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

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

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.

Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus (the covers say “Complete Collection”)
Avengers by Jonathan Hickman: The Complete Collection
Secret Wars

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.

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. 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+?

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

Dark Horse has a Millarverse Sale going on:

The Magic Order – Mark Millar / Olivier Coipel / Stuart Immomen
Nemesis: Reloaded – Mark Millar / Jorge Jiménez
Night Club – Mark Millar / Juanan Ramirez
Wanted & Big Game Library Edition – Mark Millar / JG Jones / Pepe Larraz

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

Single volumes
Omnibus editions (the better value)

Also on sale:

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

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

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

Symbiote Spider-Man 2099 – Peter David / Roge Antonio

Dropping Next Week

Venom: Separation Anxiety – The King In Purple – David Michelinie / Gerardo Sandoval; $8.99

Still on Sale

The Marvel Masterworks Sale runs through Monday, 1/20
Kodansha Catch Up With Nagatoro Sale runs through Monday, 1/13
Titan Comics: The Horror, The Eerie & The Strange Sale runs through Friday, 1/31

Posted on January 10, 2025January 10, 2025 by comics_p1pusl

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

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Administrative Notes

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

DC $1.99 Mania Continued (Part II)

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

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

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

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

May the Sale Be With You

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

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

Darth Vader by Gillen & Larroca Omnibus – Brilliant take on Vader slowly realizing who Luke really is and that he’s been lied to
Star Wars: Darth Vader by Charles Soule Omnibus – Vader hunts the Jedi, post-Revenge of the Sith… yes, this includes a Jedi librarian
Doctor Aphra – Think Indiana Jones in Star Wars, but less scrupulous and a lady. The Gillen/Walker run in the first omnibus is particularly good.
Star Wars (’15-’19) – This is Marvel’s revival from 10 years ago, starting with the Aaron/Cassaday run
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Largely from the later issues of Dark Horse’s Star Wars: Republic
Star Wars: The Empire – Dark Horse’s Dark Times series
Star Wars: The High Republic – Marvel version (as opposed to the Dark Horse current option)
Star Wars: The New Republic – Rogue Squadron
Star Wars Legends – Tales that are no longer cannon. Notably, The New Republic V.2 includes The Thrawn Trilogy and Dark Empire. V.
Star Wars: The Old Republic – Dark Horse’s Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: The Rebellion – This is where you’ll find the 70s/80s Marvel series, Dark Horse’s Star Wars: Empire and the movie adaptations
Star Wars Universe – A mix of Marvel UK, Dark Horse equivalents to Elseworlds, and Droids
War of the Bounty Hunters – Marvel line-wide Event from ’20

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

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

The Best of the Best of the Best

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

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

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

If Not, Why Not?

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

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

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

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

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

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

The trend continues. New releases at lower than expected price points and discounted pre-orders. Is this the new normal? We’re not sure, but let’s run them down.

Dropping This Week

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

Unannounced Sales

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

“Star Wars” – Rebels / Tales from the Rancor Pit / Tales from the Death Star
Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures
Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories
- Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories Volume 3–Light and Shadow
Vader’s Castle The Deluxe Library Collection

Also on sale:

40: A Doonesbury Retrospective, 2000 to 2010 – G.B. Trudeau
Bad Dreams in the Night (Horror Stories by Adam Ellis) – Adam Ellis

Still on Sale

The Marvel Epic Collection Sale runs through Monday, 1/6
The Catch up with Kodansha Sale runs through Monday, 12/23
The Zenescope Holiday Special Editions Sale runs through Tuesday, 12/31

Posted on December 20, 2024December 20, 2024 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Black Friday Sales, Part 1 – The Annual Marvel Omnibus Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Black Friday sales are early this year. In Part 1, it’s the annual Marvel Omnibus Sale and we break out what’s new to the sale since last year.

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):

Important Black Friday Administrative Notes:

This week the Black Friday sales are out a week before Black Friday. (Everyone’s doing it!) There were some problems with the ones that were posted the morning of Tuesday, 11/19. If you bought something off the deals page On Tuesday, double check and make sure the price isn’t a little lower right now. All the new sales were removed from the deals page Tuesday evening and reposted a few hours later. The new prices should be correct (although we need to take a closer look at the reposted DC sale).

Because of the size and all the hubbub around the (now) Annual Marvel Omnibus Sale, we’re looking at that right away and will come back at the usual time for the DC sale and anything else that pops up.

The Annual Marvel Omnibus Sale (Omni-Man is Elsewhere)

The Marvel Omnibus Sale runs through Monday 12/2.

The Marvel omnibuses will run as long as ~1200 pages / 50 issues, although page and issue counts vary per issue. They’re mostly running in the $10-$15 range, instead of the $30-40-ish range, so the prices are slashed and 50 issues for $15 would be $0.30/issue.

There are a few things here that aren’t in other collections, but the reason we keep hearing that folks like the digital versions is that they’re easier to sort. That is to say, fewer items in your digital library.

So first, let’s run down the list of what we think are all the Omnibuses released since last year’s sale (or rather, getting discounted the first time since then). Did you think Marvel was releasing quite a few Omnibus editions in the last year? Yeah, you might be surprised. And this doesn’t include Rom or Micronauts, neither of which appear to be discounted. Annotations added when appropriate:

