Tag: Wolverine

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Wolverine, Suicide Squad, DC Villains and Red Sonja

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel slaps some discounts on Wolverine, DC’s villains are on sale (with lots of Batman) and Red Sonja chops her prices.

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):

Born to be Bad

The DC Villains Sale runs through Monday, 10/17

The sale page is laid out a little oddly. Batman family titles first, then everything else… including more Batman. (You may have gotten the impression that Batman is popular. We can confirm that.)

Naturally, this is going to make you think of Suicide Squad. Two things you might want to look at:

Azrael V. 1: Fallen Angel – While Denny O’Neil is more strongly associated with Batman and The Question, he wrote a 100 issue run of Azrael. By far, his longest run on a title. This collection has the Batman: Sword of Azrael mini-series, with Joe Quesada inked by Kevin Nowlan on the art. Then you get the first seven issues of that ongoing series with art by Barry Kitson. Remember, Azrael started out as a villain!

Suicide Squad   Suicide Squad Bad Blood x Azrael

Clawing For Deals

The Marvel Wolverine: Weapon X And Other Tales Sale runs through monday, 10/17.

This sale is mostly about the specials, miniseries and b-series over the years. Which is not to say there aren’t some interesting bits.

Weapon X by Barry Windsor-Smith shares the name of this sale and it earns the hype. This is the original origin of Wolverine, but after the Origin books, is now more the origin of his adamantium implants and torture under a shadowy government program.

Wolverine is the original solo adventure/mini-series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller.  Logan heads to Japan and meets his love’s family. And then The Hand show up. Claws, ninjas, and hurt feels ensue, if you want to be reductive about it. It sets the tone for what’s to follow.

Loosely speaking, Kitty Pride & Wolverine was a sequel to the original Wolverine series. Kitty travels to Japan, only to run into ninjas and some folks from Logan’s path. Vengeance ensues. Chris Claremont returns with Al Milgrom

Wolverine: Weapon X   Wolverine  Kitty Pride & Wolverine

Seeing Red

The Dynamite Red Sonja Sale runs through Monday, 10/31.

Our favorite Red Sonja run is the Mark Russell/Bob Quinn run. On one level, it’s an adventure with Sonja trying to save a kingdom from a conquering monarch’s army. On another level, it’s a satire of the tropes involved with such stories… and honestly, you can read it from either angle, which is a little unusual, but enjoyable.

Killing Red Sonja is a Mark Russell / Bryce Ingman / Craig Rousseau series is a spin-off of the Russell/Quinn main series.

And for those comics from the old school perspective, the Roy Thomas/Frank Thorne 70s comics are collected in The Adventures of Red Sonja, with the Savage Sword of Conan material collected in The Further Adventures of Red Sonja.

Red Sonja   Killing Red Sonja  The Adventures of Red Sonja

Plus, all the Halloween sales we’ve talked about the last two installments are still running. (See below for quick links or hit the homepage and scroll down.)

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Men, Wolverine, Hawkeye and Batman

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel brings the mutants – Hickman era X-Men and Jason Aaron’s escapades with Wolverine. Plus Hawkeye and the DC “Hot 100” sale which has a lot of Batman to it.

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):

Let’s Put the X in Hickman

The Marvel X-Men From Dawn to Reign Sale runs until Thursday, 9/8.

And gosh golly, if that sale’s name isn’t an awful lot of contortion to avoid saying the Hickman showrunning era.  For those coming in late, Jonathan Hickman was a sort of creative director of the X-line for a very productive period. He wrote a few and gave guidance on the other titles. After the Inferno series, he moved on to other things when the rest of writers expressed interest in working with the current status quo a bit longer. Hickman had planned on moving on to the next phase of a longer story arc he’d mapped out, so… perhaps he’ll return to that at some point?

This is one of those sale pages where someone (it isn’t clear if it’s Marvel or Amazon) is trying to do us all a solid and separate out things, dividing things in to sections or tiers with scrolling carousels. We approve of the effort.

