Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Dawn of DC; Moon Knight; Champions

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC discounts the Dawn of DC line. Marvel slashes prices on Moon Knight and Champions. Plus, a look at overlooked Masterworks volumes.

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):

Dawn, but not Dawnstar

Batman  Green Lantern War Journal  Wonder Woman

The Dawn of DC Sale runs through Monday, 1/20.

DC’s spotlighting the most recent relaunch with this week’s sale and you know what? This is the best lineup DC’s had in a really long time. There’s room for improvement with Events _not_ interrupting your collected edition reading experience, but there is much to be recommended in the current slate.

  • Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War – Chip Zdarsky / Tini Howard / Matthew Rosenberg / Mike Hawthorne; Let’s call this Bat-Family Event “Batman Vol. 2.5”
  • Batman Vol. 3: The Joker Year One – Chip Zdarsky / Jorge Jiménez ; All this and the Red Hood Gang, too
  • Birds of PreyKelly Thompson / Leonardo Romero – Black Canary leads a raid on Paradise Island
  • Flash Si Spurrier / Mike Deodato, Jr.; Cosmic horror enters the speed force and we’re good with that. V.2 is queued up to be our next read, here at The Tower of Cheap
  • Green Arrow – Josh Williamson / Sean Izaakse; The adventures of the Green Arrow family (as Waller lurks and plots)
  • Green Lantern – Jeremy Adams / Xermanico; Back to a Silver Age feel
  • Green Lantern War Journal – Phillip Kennedy Johnson / Montos; A particularly disturbing extra-dimensional invader stalks John Stewart
  • Nightwing Vol. 5– Tom Taylor / Bruno Redondo; For most purposes, a Titans story, but that’s been the clear vector for this run
  • Shazam – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; Waid & Mora steer “The Captain” back towards his original tone
  • Superman – Josh Williamson / Jamal Campbell; Quality back to basics run
  • Titans – Tom Taylor / Nicola Scott; The Titans as Justice League. In a way, an extension of Nightwing
  • Titans: Beast World – Tom Taylor / Ivan Reis / Travis Moore; A Titans-centric Event has Starro menacing and terrestrial forces plotting behind the scenes, plus: Doctor Hate
  • Wonder Woman – Tom King / Daniel Sampere; Political maneuvering and misinformation drive this darker than you’d expect adventure

The Light of the Silvery Moon

Moon Knight  Moon Knight Epic Collection   Moon Knight

The Marvel Moon Knight Sale runs through Monday, 1/20.

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

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

If you came in through the TV show, there really isn’t a comic that quite matches that version of the character, but the series did draw on the Jeff Lemire / Greg Smallwood Moon Knight series in which Moon Knight has a run-in with the Egyptian gods and his personalities run amok. It’s also a good run.

We also have been enjoying the current Jed MacKay/Alessandro Cappuccio Moon Knight series. This one takes up the unenviable task of rationalizing the various incarnations over the years (and there have been a lot of different takes on the character). Mr. Knight is in therapy for his multiple personality issues. He’s running the Midnight Mission and conduct himself as Konshu’s ambassador… after a fashion, although he’s not really happy with Konshu. And there are vampires. Lots of vampires.

Marvel being Marvel, this was then relaunched as Vengeance Of The Moon Knight with the same creators.

Highlights of the rest:

  • Moon Knight ’89-’94 – Most of this is only collected in omnibus form  for the longest running volume. This is largely the Terry Kavanaugh years with Gary Kwapisz and James Fry on art. Possibly more interesting, it also includes a Bruce Jones/Denys Cowan special and a Doug Moench/Art Nichols team-up with Shang Chi. (A second volume with earlier issues just dropped, but isn’t discounted yet.)
  • Moon Knight ’10-12 – Brian Bendis / Alex Maleev; Controversial to say the least, this one really leans into Moon Knight’s multiple personality disorder and breaks the character if you prefer the original concept. On the other hand, it’s surprisingly witty and funny. One of the oddest takes on the character.
  • Moon Knight  ’14-’15- Most notable for the style-forward Warren Ellis/Declan Shalvey reworking (introducing the business suit)

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

Breakfast of Champions

Champions Classic: The Complete Collection  Champions  Champions

The Marvel Champions Sale runs through Monday, 10/24.

For the original ’70s Champions series by Tony Isabella, Bill Manto, George Tuska, Bob Hall and John Byrne, your best price for the full set is the Champions Classic: The Complete Collection.

The ’16-’18 Mark Waid/Jim Zub/Humberto Ramos/Sean Izaakse/Kevin Libranda Champions run might require a little explanation for optimal cheapness. At the top of that page, get “Because the World Still Needs Heroes” and “Worlds Collide. (These are double volumes and better value.) Then jump to V.4 and V.5 of the regular series at the bottom of the page.

This is followed by the ’19 Jim Zub / Steven Cummings Champions run and the ’20 Eve Ewing / Danny Lore / Kim Jacinto / Luciano Vecchio Champions series.

 Under the Radar Marvel Masterworks Volumes

The Marvel Masterworks Sale runs through Monday, 1/20

We’re going to assume you can find your Spidey/FF/Avengers volumes. Before the sale ends on Monday, let’s look over a few things that might be under your radar. Low key good reading.

  • Captain America Masterworks Vol. 14 – Roger Stern & John Byrne teamed up for a short, but excellent run that’s often overlooked for it’s length. Worth it for the Baron Blood revival, alone!
  • Captain Marvel Masterworks Vol. 4 – Everyone talks about the Jim Starlin run on Captain Marvel (and you should read it, it’s great). Not that many people talk about the Steve Englehart/Al Milgrom run that immediately follows it. Absolutely worth your time.
  • Doctor Strange Masterworks – The character is more prominent after the movies, but are you aware of the creative lineup on the 70/80s series? Steve Englehart / Marv Wolfman / Roger Stern / Chris Claremont / Jim Starlin / Frank Brunner / Gene Colan / Tom Sutton / Marshall Rogers / Paul Smith. Top talent most issues.
  • Howard the Duck Masterworks – Steve Gerber / Frank Brunner / Gene Colan / Val Mayerik; Gerber’s masterpiece that launched a helluva lawsuit! A sentient duck from another world tries to make his way in the world of “hairless apes”
  • Iron Man Masterworks Vol. 5 and Vol. 6 – This pair will give you the bulk of the format-establishing run of Archie Goodwin, George Tuska and Johnny Craig. Still among the best Iron Man runs
  • Marvel Team-Up Masterworks Vol. 6 and Vol. 7 – A few issues into Vol. 6, Chris Claremont begins his run for what’s the most interesting period of Marvel Team-Up. Who’s his artist for most of this? John Byrne. Yup, much like Iron Fist, it’s another Claremont/Byrne pairing
  • Marvel Two-In-One Masterworks Vol. 5 and Vol. 6 – About 1/2 way through V. 5, the Mark Gruenwald/Ralph Macchio run begins and it’s FANTASTIC (pun intended). “Project Pegasus” and “The Serpent Crown Affair” are probably the two most famous storylines here. Which artists did they wrangle for this run? Oh, just John Byrne, George Perez, Jerry Bingham and Ron Wilson. This is not just the team-up of the month.
  • Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Masterworks Vol. 2 – This is the bulk of Jim Steranko’s run on the feature. A highly influential, pop art tour de force
  • Silver Surfer Masterworks – Stan Lee & John Buscema had a short-lived, but classic run, initially in an oddball giant-sized format
  • Sub-Mariner Masterworks Vol. 7 – This is where Bill Everett, Namor’s creator, returned as writer/artist. It’s too bad Marvel doesn’t have a volume of just the Everett Sub-Mariner from the Golden Age. It’s the standout feature from the Marvel Mystery lineup. Trivia – Mickey Spillane was in the Marvel writing bullpen back then

