Tag: digital comics

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

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

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

Did Somebody Say Omnibus?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Captain Britain Omnibus   Incredible Hulk by Peter David   Thunderbolts

Spider-Verse

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

This sale is… kind of a mess to navigate.

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

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

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

  Miles Morales: Spider-Man   Miles Morales

Make It Reign

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

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

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

Iron Man   Iron Man

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

February

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

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

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

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

Justice League by Priest   Michael Cray   Steel

Romance… Through The Mirror, Darkly…

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

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

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

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

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

Sex Criminals   My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies   Love Everlasting

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

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

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

Fight and Then Team Up

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

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

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

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

52   World's Finest   New Teen Titans

It’s a Sin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fear Agent   Farmhand   Geiger

No, Not That Kind of “Fantasy”

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

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

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

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

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

Air   Alice in Sunderland   Aztec Ace

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

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Panther’s Visitations

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

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

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

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

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

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

Black Panther   Fantastic Four   Avengers

Littering His Web

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

Why yes, Spidey _does_ have a rogues gallery.

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

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

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

Amazing Spider-Man   Carnage   Spider-Man / Doctor Octopus

Beware the DC Sale

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

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

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

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

Boom’s Best of 2020 2022

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

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

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

BRZRKR   Once & Future

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

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Let’s Put the X in Sale

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

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

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

Dawn of X   Reign of X

An Extra X Sale

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

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

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

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

X-Force   X-Force   X-Force

Send Them Pak-ing

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

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

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

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

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

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

Planet Hulk   Incredible Hulk   Hulk

Resurrecting A Sale From the Dead

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

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

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

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

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

Batman: Abyss   Nightwing   Zatana by Paul Dini

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

Shelving Sale

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

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

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

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

They Called Us Enemy   The Bojeffries Saga

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

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

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

Best of 2020 2022 – Marvel Edition

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

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

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

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

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

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

Moon Knight x The Death of Doctor Strange x Strange

Also good:

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

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

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

Marvels   Defenders   Amazing Spider-Man

The Literary Roots of WandaVision

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

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

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

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

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

Vision and the Scarlet Witch   Avengers West Coast

Best of 2020 2022 – DC Edition

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

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

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

Dark Capes

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

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

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

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

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

Nexus   The Best of Milligan and McCarthy   Powers

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

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

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

The Best of the Marvel Masterworks Sale

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

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

I Like Big Page Counts

Masterworks with 400+ pages!

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

Best of the $0.99 V.1’s

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

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

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

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

Defenders Masterworks   Black Panther Masterworks   Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks

Image Stuffs the Stocking

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

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

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

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

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

Saga   The Monolith   shockrockets

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

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

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

Revival   Criminal   Casanova

Dynamite Stuffs the Stocking

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

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

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

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

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

Flash Gordon   Borderline   The Shadow: The Last Illusion

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Holiday Sales From DC (More $1.99 Collections), Archie, BOOM! and IDW

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, holiday sales from DC (it’s a doozy), IDW, Archie and BOOM!.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

A clerical note before we jump into things. Comics.Cheap will probably be on a strange holiday schedule, like everyone else. We’re not sure if we’ll be putting out the usual Friday round-up this week.  That will be determined largely by whether any more notable sales dropping between now and then. (There’s an Image sale listed, but as we’re typing this, it sure doesn’t look like the sale prices are appearing yet… but if it’s not more than 50% off, we’ll wait for next week.)  Next week, we’ll have a closer look at the BEST of the Marvel Masterworks sale and catch up on any interesting sales dropping between now and then.

DC’s Insane Holiday Sale

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

WOW. This is like the last few DC sales, only more of it. And with over 3K items this is approaching a line-wide sale. Not quite, but getting there. If you scroll back to the last few $1.99/$2.99 sales between Black Friday and now, we think most of that material is back on sale, so we’ll focus on things that caught our eye this time around that maybe weren’t previously on sale. Yes, some of these items are giving the Marvel Masterpieces sale a run for your money.

This is 3600+ items, so remember – when browsing the main sale link, right click on comics and open them in a new window or you’ll lose your place and have to start over at the top!

Here’s an extended list of what caught our eye:

$1.99 Collected Editions

$2.99 Collected Editions

Over $3

  • Bizarro Comics – Matt Groening / Kyle Baker / Harvey Pekar and bunch more
  • Marshal Law – Pat Mills / Kevin O’Neill
  • Mister Miracle – The second series with Steve Englehart / Marshall Rogers and then Steve Gerber / Michael Golden / Russ Heath – that’s right, Heath inking Golden!
  • Night Force – The first Marv Wolfman / Gene Colan run (Marv’s favorite series)

What’s the cream of the crop? More so than most weeks, it depends on your individual tastes.  We will definitely say that the double volume editions of Gotham Central for $1.99 seems like an absolute steal.  We might slightly favor Jimmy Olsen (essentially, Kirby’s Superman title), but all of those 70’s Jack Kirby books for $2.99 are great deals. And we’re leaning toward Justice League International for the third slot because it’s just never this cheap.