The first tier, “The Krakoa Era Begins Here,” is the spine of the era: the Hickman core, if you will.  You need to start with House of X / Powers of X, which establishes the new status quo.  You then continue into the Hickman-penned X-Men flagship title.  All the X-titles eventually flow into two events: first X of Swords (which is more of an Exaclibur story) and finally Inferno ends the era, at least in terms of Hickman’s writing and overall role.  So yeah, when they say “Krakoa Era,” they’re again dodging Hickman’s name and it kind of amuses us how awkward that is.  Hox/Pox is the beginning of the Krokoa era, sure enough. The rest? That’s stretching definitions.  So if you get everything listed in this tier you’ll get the “story of the universe” of the X-Men comics of that era. (Mind you, despite how comic book marketing works these days, “the story of the universe” is not the end-all/be-all of reading enjoying.)

This sale is on the collections of the individual titles (as opposed to the Dawn of X and Reign of X collections), so that lends itself to chery-picking. Do we have opinions on this? Of course, and we ended up liking some of the titles on the periphery best.

Hellions by Zeb Wells and Stephen Segovia is a demented delight. A dark, snarky and occasionally violent series that finds Mr. Sinister pulling the strings on a wetworks squad of broken toys (Psylocke, Havoc, Nanny, Wildchild, etc) to clean up some of his… side projects.

Way of X by Si Spurrier and Bob Quinn is about Nightcrawler and Legion trying to head off the re-emergence of Onslaught, but Nightcrawler trying to reconcile his religion with Krakoa’s resurrection protocols and his efforts toward synthesizing a mutant religion really steals the scenes.

S.W.O.R.D. by Al Ewing and Valerio Schiti is the cosmic title of the bunch. The mutants have been proactive establishing a space station to house an agency to protect Earth against extraterrestrial threats… and that’s before they establish Arakko on Mars. Cosmic adventures and more than a little political intrigue & deception.

Hellions by Zeb Wells   Way of X   S.W.O.R.D.

You’re Not Yourself, Have a SNIKT!

The Marvel Wolverine by Jason Aaron Sale runs through Monday, 8/29.

This can pretty much be narrowed down to two titles:

Wolverine by Jason Aaron collects several titles, including the end of the ’03 Wolverine, Wolverine: Manifest Destiny, Wolverine: Weapon X, Spider-Man & Wolverine and the ’10 version of Wolverine.  And yes, towards the end of the run is when Aaron sends Wolverine to Hell. Lots of artists over the course of this work, including Adam Kubert, Ron Garney and Howard Chaykin.

Wolverine & The X-Men is the post-Schism run where Logan heads back to Westchester to run the Jean Grey School. Aaron writes, the artists most associated with this run are Nick Bradshaw and Chris Bachalo (with some early Pepe Larraz towards the end).

Wolverine by Jason Aaron   Wolverine and the X-Men

Hawkguy

The Marvel Hawkeye Sale runs through Thusday, 9/1.

When people think of Hawkeye, they usually start thinking about the iconic and quirky Matt Fraction / David Aja run. Lucky you, Marvel’s put the whole thing in one volume as Hawkeye by Fraction & Aja: The Saga of Barton and Bishop.

Hawkeye Epic Collection: The Avenging Archer is the old school option. This has the original Iron Man appearances, some Avengers, some Marvel Team-Up, the original solo mini-series and so forth.

If you’re in a Kate Bishop mood, you’re probably looking for the Hawkeye run by Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero.

Hawkeye   Hawkeye   Hawkeye

Is That a Radio Format?

The DC Hot 100 Sale runs through Monday, 8/29.

It’s somewhat random set of DC books on sale this week.  Predictably, there’s a lot of Batman in there.

You want something good from the last couple years?  We highly recommend Batman: The Adventures Continue by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini and Ty Templeton. It’s a continuation of The Animated Series and it’s first rate Batman. Highly recommended if you have a fondness for the cartoon.