Alpha Flight by John Byrne Omnibus
Amazing Spider-Man by Nick Spencer Omnibus Vol. 2
Avengers Omnibus Vol. 4 – Notable for the Kree/Skrull War, Avengers/Defenders War and early Englehart
Avengers Omnibus Vol. 5 – The meat of the Steve Englehart run; Highly recommended
Black Panther by Christopher Priest Omnibus Vol. 2 – Highly recommended, but make sure you start at the beginning
Captain America Omnibus Vol. 4 – The ’70s Jack Kirby run, which means MADBOMB!
Captain America by Mark Gruenwald Omnibus Vol. 1 – While not always talked about, Gruenwald’s run started long before Steve Rogers lost the the shield and it’s useful to read the Flag Smasher and Super-Patriot tales first… like here
Captain America by Nick Spencer Omnibus Vol. 2 – Includes Secret Empire
Captain America: Return Of The Winter Soldier Omnibus – End of the Brubaker run, plus the Brubaker Winter Soldier series; Recommended
Daredevil by Brubaker & Lark Omnibus Vol. 2 – Recommended, with the caveat that we consider the Bendis run and Brubaker run to be one long saga that this volume wraps up
Daredevil by Chip Zdarsky Omnibus Vol. 1 – First 30 issues; Recommended
Daredevil by Mark Waid Omnibus – This is a 2-volume set w/ great art (Rivera/Martin/Samnee); Highly Recommended
Devil’s Reign Omnibus – We count this as part of the Zdarsky Daredevil run
Ghost Rider by Jason Aaron Omnibus
House Of M Omnibus Companion
Hulk: Maestro by Peter David Omnibus
Incredible Hulk by Byrne & Casey Omnibus – It should be noted, that’s the second Byrne run w/Ron Garney on art
Invincible Iron Man Omnibus Vol. 3
Iron Fist: Danny Rand – The Early Years Omnibus – Why yes, this does include the Deadly Hands of Kung Fu stories
MARVEL: FEBRUARY 1964 OMNIBUS – Everything published in Feb of ’64
Marvel Universe by Arthur Adams Omnibus – Back when he did more interior work
Mystic Omnibus – The Crossgen series
New Mutants Omnibus Vol. 3 – The Louise Simonson era
New Warriors Classic Omnibus Vol. 3
Phoenix Omnibus Vol. 2 – Phoenix-centric issues of various titles
Sigil Omnibus – One of the Crossgen titles
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Omnibus Vol. 1 – A really nice mix of rotating talent; Recommended
Spider-Man by Chip Zdarsky Omnibus
Spider-Man by Michelinie & Bagley Omnibus Vol. 1
Spider-Man: Ben Reilly Omnibus Vol. 2 – The end of the Clone Saga
Thor by Jason Aaron Omnibus Vol. 2
Thor by Straczynski & Gillen Omnibus
Thunderbolts Red Omnibus
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man: Death Of Spider-Man Omnibus – Exit Peter, enter Miles
Ultimate Marvel by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus – Ultimates / Thor / Hawkeye
Ultimate Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 3 – Concluding the first series / Bendis & Bagley run; Recommended
Ultimate X-Men Omnibus Vol. 2 – Bendis/Vaughan/Kirkman/Carey/Finch/Andy Kubert/Immomen/Dillon/Raney… the talent lineup has aged well.
Wolverine Omnibus Vol. 4 – Larry Hama era, plus side titles
Wolverine Omnibus Vol. 5 – The Larry Hama era marches on, plus side titles
X-Factor: The Original X-Men Omnibus Vol. 1
X-Men 2099 Omnibus
X-Men: The Hidden Years Omnibus – John Byrne’s tales of the original team after the series was cancelled, but before the new team formed
X-Men: Mutant Massacre Prelude Omnibus – The run-up, but line-wide, so the Longshot and Nightcrawler mini’s are included, for instance

Is that enough Omnibus activity for one year? Only David Gabriel’s opinion of that matters! At any rate, the omnibuses have historically gone on sale once a year and that’s now, so it’s worth your time to have a browse through the actual sale at some point before 12/2. The official page is NOT well organized, so you can also use the above list to get quicker access to some of the series, just click on the series link on the book page.

A few “older” items we would make sure you’re aware of:

Captain Britain Omnibus – This has everything from the beginning of the 70s UK run through Captain Britain Magazine and the early X-Men appearances. What you’re really getting this for are the excellent and groundbreaking Alan Moore/Alan Davis and Jamie Delano/Alan Davis runs from the end of this period, which we’re not currently seeing available elsewhere. The rest is a bonus.
Incredible Hulk by Peter David Omnibus 1-5. That would be Hulk by David with that ridiculous sequence of artists he had, including Todd McFarlane, Gary Frank, Dale Keown, Angel Medina and Liam Sharp. 1-4 collect his original run and V. 5 collects some of the many times he’s revisited Hulk since the original run ended. Why the omnibus? Because this is a weird run to pick up in collected editions. It starts out in “Marvel Visionary” editions and eventually switches over to Epic Collections. This is just a drastically easier way to grab an exceptionally long run and probably cheaper than waiting to score the Visionary editions on sale. We also don’t mind tipping our hat to Peter David when he’s recovering from some health problems.
Knights of Pendragon Omnibus was out of the Marvel UK office. Knight of Pendragon was a Captain Britain-adjacent title. Dai Thomas, the supporting character from the main strip, is more of the central character with Captain Britain and Union Jack along for the ride. This was largely a Dan Abnett/John Tomlinson/Garry Erksine feature. You get some Brian Hitch art from Mys-Tech Wars and Carlos Pacheco art from Dark Guard. This is another where if you want the comics, it’s Omnibus or the back issue bins.
Miracleman Omnibus is the 80s revival of the British character Marvelman by Alan Moore, Gary Leach, Alan Davis, John Totleben and Rick Veitch. Another of Moore’s pre-Watchmen superhero deconstructions with a Captain Marvel (Shazam)-like character rediscovering his magic word after years of a normal life and very bad things following that. A landmark book that fell to the wayside after years and years of legal battles over who held which rights. This one isn’t on sale very often and it’s roughly as cheap as you’ll find it.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

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

Amazing Spider-Man By Zeb Wells Vol. 11: Going Green – Zeb Wells / Ed McGuinness / Todd Nauck – $10.99

Pre-Order for Next Week

Deadpool By Cody Ziglar Vol. 1: Blood Bond – Cody Ziglar / Rogê Antônio – $8.99
Midnight Sons: Blood Hunt – Bryan Hill / German Peralta – $6.99
X-Men ’97: Great X-Pectations – Steve Foxe / Salva Espín $6.99

Still on Sale

The Marvel X-Men: The Krakoan Age Sale runs through Monday, 11/25
The Un-be-leafable Image Comics Sale runs through Black Friday
The Markosia Half Price Sale runs through Black Friday

Posted on November 20, 2024 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Image Comics Returns; X-Men; Moon Knight; Green Arrow; Minor Threats

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Image Comics returns to the discount listing for the first time in a year. DC offers sale prices on some more recent titles like Green Arrow. Marvel cuts prices on Moon Knight, X-Men, and Avengers vs. X-Men. Plus, Minor Threats.

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):

Holy Crap! Image Is Back?!?

The Hooked on Image Comics Sale runs through Thursday, 8/29.

We get a lot of questions about why Image hasn’t had any sales lately. Interestingly, this is right about when Image resurfaced for a few weeks of sales in mid-August 2023. Um, ’tis the season?

This is a rather small and… almost alphabetical slice of Image?

Things we’ve read and can happily recommend:

Black Magick – Greg Rucka / Nicola Scott; a police detective who happens to be a witch has her worlds collide. What were Rucka and Scott doing before the Wonder Woman relaunch? This.
Cassanova – Matt Fraction / Gabriel Ba; Extra trippy adventures with a dimension-hopping thief caught up in a conspiracy with a very Jerry Cornelius vibe to it.
Chew – John Layman / Rob Guillory; Absurdist adventures in a world where eating chicken is outlawed with a federal agent who experiences the sense of what he eats. So if he ate your thumb, he’d know where it had been. Black humor abounds, as to vampires and a death-dealing rooster. It’s a favorite. Layman’s now working on Spawn and Titans. This is the book that really launched Layman.
Nailbiter – Josh Williamson / Mike Henderson; Why does a small town in Oregon produce so many serial killers? A federal agent descends upon the town with one of those prodigal serial killers in tow, looking to find out. One of the things Williamson was doing before Superman and GI Joe took over his hours.

