Tag: Thor

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Batman (at good prices); Thor; Black Widow; Hawkeye; Blue Book

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC’s big Batman sale has REAL discounts. Marvel slashes prices on Thor, Black Widow and Hawkeye. Plus, an unannounced Blue Book sale from Dark Horse.

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 Batman Sale

The DC Batman Anniversary Sale runs through Monday, 4/8.

Yes, this is the big one. Most of the collected editions are on sale and at good prices. You see $2.99 at DC and it’s time to pull the trigger, so tell your friends.

Let’s try and make things a little easier list and light some highlights of the various series included in the sale:

Batman Special Batman: The War of Jokes and Riddles  Batman '89

What’s good? That depends on what flavor of Batman you like. It seems the caped crusader is flexible and has had different tones over the years.

Do you like the 90s Event era where the Batman family of books crossed over?  Most of those collections are $2.99/$3.99. Here’s a cheat sheet for that (we have a soft spot for No Man’s Land):

Prefer the mid-to-late 80s era? Starlin/Aparo or Grant/Breyfogle? Those collections are running $3.99/$4.99.

“The Caped Crusader” branded volumes collect the Batman issues and start here

“The Dark Knight Detective” branded volumes collect the Detective Comics issues and start here.

We’re also going to call out a few things that are a hair more expensive, but normally have a much higher price point:

Jan Hammer?

Thor - The Wrath of Odin  Thor by Walt Simonson  Thor Road to War of the Realms

Marvel’s Thor Sale runs  through Monday, 4/1.

Pretty much the full Thor line, with the caveat that the Marvel Masterworks volumes are not on sale, so that trend from recent months continues. Which is to say, Epic Collections are your friend.

As per our custom, here’s the breakdown by series/volume:

  • Journey Into Mystery ’52-’66 – The earliest Thor stories from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
  • The Mighty Thor ’66-’96 – From Lee & Kirby until the relaunches started
  • 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 omnibuses across all the relaunches here
  • Thor ’20 to ’23 – The current 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).

The current Al Ewing Immortal Thor gets a big thumbs up from us… but it’s too recent to be on sale yet, alas… or perhaps “fie!”

Of 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 omnibuses, 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.)

We also like to go back to the original Lee/Kirby. Not too early. We’d say stay closer to where it changed from Journey Into Mystery to Thor. The first year of JIM was a little rough. The Wrath of Odin  Epic Collection is a good chunk of prime Lee/Kirby Thor and also features the first time Jane Foster was elevated to godhood, since it turns out to now be foreshadowing.

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.)

These Ex-‘s Aren’t From Texas

Black Widow  Hawkeye  Black Widow by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee

The Marvel Black Widow & Hawkeye Sale runs through Monday, 4/1.

That’s right. These two used to be an item.

First, the Natasha highlights:

There are two Black Widow Epic Collections that collect what were largely guest or co-starring spots (with a couple notable exceptions) through the early 80s.

Flash forward to 2004 and the highlight of a series of miniseries was a pair written by Richard K. Morgan with an art rotation of Bill Sienkiewicz, Sean Phillips and Goran Parlov. (!) Conveniently collected in a single volume.

A decade later, the team of Mark Waid & Chris Samnee (a known quantity) did their own Black Widow run. Predictably, another highlight. (Also conveniently collected in a single volume.)

Shortly after that, the Eisner winning Black Widow run of Kelly Thompson and Elena Casagrande kicked off. Yes, we enjoyed this run, too… and were kind of thinking there might be a follow up, but we haven’t seen one yet.

As for Mr. Clint Barton, let get it out of the way.  While there’s some debate to how well it fits into continuity, the series that towers above all other is Hawkeye by Fraction & Aja: The Saga Of Barton And Bishop. That would be the extremely quirky and beloved “Hawk-guy” series featuring Pizza Dog.

A bit further down on the listing page are two volumes of “Hawkeye and the Thunderbolts.” Mark Bagley is your lead artist and this covers the transition from Kurt Busiek to Fabian Nicieza as writer, while Hawkeye was leading the group.

If you want some older Hawkeye, there are a couple Epic Collections:

Unannounced

Blue Book

It has come to our attention that Dark Horse has placed Blue Book V.1: 1961 by James Tynion IV and Michael Avon Oeming on sale. “True stories of UFO abductions.”

 

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Thor, Cable & Berger Books

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel has discounts on a LOT of Thor titles, and Cable, too. Dark Horse favors dropping the price on the Berger Books line.

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):

Hammer Time

Marvel’s Thor Legacy Sale runs  through Tuesday, 3/21.

As per our custom, here’s the breakdown by series/volume:

  • Journey Into Mystery ’52-’66 – The earliest Thor stories from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
  • The Mighty Thor ’66-’96 – From Lee & Kirby until the relaunches started
  • 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 omnibuses across all the relaunches here
  • Thor ’20 to present – The current Donny Cates run with Nic Klein as the primary artist

Of 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 omnibuses, 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.)

