Tag: digital comics

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: “Marvels” with Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel; Secret Wars; DC on TV; Jeff Lemire at DH

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel get “Marvels” discounts… and Secret Wars, too.  DC drops prices on their TV properties. Plus, the Dark Horse work of Jeff Lemire.

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):

We Will Control The Horizontal

The DC on TV Sale runs through Monday, 11/13.

There’s just a little bit of difference between how many DC characters had been on TV in 2000 vs. today. This would’ve been a lot smaller sale then.  A few things that caught our eye… no matter how limited the screen time.

Let’s point out some of the more unusual items, here:

Superman Adventures has a really odd pedigree. Yes, it’s the animated Superman from Batman/Superman/Justice League era of animation, but the writers? Paul Dini from the animated world. Scott McCloud… at this point, it should probably be pointed out to readers under 30 that before Understanding Comics, McCloud was the writer/artist of a much loved indie comic titled Zot!, an Astro Boy-influenced quasi-superhero adventure comic. It doesn’t get mentioned as much these days, but this was McCloud playing with Superman. This was followed by a young Mark Millar. Again, intended for all-ages, but Millar on Superman before he was a big name.

The Justice Society of America series on sale has something in it that flew under the radar at the time and is still under the radar. Alex Ross joins Johns & Eaglesham for a Kingdom Come prequel/sequel. DC never really gave it much push, but the Kingdom Come Superman shows up to battle Gog in the present. Look for the three volumes titled “Thy Kingdom Come.”

Batwoman by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III is the full Detective Comics run that preceded the solo series (which was after Rucka exited DC). Batwoman has had… drama… on TV and the big screen, but this initial foray from Rucka and Williams III is top shelf material.

Superman Adventures   Justice Society of America: Thy Kingdom Come   Batwoman

Marvel Movie Comics

The Marvel Captain Marvels Sale runs through Monday, 11/20.

Yes, there’s a moving coming out!

Yes, this is kind of a convoluted assortment of people with the same name, so give us a minute!

The first one, the Kree Captain Mar-Vell kinda gets short changed here:

The Kree/Skrull War is a classic Avengers tale, one of the first Events in a sense, and Mar-Vell figures prominently in it.

The Death of Captain Marvel is the end of the Jim Starlin era with the graphic novel of the same name and the battle with Nitro in the original series.

Then you had the Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel, sometimes called Photon. She was the next to take that name. This sale has two books with the same content, so we’ll pick Captain Marvel: Monica Rambeau. This is a collections of stories she features in.

Mar-Vell’s son, Genis, took up the name of Captain Marvel in the early aughts.

And then there’s Carol Danvers, the former/original Ms. Marvel who took up the name and is the current Captain. Also one of the most relaunched characters in all of Marveldom (which means they’re trying.)

The Carol Danvers Captain Marvel has been very writer-driven in the last decade.

Avengers: Kree/Skrull War   Captain Marvel   Captain Marvel

The Road to Palindromes

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

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 most recent mini-series by Samira Ahmed and Andrés Genolet.

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.

Ms. Marvel

But Is It REALLY a Secret?

The  Marvel Secret Wars sale runs through Monday, 12/4.

We all know which one this is really about, but let’s go through the other ones first.

The original Secret Wars by Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck is a big ‘ole action comic.

Secret Wars II by Jim Shooter and Al Milgrom didn’t quite work. Except for Peter Parker having to explain “going to the bathroom” to The Beyonder. That was gold.

Beyond! by Dwayne McDuffie and Scott Kolins is an under-the-radar sequel where Spidey and a handful of others (unwillingly) return to Battleworld from the original series. Is it good? It’s McDuffie and Kolins, so you should already know the answer to that.

Secret War by Brian Bendis and Gabriele Dell’Otto has NOTHING to do with the above. Somebody had a cute idea with the name. It’s really about Nick Fury running a black op and fallout afterwards. If you like Bendis, you’ll like this.

Then there’s the Secret Wars (Event) that’s the endcap to the Jonathan Hickman Avengers run (and to an extent, his Fantastic Four run as well). When the timestream collapses… well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it? The main Secret Wars mini-series by Hickman and Esad Ribic is where you want to start with this and you can move on to the myriad of tie-in titles included in the sale if a character’s side-story catches your eye.

Secret Wars    Beyond!   Secret Wars

Le Mired in Discounts

The  Dark Horse 2023 Jeff Lemire Digital Sale runs through Monday, 11/27.

Why yes, Mr. Lemire has done more than just Black Hammer at Dark Horse… although he’s certainly done a lot of Black Hammer. Remember to keep an eye on prices with this one. Some of the time, $0.99 single issues will be cheaper than the collected edition.