Unannounced Sales

Nemesis Reloaded  Night Club  Witcher

Dark Horse has a Millarverse Sale going on:

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

Also on sale:

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Venom: The King in Purple  Alien: Black White & Blood

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

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Aquaman and the Justice League; Jonathan Hickman’s Marvel Library; Cable and Bishop; The Millarverse

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has some holiday-esque pricing on Aquaman and the Justice League. Marvel discounts the works of Jonathan Hickman, pluc Cable and Bishop. Dark Horse has deals on the Millarverse and The Witcher.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Administrative Note

Earlier in the week, we looked at which titles are newly included in this year’s annual Marvel Masterworks Sale.

He’s All Wet

Aquaman  Aquaman by Peter David  Justice League of America

The DC Aquaman Sale runs through Monday, 1/13.

OK, it’s really an Aquaman and the Justice League sale… but here’s the real wrinkle: holiday-like sales pricing. Could DC be turning over a new leaf? Wouldn’t that be a thing?

Things that caught our eye:

Aquaman

  • Aquaman (’62 – ’78) – You’re looking at 2 volumes of Steve Skeates / Jim Aparo that ended the original run, then Death of a Prince primarily written by David Michelinie/Paul Levitz with art by Jim Aparo/Mike Grell/Don Newton; $2.99 is a lot cheaper than these used to get listed for
  • Aquaman: The Legend of Aquaman (’89) – Keith Giffen / Robert Loren Fleming / Curt Swan; Sometimes you need to see Swan doing something other than Superman to really appreciate him
  • Aquman (’94- ’01) – Peter David / Martin Egeland; The controversial run where Aquaman loses a hand
  • Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis (’06-’07) – Kurt Busiek / Butch Guice; We really enjoyed this entirely too short-lived “Conan under the sea”-type take on Aquaman
  • Aquaman (’11-’16) Geoff Johns / Ivan Reis; We thought V.2 was the peak here with “The Others” and the Trench’s aftermath
  • The Atlantis Chronicles – Peter David / Esteban Maroto; A gorgeously illustrated high fantasy tale of this history of Atlantis and its sorcerers. This is where all the “Orin” business comes from.

Justice League

  • Justice League of America (’60-’87) – The Silver Age editions are $1.99@
  • JLA (’97 – ’01) – Grant Morrison / Howard Porter -> Mark Waid / Bryan Hitch -> Joe Kelly / Doug Mahnke -> Chris Claremont / John Byrne; There’s more to this classic run than just Morrison and it’s $1.99/volume
  • JLA Year One – Mark Waid / Brian Augustyn / Barry Kitson; An extended Justice League origin tale
  • Justice League by Christopher Priest (’18) – Christopher Priest / Pete Woods; Priest’s meditation on toxic fandom in a single volume
  • Justice League (’18) – Scott Snyder / James Tynion IV / Jorge Jiménez / Francis Manapul / Jim Cheung; The Snyder era is best enjoyed with double volumes for $2.99
  • Justice League of America: The Nail: The Complete Collection – Alan Davis made a stone cold classic with his tale of a world where a flat tire caused the Kents to miss the rocket and the Justice League tries to form without a Superman. Suffice it to say, things go sideways

Hickman

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

The Marvel Jonathan Hickman Sale runs through Monday, 1/20.

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

That’s all you need. “Time Runs Out” is even in the final Avengers Complete Collection volume. And here’s something that cannot be understated, the sheer scope of this tale makes it increasingly compelling the further into it you go. Once you’re past the Infinity sequence, it really starts getting jaw-dropping. And this falls under the category of “in for a penny, in for a pound.” You start the sequence, you need to finish through Secret Wars. Especially with the Avengers.

House of X / Powers of X   X of Swords  Secret Warriors

For the X-Men material, House of X / Powers of X is self-contained. X of Swords is relatively self-contained (and a very successful cross-over). Past that, we think the Hickman era is best enjoyed with the Dawn of X collections to better appreciate what an unusual tapestry was being weaved. Reign of Xas well.

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

Secret Warriorslaunched under Bendis, but continued under Hickman and Alessandro Vitti, is a Nick Fury/S.H.I.E.L.D. series.

G.O.D.S. Ultimate Invasion  Ultimate Spider-Man

G.O.D.S. is the recently ended Hickman / Valerio Schiti series that’s effectively a traditional Urban Fantasy tale in the Marvel universe (guest starring Stephen Strange). We liked it quite a bit and are up for a sequel.

Ultimate Invasion with Bryan Hitch is the set up for the current incarnation of the Ultimate universe as The Maker (Ultimate Reed Richards) escapes and decides to make a parallel world his personal experiment.

Ultimate Invasion leads right into the excellent Ultimate Spider-Man with Marco Checchetto, where an older, married with children, Peter Parker suddenly becomes Spidey.

You Were Expecting Disney+?

Cable   Cable & Deadpool   Cable

The Marvel Cable and Bishop Sale runs through Monday, 1/13.

There really have been a lot of Cable titles over the years.

New Mutants Epic Collection: Cable by (mostly) Louise Simonson & Rob Liefeld contains the original appearances of Cable as he stalks the Mutant Liberation Front.

The original Cable series was the longest-lived. It starts out as Cable Classic with the original mini’s, but we might lean a little further down the page – Ladronn art and early stories by Joe Casey and James Robinson.

The other long-running title was Cable & Deadpool. Fabian Nicieza was the writer, with Patrick Zircher and Reilly Brown as the primary artists.

The most recent Cable ongoing series was the HoX/PoX era series by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto which finds Cable much younger, but still up to his neck in time paradoxes.

X-Men Epic Collection: Bishop’s Crossing is where Bishop first pops up, at the beginning of the post-Claremont, Jim Lee / Whilce Portacio era.

Unannounced Sales

Nemesis Reloaded  Night Club  Witcher

Dark Horse has a Millarverse Sale going on:

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

Also on sale:

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

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Symbiote Spider-Man 2099  Venom: The King in Purple

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

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The Annual Marvel Masterworks Sale Arrives

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, the annual Marvel Masterworks sale has arrived and we have what’s new since last year.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Administrative Note

We know how many people have been waiting on the Masterworks sale, so we’ll go ahead and distribute the information on what’s new this year today. We’ll circle back to the rest of the week’s sales at the usual time.

The Masterworks Drop-eth

Daredevil Masterworks  Man-Thing Masterworks  Marvel Team-Up Masterworks

The Marvel Masterworks Sale runs through Monday, 1/20.

