/30.

We’re still rolling through DC’s very nearly line-wide sale. Not everything from September to the beginning of time is $1.99, but the vast majority of collected editions seem to be. You should probably have your own scroll through it, but we’re looking at it alphabetically and calling out interesting books based on readability, value/larger page count and if it’s infrequently discounted.

  • Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby; Kirby’s Fourth World series about a son of New Genesis who was raised on Apokalypse and became the greatest escape artist across all those worlds
  • Mister Miracle by Steve Englehart and Steve Gerber – Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers and Steve Gerber / Michael Golden / Russ Heath; This book requires a little explanation. This is the late ’70s revival of the series. Englehart & Rogers (of the famous Batman/Detective run) don’t quite gel, but it’s a high floor. Gerber starts exploring the nature of godhood after that and it gets extremely interesting before getting caught in the DC Implosion and cancelled. You need to see Heath inking Golden for yourself. It’s a treat and you’ll end up angry this wonderful experiment was cancelled. Seldom discounted and usually a little overpriced… but not this week
  • Mister Miracle (’17-’19) – Tom King / Mitch Gerads; The Eisner winning series where Scott Free tries to escape death itself
  • The Multiversity – Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely / Ivan Reis; A tale that hops across parallel Earths as Morrison goes wild with world-building. 450 pages
  • New Gods by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby; The original tale of Darkseid and Peak Kirby. Highly recommended
  • New Gods by Gerry Conway – Gerry Conway / Don Newton / George Perez; The ’77-’78 revival (and material moved over to Adventure Comics), plus the JLA/JSA/New Gods crossover (w/ Perez) that cemented Darkseid as a DCU big bad, not just off in the Fourth World corner of the room; Another volume that’s usually a little more expensive, even on sale
  • New Gods (’89 – ’91) – Mark Evanier / Paris Cullins / Rick Hoberg
  • New Teen Titans (’80-’88) – Marv Wolfman / George Perez; One of the titles that saved DC in the early ’80s and a classic of the era. Really due for the omnibus treatment, too
  • The Newsboy Legion – Joe Simon & Jack Kirby; One of the Simon & Kirby kid gangs (along with The Boy Commandos), the Newsboy Legion were watched over by a superhero called The Guardian. Kirby would return to them… with some twists… in his ’70s Jimmy Olsen run; Another title usually subject to abnormally high HC pricing
  • Night Force (’82-83) – Marv Wolfman / Gene Colan; The Tomb of Dracula team reunites at DC for a horror book about a mansion that contains a portal through space and time and its mysterious owner. Marv told us this is his favorite of his work and we happily recommend it

Orion  Plastic Man  Sandman Mystery Theater

  • OMAC : One Man Army Corps by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby; Kirby’s adventure-satire about a corporate dystopian future has aged well and has more bite than you might expect
  • Orion – Walt Simonson; Yes, that’s Walt doing New Gods / the son of Darkseid with an approach not so different to his Thor. Excellent book that never seemed to get a push and fell under the radar. Highly recommended
  • Planetary – Warren Ellis / John Cassaday; The full series in two 400+ page volumes
  • Plastic Man: Rubber Banded – Kyle Baker; Baker’s full 20 issue run is hilarious. We’d say there’s two people to have done Plas that came anywhere near the spirit of Jack Cole. Baker is one of them (Hilary Barta is the other). This one is usually at a bizarre price for a digital book, due to the fancy HC edition. Currently $2.99
  • Preacher – Garth Ennis / Steve Dillon; God has gone missing and Jesse Custer would like to have a word with him. Double volumes
  • Promethea – Alan Moore / J.H. Williams III; A beautifully illustrated fantasy/occult adventure with an extra side of philosophy. Double volumes. Recommended
  • Richard Dragon: Kung Fu Fighter – Denny O’Neil / Ric Estrada; The full 70s series at a good price for the completist in your life
  • Robin – In the 90s, there were three miniseries of Tim Drake as Robin that led into the ongoing title, so of course they’re not all listed on the same page
  • Sandman Mystery Theater – Matt Wagner / Steven T. Seagle / Guy Davis; The adventures of Wesley Dodds as the Golden Age Sandman, replete with gas mask and gun, ably assisted by Dian Belmont. This excellent title had a 70 issue run under the old Vertigo label and the first 24 issues are available across two volumes. If you like ’30s pulp detectives, this will be your jam
  • Scalped – Jason Aaron / R. M. Guera; This neo-noir about an undercover FBI agent infiltrating the casino at the reservation he grew up on and thought he’d escaped was Jason Aaron’s breakthrough series. Double volumes
  • Secret Six – Gail Simone’s cult series about a crew of villains that flirt with the straight and narrow. We’d put it at or near the top of her catalog.
    • Secret Six V.1 – Gail Simone / Dale Eaglesham / Brad Walker; Villains United, which this spun off from, and the original mini-series
    • Secret Six V.2-4 – Gail Simone / Nicola Scott / Jim Calafiore; Double volumes of the ongoing series
  • Seven Soldiers of Victory – Grant Morrison / J.H Williams III / Simone Bianchi / Frazier Irving; Morrison crafts a story across a series of mini-series, including Zatanna and his reinvention of Frankenstein
  • Sheriff of Babylon – Tom King / Mitch Gerads; An political thriller as an ex-cop contracted to train Iraq’s new police force looks into the murder of one of his recruits and finds a maze of conflicting agendas and duplicity. The full series in one volume

Superman: Phantom Zone  Jimmy Olsen  World's Finest

  • Superman: Birthright – Mark Waid / Leinil Francis Yu; An expanded origin tale that spends a little more time than most on the period between Smallville and Metropolis.
  • Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby; A fourth world entrant, this is effectively Kirby’s Superman book. Also where Project Cadmus and the DNAliens come from. Don’t shun it because it’s ’70s Jimmy Olsen. It’s Kirby doing adventure
  • Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? – Matt Fraction / Steve Lieber; A comedy masterpiece. Jimmy wakes up hung over and freshly married in Gorilla City… and that’s before he has to figure out who’s trying to ice him. Tour de force
  • Superman: Phantom Zone – Steve Gerber / Gene Colan / Rick Veitch; A Superman tale that veers into horror as a Phantom Zone escapee causes Superman to look a little deeper into the Zone’s origins. Also includes the DC Comics Presents sequel.
  • Superman: The Man of Steel – John Byrne / Marv Wolfman / Jerry Ordway; The Byrne era of Superman in 450+ page chunks for $1.99
  • Saga of the Swamp Thing – (initially) Alan Moore / Stephen Bissette / John Totleben, with some Stan Woch and Rick Veitch; This volume starts out not quite two years into the series (see next listing) with Alan Moore’s arrival to spark an absolutely legendary run.
  • Swamp Thing (’72 – ’76) – Len Wein / Bernie Wrightson; The “Bronze Age” collections on this link are three distinct things. V.1 is the original Wein/Wrightson run, which completely lives up to its reputation. V. 2 is the remainder of the original run, with David Michelinie and Nestor Redondo being the longest serving creative team, plus some extra’s like Swamp Thing’s guest star run in Challengers of the Unknown. V.3 is really the pre-Alan Moore issues of Saga of the Swamp Thing from 1982. Martin Pasko writes, artists include Tom Yeates, with Stephen Bissette and John Totleben arriving a couple issue prior to Moore.
  • Transmetropolitan – Warren Ellis / Darick Robertson; The 23rd century adventures of Hunter S. Thompson-esque journalist Spider Jerusalem as he feuds with corrupt presidents.
  • Watchmen – Alan Moore / Dave Gibbons – We assume you don’t need this one explained to you
  • Wonder Woman (Golden Age) – William Moulton Marston & H.G. Peter; It’s hard to understate how wild, over-the-top and bondage-driven these original tales are. It reads differently to an adult audience.
  • Wonder Woman (’87 – ’06) – We’re  big fans of the George Perez and Greg Rucka runs. Walt Simonson & Jerry Ordway, too. This is the post-Crisis reset, and for a lot of people this is where Wonder Woman begins. NOTE – to get the V.5 and V.6 of the Perez run, you need to go to this page. (Hey, don’t look at us, we didn’t put it there.)
  • Wonder Woman (’11-’16) – Brian Azzarello / Cliff Chiang; The first six volumes are the Azarello/Chiang run. Some feel it’s sacrilegious to the character (Azzarello being less than reverent? That’s his brand!), but regardless of that aspect, it’s a highly entertaining adventure as Wonder Woman discovers… let’s call it a possible new origin. A high point of the New 52 initiative.
  • Wonder Woman (’16) – Greg Rucka returns in a refutation of the Azzarello run that’s GREAT. Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp alternate issues (and plot threads). Get in two volumes. Wonder Woman: The Rebirth – Book 1 and Wonder Woman: The Rebirth – Book 2
  • World’s Finest (’22-current) – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; We’re still leaning towards calling the series about the early team-ups of Batman & Superman DC’s best current series.