What’s in this sale?

Black Hammer, naturally, with Dean Ormston. (Note: the Omnibus Editions are the better buy and the “regular” collected editions are a wash with single issues.) Then you’ve got your World of Black Hammer, Black Hammer / Justice League, and Black Hammer Reborn.

Then you’ve got Mazebook, which is Lemire wearing both writer and artist hats.

And, finally, Berserker Unbound with Mike Deodato, Jr. where an warrior from ancient times, hot on the trail of a wizard finds himself in the modern day. Urban fantasy ensues.

Black Hammer Omnibus   Mazebook   Berserker Unbound

Is that… print?!?

Finally, if you need some *gasp* print comics, we were passed a link to a “Get 3 For the Price of 2” sale. Most people would call that “Buy 2, Get 1 Free,” but it’s not the first thing we couldn’t explain. We’re not sure how long that link will be good for. On the left hand rail of the page, under “Departments,” click on “Superhero Comics & Graphic Novels.” There was a manga link there yesterday, but we’re not seeing it today, so what’s on sale might be fluid?

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Men, DC Black Label, Deadpool, Attack on Titan

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts X-Men and Deadpool. DC drops deals on Black Label. Plus, Attack on Titan and Wonderland.

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):

Paint It Black

The DC Black Label Sale runs through Monday, 11/6.

What is Black Label? Something of a cross between Vertigo and Elseworlds. Stories of DC characters that are… not necessarily in continuity. (We say not necessarily because  things like Batman: The Three Jokers might end up in continuity.) A little more on the mature reader side. Sometimes fantasy or horror that has nothing to do with the DCU.

What’s good? An awful lot of it. A few highlights (and yes, Tom King does do some of his best work for this imprint):

We’re not listing the Spurrier/Campbell Hellblazer because only the first volume is on sale. A oversight we disapprove of for a wonderful comic.

Best o’ the best?

If you’re looking for a Vertigo replacement at DC, direct your attention to The Nice House on the Lake. Tynion and Bueno deliver an excellent SF/Horror fusion series about the end of the world. The bestselling horror comic DC’s seen in quite a while, too.

The Human Target by King and Smallwood is a very unique comic. One part hardboiled noir as Christopher Chance tries to figure out who poisoned him before he died. One part loving homage to the Bwa Ha Ha era Justice League. Amazingly the JL cast is mostly in goofy character, despite popping up in a noir. Quite a feat. Well written and you really can’t say enough about Smallwood’s art.

Rorschach by Tom King & Jorge Fornés is even more unusual than The Human Target. It’s a Watchmen sequel that we actually like and don’t think is a cash grab. OK, it’s not so much a sequel as a tale that takes place in the same universe and in the aftermath of the original graphic novel. It’s a detective story about conspiracy, identity, mythology and… Frank Miller?  Yes, Frank Miller. It’s a keeper.

Nice House on the Lake   The Human Target   Rorschach

Brand X

The Marvel Uncanny X-Men Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 11/6.

It’s a legacy sale, so it’s the Uncanny X-Men core… although this may shorter list than some of the legacy sales. For instance,  X-Men wasn’t part of Heroes Reborn, so no relaunch there.

As is our custom, let’s run through the key series included, first:

And you might be asking yourself, “aren’t there usually more than one X-Men title and don’t they cross over a lot?” Yes, that would be a potential issue… pun intended. Not so much with the Epic Collections and the Masterworks as with the later series, and there are some Event collections in the set.

You should know our general advice right now. There’s a slight preference for the value of Epic Collections over Masterworks collections, but it depends on the exact price point and the Epic Collections sometimes have gaps.  That still applies here.  The wild card with X-Men is that it can get impenetrable with continuity and all the characters floating around. You can’t always just jump in.

So, recommendations with that in mind.

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

For the “new” X-Men, we’re cool with the theory that Giant-Sized X-Men #1 / Uncanny X-Men #94 through #200 is one big arc. That’s where we’d start if we were new. The Epic Collections only take you to #153, at which point you need to start cutting in the Masterworks editions with V. 7 through 12.

For an alternate jumping on point, perhaps the Ed Brubaker era (# to # ) which is collected in three volumes starting with Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire.

We assume you already know about the Morrison run.

And if you were looking for the Events that started after #200… well, that’s next.

X-Men Epic Collection: The Sentinels Live   

No, Not the Dirty Harry Film

The Marvel Deadpool Vs. the Marvel Universe Sale runs through Monday, 11/6.