Gotham Central   Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby   Justice League International

What’s that? You say you’d rather have single issues? Preferably for $0.99? It seems DC would like to placate your tastes. Note: these are fairly recent issues being discounted, so on longer running titles, you’ll need to scroll down a bit to see the 99 cent issues.  There’s a lot more than list here, but you’ll need to get below the collected editions on the main page.

Holidays go BOOM!

The BOOM! Holidays Graphic Novel Sale runs through Monday, 1/2.

This looks to be a line-wide 50% off sale, so let’s look at some things might be slightly below the radar.

Steed & Mrs. Peel is an adaption of the British TV Avengers, the often absurdist spy-fi show. This is a relatively early Grant Morrison script and drawn by Ian Gibson, who’s best known for his 2000 AD work on Robo-Hunter and Judge Dredd.

Is this the first time BRZRKR has been discounted? This one made a big splash on Kickstarter and variant covers, but you know what? Despite all the hype that wasn’t about the interior pages, this is actually a very enjoyable action/SF/dark fantasy comic. It’s written by Keanu Reeves and Matt Kindt with art by Ron Garney and concerns a seemingly immortal warrior from centuries past who’s ready to leave immortality behind. It’s bloody as all get out, but alternates the violence with character work.

And for something completely different: Jeremy Bastian’s Cursed Pirate Girl. You need to see the art in this fantasy tale for yourself. A delightfully unique experience.

Steed and Mrs. Peel   BRZRKR   Cursed Pirate Girl

A Different Side of Riverdale

The Archie Holiday Graphic Novel Sale runs through Monday, 1/2.

Since this looks line wide, we’ll draw your attention to something well off the beaten path:

The Black Hood by Duane Swierczynski / Michael Gaydos / Howard Chaykin / Greg Scott is more a crime book than a superhero caper. Vigilante if you must. In the wake of a shooting, involving a vigilante called The Black Hood, an injured cop develops a pain killer addiction, dons the Black Hood’s mask for less than puritanical reasons and finds himself in over his head in a world of vendettas. Very dark, very good. For some reason V. 3 is listed separately.

Black Hood   Black Hood

IDW Does the Holidays

The IDW Holidays Sale runs through Monday, 1/2.

Much like with BOOM!, this looks to be a near line wide sales at 50%-ish off, so we’ll highlight some under the radar books. If you’ve had your eye on something specific, have a browse and you’ll likely find it.

Popeye by Roger Langridge and Bruce Ozella is just straight up fun. A satisfying and amusing entry in the Popeye library.

The One by Rick Veitch is very dark superhero satire steeped in cold war politics. It’s effectively the younger sibling of Brat Pack and one of the earlier deconstructionist superhero comics (After Marvelman/Miracleman’s run in Warrior, but before Watchmen).

Sachs and Violens by Peter David and George Perez was originally a mini-series for Marvel’s Epic imprint, near the end of Epic’s original run. It’s a lighthearted adventure contrasted with heavy material (snuff films) as a model and photographer mete out street justice. Oddly, David later included the characters in his Fallen Angel series.

Popeye   The One   Sachs & Violens

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Comixology (At Amazon) Sales: $0.99 / $1.99 Marvel Masterworks (Cheap)

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, the Marvel holiday sales have arrived and by that, we mean the annual Marvel Masterworks sale.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Our Favorite Sale of the Year

The Marvel Masterworks Sale runs through Monday, 1/2.

Yes, this is what we consider the finest sale of the year – the Marvel Masterworks Sale. This year, the first volume in a series is $0.99 and the rest in the series are $1.99. Masterworks are usually contain at least 10-12 issues and some of the later volumes can push 500 pages, so there are excellent values to be had. Volume one is, generally speaking, where the character’s appearances begin. These let you get a complete run of a character/title and the flagship titles are now getting into 80s material.

Also, if you want to read the Don McGregor (or Jack Kirby) Black Panther runs, this is when you get them: Volume 1 – $0.99; Volume 2 – $1.99; Volume 3 – $1.99

We’ll come back before the sale is over and highlight what we think the best buys are in the Masterworks catalog, but right now let’s talk about what’s new to the sale this year. We think this is what’s new – or newly on sale – since last December’s sale dropped. If you gorge on the sale each year, it’ll probably save you some time. That said, always remember to check these against your library!