And By Recent, We Mean Within 5 Years

The DC Recent Hits Sale runs through Monday, 8/19.

It does have some new releases in it, though. More importantly, there are plenty of $2.99 collected editions. Let’s work through some highlights.

Batman: The Adventures Continue V.3 – Alan Burnett / Paul Dini / Ty Templeton; The delightful continuation of the 90s cartoon continues
Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo – Marc Silvestri
Crisis on Multiple Earths Book 3: Countdown to Crisis – One of the better collections of JLA/JSA team-ups, including the New Gods and All-Star Squadron encounters
Danger Street V.1 – Tom King / Jorge Fornés; King decided to do a series with the characters from the obscure First Issue Special series (Warlord, Creeper, Manhunter, Green Team, Dingbats of Danger Street). You probably know if you’re the target audience or not. If you are, it hits the notes.
Fables: The Deluxe Edition Book Sixteen – Bill Willingham / Mark Buckingham; The recent revival (during which, the words “public domain” were uttered)
Green Arrow: V. 1 Reunion – Josh Williamson / Sean Izaakse; The current Green Arrow takes a “family” (as in Flash Family / Batman Family) approach as starts down the road to Absolute Power
The Sandman Universe: Nightmare Country – James Tyion IV / Lisandro Estherren; Tynion writes a series with The Corninthian
Superman (’23) – Josh Williamson / Jamal Campbell; Rock solid current series. V.2 is now discounted to $2.99
World’s Finest – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; great comic, three volumes discounted

X-Men: The Glory Years

The Marvel X-Men Masterworks/Epic Collections Sale runs through Monday, 8/26.

To paraphrase The Blues Brothers, “We’ve got both kinds, Epics and Masterworks.”

Which is to say this is all contained in the original X-Men series link.

Pick your preferred format. In general, the Epics have a more pages and end up being more bang for your buck… although the more recent Masterworks have been pretty thick volumes.

From a pragmatic standpoint, the Masterworks volumes have everything in order through issue #243 (Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 16 – which covers Inferno).

The Epic Collections exist in order through #198… and then they start jumping ahead to Jim Lee / Whilce Portacio era. If you’re looking for 90s X-Men, you want the Epics.

If you’ve never tried the original X-Men, we’d say go with The Sentinels Live Epic Collection. It’s at the very tail end of the original run that the original X-Men run is at its best: a bit of Jim Steranko and then a Roy Thomas / Neal Adams sequence that ended all too quickly.

For the “new” X-Men, we’re cool with the theory that Giant-Sized X-Men #1 / Uncanny X-Men #94 through #200 is one big arc. That’s where we’d start if we were new. The Epic Collections stop at #198 before jumping ahead and that’s super annoying. #200 is a landmark issue.

The Light of the Silvery Moon

The Marvel Moon Knight Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

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.

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.

Highlights of the rest:

Moon Knight ’89-’94 – Most of this is only collected in omnibus form for the longest running volume. This is largely the Terry Kavanaugh years with Gary Kwapisz and James Fry on art. Possibly more interesting, it also includes a Bruce Jones/Denys Cowan special and a Doug Moench/Art Nichols team-up with Shang Chi. (A second volume with earlier issues drops in October.)
Moon Knight ’10-12 – Brian Bendis / Alex Maleev; Controversial to say the least, this one really leans into Moon Knight’s multiple personality disorder and breaks the character if you prefer the original concept. On the other hand, it’s surprisingly witty and funny. One of the oddest takes on the character.
Moon Knight ’14-’15- Most notable for the style-forward Warren Ellis/Declan Shalvey reworking (introducing the business suit)

The novelist corner, because Marvel has put a couple name novelists on the property:

Moon Knight ’06-’09 – Charlie Huston / David Finch
Vengeance of the Moon Knight ’09-’10; Gregg Hurwitz / Jerome Opeña

Friday Night Fights

The Marvel AvX & A.X.E. Sale runs through Monday, 8/19.

And by “AvX,” they mean Avengers vs. X-Men. “Go along to get along” doesn’t necessarily apply here.

The “primary” Avengers Vs. X-Men was an Event back in ’12 with all sorts of creators contributing to it. Were there tie-in books? It’s Marvel, so there were plenty. Avengers vs. X-Men: VS was essentially the “all-fights” series.

Also included is the more recent A.X.E.: Judgment Day, the Kieron Gillen/Valerio Schiti – driven Event that crossed over Avengers, X-Men and The Eternals.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

The trend returns after a short break. 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

Beware the Planet of the Apes – Marc Guggenheim / Alvaro Lopez; Direct prequel and lead-in to the original/Charlton Heston films, including mutants; $6.99
Resurrection of Magnet0 – Al Ewing / Luciano Vecchio; Part of the Krakoa end game/wrap up; $6.99

Pre-Order for Next Week

Cable: United We Fall – Fabian Nicieza / Scot Eaton; $6.99
Sentry: Legacy – Jason Loo / Luigi Zagaria; $6.99

Unannounced Sales

That Patton Oswalt guy has recently been seen in comic shops promoting his “Minor Threats” franchise. Guess what’s on sale?

Minor Threats Volume 1: A Quick End To A Long Beginning – Patton Oswalt / Jordan Blum / Scott Hepburn
From the World of Minor Threats: The Alternates – Patton Oswalt / Tim Seeley / Jordan Blum / Tess Fowler / Christopher Mitten

Also from Dark Horse:

Daisy – Colin Lorimer
UXB – Colin Lorimer

Still on Sale

The Kodansha End of Summer Sale runs through Monday, 8/19

Posted on August 16, 2024 by comics_p1pusl

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

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:

Avengers (’63 – ’96) – The original!
Acts of Vengeance: Avengers (’89) – The crossover Event
Avengers (’98 – ’04) – Starts with Kurt Busiek/George Perez, then Geoff Johns
New Avengers (’04-’10) – The Bendis era starts in earnest
Avengers Infinity (’00) – Roger Stern / Sean Chen
Avengers: Celestial Quest (’01 – ’02) – Steve Englehart / Jorge Santamaria / Joe Staton
Avengers (’10-’12) – Brian Bendis / John Romita, Jr. / Bryan Hitch (cheaper in Omnibus format)
All-New, All-Different Avengers (’15 -’16) – Mark Waid / Adam Kubert / Mahmud Asrar
Avengers (’16-18) – Mark Waid / Mike del Mundo
Avengers: Four (’17-’18) – Mark Waid / Barry Kitson
Avengers & Champions (’17)
All-Out Avengers (’22) and Avengers Beyond (’23) – Derek Landy / Greg Land

The Jonathan Hickman era

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

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

“Regular” collected editions
Doubled-volumes – not complete, but a little cheaper for what’s out.
Avengers Forever

Enter Jed MacKay

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!