Deadpool has always had a lot of fairly short run titles swapping around at any given time, this is a collection of those secondary titles.

The longest running of the set is Deadpool & Cable, Fabian Nicieza and Patrick Zircher being the team most associated with it. Amusingly, the monthly comic was called Cable & Deadpool, but the character popularity has flipped since then.

Spider-Man / Deadpool also ran 50 issues. Joe Kelly / Ed McGuinness was the early creative team with Robbie Thompson / Chris Bachalo tagging in later.

Deadpool Corps maybe of heightened interest with Rob Liefeld joining writing Victor Gischler for it.

Deadpool & Cable    Spider-Man / Deadpool    Deadpool Corps

Attaaaaaaack of the Killer Tomatoes

The Kodansha Attack on Titan Sale runs through Monday, 11/13.

By cosmic coincidence, this is what we’ve been reading here at the Tower of Cheap. 2/3 of the way through V. 33 as this is being typed.

Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama is a genre-bender and a half. It starts out as more of a horror story with people living inside a barrier of giant walls, besieged by “Titans.” Mindless giants who roam around eating people. And since the technology level in this world is roughly ~1920, there’s a touch of steampunk around the edges. Then some Titans appear who aren’t mindless. As the heroes try to solve the mystery of the Titans, it turns into a political conspiracy. Then the applecart gets turned over and there’s more political conspiracy on a wider scale, Titans as weapons of mass destruction and ethnic cleansings. This one really is something else and is operating on a very wide scale as it wraps up. It goes to some very dark places and doesn’t really back away from them, either.

There are also several spin-offs in the sale.

Attack on Titan

You’re a Wonder

The Zenescope Return to Wonderland Digital Sale runs through Wednesday, 11/22.

Zenescope’s Wonderland titles were their buzziest titles when Raven Gregory was writing them.

The original trilogy was

Beyond that (pun intended)

Tales from Wonderland will fit in-between various volumes and the rough order of the rest is:

Return to Wonderland   Beyond Wonderland   Escape From Wonderland

Additionally, we think the unlisted Dark Horse sale from last week is still in effect, but we’re unsure for how much longer.

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Comixology (at Amazon Sales) – DC and Marvel Halloween Sales; Unannounced Dark Horse Halloween Sale; X-Men

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC & Marvel Halloween sales. An *unannounced* Dark Horse Halloween Sale. Plus, discounts on X-Men.

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 Halloween Sale

The DC Horror and Mystery Sale runs through Monday, 10/30.

Picking up where we left off last week, let’s have a look at the back half of this most interesting sale, where the prices are uniformly good.

What’s good? Pretty much all of it, and much of it at a friendly $2.99 price.  Some more off the beaten path recommendations you might be less familiar with:

Night Force is the Tomb of Dracula team of Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan getting back together at DC a few years later for a new horror comic. Marv once told us it’s his favorite of his books. Baron Winters lives in an old mansion in the Georgetown neighborhood of DC with his pet leopard. He doesn’t leave the mansion. The mansion has a door that leads to other times and places. He also has somewhat reluctant minions that look into things for him. Supernatural things. It’s a good one for Halloween that doesn’t get enough love.

The Spectre by John Ostrander & Tom Mandrake was quietly one of DC’s best books of the 90s, along with Starman and Sandman Mystery Theater. Jim Corrigan died, yet he still walks the Earth. His soul has been intertwined with The Wrath of God, an entity that manifests itself as The Spectre. The Spectre seeks vengeance and Jim Corrigan struggles to come to grips with his existence. Sound like a Vertigo book? It would have fit in, though Vertigo was mostly operating in it’s own space, away from DC continuity at that point.

Speaking of DC in the 90s, The Books of Magic is one of Neil Gaiman’s lesser known DC works and his entry in the “boy wizard” sub-genre. Timothy Hunter is child destined to be a most powerful wizard, though there is some question about how he might use his aptitude for magic. The Phantom Stranger, John Constantine, Doctor Occult and Mister E (yes, this is the introduction of the Trenchcoat Brigade) give him a tour of the magical side of the DC universe in an attempt to feel him out, as the Cult of the Cold Flame also searches for Tim. It’s not exactly Harry Potter, but it’s ballpark. Gaiman attributes it to he and Rowling drawing on the same literary sources. This one just happened to come out a few years earlier.

Night Force      The Books of Magic

Marvel’s Halloween Sale

The Marvel Halloween Sale runs through Tuesday, 10/31.

That’s right, an extra day so it’s on the proper day.

Lots of titles in this one, but if we were to boil it down to three series, here’s how it would fall:

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection – 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.