We also like to go back to the original Lee/Kirby. Not too early. We’d say stay closer to where it changed from Journey Into Mystery to Thor. The first year of JIM was a little rough. The Wrath of Odin  Epic Collection is a good chunk of prime Lee/Kirby Thor and also features the first time Jane Foster was elevated to godhood, since Jane is a big topic right now. It’s also a $6.99 Epic Collection note: the Epic Collection prices vary a bit and the newer ones a little more expensive, so keep an eye on that and compare with the Masterworks editions.

Thor by Jason Aaron   Thor by Walt Simonson   Thor - The Wrath of Odin

No, This is Not a Spectrum Sale

The Marvel Cable Sale runs through Tuesday, 3/21

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

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 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.

Cable   Cable & Deadpool   Cable

Karen Sale

The Dark Horse Berger Books Sale runs through Monday, 3/20.

As you may recall Berger Books is Karen Berger’s imprint. Karen basically was Vertigo at DC. Berger Books is a combination of new material and pulling in a few of the old DC titles. For example:

Air is a pre-Ms. Marvel series by G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker that ran at Vertigo awhile back. It’s an odd book about a flight attendant, terrorists, dimension hopping, missing celebrities and all manner of conspiracies. It’s a fun one that didn’t get the run it should have at Vertigo and we sure hope there’s a continuation.

Along those lines, Incognegro by Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece is the excellent tale of a New York-based reporter passing for white, in order to investigate accusations that his brother murdered a white woman in Mississippi… as the lynch mob assembles. In this case, there was a continuation. Technically a prequel. Incognegro: Renaissance has cub reporter Zane Pinchback investigating a murder in 1920s Harlem.

Air   Incognegro   Incognegro: Renaissance

Something totally new from the line? Seeds by Ann Nocenti and David Aja is a striking book. This one blends a lot of disparate elements: an extra-terrestrial occupation, ecological terraforming, terrorism, forbidden love and… well, you get the picture.

The Seeds

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Spider-Man, Thor, Daredevil, Hercules, Vertigo and Mike Mignola

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, the Vertigo catalog (or what’s left of it) is on sale, plus Spidey, Thor, Daredevil, Hercules and the Dark Horse works of Mike Mignola.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

“Where is the alleged dead man, sir?”

The DC/Vertigo eBook Sale runs through Monday, 8/8.

Yes, we just had to break out that quote from the old “Man in a Suitcase” show because Vertigo gets an awful lot of sales for an imprint that’s supposed to be defunct.

Let’s break down the highlights of titles involved here:

  • Preacher – Garth Ennis / Steve Dillon (TV version was on AMC)
  • Hellblazer – The original run (TV and Film as “Constantine” and the Fox TV version was better than it gets credit for)
  • Lucifer – a Mike Carey/Peter Gross series (TV version on Fox, then Netflix)
  • Lucifer (’18 version) – Dan Watters/Max Fiumara/Sebastian Fiumara
  • Y – The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan/Pia Guerra/Jose Marzon, Jr. (TV version was on FX on Hulu)
  • The Losers – Andy Diggle/Jock (film)
  • Sweet Tooth – Jeff Lemire (TV version on Netflix)
  • DMZ – Brian Wood/Riccardo Burcchiell (TV version on HBO Max)
  • iZombie – Chris Roberson/Mike Allred (TV version on CW)
  • Stardust – Neil Gaiman/Charles Vess (Film, though that was probably from the novel)
  • Fables – Bill Willingham/Mark Buckingham (primary artist)
  • Fables: The Wolf Among Us – video game adaption
  • Unwritten – Mike Carey/Peter Gross
  • The Invisibles – Grant Morrison and rotating artists
  • 100 Bullets – Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso
  • American Vampire – Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque
  • Scalped – Jason Aaron/R.M. Guera
  • Daytripper – Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon
  • Animal Man – ’88 to ’95 version
  • We3 – Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (amazing this isn’t a movie yet)
  • Books of Magic (’18 version) – Kat Howard and Tom Fowler are the most frequent creators
  • The Wake – Scott Synder/Sean Murphy
  • Northlanders – Brian Wood / rotating artists
  • Global Frequency – Warren Ellis/rotating artists (we liked the TV pilot, but it wasn’t picked up)
  • Transmetropolitan – Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson

A lot of TV/film activity for a “dead” label, eh?

You can pretty much “pick your poison” with this sale.  That said, the 12-issue sized Preacher collections for $5.99 are a pretty good deal.  Same deal for the $5.99 double volumes of Y: The Last Man.

Preacher   Y the Last Man

Catches Your Money Just Like Flies

August’s “Marvel Monthly Sale” is The Spider-Man 60th Anniversary Sale, which runs through 9/5.

Yes, it cracks us up that the monthly sales always end in a different month.

This one is a little different from the last big Spidey sale in that it isn’t just Amazing Spider-Man it’s a 330-item selection across various titles.  They’re also using that scrolling carousel format on the main sale page that makes this a lot easier to parse.

A few ideas?

We always liked the Brand New Day  era of teams shuttling in and out for story arcs (it was all carefully coordinated) and you had all the usual suspects involved: Mark Waid, Dan Slott, Zeb Wells, John Romita, Jr., Phil Jimenez, Lee Weeks, etc., etc.