It appears we are having a Masterworks sale this extended holiday season. Would it be useful to have a list of the new Masterworks entering the annual sale since last year?

Here it is:

What’s good among these new editions? Plenty, but a few things that caught our eye:

Daredevil Masterworks Vol. 18 – Denny O’Neil / Klaus Janson / William Johnson; After Frank Miller’s first run, Denny O’Neil stepped in for a run that’s largely been forgotten. It starts with a trip to Japan for some unfinished business with Bullseye.

Fantastic Four Masterworks Vol. 26 – Nearing the end of the John Byrne run

Man-Thing Masterworks Vol. 1 – Stever Gerber & Val Mayerik; The beginning of one of Gerber’s masterpieces: Man-Thing. As influential a book as anything in the early ’70s.

Marvel Team-Up Masterworks Vol. 7 – Just prior to teaming up on X-Men, Chris Claremont and John Byrne collaborated on what’s probably the best run of Marvel Team-Up. (Claremont wrote it a little more like a regular title than just the team-up of the week.)

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Symbiote Spider-Man 2099  Venom: The King in Purple

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

Dropping This Week

Dropping Next Week

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s Best of 2024; Best of the Marvel Epic Collections; Titan Horror

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC discounts their best of ’24. A look at the best of the Epic Collections on sale. Plus, Horror from Titan.

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):

Best of the Marvel Epic Collection Sale

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus  New Mutants: The Demon Bear Saga  X-Men Epic Collection

What are the best Epic Collections available? Let’s add a constraint. Since this is .cheap, what are the best Epic Collections currently on sale for $6.99? (Which is not to say there aren’t EXCELLENT collections at higher price points, but there is an image to maintain, yes?)

Speaking of Best…

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

It probably would have been better for you if you picked this up in the last two weeks of December, but there are some legit good books in this stack.

The Horror! The Horror!

Bloodborne  Lenore  V.E. Schwab's Extraordinary

The Titan Comics: The Horror, The Eerie & The Strange Sale runs through Friday, 1/31.

We sometimes hear digital comics readers bemoaning the lack of single issues in these sales. Guess what? We have $0.99 single issues and that will color what format is the cheapest, too.

Unannounced Sales

Hellboy  Martha Washington  Minor Threats

It appears that Dark Horse has most of their collected editions on sale, but not the newest material and not the single issues.  Here’s a link that will *eventually* get you through their catalog in a very laborious way and with the single issues mixed in. (It’s not perfect, but we’re trying.) We think this will run through the weekend, possibly to Monday.

Here are some direct links to various series:

Under the radar alert: you don’t hear about this much anymore, but     The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century is a Frank Miller / Dave Gibbons collaboration with a different tone than Miller’s commonly associated these days. It’s a lot closer to Halo Jones than it is to Sin City or the later Dark Knight volumes.

Also on sale

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin  Darth Vader  Vengeance of the Moon Knight

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

Dropping This Week

Dropping Next Week

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Still on Sale

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

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Administrative Notes

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

DC $1.99 Mania Continued (Part II)

Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart  DC: The New Frontier  Fables

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

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

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

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

May the Sale Be With You

Darth Vader by Gillen Omnibus  Star Wars Omnibus  Star Wars Wild Space

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

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

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

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

The Best of the Best of the Best

Avengers, Inc.  G.O.D.S.Ultimate Spider-Man

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

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

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

If Not, Why Not?

What If?  What If

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

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

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

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

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

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Immortal X-Men

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

Dropping This Week

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

Unannounced Sales

Vader's Castle  40: A Doonesbury Retrospective  Bad Dreams in the Night

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

Also on sale:

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The Marvel Epic Collection Sale Returns; $1.99 Recent Collections from DC

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, the Marvel Epic Collection Sale returns after skipping a year. Plus, DC wants you to read their recent collections for $1.99!

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Administrative Notes

The final holiday sales are underway and things are overflowing. Marvel Epics and the first glance at the jaw-dropping DC sale right now. We’ll be back for Star Wars, What If and DC later in the week. That DC sale will definitely take a little time to go through.

Cheap Marvel Epic Collections

Captain America  New X-Men  Silver Surfer: The Return of Thanos

The Marvel Epic Collection Sale runs through Monday, 1/6.

Welcome to the big sale week. The majority of Marvel’s Epic Collections are $6.99-$8.99 and this is an good time to fill in gaps in your collection. There was a LOT of grousing when this sale didn’t run last year, so we’re popping in early to give you the rundown on it.

First we’re going to give a quick overview of what’s in it (for quicker browsing).

Then we’re going to try and root out what’s new in the sales since last year — yes, we know some of you stock up on your Epic Collections every year when this sale drops and this ought to save you some time.

Then some recommendations.

Then a quick reference list of titles with Epic Collections available.

What’s New Since Black Friday ’22?

Near as we can tell, these are the new releases since the last Black Friday Epic Collection sale dropped, two years ago. Compare them to what you’ve already purchased, just in case, but this is what it’s looking like to us:

What’s good here? A fair amount. Things we’d pay special attention to:

Avengers Epic Collection: The Yesterday Quest  – This is a very solid run, starting with the Jim Shooter / George Perez / David Wenzel” Korvac Saga” and ending with the the David Michelinie / Mark Gruenwald / Steven Grant / John Byrne “Yesterday Quest” featuring… well, one origin of the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

Captain America Epic Collection: The Secret Empire is the real meat of the classic Steve Englehart / Sal Buscema run, featuring the debut of The Serpent Squad, the debut of Baron Zemo II (under a different identity) and the famous Secret Empire story everyone references these days.

Captain America Epic Collection: The Man Who Sold The United States – The end of the Steve Englehart run (with Frank Robbins on art), followed by Jack Kirby’s Madbomb serial, which has certainly had a reappraisal in the last decade.

Captain America Modern Era Epic Collection: The Winter Soldier – The opening act of Ed Brubaker’s hugely influential run as Bucky seemingly returns from the dead. Steve Epting, Michael Lark and Lee Weeks are in the artist rotation.

Defenders Epic Collection: Enter – The Headmen – The end of the Len Wein / Sal Buscema run and then Steve Gerber arrives for some wonderfully off-kilter action.

New X-Men Modern Era Epic Collection: E Is For Extinction – Grant Morrison’s resetting of the X-Men (w/Frank Quitely / Igor Kordey /  Leinil Francis Yu) gets an Epic Collection.

Silver Surfer Epic Collection: The Return Of Thanos is a superior package. First Steve Englehart wraps up his run with the second Kree/Skrull War, then Jim Starlin shows up for the return of Thanos and to lay the groundwork for The Infinity Gauntlet. Ron Lim, who’s drawn a LOT of Silver Surfer is the main artist here.

X-Men Epic Collection: The Brood Saga – This is some prime X-adventuring from the title’s golden period as the team heads into space and encounters The Brood. Chris Claremont / Dave Cockrum / Paul Smith.

Daredevil Epic Collection: It Comes With The Claws is a transition period for the book. It starts out just after the “Born Again” arc and after a few issues, Ann Nocenti begins what would be the next major run. Louis Williams and Rick Leonardi are the main artists, but John Romita, Jr. shows up towards the end, which begins the most famous part of Nocenti’s run.