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, but     The 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.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin  Darth Vader  Vengeance of the Moon Knight

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 Next Week

🤞 Don’t miss these tips!

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

Still on Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s $1.99 Mania Pt III – Far Sector to Marshal Law

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, part 3 of our look at DC’s $1.99 Mania, look at Far Sector through Marshal Law in the $1.99 catalog.

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 Notes

Ho, ho ho – the holiday sales march on.

  • Installment one of the holiday columns covered what’s new in this year’s Marvel Epic Collection Sale and the current DC titles in the $1.99 sale
  • Installment two covered 1st Issue Special through Fables of the DC $1.99 sale, Marvel’s Star Wars Omnibus Sale, Best of ’24 Sale and What If? Sale

DC $1.99 Mania Continued (Part III)

Far Sector  Flash by Mark Waid  Green Lantern

The DC Holiday All eBooks Sale runs through 12/30.

We’re still rolling through DC’s very nearly line-wide sale. Not everything from September to the beginning of time is $1.99, but the vast majority of collected editions seem to be. You should probably have your own scroll through it, but we’re looking at it alphabetically and calling out interesting books based on readability, value/larger page count and if it’s infrequently discounted.

  • Far Sector – N.K. Jemisin / Jamal Campbell; A rookie Green Lantern with an experimental ring investigates a murder on a planet that hasn’t seen violence in 500 years. Excellent worldbuilding. Highly recommended
  • Final Crisis – Grant Morrison / J.G. Jones / Doug Mahnke / Carlos Pacheco; Darkseid takes over in this Event and this has the necessary tie-ins. 456 pages for $1.99
  • The Flash (’87 – ’09) – Everything in this omnibus section is oversized, a good read and seldom at these prices. That goes double for the Mark Waid volumes, which can top 400 pages.
  • The Flintstones – Mark Russell / Steve Pugh; A brilliant, dark satire with a lingering sense of melancholy that takes the classic cartoon in a slightly different direction. A+. Full series in one volume
  • The Forever People by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby; A Fourth World collection
  • Green Arrow (’01-’07) – Kevin Smith / Phil Hester; Smith’s full 15 issue run for $1.99
  • Green Lantern (’60-’86) –
  • Green Lantern (’05 -’11) – Geoff Johns / Dave Gibbons / Ivan Reis; These are double volumes of the excellent Johns run. (Sinestro Corps War might be the peak of this era). Now, you’ll need to move over to the “regular volumes” w/ Agent Orange to move forward and you’ll want to add Blackest Night Saga, which is the Event endcapping the first segment of the Johns Green Lantern catalog.
  • Green Lantern by Grant Morrison & Liam Sharp; This series is organized a little peculiarly in book form. The four volumes tell a story that involves a little misdirection, so we’re on spoiler prevention. The high level is Morrison wanting to approach the Lanterns as more of a police procedural, but there’s a little more subtext than that. Sharp stretches his repertoire of art styles as the series progresses
  • Hard Time: The Complete Series – Steve Gerber / Mary Skrenes / Brian Hurtt; We see this is now a Black Label book. That fits. A 15-year old manifests a super power. It might be it’s own entity. The trouble is, somebody dies and the kid  is sentenced to 50 years as he tries to figure out what just happened. Under the radar, but solid book and odd in all the ways only Gerber can be. 458 pages for $1.99
  • Hellblazer – Strangely, there haven’t been omnibus editions of this, which seems like an oversight. At any rate, this was a consistently good run and is cheap for the moment.
  • Hitman – Garth Ennis / John McCrea; Ennis gets irreverent with a hitman who kills metahumans. On sale less often than other titles
  • The Human Target – Tom King / Geoff Smallwood; No deluxe edition (yet), just a highly recommended 2-volume noir tale of doomed Christopher Chance trying to figure out which member of the Bwa Ha Ha era Justice League poisoned him before he dies
  • The Huntress- Origins – Paul Levitz / Joe Staton; The collected solo adventures of The Huntress, back when the character was the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. Another one that isn’t always discounted and not usually this deeply
  • I… Vampire! – J.M. DeMatteis / Tom Sutton; The ’80s version as a recalcitrant vampire battles his ex- and the cult of the Blood Red Moon
  • Infinity Inc. – Roy Thomas / Jerry Ordway; The children of the Justice Society form their own team as trouble looms. Infrequently discounted
  • JLA – The classic ’90s Justice League restart by Grant Morrison & Howard Porter. Don’t sleep on the later volumes.
  • John Constantine, Hellblazer (’19) – Si Spurrier / Aaron Campbell / Matias Bergara; We’ll put this revival up against anything in the Hellblazer cannon, and that’s not something to be said lightly, though to describe it would involve spoilers. Get both volumes, it’s effectively a two-parter
    Jonah Hex: Shadows West  Kamandi  Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes
  • Jonah Hex: Shadows West – Joe R. Lansdale / Tim Truman; All three of the Lansdale/Truman series with a weird western/horror angle on Hex. Under the radar these days, but high octane weird. 387 pages
  • Justice League International – Keith Giffen / J.M. DeMatteis / Kevin Maguire; This set of collected editions incorporates Justice League Europe into the books when that launches, which is a definite plus. There’s also a lone omnibus, but it doesn’t break evenly with the contents of the rest
  • Justice League of America: The Nail – Alan Davis; Ma and Pa Kent get a flat tire and don’t find baby Kal-El’s rocket, creating a world without a Superman in this excellent Elseworlds. Things do not go well for the Justice League without him. Also contains the sequel
  • Justice Society of America: A Celebration of 75 – A sampler of the JSA across the different era’s. Usually on the expensive side
  • Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth – Jack Kirby; This is Kirby riffing on Planet of the Apes, but with many different species of animal-men. Tons of fun and Kirby’s most successful book at DC while it was being published.
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Alan Moore, Kevin O’Neill; Just pretend the godawful film doesn’t exist. Moore & O’Neill assemble a team of reluctant government operatives from ~1880s SF/F and Horror literature. And a bit more accurately than many of the media adaptions (particularly Nemo). Wonderful series with very funny and subversive advertisements (you’ll see)
  • Legion of Super-Heroes – Let’s put the highlights under this heading. These are often more expensive titles.
  • Lobo (’90) – Alan Grant / Keith Giffen / Simon Bisley; ~300 page chunks of the original series of mini-series and specials about The Main Man. Hilarious and an effective tool in the offending of the easily offendable.
  • Lucifer (’00-’06) – Mike Carey / Peter Gross; Double volumes. What was M.R Carey doing prior to The Girl With All the Gifts? Among other things, writing this Sandman spinoff about Lucifer Morning Star. Now, if we could get a digital edition of My Faith in Frankie…
  • Marshal Law – Pat Mills / Kevin O’Neill; Think a darker version of Judge Dredd policing (and satirizing) superheroes. Very dark, very funny. There are some legit comparisons to The Boys, but this came first and might have been an influence.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin  Darth Vader  Vengeance of the Moon Knight

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 Next Week

🤞 Don’t miss these tips!