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber   Tomb of Dracula   Marvel Zombies

X Marks the Spot

The Marvel Dawn of X/Reign of X/Trials of X Sale – runs through Monday, 10/30.

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:

  • House of X / Powers of X  <initial limited series/Event, not in the sale>
  • Dawn of X
  • X of Swords <line wide Event, not in the sale>
  • Reign of X
  • Hellfire Gala <line wide Event, not in the sale>
  • Trials of X

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. Again, not part of this sale.

We’re not as adamant about reading this issue-to-issue format after Hickman leaves… although X-Force and Wolverine are certainly intertwined at times. Through Inferno, though? Yes.

Dawn of X   Reign of X   Trials of X

Unannounced Dark Horse Halloween Sale

No link for an overall sale, but we’re seeing a lot of Dark Horse horror titles at $6.99 or $7.99/volume. There’s a sale, we just don’t know why Amazon hasn’t posted it.

Some things to have a look at:

Hellboy   Creepy   Harrow County Omnibus 1

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s Halloween Sale; Venom; Miles Morales: Spider-Man; She-Hulk

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC launches its Halloween sale. Marvel drops a discount on Venom, Miles Morales and She-Hulk.

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 Halloween Sale

The DC Horror and Mystery Sale runs through Monday, 10/30.

We’re not sure why this isn’t being called a Halloween sale. If looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck and it’s October, it’s probably a vampire duck.

That said, this a quality sale with lots of $2.99 collected editions to satisfy your thrifty needs. It’s worth a browse. Since there’s so much good stuff and it’s a two week sale, we’ll go over the highlights of A-Hellblazer this week and hit the back half of the alphabet next week.

Things that caught our eye as interesting:

What’s good here? All of the above.

A bit of recent news you might not have heard of yet. Regular readers will know the high esteem we hold the  Spurrier/Campbell Hellblazer run in. It seems DC has come to their senses (or the collected edition sales finally got high enough to get their attention) and Spurrier & Campbell will get another 8 issues of Hellblazer in ’24. (And the original run for $2.99/$3.99 per volume is a good deal, too.)

We’d highlight Batman: Haunted Knight, which are what really established the Loeb/Sale creative pairing before Long Halloween blew up and raised their collective profile.

If you’ve never tried DCeased, this is a good time of the year to try it. Leave it to Tom Taylor to take a potentially silly high concept like “superheroes vs. zombies,” tie it in with the Anti-Life Equation & Darkseid, then add in enough character work to make it a must-read.

John Constantine, Hellblazer   Batman - Haunted Knight   DCeased

Poison

The Marvel Venom Sale runs through Monday, 10/23.

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 from… 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.

Venom by Remender   Venom by Cates   Venom

Miles To Go Before I Sleep

The Marvel Miles Morales Sale runs through Monday, 10/23

Way too many editions of the same content for this one. Here’s our cheat sheet:

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

You Have the Right to Remain Green

The Marvel She-Hulk Sale runs through Monday, 10/23.

Why yes, Jennifer Walters is a lawyer. Let’s first run down the series involved here.

  • The Savage She-Hulk (’80-’82) – mostly by David Anthony Kraft and Mike Vosburg
  • Sensational She-Hulk (’89-’94) – John Byrne, then the unlikely team of Steve Gerber & Bryan Hitch
  • She-Hulk (’04-’05) – Dan Slott / Juan Bobillo
  • She-Hulk (’05 – ’09) – Initially Dan Slott / Juan Bobillo, then Peter David takes over.
  • She-Hulk (’14-’15) – Charles Soule & Javier Pulido in one omnibus
  • She-Hulk (’16-’18) – Mariko Tamaki / Nico Leon
  • She-Hulk (’22-’23) – Rainbow Rowell / Roge Antonio / Luca Maresca

If you’re coming into She-Hulk through the TV show, the legal angle for the character really started getting emphasized with the Dan Slott era and then was followed up on by Charles Soule (who just might be a lawyer in his secret identity). Rainbow Rowell’s also picking up a pretty dedicated following with her current runs.

She-Hulk by Dan Slott   She-Hulk   She-Hulk

Zenescope’s Halloween Sale

Zenescope’s Tales of Terror Halloween Sale runs through Sunday, 11/5.

This is essentially the Zenescope version of Tales from the Crypt and it comes in three formats:

Grimm Tales of Terror   Grimm Tales of Terror   Grimm Tales of Terror Quarterly

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: It’s Villains Week – Thanos, Deathstroke, Superior Spider-Man, Suicide Squad

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s villains week. DC’s discounts are on their “Villains” sale, while Marvel offers up Thanos and Super Spider-Man (Dr. Octavius, if you’re nasty).

