In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts the full run (mostly) of Fantastic Four, plus Black Panther, Miles Morales and Doctor Doom. DC offers a “Power” sale (Black Lightning, John Stewart and friends). Titan slashes prices on Hard Case Crime titles and Dark Horse has a manga sale.

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 Sale runs through Monday, 2/17.

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.

T’Challa Forever

Black Panther Masterworks  Black Panther by Priest  Black Panther

The Marvel Black Panther Sale runs through Monday, 3/3.

  • The Don McGregor era (AKA, pre-Priest), where Don McGregor was primary author… with a notable Kirby interlude. The best way to navigate the multiple editions is:
  • The Chrisopher Priest era  – with art by Mark Texiera, M.D. Bright and Sal Velluto (among others)
  • The Reggie Hudlin era (yes, “House Party” / “Boomerang” Hudlin) – with art by John Romita, Jr., Scot Eaton and Denys Cowan (among others)
    • Separate from the regular series is the excellent Flags of Our Fathers by Hudlin and Denys Cowan, which features a WWII era tale of Captain America “visiting” Wakanda and meeting T’Challa’s grandfather, the Black Panther of that period.
  • The Ta-Nehisi Coates era (yes, from The Atlantic) – while the volumes are numbered consecutively, it’s split into two listing
    • Part one – with art by Brian Stelfreeze and Chris Sprouse (among others)
    • Part two – with art by Daniel Acuna and Kev Walker (among others)
  • The John Ridley era (Yes, Oscar-winner Ridley from 12 Years a Slave) – with art by Juann Cabal and German Peralta
  • The Eve Ewing era – with art by Chris Allen

That first McGregor / Graham run really is the foundational work for everything that comes and should be read first. As a major bonus, it’s great work and ahead of its time.

Priest’s extended run lives up to it’s reputation for excellence, so that’s your second must-read for exploring the Panther.

We like Hudlin’s run, too.

For something a little off the beaten path, Range Wars is something you get for the titular arc that’s the last two issues of the collection. John Ridley and German Peralta offer a particularly savage satire of colonialism.

There’s a bit more to sale, but the above is the core.

The Once and Future Ultimate Spidey

  Miles Morales: Spider-Man  Miles Morales

The Marvel Miles Morales Sale runs through Monday, 3/3.

Miles, of course, was the second Ultimate Spider-Man, but that world no longer exists and now there’s a new Ultimate Spider-Man and… we wouldn’t want to explain that to somebody walking in off the street.

For the first Brian Bendis/David Marquez/Sara Pichelli run, you’re probably best off with the Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection set.

Then pop over to the  ’16-18 Bendis /Pichelli Spider-Man run.

And after that wraps, it’s time for Miles Morales by Saladin Ahmed and Javier Garron.

The current series is Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Cody Ziglar and Federico Vicentini. 

Victor Von Doom Bows Before No Man!

Doctor Doom  Avengers - The Private War of Doctor Doom  Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment

The Marvel Doctor Doom Sale runs through Monday, 2/17.

The top dog here is the Doctor Doom series by Christopher Cantwell and Salvador Larroca. Its an instant classic well worth your time. Doom has been framed. For now he’s on the run, but his vengeance will be terrible. Featuring Kang in a highly amusing frenemy role.

Avengers: The Private War of Doctor Doom has a lot of creators with Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart and Jim Shooter as the primary writers and George Perez as the primary artist. This is a cross-over between Super Villain Team-Up (a better than you might think series that was basically Namor and Doom plotting against each other) and Avengers.

Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment by Roger Stern and Mike Mignola has Strange and Doom invading Hell to free Doom’s mother from the clutches of Mephisto.

Also of possible interest – Iron Man: Doomquest collects a famous pair of David Michelinie / Bob Layton tales (w/John Romita, Jr. on the first) that have a time travelling Doom clashing with Iron Man.  Iron Man: Legacy of Doom is the lesser-known Michelinie/Layton/Ron Lim follow-up.