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

Still on Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC $1.99 Mania Pt 2; Star Wars; Marvel’s Best of ’24; What If?

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, part 2 of our look at DC’s $1.99 Mania. Marvel applies discounts to Star Wars, What If? and their best of 2024 list. Dark Horse also is slashing price on Star Wars.

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 Notes

Ho, ho ho – the holiday sales march on. Last time out, we flagged all the new Marvel Epic Collections since the last time those had a dedicated sale and pointed out DC’s $1.99 collections of recent/active series. We’ll probably be breaking the DC sale into two more installments… it’s just that big and those rock bottom prices demand attention.

DC $1.99 Mania Continued (Part II)

Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart  DC: The New Frontier  Fables

The DC Holiday All eBooks Sale runs through 12/30.

So, last time we were taking a quick glance at the current titles that are $1.99 (which is our kind of madness). Now we’re starting on a deep dive through the sale catalog. We’re not really going to be putting an emphasis on titles from the last few years, unless they were exceptional or there’s a Deluxe format (double volumes) you should be aware of. You know how to look up the current run of Batman without our help. We’re looking at good (but perhaps less visible) reads, large collections with exceptional value and things that might not get discounted very often as our compass points.

  • 1st Issue Special – A very odd Showcase type anthology that for this price, you’re looking at specific issues/feature: Atlas and Manhunter by Kirby. The debut of Warlord by Mike Grell. A Mike Fleisher/Steve Ditko Creeper issue. Most definitely a masterful Doctor Fate tale by Martin Pasko and Walt Simonson. This is normally more than $1.99
  • 52 – Johns/Morrison/Rucka/Waid/Giffen writing (and laying out) a 52 issue weekly series… which you can now have the entirety of for $3.98? Madness.
  • Action Comics ’38-’11 – Everything here is $1.99, including large Golden Age volumes and the Gil Kane collection, which is usually much more expensive.
  • All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever – Gerry Conway / Paul Levitz / Wally Wood / Keith Giffen / Joe Staton; The complete ’70s JSA revival, including the Adventure Comics stories; 449 pages, usually more than $1.99
  • American Vampire – Scott Snyder / Rafael Albuquerque – America gets it’s own breed of vampire
  • Animal Man (’89) – The Grant Morrison / Chas Troug is cheaper in omnibus format here, then cut back to “regular” volumes for Peter Milligan, Tom Veitch and Jamie Delano/Steve Dillon
  • Aquaman (’62-’78) – Apparently, I lied last week. This is the cheapest you’ll see these. 2 volumes of the Steve Skeates / Jim Aparo run and then a collection of the Adventure Comics and last few issues of the regular series by David Michelinie / Paul Levitz / Jim Aparo / Mike Grell / Don Newton. (Death of a Prince is listed at 337 pages.) These are all usually priced like HCs.
  • Aquaman: The Atlantis Chronicles – Peter David / Esteban Maroto; This one is usually priced at a premium. What it actually is, is an undersea sword and sorcery epic about this history of Atlantis. Epic Fantasy, beautifully illustrated and deserves a much wider audience. $1.99? Bargain for 337 pages
  • Aztek: The Ultimate Man – Grant Morrison & Mark Millar / N. Steven Harris; Can a Morrison/Millar collaboration be under the radar? Yes! Infrequently discounted, too.
  • Batman (’40-’11) – Lots of worthy books here, but we’re going to focus on good collections that are usually a lot more expensive.
    • Batman: Birth of the Demon – Mike W. Barr / Denny O’Neil / Jerry Bingham / Tom Grindberg / Norm Breyfogle; Collects the graphic novels: Son of the Demon, Bride of the Demon and Birth of the Demon; A Ra’s al Ghul trilogy
    • Batman: Tales of the Demon – Denny O’Neil / Neal Adams / Don Newton; The original Ra’s al Ghul tales, including the ’79-’80 return in Detective.
    • Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart – Englehart / Marshall Rogers / Walter Simonson; All of Englehart’s Batman. If the original Detective run isn’t the best Batman run, it’s at least top 3.  452 pages of QUALITY for $1.99. Highest possible recommendation.
    • Tales of the Batman: Gerry Conway – For whatever reason, V. 1 is listed with Batman and subsequent volumes are listed under Detective. What you need to know – if you want to read the Gene Colan or Don Newton runs, get them in the Gerry Conway titled collections. The stories frequently jumped between titles in this era and the stories will make a lot more sense this way!
    • Batman: The Caped Crusader: V. 1 – There are six volumes, starting here, that collect the 80s run, which is a good period. (Although watch you don’t duplicate materials, particularly with Grant/Breyfogle.)
  • Batman (’16 – present) – The “Deluxe” double volumes of Tom King’s run are at $1.99 in the “Omnibuses” section
  • Batman and the Outsiders – Mike W. Barr / Jim Aparo / Alan Davis; Batman’s mid-80s team book. Seldom are all three volumes on sale the same time and they’re usually on the pricey side
  • Batman Eternal – The weekly Batman serial led by Scott Snyder & James Tynion IV. 52 issues across 3 volumes for $1.99@
  • Batman: Shadow of the Bat – Slightly longer volumes of the Bat-title launched by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle
  • Batman: The Adventures Continue – Excellent continuation of the Batman: The Animated Series from the ’90s by people qualified to continue it: Alan Burnett / Paul Dini / Ty Templeton
  • Bizarro Comics – DC shorts done by an all-star set of alternative cartoonists
  • Booster Gold – The original Dan Jurgens series from the ’80s
  • Boy Commandos by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby – Simon & Kirby’s very popular WWII series, normally subject to HC pricing
  • The Brave and the Bold (’59-’83) – The team-up issues start with Haney and occupy most of the Jim Aparo titled volumes, with some large page counts. Then you have the classic Neal Adams Batman filed here
  • Challengers of the Unknown by Jack Kirby – Dave Wood / Jack Kirby; Kirby’s ’58 hit for DC is a pretty much a dry run for the Fantastic Four, except the villains are the ones with powers
  • DC: The New Frontier – Darwyn Cooke’s masterpiece about the dawn of the Silver Age. All in one volume. 500 pages / $1.99 and a highest possible recommendation
  • DC Through the 80s – Paul Levitz curates two large anthologies highlighting DC high points in the 80s.
  • Deadman – Neal Adams / Paul Levitz / Len Wein / Jim Aparo / Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez; The very definition of a cult series, this collects the Adams original and the various spots Deadman was kept alive (pun intended) in the 70s/80s
  • The Demon by Jack Kirby – Kirby’s horror-adventure series about a man bound to a demon by Merlin
  • Detective Comics (’37 – ’11) – Lots of good things that are worth a browse, including the Golden Age reprints and the “Dark Detective” volumes containing the 80s issues, but let’s specifically call out a few things:
    • Batman: New Gotham V.1 and V.2 – Greg Rucka / Shawn Martinbrough / Rich Burchett; Very stylish (and stylized) run that’s not as recognized as it could be.
    • Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle Vol. 1 & Vol. 2; Get the Alan Grant / Norm Breyfogle run in larger chunks (before switching over to Caped Crusader and Shadow of the Bat); Heaps of good stuff for $1.99
    • Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin – Archie is one of the best ever to write comics (and we can 100% confirm the stories of what a nice guy he was). These are his Batman stories.
    • Batwoman by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams – Get their complete collaboration with this volume. Great run.
    • Manhunter by Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson Deluxe Edition – Simply one of the best adventure comics of all time, as you might guess from Archie and Walt collaborating. Highest possible recommendation
  • Detective Comics (’16 – present) – That link takes you to the “Deluxe” double volumes (still $1.99) of James Tynion IV’s Detective run. It has a “Batman Family” flavor and we prefer it to the more recent, higher profile run on Batman
  • Dial H – China Mieville / Alberto Ponticelli / Mateus Santolouco; OK, Mieville has been the dean of “weird fiction” for quite some time, but now that he’s collaborated with Keanu on a BZRKR novel (quite good, btw), you might take interest in his take on Dial H for Hero. Mostly under the radar, but wonderfully bizarre
  • Doctor Fate (’15-’16) – Paul Levitz / Sonny Liew; Would that all re-imaginings be so good. This Egyptian mythology-centric take on Fate deserves more love. Plus, Sonny Liew!
  • Doom Patrol (’64-’68) – Arnold Drake / Bruno Premiani; The Doom Patrol was effectively (if not intentionally) DC’s version of the X-Men. Outcasts as heroes
  • Doom Patrol (’87 – ’95) – Grant Morrison / Richard Case; The Morrison run (and the Brotherhood of Dada) in three volumes, $1.99@
  • Ex Machina – Brian K. Vaughan / Tony Harris; NYC’s first superhero is elected mayor and then things get complicated; 10-issue volumes
  • Fables – Bill Willingham / Mark Buckingham; The excellent saga of fairy tale characters hiding out in NYC after being driven from their lands by a despot. Why yes, The Big Bad Wolf is their sheriff. “Deluxe” double volumes for $1.99

