Tag: Amazon

Comixology Sales: Batman Family; Moon Knight; Shazam!; Annihilation

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC drops prices on the Batman family and Shazam!, Marvel discounts Moon Knight and their cosmic world.

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’re seeing Tuesday, 3/14 as the end date for a lot of this week’s sales. Sales usually end on a Monday, so we’re not sure if they’re changing the schedule or somebody put in the wrong date for this week’s sales. We’ll find out Tuesday? And wait until you get a load of the “Nega-Bands” sale conundrum. It’s special.

Bats Everywhere

The DC Bat Family Sale runs through Tuesday, 3/14.

Lucky you, the “real” sale prices arrived Friday morning. Another slow roll-out, but they’re here for the weekend. Also “Bat Family,” not “Batman Family?” Lean in, already.

So, what’s good? We’ve always been very large fans of the original Greg Rucka / J.H. Williams III Batwoman arc, when it took over Detective Comics. Good stuff! (That volume also includes the Jock-illustrated arc.)

You say you’d rather have Batman & Robin? Well, we’ve got two options for you: The Grant Morrison Batman & Robin with Frank Quitely and Frazier Irving art and the Peter Tomasi / Patrick Gleason Batman & Robin.

Batwoman   Batman & Robin   Batman and Robin

And for the Nightwing fans:

Grayson   Nightwing

The Light of the Silvery Moon

The Marvel Moon Knight Sale runs through Tuesday, 3/14.

The original Moon Knight run is mostly in Epic Collections, but it’s in two separate links because… well, we shouldn’t be surprised by this, should we?  The first link has two volumes that are not closely related. Bad Moon Rising is the Werewolf by Night appearances through the backups in Hulk Magazine and the first issues of 1980 solo series. The other volume in that link… we’re not as big on. That was later volumes.

You can go here for the rest of the 1980 Moon Knight series, which was the most famous version for quite some time. If you came into the character through the TV series, know that the original Moon Knight was a lot closer to Batman and The Shadow. Oh, sure the werewolf showed up, but most of the mystical things around Konshu were kept in the background and a lot more mysterious. The multiple identities were originally more like the cover identities adopted by the Shadow (and the original series editor, Denny O’Neil, adapted The Shadow for DC.) This is where Moon Knight got popular.

Moon Knight   Moon Knight Epic Collection

If you came in through the TV show, there really isn’t a comic that quite matches that version of the character, but the series did draw on the Jeff Lemire / Greg Smallwood Moon Knight series in which Moon Knight has a run-in with the Egyptian gods and his personalities run amok. It’s also a good run.

We also have been enjoying the current Jed MacKay/Alessandro Cappuccio Moon Knight series. This one takes up the unenviable task of rationalizing the various incarnations over the years (and there have been a lot of different takes on the character). Mr. Knight is in therapy for his multiple personality issues. He’s running the Midnight Mission and conduct himself as Konshu’s ambassador… after a fashion, although he’s not really happy with Konshu. And there are vampires. Lots of vampires. $0.99 single issues, too, if you prefer that format.

Moon Knight   Moon Knight

The Nega-Bands / Magic Word Sales

You might want sit down for this, ’cause it’s WEIRD. There’s a Marvel Cosmic Heroes sale and a Shazam sale. And they have the same URL (that’s techie for web address). We can’t be sure if this is a coding error or the world’s most awkward A/B test, but when you click on the link to either sale (or load the overall Deals page at Amazon), you won’t know which one will show up. If you get the wrong one, start reloading and the other should show up within 5 reloads.  Maybe Amazon will fix it and BOTH sales will show up on the Deals page? As we said, we aren’t 100% if this is by design or not.

It’s like when Mar-Vell would clang the Nega-Bands together and trade places with Rick Jones in the Negative Zone. Or when Billy Batson speaks the magic word and is replaced by Captain Marvel. Are both Captain Marvels in this sale? Yes. So we’re really not sure if this is a sort of prank or performance art piece.

The Magic Word

The DC Shazam Sale runs through Monday, 4/3.

You’d think there was a movie or something. The original Captain Marvel has some very different incarnations. The sampler is Shazam!: A Celebration of 75 Years, which has tales from the 40’s through the Geoff Johns reimagining a few years back. It’s also the only place to get the original, more whimsical, 1940s version.

It was revived in the 1970s and for this run, we’d direct you to V.3, which is the E. Nelson Bridwell / Don Newton “new look” run that began at the tail end of the solo series and continued into World’s Finest and Adventure Comics digest. An obvious labor of love, and some of the best work of both, it’s a fairly successful attempt to write the original characters and scenarios from a slightly more adult perspective, while sometimes retaining the whimsy (depending on the individual plot). It’s under rated. Technically, this run begins in the last two issues collected in V.2, but most of that volume is younger audience material and the influences of the TV show weren’t helping. V.3 is a better place to start if you aren’t a completist.

The next major revival was the Power of Shazam by Jerry Ordway and Peter Krause, this was the post-crisis reinvention and still faithful to the spirit of the originals. This is a little goofy in the usual way – you can get the first 12 issues cheaper in the collected edition and the #13 onwards are $0.99 single issues.

Shazam   Shazam!   Power of Shazam

Also of possible interest: $0.99 issues of the current Josie Campbell / Doc Shaner New Champion of Shazam!

The Cosmic Ride

The Marvel Cosmic Heroes Sale runs through Tuesday, 3/14.

We promised Mar-Vell and he makes a couple appearances in Captain Marvel: Starforce. Let’s refer to this one as creative packaging, reprinting some very random tales with Kree villains as a theoretical movie tie-in.  But it fits the theme of Nega-Band links!

A lot closer to the current definition of “cosmic” at Marvel is Annihilation. This started out a series of mini-series bring some of the comic heroes of the present, like Nova, Star-Lord and Drax, together to face down an invasion by Annihilus. After some sequels, the format eventually reformed as the current incarnation of The Guardians of the Galaxy, so this is roughly where all that starts. (You’ll want the two “complete collection” volumes.)

The Last Annihilation is a sort of mini-event centered around the final Al Ewing/Juan Frigeri Guardians of the Galaxy arc. The Guardians, plus S.W.O.R.D., the Wakandans and Doctor Doom face down a different type of incursion… and the cover should tell you all you need to know about that. It’s quite good.

Captain Marvel: Starforce   Annihilation   The Last Annihilation

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: A Trio of $0.99 Masterworks; Rogue and Gambit; Milestone Media; Resident Alien

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel sneaks some $0.99 Masterworks into their Women of Marvel sale, plus Rogue & Gambit. DC celebrates the anniversary of Milestone Media and Dark Horse discounts their aliens.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

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

McDuffie & Friends

The DC Milestone 30 Anniversary Sale runs through Monday, 3/6.

Yup, it’s been 30 years since Milestone debuted and we’re just going frame this as a Dwayne McDuffie tribute sale, whether that’s overstating things or not. He got enough grief from DC over the years, we’ll let the spotlight sit on him for a moment.

First, let’s just list out the content involved:

The first thing to say here is that most of the content is cheaper in single issues.  The original Icon and Hardware collected editions are slightly cheaper than single issues, as is the ’11 version of Static Shock. Other than that? Go with the singles. Especially with the current versions.

