Tag: digital comics

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales – Star Wars; More $1.99 DC Collections; Old Man Logan; Department of Truth; Black Hammer

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts Star Wars Epic Collections and Old Man Logan. DC has comics that have been adapted for TV and film as low as $1.99. Plus, The Black Hammer and Dragon Age.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

[Note: we looked at the X-Men/Krakoa and Thunderbolts sales earlier in the week.
Also, by popular nagging demand, we are at @comicscheap.bsky.social]

We Will Control the Vertigo Vertical

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters  New Teen Titans  DC: The New Frontier

The DC on TV Sale runs through Monday, 11/18.

Once again, we find ourselves in the midst of holiday pricing. Yes, we’re sad, too. There’s more to the sale (500+ books), but we’re going to focus on some good options at the rock bottom $1.99 and $2.99 price points.

$1.99

  • Deathstroke ’16 – ’20 – Christopher Priest / Carlo Pagulayan / Larry Hama / Diogenes Neves; Very under appreciated character piece. Highly recommended.
  • Doctor Fate – Paul Levitz / Sonny Liew; Superior reimagining of the character that leans into Egyptian mythology. Would that all reinventions of a classic character work this well…
  • Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters – Mike Grell relaunches Green Arrow without the trick arrows as more of a thriller.
  • Green Arrow (’88 – ’98) – Mike Grell / Ed Hannigan / Dan Jurgens / Rick Hoberg; Grell’s regular series follow up to The Longbow Hunters
  • Harley Quinn (’13-’16) – Amanda Connor / Jimmy Palmiotti / Chad Hardin; A slapstick / absurdist take on Harley
    • Harley Quinn (’16-’20) – Amanda Connor / Jimmy Palmiotti / Chad Hardin / John Timms; For all intents and purposes, it’s the same series at the ’13 iteration through V.5
  • Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass – Mariko Tamaki / Steve Pugh; OGN
  • Hawkworld – Tim Truman / Enrique Alcatena; The first post-crisis reimagining of Hawkman, emphasizing the science fiction elements of the Silver Age version
  • Justice Society of America (’07-’11) – Geoff Johns / Dale Eaglesham; Bill Willingham / Jesus Merino; Mixed pricing w/ $2.99; Includes an Alex Ross follow-up to Kingdom Come
  • The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Alan Moore / Kevin O’Neill; Ignore that ridiculous movie. Moore & O’Neill raid Victorian literature to assemble a supergroup of Alan Quartermain (King Solomon’s Mine), Mina Harker (Dracula), Captain Nemo  (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), Edward Hyde (Doctor Jeckyll and Mister Hyde) and Hawley Griffin (The Invisible Man) as they do a spot of work for the government. Literate and witty. And no bloody Tom Sawyer.

$2.99

  • DC Meets Looney Tunes – You’re getting this for the SHOCKINGLY GOOD Batman Vs. Elmer Fudd by Tom King and Lee Weeks. Weeks cannot be praised enough for pulling this off with such style.
  • New Teen Titans (’80-’88) – Marv Wolfman / George Perez / Eduardo Barreto; Did this classic run save DC in the early ’80s? Quite possibly.
  • Preacher – Garth Ennis / Steve Dillon; God’s gone missing and Jesse Custer would like to have a word with him; Double volumes
  • Saga of the Swamp Thing (’82-’96) – Alan Moore’s legendary run and, for most practical purposes, the birthing of the Vertigo imprint
  • Sandman – Neil Gaiman and a rotating cast of artists
  • Y: The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan / Pia Guerra; Double volumes for $2.99 as the last living man on Earth searches for his girlfriend as the rest of the world searches for him

$3.99 (and we still recommend it)

  • Batwoman by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams – You can figure out the creators yourself; Contains the full and excellent run from Detective Comics
  • DC: The New Frontier – Darwyn Cooke’s stone cold masterpiece about the dawn of the Silver Age
  • Doom Patrol: The Silver Age – Arnold Drake / Bruno Premiani; Essentially DC’s answer to the original X-Men, though it seems like they were developed simultaneously. More pathos than most DC’s from the period and good stuff.
  • Doom Patrol (’87-’95) – Grant Morrison / Richard Case; The legendary run in three double volumes
  • Flash (’87 – ’09) – Geoff Johns/Scott Kolins; The original Johns run was where he started to get noticed
  • Flash (’16 – ’20) – Josh Williamson / Carmine di Giandomenico / Howard Porter; Mixed pricing with some scattered $1.99/$2.99

Sing Along With Nick

The Marvel Star Wars Epic Collections Sale runs through Monday, 11/18.

The headline here should probably be that the current Marvel run is starting to get Epic Editions.

Star Wars Epic Collection

Star Wars Modern Era Epic Collection: Skywalker Strikes collects the first 14 issues of the Jason Aaron / John Cassaday (RIP) run, plus the Vader Down crossover issues.

You might be asking “where’s the Vader Epic Collection?” A fine question, too. The answer is the first one is coming out at the end of the month.

Agent of Empire   Dark Empire   Star Wars Newspaper Strip

As for the Epic Collections of the original Marvel run and the Dark Horse material, there really aren’t title-specific links here, which is super annoying.

These Epic Collections are _all_ in this link.

A few things we’ll call out as particularly good.

The original Marvel Star Wars, #49-69, the under appreciated, post-Empire period with Walt Simonson and/or David Michelinie.  Most of it is in this DH Omnibus.

John Ostrander’s “Agent of Empire” is collected in this Epic. Think “what if James Bond spied for the Empire.” It’s fun.

Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy reinvigorated the franchise in the 90s when they did Dark Empire. That and Dark Empire II are collected in this Epic.

Also fun, the Ostrander/Jan Duursema “Legacy” series, wherein the down and out last heir to the Skywalker legacy finds himself embroiled with a resurgent Sith Empire. 4 volumes, starting here.

And finally, there’s nothing quite like Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson on the Star Wars newspaper strip. Yes, that’s Russ Manning who comes first. 2 volumes starting here.

And finally a list of Epics we don’t think were on sale the last time these prices rolled around:

Wolverine… and the Sea?

Wolerine: Old Man Logan   Wolverine: Old Man Logan

The Marvel Old Logan and the Wasteland Sale runs through Monday, 11/18.

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.

Don’t Feed the Sale-Naming Trolls

Department of Truth   The Fade Out  Sam and Twitch

The Un-be-leafable Image Comics Sale runs through Black Friday.

Do not encourage whoever’s naming these Image sales. Moving right along to the actual sales, this is another one with a mystery/horror bent to it. Lots of good stuff and it’s worth a browse. A few things we’ve read and are happy to recommend:

  • The Department of Truth – James Tynion IV / Martin Simmonds; Possibly our favorite Tynion series. There’s an X-Files-esque setup, but this series is about the power of belief and myth to shape reality, not an alien invasion
  • The Fade Out – Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips; A Hollywood blacklist era noir thriller about the cover-up of a starlet’s murder from the ever-reliable team of Brubaker & Phillips
  • The Fix – Nick Spencer / Steve Lieber; A farce about two crooked cops and a much more reliable drug sniffing dog by the Superior Foes of Spider-Man team
  • Sam & Twitch – Brian Bendis / Angel Medina / Ashley Wood / Alex Maleev; Spawn’s detective companions investigate weird mysteries. The Bendis issues are a creepy delight
  • Stray Bullets – David Lapham; Lapham’s crime series was basically Criminal, but a decade earlier. A classic “if you know, you know” series

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Ghost Rider  Amazing Spider-Man

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

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

Unannounced Sales

Black Hammer Omnibus  Dragon Age  The Hunger and the Dusk

Dark Horse has the world of Black Hammer on sale this week.

This would be — we think it’s OK to call it a superhero universe at this point — the indie superhero saga by Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston and friends. There are a couple branches to how this saga unfurls.

The main Black Hammer series is here and that’s where you should start the journey. But, as with many long running titles, there are a few different editions to it and this is what we think the cheapest (if messy to sort) way to read the series is.

There are currently 7 volumes under the main series + a collection of specials + 2 volumes of “Visions” with guest creators playing in the Black Hammer standbox.