There will probably be two more installments of this before the sale is over. Next time we start back with the remarkable Far Sector.

May the Sale Be With You

Darth Vader by Gillen Omnibus  Star Wars Omnibus  Star Wars Wild Space

The Marvel Star Wars Omnibus Sale runs through Monday, 1/6.

This is similar to the previous Marvel Omnibus Sale, just with Star Wars instead of Spidey.

What’s good? Dark Vader really seems to bring out the best in creators.  Darth Vader by Gillen & Larroca Omnibus is at the top of the mountain. Star Wars: Darth Vader by Charles Soule Omnibus isn’t too far behind it.

The New Republic  V.2 is a decent way to get the Dark Empire and Thrawn material that effectively re-energized Star Wars in the 90s.

The Best of the Best of the Best

Avengers, Inc.  G.O.D.S.Ultimate Spider-Man

The Marvel Best of 2024 Sale runs through Monday, 1/6.

OK, some of the single issues in these collections might be from ’23, but you know the drill here. If you’re looking for recent Spidey or the last act of the Hickman/Krakoa/HoX-PoX era of X-Men, that’s definitely here. As for the best, we’ll narrow that down a little in the World According to Cheap:

  • Avengers Inc.: Action, Mystery, Adventure – Al Ewing / Leonard Kirk; The Wasp, out of uniform and investigating superhuman murders with an amnesiac partner who isn’t the Vision, but uses one of his old aliases. Great little series.
  • Avengers: Twilight – Chip Zdarsky / Daniel Acuna; In a possible future, an aging Steve Rogers assembles a new team to revolt against a world controlled by corrupted media
  • Doctor Strange by Jed Mackay Vol. 2: The War-Hound Of The Vishanti – Jed MacKay / Pasqual Ferry / Juan Gedeon – Strange confronts a splintered off version of himself who’s spent 5,000 years fighting a war for the Vishanti. Suffice it to say his other self has been changed by the experience. Doctor Strange has been MacKay’s finest work at Marvel
  • G.O.D.S. – Jonathan Hickman / Valerio Schiti; This one is more of a literary urban fantasy plopped down in the Marvel universe, such that Doctor Strange and the Living Tribunal are supporting players. In what might be called a variation on Michael Moorcock’s battles between Order and Chaos, we find two… let’s call them “agencies” patrolling around the entities that govern magic and reality, but with competing philosophies. We could really do with another series when Hickman has a break in his schedule.
  • Immortal Thor – Al Ewing / Martin Coccolo; Thor finds himself caught in a series of plots involving the power of stories
  • Marvel Unleashed – Kyle Starks / Jesús Hervás; This is one of the more unusual things Marvel has released in recent years. It’s a Pet Avengers book, but don’t let that scare you off. It’s fine for adults. Lockjaw has been abducted and the Pet Avengers are helping a pet look for a missing master who had dealings with A.I.M. Oh, it’s funny, but the underlying plot is serious. Very good book and likely won’t be quite what you were expecting
  • Miracleman by Gaiman & Buckingham: The Silver Age – Neil Gaiman / Mark Buckingham; After all these years, The Silver Age is finally completed. Now, about the next issue of THB? I’ve been waiting almost as long…
  • The Incredible Hulk – Phillip Kennedy Johnson / Nic Klein; As Banner roams the country, a conspiracy of monsters is looking for him. They seem to recognize the Hulk from ancient times and wish to use him to awaken their mother. Klein is really killing it, too. Horror, but more occult than Immortal Hulk’s horror
  • Predator Vs. Wolverine – Ben Percy / Ken Lashley / Andrea Di Vito – Exactly what it sounds like, but better. Wolverine encounters a Predator and it keeps coming back. It definitely scratches an itch and it’s all in the execution.
  • Ultimate Invasion – Jonathan Hickman / Bryan Hitch; The set-up for the new Ultimate line as The Maker (aka Ultimate Reed Richards) escapes captivity and seeks to reshape a new universe to eliminate the competition
  • Ultimate Spider-Man – Jonathan Hickman / Marco Checchetto; In the best of the Ultimate line, a married with children Peter Parker becomes Spidey later in life, meets a new Green Goblin and explores a world that is not what it seems. Emphasis is on world building, early on.

If Not, Why Not?

What If?  What If

The Marvel What If? Sale runs through Monday, 1/6.

We have a preference for the original What If, here, but we’d like to point something out to you first. When you go to the series link for the original, toward the top of the page, you’ll see a new navigation feature that’s a little more relevant here. Under the series graphic on the left hand side is a pulldown menu where you can select “Volumes” or “Omnibus.” Volumes being the “normal” sized collections.  We’ll have to have a longer look at how that’s implemented. It might be useful… IF it works.  In this case it only shows the omnibus on sale. Yes, that’s right, there are actually four omnibuses containing ~12 issues each of What If. Only one of them is on sale and that’s the only one that shows up on the Omnibuses page, ergo the Omnibuses page appears to be broken. (Why are you acting surprised?)

So, here’s the link for the “regular” volumes. Here’s the link for the lone omnibus on sale (which is issues #1-12).  And we’ll look at some of the more interesting stuff in the individual volumes, since What If is all over the map. Some of these are going to sound awfully darn familiar, too.  What If seems like a gold mine for pitching your editor!