Favorites? We say start with the originals. McDuffie had a strong hand in most of the launches, though they gave a lot of people a few issues of various titles as it went on. Hardware‘s opening arc is a particular favorite and you get the McDuffie wit with Icon’s conservative nature. And we’ll also say Xombi is conspicuous by its absence.

Hardware   Icon

The Other Kind of X

The Women of Marvel Sale runs through Monday, 4/3.

Yes, this one will run all month. What’s good?

You may recall that Kelly Thompson and Elena Casagrande won an Eisner Award for their Black Widow run? It’s good. It starts out with Natasha getting abducted and then there’s a lot of revenge. We were a little surprised and sad this series wrapped up when it did and we keep expecting it to return in some form.

We have also sung the praises of the Tom Taylor / David Lopez / Marcio Takara / Leonard Kirk All-New Wolverine before and we’ll probably sing it again. Great series that runs the gamut of themes and moods. This is Laura / X-23’s debut as Wolverine (while Logan was “dead”).

Black Widow   All-New Wolverine

Did somebody say $0.99 Masterworks?

Oh, that’s not cheap enough for you? You want $0.99 Masterworks? Ordinarily, we’d say wait until December, but it appears we have some for you. Yes, this is unusual:

The original Carol Danvers Ms. Marvel which was largely written by Chris Claremont (with Gerry Conway starting it). Art by Jim Mooney, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Carmine Infantino and Dave Cockrum.

The original (Jessica Drew) Spider-Woman. Authors include Marv Wolfman, Mark Gruenwald and Michael Fleisher . Artists include Carmine Infantino and (the beginning of an under-rated run by) Steve Leialoha.

Savage She-Hulk starts out with Stan Lee / John Buscema and then continues with David Anthony Kraft / Mike Vosburg

The first two volumes are $5.99, but Dazzler Masterworks V. 3 is $1.99. It’s largely by Jim Shooter and Frank Springer.

‘Til Death Do Us Discount

The Marvel Rogue and Gambit Sale runs through Monday, 3/6.

The series the best lives up to the sale’s theme is Mr. & Mrs. X by Kelly Thompson, Oscar Bazaldua and David Lopez. That would be Rogue and Gambit, if you missed the wedding.

While Gambit is the newer character, he’s had more exposure in solo titles. Gambit Classic collects the original Uncanny X-Men arc and the early mini’s, including the 1995 Rogue mini-series in V.2.

Gambit: The Complete Collection is the slightly better known 1999 series primarily by Fabian Nicieza / Steve Skroce / Yanick Paquette

Mr. and Mrs. X   Gambit Classic   Gambit: The Complete Collection

No… The “Other” Aliens

The Dark Horse – Aliens Digital Sale runs through Monday, 3/13.

Let us first pause to comment how jarring it is to see “Dark Horse” and “Aliens” without the film franchise being involved.

This is a media tie-in sale (a DH specialty), but Resident Alien by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse was a comic before it was a TV show.

Resident Alien Omnibus collects the first three volumes.

You can pull V.4-6 here.

And the single issues are $0.99.

Resident Alien

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Spider-Man, Batman’s Valentines, Nova, New Warriors and Hellboy

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel chops prices on Amazing Spider-Man, Nova and New Warriors. DC and Dark Horse celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

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

So Many Spiders…

Marvel’s Spider-Man Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 2/20.

There’s a lot of ground to cover here, so let’s break it down by series.

  • Amazing Spider-Man (1963-98) – The original run before Marvel became quite so obsessed with rebooting titles.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (1998 – 2013) – This run starts out with the controversial J. Michael Straczynski/John Romita, Jr./Mike Deodato, Jr. run, then goes into the Brand New Day era with rotating creative teams and segues into the beginning of the Dan Slott era. (Slott’s written a LOT of Spidey.)  Now… this Amazon’s listings, so you knew something had to be messed
  • Superior Spider-Man – Possibly the high point of the Dan Slott era – Doc Ock takes over Peter’s body and life. The Complete Collections are the way to go here.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2014 – 15) – Peter’s back in control and the Slott era continues.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2015-208) – It’s a relaunch. (Hey, Spidey’s been relaunched a lot less than Captain Marvel!) This is the end run of the Slott era, culminating in the Red Goblin affair.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2018 – 22) – The Nick Spenser era is here, PLUS the 4 volumes of Spider-Man Beyond with Ben Reilly stepping in that take place prior to:
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2022-Present) – The current Zeb Wells / John Romita, Jr. run. Also some 99-cent single issues if you prefer that format.

And there are a few more Slott era omnibus editions floating around.  That’s probably not getting cleaned up anytime soon.<sigh>

Recommendations?  Well, first off Amazing Spider-Man doesn’t really have very many BAD periods. Oh, some runs are definitely better than others, but there aren’t huge swaths of duds, here.

You can definitely pick your poison between the $5.99 Masterworks and $6.99 Epic Collections for the original run (although a few Epic’s run a little higher). The Epics are typically much larger collections for only a buck more, but it depends on which format you started buying and which era you’re interested in. Some stretches are only in Masterworks, some are only in Epic.

Of possible interest, since there’s a sequel mini-series out, but NOT included in the link for the V.1 of Amazing is the Kraven’s Last Hunt Epic Collection, so we’ll call that one out directly. You get the J.M. DeMatteis/Mike Zeck classic, plus the issues of Amazing around it, plus Spider-Man Vs. Wolverine for about the price of just getting the regular Kraven collection.

We’d also recommend a look at the Brand New Day collections. It’s not a run that’s immediately talked about, but we found it entertaining and a much better set of creators was assembled than Marvel was necessarily given credit for: Mark Waid, Bob Gale (we wish he did more comics), Marc Guggenheim, Joe Kelly, Dan Slott, John Romita, Jr., Steve McNiven, Salvador Larroca, Phil Jimenez, Barry Kitson, Marcos Martin, Paolo Rivera, Lee Week and… others. I’m not sure there are “hidden” gems with Spidey, just runs that get discussed less.

And yes, we are enjoying the current Zeb Wells / (mostly) John Romita, Jr. series. It’s a little more somber than we were expecting from Wells, but it’s been a good ride so far. Peter’s trying to get back on his feet after doing something to get everyone mad at him. Who should show up with a redemptive peace offering, but… Norman Osborn? And that’s before the Hobgoblin turns up.

Amazing Spider-Man - Kraven's Last Hunt   Spider-Man Brand New Day   Amazing Spider-Man

Nooooova, Come Out and Plaaaaaay…

The Marvel Nova and the New Warriors Sale runs through Monday, 2/20.

Let’s run down the contents here:

  • Nova (1976-78) – The original Marv Wolfman/John Buscema/Sal Buscema/Carmine Infantino run
  • Nova (2007-10) – The Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning/Paul Pelletier/Kev Walker/Andrea di Vito era – the Complete Collection is the better deal.
  • Nova (2013-15) – Gerry Duggan / Paco Medina was probably the longest tenured creative team of this volume.
  • Nova: Resurrection (2015) – Jeff Loveness / Ramon Perez
  • Nova: The Human Rocket (2015-16) – Sean Ryan / Cory Smith / John Timms

What’s good here?  We’d go with the original run or the DnA run (complete with a space station carved out of a Celestial’s head – yes, the concept predates Avengers Mountain).

For the New Warriors:

  • New Warriors Classic – The original Fabian Nicieza / Mark Bagley / Darick Robertson series
  • New Warriors ’07-’09 – The Kevin Grevioux / Paco Medina / Reilly Brown series
  •  New Warriors ’14 – The Christopher Yost / Marcus To series

And here we’d absolutely go with the original run.