So what you want to do to cheap out is go to the omnibus page first.

Black Hammer Omnibus V.1 is basically the same thing as the first Library edition. That gets you the first two “regular” volumes (issues 1-13) + the Annual.

Black Hammer Library Edition V. 2 gets you the equivalent of “regular” volumes 3 &4 (“Age of Doom”) plus the Streets of Spiral material not in the Ominbus.

Then you can pick up again with V.5 of the regular editions.

Then you’ve got the World of Black Hammer collections, which are solo tales about the various heroes and villains like Barbalien and Sherlock Frankenstein.

And finally, there’s Black Hammer / Justice League: Hammer of Justice, the Lemire / Michael Walsh team up between… well, that’s in the title, isn’t it? This one offers savings in the single issue format.

Also on sale, Dark Horse’s comics adaptations of BioWare’s Dragon Age line of video games:

Also on sale:

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Men – The Krakoa Era; Thunderbolts; Winter Soldier

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel puts the Krakoan age of X-Men on sale, plus Thunderbolts and Winter Soldier.

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

The holidays are approaching and that means the sales are likely going to get larger and more numerous, which means we’re probably going to be breaking the weeks into multiple posts from time to time. Since we’ve been getting asked about X-Men sales, here’s the full Krakoa sale and the Thunderbolts sale. We’ll be back at the usual time for DC, Star Wars, Old Man Logan and whatever else turns up. (This would be WAY long if we put in one post.)

Ghosts of X-Mas-Men Past

X-Force  Dawn of X  Sins of Sinister

The Marvel X-Men: The Krakoan Age Sale runs through Monday, 11/25.

If you want to call it the Hickman Era or the HoX/PoX Era, don’t let us stand in your way. We find those names valid.

Let’s talk about the overall arcs and “… of X” editions first. These are the collected editions that approximate reading the Hickman era as single issues. Roughly speaking they cycle through X-Men, Wolverine, X-Force, Marauders, etc. etc.

While this effect dissipates after time, we think this is the better way to read the Hickman X-Men titles. Story elements originally floated between books and their sum was greater than their parts. The order does something like this:

Inferno is the last arc for Hickman before leaving and it fits in roughly after The Trial of Magneto ends, so you can read it somewhere between Trials of X V.3-6.

We’re not as adamant about reading this in issue-to-issue format after Hickman leaves… although X-Force and Wolverine are certainly intertwined at times. Through Inferno, though? Yes. If you do jump off at that point, be sure to add Way of X to your individual title list.

The next “act” of the Krakoa age was “Destiny of X,” but that’s apparently only available in this format in French?

Our recommendations for your optimal Destiny of X reading is clustered around two tracts:

Track One: the Axis of Gillen/Spurrier/Ewing – the writers of the three “big concept” X-titles that eventually converge in the truly X-cellent Sins of Sinster Event that we might even put ahead of the also X-cellent X-of Swords.

These books are:

  • Immortal X-Men by Kieron Gillen / Lucas Werneck; we’d personally consider this the flagship title for the Destiny of X sequence
  • Legion of X by Si Spurrier / Jan Bazaldua / Rafael Pimentel; The explorations of Legion and Nightcrawler’s crews
  • X-Men: Red – Al Ewing / Stefano Caselli / Juann Cabal; Storm’s adventures leading Arakko (Mars) as Ewing keeps a finger in the cosmic side of Marvel

Track two: Ben Percy continues to keep X-Force and Wolverine intertwined in interesting ways, particularly as the long-running saga of Hank McCoy comes to a head.

Pick up X-Force starting with Vol. 5.

Pick up Wolverine starting with Vol. 4.

A mini-series worth mentioning in the “Destiny” period: X-Terminators by Leah Williams / Carlos Gomez manages to be lighthearted with really dark and occasionally off-color humor as Dazzler, Boom Boom, Laura Kinney and Jubilee get mixed up with vampires in the most humiliating ways.

Sabretooth: The Adversary and Sabretooth and the Exiles by Victor LaValle and Leonard Kirk are a pair of horror-edged (see: LaValle, Victor) tales about what Sabretooth was really up to when he was exiled into The Pit, along with the other mutants down there. These took us by surprise and they lead right into the X-Force and especially Wolverine finales.

And for the science fiction fan in your family, New Mutants: Lethal Legion is written by Hugo/Nebula/Locus Award-winner Charlie Jane Anders and drawn by Enid Balám.

Summing this up – while you can definitely go through the sale and pick up the individual titles, we strongly feel there’s an additive effect to reading things in the Dawn/Reign/Trials omnibus format and taking in the universe building. After Hickman exits, that cohesion wanes after a bit and the line isn’t quite as consistent.  And you have to pick up individual titles after the end of “Trials,” regardless. This sale takes you to the end of like for era. There are a few more titles out listed in the sale – the X-line hasn’t been known for brevity in decades – but those are the highlights and the best of the Krakoa era really is top notch.

Thunder. Thunder. Thunderca… Whoops, Wrong Series!

Thunderbolts  Winter Soldier  Taskmaster

The Marvel Thunderbolts Sale runs through Monday, 11/18.

OK, given the upcoming film, this is really a Thunderbolts and Winter Soldier sale. That’s cool. We’ve had a Neapolitan milk stout before.

The Thunderbolts have been through several iterations since they began in ’97, originally having been the Masters of Evil laying the groundwork for nefarious deeds. And yes, there’s a film in the works.

Thunderbolts

The original series was written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by Mark Bagley. Eventually Fabian Nicieza tagged in as writer and Patrick Zircher became the lead artist a bit after that. Alas, these volumes jump around a bit after issue #50. The  omnibus editions are more complete, but aren’t on sale right now.

New Thunderbolts was the ’04-’06 relaunch, and yes, it’s included in the third omnibus of the original. Fabian Nicieza/Tom Grummett is the creative team, here.

This then turns back into (no adjective) Thunderbolts for ’06-’12, starting Nicieza/Grummett and then including runs by Warren Ellis / Mike Deodato and Jeff Parker/Kev Walker/Declan Shalvey

Thunderbolts relaunched for ’12-’14 with Daniel Way and then Charles Soule writing it. The artist rotation included Steve Dillon and Phil Noto.

Jim Zub and Jon Malin were behind the ’16-’17 Thunderbolts run.

’20 saw King in Black: Thunderbolts by Matthew Rosenberg/Gerry Duggan/Juan E. Ferreyra/Luke Ross.

’22 saw Thunderbolts: Back on Target by Jim Zub and Sean Izaakse.

The most recent volume in the sale is Thunderbolts: Worldstrike by Colin Kelly / Jackson Lanzing / Geraldo Borges.

With Thunderbolts, we feel pretty strongly you need to read the first sequence or two and get a flavor for the concept before jumping into the later evolutions.

Winter Soldier

The originating storyline runs in the 2004 series of Captain America by Ed Brubaker and a rotating squad of artists including Steve Epting, Michael Lark, Butch Guice and Mike Perkins. There are a couple omnibuses available, but this doesn’t really have a definitive larger collection like, say, the Hickman Avengers era. We’d probably point you to the Captain America Modern Era Epic Collection: The Winter Soldier volume. It’s a couple bucks more, but it gives you #1-19 straight through and that’s a very good run.

For solo series, the first choice is Winter Soldier by Ed Brubaker, which is Brubaker and Butch Guice in a spin-off.

Also of possible interest:

And two bonus recommendations:

  • Taskmaster: The Rubicon Trigger – Jed MacKay / Alessandro Vitti; A very funny adventure finds Taskmaster blackmailed into doing a job for Nick Fury. Alternately, the Black Widow will likely hunt him down and kill him.
  • U.S.Agent: American Zealot – Christopher Priest / Georges Jeanty; In something of a deadpan political satire, John Walker develops some issues with his handlers when sent to a small town threatened by a corporate entity… if only the optics matched reality. Smart, but you figured that with Priest involved.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Ghost Rider  Amazing Spider-Man

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

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

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We don’t spam! Read more in our privacy policy

Still on Sale

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s First Holiday Sale w/ Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman; Iron Man; X-Men

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has the first holiday sale of the season with their “Trinity” sale of Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman… as low as $1.99/book. Plus, Marvel puts almost the entire Iron Man catalog on sale, as well as some X-Men and Storm titles. Dark Horse chips in with an Erik Powell sale.

