Tag: Aquaman

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Aquaman and the Justice League; Jonathan Hickman’s Marvel Library; Cable and Bishop; The Millarverse

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has some holiday-esque pricing on Aquaman and the Justice League. Marvel discounts the works of Jonathan Hickman, pluc Cable and Bishop. Dark Horse has deals on the Millarverse and The Witcher.

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

Earlier in the week, we looked at which titles are newly included in this year’s annual Marvel Masterworks Sale.

He’s All Wet

Aquaman  Aquaman by Peter David  Justice League of America

The DC Aquaman Sale runs through Monday, 1/13.

OK, it’s really an Aquaman and the Justice League sale… but here’s the real wrinkle: holiday-like sales pricing. Could DC be turning over a new leaf? Wouldn’t that be a thing?

Things that caught our eye:

Aquaman

  • Aquaman (’62 – ’78) – You’re looking at 2 volumes of Steve Skeates / Jim Aparo that ended the original run, then Death of a Prince primarily written by David Michelinie/Paul Levitz with art by Jim Aparo/Mike Grell/Don Newton; $2.99 is a lot cheaper than these used to get listed for
  • Aquaman: The Legend of Aquaman (’89) – Keith Giffen / Robert Loren Fleming / Curt Swan; Sometimes you need to see Swan doing something other than Superman to really appreciate him
  • Aquman (’94- ’01) – Peter David / Martin Egeland; The controversial run where Aquaman loses a hand
  • Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis (’06-’07) – Kurt Busiek / Butch Guice; We really enjoyed this entirely too short-lived “Conan under the sea”-type take on Aquaman
  • Aquaman (’11-’16) Geoff Johns / Ivan Reis; We thought V.2 was the peak here with “The Others” and the Trench’s aftermath
  • The Atlantis Chronicles – Peter David / Esteban Maroto; A gorgeously illustrated high fantasy tale of this history of Atlantis and its sorcerers. This is where all the “Orin” business comes from.

Justice League

  • Justice League of America (’60-’87) – The Silver Age editions are $1.99@
  • JLA (’97 – ’01) – Grant Morrison / Howard Porter -> Mark Waid / Bryan Hitch -> Joe Kelly / Doug Mahnke -> Chris Claremont / John Byrne; There’s more to this classic run than just Morrison and it’s $1.99/volume
  • JLA Year One – Mark Waid / Brian Augustyn / Barry Kitson; An extended Justice League origin tale
  • Justice League by Christopher Priest (’18) – Christopher Priest / Pete Woods; Priest’s meditation on toxic fandom in a single volume
  • Justice League (’18) – Scott Snyder / James Tynion IV / Jorge Jiménez / Francis Manapul / Jim Cheung; The Snyder era is best enjoyed with double volumes for $2.99
  • Justice League of America: The Nail: The Complete Collection – Alan Davis made a stone cold classic with his tale of a world where a flat tire caused the Kents to miss the rocket and the Justice League tries to form without a Superman. Suffice it to say, things go sideways

Hickman

Fantastic Four by Hickman   Avengers by Jonathan Hickman - the Complete Collection   Secret Wars

The Marvel Jonathan Hickman Sale runs through Monday, 1/20.

The big opus was the story that ran through Fantastic Four, Avengers and then ended in Secret Wars. And it’s infinitely easier (yes, that was a pun) to read that in the Complete Collection editions, because that puts the issues in the correct reading order and includes the mini-series tie-ins. Otherwise, at a certain point, you’re reading an issue from an Avengers collection and then having to open a New Avengers collection for the next issue. Or an issue of FF. We had to do that back in the day and it was REALLY annoying. This is just a better way to read them.

That’s all you need. “Time Runs Out” is even in the final Avengers Complete Collection volume. And here’s something that cannot be understated, the sheer scope of this tale makes it increasingly compelling the further into it you go. Once you’re past the Infinity sequence, it really starts getting jaw-dropping. And this falls under the category of “in for a penny, in for a pound.” You start the sequence, you need to finish through Secret Wars. Especially with the Avengers.

House of X / Powers of X   X of Swords  Secret Warriors

For the X-Men material, House of X / Powers of X is self-contained. X of Swords is relatively self-contained (and a very successful cross-over). Past that, we think the Hickman era is best enjoyed with the Dawn of X collections to better appreciate what an unusual tapestry was being weaved. Reign of X, as well.

Past his more famous outings, The Human Machine is the complete version of Hickman’s second S.H.I.E.L.D. series. (The first series, Architects of Forever, is not discounted here.)

Secret Warriors, launched under Bendis, but continued under Hickman and Alessandro Vitti, is a Nick Fury/S.H.I.E.L.D. series.

