Tag: Winter Soldier

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Men – The Krakoa Era; Thunderbolts; Winter Soldier

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel puts the Krakoan age of X-Men on sale, plus Thunderbolts and Winter Soldier.

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

The holidays are approaching and that means the sales are likely going to get larger and more numerous, which means we’re probably going to be breaking the weeks into multiple posts from time to time. Since we’ve been getting asked about X-Men sales, here’s the full Krakoa sale and the Thunderbolts sale. We’ll be back at the usual time for DC, Star Wars, Old Man Logan and whatever else turns up. (This would be WAY long if we put in one post.)

Ghosts of X-Mas-Men Past

X-Force  Dawn of X  Sins of Sinister

The Marvel X-Men: The Krakoan Age Sale runs through Monday, 11/25.

If you want to call it the Hickman Era or the HoX/PoX Era, don’t let us stand in your way. We find those names valid.

Let’s talk about the overall arcs and “… of X” editions first. These are the collected editions that approximate reading the Hickman era as single issues. Roughly speaking they cycle through X-Men, Wolverine, X-Force, Marauders, etc. etc.

While this effect dissipates after time, we think this is the better way to read the Hickman X-Men titles. Story elements originally floated between books and their sum was greater than their parts. The order does something like this:

Inferno is the last arc for Hickman before leaving and it fits in roughly after The Trial of Magneto ends, so you can read it somewhere between Trials of X V.3-6.

We’re not as adamant about reading this in issue-to-issue format after Hickman leaves… although X-Force and Wolverine are certainly intertwined at times. Through Inferno, though? Yes. If you do jump off at that point, be sure to add Way of X to your individual title list.

The next “act” of the Krakoa age was “Destiny of X,” but that’s apparently only available in this format in French?

Our recommendations for your optimal Destiny of X reading is clustered around two tracts:

Track One: the Axis of Gillen/Spurrier/Ewing – the writers of the three “big concept” X-titles that eventually converge in the truly X-cellent Sins of Sinster Event that we might even put ahead of the also X-cellent X-of Swords.

These books are:

  • Immortal X-Men by Kieron Gillen / Lucas Werneck; we’d personally consider this the flagship title for the Destiny of X sequence
  • Legion of X by Si Spurrier / Jan Bazaldua / Rafael Pimentel; The explorations of Legion and Nightcrawler’s crews
  • X-Men: Red – Al Ewing / Stefano Caselli / Juann Cabal; Storm’s adventures leading Arakko (Mars) as Ewing keeps a finger in the cosmic side of Marvel

Track two: Ben Percy continues to keep X-Force and Wolverine intertwined in interesting ways, particularly as the long-running saga of Hank McCoy comes to a head.

Pick up X-Force starting with Vol. 5.

Pick up Wolverine starting with Vol. 4.

A mini-series worth mentioning in the “Destiny” period: X-Terminators by Leah Williams / Carlos Gomez manages to be lighthearted with really dark and occasionally off-color humor as Dazzler, Boom Boom, Laura Kinney and Jubilee get mixed up with vampires in the most humiliating ways.

Sabretooth: The Adversary and Sabretooth and the Exiles by Victor LaValle and Leonard Kirk are a pair of horror-edged (see: LaValle, Victor) tales about what Sabretooth was really up to when he was exiled into The Pit, along with the other mutants down there. These took us by surprise and they lead right into the X-Force and especially Wolverine finales.

And for the science fiction fan in your family, New Mutants: Lethal Legion is written by Hugo/Nebula/Locus Award-winner Charlie Jane Anders and drawn by Enid Balám.

Summing this up – while you can definitely go through the sale and pick up the individual titles, we strongly feel there’s an additive effect to reading things in the Dawn/Reign/Trials omnibus format and taking in the universe building. After Hickman exits, that cohesion wanes after a bit and the line isn’t quite as consistent.  And you have to pick up individual titles after the end of “Trials,” regardless. This sale takes you to the end of like for era. There are a few more titles out listed in the sale – the X-line hasn’t been known for brevity in decades – but those are the highlights and the best of the Krakoa era really is top notch.

Thunder. Thunder. Thunderca… Whoops, Wrong Series!

Thunderbolts  Winter Soldier  Taskmaster

The Marvel Thunderbolts Sale runs through Monday, 11/18.