A Quicker Guide to the Series with Epic Collections.

Here’s a list of the series involved in the sale. You may need to scroll down past the Masterworks editions to the Epics in some of the links… and that’s OK, because you should remember the Masterworks are usually on sale around the holidays (although since the Epics skipped last year and are running through 1/6, there is a distinct possibility the Masterworks are taking a year off… but tune in 1/7 to see what happens).  The material from the mid-80s to present, tends to be in Epic Collections only. So this is the time to get Avengers West Coast, Silver Surfer, New Mutants and the more recent material and discounts for those will dry up on the 1st. You have more sale options with material in both formats.

DC Goes $1.99 Crazy

Batman  Nightwing  Batman / Dylan Dog

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

There’s a LOT more to it, but our eyes are immediately drawn to the current incarnations of the DC titles at $1.99 per collected edition. Yes, including things discounted for the first time. You’ll probably like it. Until the official link shows up, here’s our quick guides to some of the current line… and we’ve found the DC line to have improved immensely in the last couple years, so there’s plenty to enjoy.

The Guide to $1.99 current series. Some of these are at the bottom of a longer series page and we’ll do individual volume links for those.

  • Action Comics – rotating creators – Vol. 1 / Vol. 2
  • Batman – Chip Zdarsky / Jorge Jiménez / Mike Hawthorne – Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3 (newly discounted)
  • Batman & Robin – Josh Williamson / Simone Di Meo
  • Batman / Dylan Dog – Roberto Recchioni / Gigi Cavenago; Hidden gem as Batman teams with the Italian comics goofy occult investigator. One of the better takes on The Joker, too.
  • Birds of PreyKelly Thompson / Leonardo Romero – Black Canary leads a raid on Paradise Island
  • Detective Comics – Ram V written run w/ Rafael Albuquerque / Ivan Reis; A slow burn gothic horror take we’re enjoying quite a bit – Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3
  • Flash Si Spurrier / Mike Deodato, Jr.; Cosmic horror enters the speed force and we’re good with that
  • Green Arrow – Josh Williamson / Sean Izaakse; The adventures of the Green Arrow family (as Waller lurks and plots)
  • Green Lantern – Jeremy Adams / Xermanico; Back to a Silver Age feel
  • Green Lantern War Journal – Phillip Kennedy Johnson / Montos; A particularly disturbing extra-dimensional invader stalks John Stewart
  • Nightwing – Tom Taylor / Bruno Redondo; this highly enjoyable run nears its end (in collected editions) – Vol. 1, Vol.2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol. 5 (newly discounted)
  • Poison Ivy – G. Willow Wilson / Marcio Takara
  • Shazam – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; Waid & Mora steer “The Captain” back towards his original tone
  • Superman – Josh Williamson / Jamal Campbell; Quality back to basics run
  • Titans – Tom Taylor / Nicola Scott; The Titans as Justice League. In a way, an extension of Nightwing
  • Wonder Woman – Tom King / Daniel Sampere; Political maneuvering and misinformation drive this darker than you’d expect adventure
  • World’s Finest – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; Early adventures of Batman & Superman, with a Kingdom Come prequel. One of DC’s best offerings.

We’ll be back for a much closer look at this sale, probably split into at least two parts. If this isn’t *every* digital collected edition from Sept. and earlier, it’s pretty close. Most of it seems to be $1.99 and there are bargains to be had. We’re a little shocked at the first flipping through.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Immortal X-Men

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

Dropping This Week

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

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC Prices Improve; Spider-Man; Loki; Assassin’s Apprentice

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC’s deals improve with a little more $1.99 action and bigger books at $2.99. Marvel discounts Spider-Man and Loki. Dark Horse cuts prices on Assassin’s Apprentice, Assassin’s Creed and Critical Role.

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):

So That’s Where the Black Friday Sale Went?

World's Finest  The Flash  Wonder Woman: Dead Earth

The DC World’s Greatest Super-Heroes Sale runs through Monday, 12/16.

If you were thinking that DC’s Black Friday sale didn’t contain the pricing you were expecting, this week might work a little better for you and there are definitely some things we’re going to be pointing out for price points here.

As usual, there’s more to the sale and it’s worth your time to browse, but here are a few things that caught out attention:

Recent Release / First Discount

This is a popular series at the site, so let’s point out up top that V.4 of Batman/Superman: World’s Finest has gotten it’s first discounted listing. Mark Waid and Dan Mora continue the Kingdom Come prequel from V.2 as this continues to be one of DC’s best reads. (The whole series is on sale and we recommend it.)

“Regular” Highlights

  • 52 – Geoff Johns/ Grant Morrison / Greg Rucka / Mark Waid / Keith Giffen / Eddy Barrows / Phil Jimenez / Dale Eaglesham; A 52 issue weekly series to tell the story of a “missing” year in the DCU. Also where Dan DiDio picked up his proclivity for the number 52. 2 volume set for $2.99 + $3.99
  • Alan Scott: The Green Lantern – Tim Sheridan / Cian Tormey; First time discounted
  • All-Star Superman – Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely; Essentially, this is a love letter to and distillation of everything good about the Silver Age Superman stories. Highly recommended. $2.99
  • Aquaman: Deadly Waters – Back half of the influential Steve Skeates / Jim Aparo run. This one is usually a little overpriced in digital because it’s a HC in print; $2.99 (as low as we’ve seen it)
  • Batman: The Black Mirror – Scott Snyder / Jock / Francesco Francavilla; Snyder’s earlier run on Detective; $1.99
  • Batman: The Court of Owls Saga – Scott Snyder / Greg Capullo; The first arc of the Snyder/Capullo Batman run. 11 issues / 350 pages – $2.99 (And yet, not the biggest page count for $2.99 you’ll see today…)
  • Batman: Year One – Frank Miller / David Mazzucchelli; Bruce Wayne figures out how to be Batman and Catwoman gets a new background story. You may have heard that David Mazzucchelli draws real purdy. It’s true. $1.99
  • Birds of Prey (’23) – Kelly Thompson / Leonardo Romero; Black Canary leads a raid on Paradise Island
  • Black Lightning – The original series through the Detective and World’s Finest solo appearances; $1.99@
  • The Flash: Savage Velocity – Mike Baron / William Messner-Loebs / Jackson Guice / Greg Larocque;  Wally West debuts as The Flash with the full Mike Baron run and beginning of Messner-Loebs. Kilg%re! Kapitalist Kourier! Chunk! Also, 475 pages for $2.99!
  • Green Arrow: War of the Clans – Jeff Lemire / Andrea Sorrentino; 450 pages for $2.99 (!)
  • Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice – Len Strazewski / Grant Miehm / Mike Parobeck / Tom Artis / Rich Burchett + a couple Paul Levitz/Joe Staton tales; Warm up miniseries prior to the Strazewski/Parobeck run that STILL NEEDS TO BE COLLECTED; $2.99
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (’80-’85) – As low as the prices get for most of these. The Curse is a real value buy with 450 pages of Paul Levitz / Keith Giffen goodness for $2.99
  • Saga of the Swamp Thing – Alan Moore / Stephen Bissette / John Totleben; The legendary run w/ the first four volumes at $1.99@
  • Superman Smashes the Klan – Gene Yang / Gurihiru; An Eisner winner based on a Superman radio serial. YA;  $1.99
  • Superman: Up In the Sky – Tom King / Andy Kubert; Superman pursues kidnappers into space; $1.99
  • Swamp Thing: The Dead Don’t Sleep – Len Wein (Swampy’s creator) returns to the swamp in ’16 w/ Kelley Jones; $1.99
  • Wonder Woman (’23) Vol. 1: Outlaw – Tom King / Daniel Sampere; An Amazon is implicated in a death and a coverup / propaganda campaign begins as Wonder Woman becomes an enemy of the state. Darker than you’re expecting and V.2 is even *darker* as King explores the politics of domination and manipulation.
  • Wonder Woman: Dead Earth – Daniel Warren Johnson; Wonder Woman wakes up to an apocalyptic hellscape and tries to determine what happened. If you’re looking for the “metal” experience, look no further. $2.99
  • Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons Kelly Sue DeConnick / Phil Jimenez / Gene Ha / Nicola Scott; Multi-Eisner winner