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 Just Drawn That Way…

The DC Villains Sale runs through Monday, 10/16.

Spotlighting villains? Sure. It’s not like giving villains their own comics is common or anything.

We’d put the best villain comic in recent memory as the Priest/Carlo Pagulayan run on Deathstroke. Oh, there’s talk of reforming… but there’s a lot more scheming and a bit of philosophy as Deathstroke runs slightly wild through the DCU.

Note: Deathstroke crosses over with Teen Titans a couple time for key plot points (and Priest writes a better Damien Wayne than most), so you absolutely need The Lazarus Contract  and The Terminus Agenda to get the complete series.

One of the bigger villains in DC’s world is Darkseid, so naturally, The New Gods by Jack Kirby is included in the sale. The original run is definitely an impressive feat.

You really couldn’t have this sale without The Joker. While there’s plenty of that, we’ll point out one of the more offbeat offerings: Emperor Joker. That’s a Joe Kelly / Jeph Loeb / Doug Mahnke / Ed McGuinness tale that has Superman running up against a Joker who’s somehow gained the power to reshape reality in his image.

Deathstroke   New Gods by Jack Kirby   Superman: Emperor Joker

Now, if we go back to that concept of villains taking more of a heroic turn there a couple other things that come to mind.

Gail Simone, Nicola Scott and Jim Calafiore had a memorable run on Secret Six –featuring Deadshot (moving over from Suicide Squad) Catman, Ragdoll and even Bane towards the end.  (The preceding Secret Six miniseries is here.)

Did we just say Suicide Squad? Good, because the original villains pressed into service series by John Ostrander, Luke McDonnell and Geoff Isherwood is also on sale. Amanda Waller assembles a team of imprisoned super villains and offers them a deal… if they go on what’s effectively a suicide mission. This is where the format was set.

For a more recent take on this, there’s Suicide Squad: Bad Blood by the team of Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo, not too long before they landed on Nightwing.

Secret Six   Suicide Squad   Suicide Squad Bad Blood

The OG Marvel Cosmic Sale

The Marvel Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet Sale runs through Monday, 10/16.

Thanos has become a saga, at least with the Starlin-driven material.

Avengers Vs. Thanos is a meaty ~470 page collection of the original ’70s appearances that were centered in Captain Marvel and Warlock.  You could make an argument that this is where “cosmic” Marvel was born. (It’s one of a handful of candidates.) Recommended.

And then Thanos was mostly on the shelf for ~13 years until Jim Starlin started writing Silver Surfer (with Ron Lim drawing… oh yes, those two would do some collaborating).  The Rebirth of Thanos arc was the “oh, snap” moment (pun intended) where Thanos resurfaced and the wheels were set in motion for The Infinity Gauntlet (with art by George Perez and Ron Lim).  And both of those are recommended, too.

There were two more Infinity sequels:

And a ton of supporting material.  “Infinity” and Adam Warlock were practically a sub-imprint for a couple years.

Starlin did more Thanos follow-ups over the years, culminating in a couple graphic novel trilogies:

and

And, for good measure, while not really part of the above – Avengers: The Legacy of Thanos by Roger Stern, John Buscema and John Byrne is a highly entertaining tale of Nebula (yes, the Granddaughter of Thanos who’d later be in Guardians of the Galaxy) attempting to conquer the Skrulls.

Avengers Vs. Thanos   Rebirth of Thanos   Infinity Gauntlet

Superiority Complex

The Marvel Superior Spider-Man Sale runs through Monday, 10/16.

Yes, that would be the run when Doctor Octopus took over Peter Parker’s body. One of the great moments of “wait… this is actually good” in recent history. (Everyone we knew winced at the high concept, but the execution was on the money!)

The primary Superior Spider-Man series by Dan Slott and Ryan Stegman is best packaged in the 2-volume Complete collection, that also includes the “Dying Wish” arc that sets up the run.

Superior Spider-Man Companion gets you the first 12 issues of Superior Spider-Man Team-Up and some tie-in issues.

Superior Spider-Man (’18-’19) is the Christos Gage / Mike Hawthorne revival that returns Otto Octavious to his Spidey persona.