G.O.D.S. Ultimate Invasion  Ultimate Spider-Man

G.O.D.S. is the recently ended Hickman / Valerio Schiti series that’s effectively a traditional Urban Fantasy tale in the Marvel universe (guest starring Stephen Strange). We liked it quite a bit and are up for a sequel.

Ultimate Invasion with Bryan Hitch is the set up for the current incarnation of the Ultimate universe as The Maker (Ultimate Reed Richards) escapes and decides to make a parallel world his personal experiment.

Ultimate Invasion leads right into the excellent Ultimate Spider-Man with Marco Checchetto, where an older, married with children, Peter Parker suddenly becomes Spidey.

You Were Expecting Disney+?

Cable   Cable & Deadpool   Cable

The Marvel Cable and Bishop Sale runs through Monday, 1/13.

There really have been a lot of Cable titles over the years.

New Mutants Epic Collection: Cable by (mostly) Louise Simonson & Rob Liefeld contains the original appearances of Cable as he stalks the Mutant Liberation Front.

The original Cable series was the longest-lived. It starts out as Cable Classic with the original mini’s, but we might lean a little further down the page – Ladronn art and early stories by Joe Casey and James Robinson.

The other long-running title was Cable & Deadpool. Fabian Nicieza was the writer, with Patrick Zircher and Reilly Brown as the primary artists.

The most recent Cable ongoing series was the HoX/PoX era series by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto which finds Cable much younger, but still up to his neck in time paradoxes.

X-Men Epic Collection: Bishop’s Crossing is where Bishop first pops up, at the beginning of the post-Claremont, Jim Lee / Whilce Portacio era.

Unannounced Sales

Nemesis Reloaded  Night Club  Witcher

Dark Horse has a Millarverse Sale going on:

Dark Horse has put their adaptations of The Witcher on sale. They’re available in:

Also on sale:

  • Run: Book One – John Lewis / Andrew Aydin / L. Fury / Nate Powell

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Symbiote Spider-Man 2099  Venom: The King in Purple

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

Dropping Next Week

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Avengers; Doctor Doom; Aquaman; Vault Comics; The Dark Tower

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts nearly the entire Avengers run, plus Doctor Doom. DC has an “All-Star” sale. Plus, some unannounced Vault and Dark Tower titles.

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):

Avengers Assemble

Avengers Assemble

The Marvel Avengers Sale runs through Monday, 5/27

And this as pretty much everything except the Masterworks editions. (Hey, don’t look at us… we think that’s a strange omission, too.)

Let’s start about by breaking down the major series/titles on sale:

The Jonathan Hickman era

Avengers by Jonathan Hickman

The Hickman era is a little complicated, because his Avengers and New Avengers titles run together, so the Avengers by Jonathan Hickman collections are what we’d recommend for a more natural reading experience. Those collect both titles, plus tie-ins… and this is something were reading order counts.

But, this being Marvel collections, it get more complicated. The Avengers/New Avengers material (whichever format you read it in) is just one segment of Hickman’s tale. The story is continued in Avengers: Time Runs Out, which is the real last arc of Avengers and New Avengers. (And it’s in the “by Hickman” omnibuses.)

And all this funnels into Secret Wars, the true endgame of Hickman’s Avengers run… which, of course, is not included in the sale… but it is in Doctor Doom sale, this week only. (Stranger and stranger.)

The Hickman era really is it’s own beast. A lot of comics talk about having an “epic scale.” This one’s scope is staggering and the sheer size of the scope means it gets better and better as things progress in a way few comics really do. So just know that the entire era is effectively one extended story and it’s a real “in for a penny, in for a pound” thing.

The Jason Aaron era

Avengers

While not necessarily as complex as the Hickman era, there are a few different ways to read it:

Enter Jed MacKay

Avengers

We didn’t see it on the official list, but  V. 1 of the Jed MacKay / C.F. Villa Avengers run is on sale.

What’s at the top of the list for recommendations?

For the classic series, there are a lot of good runs. The first Roy Thomas/John Buscema run, particularly around the introduction of The Vision. The Kree-Skrull War. Steve Englehart’s Run. Jim Shooter’s run. Roger Stern’s run, particularly when the team of John Buscema and Tom Palmer return. There is a ton of good stuff to look at. When we factor in price point and page count (some of the newer Epic Collections are a little more expensive), we keep coming back to The Final Threat. Steve Englehart/ Gerry Conway / Jim Shooter / George Perez / John Byrne / John Buscema / Sal Buscema. You get the return of Wonder Man, “The Private War of Doctor Doom,” and “Bride of Ultron” for the major arcs. It’s a nice cross-section of creators and stories for $5.99.  But really, it’s hard to go wrong with the Kree-Skrull War through ~#200, and then pick it up again for Roger Stern.

We’re also major fans of the Kurt Busiek / George Perez run that begins here. A second golden age that stands up with the best runs.