Golden Age Omnibuses

Silver Age Omnibuses

300+ pages for $2.99

Spider-Teen

Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man  Untold Tales of Spider-Man  Ultimate Spider-Man

The Marvel Teen Spider-Man Sale runs through Monday, 12/16.

We’re not sure that’s the best name for this sale, despite it being literal, so let’s explain the thought behind it. When Spidey started under Stan Lee & Steve Ditko, Peter Parker was a high school student. When the original Ultimate Comics launch happened (and does that ever feel strange to type), Peter was once more in high school.

This isn’t so much “teen” Spidey as “Spidey the early years.” And really, you can break this into original / 616-Spidey and Ultimate Spidey.

616-Spidey

Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man collects the original Stan Lee / Steve Ditko run. Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 will take you through #19 and Annual #1.

Spider Man: Blue by the famed team of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale is a story about Peter and Gwen Stacy falling in love.

Spidey is the ’15-’16 take on Peter’s high school years by Robbie Thompson and Nick Bradshaw.

Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1.1: Learning To Crawl is essentially the Dan Slott / Ramon Perez take on “Spider-Man: Year One”

But we’d like to draw special attention to Untold Tales Of Spider-Man: The Complete Collection Vol. 1  by Kurt Busiek and Pat Olliffe. This ’95-’97 series often flies under the radar because it was part of an experimental line of $0.99 comics at Marvel. This was the only thing from this line that got any traction. For our money, this was the best Spidey comic from that period. It’s set in the same time as those early Lee/Ditko stories and it just feels right. And let’s face it… this is .cheap. OF COURSE we liked the quality $0.99 book when everything else was $1.50 cover price. Plus, no clones and stories that ended promptly.

Ultimate Spidey

Ultimate Spider-Man  – Brian Bendis / Mark Bagley (and Bill Jemas in the outline/treatment stages). This was the first “Ultimate” title. A back to day one “modern” restart on Spidey that introduced his friends and enemies in slightly tweaked incarnations and in different orders. And it was a very good comic. Worth your time if you’ve never tried it. The link is to the double volumes (listed by Amazon as Omnibuses), which are a little cheaper for the number of issues.

God of Mischief

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

The Marvel Loki Sale runs through Monday, 12/16.

The interesting thing about a Loki sale? These days you have “post-TV” Loki and traditional Loki.

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

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

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Weapon X-Men

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

Dropping This Week

Unannounced Sales

Assassin's Apprentice The Hunger and the Dusk The Metamorphosis

Dark Horse seems to have multiple sales going on in the background:

Also,

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Deadpool; Wolverine; Batman and… Bazooka Joe?

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts Deadpool and Wolverine. DC has a Winter Sale with plenty of Batman. Dark Horse puts their Crime titles on sale and… Bazooka Joe?

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Administrative Note

It’s the holiday shopping season, which means a few more sales than usual and we’re breaking the week into two posts again. Last time out, we looked at the Infinity (Gauntlet), Thor and Image sales.

Whither Mister Freeze and Captain Cold?

Batman  The Brave and the Bold  Nightwing

The DC Winter Sale runs through Monday, 12/9.

Things could always get a little colder if you’re focused on Winter. (But apparently not Baron Winters?) Here are a few things that caught our eye while sifting through the listings:

  • Batman Vol. 1: Failsafe & Batman Vol. 2: The Bat-Man of Gotham – Chip Zdarsky / Jorge Jiménez / Mike Hawthorne; The first two volumes of the Zdarsky run for $1.99@
  • Batman/Catwoman – Tom King / Clay Mann / Liam Sharp; King continues the Bat/Cat relationship. $2.99 for 400+ pages is good value
  • Batman: One Bad Day – Ah, here’s Mr. Freeze. This is a series of ~80 page Euro-albums spotlighting Batman’s Rouges Gallery
  • The Brave and the Bold Vol. 1: Lords of Luck – Mark Waid / George Perez; Batman, Green Lantern and friends search for the stolen Book of Destiny; First time discounted for this September release
  • Creature Commandos – J.M. DeMatteis / Robert Khanigher / Fred Carillo; The original series from Weird War Stories; $1.99 – cheap
  • DCeased: War of the Undead Gods – Tom Taylor / Trevor Hairsine; The endcap to the DCeased Trilogy where the Anti-Life equation has gotten loose and transformed much of humanity (and the metahuman community) into zombie-like creatures
  • Gotham City: Year One – Tom King / Phil Hester; Gotham City starts to slide into the abyss when an heir to the Wayne fortune is kidnapped. Slam Bradley investigates and breaks eggs in a noir mystery set in pre-Batman times
  • The Human Target – Tom King / Greg Smallwood; This series somehow manages to be a noir mystery AND accommodate the antics of the Bwa Ha Ha Justice League as doomed Christopher Chance investigates who poisoned him. Excellent series
  • Nightwing – Tom Taylor / Bruno Redondo; As it’s nearing it’s wrap-up in the world of collected editions, the Taylor / Redondo Nightwing run has been a delight
  • Superman: Red Son – Mark Millar / Dave Johnson / Kilian Plunkett; What if baby Kal-El’s rocket crashed in Stalin’s U.S.S.R instead of Kansas?
  • World’s FinestMark Waid / Dan Mora; The early days of the Batman/Superman team-up; Highly recommended

The Cheapest at What He Does

Wolverine: Spore  Wolverine: Enemy of the State  

The Marvel Wolverine Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 12/16.

You ever see Wolverine shell out for expensive beer? He understands cheap.

This is the sale on the “main” Wolverine titles we said would be coming. Let’s start out by listing the various titles involved. (Relaunches? At Marvel? <faints>) The warning from earlier in the week still applies here: the Epic Collections are not on sale this time out and we’re waiting to see if they turn up on sale at a later date.