Superior Spider-Man   Superior Spider-Man Companion   Superior Spider-Man

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

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

DC Says “Boo”

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

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

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

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

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

Checkmate   Doctor Fate  Ex Machina

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

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

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

Jonah Hex   Superman: Phantom Zone    Wonder Woman: Dead Earth

Hickman

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

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

That’s all you need. “Time Runs Out” is even in the final Avengers Complete Collection volume. And here’s something that cannot be understated, the sheer scope of this tale makes it increasingly compelling the further into it you go. Once you’re past the Infinity sequence, it really starts getting jaw-dropping.

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

For the X-Men material, House of X / Powers of X is self-contained. X of Swords is relatively self-contained (and a very successful cross-over). Past that, we think the Hickman era is best enjoyed with the Dawn of X collections (not on sale) to better appreciate what an unusual tapestry was being weaved.

House of X / Powers of X   X of Swords

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

Craving What?!?

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

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

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

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

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

Amazing Spider-Man - Kraven's Last Hunt   Spider-Man No More   X-Force

God of Mischief

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

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

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

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

Loki: Agent of Asgard   Journey Into Mystery   Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor Vol. 1: The Vengeance Of Loki

The End of the Alphabet

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

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

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

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

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

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

6 Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton   Star Light   27

But Is It 9mm or .45?

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

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

Deadworld   The Realm    Jazz Age Chronicles

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Darth Vader; Far Sector; X-23; Rorschach; Usagi Yojimbo

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel drops some discounts on Darth Vader and X-23; DC has a top 100 sale and DH cuts prices on Usagi Yojimbo.

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):

Is That Like a 100 Countdown?

The  DC Top 100 Sale runs through Monday, 10/2.

Lots of things with decent pricing this week. Let’s start with a highlights list and then underline a few:

The Legion and SSOSV volumes are there for fans of those franchises because the prices are significantly lower than we’ve seen them lately.

Best of the best here?  Hmmm…

Far Sector was a bit of a revelation. N.K. Jemisin has won just about every SF/F prose award out there, but you do NOT always see a prose author jump to comics so smoothly. Great worldbuilding and character work in this one. Great art, too. Just a really nice series and we wish they’d have a sequel.

Manhunter probably falls in the “legendary runs” category. Archie Goodwin and a very young Walt Simonson collaborate on one of, if not the, best adventure strips of the ’70s. An espionage-ish tale that ends in Batman team-up. If you like adventure strips, this is a must.

We’ll give Rorschach a slight edge over One-Star Squadron because we aren’t predisposed to Watchmen sequels. Quite the opposite. That said, Tom King and Jorge Fornés manage to pull off a very engaging mystery/conspiracy in the Watchmen universe without trampling on any toes. Which is quite an accomplishment. And it has a few things to say about conspiracies and identity.

Far Sector   Manhunter   Rorschach

Sith-Tober?

The Marvel Darth Vader Sale runs through Monday, 10/2.

Yes, this means Marvel is back on the old sale schedule, if you were keeping score on that.

First, let’s count down what all’s here, since it includes some of the old Dark Horse material.

We still haven’t read a Darth Vader comic that tops the Kieron Gillen / Salvador Larroca run.  It’s slow clap territory, especially the scene at the end of the opening arc when Vader figures out he’s been lied to.  This series picks up right after A New Hope and follows Vader as he goes rogue, looking for that rebel pilot who blew up the Death Star.  Note: The larger volumes we link to include a couple issues of Star Wars and Vader Down that make for a complete read.

The second best Vader series we’ve read is the Charles Soule / Giuseppe Camuncoli run. It might be the favorite series at the Lucasfilm offices, seeing as how they gave Soule a promotion. This run really hits second gear in arc #2 when the librarian of the Jedi Temple turns up.

Darth Vader    Darth Vader

X’d Out

The Marvel X-23 Sale runs through Monday, 10/2.

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

  • 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-23 (2018-19) – Mariko Tamaki / Juann Cabal / Diego Olortegui

X-23: The Complete Collection   New X-Men   X-23

Have Rabbit, Will Travel

The Dark Horse 2023 Usagi Yojimbo Digital Sale runs through Monday, 10/16.

This is Stan Sakai’s long-running (it started in 1984) saga of a samurai/ronin rabbit. It’s got a pretty nice collection of awards, too.

And this is one where there’s a CLEAR winner in format: $6.99 Omnibus Editions that are usually over 600 pages.

Usagi Yojimbo

Watch for the Image sale to flip to Part 4 Friday night/Saturday morning.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Fantastic Four; another Batman sale; World War Hulk; The Witcher

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s a nearly full run of Fantastic Four with discounts, plus another Batman sale, World War Hulk and The Witcher.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Four Play

Marvel’s Fantastic Four Legacy Sale runs through Tuesday, 9/26.