While his Iron Man work is more celebrated and his Amazing Spider-Man work often overshadowed by the artists he worked with, David Michelinie had a pretty good and lengthy run, much of which is in Epic Collections.  You can start with Venom, which feature art from some guy named McFarlane.

And coming in from left field, while Marvel Team-Up was usually the third wheel Spidey title, we’ve got a lot of love for the Chris Claremont/John Byrne era of it. After their Iron Fist run and leading into their X-Men run… which a little bit of mutant mayhem here and there.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day x Amazing Spider-Man - Venom x Marvel Team-Up

You Were Expecting “Brave Ulysses?”

The Marvel Thor: Tales of Asgard Sale runs through Thursday, 8/11.

This is an odd sale. Not _all_ of Thor, but mostly because only parts of the original ongoing title are on sale. Epic Collections, yes. Masterworks, not so much.

The sale presentation leads with Thor by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection and these not-quite Epic-sized large collections are a good value at $6.99. We also think this particular set of collections eliminates the problem of “what order do I read this in?” one gets when the story flips between titles.

You really can’t go wrong with $3.99 for the *actual* Thor: Tales of Asgard, which is a collection of the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby “Tales of Asgard” backups from Journey Into Mystery and Thor. 300 pages worth.

And for an off-the-radar pick, it’s been forever since we notice Thor: Godstorm, which was a Kurt Busiek/Steve Rude mini-series back in the day. We seem to remember liking it and Rude always shows the love on Kirby properties, too.

Thor by Jason Aaron x Thor: Tales of Asgard x Thor: Godstorm

He Doesn’t Get Along with Amazons…

The Marvel Hercules Sale runs through Monday, 8/8.

Your “classic” solo Hercules would be the “Prince of Power” era pair of miniseries by Bob Layton, now in once volume.

If you want something totally under the radar, we enjoyed the short lived Dan Abnett/Luke Ross run where Herc sobers up and attempts to get serious about his trade.

Hercules: Prince of Power   Hercules

DD Found His Discounts

Marvel has a Daredevil: The Man Without Fear sale running through Thursday, 8/11.

Last week, this sale was listed, but there weren’t any discounts on the books.  This week, the discounts arrived.  And this is a WEIRD sale with multiple collections of the same material and different formats with different discounts.

The real meat of the Marvel Knights era of Daredevil (what this mostly seems to be) is a set of two runs that blend together: Brian Bendis/Alex Maleev, followed by Ed Brubaker/Michael Lark.

Your best value for the Bendis/Maleev run is the 3-volume Daredevil by Bendis and Maleev Ultimate Collection towards the bottom of the page, here.

You’ll find the Brubaker/Lark volumes discounted over here, toward the bottom of the page.

And as we said last time, Daredevil: Love’s Labor Lost is the only thing currently reprinted from the Denny O’Neil run the bridged that gap between Frank Miller’s two stints. The rest of it isn’t even on Marvel Unlimited.  This is the tale end of that run, featuring art by David Mazzucchelli, who’d started 9 issues earlier. It’s worth a look, if the discounts show up (and we don’t know why the rest of this era is buried).

Daredevil

They Like Mike

The Dark Horse Mike Mignola Sale runs through Monday, 8/15.

Yes, you might say Mignola’s important to Dark Horse.

Your core Mignola experience is going to be Hellboy, but you probably already knew that.  It’s wonderful and the omnibus line is the way to go.

While it does suffer from the “hardcover pricing for digital” problem, the Lobster Johnson Omnibus is still cheaper than getting the single volumes. It’s a rotating creative cast and a rotating tone from farce to pulp thriller, but we’ve found the adventures in the 1930s Hellboy-verse highly entertaining.

And, of course, the primary companion piece to Hellboy is B.P.R.D., the first arc of which is in omnibus editions here. There are some false starts, but one the “Plague of Frogs” arc properly starts up, your creative team is Mignola/John Arcudi/Guy Davis and it’s a helluva ride… pun intended.

However… you know how sometimes unexpected things show up in a sale (we’ll see how long it takes them to correct this after the column goes live)?  How about three issues of Captain America?  Yes, issues #286, #287 and #288. That’s a J.M. DeMatteis/Mike Zeck Deathlok storyline.  As it happens, one of the best arcs… but we’ve no idea what it has to do with a Mignola sale.  $0.99 a pop, if you’re inclined.  There are a lot of random Marvel single issues scattered throughout this sale if you page through it.

Hellboy   Lobster Johnson   BPRD - Plague of Frogs

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Kieron Gillen’s Marvel Work (Eternals, Loki, X-Men); Original Sin; DC’s 2K Title Drop with Sandman, OMAC and Manhunter; Bloom County; Umbrella Academy

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we’ve got discounts on Kieron Gillen’s Marvel work – Eternals / Uncanny X-Men / Journey Into Mystery / etc.; Marvel’s Original Sin Event; another big block of DC collections, including Sandman; IDW cuts the prices on some classic newspaper strip collections; and we couldn’t really have a new season of Umbrella Academy without a sale on the original material, could we?