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

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?

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

An eclectic mix of unannounced sales this week:

Dark Horse is celebrating the work of David Rubin:

Ether – w/ Matt Kindt
Mind MGMT: Bootleg – w/ Matt Kindt
Norse Mythology – w/ Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell
Assorted Black Hammer titles

Vault has a few titles:

Barbaric by Michael Moreci & Nathan Gooden – V.1 & 2 here; V. 3 here
The Plot – Tim Daniel / Michael Moreci / Joshua Hixson
The RUSH: This Hungry Earth Reddens Under Snowclad Hills – Si Spurrier / Nathan Gooden
West of Sundown – Tim Seeley / Aaron Campbell / Jim Terry

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

The Gunslinger: The Journey Begins – w/ Sean Phillips
The Little Sisters of Eluria – w/Luke Ross
The Battle of Tull – w/ Michael Lark
The Way Station – w/ Lawrence Campbell
The Man in Black – w/ Alex Maleev
Last Shots – w/ Dean White

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.

Still on Sale

The Marvel May the 4th Star Wars Sale runs through Monday, 5/6
The Titan The Thirteenth Doctor Sale runs through Monday, 5/20
Zenescope Grimm Fairy Tales Proper Sale runs through Wednesday, 5/15

Posted on May 3, 2024 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Jonathan Hickman’s Marvel Catalog; Jonah Hex; Loki; Kraven the Hunter

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts their Jonathan Hickman catalog, plus Kraven the Hunter and Loki. DC starts to crank up the Halloween sales, Image finishes off it’s alphabet sale and Caliber pops up.

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):

DC Says “Boo”

The DC Fights and Frights Sale runs through Monday, 10/9.

Another eclectic mix of titles, what’s good and/or hasn’t popped up in a bit?

Checkmate by Greg Rucka (and later Eric Trautman) / Jesus Saiz is an under-rated title that hasn’t popped up lately. This is a blend of spies and superheroes with Mister Terrific, Green Lantern and Fire in the initial mix… and, of course, Amanda Waller lurks.

Doctor Fate by Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew – We don’t always like these “reimagining’s,” but Levitz & Liew knock it out of the park as the helmet of Fate settles upon the head of a Brooklyn med student. A lot more is made of Fate’s Egyptian origins in this version, and not just that Anubis is causing trouble. This flew under too many radars.

Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris. Yeah, that’s right. Pre-Saga Vaughan and post-Starman Harris teaming up for political intrigue as NYC’s first and only superhero, “The Great Machine” finds himself elected mayor. This one mixes political plots with superhero hijinks and how can you have superpowers + politics without a conspiracy? This one’s sometimes overlooked because it was Wildstorm, but not WildCATS.

The ’00s incarnation of Jonah Hex is something of a palette-cleansing delight. Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray are the writers. While there are arcs, they’ll also deal in single issue stories. Why? Because at a certain point, they just get crazy with really high end guest artists. Jordi Bernet is a regular. Darwyn Cooke shows up. Paul Gulacy. Russ Heath. J. H. Williams III. Andy Kubert. Fiona Staples. Come for the western, stay for the art.

Superman: Phantom Zone is a favorite oddity from the ’80s. Steve Gerber (Man-Thing) and Gene Colan (Tomb of Dracula, Night Force) have celebrated backgrounds in horror comics. What if they did a Superman horror comic? Well, they kind of did. This one gets metaphysical as Superman discovers some problems inside the Phantom Zone. Warning: this gets much weirder than you’re used to Superman getting. Also includes the Gerber/Rick Veitch follow-up from DC Comics Presents. Hey, Halloween beckons.

Daniel Warren Johnson seems to be having a moment right now. Wonder Woman: Dead Earth is his Black Label (read: Elseworlds) tale of Diana waking up in a post-apocalyptic hellscape of world with few humans left and plenty of monsters hunting them. So she goes monster hunting as she tries to piece together how the world got this way. Does Johnson out-metal Dark Knights: Metal? Yeah, we’d say so.

Hickman

The Marvel Jonathan Hickman Sale runs through Monday, 10/9.

Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus (the covers say “Complete Collection,” the Amazon listing doesn’t
Avengers by Jonathan Hickman: The Complete Collection
Secret Wars

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 (not on sale) to better appreciate what an unusual tapestry was being weaved.

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 on sale here.)

Craving What?!?

The Marvel Kraven Sale runs through Monday, 10/9.

Yes, it would appear somebody’s getting out early and ahead of next year’s Kraven the Hunter film. So what are we looking at here?

For most people, “Kraven’s Last Hunt” by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck is the pinnacle of the character (and count us in that group). Therein, Kraven takes his final revenge on Spidey. One of the darker Spider-Man tales and one that hit classic status pretty much as soon as it hit the shelf. There are plenty of ways to but this one, but we think the Kraven’s Last Hunt Epic Collection is a good buy with a lot of extra comics around this tale.

If you’re looking for a more traditional tale of Kraven, there aren’t really collections built around that (doubtless, there will be when the movie arrives), but the Spider-Man No More Epic Collection includes an early Kraven tale among it’s collection of Stan Lee / John Romita, Jr. goodness.

And if you’d like something a little more modern and little more off-kilter, X-Force V.5 by Benjamin Percy & Robert Gill hunting mutants as he tries to prove he’s the real apex predator.

God of Mischief

The Marvel Loki Sale runs through Monday, 10/16.

You’d think a TV show was returning? Anyway, these days you have “post-TV” Loki and traditional Loki.

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

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

The End of the Alphabet

The Image Comics Discovery Sale part 4 runs through Sunday, 10/15.

This sale will conclude Image’s return to the Comixology deals page after roughly half a year with the first volumes of titles beginning with the letters S through Z. It ends on a Sunday, but this sale has always been ending on odd days, so that’s not a huge surprise. What are some interesting titles? Let’s hit some highlights in bullet form first:

Seven to Eternity – Rick Remender / Jerome Opeña
Sex Criminals – Matt Fraction / Chip Zdarksy
Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton – Kyle Starks / Chris Schweizer
Starlight – Mark Millar / Goran Parlov
The Black Monday Murders – Jonathan Hickman (who?) / Tomm Coker
The Department of Truth – James Tynion IV / Martin Simmonds
The Fade Out – Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips
The Fix – Nick Spencer / Steve Lieber
The Goddamned – Jason Aaron / R.M. Guera
The Good Asian – Pornsak Pichetshote / Alexandre Tefenkgi
twenty-seven – Charles Soule / Renzo Podestá
Velvet – Ed Brubaker / Steve Epting

That’s a pretty nice list, but let’s highlight the volumes with a complete story.