Nova Classic   Nova by Abnett & Lanning   New Warriors

Not the Safest Valentine…

The DC Valentine’s Day Sale runs through Monday, 2/20.

We’re not saying the DC universe is the safest place to celebrate a relationship… but there are a few things on sale.

The Batman Adventures: Mad Love is a classic of unhealthy relationships. This is the animated series origin story of Harley Quinn and Mister J. by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. It is a romance, after all! Also falls under the category of “classic.” If you don’t need all the optional extras, you can get the original story in its original format for a lousy $0.99.

Speaking of Batman and unhealthy relationships, there’s always Batman: Birth of the Demon. This collects Batman: Son of the Demon by Mike W. Barr and Jerry Bingham, Batman: Bride of the Demon by Mike W. Barr and Tom Grindberg and Batman: Birth of the Demon by Denny O’Neil and Norm Breyfogle. Three original graphic novels about R’as al Ghul and Bruce’s relationship with Talia al Guhl. Indeed, Son of the Demon could be considered the origin of Damien, or at least a chunk of it. Originally, that tale wasn’t even supposed to be in continuity, except it was quite popular and things changed.

And for something a little more recent, there’s Mister Miracle by Tom King and Mitch Gerards. While the storyline is about Mister Miracle attempting to escape death, his relationship with his wife, Big Barda, is certainly at the core of the story. A series that did quite well for itself on the awards circuit.

Scroll down to the bottom of the sale for an eclectic selection of single issues. A lot of wedding issues, but… to be honest, we probably wouldn’t have suggested celebrating Valentine’s Day with the first issue of Longbow Hunters. That’s a bit much.

Mad Love   Batman: Birth of the Demon   Mister Miracle

Enough With the Romance

The Dark Horse Valentine’s Day Sale runs through Monday, 2/20.

OK, enough with mushy stuff, let’s talk about the usual suspects here.  It’s Dark Horse, so you know there’s going to be multiple Mike Mignola items on sale. The Hellboy Omnibus line continues to be a good value – excellent comics with high page counts (especially V.3). If you haven’t been keeping up, scroll through the sale and scan the newer releases. Hellboy is still coming out.

Blacksad by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido is an amazing body of work. Chandler-esque hardboiled detective stories in a world of anthropomorphic animals… but there’s nothing cartoony about it. Absolutely jaw-dropping art by Guarnido, too. Thick with detail and atmosphere. Click through and look at a couple preview pages.

Invisible Kingdom by G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward has several rewards to it’s name. It’s a science fiction tale of what happens when an intergalactic corporation gets in bed with a religion.  All’s far in love and profit, after all. Note: The Library Edition is cheaper than getting the single volumes, which is not always the case.

Hellboy   Blacksad   Invisible Kingdom

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: James Gunn’s DC Comics Picks; Falcon and the Winter Soldier; Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has some of James Gunn’s picks discounted, plus Marvel cuts prices on Falcon & The Winter Soldier and Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur.  Film & Television tie-in week?  Could be!

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

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

Kinda Like a TV Sale

The Marvel Falcon and the Winter Soldier Sale runs through Monday, 2/13.

This sale has lot of comics we’ve enjoyed over the years.  The Englehart/Sal Buscema run is an utter classic. Ed Brubaker’s work with Michael Lark, Steve Epting and Butch Guice across Captain America and the Winter Soldier spin-off are also high up there.  But let’s take the road less travelled for the recommendations, since you really ought to know about the above.

Captain America: Symbol of Truth, Vol.1: Homeland by Tochi Onyebuchi and R.B. Silva is something we really enjoyed in the single issues and we think this is the first time the collected edition has been discounted. (6 issues for the price of 1.) This is Sam Wilson as Captain America with the new Falcon at his side. An attempt to stop the smuggling of super soldier serum leads Sam to a human trafficking ring, then to Latveria and then smack dap into the middle of Wakandan immigration policy. An action-forward with brains behind it story that deserves a higher profile.

Captain America & The Falcon by Christoper Priest: The Complete Collection is an under-rated run by Priest with Bart Sears, Joe Bennett and Andrea DiVito. It’s a Priest comic, so if you’re familiar with him, you’re familiar with the style. The overarching plot concerns a rogue element in the military that’s used the Super-Soldier Serum to create an “Anti-Cap”… and, of course, MODOK turns up in the middle of it.

And finally, our standing recommendation for Madbomb, Jack Kirby’s epic about an attempt to overthrow the government using bombs that cause people to lose their minds. Over the top action as only Kirby can do it.

Captain America: Symbol of Truth   Captain America & the Falcon by Christopher Priest   Captain America & the Falcon: Madbomb

Yes, Definitely a TV Sale Kind of Week

The Marvel Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur Sale runs though Monday, 2/13.

This is a lower volume sale than others and simple to handle:

These larger page count editions of the Amy Reeder / Brandon Montclare / Natacha Bustos main series are the better buy.

Moon Girl: Endangered Species is a collection of team-up issues outside the main title.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur   Moon Girl: Endangered Species

We Did Find Evidence of Film Involvement…

The  DC Epic eBooks Sale runs through Monday, 2/13.

A word of caution here (and this is getting to be a regular thing): this sale did not have the final sale prices listed when it first appeared. New pricing has slowly been rolling out over the week, but as we type this, not all the prices have changed. (Example: we do not think $34.99 is the intended sale price for this otherwise fine Batman collection — and maybe it won’t be by the time you’re reading this?)

But, some of the sale pricing has gone through and there is some interesting material in that grouping.

You may recall that James Gunn tweeted out that All-Star Superman is something you might want to read to get a flavor for the direction he wants to move in. This Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely collection is an excellent distillation of all that is good about the Silver Age incarnation of Superman. Pretty much a timeless take, and a good one for Gunn to be focusing on, truth be told. On sale for $5.99.

If you’re looking for a value buy, Legion of Superheroes: The Great Darkness Saga is a good one. This is a 400 page chunk of the iconic Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen Legion run, with a bit of Paul Levitz/Pat Broderick to start it out. That gets you a few issues leading into the actual Great Darkness storyline where Darkseid appears and takes over, plus the immediate aftermath. Highly recommended.

And then going back to Gunn’s recommendations, it just so happens the first four volumes of the Alan Moore / Stephen Bissette / John Totleben / Stan Woch Saga of the Swamp Thing $3.99 each. Another all-time classic classic run!

Bonus: we have noticed an unadvertised sale. Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age, Vol. 1 collects the equally iconic original Swamp Thing run by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson for $6.99. Just so you know…

All-Star Superman   Legion of Super Heroes The Great Darkness Saga   Swamp Thing

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Marvel Omnibuses; Miles Morales: Spider-Man; Dark Reign; DC Celebrates Black History Month; Image’s Discounted Romance

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel has a rare sale on their Omnibuses, plus Miles Morales and Dark Reign. DC celebrates Black History Month and Image puts a (discounted) price on romance.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

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

As we adjust to whatever’s going on behind the scenes at Amazon, the sales did post this week, but they trickled out in an unusual pattern. At least the pricing seemed to be correct when they sales appeared this week. There’s a reason we don’t always rush to post the sale.

Did Somebody Say Omnibus?