OK, given the upcoming film, this is really a Thunderbolts and Winter Soldier sale. That’s cool. We’ve had a Neapolitan milk stout before.

The Thunderbolts have been through several iterations since they began in ’97, originally having been the Masters of Evil laying the groundwork for nefarious deeds. And yes, there’s a film in the works.

Thunderbolts

The original series was written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by Mark Bagley. Eventually Fabian Nicieza tagged in as writer and Patrick Zircher became the lead artist a bit after that. Alas, these volumes jump around a bit after issue #50. The  omnibus editions are more complete, but aren’t on sale right now.

New Thunderbolts was the ’04-’06 relaunch, and yes, it’s included in the third omnibus of the original. Fabian Nicieza/Tom Grummett is the creative team, here.

This then turns back into (no adjective) Thunderbolts for ’06-’12, starting Nicieza/Grummett and then including runs by Warren Ellis / Mike Deodato and Jeff Parker/Kev Walker/Declan Shalvey

Thunderbolts relaunched for ’12-’14 with Daniel Way and then Charles Soule writing it. The artist rotation included Steve Dillon and Phil Noto.

Jim Zub and Jon Malin were behind the ’16-’17 Thunderbolts run.

’20 saw King in Black: Thunderbolts by Matthew Rosenberg/Gerry Duggan/Juan E. Ferreyra/Luke Ross.

’22 saw Thunderbolts: Back on Target by Jim Zub and Sean Izaakse.

The most recent volume in the sale is Thunderbolts: Worldstrike by Colin Kelly / Jackson Lanzing / Geraldo Borges.

With Thunderbolts, we feel pretty strongly you need to read the first sequence or two and get a flavor for the concept before jumping into the later evolutions.

Winter Soldier

The originating storyline runs in the 2004 series of Captain America by Ed Brubaker and a rotating squad of artists including Steve Epting, Michael Lark, Butch Guice and Mike Perkins. There are a couple omnibuses available, but this doesn’t really have a definitive larger collection like, say, the Hickman Avengers era. We’d probably point you to the Captain America Modern Era Epic Collection: The Winter Soldier volume. It’s a couple bucks more, but it gives you #1-19 straight through and that’s a very good run.

For solo series, the first choice is Winter Soldier by Ed Brubaker, which is Brubaker and Butch Guice in a spin-off.

Also of possible interest:

And two bonus recommendations:

  • Taskmaster: The Rubicon Trigger – Jed MacKay / Alessandro Vitti; A very funny adventure finds Taskmaster blackmailed into doing a job for Nick Fury. Alternately, the Black Widow will likely hunt him down and kill him.
  • U.S.Agent: American Zealot – Christopher Priest / Georges Jeanty; In something of a deadpan political satire, John Walker develops some issues with his handlers when sent to a small town threatened by a corporate entity… if only the optics matched reality. Smart, but you figured that with Priest involved.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Ghost Rider  Amazing Spider-Man

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Force; Winter Soldier; Gillen at Marvel; Kirby at DC

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel drops prices on X-Force, Winter Soldier and the work of Kieron Gillen. DC highlights some deeper cuts in the catalog (and Jack Kirby). Oni may or may not be having a sale.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Paths Less Taken

Far Sector  Omega Men  Orion

The DC Summer Sizzle Sale runs through Monday, 8/26.

And this week, DC’s mix of titles has a LOT of what we’d call “under the radar” books, many of which are featured a little less frequently. Fortunately, this is firmly in our wheelhouse to navigate.

Some highlights:

  • Checkmate – Greg Rucka / Jesus Saiz; Rucka’s take on the intersection of spies and superheroes
  • DC: The New Frontier – Darwyn Cooke’s look at the dawn of the Silver Age isn’t really under the radar, but it’s a truly great comic.
  • Deathstroke – Christopher Priest / Carlo Pagulayan; Missing the Titans crossovers, but this is a smart comic about villain that makes few bones about it.
  • Far Sector – N.K. Jemisin / Jamal Campbell; Superior worldbuilding as a new Green Lantern with an experimental ring investigates the first murder in living memory on a world without feelings. You could count Jemisin’s SF/F awards, but you’d need some time on your hands.
  • Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery – Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely; An even further-out-there delight & Doom Patrol spin-off that, for legal purposes, has NOTHING to do with Charles Atlas ads…
  • Freedom Fighters: Rise of a Nation – Robert Venditti / Eddy Barrows; Just a very well done reworking of the original Freedom Fighters concept. Very under the radar, but we really enjoyed it. (Would work as an Elseworlds or Black Label.)
  • Jonah Hex – Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and an absurd rotation of high end artists; Fun westerns, some arcs, some done in one
  • Omega Men – Tom King / Barnaby Bagenda; Before he blew up, King penned this meditation on line between terrorism and freedom fighters, which is arguably a Green Lantern tale (Kyle Rayner). Often overlooked.
  • Orion – Walt Simonson’s entry in the New Gods saga. We liked it as much as his Thor, which is to say, a lot! Totally under most radars.