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

Journey into Gillen

The Marvel Kieron Gillen Sale runs through Monday, 6/27.

We find it really sad that a “Marvel” Gillen sale does not include our two favorite works of the bunch: Darth Vader and Doctor Aphra.  Yes, there will other Star Wars sales, but if you’re talking Gillen, that’s what we’d put at the top of the heap.

So let’s start out with a cleaner recap of the major items in this sale:

  • The Eternals with Eric Ribić.  $0.99 single issues only and the collected edition is NOT on sale for reasons known only to Amazon and/or Marvel.
  • War Hammer 40,000: Marneus Calgar with Jacen Burrows
  • Journey Into Mystery (i.e. Loki) with Doug Braithwaite and Richard Elson (among others) – omnibus editions
  • Uncanny X-Men – omnibus editions
  • Young Avengers with Jamie McKelvie – omnibus edition
  • Thor with Billy Tan / Richard Elson / Doug Braithwaite – omnibus edition
  • Iron Man with Greg Land / Dale Eaglesham / Joe Bennett / Luke Ross

What’s good?  This one’s going to be more personal preference than with many sales and to that end, we’d point out that we did read the War Hammer volume and it felt like that’s a book you’ll get a LOT more out of it if you’re a gamer.  (But if you’re already into War Hammer, you’ll probably love it.)  Past that, Journey Into Mystery is where Gillen really popped onto the Marvel radar, Young Avengers is the familiar team of Gillen/McKelvie and Gillen’s Mr. Sinister in Uncanny X-Men definitely has had influence.

Journey Into Mystery   Young Avengers   Uncanny X-Men

Casting the First Stone 

The Marvel Original Sin Sale runs through Monday, 6/27.

We’d probably call this a one book sale – Original Sin is a big Event by Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato. Someone’s killed the Watcher, dirty secrets are bubbling up from everyone’s past and… more would get into spoilers.  There are a few tie-in volumes also listed, but our recollection is that the tie-in volumes are not really necessary. While this is often the case with Events, it might be even more so here. Proceed with tie-ins only if they’re scratching an itch for you.

Original Sin

When they say “Multiverse,” they mean “Infinity”

The DC Multiverse and Beyond eBooks Sale runs through Monday, 7/4.

This is another entry in the new DC trend of dropping ~2000 collections without much noticeable curation, so you can pick through it at your leisure. Lowest prices are $4.99, but most non-YA doesn’t get below $5.99.

With the Netflix adaptation looming a little over a month away, they’re leading this sale off with Sandman.  And it’s certainly a classic series. The question is whether it will dip below $5.99 when the show drops and we don’t have an answer for that. DC’s been holding the line at $5.99 for most of their sales in the last couple months.

Of possible interest from the more recently published volumes (DC does wait awhile before applying discounts):

Jack Kirby’s OMAC: One Man Fighting Corps is listed at $5.99. If you’re not familiar with it, OMAC is a surprisingly subversive dystopian take on a future where billionaires/corporations are running amok. There are superhero trappings, but it’s really a science fiction adventure/satire.

And for something else out of left field in a good way, $5.99 will get Manhunter: The Deluxe Edition. This collects the Detective Comics serial by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson. An absolute classic run, it’s not as mainstream well-known because the Paul Kirk character wasn’t continued in his own title (for obvious reasons). It’s just an excellent stand-alone tale by two legends of the art form.

Sandman   OMAC   Manhunter

Where’s My Umbrella?

The Umbrella Academy Sale runs through Tuesday, 6/28.

Why yes, there’s a new season on Netflix and we might even start on that tonight. Funny how sales line up with such things…

This one’s a lot easier to define: it’s a series by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba about an extremely dysfunctional family of superhumans who are more than a little scarred by their adoptive upbringing.  One series link for the collected editions and no fuss.  Good comic, too. We enjoyed it.

Umbrella Academy

Those Things in the Newspaper

The IDW Newspaper Classics Sale runs through Thursday, 6/30.

And by classics they mean comic strips.  In this case, we’re looking at:

Academia Waltz   Bloom County   For Better or For Worse

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Comixology Sales: War of the Realms, West Coast Avengers, Tynion’s Early Batman and Critical Role

This week in Comixology sales, Marvel drops a discount on War of the Realms and West Coast Avengers, DC offers up samplers of the “Rebirth” era, Dark Horse spotlights Critical Role… and don’t forget that Saga sale is still in effect.

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

A little heads up here – as you may have heard, Comixology has been saying that their website will be absorbed into the Amazon website since… September?  The date of the switchover has been pushed back. A lot. But we’ve been hearing around the water cooler that it should be any day now and we’re honestly not sure whether or not it’s going to flip over between now and February 1st.  Maybe it will and maybe the changeover will get pushed back again.  If you get redirected to Amazon, that’s why we’ve been putting the Amazon links for the sales in.

This Means War

The Marvel War of the Realms Sale runs through Sunday, 1/30 (Amazon link)

Yes, the Thor Event.  What you get depends on how you want to read it.