The Marvel Omnibus Sale runs through Monday, 2/13.

Well, here’s a sale you don’t see every day. These omnibuses contain _around_ 40 issues each, though it can vary a few hundred pages from volume to volume. Evaluate these as bundles of collected editions, but there are some volumes that caught our eye.

The Captain Britain Omnibus is a very interesting thing. It’s basically all the Captain Britain appearances through when he first starts turning up in the X-Men line, so just before Excalibur kicks off. You’ve got the original UK run, which does have a little bit of early Chris Claremont in it. The Marvel Team-Up appearances (Claremont/Byrne), the David Thorpe/Alan Davis reset and then the two crown jewels: the Alan Moore/Alan Davis run and the Alan Davis solo run in the magazine version of Captain Britain. These last two runs are fantastic and highly influential (although you might be surprised how many things Thorpe initiated). And then a couple X-verse annuals to cap it.  Some really good stuff in here and Marvel’s a little inconsistent about keeping all of this available.

The Incredible Hulk by Peter David Omnibus set is the entire run. Peter David was on that book a LONG time and had a pretty darn good set of artists to team with, including Todd McFarlane, Gary Frank, Dale Keown, Liam Sharp and several others. It’s a little more understandable with such a long run, but we’re under the impression this is the only collection of David’s entire run. The “Visionaries” series doesn’t go all the way and only sections of it are in Epic Collections. So, here’s the entirety of a landmark run in 1000-1100 page chunks.

Another meaty set of books is the Thunderbolts set. V.1 is 1100 pages of Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley. V.2 is another 1100 pages as Fabian Nicieza tags in for Busiek and we don’t think the back half of V.2 is currently collected elsewhere, either.

We know you were thinking it, so we’re going to go ahead and say it out loud: omnibus editions are a lot more convenient to read in digital. Those hardcovers can top 6 pounds.

Captain Britain Omnibus   Incredible Hulk by Peter David   Thunderbolts

Spider-Verse

The Marvel Monthly Sale: Miles Morales: Spider-Man Sale runs through Monday, 2/27

This sale is… kind of a mess to navigate.

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 jump to the Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Vol. 2 collection for the ’16 Bendis/Pichelli/Nico Leaon run. (Do not ask us why the first omnibus isn’t on sale…)

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

  Miles Morales: Spider-Man   Miles Morales

Make It Reign

The Marvel Dark Reign Sale runs through Monday, 2/6.

Dark Reign is a sort of background story that spun through a bunch of the Marvel titles, post-Secret Invasion.  Norman Osborn manages to get himself installed as Director of SHIELD and makes a power play. A lot of it involved declaring the various heroes to be enemies of the state and hunting them down. There wasn’t a mini-series driving this in the usual sense, but there were a ton of mini-series out there. A lot of this ran through the numerous Bendis Avenger titles.

The best thing to come out of Dark Reign was the “World’s Most Wanted” arc in Invincible Iron Man (Book 1 and Book 2) by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca. Fraction and Larroca essentially paused their story for this arc where Norman Osborn is after the knowledge in Tony Stark’s brain – especially all the secret identities. Stark is a fugitive on the run and he’s trying to delete and overwrite his brain, like a hard drive, to keep all the sensitive information out of Osborn’s hands. A superior arc.

Iron Man   Iron Man

You can pop in on the other titles to see where Dark Reign takes them, but Iron Man was a class above.

February

The DC Black History Month Sale runs through Monday, 2/27.

Some picks? Sure. Justice League by Christopher Priest collects the Priest / Pete Woods wherein Batman has a lapse in judgement and a “fan” moves in for the kill.

A lesser known recent title is Michael Cray by Bryan Hill and N. Stephen Harris. This was part of the Wildstorm revival and the titular Cray is an assassin tasked with eliminating some funhouse mirror versions of the Justice League. Well done twisted fun.

And from clear out of left field, here’s something we don’t recall seeing on sale in a while: Steel single issues for $0.99. Yes, the Death of Superman spin-off about John Henry Irons that spawned a Shaq movie. Creators on this include Louise Simonson, David Michelinie, Christopher Priest, Chris Batista, Phil Gosier and Denys Cowan. Yes, that’s an early Priest/Cowan pairing at the end of the series.

Justice League by Priest   Michael Cray   Steel

Romance… Through The Mirror, Darkly…

The Image Romance Sale runs through Monday, 2/27.

Might modern “romance” comics be a little off-kilter? Could be!

A marque Image series popping up here is Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky (Mr. Romance, himself) has a high concept along the lines of “Make love. Stop time. Rob banks.” Why yes, it’s also a comedy. The “normal” collections are a better price than the “Big Hard” collections and that’s an instance of a fancier print edition translating to poor digital pricing, as is frequently the case.

My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips does have a romance in the middle of a tale about nefarious goings-on at a rehab facility. That’s a fair cop.

And a new title that might be of interest here: $0.99 single issues of Love Everlasting by Tom King and Elsa Charretier, featuring a woman caught in a series of bizarre romances bouncing around different time periods.

Sex Criminals   My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies   Love Everlasting

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Men; New Teen Titans; Aztec Ace; Geiger; Air

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel contemplates Mister Sinister, DC celebrates teamwork, Image does science fiction and Dark Horse discounts fantasy.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

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

New sales did post this week, so that’s good… but make sure you eyeball the displayed prices to see if it looks like it’s really on sale. A number of things did not pass the eye test, although at least the DC sale got fixed. As we type this, not everything did. Speaking of DC:

Fight and Then Team Up

The DC Super Teams Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

There’s a 2-Omnibus set of 52 that’s a good deal. 52 issues for $20 works out to $0.38/issue, better than you usually see. 52 was a weekly comic co-written by Mark Waid, Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns. Keith Giffen did the layouts and then a whole bunch of artists finished those. The story is a set of plot threads telling the aftermath of Infinite Crisis, with arcs for Booster Gold, Black Adam, Elongated Man, Adam Strange, Will Magnus (the Metal Men’s creator) and The Question, among others.

This World’s Finest is the 1990 Prestige/Dark Knight format version from Dave Gibbons and Steve Rude. Not something we’ve heard discussed in awhile, this is an attempt to recapture the Silver Age mojo as Lex Luthor and The Joker team-up to bedevil Superman and Batman. As pretty a comic as you’ll find.

The New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez essentially pulled DC back from the brink at a low point in the company’s sales history. It’s a classic and it’s $4.99 per volume.

52   World's Finest   New Teen Titans

It’s a Sin

The  Marvel X-Men: Sinister Stories Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

A tie-in to the “Sins of Sinister” Event? Sure enough. And given that’s a Kieron Gillen outing, it seems like Uncanny X-Men by Kieron Gillen: The Complete Collection is probably good background reading, since it establishes Gillen’s take on Mister Sinister.

Also particularly relevant to the current incarnation of Sinster is the recent Hellions series by Zeb Wells and Stephen Segovia. We’re big fans of this one, which has Minster Sinister acting as Professor X for a unit of more… anti-social mutants. Is he using them as pawns in his greater schemes? Absolutely. One warning here, though. The middle volume of this doesn’t have much of a discount and we’re wondering if that’s an error? The omnibus edition is a tad more expensive and also a lot higher priced than you’d expect for a sale. Maybe it gets fixed and maybe it doesn’t. It’s still a highly entertaining run.