  • Wolverine (’82) – Chris Claremont / Frank Miller / Paul Smith; The miniseries that kicked off the solo stories and an X-Men 2-parter that’s a sort of follow-up
  • Wolverine (’88-’03) – The original ongoing solo title. Yes, it took six years after the mini… it was a different time
  • Wolverine (’03-’09) – Greg Rucka / Darick Robertson; Mark Millar / John Romita, Jr.; Jason Aaron/Ron Garney… among others
  • Wolverine: Origin (’06-’10) – Daniel Way / Steve Dillon
  • Wolverine: Weapon X (’09) – Jason Aaron / Ron Garney
  • Wolverine (’10-’12) – Jason Aaron / Renato Guedes / Ron Garney; “Wolverine Goes to Hell” was not a metaphor
  • Wolverine (’13-’14) – Paul Cornell / Alan Davis
  • Wolverine: Savage Land (’14) – Frank Cho
  • Death of Wolverine (’14) – All the mini’s in one volume
  • Old Man Logan (’16-’18) – Jeff Lemire / Andrea Sorrentino; While Logan is “dead,” his future dystopian self journeys to the present day. (And it’s actually pretty good, despite the wonky premise.)
  • Return of Wolverine (’18-’19) – Charles Soule / Steve McNiven; “They always come back”
  • Wolverine (’20-’24) – Ben Percy / Adam Kubert; The Krakoan era Logan. The first link is the “omnibus” page, here’s the individual collections page, which are discounted a little further into the series.

So, what’s actually good?

The  original miniseries is generally regarded as a classic.

With the original series, you’re pretty good from the beginning through the end of the Larry Hama run (a bit after #100), though towards the end of that, the X-Events get annoying. We’re particularly fond of the Archie Goodwin / John Byrne arc from #17-23.

The Greg Rucka / Darick Robertson / Leandro Fernandez run is an enjoyable, lower key run.

Mark Millar did two great runs shortly after Rucka:

  • Enemy of the State w/ John Romita, JR introduces Gorgan and has Wolverine up against an unholy alliance of the Hand and Hydra
  • Old Man Logan w/ Steve McNiven has an aging Logan trying to keep to himself in a dystopian future when trouble comes looking. Yes, this should sound an awful lot like one of the films!

The Krakoan era, while it almost merged with X-Force (kind of like the triangle era Superman line), was quite enjoyable.

You Were Expecting a Dirty Harry Film?
Deadpool Classics Deadpool by Posehn and Duggan Deadpool by Joe Kelly

The Marvel Deadpool Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 12/16.

Deadpool is… oddly collected. There have been a lot of titles and lot of relaunches. Most of these are absorbed into the Deadpool Classics line of collected editions.  Some, but not all, of the series, have omnibus editions and those are the cheaper way to collect those runs… which means, if you’re a completist and you’re cheap, you’re going to want to be wanting to fill in the Classics volumes around the omnibuses.  And Deadpool Classics V. 1 collects the various miniseries that kicked things off.  In a sense, the easiest way (but perhaps not cheapest – and certainly not the most current) to keep things chronological is to follow the Classics line. And, of course, this time out we have the caveat that the Epic Collections are not on sale (nor is Cable & Deadpool).

Hey, when was getting Marvel collected editions in the proper order ever easy?

So let’s run down the main titles:

  • Deadpool Classics (’93 – as far as they’ve gotten)
  • Deadpool (’97-’02) – Known as the Joe Kelly era (at least what’s collected here)
  • Deadpool (’08-’12) – The Daniel Way Era
  • Deadpool Team-Up (’09 – ’11) – all sorts of creators for this Deadpool variant on Marvel Two-In-One (and selectively discounted this time)
  • Deadpool (’12-15) – The Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan Era
  • Deadpool (’15-’17) – Gerry Duggan and many, many artists
  • Despicable Deadpool (’17-’18) – Duggan/Mike Hawthorne
  • Deadpool (’18-’19) – Skottie Young / Nic Klein
  • King Deadpool (’19-’21) – Kelly Thompson / Chris Bachalo
  • Deadpool (’22-’23) – Alyssa Wong / Martin Coccolo

Pick your preferred creator and go to town.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Avengers  Immortal Thor  Weapon X-Men

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

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

Unannounced Sales

Air  Lobster Johnson  Mister X

Dark Horse appears to have all their crime-related titles (sometimes tenuously related) at ~50% off this week. Things we’re seeing discounts on:

And there’s a lot to like here. The paranoid art deco world of Dean Motter’s Mister X. The pulpy fun of the Mignolaverse’s Lobster Johnson (which proves to be very flexible in tone). Bendis and Oeming running a superpowered police procedural in Powers.

Also on sale:

Bazooka Joe and his GangBombing Nazi Germany

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Infinity Gauntlet, Thor, The Good Asian, Thief of Thieves

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel offers up the Infinity Gauntlet / War / Crusade family of titles and a lot of Thor. Image frets that winter is coming, but has discounts on some quality titles, nonetheless.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Administrative Note

It’s the holiday shopping season, which means a few more sales than usual and we’re breaking the week into two posts again. We’ll be back at the normal time at the end of the week for the rest of the Marvel sales, DC’s Winter Sale and whatever else happens to pop up.

Infinite Jest

Infinity Gauntlet  Infinity War  Infinity Crusade

The  Marvel Infinity Sale runs through Monday, 12/16.

All things infinity. Some Starlin, so not. Best to separate those things out, so we will:

Starlin’s Infinity Saga

As you may recall from last week, Jim Starlin returned to Marvel and re-introduced Thanos in Silver Surfer, which lead up to Thanos getting his hands on the Infinity Gems and kicking off a series of Event mini-series.

Alongside those titles, Warlock & the Infinity Watch (Starlin / Angel Medina / Tom Grindberg and others) ran parallel and filled some gaps between Events. Ditto, Silver Surfer Epic Collection: The Infinity Gauntlet (primarily Ron Marz / Ron Lim)

And then some more Thanos/Infinity mini’s and graphic novels:

Avengers

Not part of the Starlin Infinity world, but thrown in for… reasons (?)

Avengers Infinity by Roger Stern / Sean Chen is a cosmic/Avengers in space tale.

Infinity is roughly the middle act of Jonathan Hickman’s massive Avengers run. That volume pulls in all the various parts and is how you want it, although we’ve said in before and we’ll say it again – Hickman’s Avengers is one long epic and if you’re going to sample, read the whole thing. The sheer scope of it adds to the experience when you start at the beginning.

Hammered at the Holiday Party?

Thor by Walt Simonson  Thor Road to War of the Realms  Thor: The Mighty Avenger

Marvel’s Thor Sale runs  through Monday, 12/16.

This looks like a Marvel “legacy” sale, but with one big departure from how this has been done in the past: no Masterworks or Epic Collections… which almost entirely takes the Lee/Kirby material off the table. Both formats seem to be missing from all the Marvel sales as we type this. Does this mean we’re getting separate Epic _and_ Masterworks sales before the holiday season is over? Time will tell.