  • #1 – What If Spider-Man Joined the Fantastic Four? (V. 1 / Omnibus)
  • #2 – What If The Hulk Had the Brain of Bruce Banner? (V. 1 / Omnibus)
  • #10 – What If Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor? (V. 2 / Omnibus)
  • #12 – What If Rick Jones Had Become The Hulk? (V. 2 / Omnibus)
  • #13 – What If Conan the Barbarian Walked the Earth Today?  (NOPE, no longer collected)
  • #23 – What If The Hulk Had Become a Barbarian? (V. 4)
  • #30 – What If Spider-Man’s Clone Had Lived? (V. 5)
  • #35 – What If Elektra Had Lived? (V.6)
  • #37 – What If The Beast and The Thing Continued to Mutate? (V.6)
  • #43 – What If Conan Were Stranded in the 20th Century? (No longer collected).

We’re not saying this was a try-out book like Marvel Premiere or Showcase, but flash forward a couple decades and some of the topics started turning up nice and regular… and still are.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Immortal X-Men

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

  • Immortal X-Men Vol. 5 – X-Men Forever – Kieron Gillen / Luca Maresca; Technically, this is the X-Men Forever mini-series that tied in with Fall of the House of X. But, yeah, it’s really the final installment of Immortal X-Men. $6.99

Unannounced Sales

Vader's Castle  40: A Doonesbury Retrospective  Bad Dreams in the Night

It’s a double team on Star Wars as Dark Horse has their current tiles on sale:

Also on sale:

🤞 Don’t miss these tips!

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

Still on Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The Marvel Epic Collection Sale Returns; $1.99 Recent Collections from DC

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, the Marvel Epic Collection Sale returns after skipping a year. Plus, DC wants you to read their recent collections for $1.99!

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 Notes

The final holiday sales are underway and things are overflowing. Marvel Epics and the first glance at the jaw-dropping DC sale right now. We’ll be back for Star Wars, What If and DC later in the week. That DC sale will definitely take a little time to go through.

Cheap Marvel Epic Collections

Captain America  New X-Men  Silver Surfer: The Return of Thanos

The Marvel Epic Collection Sale runs through Monday, 1/6.

Welcome to the big sale week. The majority of Marvel’s Epic Collections are $6.99-$8.99 and this is an good time to fill in gaps in your collection. There was a LOT of grousing when this sale didn’t run last year, so we’re popping in early to give you the rundown on it.

First we’re going to give a quick overview of what’s in it (for quicker browsing).

Then we’re going to try and root out what’s new in the sales since last year — yes, we know some of you stock up on your Epic Collections every year when this sale drops and this ought to save you some time.

Then some recommendations.

Then a quick reference list of titles with Epic Collections available.

What’s New Since Black Friday ’22?

Near as we can tell, these are the new releases since the last Black Friday Epic Collection sale dropped, two years ago. Compare them to what you’ve already purchased, just in case, but this is what it’s looking like to us:

What’s good here? A fair amount. Things we’d pay special attention to:

Avengers Epic Collection: The Yesterday Quest  – This is a very solid run, starting with the Jim Shooter / George Perez / David Wenzel” Korvac Saga” and ending with the the David Michelinie / Mark Gruenwald / Steven Grant / John Byrne “Yesterday Quest” featuring… well, one origin of the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

Captain America Epic Collection: The Secret Empire is the real meat of the classic Steve Englehart / Sal Buscema run, featuring the debut of The Serpent Squad, the debut of Baron Zemo II (under a different identity) and the famous Secret Empire story everyone references these days.

Captain America Epic Collection: The Man Who Sold The United States – The end of the Steve Englehart run (with Frank Robbins on art), followed by Jack Kirby’s Madbomb serial, which has certainly had a reappraisal in the last decade.

Captain America Modern Era Epic Collection: The Winter Soldier – The opening act of Ed Brubaker’s hugely influential run as Bucky seemingly returns from the dead. Steve Epting, Michael Lark and Lee Weeks are in the artist rotation.

Defenders Epic Collection: Enter – The Headmen – The end of the Len Wein / Sal Buscema run and then Steve Gerber arrives for some wonderfully off-kilter action.

New X-Men Modern Era Epic Collection: E Is For Extinction – Grant Morrison’s resetting of the X-Men (w/Frank Quitely / Igor Kordey /  Leinil Francis Yu) gets an Epic Collection.

Silver Surfer Epic Collection: The Return Of Thanos is a superior package. First Steve Englehart wraps up his run with the second Kree/Skrull War, then Jim Starlin shows up for the return of Thanos and to lay the groundwork for The Infinity Gauntlet. Ron Lim, who’s drawn a LOT of Silver Surfer is the main artist here.

X-Men Epic Collection: The Brood Saga – This is some prime X-adventuring from the title’s golden period as the team heads into space and encounters The Brood. Chris Claremont / Dave Cockrum / Paul Smith.

Daredevil Epic Collection: It Comes With The Claws is a transition period for the book. It starts out just after the “Born Again” arc and after a few issues, Ann Nocenti begins what would be the next major run. Louis Williams and Rick Leonardi are the main artists, but John Romita, Jr. shows up towards the end, which begins the most famous part of Nocenti’s run.

A Quicker Guide to the Series with Epic Collections.

Here’s a list of the series involved in the sale. You may need to scroll down past the Masterworks editions to the Epics in some of the links… and that’s OK, because you should remember the Masterworks are usually on sale around the holidays (although since the Epics skipped last year and are running through 1/6, there is a distinct possibility the Masterworks are taking a year off… but tune in 1/7 to see what happens).  The material from the mid-80s to present, tends to be in Epic Collections only. So this is the time to get Avengers West Coast, Silver Surfer, New Mutants and the more recent material and discounts for those will dry up on the 1st. You have more sale options with material in both formats.

DC Goes $1.99 Crazy

Batman  Nightwing  Batman / Dylan Dog

The DC Holiday All eBooks Sale runs through 12/30.

There’s a LOT more to it, but our eyes are immediately drawn to the current incarnations of the DC titles at $1.99 per collected edition. Yes, including things discounted for the first time. You’ll probably like it. Until the official link shows up, here’s our quick guides to some of the current line… and we’ve found the DC line to have improved immensely in the last couple years, so there’s plenty to enjoy.

The Guide to $1.99 current series. Some of these are at the bottom of a longer series page and we’ll do individual volume links for those.

  • Action Comics – rotating creators – Vol. 1 / Vol. 2
  • Batman – Chip Zdarsky / Jorge Jiménez / Mike Hawthorne – Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3 (newly discounted)
  • Batman & Robin – Josh Williamson / Simone Di Meo
  • Batman / Dylan Dog – Roberto Recchioni / Gigi Cavenago; Hidden gem as Batman teams with the Italian comics goofy occult investigator. One of the better takes on The Joker, too.
  • Birds of Prey –Kelly Thompson / Leonardo Romero – Black Canary leads a raid on Paradise Island
  • Detective Comics – Ram V written run w/ Rafael Albuquerque / Ivan Reis; A slow burn gothic horror take we’re enjoying quite a bit – Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3
  • Flash – Si Spurrier / Mike Deodato, Jr.; Cosmic horror enters the speed force and we’re good with that
  • Green Arrow – Josh Williamson / Sean Izaakse; The adventures of the Green Arrow family (as Waller lurks and plots)
  • Green Lantern – Jeremy Adams / Xermanico; Back to a Silver Age feel
  • Green Lantern War Journal – Phillip Kennedy Johnson / Montos; A particularly disturbing extra-dimensional invader stalks John Stewart
  • Nightwing – Tom Taylor / Bruno Redondo; this highly enjoyable run nears its end (in collected editions) – Vol. 1, Vol.2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol. 5 (newly discounted)
  • Poison Ivy – G. Willow Wilson / Marcio Takara
  • Shazam – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; Waid & Mora steer “The Captain” back towards his original tone
  • Superman – Josh Williamson / Jamal Campbell; Quality back to basics run
  • Titans – Tom Taylor / Nicola Scott; The Titans as Justice League. In a way, an extension of Nightwing
  • Wonder Woman – Tom King / Daniel Sampere; Political maneuvering and misinformation drive this darker than you’d expect adventure
  • World’s Finest – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; Early adventures of Batman & Superman, with a Kingdom Come prequel. One of DC’s best offerings.