What’s particularly interesting here? A few things. Reading down the list, Captain America has the entirely too short Roger Stern/John Byrne run. Daredevil  is from the Frank Miller run and this volume culminates in the death of Elektra. Doctor Strange has the under-rated Roger Stern/Paul Smith run. Fantastic Four is the middle of John Byrne’s run. Iron Man  is part of the first David Michelinie/Bob Layton run (with John Romita, Jr. pencils) and just after the “Demon in a Bottle” arc. Marvel Two-In-One is part of the under-rated Mark Gruenwald/Ralph Machio era with some Jerry Bingham, George Perez and Ron Wilson art. Arcs include “The Serpent Crown Affair” and a Starhawk/Moondragon/Adam Warlock 3-parter.

These Masterworks sales are always a grand time!

Daredevil Masterworks   Doctor Strange Masterworks   Marvel Two-In-One Masterworks

Is It Secret If Everyone Knows?

The Marvel Secret Wars Sale runs through Monday, 1/2.

So many tie-ins with the sale, but here’s the rule of thumb breakdown:

Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars is the original 12 part series by Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck wherein The Beyonder does a bit of kidnapping and lots of fights ensue.  (And a symbiote turns up.)

Secret Wars by Jonathan Hick and Esad Ribic is the endcap to Hickman’s Fantastic Four and Avengers runs about what Douglas Adams might have called the world at the end of the universe.

Beyond! is your hidden gem here. We’d almost forgotten about it. A Dwayne McDuffie/Scott Kollins tales you might well call “What If… Dwayne McDuffie Wrote Secret Wars?”

Secret Wars  Secret Wars  Beyond!

Surf’s Up

The Marvel Silver Surfer Sale runs through Monday, 12/19.

This is a much smaller sale, focused a bit more on the more recent Surfer titles.

If you want old school Silver Surfer, there’s the Stan Lee / Moebius Parable, which was originally put out under the old Epic imprint. It also has the Enslavers OGN by Stan and Keith Pollard. You don’t get much more old school than Stan on one of his favorite characters.

The most impactful of the selections here is probably Silver Surfer: The Rebirth of Thanos by Jim Starlin and Ron Lim. This contains the Surfer arc where Starlin returns to the big bad of his 70s cosmic work and also Thanos Quest. This is the lead-in to Infinity Gauntlet and the beginning of a very fruitful collaboration between Starlin and Lim.

And for the longest running incarnation of the Surfer since that 80/90s run, there’s the Dan Slott/Mike Allred.  Technically, speaking this is the ’14-’15 series and the ’16-’17 series. Is it two volumes? Yes. Are we going to count it as one run for our purposes? Yes, again.

Silver Surfer: Parable   Rebirth of Thanos  Silver Surfer

And don’t forget the DC’s Greatest Hits Sale that’s running through Monday, it’s not *quite* as good as the Masterworks sale, but it’s close.

Expect the rest of the holiday floodgates to open on Tuesday.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC has *a new* $1.99 Graphic Novel Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC offers up a new slate of $1.99/$2.99 collected editions. We could get used to this.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Isn’t this interesting? DC has another week of much better than usual discounts, so they get a solo post today and we’ll be back for the rest of the week at the usual time.

The question you might be asking yourself: “Will DC have even better discounts next week or did they wisely decide to unleash the good prices while everyone else was waiting for the week of the 20th?”

We won’t have an answer to that until next week, but we’re awfully curious.

The Hit Parade

The DC’s Greatest Hits Sale runs through Monday, 12/19.

There’s a little bit of everything here and a few items, like Far Sector and the George Perez Wonder Woman run, hanging on from previous recent sales.

First a piece of real good advice. This sale is monster to get to the end of. We lost track of how many times we had to click for more books. It you want to examine something, right click it and open it in a new window so you don’t lose your place and have to manually reload everything from the top!

So let’s break this into highlights by price points. Here’s what caught our eye in terms of story and pricing:

$2.99 “Deluxe” Editions

These are great values – they generally contain the equivalent or 2 “regular” collected editions (10-12 issue worth), so you’re paying an effective $1.50 per collected edition. That’s about as cheap as it gets with DC!