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’s First Holiday Sale Is Here

Batman: The Detective  Superman: The Man of Steel  Wonder Woman

The DC Trinity Sale runs through Monday, 11/11.

This sale is often the first holiday sale. Why are we saying it this year? $1.99 collected editions. The rule of them is if a collected edition is $2.99, go ahead a pull the trigger. $1.99? Yeah, that’s rock bottom for DC in recent years.

As such we’re going to be taking a look here at the vast swatch of $1.99 and $2.99 books. (This is comics.CHEAP, after all.) There are definitely newer books on the sale, but they might be — gasp — $3.99 or $4.99.

Batman

  • All-Star Batman (’16 – ’17) – Scott Snyder / John Romita, Jr. / Jock / Rafael Albuquerque
  • Batman (’40 – ’11) – mixed pricing
  • Batman (’11 – ’16) – Scott Snyder / Greg Capullo; That’s right, you can stick the full Snyder/Capullo run in somebody’s stocking for $1.99@
  • Batman (’16 – present) – Most of the Tom King and James Tynion IV runs are $1.99@
  • Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – Frank Miller
  • Batman: The Detective – Tom Taylor / Andy Kubert; (yes, the first Taylor run for $1.99. Happy holidays.)
  • Batman: The Killing Joke – Alan Moore / Brian Bolland
  • Batman: Three Jokers – Geoff Johns / Jason Fabok
  • Batman: Year One – Frank Miller / David Mazzucchelli
  • Batman/Superman (’13 – ’16) – Greg Pak / Jae Lee
  • Detective Comics (’37 – ’11) – Mixed pricing
  • Detective Comics (’11-’16) – Tony Daniel, then John Layman / Jason Fabok
  • Detective Comics (’16 – present) – James Tynion IV / Eddy Barrows through Mariko Tamaki / Dan Mora (before the price starts inching up)

Superman

Wonder Woman

  • Wonder Woman ’87 – ’06 – Mixed pricing. Perez is one of the definitive runs, though not as cheap. The first Greg Rucka run is cheap, though, and it’s great.
  • Wonder Woman (’11-’16) – You want the first 6 volumes of the Brian Azzarello / Cliff Chiang / Goran Sudzuka run. It’s a divisive take on the character (see: Azzarello, Brian), but it’s a solid yarn. Treat it like an Elseworlds, if you like.
  • Wonder Woman (’16 – ’20) – You want the *excellent* first four volumes by Greg Rucka, Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp

This is one you want to take some time and browse. Some interesting things in these lower price points? Sure.

Trinity by Matt Wagner teams up Batman / Superman / Wonder Woman as Ra’s al Ghul has a plot involving Bizarro, a rogue Amazon and some nukes. Also… it’s Matt Wagner. $2.99

Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia by Greg Rucka and J.G. Jones finds Wonder Woman and Batman having a little trouble agreeing to disagree. $2.99

Batman: Venom – Denny O’Neil / Trevor Von Eeden / Russ Braun / Jose Luis Garcia Lopez; About a year before Bane appeared, this was the Legends of the Dark Knight arc that introduced “venom,” the super-steroid that bulked up Bane. (With as good a creative lineup as you could reasonably ask for.) $1.99 – cheap.

Does Whatever An Iron Can…

Iron Man: The Man Who Killed Tony Stark  Iron Man: Heroes Reborn  Iron Man: Big Iron

The Marvel Iron Man Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 11/11.

This would be one of those sales where most of the hero’s run is on sale, so we’re going to follow our usual protocol and start out by breaking out the primary titles and volumes. ‘Ole Shellhead hasn’t had as many relaunches as some titles, but there is a volume where the collection options are a little… odd. Note: the Masterworks aren’t included in this sale, so you’re looking at Epic Collections and “regular” collections for the classic material.

  • Tales of Suspense – Iron Man debuted here in what was a split book with Captain America for most of the run.
  • Iron Man ’68-’96 – The original solo run in the era before constant relaunch gimmicks

OK, sit tight. The ’98 -’04 run is collected in VERY odd ways and poorly cataloged for browsing.  The truly excellent Kurt Busiek/Sean Chen/Patrick Zircher run lasts from 1-25. We can’t find 15-25 collected? (That entire run should be!)  You can catch 1-14 and the Mike Grell run (50-59)  in cheap omnibus form here.  You can catch Joe Quesada’s scripting run (26-32) and the Avengers: Disassembled tie-in late in this run in single volumes here. (But get the omnibus version for Busiek.)

  • Iron Man ’04-07 – Best known for launching with the “Extremis” storyline
  • Invincible Iron Man ’08-’12 – The excellent Matt Fraction / Salvador Larroca run. Save some money with the omnibus collecting the first 3 volumes.
  • Iron Man ’12-’14 – The Kieron Gillen run with Greg Land as initial artist
  • Superior Iron Man ’14-’15 – Tom Taylor / Yildiray Cinar
  • Invincible Iron Man ’15-’16 – Brian Bendis and David Marquez/Mike Deodato, Jr. start out with Tony Stark in the armor
  • International Iron Man ’16 – Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev (And yes, we’re in the thick of the relaunches now)
  • Invincible Iron Man ’16-’18 – Brian Bendis and Stefano Caselli with Riri Williams/Ironheart filling Tony Stark’s shoes (yes, parallel substitute Iron Man runs)
  • Tony Stark: Iron Man ’18-’19 – The Dan Slott era with Valerio Schiti as the principle artist in the rotation.
  • Iron Man ’20-’22 – The Christopher Cantwell / Cafu run.
  • Invincible Iron Man ’22-current – Gerry Duggan / Juan Frigeri

If you’re keeping score at home, you’ll have notice Infamous Iron Man are not on sale. Why? We cannot say. Too close to Doom assuming the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme?

So what’s good?  We haven’t read ALL the Iron Man out there, but we’ve read a lot of them.

In our opinion Iron Man starts hitting it’s stride when Archie Goodwin arrives toward the end of the Tales of Suspense run and then is pure gold through issue 28 of the ’68 Iron Man series. Artists for this run include Gene Colan and George Tuska. (That’s collected in both Masterworks and Epic formats, but only the Epic is discounted right now..)

The next “all-star” run is #116-157 of the original Iron Man, that’s the David Michelinie / John Romita, Jr. / Bob Layton run that’s most famous for the “Demon in a Bottle” alcoholism arc, but there’s more to the run than just that arc.  The Denny O’Neil / Luke McDonnell run that follows is solid (make sure you get a collection that includes #200!!!), but Michelinie & Layton return for #215-250 with a few artists, including Mark Bright and Jackson Guice… with Layton even switching to penciller, instead of his usual inking post, for parts of it.  This second run is most famous for “Armor Wars” (originally known as Stark Wars).

When Heroes Return hits, Kurt Busiek and Sean Chen are pop in for the excellent 1998 run, of which only 1-14 are currently collected.

The ’08 – ’12 run by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca is particularly good. You know how modern Marvel titles can get sidetracked by Events. Fraction and Larroca lean into it and produce a lengthy and self-contained arc with Tony Stark on the run and attempting to overwrite his brain to keep everyone’s secrets out of the hands of Norman Osborn. Yes, an honest to goodness great Event tie-in arc. It’s a rare thing.

We were quite happy with the  Christopher Cantwell/Cafu run. Tony Stark chases Korvac into outer space and meditates on the nature of godhood, good intentions and addictions. Lots of character work and action.

The Calm Before?

X of Swords  X-Men: Red  Resurrection of Magneto

The Marvel Storm Sale runs through Monday, 11/11.

It might be better to break up the highlights as pre-Krakoa and Krakoa era.