If you want something a little older No Man’s Land was probably our favorite Batman Event of the 90s. The first volume (of the regular set, not “Road to,” even has some work by Bob Gale. We’re always happy when he does some comics! The premise is Gotham has been cut off from the mainland by an earthquake. Things have gone a little feudal and the various villains are setting themselves up as warlords in various neighborhood as Batman and friends try to keep things under control until the situation improves. If you’re thinking this sounds a bit like the DMZ series, you’re not imagining things… but No Man’s Land came out ~5 years earlier.

The most recent book in this sale is the Mattson Tomlin/Andrea Sorrentino Batman: The Imposter.

Batman: The Adventures Continue   Batman: No Man's Land   Batman: The Imposter

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Comixology Sales: Wolverine and the X-Men, Watchmen, Doctor Strange, Doomsday Clock, Avengers and Grendel

This week’s Comixology Sales include Marvel dropping the price on Wolverine and the X-Men, Doctor Strange team-ups and alternate versions of the Avengers. DC discounts Watchmen and Doomsday Clock, while Dark Horse slashes prices on Grendel.

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

Strange Bedfellows

The Marvel Doctor Strange Team-Up Sale runs through Thursday, 12/16. (Amazon link)

Hmmm… you’d think there was a movie about that or something? At any rate, this is an odd set of books and Stephen Strange isn’t exactly at the center of much of them. Are there a few we like? Yes. Yes, there are.

As we’ve said before, Tom “I just signed an exclusive with DC” Taylor and David Lopez do a wonderful job with All-New Wolverine.  That would be X-23 / Laura, not Logan, but it’s a genuinely fun book and their run hits all over the emotional spectrum by the end.  Plus, not unlike Spidey, there’s a bunch of clones.

Another thing that stands out are a couple of volumes of Marvel Two-In-One from the Mark Gruenwald/Ralph Macchio era of the title.  Project Pegasus,  with George Perez, Sal Buscema and John Byrne along for the ride, has Ben Grimm running security for a super villain lock-up, but all is not as it seems.

The Serpent Crown Affair with George Perez, Jerry Bingham and Ron Wilson is a sprawling adventure as The Thing teams with Stingray, Triton, Scarlet Witch, Spidey, Quasar and Doctor Strange as Roxxon (and their catspaws, The Serpent Squad) try to get their hands on the Serpent Crown in a sequel of sorts to the Avengers storyline. This is the better-priced, if shorter, of the two Thing volumes.

All-New Wolverine   Project Pegasus   The Serpent Crown Affair

Snikt and Friends

The Marvel Wolverine & the X-Men Sale runs through Sunday, 12/13. (Amazon link)

This sale is pretty straightforward: the Wolverine & the X-Men run written by Jason Aaron with Nick Bradshaw and Chris Bachalo as the main artists.

Wolverine and the X-Men

Alternate Avengers

The Marvel Avengers of the Multiverse Sale runs through Sunday, 12/12. (Amazon link)

We’re so glad they didn’t call this “Avengers of the Metaverse.”

Our favorite of this selection of Avengers incarnations is definitely Avengers Forever. This collection of a twelve issue series by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern and Carlos Pacheo is one big epic about the war between Kang and Immortus… with callbacks to the Kree/Skrull War, as Rick Jones summons up a team of Avengers from throughout the timestream to save him from Immortus.

The Ultimates seems to be a love it or hate it book. This Mark Millar/Bryan Hitch title is a reimagined Avengers for Ultimate Marvel line (as Ultimate Comics was originally called). This time around it’s the government assembling the heroes and the heroes are a little rougher around the edges. A very influential run, especially for the film division. You can go ahead and get Ultimates 2 if this floats your boat, be we’d advise against Ultimates 3.