For deep background, the Thor of the Realms anthology will give a selection of stories from Lee/Kirby, Walt Simonson and other. This falls under “classic material.”

Thor V.2: Road to War of the Realms by Jason Aaron and Mike Del Mundo is the lead-in to the actual event, so starting there would also be appropriate.

And then there’s finally War of the Realms, the actual Jason Aaron/Russell Dauterman Event mini-series wherein Malekith invades Midgard after conquering the rest of the ten realms.

You get through that and want more, there are plenty of spin-offs available.

Thor of the Realms   Thor Road to War of the Realms   War of the Realms

Turn Left (Coast)

The Marvel West Cost Avengers Sale runs through Sunday, 1/30. (Amazon link)

We can sum this one up very easily.  Much more easily than most sales. Get the Epic Collections.  “How the West Was Won” has the original Roger Stern/Bob Hall limited series and then jumps into the Steve Englehart/Al Milgrim ongoing series. The Epic’s take you through the beginning of the John Byrne run, so when you get to “Vision Quest,” get that and stop. (Unless you don’t like Byrne, in which case stop before that.) The next Epic Collection, “Darker Than Scarlet,” has been released, but is too recent to be on sale.  If we have learned one thing, it’s that it _will_ be on sale, so exercise a little patience there.

Avengers West Coast

X’d Out

The Marvel X-Force Legacy Sale runs through Thursday, 2/3. (Amazon link)

We have a clear favorite run of X-Force: The Rick Remender era. A dark era, to be sure, but the X-Force concept was supposed to be a little dark. The best way to pick that run up is to scroll down to the Omnibuses section and grab the two “X-Force by Rick Remender” volumes.

If you want something a LOT different, you can opt for the much loved (a little too popular to be “cult”) Peter Milligan/Mike Allred version, which is farcical take on the team.

X-Force   X-Force

When One Birth is Not Enough

The DC Rebirth eBook Sale runs through Monday, 1/31. (Amazon link)

This would be the deluxe editions of the Rebirth era DC titles, which contain the first two “normal” volumes of those titles.

The creative star of Rebirth, as far as we’re concerned was the relaunch of Wonder Woman under Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp and Nicola Scott. A repositioning of Diana’s origins after the New 52 version (an excellent story, but perhaps better suited to the Elseworlds line), this one has Diana probing her origins and why Paradise Island has disappeared.

While the Tom King Batman was the sales star of Rebirth (and it’s here), we honestly like the James Tynion IV / Eddy Barrows Detective Comics run better. It’s really a sort of Batman Family title as Batman taps Batwoman to assemble Gotham’s vigilantes into more of a cohesive unit in the face of a mysterious force targeting the younger heroes.

We also thought the Dan Jurgens / Patrick Zircher / Tyler Kirkham Action Comics run was a lot more fun than it got credit for.  Let’s be brutally honest: DC hasn’t really been able to find a take on Superman to stick with since New 52 dropped.  This one was a throwback to the tone of late 80s through mid-90s Superman and worked well for what it was… until that ridiculous Jor-El plot got inserted into it towards the end of the run.

Wonder Woman   Detective Comics by Tynion   Action Comics

Game Night

The Dark Horse Critical Role & Vox Machina Sale runs through Monday, 2/7. (Amazon Link)

This would be the *cough* D&D-like comics exploring the backgrounds of the characters from the extremely popular podcast.  Does that make it the story within the story?  Um, maybe?

Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins combines the previous two volumes into a single edition.

Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins — Jester Lavorre chronicles the early years of Jester Lavorre… as if you couldn’t guess by the title…

Critical Role   Critical Role - Jester

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Comixology Sales: Thor, Deadpool, 70%+ off at DC (and Batman), plus Image Horror

This week in Comixology Sales, there’s pretty complete run of Thor on sale and DC’s still over 70% off on many of their graphic novels.  Plus Deadpool and Image’s horror line is on sale for Halloween.

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

Bringing the Thunder

The Marvel Thor: Massive God of Thunder Sale runs through Sunday, 10/17.

This is pretty much Thor on sale up and down all the various titles for ~60-67% off per volume and some $0.99 single issues.  The sale page is incredibly poorly organized, so we’ll walk you through the titles and point to some better stuff.  Our rule of thumb is that Epic Collections and Marvel Masterwork editions are the best values. We like Epic’s a little better, but the Masterworks are published in the right order, so pick your poison.

Thor starts in Journey into Mystery. Fair warning, the earliest issues can be a little rough as they figure out the format. As Lee and Kirby lock in, it improves greatly, but the first Masterworks’ worth is for completists.

As we all know, Journey into Mystery changed the title to Thor, and just as things were getting interesting. You’re good with the initial Stan Lee / Jack Kirby (the Mangog and Galactus sequences are particularly good circa #154 – 169). Fine when John Buscema tags in for Kirby, but then opinions vary quite a bit when Stan exits.  What everyone agrees on is then when Walt Simonson shows up, it’s the best Thor since Lee/Kirby.  The “Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson” set of books is more complete than Thor by Walter Simonson, FYI. Visionaries has the end of the run.