The first nod goes to Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton, which is a complete tale in one volume. When an incredibly obnoxious and abusive TV action star is murdered, his six emotionally damaged former sidekicks reluctantly team up to figure out who did the deed. A very, very funny and fairly dark book.

Starlight might be our favorite of Millar’s Image era. The high concept here is an aging Flash Gordon-type returned to Earth, didn’t quite get the hero’s welcome one might expect and is nearing retirement in suburbia, when a ship from the planet he saved some ~40 years prior arrives looking for help. This is a much less over the top Millar staying within the traditional lines of, and writing a love letter to, the classic “planetary romance” space opera and Goran Parlov is vastly under-rated.

twenty-seven has a second volume, but it’s a sequel. V.1 is the secret of why all those musicians have been dying at the age of 27. Spoilers: the deaths weren’t natural.

But Is It 9mm or .45?

The Caliber Comics October Sale runs through Tuesday, 10/31.

There are a few titles here that were notable in the ’80s indie boom.

Deadworld by Stuart Kerr, Vince Locke, Gary Reed and Dan Day (among others)
The Realm by Ralph Griffith / Stuart Kerr / Guy Davis
Jazz Age Chronicles – Ted Slampyak

And plenty of Don Lomax war comics.

But if you want something a little more recent, Ageless might be of interest. It’s written by Torunn GrØnbekk, who’s been recently been writing Thor, with art by San Espina.

Still on Sale

The Kodansha Monsters & Mayhem Sale runs through Monday, 10/16
Zenescope’s Bring Terror to your Lives with this Halloween Sale runs through Sunday, 10/22
The Dark Horse 2023 The Witcher Digital Sale runs through Monday, 10/9
The Media Do A Side Character’s Love Story Sale runs through Tuesday, 10/17
The Dark Horse 2023 Usagi Yojimbo Digital Sale runs through Monday, 10/16

Posted on October 6, 2023October 6, 2023 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Avengers Vs. X-Men; DC in the 90s; Hawkeye; Critical Role

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC discounts the 90s. Marvel slashes sales prices on the Avengers vs. X-Men line of Events and also Hawkeye. Dark Horse offers up Critical Role and Zenescope slips Robyn Hood into the mix.

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):

After the 80s…

The DC 90s Rewind Sale runs through Monday, 8/7.

DC in the 90s… well, we’ll tell you straight off the bat, they’re missing Starman. And they’re missing the Strazeswki/Parobeck Justice Society. (The lead-in mini is collected, but not the lost classic ongoing.) Some of the better 90s material from DC isn’t currently in print. That said, let’s look at some deals and maybe a little off the beaten path.

Batman: Haunted Knight is the Batman material that Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale did before they did The Long Halloween. It doesn’t get talked about as much, but trust us, that first Halloween special they did came out of nowhere and was a jolt to the system.

Aztek: The Ultimate Man is quite the oddity today. For a little while, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar were a writing team. This was their superhero offering, who would later show up in JLA. N. Steven Harris was the artist.

The Spectre by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake was one of the best under the radar books of the 90s. A character study, too, as Jim Corrigan comes to grips with being dead and sharing an existence with an avenging spirit. We wish the entire run was available.

And some of the better 90s DC comics were outside the confines of the DC imprint.

Ignore that awful film, the original League of Extraordinary Gentleman comic was great. Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neil assembled (on behalf of the government, naturally) a team of characters drawn from Victorian fantasy and horror novels. Alan Quarterman, Captain Nemo, Mina Harkness, Mister Hyde and The Invisible Man. It’s a fun one… in a dark way. Originally set up at Wildstorm, DC was the early publisher.

You could probably argue that Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon was Vertigo’s flagship title, post-Sandman and it ran for the back half of the 90s as Jesse Custer goes on a rather angry quest to find out why God has gone missing. You may have seen it on TV.

And then there’s Hellblazer. It technically started in ’88, but was Vertigo’s longest lived title and supported a parade of high end writers and artists. The first two volumes, ironically the 80s material, are at a particularly good price and this was a consistently good title.

Crossovers!

The Marvel Uncanny X-Men/Avengers Crossover Sale runs through Monday, 8/7.

This is quite a jumble of Events. Let’s try and put a little context around them.

This batch starts with X-Men Vs. Avengers/Fantastic Four, which collects two miniseries from 1987. X-Men Vs. Avengers (Roger Stern/Marc Silvestri for three issues, the Tom DeFalco/Jim Shooter/Keith Pollard) and X-Men vs. Fantastic Four (Chris Claremont / Jon Bogdanove).

Fast forward to 1993 and Avengers/X-Men: Bloodties, a Genosha-centric arc that spanned the Avengers and X-Men titles.

In 1996, X-Men/Avengers: Onslaught (yes, most people just call it “Onslaught”) was more of an X-event, but spanned a number of Avengers titles… and Spidey, and FF… as it set things up for the Image founders to take over some titles in the aftermath.

2000 brought us Maximum Security, wherein The Supreme Intelligence manages to get Earth designated a penal colony for dumping off the worst intergalactic offenders. Kurt Busiek & Jerry Ordway handle the miniseries and it crosses over with many Avengers and X-Men family titles.

In 2009, Avengers/X-Men: Utopia isn’t really an Avengers/X-Men event in the traditional sense. This is set during the “Dark Reign” period and the X-Men have a run in with Norman Osborn’s “Dark Avengers” team as Normy tries to set up a “Dark X-Men.”

Alrighty, then! Now, we’re to the part where things start to bleed together (in the name of circulation, naturally). Hold tight.

Things kick off with Avengers Vs. X-Men (promoted as AVX). Who were the creators? Almost everyone at Marvel in 2012. Check out all the varieties of companion books in the main listing!

In the aftermath of AVX, Uncanny Avengers debuts. This is an attempt to have a sort of merged Avengers/X-Men personnel unit. Naturally, the Red Skull shows up to cause trouble. Rick Remender is the writer. John Cassaday is the launch artist and Daniel Acuna is the primary artist after he leaves. The end of the first volume/run leads right into…

Avengers & X-Men: Axis, wherein the Red Skull powers up, gets some allies and turns everything upside down. Remender’s the writer with Adam Kubert, Leinil Francis Yu, Terry Dodson and Jim Cheung hopping in and out on art. There were quite a few tie-ins at the time, but those collected editions don’t appear to be on sale.