And while it’s not the first appearance of Sinister, we think one of the better values in the sale is X-Factor Epic Collection: All-New, All-Different X-Factor, which is the Peter David run. You’ve got a Mister Sinister arc, a Hulk crossover and art by Larry Stroman, Dale Keown… and some lad named Joe Quesada (whatever happened to him?)

Uncanny X-Men   Hellions by Zeb Wells   X-Factor Epic Collection

We Were Promised A Flying Purple People-Eater?!?

The Image Sci-Fi Sale runs through Tuesday, 1/31.

Fear Agent by Rick Remender, Tony Moore and Jerome Opeña is a pulp science fiction adventure of the hard-drinking final member of the Fear Agents, a force that handled alien threats. Spoiler: one of those alien threats is still active. It’s an old favorite around here.

Farmhand is a science fiction/horror/comedy series from Rob Guillory, who you might remember from Chew. This time out Rob’s doing full writer/artist duties and proving that Layman wasn’t the only pleasantly twisted person behind Chew. In Farmhand, Jedidiah Jenkins has an unusual cash crop – he grows replacement for human organs. Where did these crops come from? That would be telling, but strange things are happening around the farm at to some of the transplant recipients.

Geiger is a Geoff Johns / Gary Frank post-apocalyptical, traversing the wastelands adventure. We got some (darker) Kamandi/Ben Boxer vibes off it. Very much a post-modern take on the DC “Great Disaster” era science fiction tales of the 60s and 70s and in a good way.

Fear Agent   Farmhand   Geiger

No, Not That Kind of “Fantasy”

The Dark Horse Fantasy Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

This is a VERY expansive sale and worth an extended browse it you have time. We’re going to point out three, somewhat under the radar books, two of which we don’t think have been on sale before.

Air by G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker was originally a Vertigo book that Karen Berger appears to have pulled over to Dark Horse and Berger Books.  We would very much like to see a continuation, but… first things first. This is a very unusual genre bender. A little science fiction, a little fantasy, a little thriller. It also takes a little while to start unfolding. What starts as a flight attendant getting pulled into a terrorist conspiracy takes a turn for the weird and lands in a much wider conspiracy involving teleportation, time lost celebrities and an Aztec god. This is not a comic that’s easily reduced to a tagline, but it’s a good one.

Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot is your unabashedly intellectual comic of the week. An excellent work of art and truly unusual. The starting point is a history of Talbot’s hometown of Sunderland, which turns into a study of the influences on Lewis Carroll while writing Alice in Wonderland and then turns… where Talbot feels like going. A unique book!

Aztec Ace by Doug Moench, Dan Day, Michael Hernandez and Ron Harris is a time travel adventure. The most unusual thing about it might just be that Moench had never seen Doctor Who before writing it in the early 80s. This is a very Doctor Who-compatible series. Originally coming out from Eclipse and long out of print, Ace is a time traveler from the 23rd century who’s battling time paradoxes and the mysterious Nine-Crocodiles, who seems to be behind the paradoxes. He’s aided by Bridget Chronopolis, who wanders into his sphere very much like one of The Doctor’s companions would, and the floating head of Sigmund Freud. Not the lowest priced item, but it’s 15 issues + extras, so a better value than you might think at first glance. And a lot easier than trying to track down the single issues. (Just trust us on that, ’cause we did.)

Air   Alice in Sunderland   Aztec Ace

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Spider-Man, Black Panther and BRZRKR

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Spidey and the Black Panther get discounts. DC… that’s complicated, but BOOM! has a “Best of” sale. And we talk a little about the Comixology layoffs.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

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

First we should probably talk a little about what’s been going on at Amazon and Comixology. On Wednesday, we started to find out about some fairly massive layoffs at Comixology. Scott McGovern, a program manager who also worked on the discount sales is essentially the unofficial spokesman for the laid off Comixology workers. Here’s the original “announcement” Twitter thread that’s quoted in most coverage.  Here’s his Friday update thread. He’s vouching for the broad strokes of this investigative piece from The Beat.

The short version: Amazon has eliminated all the Comixology jobs. Around 75% of the workforce is already out the door. There will be more mass exits around June and October. In theory, this is to finish integrating Comixology into Amazon. Something that started… either about a year and a half ago, if you count when Comixology first started giving the heads up that the site was going away or about a year if you want to count it as when the site did finally get shuttered.

What does this mean going forward? We’re not entirely sure and Amazon’s standard policy of silence is really not endearing them to anyone as we’re left to ponder things. If there are staff left transitioning things, that means there is little question that digital comics will still be there through the Fall and why would you spend ~10 months transitioning if you were going to drop a product line?  We find it hard to believe that Amazon would jettison digital comics, though some people are shouting that at the top of their lungs on social media.

Almost certainly the Comixology app is going to be sunsetted sooner than later. Probably by the time the last of the Comixology employees leave the building. Comics will get moved over to the Kindle app, but that’s been happening for some time. Will there be UIX improvements to the Kindle app and the Comixology/comics page on the Amazon website?  We’d sure like to know about that. Both could still use a little work. It sure seems like presentation and curation are not going to be a priority for Amazon if they’re cutting all of Comixology loose, but that’s just our interpretation of what we’ve heard. It might be yours, too?

If guided view is implemented on the Amazon side of the fence, it doesn’t sound like they’re going to be staffed up for that, so we’ll see if that sticks around or they’ve figured out how to let AI handle it.

Are there still going to be “discount sales” as McGovern puts it? We don’t know. There weren’t any updates overnight, but there haven’t been for a few weeks. I guess we’ll find out in a few days? There could be a few weeks worth of sales queued up, but it isn’t clear whether or not this is a priority for the skeleton crew currently working on things. Clearly, at least one person who worked on it is no longer there.

That’s what we know.  There’s one other thing that’s floating around that we don’t think is going to affect the comics situation, but we understand why a few people have asked questions about it.

In mid-December, word leaked out that Amazon was going to discontinuing some digital magazine functions. No more digital subscriptions. Sufficiently large magazines would be invited to join a “Kindle Unlimited for Magazines” program. Here’s the original Twitter thread from Clarkesworld. We’ve since heard a few different versions, including that not only would subscriptions be done away with, there would be no more single issue purchases. Something is happening, but past the subscriptions going away, it’s not clear that there’s a public consensus on exactly how many things are changing. It’s been suggested in at least one place that a formal announcement would happen in March.

We can see no way this should affect collected editions. The question being asked is whether someone higher up at Amazon wants to lump comics into the magazines bucket? Seems silly to us, but given that this magazine venture is supposedly going live on September 1st, the timing makes it reasonable for someone to ask for a little clarification.

Now you know what we know about what’s been happening at Amazon and Comixology. Unless there’s a change in service imminent, we wouldn’t expect Amazon to make any formal, clarifying statements. That’s not usually how they roll at the corporate level.

The Panther’s Visitations

The Marvel Black Panther and the Marvel Universe Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

This sale is mostly  about books the Black Panther was guest starring in, as opposed to headlining.

The exception being the current Black Panther by John Ridley and Juann Cabal. The first arc is about a conspiracy inside the Wakanda government and the death of T’Challa’s sleeper agents. We’ve been liking it.

In generally, we usually like the value of Epic Collections when they’re on sale and there are two here that particularly catch our eye.

Fantastic Four: The Mystery of the Black Panther includes the Panther’s first appearance, in the midst of the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Fantastic Four run, which means you get some Silver Surfer, Doctor Doom and Supreme Intelligence along with the package.