Journey into Mystery   Thor: To Wake the Mangog

We’ll ignore Heroes Reborn, and then the new Thor series is an extended run written by Dan Jurgen with John Romita, Jr. as the initial artist.

The  next volume starts out with a good run by J. Michael Straczynski and Olivier Copiel, then has Keiron Gillen popping up around a Siege tie-in and then starts the Matt Fraction / Pasqual Ferry run.  It’s a pretty good volume.

As we enter the Relaunch Era of Marvel, Fraction/Copiel gets a new #1 as it relaunches as The Mighty Thor. Note: Comixology (and Marvel) have some weird housekeeping at the final act of the Fraction run, Everything Burns, is collected all by itself.

Thor by Dan Jurgens   Thor by JMS   The Mighty Thor   Everything Burns

This is when Jason Aaron popped on board. First with Thor confronting The God Butcher and then Jane Foster’s time as Thor. This is a funky one to keep track of by individual titles, but Marvel has a Thor by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection that simplifies things quite a bit.

Which leaves us with the current  Donny Cates/ Nic Klein run.  And that’s the nickel tour of Thor.  That sale page is pretty jumbled up.  This is where you’ll find your $0.99 single issues.

Thor by Jason Aaron   Thor by Donny Cates

Rare “Good” Discounts at DC

The DC Fandome Sale marches on through Monday, 10/18. It’s in two links: Part 1 and Part 2. It’s a disorganized batch of titles, but very good discounts for DC in the ~69%- 75% off range.  Very good discounts for DC.  Last time we looked at oddities and value buys. This time we’re going to look at some the stuff with higher list prices where you’re saving more actual dollars.

One of the very best Batman runs was the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers era.  Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart contains that Detective run, the much later Dark Detective miniseries and basically all the Batman Englehart wrote. 452 pages, 74% off.

All-Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever is the 70s Justice Society run (All Star Comics and Adventure Comics) in one large volume. Gerry Conway and Paul Levitz are your writers. The art line up is most associated with Joe Staton, but Keith Giffen and Wally Wood are notable here.  449 pages, 74% off.

Marv Wolfman once told us his favorite work was Night Force. You may not have heard of it, but that’s why we’re here. It’s time travel horror caper of a comic about a mansion in Washington D.C. that’s a portal into time and the mysterious Baron who lives there.  Gene Colan does the art. Yes, it’s the Tomb of Dracula crew back in the saddle at a different publisher.  Really good stuff and this edition collects the original 14-issue run.

Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart   All-Star Comics  Night Force

More Halloween!

The Image Horror Sale runs through Monday, 11/1.

And Image has a lot of horror. It was one of the beneficiaries when DC made the questionable decision to throw Vertigo to the curb.  A few things that bubble to the top of our list:

We’re in the bag for Killadelphia. Rodney Barnes and Jason Shawn Alexander serve up a neo-noir horror thriller (with great punchlines sprinkled in here and there) about father and son detectives trying to head off a vampire takeover of Philly.  That’s the non-spoiler version. It’s much darker and intricate than a spoiler-free description can describe.  Highly recommended for Halloween.

Dracula, Motherf**cker! by Alex de Campi and Erica Henderson is… an experience. And we mean that in the best possible way. Think a ’70s exploitation era crime film with vampires. Dracula is in LA and not everyone is happy about it. An absolute tour de force for Erica Henderson, too.  She really catches that early 70s vibe and sets a unique tone you should see for yourself.

Kill or Be Killed is Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips spinning a tale of a young man at war with the Russian mob who’s either possessed by a demon or insane. Which is it? That would telling, but a superior and creepy entry in the Brubaker & Phillips library.

Killadelphia   Dracula, Motherf**cker!   Kill or Be Killed

Deadpool or Treat

The “Marvel Deadpool World’s Greatest Sale” runs through Sunday, 10/17.

Let’s translate that for you – it’s the 2015-2017 Deadpool series that’s on sale. It’s called Deadpool: World’s Greatest on Comixology, but the actual covers just say “Deadpool” with the Fantastic Four’s “World’s Greatest Comics Magazine” tagline above the logo in sardonic fashion.  Were you go to the actual series page for the comic and scroll down to the Omnibuses section, you can save a small amount by getting it in that format.  As it the case with most of the sales this week, the sale page is a jumbled up mess.

Deadpool: World's Greatest

Still On Sale

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Comixology Sales – Jason Aaron gets the discount spotlight from Marvel, plus Black Hammer

This week’s Comixology sale highlights include Marvel putting the spotlight on Jason Aaron, plus Jeff Lemire’s and Dean Ormston’s Black Hammer.

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

Jason Aaron’s Spotlight Begins

The Marvel Jason Aaron Sale runs through Thursday, 7/1.

Perhaps best described as the regular Marvel U Jason Aaron, this covers a lot of territory.

If you want a value buy, there’s the nice thick volumes of Thor by Jason Aaron: The Complete Collection, which starts with the “God Butcher” material and features art by the likes of Nic Klein, Ron Garney, Esad Ribic and Russell Dauterman (among others) as the saga unfolds and Jane Foster moves to center stage.