In the aftermath of Axis, Remender and Acuna return for one more Uncanny Avengers outing. Then Uncanny Avengers relaunches with Gerry Duggan writing and an artist rotation of Ryan Stegman / Carlos Pacheco / Pepe Larraz.

Hawk-Guy

The Marvel Hawkeye Sale runs through Monday, 8/7.

Let’s run through the highlights of the sale, knowing that Hawkeye’s typically been in fairly short runs.

Hawkeye Epic Collection – This builds around the Mark Gruenwald (yes, writer/artist) miniseries from ’83 and fills it out with various earlier appearances from Avengers, Marvel Team-Up, Tales of Suspense, etc.)
Hawkeye (2012-15) – The famous Matt Fraction/David Aja run, now in one volume.
Hawkeye (2015-16) – The Jeff Lemire/Ramon Perez follow-up to Fraction/Aja
- Second volume here
Hawkeye (2016-18) – The Kate Bishop run by Kelly Thompson & Leanardo Romero
- Omnibus of the first two volumes here.
Old Man Hawkeye (2018) – Ethan Sacks and Marco Checcetto craft a prequel to Old Man Logan

What’s good? While a little goofier than the traditional portrayal of Clint Barton, the Fraction/Aja run is almost universally acknowledged at the best Hawkeye run. We’re not going to argue with that. Nope. It’s a good one.

If you’re looking for the Kate Bishop version of Hawkeye, the Thompson/Romero run is the one you want.

Dice Can Be Very Critical of You

The Dark Horse Critical Role Sale runs through Monday, 8/28

Yes, this would be the comic adaption of the web series about a Dungeons & Dragon campaign. (That would be comics about the campaign and characters in it.)

This one is organized a little oddly, so lets walk through that.

The “volumes” or collected editions of the “true” single issues are here.
There’s an omnibus of the first two collected editions here.
The single issues are here.

Price-wise, it doesn’t really matter which format you go with, however… if you scroll down to the bottom of the single issues, you’ll find a series of original graphic novels that are closer to the European album format. Should they be listed elsewhere? Maybe. But know that they’re at the bottom of the single issues page.

The Other Hood

The Zenescope Robyn Hood Sale runs through Monday, 8/21.

Much like Critical Role, this sale is in three flavors with three links:

An omnibus with the first three collected editions
Collected editions
Single issues

Unlike Dark Horse, this is looking like the Omnibus is cheaper than the collected editions and the collected editions are cheaper than the single issues, but you can double check that on individual collections. 99-cent single issues make that easy.

And yes, those really are Chuck Dixon and Howard Mackie on runs towards the bottom of the listings.

Posted on August 4, 2023 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Secret Invasion, Ultimate X-Men, Flash, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Lone Wolf and Cub

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts Secret Invasion, Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four. DC has a second Flash sale and Dark Horse slashes prices on Lone Wolf & Cub.

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):

The Flash Sequel

The DC Flash Multiverse Sale runs through Monday, 7/3.

Yes, it’s a sequel… to last week’s Flash sale. (And a lot of the same comics are still on sale). Go back to the last column for a look at some of the Flash comics on sale and we’ll focus on Multiversal goodness here. For example…

Multiversity by Grant Morrison, Ivan Reis, Frank Quitely and Jim Lee (among others) is just about as multiverse as a person can get. That would be Morrison creating new and fun worlds from whole cloth and conducting and interdimensional tour of sorts. Your basic triumph of imagination and fun. Plus, it’s a 450 page volume.

Justice League of America: The Nail – The Complete Collection by Alan Davis. A nail gives Ma and Pa Kent a flat tire and they don’t find Kal-El’s rocket. Thus, the Justice League forms in a world without Superman and it’s a less trusting world. A masterwork from Davis. This collects The Nail and the sequel Another Nail.

And for something off the radar – Freedom Fighters: Rise of a Nation by Robert Venditti, Eddy Barrows and Bruno Redondo. This one pretty much shocked us when we read it. A modern, and darker, telling of the traditional Earth X setup. On world where the Germany won WWII and crushed the remaining resistance in a Dallas book depository in 1963, a team of Freedom Fighters reform in the image of the fallen and seek out Uncle Sam to lead them against their Nazi oppressors. Much closer in tone to The Man in the High Castle than the original. And yes, its a spin-off from Multiversity.

Plenty more to look at in this sale, should you have some time to browse.

Is It Still a Secret?

The Marvel Secret Invasion Sale runs through Monday, 7/10.

Why yes, there’s a streaming series coming out. And yes, that’s a longer sale than usual.

This is about the Skrulls invading Earth, assuming identities, embedding themselves and trying to take over.

We’re honestly not sure why Marvel hasn’t come up with a series of omnibuses to better collect this Event. Secret Invasion was a very carefully coordinated series that crossed over into most of the line and was also partially told in flashback. You’d get a little further in plot and then some of the sundry titles would reveal what really happened that you didn’t yet know about. We’re not even sure how official the official reading order is. (Has Bendis ever posted one? He’d be the one to ask.)

The spine of the Event is the Secret Invasion miniseries by Brian Bendis and Leinil Francis Yu.

The next layer of Secret Invasion is the Bendis-penned Avengers titles where a lot of things get fleshed out and you discover how things got to where they did:

Mighty Avengers V. 3 –Bendis/Alex Maleev/Khoi Pham/John Romita, Jr.
Mighty Avengers V. 4 – Bendis/Pham/Stefano Caselli
New Avengers V. 8 – Bendis/Michael Gaydos/David Mack/Jim Cheung/Billy Tan
New Avengers V. 9 – Bendis/Gaydos/Cheung/Tan

Now from there, you spread out closer to the characters you’re interested in. For something clear out of left field, we’d recommend the Secret Invasion: Captain Marvel collection by Brian Reed and Lee Weeks. The original Mar-Vell returns as the Invasion begins and he’s not quite sure how he got there. It’s a bigger part of the over-all story than you might be expecting going in.

Ultimate Sale III – Now With More Mutants

The Marvel Ultimate X-Men and FF Sale runs through Monday, 6/26.

We told you this was coming, didn’t we?

Since The Maker is the instigator of the upcoming Jonathan Hickman / Bryan Hitch Ultimate Invasion, that makes the original Ultimate Fantastic Four a little more central to the Marvel experience doesn’t it? We’re talk two runs:

Ultimate Fantastic Four – the original series
Ultimate FF – Joshua Hale Fialkov (Author) , Mario Guevara

The original Ultimate Fantastic Four had Brian Bendis, Warren Ellis, Mark Millar and Mike Carey (yes, The Girl With All the Gifts M.R. Carey) tagging off on writer duties. The artist rotation includes Adam Kubert, Stuart Immonen, Jae Lee, Greg Land, Pasqual Ferry, Mark Brooks and Tyler Kirkham. And a bit of trivia for you: Marvel Zombies? It’s an Ultimate Fantastic Four spin-off. Check out V.3 of the omnibuses. That’s where it all begins.

