Manhattan Projects Archives

This week’s Comixology sales include the Silver Surfer and Silk from Marvel, Peacemaker from DC and Image celebrates the return of Saga with a “Sci-Fi” sale.

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Surf’s Up

The Marvel Silver Surfer Sale runs through Sunday, 1/23. (Amazon link)

You really can’t go wrong with the original Stan Lee/John Buscema (with Jack Kirby at the end) run of Silver Surfer, which is collected across two Masterworks editions.

We’re also fond of the 80s Silver Surfer run. In classic Marvel fashion, it’s collected in a strange way. That link will take you to the Epic Collections. The first one, “Freedom” is from the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers run, which is excellent. Naturally the rest of that period isn’t collected. To get the beginning of the Jim Starlin/Ron Lim period that followed it, you need to jump over to Silver Surfer: The Rebirth of Thanos. Then you can jump back to the “Thanos Quest” Epic Collection, which takes you up to issue 50 and the end of the Starlin era that really laying the groundwork for Infinity Gauntlet. Ron Marz jumps in for the next Epic Collection, “Infinity Gauntlet” and that’s more of a companion series to the mini-series/Event of the same name, so venture forward it you want, but know the next volume is largely a tie-in. Also – the actual Thanos Quest mini-series is reprinted in both Rebirth of Thanos and the “Thanos Quest” volume. Great planning, Marvel collections dept.!

It Bites

The Marvel Silk Sale runs through Sunday, 1/23.

Yes, this would be the adventures of Silk, the other person bitten by the radioactive spider that gave Peter Parker his powers. For this one, we might go for the Spider-Verse collection

Not Dempsey and Makepeace

The DC Peacemaker & Friend Sale runs through Monday, 1/24. (Amazon link)

A small number of random collections and issues here. (Only V.’s 1 and 4 of the Ostrander/McDonnell Suicide Squad? Weird.)

What can we put a good word in for? Suicide Squad: Bad Blood by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo is quality book with more double crosses than you can shake a mallet at. Taylor and Redondo are starting to look like a long term pairing, too.

Vigilante by Marv Wolfman is the beginnings of the Adrian Chase version of the character and gives you an artistic lineup of George Perez/Keith Pollard/Chuck Patton/Ross Andru. (The volume ends before you get some Gil Kane and Trevor Von Eden.)

Saga Returns

The Image Sci-Fi Sale runs through Monday, 2/7. (Amazon link)

But let’s call this what it really, and what they’re leading with: the return of Saga. Yes, everyone’s favorite SF/F title by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staple is FINALLY returning after a ~3.5 year absence. This one falls under the usual Image collection runs – Saga Compendium V. 1 is a fabulous deal. The entire first run (i.e. – all caught up in 1 volume) is $23.99 for 54 issues of material. That’s less than 45 cents/issue and that’s stoopid cheap for what you’re getting. The other omnibuses collecting ~3 “regular” volumes are more expensive than getting what Comixology calls the “Collected Editions,” so go Compendium or go individual volumes.

What else is back? Shockrockets. With Kurt Busiek’s return to Image, comes this collaboration with Stuart Immonen. A good entry in the sub-genre of military coming of age SF with salvaged alien tech being used to fight the invaders. This was part of the short-lived gorilla comics imprint and we didn’t harbor many hopes of it returning. Wrong.

The Manhattan Projects is also a fun ride. This Jonathan Hickman / Nick Pitarra has the Manhattan Project brain trust being brought together not just for the atomic bomb, but for a secret program of Mad Science. Space exploration, parallel dimensions and all manner of strangeness. Sometimes it’s silly and sometimes it borders on horror. All in all, quite a ride. As with Saga, the individual collected editions are slightly less expensive than the “deluxe edition” omnibuses.

Still On Sale

The Fantagraphics Massive Sale runs through Sunday, 1/30.
The Dynamite Fantasy Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

Highlights from this week’s Comixology sales include a line-wide 50% off Dark Horse for CU subscribers, Squadron Supreme and House of M from Marvel and a big batch of “Sci-Fi” titles from Image.

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

50% off All Dark Horse

The parade of Comixology Unlimited half-off sales continues. In the latest installment, all Dark Horse comics are 50% off through 11PM ET on Monday, 5/10 if you’re a Comixology Unlimited subscriber.

This includes new releases and pre-orders, so do yourself a favor. Go to the release date view and click forward to pre-order on the cheap.

And this discounts stacks on the “regular” sales, which means the current Stranger Things sale is extremely cheap! Especially the 50-cent single issues.

The Pastiche Evolved

The Marvel Squadron Supreme Sale runs through Sunday, 5/9.

Yes, what started out as a pastiche of DC’s Justice League grew into something a little bigger Marvel, as these things have a way of doing.

The centerpiece here is the Mark Gruenwald / Bob Hall / Paul Ryan Squadron Supreme series that’s still the bar by which this franchise is judged.

For a more old school version, the Squadron appears in their traditional sinister mode in Avengers: Serpent Crown by Steve Englehart and George Perez.

Not WandaVision, but…

The House of M Sale runs through Thursday, 5/13.

For those unfamiliar, this is the series where the Scarlet Witch snaps and rewrites reality to bring her children back into existence. It isn’t exactly the comics version of WandaVision, but it was surely an influence on it. Also, “no more mutants.” As a comic, it may have broken more things at Marvel than it fixed, but you can’t deny it’s influential.

The way to go here is to start with the actual Brian Bendis / Olivier Coipel series and then go back for the supplemental titles if you want more.

She Blinded Me With Science Fiction

The Image Sci-Fi Sale runs through Wednesday, 5/26.

Lots of good stuff on sale here and it’s worth flipping through when you have a chance. Some highlights?

Saga: Compendium One is the first 54 issues for $23.99. That’s a bit under 45 cents/issue. That’s CHEAP. We assume you haven’t been living under a rock and know what this Brian K. Vaughan/Fiona Staples masterwork is. We keep hearing whispers that its return is imminent. Hopefully we hear something a little more concrete soon.

Farmhand is written and drawn by Chew’s Rob Guillory. If you like Chew, you’ll probably like Farmhand. Agriculture and pharma intersect as Jeddidiah Jenkins grows replacement organs on his farm. Harvest one and drop it into a patient – it’s plug and play. Except there’s a rot sinking to the organs and something lurking in the shadows.

That Jonathan Hickman guy who’s running the X-Men right now? He’s done a few things at Image. One of them is The Manhattan Projects with Nick Pitarra. It’s a sort of alternate history where the Manhattan Project brain trust is working on mad science experiments far beyond the atomic bomb, taking them to space and other, stranger, destinations. Sometimes silly and sometimes dark. It’s a good one.

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