In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, nearly the entire Fantastic Four catalog gets a discount, plus Gwenpool. DC has an exceptionally deep bench and we go diving for hidden gems. Plus, the Dark Horse work of Tyler Crook.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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In case you’re having troubles with the new UIX (a LOT of people have been):

Four Play

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus    Fantastic Four by Waid   Fantastic Four by Hickman

Marvel’s Fantastic Four Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 10/7.

So, first let’s break down the various FF titles/volumes on sale

Yes, Fantastic Four has been relaunched less than other Marvel titles.  As to what’s good, the gold standard has always been the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run. (And yes, we do think you can draw a straight line from Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown at DC to Fantastic Four.) We’d say they start to hit their stride a few issues before Galactus shows up – V.3 of the Epic Collections (“The Coming of Galactus“) or V.4/5 of the Masterworks editions and you can ride a very fun train from there to the end of Lee/Kirby.

And at this point, we should talk about the “pick your poison” of Epic vs. Masterworks.  The Masterworks are built out straight into the Byrne era. We think the $6.99 Epic Collections are the best value here, though some of the newer ones are priced higher. The discounted Epics are now a little past the Lee/Kirby era, but stop with #191 and then pick up again after Byrne’s run. Pick the format that works for you and has the issues you’re looking for.

Speaking of Byrne’s run, that’s the next highpoint that everyone agrees on.  How to read Byrne? Well, there are 6 volumes of Masterworks on sale (V. 21-26) or you can hop on to Fantastic Four Visionaires: John Byrne. You’d need to cut over to the Visionaries run in the middle of  V. 7 to pick up where the discounted Masterworks leave off.  These comics really ought to be in an Epic Collections, but Marvel doesn’t seem in any hurry to roll the Visionaires up into a more economical package. (Or should we say, economical when it’s on sale?) We figure the run will at least need to finish up in Masterwork format first and V. 27 is scheduled for June ’25, so there you go.

Move ahead a bit and Walt Simonson had a stint that may be a little more notable for being an early appearance of the Time Variance Authority (which actually debuted in his Thor run). This is most easily grabbed across Epic Collections V.20 and V.21.

Fast forward a bit to the Heroes Reborn era and there is a LOT to love about the Mark Waid / Mike Wieringo run. They brought back the “explorer” vibe from Lee/Kirby era that isn’t always there and upped the sense of wonder. You’d want the four Ultimate Collection volumes that start here. The “regular” collections don’t go all the way to the end.

Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier jumped in for an arc with Black Panther and Storm briefly joining the team.

And then, of course, there’s the the Hickman era. A long storyline that laid the groundwork for his Avengers run and you can certainly argue that his Secret Wars endcap to that is a Fantastic Four / Doctor Doom story. The omnibus editions we highlighted above include his FF spin-off comic that frequently crossed over with Fantastic Four, much like the Avengers titles flowed together. That packaging will be a better experience.

Universal Exports

Cosmic Odyssey  Marshal Law  Secret Six

The DC Universe Sale runs through Monday, 9/30.

This is one wide sale! Nearly 1,000 books on sale, including some deeper cuts that aren’t frequently on sale outside the holidays. This one is well worth your time for an extended browse over the weekend. In the meantime, we’re going to go through some of those deep cuts that are on our happy list that you might otherwise miss. (We figure you can find Batman without aid.)

  • Anarky: The Complete Collection – Alan Grant / Norm Breyfoggle; The Grant/Breyfoggle villain is briefly given the Joker treatment and spun off into his own series
  • America Vs. The Justice Society – Roy Thomas / Jerry Ordway; Batman’s lost diary fingers the JSA as Nazi collaborators
  • Aquaman: The Atlantis Chronicles – Peter David / Esteban Marato; OK, Aquaman is scarcely in this. This is a high fantasy about the history of Atlantis with exquisite art. Totally off most radars, but great stuff
  • Batwoman by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams – Rucka / J.H. Williams III; Their superlative Detective Comics run introducing the current Batwoman
  • Camelot 3000 – Mike W. Barr / Brian Bolland; King Arthur returns to defend the planet against alien invaders
  • Cosmic Odyssey – Jim Starlin / Mike Mignola; Darkseid comes to the Justice League for help with something he can’t face alone
  • The DC Universe by Len Wein – One of the more important Bronze Age writers, but one who never really had long runs on a single title. Included here, a run from his fantastic Phantom Stranger w/ Jim Aparo and the DC Comics Presents sequence that introduces Mongul w/ Jim Starlin.
  • Doctor Fate – Paul Levitz / Sonny Liew; One of the better “re-imaginings” of recent times and Egyptian-mythology centric
  • Frank Miller’s Ronin – Frank Miller; Miller’s experimental tale mixing cyborgs and demons
  • Gotham Central – Ed Brubaker / Greg Rucka / Michael Lark / Stefano Gaudiano / Jason Shawn Alexander / Kano; The Gotham PD attempts to handle things without Batman; One of these days the TV version will actually go through
  • Hard Time: The Complete Series – Steve Gerber / Mary Skrenes / Brian Hurtt; When a bullying “prank” goes wrong, something metaphysical emerges from a 15 year old boy and lands him in jail with a 50 year sentence
  • Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle – Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 – Great big chunks of the superior Alan Grant / Norm Breyfogle years
  • Marshal Law – Pat Mills / Kevin O’Neill; Think Judge Dredd with superheroes, only much darker
  • Night Force – Marv Wolfman / Gene Colan; After moving to DC, the Tomb of Dracula team reunited for a horror series about a mansion with a portal through time and space… and its mysterious owner; Would’ve fit in at Vertigo
  • Secret Six: The original miniseries and the ongoing series – Gail Simone / Nicola Scott; Arguably Simone’s best work at DC as a group of villains go mercenary; It sort of zigs crime where Suicide Squad zags espionage
  • Seven Soldiers of Victory – Grant Morrison / J.H. Williams III / Simone Bianchi / Ryan Sook / Doug Mahnke; One of Morrison’s most creatively successful Events, told in a series of interlocking miniseries
  • Sleeper – Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips; set in the old Wildstorm universe; an undercover operative is left out in the cold as espionage and superpowers overlap.

Jack Kirby Corner

  • Boy Commandos – Joe Simon / Jack Kirby; Extremely popular WWII era kids group
  • Challengers of the Unknown – What The King was doing at DC before heading to Marvel. Compare it to early Fantastic Four and be surprised.
  • The Newsboy Legion – Joe Simon / Jack Kirby; A crime fighting kids’ gang and their super hero “Guardian.” Kirby would revisit this in the ’70s as part of the Fourth World

The Other Side of the Pool

The Unbelievable Gwenpool  West Coast Avengers  Gwenpool Strikes Back

The Marvel Gwenpool Sale runs through Monday, 9/30.

Gwen Poole is a comics reader who woke up in the Marvel Universe… and then wackiness ensued.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

X-Force  Deadpool & Wolverine: World War III  Ultimate Black Panther

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

As Seen on TV

Van Helsing

The Zenescope Character Spotlight Sale Van Helsing Sale runs through Tuesday, 10/15.

You may be familiar with the Syfy Channel version (adapted by Neil LaBute, who’s not the first name you’d think of), but in the comics version, Liesel Van Helsing is battling Dracula and his minions across the multiverse.

Two options here:

Unannounced Sales

The Crow Harrow County Omnibus 1 When Bad Things Happen To Stupid People

We have an unannounced Dark Horse sale on Tyler Crook comics, including:

Also with discounts:

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Still on Sale