We’ll be back for a much closer look at this sale, probably split into at least two parts. If this isn’t *every* digital collected edition from Sept. and earlier, it’s pretty close. Most of it seems to be $1.99 and there are bargains to be had. We’re a little shocked at the first flipping through.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Immortal X-Men

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

  • Immortal X-Men Vol. 5 – X-Men Forever – Kieron Gillen / Luca Maresca; Technically, this is the X-Men Forever mini-series that tied in with Fall of the House of X. But, yeah, it’s really the final installment of Immortal X-Men. $6.99

🤞 Don’t miss these tips!

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

Still on Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC Prices Improve; Spider-Man; Loki; Assassin’s Apprentice

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC’s deals improve with a little more $1.99 action and bigger books at $2.99. Marvel discounts Spider-Man and Loki. Dark Horse cuts prices on Assassin’s Apprentice, Assassin’s Creed and Critical Role.

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):

So That’s Where the Black Friday Sale Went?

World's Finest  The Flash  Wonder Woman: Dead Earth

The DC World’s Greatest Super-Heroes Sale runs through Monday, 12/16.

If you were thinking that DC’s Black Friday sale didn’t contain the pricing you were expecting, this week might work a little better for you and there are definitely some things we’re going to be pointing out for price points here.

As usual, there’s more to the sale and it’s worth your time to browse, but here are a few things that caught out attention:

Recent Release / First Discount

This is a popular series at the site, so let’s point out up top that V.4 of Batman/Superman: World’s Finest has gotten it’s first discounted listing. Mark Waid and Dan Mora continue the Kingdom Come prequel from V.2 as this continues to be one of DC’s best reads. (The whole series is on sale and we recommend it.)

“Regular” Highlights

  • 52 – Geoff Johns/ Grant Morrison / Greg Rucka / Mark Waid / Keith Giffen / Eddy Barrows / Phil Jimenez / Dale Eaglesham; A 52 issue weekly series to tell the story of a “missing” year in the DCU. Also where Dan DiDio picked up his proclivity for the number 52. 2 volume set for $2.99 + $3.99
  • Alan Scott: The Green Lantern – Tim Sheridan / Cian Tormey; First time discounted
  • All-Star Superman – Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely; Essentially, this is a love letter to and distillation of everything good about the Silver Age Superman stories. Highly recommended. $2.99
  • Aquaman: Deadly Waters – Back half of the influential Steve Skeates / Jim Aparo run. This one is usually a little overpriced in digital because it’s a HC in print; $2.99 (as low as we’ve seen it)
  • Batman: The Black Mirror – Scott Snyder / Jock / Francesco Francavilla; Snyder’s earlier run on Detective; $1.99
  • Batman: The Court of Owls Saga – Scott Snyder / Greg Capullo; The first arc of the Snyder/Capullo Batman run. 11 issues / 350 pages – $2.99 (And yet, not the biggest page count for $2.99 you’ll see today…)
  • Batman: Year One – Frank Miller / David Mazzucchelli; Bruce Wayne figures out how to be Batman and Catwoman gets a new background story. You may have heard that David Mazzucchelli draws real purdy. It’s true. $1.99
  • Birds of Prey (’23) – Kelly Thompson / Leonardo Romero; Black Canary leads a raid on Paradise Island
  • Black Lightning – The original series through the Detective and World’s Finest solo appearances; $1.99@
  • The Flash: Savage Velocity – Mike Baron / William Messner-Loebs / Jackson Guice / Greg Larocque;  Wally West debuts as The Flash with the full Mike Baron run and beginning of Messner-Loebs. Kilg%re! Kapitalist Kourier! Chunk! Also, 475 pages for $2.99!
  • Green Arrow: War of the Clans – Jeff Lemire / Andrea Sorrentino; 450 pages for $2.99 (!)
  • Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice – Len Strazewski / Grant Miehm / Mike Parobeck / Tom Artis / Rich Burchett + a couple Paul Levitz/Joe Staton tales; Warm up miniseries prior to the Strazewski/Parobeck run that STILL NEEDS TO BE COLLECTED; $2.99
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (’80-’85) – As low as the prices get for most of these. The Curse is a real value buy with 450 pages of Paul Levitz / Keith Giffen goodness for $2.99
  • Saga of the Swamp Thing – Alan Moore / Stephen Bissette / John Totleben; The legendary run w/ the first four volumes at $1.99@
  • Superman Smashes the Klan – Gene Yang / Gurihiru; An Eisner winner based on a Superman radio serial. YA;  $1.99
  • Superman: Up In the Sky – Tom King / Andy Kubert; Superman pursues kidnappers into space; $1.99
  • Swamp Thing: The Dead Don’t Sleep – Len Wein (Swampy’s creator) returns to the swamp in ’16 w/ Kelley Jones; $1.99
  • Wonder Woman (’23) Vol. 1: Outlaw – Tom King / Daniel Sampere; An Amazon is implicated in a death and a coverup / propaganda campaign begins as Wonder Woman becomes an enemy of the state. Darker than you’re expecting and V.2 is even *darker* as King explores the politics of domination and manipulation.
  • Wonder Woman: Dead Earth – Daniel Warren Johnson; Wonder Woman wakes up to an apocalyptic hellscape and tries to determine what happened. If you’re looking for the “metal” experience, look no further. $2.99
  • Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons – Kelly Sue DeConnick / Phil Jimenez / Gene Ha / Nicola Scott; Multi-Eisner winner

Golden Age Omnibuses

Silver Age Omnibuses

300+ pages for $2.99

Spider-Teen

Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man  Untold Tales of Spider-Man  Ultimate Spider-Man

The Marvel Teen Spider-Man Sale runs through Monday, 12/16.

We’re not sure that’s the best name for this sale, despite it being literal, so let’s explain the thought behind it. When Spidey started under Stan Lee & Steve Ditko, Peter Parker was a high school student. When the original Ultimate Comics launch happened (and does that ever feel strange to type), Peter was once more in high school.

This isn’t so much “teen” Spidey as “Spidey the early years.” And really, you can break this into original / 616-Spidey and Ultimate Spidey.

616-Spidey

Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man collects the original Stan Lee / Steve Ditko run. Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 will take you through #19 and Annual #1.

Spider Man: Blue by the famed team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale is a story about Peter and Gwen Stacy falling in love.

Spidey is the ’15-’16 take on Peter’s high school years by Robbie Thompson and Nick Bradshaw.

Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1.1: Learning To Crawl is essentially the Dan Slott / Ramon Perez take on “Spider-Man: Year One”

But we’d like to draw special attention to Untold Tales Of Spider-Man: The Complete Collection Vol. 1  by Kurt Busiek and Pat Olliffe. This ’95-’97 series often flies under the radar because it was part of an experimental line of $0.99 comics at Marvel. This was the only thing from this line that got any traction. For our money, this was the best Spidey comic from that period. It’s set in the same time as those early Lee/Ditko stories and it just feels right. And let’s face it… this is .cheap. OF COURSE we liked the quality $0.99 book when everything else was $1.50 cover price. Plus, no clones and stories that ended promptly.