There’s also the entire “Life and Death of Conan” run by Aaron and Mahmud Arsar from Conan the Barbarian, now in one volume.

And quite a bit more, since Aaron’s had a long run at Marvel.

Thor by Jason Aaron   Conan the Barbarian

Ultimate Aarons?

The Marvel Ultimate Universe  Sale runs through Sunday, 6/27.

You already know about the original flagship titles of the Ultimate run, so let’s look at a couple things from a bit later in the universe from names you might just find familiar.

How about Ultimate Captain America by Jason Aaron (him again?) and Ron Garney, which we enjoyed back in the day.

And before was the X-Men showrunner, Jonathan Hickman had a run on Ultimate Comics – The Ultimates with Esad Ribic as the primary artist. Most people would consider that an interesting creative pair, we think.

Ultimate Captain America   Ultimate Comics - The Ultimates

Getting Hammered

The  Dark Horse Black Hammer Sale runs through Monday, 6/28.

This critical darling by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston is very much a world building experience.  Start with the core series and then branch to the spin-offs as the spotlighted characters catch your fancy.  There’s plenty of imagination to go around.

Black Hammer

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales – Marvel Still 50% off with Captain Marvel, Thor, Darkhawk, Carl Barks, Don Rosa, The Question, All-Star Squadron and Atomic Robo

This week in Comixology sales, Marvel’s still half off for Comixology Unlimited subscribers with stackable discounts on Captain Marvel, Thor and Darkhawk that makes them awfully CHEAP. Plus some DC Classics highlights, Atomic Robo and Disney Ducks.

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

50% off Marvel for Comixology Unlimited Subscribers

That’s right, if you’re a Comixology Unlimited subscriber, you get 1/2 off all Marvel comics (except subscriptions and bundles) through 11pm ET on Monday, 4/19. Unusually, this includes _current_ comics. It also includes pre-orders. Click here to see the release week view for Marvel. You can move forward, week-to-week and pre-order at 1/2 off through the end of June.

And yes, that CU discount stacks on top of the sales, so some of those Captain Marvel and Thor collections are a rock bottom $1.50. We think that qualifies as cheap.

Kree Goodness

The  Marvel Captain Marvel World’s Mightiest Hero Sale runs through Sunday, 4/18. It’s predominantly made up of three runs:

Captain Marvel   Captain Marvel   Ms. Marvel

The Once and Future Thor

The Marvel Jane Foster Sale runs through Thursday (Thor’s Day), 4/22. This would encompass the three titles Jason Aaron has written with Jane.

It starts with Thor by Aaron and Russell Dauterman.

It’s Marvel, so of course there was a relaunch, and it emerged as The Mighty Thor, still with Aaron and Dauterman as the primary creators.

After the Thor runs were over, Jane becomes Valkyrie as written by Aaron and Al Ewing with Cafu as the primary artist.

Thor   The Mighty Thor   Valkyrie

Not Nighthawk

The Marvel Darkhawk Sale runs through Sunday, 4/18.

Darkhawk Classic is the original run by Danny Fingeroth and Mike Manley.

For something a little different in the Darkhawk vein, there’s Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Round Robin. Darkhawk teams up with Spidey, Punisher, Moon Knight, Nova and Night Thrasher (yes, it’s the ’90s) in the titular tale from that collection from the Michelinie/Bagley era of Amazing.

Darkhawk Classic   Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Round Robin

DC Single Issues That Haven’t Been Collected

The DC Classics Sale runs through Monday, 4/19 and it’s broken into 5 sections:        Graphic Novels, Single Issues I, Single Issues II, Single Issues III and Single Issues IV

Last week, we looked at graphic novels in this sale. This week, we’re looking at a few individual series that haven’t been collected into graphic novel format… and in some case might not ever be. They are, however, on sale for 99 cents a pop.

All-Star Comics is the original home of the Justice Society of America. If you’d like some Golden Age material, this is a decent buy. The 70’s revival featuring folks like Gerry Conway, Paul Levitz, Wally Wood and Joe Staton is also on sale.

All-Star Squadron is the Roy Thomas 1940s Justice Society-adjacent series where Johnny Quick, Liberty Belle, Robotman, The Shining Knight and Firebrand step up alongside the usual suspects. There were several artists on this one, but Jerry Ordway’s run was a particular highlight (which spun into Infinity, Inc.).

Legion of Super-Heroes is the “Baxter” run of the title, which is mostly out of print. This will likely eventually get collected. Paul Levitz is the writer with a rotation of artists that includes a bit of Keith Giffen at the beginning and end, with Steve Lightle and Greg Larocque

Plastic Man in this instance is the original Plastic Man by Jack Cole. If you haven’t seen the original, it’s well worth a dollar. There’s a reason it’s considered a classic and the character endures… those it’s very rare for it to equal Cole’s work.

The Question is one of those titles that really should have been collected a long time ago. An absolute classic from the late ’80s with Denny O’Neil, Denys Cowan and Rick Magyar on what’s essentially a hardboiled Zen kung fu romp.  Yes, it’s actually a very philosophical comic and we seldom see its like.