  • 100 Bullets – Brian Azzarello / Eduardo Risso
  • Batman: Shadow of the Bat – Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle/Tim Sale/Bret Blevins
  • DMZ – Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli
  • Fables – Bill Willingham / Mark Buckingham
  • The Flash by Geoff Johns – with Scott Kollins as the lead artist; scroll to the bottom of the page for this, but a couple Flash by Mark Waid volumes are also $2.99
  • JLA – Initially by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter
  • New Gods – Jack Kirby’s classic saga + the ’84 wrap-up from the reprints + The Hunger Dogs OGN

$1.99 Collected Editions

  • Batman (’16-current) – All but the end of the Tom King run, then $2.99
  • Detective Comics (’16-current) – The James Tynion IV & Peter J. Tomasi runs are mostly $1.99, and then $2.99
  • Ex-Machina – Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris; “Deluxe” double volumes – usually 10 issues worth – cheap!
  • Green Arrow (’88-’98) – Best known as the Mike Grell era with Ed Hannigan, Dan Jurgens and Rick Hoberg illustrating the Grell run
  • Green Lantern: Sector 2814 (’60-’86) – at the bottom of the page, the Len Wein/Dave Gibbons run into the Steve Englehard/Joe Staton run
  • Green Lantern (’05-’11) – The Geoff Johns run, a GL highlight
  • The Nice House on the Lake – James Tynion IV / Alvaro Martinez Bueno
  • Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil – by Jeff Smith
  • Superman: Emperor Joker – Joe Kelly/Jeph Loeb/Doug Mahnke/Ed McGuinness
  • Superman: Phantom Zone – Steve Gerber / Gene Colan / Rick Veitch
  • Superman: The Man of Steel  – The John Byrne era, also with Marv Wolfman, Jerry Ordway, Ron Frenz and some Roger Stern
  • Superman Vs. Mongul – Len Wein/Jim Starlin are behind the early DC Comics Presents appearances of Mongul, plus the classic Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons “For the Man Who Has Everything”
  • Y- The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra; this version is actually the “Deluxe” double volumes for $1.99, so extra cheap!

A little pricier at $4.99, but of potential interest this week, First Issue Special is what Tom King’s Danger Street is based on. This is sort of the ’70s version of Showcase. The only “hit” to come out of it was Mike Grell’s Warlord, which one was of DC’s best sellers into the early 80s. The Martin Pasko/Walt Simonson Doctor Fate issue is a classic. Kirby’s Manhunter and Atlas issues are also worth your time. A mixed bag, but an interesting mixed bag.

What’s the pick of the litter? When all the prices are this good, it really depends on your tastes.  If you emphasize page count vs. price, New Gods might just get the crown. ~420 pages of great comics whose influence is hard to overstate for a mere $2.99. For the uninitiated, this is Jack Kirby’s epic of superhero-esque gods on the planets of New Genesis and Apokolips. Orion is the lead hero, Darkseid is the big bad and Mister Miracle was actually a companion book, not the main title. This is where Darkseid comes from.

Ex-Machina is pre-Saga Brian K. Vaughan and post-Starman Tony Harris telling the tale of the mayor of NYC and his unsuccessful efforts to stay retired from superheroing. A more adult take on superheroes set against a backdrop of politics long before the Kingpin or Luke Cage was mayor. $1.99/volume for the double volumes? Yes, please.

For “traditional” DC capes hijinx, we’ll give the JLA run a slight nod over Flash. As JLA moves forward, the page counts get a little higher than Flash. Particularly the Waid/Hitch volume. The Flash also doesn’t wear a cape, so there’s that, too. And for bonus points, the first volume of JLA is $1.99. Cheap. Really, both of those are fine, iconic runs. Pun intended.

There’s a LOT to look at with this sale. 1300+ items, so if you like the DC cannon, it’s probably worthwhile to carve some time out to browse this before the weekend passes.

New Gods by Jack Kirby   Ex Machina   JLA

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Wolverine, Guardians of the Galaxy, $0.99 Recent Marvel Single Issues

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel opens the discount gates with Wolverine, Guardians of the Galaxy and a ton of recent first issues.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Remember, DC’s got that sale with all the $1.99 collected editions still going. Meanwhile the indies seem to have slowed their sale announcements and are probably massing for the “official” holiday sale announcements…

Marvel’s Friend Finder

The Marvel Start a New Series Sale runs through Monday, 12/12.

And if you were wanting some Marvel single issue sales, there’s a bunch of them here.

The premise is that Marvel would like you to sample the discounted issues and maybe stick around for more issues, so these are all recent issues.  Let’s break this into new titles (i.e., #1 is on sale) and continuing titles (the sale picks up partially into the series). Here are the highlights:

New

Continuing (Standard disclaimer – you’ll probably need to scroll down a bit before the discounts kick in)

Gosh, seems like there are a lot more “new” titles than “continuing” ones, doesn’t it? And not all the X-Men family relaunches are listed here, either!  Such is the nature of relaunches, but let’s talk about some of those new titles that we can recommend from personal experience.