While we’re not sure we’d call it a Doom story, per se, Blood Hunt‘s ending certainly sets up the next big Doctor Doom story arc. This would be a Jed MacKay/Pepe Larraz tale. We’re thinking this is Blood Hunt‘s first time discounted?

Power Up

Black Lightning  Green Lantern War Journal  The Terrifics

The DC Power 2025 Sale runs through Monday, 2/10.

A few things we saw that caught our eye:

  • Black Lightning – Tony Isabella / Trevor Von Eeden; Then Denny O’Neil / Gerry Conway / Dick Dillon / Marshall Rogers; V.1 is the original solo series, V.2 is the backups that rounded out the ’70s.
  • Green Lantern: War Journal Vol. 1: Contagion – Phillip Kennedy Johnson / Montos; Particularly horrific extradimensional beings hunt John Stewart
  • Justice League by Christopher Priest – Priest / Pete Woods – An ode to toxic fandom
  • The Terrifics – Jeff Lemire / Gene Yang / Ivan Reis / Doc Shaner / Steven Segovia; Mister Terrific, Metamorpho, Plastic Man and Phantom Girl in a team book. Whatever made you think it’s offbeat? The only DC New Age of Heroes title to get traction.

Theft

Gun Honey  Ms. Tree  Tyler Cross

The Titan Hard Case Crime Comics Sale run through  Friday, 2/28.

Hard Case was originally a publisher of pulp-influenced crime novels that eventually came into Titan’s publishing orbit and added a line of comics, often written by well known crime novelists. Most of these titles come in two flavors: collected editions and $0.99 single issues. Watch the page count, but you’ll usually find the single issues are cheaper when available.

  • The Big Hoax – Carlos Trillo / Roberto Mandrafina
  • Breakneck – Duane Swierczynski / Simone Guglielmini
  • Frank Lee, After Alcatraz – David Hasteda / Ludovic Chesno
  • Gamma Draconis – Eldo Yoshimizu / Benoist Simmat
  • Gun Honey – Charles Ardai  / Ang Hor Kheng
  • The Millennium Trilogy – Sylvain Runberg / Stieg Larsson / Jose Homs  / Manolo Carot / José Homs / Belen Ortega; as in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • Ms. Tree – Max Allan Collins / Terry Beatty; Collins riffs on Mike Hammer decades before working on those novels. V. 1-2 are actually the Ms. Tree Quarterly issues from DC at the end of the run. The original run starts in V. 3. Beatty now works on the Rex Morgan, MD and Phantom comic strips
  • Normandy Gold – Megan Abbott / Alison Gaylin / Steve Scott
  • Peepland – Christa Faust / Gary Phillips / Andrea Camerini
  • The Prague Coup – Jean-Luc Fromental / Miles Hyman; Graham Greene is reimagined into a coup attempt
  • Quarry’s War – Max Allan Collins / Szymon Kudranski; The novels about the assassin, Quarry, go all the way back to ’76 and precedes Collins writing Dick Tracy
  • Ryuko – Eldo Yoshimizu
  • Tyler Cross – by Fabien Nury / Bruno

Ms. Tree is probably the most famous comic here. Max Allan Collins has all his bona fides from Dick Tracy to The Road to Perdition to getting named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.

What you might not realize is that Charles Ardai, the head of Hard Case, is actually an Edgar and Shamus winner in his own right.

Unannounced Sales

Astro Boy Elfen Lied Path of the Assassin

Dark Horse has a wide selection of their manga titles on sale this week. Some titles we noticed:

Also on sale:

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

The Ultimates  Daredevil  The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe

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

  • Ultimates By Deniz Camp Vol. 1: Fix The World – Deniz Camp / Juan Frigeri; While not the cheapest thing listed, we’ve been pretty happy with this dark and twisted world builder. Doom and She-Hulk? Not necessarily what you were expecting. $12.99

Dropping Next Week

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Still on Sale