Pre-Krakoa

  • X-Men: Magik – Storm & Illyana – Chris Claremont / Brent Anderson / John Buscema; extra dark tale of Illyana’s abduction by demons
  • Storm (’06) – Eric Jerome Dickey / David Yardin; prequel to her marriage to T’Challa
  • Storm (’14-15) – Greg Pak / Victor Ibenez

Krakoa Era

  • Marauders (’19-’22) – Gerry Duggan / Matteo Lolli / Stefano Caselli; Kitty becomes a pirate captain w/ Storm in tow
  • Giant-Size X-Men by Jonathan Hickman (’20) – Jonathan Hickman / Russell Dauterman / Alan Davis
  • X of Swords (’20) – Hickman showrunning the full creative staff
  • X-Men: Red (’22-’23) – Al Ewing / Stefano Caselli; Storm rules Arrako (Mars)
  • Resurrection of Magneto (’24); Al Ewing / Luciano Vecchio; An X-Men: Red end cap of sorts, as it’s time for Magneto to return from the dead

What’s good? We’re partial to the Krakoa era. X of Swords is a satisfying Event – yes, that’s possible, it just doesn’t happen often enough. X-Men: Red was a highlight of the late-stages of Krakoa and Resurrection of Magneto was interesting… although if you’re a regular reader, you’ll know we’re usually in the bag for Al Ewing. (Mmm… ZOMBO!)

Villains of the Atom

X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga Complete Collection  Mystique  X-Men: Age of Apocalypse

The  Marvel X-Men Villains Sale runs through Monday, 11/11.

It’s true. The X-Men have villains and sometimes the villains eventually become friends. And sometimes friends become villains and then become friends.

The best thing here is the utter classic X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga Complete Collection by Chris Claremont & John Byrne. Yes, the comic is definitely better than the film in this case and that edition has some extra issues that are worthwhile.  (For Jean Grey’s initial resurrection, there’s also X-Men: Phoenix Rising)

Best thing under most radars? Mystique, where she’s repurposed as Xavier’s spy. The first Brian K. Vaughan / Jorge Lucas / Michael Ryan omnibus is particularly good.

You have a couple options for the Age of Apocalypse arc. X-Men: The Complete Age of Apocalypse does appear to be slightly more complete.

The sequel is filed under the two volume X-Men Vs. Apocalypse.

Also under the radar: Magneto (’14-’15 ) by Cullen Bunn & Gabriel Hernandez Walta goes to some dark places.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Ms. Marvel  Ghost Rider

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

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

Unannounced Sales

Big Man Plans  1984  Godzilla: The Half-Century War

Dark Horse has a sale on Eric Powell’s comics:

Also on sale:

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC Villains; Red Hulk; The Joker; Reckless; Moonshine; Halo

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC highlights their villains (with discounts). Marvel cuts prices on the Red Hulk. Image promotes arguments.

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):

They’re Not Bad, They’re Just Drawn That Way

Batman: Tales of the Demon  Deathstroke  Lobo

The DC Darkest Villains Sale runs through Monday, 11/4.

Let’s try something a little different and organize some of the highlights by the Villain(s) in question:

The Court of Owls

Deathstroke

Hush

The Joker

Lobo

  • Lobo – Keith Giffen / Alan Grant / Simon Bisley; Our preferred Lobo in the outrageous and offensive original solo incarnation; perhaps more anti-hero than villain, but that might be pedantic

Mongul

  • Superman Vs. Mongul – Len Wein / Jim Starlin; Paul Levitz / Curt Swan; Alan Moore / Dave Gibbons; The original DC Comics Presents tales, plus the immortal “For the Man Who Has Everything”

Ra’s al Ghul

  • Batman: Tales of the Demon – Denny O’Neil / Neal Adams / Irv Novick / Don Newton; The original ’70s al Ghul saga, including the later follow-up in Detective
  • Batman: The Demon Trilogy – Mike W. Barr / Denny O’Neil / Jerry Bingham / Tom Grindberg / Norm Breyfogle; The graphic novel trilogy of Son of the Demon, Bride of the Demon and Birth of the Demon

Red Hood

Secret Six

  • Secret Six V.1 – Gail Simone / Dale Eaglesham; A team of villains is assembled to tangle with Luthor’s “Society” of villains
  • Secret Six ’08-’11 – Gail Simone / Nicola Scott; The ongoing series begins

The Secret Society of Supervillains

  • The Secret Society of Supervillains – Gerry Conway / David Anthony Kraft / Bob Rozakis / Rich Buckler / Pablo Marcos; For completists, the ’70s villain team as Captain Comet pursues them

Suicide Squad

  • Suicide Squad – John Ostrander / Luke McDonnell / Geoff Isherwood; The original series and best take on villains pressed into government service

What are the real highlights? Priest’s Deathstroke has never gotten it’s due. Very smart comic and makes no bones about his status as a villain.

The original Suicide Squad run should be read for the more nuanced portrayal of Amanda Waller and her motivations.

Red Light Series

Red Hulk Scorched Earth  Fall of the Hulks - Red Hulk  U.S.Avengers

The Marvel Red Hulk sale runs through Monday 11/4.

Only three titles in this sale. The main one by far is the ’08 – ’13 Hulk series. 16 years after the series launched, we’ll risk the spoiler of the opening arc and say this is where Thunderbolt Ross becomes the Red Hulk.

You can save a little money on the Jeph Loeb / Ed McGuinness run by getting the omnibus editions. And if you’re doing that, you might want to add Fall of the Hulks: Red Hulk and read it before you get to issue #18. It’s part of the larger “Fall of the Hulks” event that’s not totally collected in the Hulk series. This is by Jeff Parker and Carlos Rodrigues.

After Loeb leaves, Jeff Parker takes over writing and we actually prefer the Parker take on the character. The artists move around a little (it’s that era of Marvel) but Gabriel Hardman / Patrick Zircher / Dale Eaglesham is a pretty good rotation. (And you should have a look at Zircher’s Solomon Kane over in the recent Savage Sword of Conan.)

The other series in the sale is U.S.Avengers by  Al Ewing and Paco Medina, wherein Red Hulk joins up with Squirrel Girl and Sunspot.

The Other Kind of Fighting

Newburn  Pulp 

The Image Fall-icious Argument Sale runs through Friday, 11/15.

The title might be a stretch, but there’s some good books in here. A few things we’ve enjoyed over the years and can happily vouch for:

  • Moonshine – Brian Azzarello / Eduardo Risso; The 100 Bullets team brings you a horror / gangster / historical mashup as a prohibition era gangster heads to Appalachia looking for a hooch supply and finds a werewolf.
  • Newburn – Chip Zdarsky / Jacob Phillips; Thriller about an ex-cop who polices internal conflicts between mob factions. Spoiler: One doesn’t make many friends doing that.
  • Nita Hawes’ Nightmare Blog – Rodney Barnes / Jason Shawn Alexander; A paranormal investigator/blogger with a family interest in the occult runs afoul of demons. It runs parallel to Killadelphia.
  • Pulp – Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips; A writer of Western pulp novels with a little personal knowledge of the subject rubs up against Nazis in ’30s NYC. Despite the name, this is one of the deeper Brubaker & Phillips works as it meditates on aging.
  • Reckless – Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips; The excellent opening installment of the OGN series about an off the books fixer in ’80s LA.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Incredible Hulk  Miles Morales: Spider-Man Ms. Marvel

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

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

Unannounced Sales

Halo: Legacy Collection  Halo: Rise of Atriax  Hellboy

Dark Horse has a sale on the adaptions of the Halo video game:

We also *think* the Dark Horse horror titles should be on sale through Monday or Tuesday.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Batman; Vertigo; Creature Commandos; Carnage; Dark Horse Manga

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has a Halloween sale with Batman, Vertigo and even the Creature Commandos. Marvel adds Carnage to the season’s sale rotation and Dark Horse has discounts on manga.

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):

A Batman + Vertigo Sale For Halloween?

Batman - Haunted Knight  Creature Commandos  Unwritten

The DC Horror and Mystery Sale runs through Monday, 10/28.

You did hear that the return of the Vertigo imprint was announced at New York Comic Con, right? Chris Conroy will be heading up that and Black Label for DC editorial and it sounds like the right things are happening with more announcements imminent.

This sale is a little bit of Vertigo, a little more Batman than necessarily fits Halloween and some superhero things that fall somewhere in-between. We’ll run down the Halloween-specific highlights, but there’s a good deal more in what’s a relatively deep sale.