Avengers: This Beachhead Earth contains the origin of the Black Panther. It also contains a Harlan Ellison co-written crossover with the Hulk and the Kree-Skrull War. Roy Thomas does most of the writing and artist rotation includes John Buscema, Sal Buscema and Neal Adams.

Black Panther   Fantastic Four   Avengers

Littering His Web

The  Marvel Spider-Man’s Greatest Villains Sale runs through Monday, 1/23.

Why yes, Spidey _does_ have a rogues gallery.

You know our preference for Epic Collections so pointing out Amazing Spider-Man: The Goblin Lives shouldn’t surprise you. You get some Green Goblin and Doc Ock from the classic Stan Lee / John Romita, Sr. run.

While we may be in the minority for this one, we loved the Gerry Conway / Mike Perkins run of Carnage. The setup here was reminiscent of Tomb of Dracula. Carnage is after the Book of Darkhold and a ragtag team including John Jameson/Man-Wolf and Eddie Brock/Toxin are trying to stop him from getting the book and ascending. Yes, Carnage as occult horror.

And for something even more out of left field, do you remember when Brian K. Vaughan wrote for Marvel? Yes, it’s been a minute. Vaughan and Staz Johnson did Spider-Man / Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure all the way back in ’03.

Amazing Spider-Man   Carnage   Spider-Man / Doctor Octopus

Beware the DC Sale

The DC Start Here Sale theoretically runs through Monday, 1/23.  Except we’re not entirely sure it’s started.

You will recall that ever since Comixology moved over to the Amazon platform, some of the sale prices have been slow to show up? Especially DC sales? Well, it’s not clear that the sale prices are in place for most of this sale. As we type this on Friday afternoon, the single issues certainly are not.

The first volume of Tynion’s Batman is likely on sale.  The first volume of Williamson’s Batman is probably on sale. This Firestorm  collection  has a sale price. It’s really hit and miss, so pay attention if you browse it.

Normally, the sale prices have shown up by Friday, but with the layoffs, we’re not hopeful it gets fixed before it ends on Monday.

Boom’s Best of 2020 2022

The  Best of BOOM! Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

It’s no surprise that BOOM!’s listing BRZRKR up front for a best of list. It’s been selling crazy numbers for them and, you know what? We’ve enjoyed this bloody science fantasy about an immortal warrior who’s ready to shed his immortality by Keanu Reeves, Matt Kindt and Ron Garney. We also don’t remember V.2 being in the holiday sale, so this might be the first time it’s gotten the discount treatment.  The single issues are also $0.99 through #10 and guess what? The single issues are CHEAPER than the collected editions.

Once & Future by Kieron Gillen & Dan Mora recently wrapped up and it’s a good one about monster hunters and the power of stories and myth. 4 out of 5 collected editions are on sale. All the but the last single issue are $0.99. And… what’s that?  Yes, once again, the single issues are CHEAPER than the collected editions. 

BRZRKR   Once & Future

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sale: X-Men, X-Force, Greg Pak-a-Mania, Prelude to Lazarus Planet

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel has TWO flavors of X-books on sale, plus Greg Pak. DC’s prepping for the Lazarus Planet and Top Shelf is tossing some discounts around.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

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

Let’s Put the X in Sale

The Marvel Dawn of X/Reign of X Sale runs through Monday, 1/16.

What is this sale? Following House of X/Power of X, the X-Men line of comics has a suggested reading order in the back of the books. If you read from issue to issue, particularly during the Dawn of X era, you really did get an additive experience and more of a view of the X-universe.  These two runs collect the individual issues of ALL the X-titles in a reading order for the line.

Dawn of X picks up after HoX/PoX and runs up to X of Swords (which isn’t on sale). Reign of X picks up after X of Swords and ends just before Trial of Magneto and Inferno.

Dawn of X   Reign of X

An Extra X Sale

The Marvel X-Force Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 1/16

Uncanny X-Force by Rick Remender with art by Jerome Opeña, Phil Noto, Esad Ribic and a whole bunch of others would be our top choice. A particularly dark take on X-Force as black ops, much of it weaving in and out of the labyrinthian plans of Apocolypse.

The original X-Force has come Epic Collections available and we always like the value of those. You can pick your era here.

The X-Force portion of Peter Milligan & Mike Allred’s run that would soon become X-Statix is conveniently available as a single volume. 

X-Force   X-Force   X-Force

Send Them Pak-ing

The Marvel Greg Pak Sale runs through Monday, 1/16.

Pak’s been over in the Star Wars universe lately, and that’s on sale, but we always associate him very strongly with Hulk.

Planet Hulk, written by Pak with art by Carlo Pagulayan, Aaron Lopresti and Gary Frank was where Pak really broke wide. This one has Hulk exiled to a planet where he effectively becomes that world’s Conan. It’s now a classic.

For unknown reasons, World War Hulk is not in the sale. (Yes, that seems boneheaded to us, too.)

But Pak was on Hulk for the ’09-’11 series with Paul Pelletier as the lead artist.

A bit less remembered, Pak returned to Hulk in ’17 with Greg Land and Carlo Barberi to revisit the Planet Hulk and World War Hulk storylines.

Planet Hulk   Incredible Hulk   Hulk

Resurrecting A Sale From the Dead

The DC Journey to Lazarus Planet Sale runs through Monday, 1/16.

That’s a mouthful of a sale title, but DC’s got an event in the offing that will raise some things from the dead like Lazarus… or a Lazarus Pit.

Scroll down a bit here and you’ll find the James Tynion 4.0/Jorge Jiménez and first volume of the Josh Williamson (and so many different artists) run of Batman on sale. Here’s a quirk for you. The collected editions started a new Volume 1 for Tynion’s run, but because the single issues didn’t renumber, the collected editions are on the same page as the Tom King run.  And they wonder why it confuses the bookstore managers?

Nightwing looks to have a big role in DC’s next wave, so the current volume is mostly on sale. (A couple volumes in the middle aren’t for whatever reason.) The current Tom Taylor/Bruno Redondo run being one of DC’s most celebrated offerings.

And for something off the beaten path, that’s also interesting to see in the runup to an Event, there’s Zatana by Paul Dini. Yes, after marrying a magician, you’d think Dini would have a feel for the material, wouldn’t you? The artists on this include Stephanie Roux, Jamal Igle and Cliff Chiang.

Batman: Abyss   Nightwing   Zatana by Paul Dini

Also of potential interest, $0.99/$1.99 single issues. Highlights include:

Shelving Sale

The Top Shelf Sale runs through Monday, 1/23.

Top Shelf is an imprint of IDW and much of it is on sale right now.

They Called Us Enemy is probably the de facto flagship title for Top Shelf and it’s won a lot of Awards. That would be the graphic novel adaption of George Takei’s memoir and play of growing up in an internment camp by Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott and Harmony Becker.

For something a little more out of left field, The Bojeffries Saga is Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse from the early 80s doing a darker, more horror-forward riff on The Adams Family/Munsters spliced with Monty Python. The originals mostly ran in Warrior and A1. It’s a entertaining series from a different side of more than you usually see.  (The March of the Sinister Ducks side.)