Take note that the end date is now Tuesday. (And let’s double check that on Tuesday, too.) Does this mean Marvel sales are now starting on Wednesday?  Wait and see. After the last few weeks, we haven’t a clue.

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

  • Fantastic Four ’61-’96 – The original run
  • Fantastic Four ’98-’12 – Heroes Return era through Hickman
  • Fantastic Four ’12-’14 – The Matt Fraction / Mark Bagley era
  • Fantastic Four ’14-’15 – The James Robinson/Leonard Kirk run
  • Fantastic Four ’18-’22 – The Dan Slott run with a rotating cast of artists
  • (The current North/Coello run is too recent to be discounted, if you were wondering.)

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 #146 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 4 volumes of Masterworks on sale (V. 21-24) or you can hop on to Fantastic Four Visionaires: John Byrne. You’d need to cut over to the Visionaries run at V. 5 to pick up where the discounted Masterworks leave off.  These comics really ought to be in an Epic Collection, 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?)

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.

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.

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus    Fantastic Four by John Byrne   Fantastic Four by Waid

Behind the War Door

The  Marvel World War Hulk sale runs through Tuesday, 9/26.

Again, note the Tuesday end date.

So, this was quite an enjoyable Hulk event from that magical run Greg Pak had. (This followed Planet Hulk.)

The main event is Hulk: World War Hulk by Pak and John Romita, Jr. Hulk is back and he’s a little mad about getting shot out into space (the run-up to Planet Hulk). Someone is likely to get hurt as Hulk looks for revenge.

It’s an Event. You’ve got a few tie-ins available and those are at your discretion if you’re feeling into them. If you wanted to pick one, we’re probably start with World War Hulk: Frontline. The “Frontline” books were a tradition in this Event-driven era and Paul Jenkins would always spin a tale of Ben Urich in the middle of the action as a reporter, sometimes tracking down a conspiracy, sometimes documenting the effects of the Event on common folk. Ramon Bachs joint Jenkins on artist for this one.

Finally, there’s the sequel: Hulk: World War Hulk II by Pak and Carlos Barberi. This time it’s the Amadeus Cho Hulk returning from Planet Hulk (2) and going on a rampage.

World War Hulk   World War Hulk: Frontline   World War Hulk II

Bat-Sale Returns

The DC Batman Universe Sale runs through Monday, 9/25.

This is basically a reshuffled version of last week’s Batman Day sale, but with the Batman Family characters added in (so you’ll find Batgirl, Nightwing and Robin in this version) and a few more of the artist-specific collections.

What we’re going to highlight here, since they can be a pain to locate in the listings, are the 90s/00s Event collections. The Batman family of titles was crossing over so much, you’d think they were the X-Men for a few years!

Batman: Knightfall   Batman Contagion   Batman: No Man's Land

Toss a Coin for Recasting…

The Dark Horse 2023 The Witcher Digital Sale runs through Monday, 10/9.

While it’s usually presented as a video game adaptation, since these pre-date the TV series, we usually think of The Witcher as a series of novels.  We’re reasonably sure Andrzej Sapkowski would agree with that assessment.

You can partake here in three formats:

  1. $0.99 single issues
  2. The “regular” collected editions
  3. The omnibuses

The first omnibus is pretty good deal. Looks like you might be a couple bucks better off with single issues over the “Library Edition” of V.2, though.  (If the second Omnibus were on sale… but it’s not even released quite yet.)

Witcher Omnibus

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The Unannounced Black Widow Sale; Updated with Batman

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we’re stepping in to clue you in on what appears to be an unannounced Black Widow 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):

UPDATE:

Adding some Batman links, since those were removed this morning.

Housekeeping

We’re stepping in with a special Tuesday morning edition of .cheap because of the Marvel sale situation. No, there wasn’t one last week. We _think_ there was supposed to be some form of Wolverine sale last week. (For example, if you look at the listings for Old Man Logan, you’ll see that some, but not all of the volumes are discounted or at least still are when we’re typing this way early on Tuesday morning.)

What we’re seeing right now is a Black Widow sale. No, there’s no Black Widow listing on the deals page, yet. We surely hope there will be in a day or two, but since everyone we talk to is pretty salty about the Daredevil Legacy sale being broken (and we’re very glad it was fixed and re-run) and the lack of a sale on Deals page last week, we’re going to just jump in and list the sales we were able to locate:

Trick or Treat, Said the Widow to her Mate

No overall link for the sale, just individual series/volume links.