Ultimate Spidey

Ultimate Spider-Man  – Brian Bendis / Mark Bagley (and Bill Jemas in the outline/treatment stages). This was the first “Ultimate” title. A back to day one “modern” restart on Spidey that introduced his friends and enemies in slightly tweaked incarnations and in different orders. And it was a very good comic. Worth your time if you’ve never tried it. The link is to the double volumes (listed by Amazon as Omnibuses), which are a little cheaper for the number of issues.

God of Mischief

Loki: Agent of Asgard   Journey Into Mystery   Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor Vol. 1: The Vengeance Of Loki

The Marvel Loki Sale runs through Monday, 12/16.

The interesting thing about a Loki sale? These days you have “post-TV” Loki and traditional Loki.

If you’re looking for Loki as the lead, the closest you’re likely to get to the TV show (thus far) is probably looking for either Loki, Agent of Asgard by Al Ewing, Lee Garbett and Jorge Coelho or the Loki run in the revived Journey Into Mystery by Kieron Gillen, Doug Braithwaite, Richard Elson (and a few more artists).

If your jam is the traditional Loki as a villain, this isn’t the best sale for that, although it does have Loki’s original appearances in Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor Vol. 1: The Vengeance Of Loki.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Weapon X-Men

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

Unannounced Sales

Assassin's Apprentice The Hunger and the Dusk The Metamorphosis

Dark Horse seems to have multiple sales going on in the background:

Also,

🤞 Don’t miss these tips!

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

Still on Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Deadpool; Wolverine; Batman and… Bazooka Joe?

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts Deadpool and Wolverine. DC has a Winter Sale with plenty of Batman. Dark Horse puts their Crime titles on sale and… Bazooka Joe?

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

It’s the holiday shopping season, which means a few more sales than usual and we’re breaking the week into two posts again. Last time out, we looked at the Infinity (Gauntlet), Thor and Image sales.

Whither Mister Freeze and Captain Cold?

Batman  The Brave and the Bold  Nightwing

The DC Winter Sale runs through Monday, 12/9.

Things could always get a little colder if you’re focused on Winter. (But apparently not Baron Winters?) Here are a few things that caught our eye while sifting through the listings:

  • Batman Vol. 1: Failsafe & Batman Vol. 2: The Bat-Man of Gotham – Chip Zdarsky / Jorge Jiménez / Mike Hawthorne; The first two volumes of the Zdarsky run for $1.99@
  • Batman/Catwoman – Tom King / Clay Mann / Liam Sharp; King continues the Bat/Cat relationship. $2.99 for 400+ pages is good value
  • Batman: One Bad Day – Ah, here’s Mr. Freeze. This is a series of ~80 page Euro-albums spotlighting Batman’s Rouges Gallery
  • The Brave and the Bold Vol. 1: Lords of Luck – Mark Waid / George Perez; Batman, Green Lantern and friends search for the stolen Book of Destiny; First time discounted for this September release
  • Creature Commandos – J.M. DeMatteis / Robert Khanigher / Fred Carillo; The original series from Weird War Stories; $1.99 – cheap
  • DCeased: War of the Undead Gods – Tom Taylor / Trevor Hairsine; The endcap to the DCeased Trilogy where the Anti-Life equation has gotten loose and transformed much of humanity (and the metahuman community) into zombie-like creatures
  • Gotham City: Year One – Tom King / Phil Hester; Gotham City starts to slide into the abyss when an heir to the Wayne fortune is kidnapped. Slam Bradley investigates and breaks eggs in a noir mystery set in pre-Batman times
  • The Human Target – Tom King / Greg Smallwood; This series somehow manages to be a noir mystery AND accommodate the antics of the Bwa Ha Ha Justice League as doomed Christopher Chance investigates who poisoned him. Excellent series
  • Nightwing – Tom Taylor / Bruno Redondo; As it’s nearing it’s wrap-up in the world of collected editions, the Taylor / Redondo Nightwing run has been a delight
  • Superman: Red Son – Mark Millar / Dave Johnson / Kilian Plunkett; What if baby Kal-El’s rocket crashed in Stalin’s U.S.S.R instead of Kansas?
  • World’s Finest – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; The early days of the Batman/Superman team-up; Highly recommended

The Cheapest at What He Does

Wolverine: Spore  Wolverine: Enemy of the State  

The Marvel Wolverine Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 12/16.

You ever see Wolverine shell out for expensive beer? He understands cheap.

This is the sale on the “main” Wolverine titles we said would be coming. Let’s start out by listing the various titles involved. (Relaunches? At Marvel? <faints>) The warning from earlier in the week still applies here: the Epic Collections are not on sale this time out and we’re waiting to see if they turn up on sale at a later date.

  • Wolverine (’82) – Chris Claremont / Frank Miller / Paul Smith; The miniseries that kicked off the solo stories and an X-Men 2-parter that’s a sort of follow-up
  • Wolverine (’88-’03) – The original ongoing solo title. Yes, it took six years after the mini… it was a different time
  • Wolverine (’03-’09) – Greg Rucka / Darick Robertson; Mark Millar / John Romita, Jr.; Jason Aaron/Ron Garney… among others
  • Wolverine: Origin (’06-’10) – Daniel Way / Steve Dillon
  • Wolverine: Weapon X (’09) – Jason Aaron / Ron Garney
  • Wolverine (’10-’12) – Jason Aaron / Renato Guedes / Ron Garney; “Wolverine Goes to Hell” was not a metaphor
  • Wolverine (’13-’14) – Paul Cornell / Alan Davis
  • Wolverine: Savage Land (’14) – Frank Cho
  • Death of Wolverine (’14) – All the mini’s in one volume
  • Old Man Logan (’16-’18) – Jeff Lemire / Andrea Sorrentino; While Logan is “dead,” his future dystopian self journeys to the present day. (And it’s actually pretty good, despite the wonky premise.)
  • Return of Wolverine (’18-’19) – Charles Soule / Steve McNiven; “They always come back”
  • Wolverine (’20-’24) – Ben Percy / Adam Kubert; The Krakoan era Logan. The first link is the “omnibus” page, here’s the individual collections page, which are discounted a little further into the series.

So, what’s actually good?

The  original miniseries is generally regarded as a classic.

With the original series, you’re pretty good from the beginning through the end of the Larry Hama run (a bit after #100), though towards the end of that, the X-Events get annoying. We’re particularly fond of the Archie Goodwin / John Byrne arc from #17-23.

The Greg Rucka / Darick Robertson / Leandro Fernandez run is an enjoyable, lower key run.

Mark Millar did two great runs shortly after Rucka:

  • Enemy of the State w/ John Romita, JR introduces Gorgan and has Wolverine up against an unholy alliance of the Hand and Hydra
  • Old Man Logan w/ Steve McNiven has an aging Logan trying to keep to himself in a dystopian future when trouble comes looking. Yes, this should sound an awful lot like one of the films!

The Krakoan era, while it almost merged with X-Force (kind of like the triangle era Superman line), was quite enjoyable.

You Were Expecting a Dirty Harry Film?
Deadpool Classics Deadpool by Posehn and Duggan Deadpool by Joe Kelly

The Marvel Deadpool Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 12/16.

Deadpool is… oddly collected. There have been a lot of titles and lot of relaunches. Most of these are absorbed into the Deadpool Classics line of collected editions.  Some, but not all, of the series, have omnibus editions and those are the cheaper way to collect those runs… which means, if you’re a completist and you’re cheap, you’re going to want to be wanting to fill in the Classics volumes around the omnibuses.  And Deadpool Classics V. 1 collects the various miniseries that kicked things off.  In a sense, the easiest way (but perhaps not cheapest – and certainly not the most current) to keep things chronological is to follow the Classics line. And, of course, this time out we have the caveat that the Epic Collections are not on sale (nor is Cable & Deadpool).