  • Batman: The Long Halloween – Jeph Loeb / Tim Sale; you knew this was going to be here
    • Batman: Dark Victory – the Loeb / Sale sequel
    • Batman: Haunted Knight – This collects the Halloween specials Loeb & Sale did prior to The Long Halloween, so it’s probably the most Halloween volume of the trio.
  • Detective Comics: Gotham Nocturn: Overture – Ram V  / Rafael Albuquerque; As long as we’re on Batman, Ram V’s been doing a long form, slow burn, horror-tinged Batman run that we’re enjoying quite a bit. This is part 1.
  • American Vampire – Scott Snyder / Rafael Albuquerque; A new strain of vampire appears and we follow him through history
  • Basketful of Heads – Joe Hill / Dave Stewart; From Hill’s short-lived imprint
  • The Books of Magic – Neil Gaiman / John Bolton / Charles Vess / Scott Hampton; pre-dating Harry Potter, the ultimate destiny of a boy destined to be a power wizard is debated by Constantine, The Phantom Stranger, Mister E and Doctor Occult
  • Creature Commandos – J.M. DeMatteis / Robert Kanigher / Fred Carrillo; The original Weird War stories that inspired the new cartoon
  • Creature Commandos Present: Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. – Grant Morrison / Doug Mahnke & Jeff Lemire / Alberto Ponticelli
  • DCeased – Tom Taylor / Trevor Hairsine; The Anti-Life Equation gets loose and turns most of the population – including superheroes – into zombie-like creatures, while the survivors look for a way out. Shockingly good and there are more collections in the main link.
  • Deadman – Neal Adams / Paul Levitz / Len Wein / Jim Aparo / Jose Luis Garcia Lopez; The original run plus the 70s appearances (the very definition of a cult hero)
  • Death: The High Cost of Living – Neil Gaiman / Chris Bachalo / Mark Buckingham
  • The Demon ’72-’74 – Jack Kirby’s fantasy-action classic about a Demon bound to a mortal host throughout the ages
  • The Demon ’87 – Matt Wagner’s take on Kirby’s creation
  • Hellblazer – The legendary (and consistently good) Vertigo run for $3.99-$5.99/volume
    • John Constantine: Hellblazer – Si Spurrier / Aaron Campbell / Matias Bergara; This recent Black Label series is right up there with the best of the Vertigo run – which is saying a LOT
  • I… Vampire – J.M. DeMatteis / Tom Sutton; The original run from House of Mystery
  • Lucifer – Mike Carey / Peter Gross; Sandman spin-off where Lucifer leaves Hell for Los Angeles… a bit different from the TV version
  • Justice League Dark ’18 – James Tynion IV / Alvaro Martinez Bueno; That’s right, before The Nice House on the Lake; Tynion & Bueno were doing the Justice League horror title
  • The Nice House on the Lake – James Tynion IV / Alvaro Martinez Bueno; A group of friends find themselves trapped in a vacation home at the end of the world; This link is the whole series in one volume
  • Night Force – Marv Wolfman / Gene Colan; Marv’s favorite work; The Tomb of Dracula team regroups for a series about a mansion with a portal through time and space, it’s mysterious resident and the agents he sends out on occult missions
  • Preacher – Garth Ennis / Steve Dillon; As seen on TV, God has gone missing and Jesse Custer would like a word with him. Double volumes for $3.99
  • Saga of the Swamp Thing – The Alan Moore / Steve Bissette / John Totleben / Stan Woch classic run (the Mark Millar / Phil Hester run is also listed here)
  • The Sandman – Neil Gaiman and a rotating cast of artists
  • The Spectre – John Ostrander / Tom Mandrake; under the radar classic as a dead man struggles with his existence and the spirit of wrath that’s tethered to him
  • Swamp Thing – Len Wein / Bernie Wrightson; The legendary original run by Wein & Wrightson through the pre-Moore ’80s revival.
  • The Unwritten – Mike Carey / Peter Gross; Yes, that’s M.R. Carey from The Girl With All the Gifts; The son of a novelist tries to figure out if he’s really the boy-wizard from his father’s books
  • Y: The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan / Pia Guerra; A mysterious event leaves one man alive on Earth (and his monkey). He’s looking for his missing girlfriend and the “Daughters of the Amazon” are looking for him.

More Hot Symbiote Action

Carnage  Carnage  Absolute Carnage

The Marvel Carnage Sale runs through Monday, 10/28.

If Venom has a sale (and movie), might as well have Carnage as a sequel sale, right?

This is an odd set compared with something like Fantastic Four, since Carnage has been a guest villain or mini-series dweller for part of the time, so here’s the highlights and short tour.

For early Carnage, your best best is probably Carnage Epic Collection: Born in Blood. That gets you the first Carnage tale from Amazing Spider-Man _and_ the Maximum Carnage arc. For more of those early villain and mini-series appearances, there are two more Epic Collections with their own series page.

Jump forward to 2015 and you’ll find what’s probably our favorite take on  Carnage: Gerry Conway & Mike Perkins have a run that’s got a real 70s Marvel horror flavor to it. Carnage is seeking the Book of Darkhold and is pursued by Flash Thompson in his Toxin era, Man-Wolf and the Order of the Midnight sun.

Absolute Carnage was a big 2019 Event spinning out of Venom by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman.

Carnage then relaunched in ’22 by Ram V and Francesco Manna. This one weaves in and out of serial killer thriller / fantasy (with a trip to Asgard) / and capes.

The third volume of this series is listed separately as Carnage Reigns with Alex Paknadel tagging in as writer.

The next series of Carnage follows that up with the team of Torunn GrØnbekk & Pere Perez.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Blood Hunt   Incredible Hulk  Miles Morales: Spider-Man

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

  • Blood Hunt – Jed MacKay / Pepe Larraz – $9.99

Pre-Order for Next Week

Unannounced Sales

Astro Boy Elfen Lied Path of the Assassin

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Doctor Strange, Marvel Monsters, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Cyberpunk 2077

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, more Marvel Halloween mayhem with Doctor Strange and the Marvel Monsters. DC has a few more recent collected edition releases, plus Cyberpunk 2077.

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 Doctor Will See You Now

Doctor Strange in Strange Tales  Doctor Strange by Englehart  Doctor Strange - The Oath

The  Marvel Doctor Strange Sale runs through Monday, 11/4.

And it’s most of the Doctor Strange material that’s been collected in book form. Alas, the Masterworks are not in this sale and they’re a little further along the 70s/80s series than the Epics are.

It seems the Jed MacKay run is still being kept separate from the “regular” Doctor Strange sale. No, it makes no sense to us, either. Parts of it have been discounted elsewhere.

What’s good?  The original Lee/Ditko run is great and you can get that in the first Epic Collection. Things pick up again when Englehart and Brunner show up towards the end of the Marvel Premiere run and the whole ’74-’87 run is solid, though we have a particular soft spot for the Roger Stern / Marshall Rogers / Paul Smith material towards the end.  Yes, Doctor Strange had A list creators most of the time.  That’s your core.

Another personal favorite is Doctor Strange: The Oath by a pre-Saga Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin. They’ve both moved on to bigger things, but a long run by those two would have been a real highlight.

Something under the radar?  The final Waid/Walker run is also a lot more under the radar than it should be.

Or We Could Just Call It a Halloween Sale

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber  Tomb of Dracula  Marvel Zombies

The  Marvel Monster Sale runs through Monday, 11/4.

One thing you’ll note when browsing the links is how the 70s “Complete Collections” are in the process of turning into “Masterworks” editions. We suspect that when the Masterworks are complete, the Complete Collections will be rebranded as Epic Collections.

So first, an overview of the highlights:

What’s good here? There are two titles you’ll usually hear mentioned as the top Marvel monster/horror book:

Man-Thing – three volumes get you the full run of one of Gerber’s longest running associations. He didn’t create the Man-Thing, but Gerber defined him. The final volume even catches you up on the Marvel Comics Presents serial and The Infernal Man-Thing miniseries that was published post-posthumously. There are a lot of artists tagging in and out, but prominent ones include Mike Ploog, Val Mayerick, John Buscema, Tom Sutton and Kevin Nowlan. Yes, both DC and Marvel had great swamp monster runs that kicked off at roughly the same time.