They Called Us Enemy   The Bojeffries Saga

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The “Best of 2022” Sales drop with Spidey & Moon Knight; Plus, Dark Horse Superheroes

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we look at the best of the Marvel Masterworks sale plus holiday sales from Image and Dynamite.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

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

The holiday sales have ended and the “regular” sales has resumed… except, DC seems to still have the holiday deep discount spirit.

Best of 2020 2022 – Marvel Edition

The Marvel Spotlight on 2022 Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

Yes, we can speak to Marvel’s ’22, though we’ll keep it to series that have a V.1 on sale. (No sense sending you into the middle of something, the way these runs tend to work).

The Jed MacKay section, since he had a bit of a breakout year at Marvel:

Moon Knight is MacKay and Alessandro Cappuccio setting up a new status quo for Moon Knight, a character with so many drastically different takes on him, he’s sort of Marvel’s Hawkman in that respect. MacKay and Cappuccio are methodically incorporating and rationalizing the different versions. Moon Knight has opened a “Midnight Mission” to continue his work for Konshu… after a fashion. He’s seeing a therapist. There are vampires on the loose and a rival emissary of Konshu. A somewhat unpredictable ride, but that’s a definite plus.

The Death of Doctor Strange can function as a standalone, but it’s really the first act in a longer arc. MacKay and Lee Garbett kill off Stephen Strange, but not exactly the way you were expecting. A clever book.

Strange is the next act. Clea Strange has assumed the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme. She’s trying to find a way to resurrect Stephen, but keeps butting heads with a group of paranormal gangsters calling themselves “The Blasphemy Cartel.” MacKay is joined by Marcelo Ferreira on art.

Moon Knight x The Death of Doctor Strange x Strange

Also good:

The Marvels is Kurt Busiek and Yildiray Cinar (with Alex Ross covers) doing a story from more of a Marvels (the 90s painted series). The point of view here is an outsider who’s collected some superhero/villain technology and finds himself dragged along on an adventure. Lady Lotus, the Invaders villain is taking over the country of Siancong, in plot that has its origins back in World War II. The scope takes you from there to the present day for a big tour of the Marvel universe with an excursion to some… unusual corners. Basically, a showcase for classic Marvel. (Both volumes are on sale, so treat this like a 2-parter.)

The Defenders: There Are No Rules by Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez find Doctor Strange and… The Masked Rider organizing an inter-dimensional posse of sorts. Very cosmic, very mind-bending and Rodriquez is really outdoing himself here.

Amazing Spider-Man by Zeb Wells and John Romita, Jr. is another recent title we’ve been enjoying. The first arc, with Tombstone, is a bit more serious than we were expecting, but the tone shifts a bit more Wells-like with arc two. Romita is as icon a Spidey artist as his father, so it’s good to see him back on the book.

Marvels   Defenders   Amazing Spider-Man

The Literary Roots of WandaVision

The Marvel Scarlet Witch Sale runs through Monday, 1/9.

Vison & The Scarlet Witch, as the pair were colloquially known for much of their time at Marvel are kind of a strange one to go looking for collections of, largely because most of their adventures were as supporting cast members in The Avengers.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch: The Saga of Wanda and Vision collects their Wedding from Giant-Sized Avengers #4, the ’82 mini-series by Bill Mantlo and Rick Leonardi and the ’85 maxi-series by Steve Englehart and Richard Howell. Usually, it’s that maxi-series that gets referenced the most, but this is as complete a set of early (ish) solo adventures as exists.

Now, it you want something a little closer to the TV show, there’s the John Byrne run of Avengers West Coast. “Vision Quest” is where Vision is disassembled and rebuilt with the white body and revelations are made about her children. “Darker than Scarlet” is the first time Wanda snaps.

If you want Wanda wholesale rewriting reality, that’s more House of M and the Avengers: Disassembled that leads into it and those aren’t in the sale.  WandaVision is a goofy fit with the comics in some ways.

Vision and the Scarlet Witch   Avengers West Coast

Best of 2020 2022 – DC Edition

The DC Best of 2022 sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

Oof! We hope you were taking advantage of DC’s unusually good discounts at their holiday sale, ’cause the collected editions we’re seeing this week are largely things that were on sale last week, too… except now they’re at least twice as expensive. We’re not going to highlight those.

All the way at the bottom of the sale page is a selection of (mostly) $1.99 single issues. Yes, we know… they’re not $0.99 anymore, but they did somewhat rotate the selection. Here are some highlights. You should know the drill by now… with longer running titles like Batman, you may need to scroll down a little to get to where things are on sale.

Dark Capes

The Dark Horse Superhero Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

Yes, Dark Horse has a few superheroes. They even have their own line.

We did a re-read of Nexus over the last couple years and Omnibus line holds up. (We’d also forgotten how many issues Paul Smith drew.) Nexus is sort of a science fiction/superhero mash about a man who reluctantly becomes a superpowered assassin for a mysterious alien. Nexus has nightmares about the mass murderers he’s to kill and they won’t go away until the deed is done. Lots of world building in this one. Mike Baron writes the whole thing and Steve Rude is the primary artist. Omnibuses 1-6 are the original Capital City/First Comics run, V. 7 picks up when the license moved to Dark Horse. Yes, Nexus is still around.

For something way off the beaten path, there’s The Best of Milligan & McCarthy. That would be Peter Milligan (Shade, the Changing Man; Hellblazer; X-Statix) and Brendan  McCarthy (Judge Dredd, Strange Days, and believe it or not, the co-writer of Mad Max: Fury Road). These two collaborated a lot in their early days in the UK market with the best known bits in the US probably being the Strange Days mini-series from Eclipse. It fits in here because of their Paradax strip. Trippy would be the key term for these two.

With Brian Bendis moving his base of operations to Dark Horse, that means Powers is getting a new edition. Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming are the creators of this long running (on again, off again… with 4 relaunches as they’ve switched publishers) police procedural about the cops who investigate those with superhuman abilities. The police aren’t supposed to have powers, but… that would be getting ahead of ourselves. This was one of the early hits that eventually led Bendis to Marvel and it’s a quality series. Perhaps better read in collected edition, since you aren’t trying to figure out the publishing schedule (which has probably diluted the reputation of the series).

Nexus   The Best of Milligan and McCarthy   Powers

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Best of the Marvel Masterworks Sale, Plus Image and Dynamite

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we look at the best of the Marvel Masterworks sale plus holiday sales from Image and Dynamite.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

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

We’re in the home stretch for the holiday sale season and this time out, we’ll be looking at a couple sales that dropped a little later than the rest. (OK, technically the Image sale had been up… but the discounts took several days to show up on the listing.) But first, let’s have a look at the cream of the crop for our favorite sale of the year.

The Best of the Marvel Masterworks Sale

As you may recall, The Marvel Masterworks Sale runs through Monday, 1/2. $0.99 for V.1’s and $1.99 for V.2+.

There are bargains and there are bargains. Let’s have a look at what the best volumes are, both for stories contained and page count – because a few of these books are as big as the Epic Collections.

I Like Big Page Counts

Masterworks with 400+ pages!

  • Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 22 – 410 pages – Roger Stern / John Romita, Jr. era, including THAT Juggernaut story
  • Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 23 – 468 pages – Roger Stern / John Romita, Jr. era… and the Hobgoblin debuts in this volume
  • Champions Masterworks Vol. 1 – 460 pages – The whole ’70s series + crossovers – Bill Mantlo/Tony Isabella/George Tuska/John Byrne and others.
  • Doctor Strange Masterworks Vol. 10 – 394 pages (close enough) – Roger Stern/Paul Smith (and the Doctor Strange vs. Dracula sequence)
  • Killraven Masterworks Vol. 1 – 471 pages – Don McGregor / P. Craig Russell – the entire Amazing Adventures run plus the OGN follow up… for a lousy $0.99
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 9 – 471 pages – OK, get this line-up: Chris Claremont writing all of… Uncanny X-Men w/ Paul Smith; the God Loves, Man Kills OGN w/ Brent Anderson and the original Wolverine mini-series w/ Frank Miller.
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 10 – 458 pages – the beginning of the Claremont/John Romita, Jr. era with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and Morlocks, plus the Magik mini-series w/ John Buscema
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 11 – 457 pages – Claremont writing: X-Men with John Romita, Jr. (including the Kulan Gath issues), X-Men/Alpha Flight with Paul Smith and Kitty Pride & Wolverine with Al Milgrim
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 12 – 466 pages – Claremont writes X-Men w/ John Romita, Jr. (culminating in the trial of Magneto and the end of a big arc); the “Asgardian Wars” crossover with New Mutants w/Art Adams; and then Dave Cockrum’s Nightcrawler mini.
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 13 – 449 pages – Claremont & John Romita, Jr. on X-Men, plus and Ann Nocenti and Art Adams on Longshot.
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 14 – 485 pages – Enter the Mutant Massacre, plus Psylocke joins the X-verse in New Mutants and Fantastic Four Vs. X-Men.

Best of the $0.99 V.1’s

Other notable runs (that aren’t Lee/Kirby, since those go without saying).

We’ll link to the first volume in the set on these.

  • Avengers V. 10 – 18; V. 10 is the Kree/Skrull War. V.11 starts the Englehart run through V.15. V. 16 & V.17 are the Jim Shooter run w/ George Perez & John Byrne; V. 18 is David Michelinie/John Byrne -a prime chunk of Avengers
  • Captain America V. 7 – 11; V.7-9 is the classic Steve Englehart/ (mostly) Sal Buscema run with the Secret Empire, the Red Skull and a snake of an ad man. V.10-11 is Jack Kirby’s return and V.10’s Madbomb is more relevant today than it should be.
  • Captain Marvel V.3 -4; V. 3 is Jim Starlin’s run, which is the first Thanos arc. Utter classic. V.4 is the half-forgotten, yet quite entertaining Steve Englehart/Al Milgrom run.
  • Daredevil V. 15-16; Frank Miller’s first run. (V. 14 ends with the first issue he drew, but it’s not particularly connected to the rest of the run.)
  • Defenders V. 3-5; The inspired strangeness of Steve Gerber’s run. Headmen! Elf With a Gun!
  • Doctor Strange V.5-10; Once Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner show up the 70s and 80s were a strong time for Doctor Strange. Consistently A-list writers and artists. Almost amazingly so for a bi-monthly title.
  • Fantastic Four V. 21-23; The John Byrne era in thick slices
  • Iron Man V.5-7; The meat of Archie Goodwin’s Iron Man run with Gene Colan and George Tuska
  • Iron Man V. 13-14 – V. 13 has David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita, Jr. arrive. The start with “Demon in a Bottle,” the famous arc, but Iron Man is very good for a long time, starting here.
  • Marvel Two-In-One V. 5-6; In V.5 Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio arrive for a fun run that’s not always remembered. George Perez and Ron Wilson handle most of the art. “Project Pegasus” and “The Serpent Crown Affair” are two of the major arcs.
  • Sub-Mariner V. 7 – Something different? Namor’s creator, Bill Everett returns to his creation as writer/artist.
  • Warlock V. 2 – Jim Starlin’s first run on Adam Warlock, complete in one volume. A continuation of his Captain Marvel run, Thanos is back and this one really lays the groundwork for the eventual Infinity Gauntlet.

There’s a ton more to the sale, including the more usual suspects… but we think the above will keep you out of trouble on a budget.

Defenders Masterworks   Black Panther Masterworks   Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks

Image Stuffs the Stocking

The Image Holiday Sale runs through Monday, 1/2.

This looks to us like a line-wide (or nearly line-wide… is Sea of Red not in digital?) 50% off sale, so we’re going to go slightly off the beaten path with our recommendations. If you’re looking for something specific, click through and it’s probably there. It’s a very deep sale.

The obligatory “front list” recommendation is the Saga Compendium. You should be familiar with Saga by now. Space fantasy about a refugee family who have both sides of a war looking for them? Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples? Yes, that Saga. Anyway, 54 issues for $23.99 is under $0.50 an issue and is as good a deal as you typically see from Image and it’s a wonderful series.

The Monolith is something we enjoyed when it came out from DC Comics back in the day. Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and the underappreciated Phil Winslade tell the tale of a troubled young woman who inherits a house and finds a golem walled up in the basement. Once freed, the golem goes back about its mission of vengeance and punishment, as golems are wont to do. The Monolith explores the consequences of this a bit.

Shock Rockets by Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen was actually part of the far too short-lived Gorilla imprint at Image, back in the day. A very fun spin on the old anime theme of young pilots protecting the Earth from invading aliens.

Saga   The Monolith   shockrockets

Revival was a long running serial by Tim Seely and Mike Norton. It came out as zombie stories were getting hot, but it’s not really a zombie story. A town in Wisconsin has a strange day that sees the dead come back to life. Some of them seem perfectly normal. Some don’t. Naturally, the government declares a quarantine and the evangelists attempt to descend. This leaves the local sheriff’s department trying to figure out who or what caused the dead to rise and what’s happening to the dead afterwards. A bit of a slow burn as things continue to get stranger and bad things happen.

Criminal was Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips in their original crime series (or should we say crime series with no capes lurking in the background). Sometimes connected, sometimes not, we’d probably put V.6, “The Last of The Innocent” which is a whole lot like reimagining the Archie gang in a pulp noir. This is what Ed and Sean were doing just before they really blew up at Image and now Image has the publishing rights to it.

Casanova by Matt Fraction, Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon is a trippy as all get-out tale of a dimension hopping thief at odds with his other dimensional family of super-spies. Lots of backstabbing, identity theft and general skullduggery in a series that’s been compared to Moorcock’s Jerry Cornelius. (Yes, that level of trippy.)

Revival   Criminal   Casanova

Dynamite Stuffs the Stocking

The Dynamite Holiday Sale runs through Monday, 1/2.

This is also a line-wide or near line-wide 50% off sale, so we’ll once more go a little deeper into the pile for our picks.

Flash Gordon Omnibus by Jeff Parker and Evan “Doc” Shaner. What makes this Flash Gordon better than some of the other versions? When Parker and Shaner are doing it, it’s just more fun!

Borderline by Carlos Trillo and Eduardo Risso is something Risso drew prior to 100 Bullets. It’s a dark tale of a reluctant government enforcer in a bleak dystopian world with mutants in wasteland and the rich sequestered away in luxury.

The Shadow: The Last Illusion by Cullen Bunn, Colton Worley and Giovanni Timpano finds The Shadow drawn into a conflict with a secret society of illusionists seeking “The Last Illusion.” And The Last Illusion is Harry Houdini’s escape from the land of the dead. This is one of the best Dynamite Shadow tales and really fits in next to the original pulps.

Flash Gordon   Borderline   The Shadow: The Last Illusion

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