As per our custom, here’s the breakdown by series/volume, although the earlier material isn’t discounted:

  • Journey Into Mystery ’52-’66 – The earliest Thor stories from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, not discounted this time, however
  • The Mighty Thor ’66-’96 – From Lee & Kirby until the relaunches started, but the discounts don’t really start showing up until the Len Wein/John Buscema run
  • The Mighty Thor ’96-’04 – The Heroes return Dan Jurgens era, initially with John Romita, Jr.
  • Thor ’07-’11 – Starts with J. Michael Straczynski & Olivier Coipel, ends with Matt Fraction & Pasqual Ferry. Gillen in the middle.
  • The Mighty Thor ’11-’12 – Fraction gets a relaunch with Coipel, Ferry and early Pepe Larraz
  • The Jason Aaron era ’12-’19 – It’s a LOT easer to look at the “Complete Collections” across all the relaunches here
  • Thor ’20 to ’23 – The Donny Cates run with Nic Klein as the primary artist; Torunn GrØnbekk tags end toward the end while Cates was recovering from his accident (and filled in well, we might add).
  • Immortal Thor (’23 – current) – Al Ewing / Martin Coccolo; Strangely omitted from the sale, but listed here for reference

If your point of reference for Thor is the most recent film, you want the Jason Aaron era. The God Butcher is the first arc. If you go with that set of Complete Collections, Jane Foster picks up the hammer in V.2. We don’t think that starting with the first Jane Foster issues (and slimmer volumes) is a great jumping on point. It’s a saga and you’ll get a lot more out of it if you start at the beginning of Aaron’s run.

Past that, we’re all about the Walt Simonson Thor. It’s probably the most influential run since early days and it’s great. You’ll want the Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson set that starts here. (The Thor by Walter Simonson version of the reprints seems to be missing the final volume, or at least the last few issues. *sigh* These things happen.)

If you have a Lee/Kirby itch (and who doesn’t), Thor: Tales of Asgard is your best way to scratch it at a discount. These are the old backups featuring tales of Asgard’s past, occasionally with young Thor and Loki, occasionally the Warriors Three. Slightly more mythology-centric as a whole, as filtered through Stan and Jack.

Something under the radar? Ignore this being marketed as a kid’s comic – Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee had a short run on Thor: The Mighty Avenger that was just a good Thor comic, full stop. And you might expect that from those two.

If you want to move in the opposite direction, Thor: Vikings is a seriously violent Marvel MAX title from Garth Ennis and Glenn Fabry that has Viking zombies invading Manhattan. (No, not Fleet Week. That’s different.)

Folks in Buffalo Would Say It’s Already Here
The Good Asian  The One Trick Rip-Off Thief of Thieves

The Image Winter’s Coming Sale runs through Sunday 12/15.

Another small title count sale with some books in it we’ve enjoyed and are happy to recommend:

  • Bad Weekend – Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips; An expansion of a backup from Criminal as a disillusioned comics art legend acts out at comic convention
  • The Good Asian – Pornsak Pichetshote / Alexandre Tefenkgi; A superior noir detective tale takes place in 1936, during the final years of the Chinese Exclusion act. A Chinese-America detective is summoned to SF when a series of extra bloody, possibly Tong-initiated murders, threaten his adopted family. A period piece that dots its historical i’s and earns its rep.
  • The One Trick Rip-Off + Deep Cuts – Paul Pope; A heist story fronts the collection, which also includes his “Supertrouble” manga series.
  • Thief of Thieves – (Mostly) Andy Diggle / Robert Kirkman / Shawn Martinbrough; A master thief plans his exit as both the FBI and the underworld circle around him.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Avengers  Immortal Thor  Weapon X-Men

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

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Black Friday Arrives. DC’s Cyber Monday Sale; The Best of Marvel Omnibuses; Dark Horse Line-Wide Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, the actual Black Friday is upon us. DC drops a Cyber Monday sale. We look at the best of Marvel’s omnibus discounts. Dark Horse cuts prices line-wide.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

The Best of the Marvel Omnibus Sale

Avengers Omnibus  Captain Britain Omnibus  Miracleman Omnibus

The Marvel Omnibus Sale runs through Monday, 12/2.

Last week, we looked at what’s new in this year’s Omnibus Sale. This time, we’re going to look at the best volumes available. After all, not all omnibuses are created equal and this is about great runs and low duds.

  • The Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 1 – Stan Lee / Steve Ditko; Amazing Spider-Man was a rock solid title for a very long time, so it’s hard to go wrong with the available omnibuses, but V.1 is the complete Lee/Ditko run and that’s a really nice package.
  • Avengers Omnibus Vol. 5 – Steve Englehart / Sal Buscema / George Perez / George Tuska; Arguably the best run of the original Avengers is here, with the Giant-Size issues that were integral. The Celestial Madonna Saga. Kang. Ultron. The Squadron Sinister/Supreme. The Serpent Crown. There are other great runs, but this is at or near the top for most people.
  • Avengers by Busiek & Perez – Kurt Busiek & George Perez, with a little Roy Thomas / Roger Stern / Carlos Pacheco / Alan Davis / Jerry Ordway; Another one of the top runs is when Busiek & Perez took over after the Heroes Reborn experiment ended. The 2-volume set also includes Avengers Forever, The Ultron Imperative and Maximum Security
  • Black Panther by Christopher PriestChristopher Priest / Mark Texeira/Sal Velluto; You’ll want both volumes for Priest’s brilliant run. Smaller volumes (this _almost_ could have been compressed into a single volume), but one of the best of the late 90s/early 00s.
  • Captain America Omnibus Vol. 3 Steve Englehart / Sal Buscema / Frank Robbins; A few issues into this volume and Englehart’s legendary run begins. Contender for best Cap run overall (along with Waid/Garney and Brubaker/Epting/Lark). The return of the 50s Cap. The Viper. The Secret Empire. The Red Skull. Good stuff.
  • Captain Britain Omnibus – You’re looking at this for the back half with Alan Moore / Alan Davis and Jamie Delano / Alan Davis; This has all the UK material, but once Moore shows up, it turns into something special and also debuts the designation “616” for the Marvel Universe. Which is to say, a highly influential run that ended up absorbed into the X-books and is very infrequently reprinted.
  • Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson Omnibus – Roger McKenzie / Frank Miller / Klaus Janson; The full original Miller run in one volume. (Folks often forget McKenzie wrote the first portion of the run.) Legendary for a reason.
    • Daredevil by Frank Miller Omnibus Companion – Frank Miller / John Romita, Jr./ David Mazzucchelli / Bill Sienkiewicz; More Miller tales, including Born Again (possibly his finest DD moment), The Man Without Fear and Love and War.
  • Defenders Omnibus V. 2 – (Mostly) Steve Gerber / Sal Buscema. This is a smaller page count that most omnibuses, but it’s a very strategic selection: all of the Steve Gerber run. Which is to say, Nebulon, The Guardians of the Galaxy and The Headmen all turn up. Classic run that’s over the top strange as only Gerber could do it.
  • Fantastic Four Omnibus Vol. 2 – Stan Lee / Jack Kirby; Look, you can’t really go wrong with V.1-4 (Lee/Kirby wraps up ~1/3 of the way into V.4), but V.2 is roughly where things kick into second gear. The Frightful Four lead into The Inhumans, which leads into Galactus, then Black Panther debuts, followed by more Inhumans and Victor Von Doom. Great slice of Lee/Kirby.
  • Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 – John Byrne; Generally considered the next classic take on the FF, Bryne’s run (plus crossover issues and related items like The Last Galactus Story) is collected across two volumes.
  • Immortal Hulk Omnibus – (Mostly) Al Ewing / Joe Bennet; The modern classic complete in one volume. Listed as 1480 pages of this horror take on Hulk and the secret of the Green Door. Excellent series.
  • The Incredible Hulk by Peter David: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4 and Vol. 5 – Peter David / Todd McFarlane / Jeff Purves / Dale Keown / Sam Keith / Gary Frank / Liam Sharp / Angel Medina / Mike Deodato, Jr ; Yes, when you’re on a title for as many years as PAD was, you end up working with a lot of artists and he had a better roster than most! It’s also a high quality run that’s a pain to collect in the “normal” volumes. 1-4 collect the actual Hulk run. V. 5 collects some side titles and PAD’s brief return to the main title.
  • Miracleman Omnibus – Alan Moore / Garry Leach / Alan Davis / John Totleben / Rick Veitch; One of the key post-modern revivals of the early 80s as Moore and company revive a 50s UK knock-off of Captain Marvel (as in Shazam!) and remake it into something special as a middle-aged man discovers his past has been hidden from him and superheroics take on horrific aspects. Highly influential work that was out of print for years, due to court battles
  • Thor by Walt Simonson Omnibus – Walt Simonson / Sal Buscema; An awful lot of folks (most?) consider this the best Thor run for a reason: it’s pretty great. All in a single tome
  • Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol. 2 – Chris Claremont / John Byrne / Dave Cockrum; The Phoenix Saga is probably the high point of the “New” X-Men. This also gives you the introduction of Kitty Pryde, Days of Future Past, and an encounter with Doctor Doom. Honestly, we think that once Claremont has a couple issues to settle in, starting with issue #97 or so, it’s consistent excellence and a big story arc that comes to a natural breaking point with #200 (which is maybe 2/3 of the way through V.5), so Omnibus 1-5 are all a big thumbs up from us.