Hey, when was getting Marvel collected editions in the proper order ever easy?

So let’s run down the main titles:

  • Deadpool Classics (’93 – as far as they’ve gotten)
  • Deadpool (’97-’02) – Known as the Joe Kelly era (at least what’s collected here)
  • Deadpool (’08-’12) – The Daniel Way Era
  • Deadpool Team-Up (’09 – ’11) – all sorts of creators for this Deadpool variant on Marvel Two-In-One (and selectively discounted this time)
  • Deadpool (’12-15) – The Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan Era
  • Deadpool (’15-’17) – Gerry Duggan and many, many artists
  • Despicable Deadpool (’17-’18) – Duggan/Mike Hawthorne
  • Deadpool (’18-’19) – Skottie Young / Nic Klein
  • King Deadpool (’19-’21) – Kelly Thompson / Chris Bachalo
  • Deadpool (’22-’23) – Alyssa Wong / Martin Coccolo

Pick your preferred creator and go to town.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Avengers  Immortal Thor  Weapon X-Men

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

Air  Lobster Johnson  Mister X

Dark Horse appears to have all their crime-related titles (sometimes tenuously related) at ~50% off this week. Things we’re seeing discounts on:

And there’s a lot to like here. The paranoid art deco world of Dean Motter’s Mister X. The pulpy fun of the Mignolaverse’s Lobster Johnson (which proves to be very flexible in tone). Bendis and Oeming running a superpowered police procedural in Powers.

Also on sale:

Bazooka Joe and his GangBombing Nazi Germany

🤞 Don’t miss these tips!

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

Still on Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Infinity Gauntlet, Thor, The Good Asian, Thief of Thieves

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel offers up the Infinity Gauntlet / War / Crusade family of titles and a lot of Thor. Image frets that winter is coming, but has discounts on some quality titles, nonetheless.

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

It’s the holiday shopping season, which means a few more sales than usual and we’re breaking the week into two posts again. We’ll be back at the normal time at the end of the week for the rest of the Marvel sales, DC’s Winter Sale and whatever else happens to pop up.

Infinite Jest

Infinity Gauntlet  Infinity War  Infinity Crusade

The  Marvel Infinity Sale runs through Monday, 12/16.

All things infinity. Some Starlin, so not. Best to separate those things out, so we will:

Starlin’s Infinity Saga

As you may recall from last week, Jim Starlin returned to Marvel and re-introduced Thanos in Silver Surfer, which lead up to Thanos getting his hands on the Infinity Gems and kicking off a series of Event mini-series.

Alongside those titles, Warlock & the Infinity Watch (Starlin / Angel Medina / Tom Grindberg and others) ran parallel and filled some gaps between Events. Ditto, Silver Surfer Epic Collection: The Infinity Gauntlet (primarily Ron Marz / Ron Lim)

And then some more Thanos/Infinity mini’s and graphic novels:

Avengers

Not part of the Starlin Infinity world, but thrown in for… reasons (?)

Avengers Infinity by Roger Stern / Sean Chen is a cosmic/Avengers in space tale.

Infinity is roughly the middle act of Jonathan Hickman’s massive Avengers run. That volume pulls in all the various parts and is how you want it, although we’ve said in before and we’ll say it again – Hickman’s Avengers is one long epic and if you’re going to sample, read the whole thing. The sheer scope of it adds to the experience when you start at the beginning.

Hammered at the Holiday Party?

Thor by Walt Simonson  Thor Road to War of the Realms  Thor: The Mighty Avenger

Marvel’s Thor Sale runs  through Monday, 12/16.

This looks like a Marvel “legacy” sale, but with one big departure from how this has been done in the past: no Masterworks or Epic Collections… which almost entirely takes the Lee/Kirby material off the table. Both formats seem to be missing from all the Marvel sales as we type this. Does this mean we’re getting separate Epic _and_ Masterworks sales before the holiday season is over? Time will tell.

As per our custom, here’s the breakdown by series/volume, although the earlier material isn’t discounted:

  • Journey Into Mystery ’52-’66 – The earliest Thor stories from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, not discounted this time, however
  • The Mighty Thor ’66-’96 – From Lee & Kirby until the relaunches started, but the discounts don’t really start showing up until the Len Wein/John Buscema run
  • The Mighty Thor ’96-’04 – The Heroes return Dan Jurgens era, initially with John Romita, Jr.
  • Thor ’07-’11 – Starts with J. Michael Straczynski & Olivier Coipel, ends with Matt Fraction & Pasqual Ferry. Gillen in the middle.
  • The Mighty Thor ’11-’12 – Fraction gets a relaunch with Coipel, Ferry and early Pepe Larraz
  • The Jason Aaron era ’12-’19 – It’s a LOT easer to look at the “Complete Collections” across all the relaunches here
  • Thor ’20 to ’23 – The Donny Cates run with Nic Klein as the primary artist; Torunn GrØnbekk tags end toward the end while Cates was recovering from his accident (and filled in well, we might add).
  • Immortal Thor (’23 – current) – Al Ewing / Martin Coccolo; Strangely omitted from the sale, but listed here for reference

If your point of reference for Thor is the most recent film, you want the Jason Aaron era. The God Butcher is the first arc. If you go with that set of Complete Collections, Jane Foster picks up the hammer in V.2. We don’t think that starting with the first Jane Foster issues (and slimmer volumes) is a great jumping on point. It’s a saga and you’ll get a lot more out of it if you start at the beginning of Aaron’s run.

Past that, we’re all about the Walt Simonson Thor. It’s probably the most influential run since early days and it’s great. You’ll want the Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson set that starts here. (The Thor by Walter Simonson version of the reprints seems to be missing the final volume, or at least the last few issues. *sigh* These things happen.)

If you have a Lee/Kirby itch (and who doesn’t), Thor: Tales of Asgard is your best way to scratch it at a discount. These are the old backups featuring tales of Asgard’s past, occasionally with young Thor and Loki, occasionally the Warriors Three. Slightly more mythology-centric as a whole, as filtered through Stan and Jack.

Something under the radar? Ignore this being marketed as a kid’s comic – Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee had a short run on Thor: The Mighty Avenger that was just a good Thor comic, full stop. And you might expect that from those two.

If you want to move in the opposite direction, Thor: Vikings is a seriously violent Marvel MAX title from Garth Ennis and Glenn Fabry that has Viking zombies invading Manhattan. (No, not Fleet Week. That’s different.)

Folks in Buffalo Would Say It’s Already Here
The Good Asian  The One Trick Rip-Off Thief of Thieves

The Image Winter’s Coming Sale runs through Sunday 12/15.

Another small title count sale with some books in it we’ve enjoyed and are happy to recommend:

  • Bad Weekend – Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips; An expansion of a backup from Criminal as a disillusioned comics art legend acts out at comic convention
  • The Good Asian – Pornsak Pichetshote / Alexandre Tefenkgi; A superior noir detective tale takes place in 1936, during the final years of the Chinese Exclusion act. A Chinese-America detective is summoned to SF when a series of extra bloody, possibly Tong-initiated murders, threaten his adopted family. A period piece that dots its historical i’s and earns its rep.
  • The One Trick Rip-Off + Deep Cuts – Paul Pope; A heist story fronts the collection, which also includes his “Supertrouble” manga series.
  • Thief of Thieves – (Mostly) Andy Diggle / Robert Kirkman / Shawn Martinbrough; A master thief plans his exit as both the FBI and the underworld circle around him.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Avengers  Immortal Thor  Weapon X-Men

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

Posted on by comics_p1pusl