Over on the mutant side of the street, the spread looks like this:

Ultimate X-Men – the original run
Ultimate Comics X-Men – the second run
Ultimate Comics Wolverine: Legacies – Cullen Bunn / David Messina

The original Ultimate X-Men run has a very interesting writer rotation. Mark Millar begins and ends it. In between are runs by Bryan K. Vaughan (Saga / Y – The Last Man) and Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead). The artist rotation includes Adam Kubert, Andy Kubert, Chris Bachalo, David Finch, Brandon Peterson, Stuart Immonen, Tom Raney and Salvador Larocca… among others.

Ultimate Comics X-Men was written first by Nick Spencer and later Brian Wood. Artists included Paco Medina, Carlo Barberi, Mahmud Asrar and Alvaro Martinez.

The Baby Cart Assassin

The Dark Horse Lone Wolf & Cub Sale runs through Monday, 7/3.

As we type this, the sale is currently one of those “Nega-Bands” sales. Amazon has assigned it to the same URL as the Avatar sale and if you reload a few times, it will alternate between the sales like Rick Jones and Mar-Vell switching places in the Negative Zone. Amazon, in their infinite smoothness, does this more often than you’d think.

Since this is a single title sale, we’re linking directly to the title page, which should hopefully prevent confusion.

Where were we? Right.

Lone Wolf & Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima is one of the most respected manga out there and likely the greatest samurai manga of all time. No hyperbole.

When the Shogun’s executioner is framed for treason and his household slaughtered, Itto Ogami flees with his one year old son and becomes an assassin for hire, biding his time as he plans revenge on the clan that tried to ruin him.

There’s a lot of revenge served cold in this series. It’s pretty bloody and not for kids, but very, very good. Also $2.99/volume, so cheap.

Still On Sale

The VIZ Beastars and Beast Complex Sale runs through Tuesday, 6/27
The Kodansha Grads In Love Sale runs through Monday, 7/3
The Dark Horse Avatar Sale runs through Monday, 6/26
The Viz Summer Reading Sale runs through Friday, 6/30
The Zenescope Character Spotlight Sale runs through Saturday, 6/24

Posted on June 23, 2023 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Superman Family, Scarlet Witch, What If? and America Chavez

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Superman Family gets the discount spotlight from DC; Marvel asks “What If” and the cuts prices on the Scarlet Witch and America Chavez

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):

Family Planning

The DC – Spotlight: Superman Family Sale runs through Monday, 5/1.

No, there aren’t any $0.99 issues of the old Superman Family comic. Yes, that’s the first thing we thought of, too. What we have here are a selection of Superman-adjacent comics. Plenty of Supergirl titles here, if that’s your thing.

Of possible interest:

Superboy and the Legion of Super-heroes. These are on the expensive side for a sale (at least they’re large). It’s two volumes towards the end of the 70s revival and the end of the Superboy era of the team. Both volumes are dominated by the first Paul Levitz run, with a little Gerry Conway and Len Wein sprinkled in. Vol. 1 is mostly drawn by Jim Sherman and Mike Grell and anchored by the wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, which originally ran in an annoying-to-track-down tabloid sized special. Vol. 2 is mostly drawn by Jim Sherman and Joe Staton, with a little Jim Starlin. It starts out with the first Levitz epic “Earthwar,” a much longer arc than you typically see in ’78. Then it begins the Conway run with a Wein interlude.

Jump forward a bit and the Mark Waid / Barry Kitson volumes of Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes are on sale. Waid and Kitson have been a frequent pairing over the years.

And also of interest, the New 52’s version of Worlds’ Finest. Note the placement of that apostrophe. This is Paul Levitz, initially with George Perez & Kevin Maguire, then later with R.B. Silva telling the tale of Power Girl and The Huntress landing on the wrong Earth (as opposed to Earth-2).

Which Witch?

The Marvel Scarlet Witch Sale runs through Monday, 5/1.

The value buy here is Vision & The Scarlet Witch: The Saga of Wanda and Vision. It’s a sort of faux-Epic Edition, clocking in at 467 pages and including the wedding of Wanda and Vision from Giant-Size Avengers #4, the ’82 Bill Mantlo/Rick Leonardi mini-series and the ’85 Steve Englehart/Richard Howell 12-parter.

There’s a lot of West Coast Avengers in this sale, largely for Wanda’s heel-turn in the John Byrne Vision Quest/Darker than Scarlet era — the Epic Collections are the better buys here.

House of M by Brian Bendis and Olivier Coipel might be a little over-hyped at this point, but it’s the tent-pole “Wanda rewrites reality” story that’s central to the TV adaptation.

And for something a little tangential, but fun, Avengers: Four by Mark Waid and Barry Kitson (where have we heard those names before?) is a retro adventure looking at the first Avengers line-up change when former villains Hawkeye, Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch joined up with Cap.

What a Country

The Marvel America Chavez Sale runs through Monday, 5/1.

The first thing we’d be inclined to look at here is Ultimates by Al Ewing: The Complete Collection, which features both Ultimates series by Ewing with an artist lineup including Kenneth Rocafort, Christian Ward and Travel Foreman. This is some of Ewing’s earlier cosmic work at Marvel.

And the next thing we’d look at is Young Avengers by Gillen & McKelvie: The Complete Collection. Yes, that would be Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie, shortly before they did The Wicked + The Divine.

If Not, Why Not?

The Marvel What If? Sale runs through Monday, 5/1.

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

Gosh, we’re sure NOBODY ever picked up those topics a decade or four later…

Still On Sale

The Kodansha – Creator Spotlight – CLAMP Sale runs through Monday, 5/1
The DC Superman Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 5/1
The Dark Horse 2023 Black Hammer Sale runs through Monday, 5/1
The Dark Horse – Art Books Digital Sale runs through Monday, 5/1.
The Archie and Jughead Digest Sale runs through Sunday, 4/30

Posted on April 28, 2023 by comics_p1pusl

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Avengers (almost all of it), Civil War, One-Star Squadron and DC’s Spring Break

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, The Avengers (almost the entire catalog) gets discounts, plus Civil War and DC’s “Spring Break,” featuring the under-appreciated One-Star Squadron.

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):

Savings, Assemble!

The Marvel Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Sale runs through Tuesday, 4/1o.