Temporal Displacement Sale
The Flash Kamandi  Wonder Woman

The DC Cyber Monday Sale runs through Monday, 12/2.

Which day is Cyber Monday this year? If the Black Friday Sale ran last week, wouldn’t that mean this past Monday was Cyber Monday, even though this sale didn’t appear until Tuesday morning? Well, if this coming Monday is Cyber Monday be warned that these sales can come down mid-evening if you’re on the West Coast. Timey-wimey, indeed!

Let’s run through this sale, which has some recent items and not so recent items. If you’re looking at a series page, keep an eye on the prices, which are a little all over the place this week. Yes, even within the same series.

That said, here are some things we found interesting:

  • Action Comics – The Warworld sequence in Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 – Phillip Kennedy Johnson / Daniel Sampere / Riccardo Federici; Mongul baits a trap for an ailing Superman in a darker than usual tale that has a little Spartacus in it; Under most radars, but quite good
  • The Flash Vol. 1: Strange Attractor – Si Spurrier / Mike Deodato, Jr.; Flash is recast as a cosmic horror book as Grodd tries to pierce the veil between dimensions and all is NOT well in the Speed Force; (Also maybe read Beast World first, as there’s an interlude that’s VERY confusing otherwise and also not part of the main story)
  • The Human Target – Tom King / Greg Smallwood; A noir mystery with the bwa ha ha Justice League as suspects… that’s still noir while servicing the bwa ha ha ha elements? Yes, it is. And Smallwood gets special praise, too
  • Justice League: Last Ride – Chip Zdarsky / Miguel Mendonca; $1.99 – cheap
  • Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth – Jack Kirby; Kirby’s riff on Planet of the Apes yielded a more fully realized world of animal men, is a ton of fun, and was his most successful DC work in the ’70s. Sure, Darkseid is bigger now, but not in the 70s.
  • Nightwing – The series page has the excellent Tom Taylor / Bruno Redondo series buried at the end, so let’s simplify it. The ones on sale are  Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4
  • One-Star Squadron – Mark Russell / Steve Lieber; A biting satire of the gig economy as Red Tornado tries run a hero-on-demand app. (Hey, Luke Cage is busy being mayor, so somebody had to step up.) Recommended
  • Prez: Setting a Dangerous President – Mark Russell / Ben Caldwell; When the vagaries of the Electoral College place the subject of a viral social media video in the White House, all hell breaks loose. Yes, this is from ’15. No, it hasn’t gotten less relevant since then. Also… the line about how one should select a VP is killer
  • Sandman – Neil Gaiman and a rotating cast of artists; You’ve probably heard of this one
  • Shazam! Vol. 1: Meet the Captain! – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; In another of their Justice League warm-ups (collect them all), Waid & Mora do us all a favor and start steering Captain Marvel/Shazam back towards the original tone and concepts of the feature; Emphasis on pure fun
  • Shazam and the Monster Society of Evil – Jeff Smith; That’s right, the man behind Bone updates the classic 1940s Monster Society serial from Captain Marvel Adventures. It’s Jeff Smith, so you should have a decent idea what it’ll be like
  • Superman – Josh Williamson / Jamal Campbell; The current Superman series is a much needed and well executed return to the classic Superman format that was missing for a few years
  • Superman: Camelot Falls – Kurt Busiek / Carlos Pacheco; Superman encounters a prophecy fingering him as the agent of the apocalypse
  • Swamp Thing – Ram V. / Mike Perkins; The origin of the new, current incarnation of Swampy… and his family problems
  • Swamp Thing by Rick Veitch Book One: Wild Things – Rick Veitch / Alfredo Alcala; The entire series is on sale, but Veitch’s “restored” run is a more recent collection
  • Titans Vol. 1: Out of the Shadows – Tom Taylor / Nicola Scott
  • Titans: Beast World – Tom Taylor / Ivan Reis / Travis Moore; The recent Event was definitely a Titans story and you kinda have to love a character named “Dr. Hate” who resembles Dr. Fate. For all practical purposes, you should treat this as Titans V.2.
  • Wonder Woman  Vol. 1: Outlaw – Tom King / Daniel Sampere; An Amazon is fingered for murder and the situation spirals out of control amidst a possible coverup. As Wonder Woman is declared an enemy of the state, Amanda Waller and Sarge Steel lie in wait
  • World’s Finest: Teen Titans – Mark Waid / Emanuela Lupacchino; Much like “regular” World’s Finest, this is an early tale of the Silver Age original Teen Titans and traffics in fun

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

X-Men '97  Avengers  Immortal Thor

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

Dropping This Week

Pre-Order for Next Week

Unannounced Sales

Hellboy  Martha Washington  Minor Threats

It appears that Dark Horse has most of their collected editions on sale, but not the newest material and not the single issues.  Here’s a link that will *eventually* get you through their catalog in a very laborious way and with the single issues mixed in. (It’s not perfect, but we’re trying.)

Here are some direct links to various series:

Under the radar alert: you don’t hear about this much anymore, butThe Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century is a Frank Miller / Dave Gibbons collaboration with a different tone than Miller’s commonly associated these days. It’s a lot closer to Halo Jones than it is to Sin City or the later Dark Knight volumes.

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