  • Black Widow: Marvel Team-Up – Mostly ’70s & ’80s appearances
  • Daredevil/Black Widow: Abattoir (’82) – OGN by Jim Starlin and Joe Chiodo
  • Black Widow (’10) – Duane Swierczynski, Marjorie Liu, Manuel Garcia, Daniel Acuña
  • Black Widow (’14-’15) – Nathan Edmondson/Mitch Gerads (Yes, the Mitch that now works with Tom King.)
  • Black Widow (’16-17) – Mark Waid / Chris Samnee, complete in one volume.
  • Web of the Black Widow (’19-20) – Jody Houser / Stephen Mooney
  • Black Widow (’20-’22) – Kelly Thompson/Elena Casagrande – Currently the first volume is much cheaper, then 2&3, but that might change. An Eisner winner.

What do we like here?  Waid/Samnee & Thompson/Casagrande jump out at us.

Black Widow by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee   Black Widow

Now… there may be more sale prices hitting later and we truly hope Amazon puts up a formal sale page for this that we can link to on Friday… but if not, the above are definitely on sale and now you now about them.

The Morning After the Bat-Sale

This one’s going to take minute to explain. On the evening of Monday, 9/18, the Batman Day Sale was extended through Monday 9/25.  On the morning of Tuesday, 9/19, the Batman Day Sale page was deleted. *Some* of the discounts are still there, some items are raised by about $1 and some are back to normal price. The older, pre-Crisis material is more likely to still be on sale.  And this could all have changed if you’re reading it later in the week, too. But here are the series links where we’re still seeing some kind of discounts:

  • Batman (1940-2011)
  • Detective Comics (1939-2011)
  • 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…)
  • Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – Frank Miller’s classic that upset the card table. $2.99 and your life will be fine if you miss the sequels.
  • Batman (’11-’16) – The Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo run
  • Batman (’16-current) – starts with the Tom King era and the discounts run through Joshua Williamson’s run
    • 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.
  • Batman: The Detective – Tom Taylor (sorta “Mr. DC” right now) and Andy Kubert take Batman to Europe where his past rears its head and some actual detection is performed. $2.99

There have been a lot of odd things happening on that deals page for the last ~6-8 weeks, so add the Mystery of the Disappearing Bat-Sale to the list.  We’ll see if something has changed at the end of the week at our usual time. It’s quite possible something will have.

So, until Friday:

 

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales – The Batman Day Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s the Batman Day 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):

Housekeeping

A couple things to be aware of this week:

#1 – The current Image sale is scheduled to end Friday. This means there will probably be a new sale of Image first volumes on Saturday, so you might want to hit the main link and look for it. We’ll likely cover that next week, since these sales have been running for multiple weeks. Warning: Amazon has been putting these Image sales on the same link, so you might have to reload 2-3 times before the new one shows up. That’s just how it’s been working for the last month or so.

And yes, it’s unusual for sales to start on a Saturday.

#2 – No Marvel this week. This happens every once in a while and we’ll see if something pops up over the weekend, since it looks like they might have a new Image sale scheduled.

Wouldn’t “Batman Night” Be More Appropriate?

The DC Batman Day Sale runs through Monday, 9/18.

Surprise, surprise – the prices look correct on this one. (Forgive us some cynicism after the last month.) Which 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 $3.99 – $5.99@ (mostly $4.99). And yes, Knightfall, No Man’s Land, and the like are all in there.

Some more pre-Crisis 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…)

And some pre-Crisis one-offs of note:

  • Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – Frank Miller’s classic that upset the card table. $2.99 and your life will be fine if you miss the sequels.
  • Batman/Spawn – We’ll confess preferring the Chuck Dixon/Alan Grant/Doug Moench/Klaus Janson tale to the Frank Miller/Todd McFarlane one, but this collects both. $2.99
  • Trinity – Matt Wagner’s Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman team-up. $2.99

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns   Batman/Spawn   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 run through Joshua Williamson’s run
    • 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: 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. $2.99
  • 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. 2 volumes @$2.99
  • Batman: The Detective – Tom Taylor (sorta “Mr. DC” right now) and Andy Kubert take Batman to Europe where his past rears its head and some actual detection is performed. $2.99

Batman Universe   Batman: The Adventures Continue   Batman: The Detective

And above the $2.99 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 $7.99

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 $7.99 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

Plenty more here and worth a weekend browse.

Do Not Meddle in the Affairs of Dragons…

The Dark Horse 2023 Dragon Age Digital Sale runs through Monday, 10/2.

This one’s pretty straightforward. The comics come in 3 formats and the omnibus is the best value of the bunch.

Dragon Age

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Still on Sale

Posted on by comics_p1pusl