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

Avengers (’63 – ’96) – The original!
Acts of Vengeance: Avengers (’89) – The crossover Event
Avengers (’98 – ’04) – Starts with Kurt Busiek/George Perez, then Geoff Johns
New Avengers (’04-’10) – The Bendis era starts in earnest
Avengers Forever (’98 – ’99) – Kurt Busiek / Roger Stern / Carlos Pacheco
Avengers Infinity (’00) – Roger Stern / Sean Chen
Avengers/Invaders (’08-’09) – Alex Ross / Jim Krueger / Steve Sadowski
Avengers Prime (’10) – Brian Bendis / Alan Davis
Avengers (’10-’12) – Brian Bendis / John Romita, Jr. / Bryan Hitch
Avengers Assemble (’12 – ’14)
All-New, All-Different Avengers (’15 -’16) – Mark Waid / Adam Kubert / Mahmud Asrar
Avengers (’16-18) – Mark Waid / Mike del Mundo
Avengers & Champions (’17)
Avengers K (’16-’17) – Korean manhwa adaptions

The Jonathan Hickman era

The Hickman era is a little complicated, because his Avengers and New Avengers titles run together, but getting the “regular” volumes of those are cheaper, but 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.

And all this funnels into Secret Wars, the true endgame of Hickman’s Avengers run… which, of course, is not included in the sale. (Silly Marvel.)

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 it 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

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

“Regular” collected editions
Doubled-volumes… of course, on the first one is on sale, but it’s a hair less expensive than getting the regular V. 1 & 2
$0.99 single issues

What’s at the top of the list?

As a self-contained unit, it’s hard to beat Avengers Forever. It’s one of the best Kang stories and it’s not spilling into anything else. Busiek + Stern + Pacheco = Excellence.

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. Also, $5.99 (mostly) for some page counts that sometimes approach Epic Collection length, so a little extra value from that end.

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

Spring Breaking and Entering

The DC Spring Break Sale runs through Monday, 4/10.

Another random-ish drop of title from DC. What’s good?

We read One-Star Squadron by Mark Russell and Steve Leiber a couple weeks back and loved it, which is not surprising with that pairing. We also think this is the first time the book’s been discounted. Definitely in the “bittersweet humor” category, this is a satire of the gig economy and venture capital as Red Tornado runs company whose app sends out third string heroes for appearances and gig work. His gig workers are not necessarily happy in life, nor his office workers. Recommended, especially if you’ve interacted with the gig world.

The Human Target (V.1) by Tom King and Greg Smallwood is an excellent ride. Christopher Chance has been poisoned and has twelve days to figure out who did the deed. And the Bwa Ha Ha era Justice League International are at the top of the suspect list. One part noir, one part deconstruction of the JLI. A very strong first collection. (The full series wrapped in Feb, but the second collected edition isn’t out yet.)

Two classic Flash runs are on sale at the same link. First, there’s The Flash by Mark Waid with Greg Larocque, Mike Wieringo and Oscar Jimenez among the primary artists. This was Waid’s breakout series with “The Return of Barry Allen” probably being the most famous arc. The you’ve got The Flash by Geoff Johns with Scott Kolins and Howard Porter as the primary artists. Early (and very entertaining) work from Johns.

And then we have a few things we think are getting discounted for the first time. (And heads up, some of those discounts are based on the HC price, so be aware of that.)

Of interest, due to the movie trailer: Blue Beetle: Jaime Reyes, Book 1. The first 12 issues of the Keith Giffen / John Rogers / Cully Hamner series that’s being adapted.

And a few more things we think are on sale for the first time:

Batman: Shadows of the Bat – The Tower – Mariko Tamaki / Ivan Reis
Batman: Shadows of the Bat – House of Gotham – Matthew Rosenberg / Fernando Blanco
Batman: Killing Time – Tom King / David Marquez
Batman/Catwoman – Tom King / Clay Mann / Liam Sharp
Batman/Spawn – The Classic Collection (we preferred the Moench/Dixon/Grant/Janson version)
Catwoman – Lonely City – Cliff Chiang

The War Between the… Sales Managers

The Marvel Civil War: Complete Events Sale runs through Tuesday, 4/10.

Yes, Civil War is one of those Events we really believe Marvel needs to rethink its collection strategy for. All these various and sprawling collections need to be integrated. Or at least SOME of them need to be integrated.

So here’s our take on it:

Civil War the main mini-series by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven – is the action movie version of the story.

Civil War: Front Line – written by Paul Jenkins with art by Ramon Bachs, Steve Lieber and Lee Weeks – is about WHY the Civil War is happening as Ben Urich tries to get to the bottom of things. This title is much more of the Event’s actual plot and motivations than the more famous flagship series and Marvel really need to have a collection that integrates the two.

There are obviously a lot of tie-in books here. You can dip in where you feel like, but Civil War: Wolverine by Marc Guggenheim and Humberto Ramos is a little more relevant than most and has Logan (hellbent on vengeance) tracking down the people responsible for the Stamford incident.

Yes, there is a lot more to the story than the main Millar/McNiven book, it’s just not really emphasized.

Still On Sale

The Archie and Jughead Digest Sale runs through Sunday, 4/30
The Dark Horse – World of Hellboy Sale runs through Monday, 4/10

Posted on April 7, 2023 by comics_p1pusl

The Best of Comixology Sales and Cheap Digital Comics

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

Administrative Note

He’s All Wet

Aquaman

Justice League

Hickman

You Were Expecting Disney+?

Unannounced Sales

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Don’t miss these tips!

Still on Sale

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

Administrative Notes

DC $1.99 Mania Continued (Part II)

May the Sale Be With You

The Best of the Best of the Best

If Not, Why Not?

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Unannounced Sales

Don’t miss these tips!

Still on Sale

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

Important Black Friday Administrative Notes:

The Annual Marvel Omnibus Sale (Omni-Man is Elsewhere)

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Don’t miss these tips!

Still on Sale

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

Holy Crap! Image Is Back?!?

And By Recent, We Mean Within 5 Years

X-Men: The Glory Years

The Light of the Silvery Moon

Friday Night Fights

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Unannounced Sales

Don’t miss these tips!

Still on Sale

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

Avengers Assemble

The Jonathan Hickman era

The Jason Aaron era

Enter Jed MacKay

Victor Von Doom Bows Before No Man!

All-Stars and Friends

You Were Expecting Winnie the Pooh?

Undeclared Major

Don’t miss these tips!

Still on Sale

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

DC Says “Boo”

Hickman

Craving What?!?

God of Mischief

The End of the Alphabet

But Is It 9mm or .45?

Don’t miss these tips!

Still on Sale

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

After the 80s…

Crossovers!

Hawk-Guy

Dice Can Be Very Critical of You

The Other Hood

Don’t miss these tips!

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

The Flash Sequel

Is It Still a Secret?

Ultimate Sale III – Now With More Mutants

The Baby Cart Assassin

Don’t miss these tips!

Still On Sale

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

Family Planning

Which Witch?

What a Country

If Not, Why Not?

Don’t miss these tips!

Still On Sale

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?