Tomb of Dracula – This one had some creative false starts, but once Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan have a couple issues to settle in and start building their supporting cast, this quickly becomes one of the most interesting books Marvel was publishing for it’s 70 issue issue run. Like Man-Thing, it’s one of the gems of the ’70s.

And for something a little more modern, there’s Marvel Zombies. The “Complete Collection” editions are extra interesting because the first one collects the Zombie dimension’s initial appearances away from the miniseries that followed. While the mini’s have occasion to float into the absurd, the initial appearances where a little more firmly in the horror world. And yes, the first two mini’s were Robert Kirkman writing zombies at Marvel.

Pride Cometh Before the Sale

The Flash  Shazam  Wonder Woman

The DC Fall Sale runs through Monday, 10/21.

A lot of the more relatively recent collections this week. Here are some things that jumped out at us, most of them at a cheap $2.99, a common price for this sale:

What’s good here?

Wonder Woman is actually something of a political thriller and King’s political inclinations flow a little better here than they have in other places as it makes a slow, deliberate march into “enemy of the state” territory.

Shazam! should be a top choice if you’re looking for something that leads with fun, as it course corrects the character back towards the classic format.

The Flash starts out with the Speed Force and then veers off in more of a cosmic horror direction. Maybe skip the very out of place Beast World tie-in in the middle of it, but stay for the strangeness and sense of wonder as the mystery slowly unspools.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Blood Hunt  Edge of the Spider-Verse: Spider Society  Predator: The Last Hunt

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

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

  • Blood Hunt – Jed MacKay / Pepe Larraz – $9.99

Unannounced Sales

Cyberpunk 2077   Cyberpunk 2077 Big City Dreams  The Nasty

Looks like there’s an unannounced sale on Dark Horse’s Cyberpunk 2077. A video game adaptation with an interesting award to its credit.

The first four collections can be found here.

After which, the property went to the album format Dark Horse sometimes uses for titles with a higher bookstore profile, which are listed with the single issues:

Big City Dreams was the 2023 Hugo Award winner for Best Graphic Story or Comic. And there you have it.

Also with discounts: remember  The Nasty by John Lees & Adam Cahoon? Come to find out, it’s on the New York Public Library’s list of the 50 Best New Comics for Adults in 2024.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Moon Knight, Ghost Rider, Vampirella, Bendis @ Dark Horse

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel keeps things moving in a Halloween direction with discounts on Moon Knight and Ghost Rider. Dark Horse slashes prices on the independent work of Brian Bendis and Dynamite celebrates Halloween.

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 Light of the Silvery Moon

Moon Knight  Moon Knight Epic Collection   Moon Knight

The Marvel Moon Knight Sale runs through Monday, 10/14.

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

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

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 just dropped, but isn’t discounted yet.)
  • 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:

Shouldn’t He Be “In the Sky?”

Ghost Rider  Ghost Rider  Ghost Rider

The Marvel Ghost Rider Sale runs through Monday, 10/14.

Halloween is coming, so here comes a demonic biker. Coincidence? We think not.

As a bonus, the absurdity of Cosmic Ghost Rider:

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

The Spectacular Spider-Men  Edge of the Spider-Verse: Spider Society  Predator: The Last Hunt

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

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

Putting the Bite on Halloween

Vampirella  Sacred Six  Eduardo Risso's Tales of Terror

The Dynamite Halloween Sale runs through Thursday 10/31. (Fancy that!)

The highlight here, particularly since Vampirella is one of the flagship characters at Dynamite, is the Christopher Priest / Ergün Gündüz Vampirella run. This is something we’ve been meaning to circle back to, since the collected editions slowed down during lockdown. We’ve read the first volume and it’s definitely a Priest take on the character (which we consider a good thing). A bit more continuity than you might expect and conspiracy unravelling as several longtime foes converge on Vampi.

Priest (this time w/Jae Lee & Stephanie Roux) also has a spin-off series Sacred Six (yes, we’re taking that as a pun on Secret Six), which teams up Vampi secondary characters Draculina, Pantha, Nyx and Chastity while Vampi’s mom is scheming.

Something a bit off the beaten path? Eduardo Risso’s Tales of Terror. The 100 Bullets artist does a series of horror tales, scripted by his Borderline collaborator, Carlos Trillo.

Unannounced Sales

Plants vs. Zombies  Powers Fortune and Glory

We have two more unannounced Dark Horse sales: Plants Vs. Zombies and the work of Brian Bendis.

Plants Vs. Zombies

Yes, this would be the comics adaptation of the Plants vs. Zombies video games by Paul Tobin and several artists (Ron Chan being the most frequent). And these sell better in the bookstore market than you might realize.

The omnibus editions are the best deal, but single volumes are also on sale.

Bendis

Dark Horse has a big block of Brian Bendis titles on sale. Let’s hit the numbers first:

We’d like to talk a little about the early Bendis, which doesn’t seem to be widely remembered after all his time at Marvel and DC. Bendis started out doing the full cartoonist and working on crime comics like Goldfish and Jinx.

He started getting a little more notice when he jumped over to Image for Powers w/ Oeming. Powers starts out as a police procedural in a world where super powers have to be registered (this is LONG before Marvel’s Civil War) and follows a police unit that handles “powers”-related crimes. There’s a lot of worldbuilding involved and things get quite a bit more complicated as the backstories of the main characters unfold.

Powers left Image for Marvel’s Icon imprint when Bendis blew up there and as he got deeper into Marvel, the shipping schedule got erratic. It’s relaunched a few times and seemingly lost a lot of audience momentum. Shipping schedules, have very little to do with the quality of the comic, however. It’s a good one and an influential one that’s worth dipping into the collected editions of. (And trust us, its so much easier with omnibuses where you don’t have to remember which relaunch a given issue is from!)

Also very worthwhile:  Fortune & Glory is Bendis recounting tales of interacting with Hollywood when Goldfish got optioned. It’s hilarious and multiple folks who work in TV/Film have assured us it’s frighteningly accurate.

We’d also point you to Scarlet as a more recent example of Bendis returning to that early crime vibe. It’s a strong comic.

Also with discounts:

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The Joker and Harley Quinn; Venom; X-23 (Wolverine); Marvel 2099; Dark Horse Horror

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, things move into the Halloween season. DC discounts The Joker and Harley Quinn. Marvel slashes prices on Venom, X-23 (Wolverine) and the 2099 line. Dark Horse even has a horror sale.

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):

52 Pick-Up

The Joker: 80 Years of the Clown Prince of Crime  Joker War Saga  Harley Quinn

The DC Joker and Harley Quinn Sale runs through Monday, 10/14.

Villains running wild! You’d think there was a movie coming out or something?

Let’s break this down by character, since Harley has her own life these days.

Joker

Harley Quinn

  • Harleen – Stjepan Sejic; Black Label reimagining of Harley’s origin
  • Harley Quinn ’00-’04 – Karl Kesel / Rachael & Terry Dodson
  • Harley Quinn ’13-’16 – Jimmy Palmiotti / Amanda Connor / Chad Hardin / John Timms
  • Harley Quinn ’16-’20 – Jimmy Palmiotti / Amanda Connor / Chad Hardin / John Timms (Is there a difference between this and the ’13 series? Nope. It’s all one run with a company wide relaunch in the middle.)
  • Harley Quinn ’21 – present – Stephanie Phillips / Riley Rossmo

What’s good here? We’d say get The Joker: 80 Years of the Clown Prince of Crime for O’Neil/Adams, Englehart/Rogers, The Killing Joke and Mad Love (still the best Harley Quinn tale). There are some classics in that book.

If your ideal Joker is the Heath Ledger version, Joker by Azzarello & Bermejo is your huckleberry.

For Harley, see Mad Love above and we’ve always had a soft spot for the absurdist, almost Looney Tunes take of Connor/Palmiotti/Hardin/Timms.

Spider-Juice

Venom by Remender   Venom by Cates   Venom

The Marvel Venom Sale runs through Monday, 11/4.

This is a fairly scattered sale, with multiple formats and a lot of random early miniseries floating around. Browse for a better accounting of the listings.