Kirby Korner

A good chunk of the King’s DC work is on sale:

Forced Entry

X-Force X-Force X-Force

The Marvel X-Force Sale runs through Monday, 8/26.

Yes, the mutant black ops team, as originally established by Cable (and morphing out of New Mutants). There absolutely have a been a few incarnations and relaunches over the years. Let’s start out with an overview of that:

  • X-Force ’91-’02 – Originally Rob Liefeld & Fabian Nicieza with Greg Capullo tagging in early on. The first edition, if you will.
    • Counter-X: X-Force – From the period when Warren Ellis was showrunning some of the X-titles, by Ian Edgington & Jorge Lucas
  • Uncanny-Force ’10-’12 – Rick Remender and rotating roster of Raphael Albuquerque, Esad Ribic, Jerome Opena, Billy Tan and Phil Noto
  • Uncanny X-Force ’13-’14 – Sam Humphries / Ron Garney / Dalibor Talajic
  • Deadpool vs. X-Force ’14 – Duane Swierczynski / Pepe Laraz
  • X-Force ’19-’24 – Ben Percy / Joshua Cassara / Robert Gill

What’s good? Our top pick is the Remender Uncanny-Force. Black ops and a wide ranging, but complete story unit when taken as a whole. We’re also fans of the Ben Percy / Krakoa era X-Force.  If you want something off-beat, start here for the Milligan/Allred run, which is a satire.

Journey into Gillen

Darth Vader  Journey Into Mystery  Sins of Sinister

The Marvel Kieron Gillen Sale runs through Monday, 8/26.

Yes, has has written quite a bit for Marvel over the years. Our favorites? An absolutely brilliant turn on Darth Vader with Salvador Larocca and his evil Star Wars analogue of Indiana Jones, Doctor Aphra w/Kev Walker. When the glass cracks in his Vader run… well, see for yourself. Great moment.

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

What’s good?  This one’s going to be more personal preference than with many sales and to that end, we’d definitely say Immortal X-Men and particularly Sins of Sinister, which was as good as X-Men Event as there’s been… but needs context from Immortal and the X-line of books. 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.

The Sidekick in Winter

Captain America  Winter Soldier  The Winter Soldier: The Bitter March

The Marvel Winder Soldier Sale runs through Monday, 8/26.

This is a slightly odd sale, in that it encompasses most – but apparently not all – of Ed Brubaker’s Captain America run and then several miniseries and abortive attempts at an ongoing series… including a few creator names you’ll recognize.

The originating storyline runs in the 2004 series of Captain America by Ed Brubaker and a rotating squad of artists including Steve Epting, Michael Lark, Butch Guice and Mike Perkins. There are a couple omnibuses available, but this doesn’t really have a definitive larger collection like, say, the Hickman Avengers era.

Note: if you’re going to read the Winter Soldier saga, you’re going to need Captain America: Reborn, the Ed Brubaker /Bryan Hitch mini-series that wraps up the “Death of Captain America” sequence.

For solo series, the first choice is Winter Soldier by Ed Brubaker, which is Brubaker and Butch Guice in a spin-off.

Also of possible interest:

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Resurrection of Magneto  Cable: United We Fall  Avengers: Twilight

The trend returns after a short break. 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

Possible Oni Sales

OK… you might remember this drill from the distant past. Oni’s had two sales listed for a couple of days. They don’t look like sale prices to us. Maybe that gets fixed at some point, but that’s what we’re seeing at the moment.

Unannounced Sales

Apex Legends  Anthem

Dark Horse has a couple of their video game adaptations showing up discounted:

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Still on Sale

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