Let’s face it, there have been a lot of good Avengers runs.

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, 5/6

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.  Also contained in the larger collection The Final Threat.

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.

There’s a bit more here, but these are a good start.

All-Stars and Friends

The DC All-Stars Sale runs through Monday, 5/6
All-Star Comics  The Atlantis Chronicles  Starman

DC seemingly randomly mixes some titles (lots of Aquaman this time) and… the correct sale pricing has returned. Yay!

A few things that caught our eye:

  • All-Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever – Gerry Conway / Paul Levitz / Wally Wood / Keith Giffen / Joe Staton; This collects the full Justice Society 70s run and you sure don’t want to be paying the usual HC omnibus price for it!
  • Aquaman (’94) – The Peter David run
  • Aquaman: The Death of a Prince – Most of the relevant ’70s Aquaman tales in one collection – Steve Skates / David Michelinie / Paul Levitz / Jim Aparo / Mike Grell / Don Newton.  It didn’t lack for quality creators, did it?
  • The Atlantis Chronicles – Peter David / Esteban Maroto; Listed as Aquaman, but this insanely under the radar classic is a high fantasy / magic vs. science tale of the history of Atlantis. This is where all the “Orin” references come from. It’s great, beautifully illustrated and another $49.99 HC omnibus price if it isn’t on sale.
  • Starman (’94) – James Robinson / Tony Harris; One of the best comics of the mid-90’s, full stop and what jumpstarted the legacy hero trend. DC needs to finish collecting this gem.

You Were Expecting Winnie the Pooh?

Gun Honey

The Titan Gun Honey Sale runs through Monday, 6/3

Gun Honey is a series of miniseries about a weapons smuggler. Part of why it’s a series of miniseries is likely because the author is oriented towards novels. Charles Ardai might not have a high profile in the comics world, but over in the mystery world he’s won an Edgar and a Shamus. He’s also the co-publisher of Hard Case Crime. (He also has one helluva collection of pulp novel covers.)

Ang Hor Kheng provides the art.

This is available as $0.99 single issues and $5.99 collected editions. The single issues are the better value.

Undeclared Major

Ether  The Rush  Dark Tower

An eclectic mix of unannounced sales this week:

Dark Horse is celebrating the work of David Rubin:

Vault has a few titles:

More of the Robin Furth / Peter David comics based on Stephen King’s The Dark Tower

And, lastly, Economix: How and Why Our Economy Works (and Doesn’t Work), in Words and Pictures by Michael Goodwin and Dan Burr.

Past that, don’t forget the Marvel May the 4th Star Wars Sale runs through Monday.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: (Pre-Film) Aquaman; Old Man Logan; Alpha Flight

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC discounts Aquaman ahead of the film, while Marvel drops prices on Old Man Logan and Alpha Flight.

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):

Wolverine… and the Sea?

Wolerine: Old Man Logan   Wolverine: Old Man Logan

The Marvel Old Logan and the Wasteland Sale runs through Monday, 12/18.

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

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

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

The Great White North

Alpha Flight  X-Men / Alpha Flight

The Marvel Alpha Flight Sale runs through Monday, 12/18.

We know what you’re thinking: “If Spider-Man could team up with the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, why couldn’t Alpha Flight team up with Bob and Doug McKenzie?” The way we heard it, this was proposed, but Guy Caballero nixed it.

The main item of note here is Alpha Flight Classic, 3 volumes that comprise the John Byrne run on the original series and a Bill Mantlo/Mike Mignola issue and Byrne essentially traded Alpha Flight for The Incredible Hulk. (We recall the Mantlo run being better than advertised, but there doesn’t currently seem to be interest in collecting it.)

Of possible related interest is X-Men / Alpha Flight, which features some early Uncanny X-Men appearances and two crossover mini-series. The 1985 mini by Chris Claremont and Paul Smith is particularly good and the first half of the “Asgardian Wars” story arc.

And for something out of left field, there’s the more recent Gamma Flight, which is an Alpha Flight adjacent spin-off of Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing, Crystal Frazier and Len Medina.

The Deep Blue Sea

Aquaman    Aquaman  Aquaman by Peter David

The DC Aquaman Sale runs through Monday, 12/18.

You’d think there was a movie coming out?

We’ve heard a few versions of what the new film is supposed to be about. Inspired by Silver Age Aquaman stories with Black Manta as the villain is one story we’ve heard. That it’s incorporating elements from the abandoned “The Trench” spin-off film in another.

We always associated Black Manta a little more with the 70s and the Death of a Prince storyline, but he debuted in ’67 and made some more appearances as the first Aquaman run was ending. And, really, the Steve Skeates/Jim Aparo run was one of the better Silver Age runs, so there you go. That’s collected in a couple books that are a little more expensive than things we’ve seen in recent weeks. Manta pops up in The Search for Mera, but we think what the filmmakers are referring to are the Deadly Waters stories, where Manta tries to usurp Atlantis.