Captain America: Symbol of Truth by Tochi Onyebuchi and R.B. Silva came out of nowhere and knocked our socks off. This is Sam Wilson as Cap and the series has Sam and the new Falcon on the trail of super soldier serum smugglers, which leads them to human traffickers, which leads them to Latveria, which leads them to Wakanda. A vaguely Ludlum-esque chase from one facet of the conspiracy to next. Bonus points: it can be difficult to fit goofy ‘ole Deadpool in an otherwise serious plot, but it’s pulled off very well here!

Defenders Beyond by Al Ewing and Javier Rodríguez is their second go-round with everyone’s favorite “non-team.” We’re two issues into this one and so far, a spell cast by Doctor Strange from beyond the grave has assembled a new group of heroes, some familiar, and a notable artifact from the the last series. The threat they’re confronting? The Beyonders. Including that Beyonder. Wild cosmic stuff that starts with the Celestials and the destruction of universes. Great art and writing.

Carnage by Ram V and Francesco Manna is a deeply weird relaunch with the atmosphere of a horror comic. The Carnage symbiote has become separate from Cletus Kasaday and is seeking a new host. Or hosts. Preferably with superpowers and the symbiote might just have a plan. The symbiote also has a sort of groupie in tow and is pursued by a detective who’s been… touched by Carnage. And that’s before the Dark Elves show up. When we said deeply weird, we weren’t joking. But Ram V does well when the going gets weird.

Captain America: Symbol of Truth   Defenders Beyond   Carnage

SNIKT!

The Wolverine: The Best There Is Sale runs through Thursday, 12/15.

Wolverine sales are goofy because these issues have been packaged in so many different ways.

If you want early Wolverine, the Wolverine Omnibus will get you, among other things, the first Hulk appearance, the first mini-series, the Kitty Pride & Wolverine mini-series, a couple Marvel Comics Presents serials and the first 10 issues of the ongoing Wolverine comic.

Here’s the link for the original Wolverine ongoing series. Yes, that’s a bit of an overlapping mess. There are those who prefer the Larry Hama run. For this sale, we’d probably point to a couple self-contained arcs: Wolverine Classic V. 3 is “The Gehenna Stone Affair” written by Peter David with art by John Buscema inked by Bill Sienkiewicz. It’s romp with Logan and Jessica Drew racing against vampires trying to retrieve an artifact. Wolverine Classic V.5 is “Spore” by Archie Goodwin and John Byrne with Klaus Jansen inks. Logan runs up against a sentient bio-weapon and… cocaine. Did you notice both of these have some unusual penciller/inker combos?

Wolverine Omnibus   Wolverine: The Gehanna Stone Affair   Wolverine: Spore

Here’s the link for the ’03-’09 version of Wolverine. The highlights here are the lower key Greg Rucka / Darick Robertson / Leandro Fernandez run and two Mark Millar runs.

Enemy of the State is Millar with John Romita, Jr. having Logan encounter an unholy alliance between The Hand and Hydra, which ends up with his getting brainwashed before extracting a bloody revenge. Also introduces Gorgan.

Old Man Logan by Millar and Steve McNiven is probably the most famous arc of this run. Movie-inspiring, even. In a dystopian possible future, an aging Logan is trying to mind his own business, but will anyone leave him alone? Nope. And a road trip ensues. This format has had more legs than anyone could have imagined when it was pitched!

Wolverine by Greg Rucka   Wolverine: Enemy of the State   Wolerine: Old Man Logan

After that, you might have a look at the current Benjamin Percy/Adam Kubert Wolverine (First two volumes are cheaper in omnibus form.)

Finally, don’t sleep on All-New Wolverine by Tom Taylor / David Lopez / Juan Cabal. Yes, it’s an X-23 book, but it’s really good.

All-New Wolverine

Groot? Groot. Groot!

The Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 12/19.

Wow, but this sale has become a sprawling thing with “legacy” even pulling in Adam Warlock… although Starlin’s Warlock is amazing, so there’s that.  Let’s try to break down the highlights.

Original Guardians of the Galaxy

New GoG (The DnA cast or movie version if you must)

Solo titles

What’s good here?  Well, we’ve always liked the original. Particularly the Steve Gerber bits. We also loved the recent Al Ewing / Juan Cabal run. And if you like the current incarnation, you should probably go back to the source with the DnA run.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers   Guardians of the Galaxy by Al Ewing   Guardians of the Galaxy Omnibus

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