All-Star Comics   All-Star Squadron   Legion of Super Heroes   Plastic Man   The Question

Robot vs. Nazis and Dinosaurs

The Atomic Robo Sale runs through Thursday, 4/22.

This such a fun series, a thinking robot created by Tesla goes on adventures taking on mad scientists, dinosaurs, Nazi’s… you know, the usual suspects. Brian Clevenger and Scott Wegener do the honors.

Atomic Robo

Quack

The Fantagraphics Walt Disney Sale runs through Monday, 4/19.

Sure, there’s some Eurocomics and classic Mickey Mouse, but the class of the sale is the two Duck Masters: The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library  and The Don Rosa Library.

The Complete Carl Barks Disney Library   The Don Rosa Library

 

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: The Joker, Transformers, War of the Realms, Vintage Jim Starlin, Young Avengers and Image gets Romantic(ish)

This week’s Comixology Sales highlights start with a celebration of the Joker. Then Marvel highlights the Young Avengers and Ware of the Realms. Valentine’s Day is over, but we look at what’s notable in Image’s romance sale anyway. Plus, Transformers galore and that the glory that is Dreadstar.

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

The Joke’s on who?

DC’s The Joker’s Greatest Jokes Sale runs through Monday (3/1).

If you’re going to get one “Best of” Joker collection, you’re going to want The Joker: A Celebration of 75 Years. Being a thicker collection makes it more complete, but moreover, we don’t think you can have a “Best of” that doesn’t include the Englehart/Rogers “Laughing Fish” storyline.

For something that doesn’t necessarily come immediately to mind, there’s the Joker arc of Gotham Central, the classic GPD series by Ed Brubaker & Greg Rucka with Michael Lark as the artist for this arc.

There’s a lot more Bat-family material in this one, though we weren’t sure the Joker is integral to (or even appearing in) all the titles in this sale.

Joker: Celebration of 75 Years   Gotham Central

No love for the Old Avengers

The Marvel Young Avengers Sales runs through Sunday 2/28.

Young Avengers by Allen Heinberg and Jim Cheung: The Complete Collection is the original, formative run. And for as short as it actually was, this is a fairly influential comic with everything from the recent Empyre Event to WandaVision on streaming having echoes of it.  Oh, there’s more Young Avengers material on sale, but this is one of the times to start at the beginning.  And yes, Young Avengers: Children’s Crusade is conspicuous by its absence.

Young Avengers

Why can’t The Realms just get along?

Marvel’s  War of the Realms Sale runs through Thursday (3/4).

This was a Thor-centric Jason Aarons event. As a Marvel Event, there were a ton of spin-off mini-series that tied in. Explore those at your leisure, but this War of the Realms is the tentpole series around which the Event revolved.

War of the Realms 

More off-kilter romance

The Image Romance Sale runs through Monday (3/8).

No, Image really isn’t a bastion of traditional romance, but they do have a few things that fall vaguely into that territory.

Twisted Romance is an anthology of, well… twisted romantic tales built around a set of Alex de Campi stories with some prose and shorter comics filling in around them. Notably, there’s some intergalactic space pirate romance with Carla Speed McNeil on the art.

My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies might not be the most romantic title in the sale, but it’s good book. A entry in Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips crime catalog (as consistent a catalog as you’ll find these days), this one concerns murder and mayhem at a high end rehab clinic.  As always, recommended if you have an itch for crime comics.

Sex Criminals is the recently completed Matt Fraction / Chip Zdarsky off-color comedy about a couple who can freeze time when they have sex and use their ability to rob banks.  OK, there’s a bit more to it, but that’s the tried and true tagline.  All but the still-new final volume are on sale.

Twisterd Romance   My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies   Sex Criminals

All Hail Megatron has transformed into an omnibus

The IDW Transformers Sale runs through Thursday (3/4).

IDW has effectively treated the Transformers line as a saga. The original run of that is The Transformers: The IDW Collection series of omnibuses and is probably a good place to start here.

Fans of a certain age might also be interested in Transformers: Classics, which is the original Marvel Comics run.

Transformers: The IDW Collection   Transformers: Classics

Thicker editions

The Dynamite Select Omnibus Sale runs through Sunday (2/28).

Dreadstar Omnibus is the first 12 issues (and story arc) of Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar. Dreadstar was Starlin’s major work between wrapping up the original Captain Marvel / Warlock / Thanos saga and returning to Marvel (proper) for Silver Surfer and Infinity Gauntlet. (Sure, he did some Batman before returning, but Dreadstar is just on another level.) It’s the tale of the last survivor of the Milky Way taking on the corrupt Church of the Instrumentality as a rebel insurgency of sorts. An absolute classic of the first wave of creator owned comics in the ’80s.

The Shadow: Year One – Omnibus is an origin tale for The Shadow and Margo Lane, written by Matt Wagner (who’s done a lot with ’30s era heroes over the years) with art by Wilfredo Torres.

There’s a lot of Red Sonja and Vampirella on sale, too, if that floats your boat.

Dreadstar   The Shadow: Year One

Still on Sale

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