All this business about “The Trench” is from the first two volumes of the Geoff Johns / Ivan Reis (New 52) run, where Aquaman encounters a scary race of creatures from the deepest depths of an undersea trench. The second volume, “The Others,” is particularly good.

Another take was the Peter David / Martin Egeland ’90s Aquaman run, which featured an angrier, more violent Aquaman who’d lost a hand and replaced it with a hook. Popular, but controversial.

But if you want an unusual (and quite enjoyable) run, you’re looking for Aquman: Sword of Atlantis. Kurt Busiek and Jackson Guice added an undersea Conan feel to the feature with plenty of sorcery and a bit of mystery around who various characters really were. We wished this version had a longer run.

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Comixology Sales: DC’s Odd Valentine’s Day Selections, Hellboy, Nova, Jeff Lemire and Kieron Gillen

This week’s Comixology Sales are highlighted by DC’s… unusual sense of romance, the many incarnations of Nova over at Marvel, Image’s 2020 highlights and delicate embrace of Hellboy.

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

Not the Nova from Planet of the Apes

Marvel’s Nova Sale runs through Sunday (2/14).

Starting at the beginning, Nova  Classic is the original Marv Wolfman series that’s probably most associated artistically with Sal Buscema and Carmine Infantino.  And yes, volume 3 does include the wrap up in Fantastic Four.

Nova by Abnett & Lanning is the series that the Annihilation event series spun out of. That would be Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning with a rotating roster of artists. This one had some pretty wild concepts, like a city made out of the corpse of a Celestial, long before Avengers Mountain was a thing.

New Warriors was team book that had a definite moment in the sun in the 90s. Nova was a member, as were Namorita, Vance Astro/Marvel Boy, Speedball and their leader, Night Thrasher.  This is a fun title most people associate with Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley.

Nova Classic   Nova by Abnett & Lanning  New Warriors

Image celebrates 2020 so you don’t have to

The Image Best of 2020 Sale runs through Thursday (2/25).

Descender / Ascender  are two titles by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen.  Descender is the tale of a robot cast in the form a little boy and a robot rebellion.  It is a wonderful series that earns it hype.  Ascender is the sequel series that takes things in a fantasy direction.

Die by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans is the extra dark tale of a group of gamers who thought they’d seen the last of a fantasy realm they’d entered and escaped from. They were wrong.  If you wanted to look at this as a nightmare mirror of the old 1980s Saturday morning Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, that’s not a bad point of reference.  Good series.

Gideon Falls is also by that Lemire guy, with time with Andrea Sorrentino for an excellent time hopping, body possessing horror tale of which we’d rather not say more for fear of spoilers.

Descender   Ascender   Die   Gideon Falls

DC has a strange take on Valentine’s Day

The DC’s Heroes in Love Sale runs through Monday (2/15). We have to say, Birth of the Demon and Longbow Hunters miiiiiiiight not be what we’d push for a romantic theme, but your mileage may vary… we’ll forge ahead with that in mind.

Aquaman: The Search for Mera  is the beginning  of the Steve Skeates/ Jim Aparo run on Aquaman that’s gotten a lot of love over the years. In this arc (and DC didn’t have so many arcs like this in ’68) Mera has been abducted and Aquaman goes on a quest to find her that involves some fantasy tropes, the mob, Black Manta and an insurrection. It covers a lot of ground.  Since this is currently matching the print hardcover price, the sale has it at a heftier discount than most.

Mad Love is Paul Dini and Bruce Timm telling the origin story of Harley Quinn in the Batman: The Animated Series continuity. A very, very influential tale by the two best people to tell it.  Worth a look and yes, Harley’s in love.  Not in a healthy relationship, but in love.

Mister Miracle #18 is the wedding issue for Scott Free and Big Barda. After the Batman non-wedding, we thought maybe it was worth highlighting an actual wedding for Valentine’s Day? It’s Jack Kirby, after all!

Aquaman   Mad Love   Mister Miracle

Go straight to Hellboy

The Hellboy Sale runs through Monday (2/21).

Hellboy (proper) is the regular series you’re most familiar. Do we really have to say anything about something that’s widely considered a classic and has spawned a couple films, among other things?  Didn’t think so.  The Omnibus editions of this are by far your best value.  We also love when Richard Corben popped in.

Hellboy and the BPRD is a companion of series of miniseries filling in the backstory. You’ll find most of these are titled by the year and they’re working their way through the 1950s.  Tip – if the digital collected edition only has 5 issues in it, as is usually the case here, you can save a buck by getting the $0.99 single issues.

Hellboy   Hellboy and the BPRD

Still on Sale

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