For the early stuff, the better values are the somewhat scattered Epic Collections.

The early (mostly) Spider-Man appearances can be found in Venom Epic Collection: Symbiosis. That’s largely the David Michelinie / Todd McFarlane / Erik Larsen material.  That’s followed by Venom Epic Collection: Lethal Protector which has a few more villainous appearances and the original Lethal Protector mini. And then Venom Epic Collection: Carnage Unleashed continues the 90s appearances.

Eventually Venom gets his own series:

  • Venom  (2003-4) – The Daniel Way era
  • Venom  (2011-3) – Rick Remender/Tony Moore, then Cullen Bunn/Declan Shalvey
  • Venom (2016-8) – Mike Costa / Tradd Moore / Mark Bagley
  • Venom (2018-21) – Donny Cates / Ryan Stegman
  • Venom (2021-present) – Al Ewing / Ram V / Bryan Hitch

Let’s talk about the last 12 years or so. The ’11-’13 series is more interesting than you might think. That’s when Flash Thompson has the symbiote and uses it (among other things) to replace the legs his lost in the war. There are some interesting pathos floating around, particularly in the Remender/Moore run.

The Cates/Stegman run is probably the most famous right now. That’s where Venom gets Cosmic and leads into the King In Black Event.

The current Ewing / V / Hitch run, Ewing is wrapping up and Ram V has moved on,  but it’s something else. Al Ewing drives the Cosmic elements, which are the most interesting part. Eddie Brock is dead. But he isn’t. He’s separated from his body and he’s bouncing around in time as his son becomes Venom in the present. It’s a much, much stranger take on Venom than most others and really dives into the King in Black mythos and timeline.

So yes, between Cates and Ewing, Venom has been a Cosmic book for some time.

The _Other_ Clone Saga

All-New Wolverine    X-23

The Marvel X-23 Sale runs through Monday, 10/7.

Laura Kinney is X-23. She’s also the clone daughter of Wolverine. Eventually, she’ll take up the mantle of Wolverine, but this sequence starts earlier than that. This can all be grouped into three titles to simplify your browsing.

  • NYX: The Complete Collection – Joe Quesada / Josh Middleton. Marjorie Liu / Kalman Andrasofszky; X-23 debuted here
  • X-23: The Complete Collection – These two volumes contain everything through the 2010 series.
  • New X-Men – The “Childhood’s End” Complete collection gets you issues #16-32; then skip ahead to V.4 & 5 to actually complete the run.
  • X-Force ’08-’12 – Craig Kyle / Christopher Yost / Clayton Crain
  • All-New Wolverine – Tom Taylor / David Lopez; Juann Cabal; Laura picks up the Wolverine mantle while Logan is “dead.”
  • X-23 (2018-19) – Mariko Tamaki / Juann Cabal / Diego Olortegui

We absolutely love All-New Wolverine. Tom Taylor runs the gamut of story types from goofy to action to borderline horror/thriller and does a ton of character development. Recommended.

76 Years Away

Spider-Man 2099   Doom 2099   X-Men 2099

The Marvel 2099 Sale runs through Monday, 10/7.

Yes, 2099 was a line for Marvel in ’90s. Spider-Man  2099 was the flagship and longest lasting of the bunch. Peter David wrote it and Rick Leonardi is the artist most associated with it. Mind you, Spidey 2099 has had scrolling revivals over the years including (and currently discounted):

What else was in the line (that’s been collected and is on sale?)

  • Doom 2099 – This collection is the Warren Ellis run with Pat Broderick and Steve Pugh as the main illustrators
  • X-Men 2099 – The beginning arc with John Francis Moore and Ron Lim
  • Deadpool 2099 – What? You don’t remember this? Ha ha! Marvel is slipping in a collection of a few Gerry Duggan / Scott Koblish issues from the ’15 run of Deadpool!
  • Marvel Knights 2099 – Robert Kirkman / Steve Epting
  • Timestorm 2009 – 2099 – Brian Reed / Eric Battle; 2009 crossover between “regular” Spidey, Wolverine and the 2009 universe
  • Secret Wars 2099 – Peter David / Will Sliney; Yes, Secret Wars had a tie-in for just about everything!

No Ravage 2099 / Punisher 2099 / Ghost Rider 2099 collections to be seen, if you were wondering.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Deadpool & Wolverine: World War III  Ultimate Black Panther The Spectacular Spider-Men

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

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

Something in Parabellum?
Deadworld   The Realm    Jazz Age Chronicles

The Caliber Comics Library 50% off Fall Sale runs through Thursday, 10/31.

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

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.

Ageless

Unannounced Sales

Grendel Omnibus  Hellboy  These Savage Shores

We have an unannounced Dark Horse on horror, or possibly Halloween. Here are a few things we noticed:

Also with discounts:

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Fantastic Four (a full run); Secret Six; Gwenpool; Golden Age Jack Kirby

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

(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):

Four Play

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Universal Exports

Cosmic Odyssey  Marshal Law  Secret Six

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

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

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

Jack Kirby Corner

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

The Other Side of the Pool

The Unbelievable Gwenpool  West Coast Avengers  Gwenpool Strikes Back

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

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

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

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

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

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

As Seen on TV

Van Helsing

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

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

Two options here:

Unannounced Sales

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

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

Also with discounts:

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Batman Day! Plus, West Coast Avengers, Ms. Marvel, Killadelphia, Lazarus

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s Batman Day and most of the line is discounted. Plus, West Coast Avengers (and the rest of the sundry titles), Ms. Marvel, and a fresh batch of Image titles on sale.

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 Dark Day Returns?

Batman: The Brave and the Bold: The Winning Card  Batman: Venom   Batman: Year One

The DC Batman Day Sale runs through Monday, 9/23.

And this is to say most, not quite all, of the Batman material is discounted.

Let’s break down some of the highlights by series/volume.

Your classic / pre-New 52 material is largely going to be in:

Now… you sorta need to browse both, because with how the two titles started crossing over from the 80s on up, you’re never quite sure which title a collection/story arc/Event will be filed under. And yes, we do like the 80s collections of Caped Crusader and Dark Knight Detective for $4.99. And yes, Knightfall, No Man’s Land, and the like are all in there.

Some more pre-New 52 ongoing titles:

  • Batman: Shadow of the Bat – Alan Grant’s title, w/Norm Breyfogle, early on. (Get more of them in Dark Knight Detective/Caped Crusader)
  • Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight – standalone arcs by different creative teams, but consistently good
  • Batman: Streets of Gotham – Paul Dini’s in-continuity series w/Dustin Nguyen
  • The Brave & The Bold – Batman team-ups. Bob Haney, Neal Adams and Jim Aparo were notable creators here. Haney/Aparo was the team on a LOT of comics. (Now if we could get a Nemesis collection…)

A couple one-offs of note:

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns   Trinity

New 52 and forward, your main titles are:

  • Batman (’11-’16) – The Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo run
  • Batman (’16-current) – starts with the Tom King era and the discounts straight through to Zdarsky’s last release (not for pre-release, though).
    • Save a couple bucks on the Tom King run with the “Deluxe” editions
  • Detective Comics (’11-’16) – originally Tony Daniels (how many printings did his first issue have?)
  • Detective Comics (’16-current) – Starts out with James Tynion’s first (and we’d say better) Batman run.

Some shorter runs of note in the New 52 era:

  • Batman ’89 – Sam Hamm / Joe Quinones; The screenwriter of Tim Burton’s Batman films continues that continuity
  • Batman: Universe (’19) – Brian Bendis and Nick Derington go against the current trend and deliver and light and fun Batman romp across the DCU that has a certain old school The Brave & the Bold vibe to it… but with more snark. Recommended. $3.99
  • Batman: The Adventures Continue – The Animated Series brain trust of Alan Burnett & Paul Dini continue where the cartoon left off with Ty Templeton on art. 3 volumes @$3.99
  • Batman: The Brave and the Bold: The Winning Card – Tom King and Mitch Gerads tell a Joker tale
  • Batman: The Detective – Tom Taylor (was this his Detective Comics audition?) and Andy Kubert take Batman to Europe where his past rears its head and some actual detection is performed. $3.99

Batman Universe   Batman: The Adventures Continue   Batman: The Detective

And above the $3.99 level?

Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart – Englehart’s Detective run with Marshall Rogers and Walt Simonson is one of the “definitive runs” of all-time and in a contender for best run. This has the sequel runs, plus the Aquaman (with some Batman) sequel to “The Laughing Fish” with Trevor Von Eeden. 452 pages for $8.99

Batman: Killing Time – Tom King and David Marquez get their noir on with Batman following the trail of a heist gone bad as his rogues gallery double-cross each other. We read this recently and liked it a lot. $4.99

Batman: Tales of the Demon – Denny O’Neil / Neal Adams / Don Newton. This would be a collection of the original Ra’s al Ghul. Which is to say, the more famous original arc in the early ’70s and when O’Neil revisited the character a few years later in DC Special and the dollar-sized run of Detective. Ideally, we’d like to see a lower price than $8.99 for this page count, but its a good collection with one of the key villains in the Bat-mythos.

Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart   Batman: Killing Time   Batman: Tales of the Demon

Prefer the 90s Event era where the Batman family of books crossed over?  Most of those collections are $3.99 – $5.99. Here’s a cheat sheet for that (we have a soft spot for No Man’s Land):

Plenty more here and worth a weekend browse.

The Other Avengers(es)

Avengers West Coast  Avengers West Coast  Savage Avengers

The Marvel Avengers West Coast & Beyond Sale run through Monday, 9/23.

That sale name is a nice way of saying “all the Avengers titles, except the main one.” It just happens the main spin-off title everyone thinks about is West Cost Avengers / Avengers West Coast. (I mean even DC moved to the West Coast. It’s a thing.)

Let’s run down the highlights of the rest of it:

  • All-New, All-Different Avengers ’15-’16 – Mark Waid / Adam Kubert / Mahmud Asrar
  • Dark Avengers ’09-13 – Brian Bendis / Mike Deodato, then Jeff Parker/ Declan Shalvey; When Norman Osborn was running a fake Avengers squad during Dark Reign
  • Mighty Avengers ’07-10 – Brian Bendis / Dan Slott / Frank Cho / Koi Pham
  • Mighty Avengers ’13-14 – Al Ewing / Greg Land; Where Al Ewing starts some of the Blue Marvel sub-plots
  • New Avengers ’04-’12; Brian Bendis and So. Many. Artists.; It’s easier to get all the Bendis New Avengers (including relaunches) in the “Complete Collection” format
  • New Avengers ’13 -’15 – Jonathan Hickman / Steve Epting / Mike Deodato / Simone Bianchi / and friends; Warning – you only get 1/2 of Hickman’s saga with this format
  • New Avengers ’15-’16 – Al Ewing / Gerardo Sandoval; Sunspot’s Avengers Idea Mechanics (and Squirrel Girl)
  • Savage Avengers ’19-’22; Gerry Duggan / Mike Deodato / Patrick Zircher; Think of this as Conan forming the Defenders to hunt down Kulan Gath in the modern day… quite entertaining, as it happens
  • Savage Avengers ’22-’23 –  David Pepose / Carlo Magno; relaunched for a new creative team
  • Secret Avengers ’10 – ’12 – Initially Ed Brubaker / Mike Deodato; The Avengers’ black ops squad
  • Secret Avengers ’13-14 – Nick Spencer / Luke Ross
  • Secret Avengers ’14-’15 – Ales Kot / Michael Walsh
  • Uncanny Avengers ’12-’14 – Rick Remender / John Cassaday / Daniel Acuna
  • Uncanny Avengers ’15 – ’17 – Gerry Duggan / Ryan Stegman
  • Uncanny Avengers: The Resistance ’23 – Gerry Duggan / Javier Garron
  • West Coast Avengers ’18-’19 – Kelly Thompson / Stefano Casseli; More of a Hawk-guy & Kate Bishop series than traditional WCA.
  • Young Avengers ’05 – ’06 – Allan Heinberg / Jim Cheung
  • Young Avengers ’13-’14 – Kieron Gillen / Jamie McKelvie

What’s good? We’re partial to the original Englehart / Milgrim West Cost Avengers and we don’t think there’s been a sale on this since that series filled out in Epic Collections? There’s a case to be made for the Byrne run, but that one is a lightning rod for strong opinions.

We also thought the Dan Slott Mighty Avengers run was a fun slice of “traditional” Avengers in the middle of the Bendis “New Avengers” era.

The real under the radar one here is the Gerry Duggan Savage Avengers run. If you’ve had an itch for some classic Defenders, this (of all things) might scratch it. It’s offbeat, fun and the sequence where Conan humiliates/shames Doctor Doom while having dinner with him has to be experienced to be believed.

Kamala Sale

Ms. Marvel  Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant

The  Ms. Marvel Sale runs through Monday 11/20.

Thank goodness they’re not calling this “The Marvel Ms. Marvel Sale!” This would be Ms. Marvel as in Kamala Khan, not the current Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers. Is there a movie coming out? Hmm…  Let’s break this down by volume, since there have been relaunches.

  • Ms. Marvel ’14-15 – The original run with G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona as the primary artist
  • Ms. Marvel ’15-’19 – How silly is this relaunch? The collected edition number doesn’t even reset! It’s still Wilson and Alphona, although the artist rotate a bit as it goes on.
  • Magnificent Ms. Marvel ’91-’21 – Relaunched after Wilson’s departure, this is written by Saladin Ahmed with Minkyu Jung and Joey Vazquez as the lead artists
  • Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit – The recent mini-series by Samira Ahmed and Andrés Genolet.
  • Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant – Iman Vellani / Sabir Pirzada / Carlos Gomez; Yes, that’s right, the actress who plays Ms. Marvel is co-writing this with the show’s supervising producer

Recommendations? We thought Ms. Marvel was at its best early in the run, before it got too integrated into the Marvel universe, but that’s just us.  Definitely start with Wilson’s run, though.  It made quite the mainstream splash.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Venom  Dead X-Men  X-Force

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

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

A Pocket Full of Posies?

Kill or Be Killed  Killadelphia  Lazarus

The Image All Falls Down Sale runs through Monday, 9/30.

No, we’re not sure where they got the name either, we’re just glad they’re back having sales again. This is another small, vaguely alphabetical slice of titles.

A few things we’ve enjoyed enough to put at the top of the list:

  • Kane – Paul Grist; A largely under the radar (and quirky) crime series from the UK. Originally from Dancing Elephant Press, no less!
  • Kill or Be Killed – Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips; Is he nuts or possessed? Either way, a vigilante is in an ever-deepening amount of trouble with the Russian mob. Top form for Brubaker & Phillips, just don’t ask us what’s up with the pricing on the back half of the series
  • Killadelphia – Rodney Barnes / Jason Shawn Alexander; This one’s a particular favorite. A cop who grew up in Philly returns for his father’s funeral and discovers he’s at ground zero of a vampire invasion. One with… let’s call it a sense of history
  • Lazarus – Greg Rucka / Michael Lark; 20 minutes into the future, the world is run by corporations and the families that own those corporations are feuding. The genetically engineered bodyguard/warlord of one of these families is rapidly becoming unsatisfied with the status quo. Some of the early predictions of this series are starting to be a bit uncomfortable…

All top of the line stuff!

Also of possible interest:

  • Happy! – Grant Morrison / Darick Robertson; the basis for the TV show a few years back
  • Local Man – Tim Seely / Tony Fleecs; A noir that’s also a sendup of 90s anti-hero comics as a failed superhero slinks back to the small town he grew up in
  • M.O.M.: Mother of Monsters – Emilia Clarke / Marguerite Bennett / Leila Leiz; The Game of Thrones actress tries her hand at comics

Unannounced Sales

Mob Psycho 1000 BarbaricThe Hunger and the Dusk

We have an unannounced Dark Horse sale on Mob Psycho 100 by ONE.

Also with discounts:

  • Barbaric – Michael Moreci / Nathan C. Gooden
    • V.3 is listed separately because of course it is
  • The Hunger & The Dusk – G. Willow Wilson / Chris Wildgoose (still $1.99)

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