Avengers Forever   Ultimates

Watchmen and Spinoffs

The DC Spotlight: Watchmen & Doomsday Clock Sale runs through Monday, 12/13. (Amazon link)

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is one of the most famous comics of the last 40 years. Technically, Marvelman/Miracleman preceded it as a post-modern deconstruction of superheroes (and Moore’s Captain Britain was heading in that general direction), but this is title that gets the credit for that particular mid-80s revolution. It’s a milestone and basically part of cultural literacy at this point.

Now… for the rest of the sale…

Here at the Tower of Cheap, we don’t really take a kind view of the cash grab nature of some of the Watchmen brand extensions. (Pardon us for using the marketing department’s lingo, but we feel it’s the reality of the situation.) Oh, there’s A-list talent involved, but we’d have preferred it if things were left well enough alone.

That said, Doomsday Clock might be of interest to some. This was the Geoff Johns / Gary Frank attempt to bring the Watchmen into the DC Universe and set up the next era of storylines. Those grander ambitions did not quite come of, partially due to how behind schedule the single issues were.  We enjoyed the first… maybe 2/3 of it, but didn’t think they nailed the ending. Lovely art, but you’d expect nothing less from Frank. So put this one down as a partial recommendation with reservations.

Watchmen   Doomsday Clock

Not Beowulf

The  Dark Horse Grendel Sale runs through Monday, 12/13.

Grendel is a very old school indie comic character/saga that goes back to the early ’80s… and is still going. Matt Wagner started the saga back at Comico with an assassin anti-hero. It grew to include new characters taking up the mask and mantle. It grew a little more to reveal Grendel is a sort of spirit of violence and aggression that possesses hosts over the years. And it becomes a science fiction epic as it goes on. Wagner is the writer and guiding force. Sometimes he draws, sometimes its other folks like the Pander Brothers or Tim Sale

This is one of the rare instances where the sale page is laid out well and easy to navigate. Here’s what you need to know:

  • Grendel Omnibus V. 1-4 are the core story. Definitely start with V. 1, which is the original Hunter Rose character across the years.
  • Grendel Tales Omnibus is the tribute album series – other creators doing… Grendel tales.
  • Grendel: Behold the Devil is collected in Grendel Omnibus V. 1, so don’t get it twice
  • Grendel: Devil’s Odyssey is the the most recent series (wrapped up in July) and the $0.99 single issues are the cheapest way to get it.

Grendel Omnibus

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Comixology Sales: Wolverine, Joker, Avengers, My Hero Academia, Hellboy

This week’s Comixology sales include Marvel throwing the mutant gate open for Wolverine and Excalibur, plus New Avengers. DC puts the spotlight on The Joker. Dark Horse drops a discount on Hellboy and Viz has a My Hero Academia sale.

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

The Best at What He Does

The Marvel Wolverine Legacy Sale runs through Sunday, 11/14.

We’re not entire sure when Logan became “Legacy” Wolverine, instead of just “Wolverine,” but this is a sale on the original material.  Some highlights:

Here’s the original ’88-’03 series. Yes, it’s probably best known for the Larry Hama/Marc Silvestri run, but we’d draw your attention to the “Basic to Basics” Epic Collection, which has a nice arc by Archie Goodwin & John Byrne AND includes Wolverine: The Jungle Adventure by Walt Simonson & Mike Mignola.

From the reboot that followed, we’ll offer two more recommendations:  Wolverine by Greg Rucka is a low-key, ditch the costume, anti-hero run by Rucka, Leandro Fernandez and Darick Robertson that doesn’t get talked about as much.  Wolverine: Enemy of the State is much better known. Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. drag Logan through the wringer with a brainwashing by The Hand and Hydra, it also features the debut of Gorgon. The polar opposite of the Rucka run, this is the high octane action movie version.

Wolverine: Back to Basics   Wolverine by Greg Rucka   Wolverine: Enemy of the State

I’ve Got To See a Man About a Sword

The Marvel Excalibur Sale runs through Sunday, 11/7.

We’ve said it before, but when it comes to Excalibur (and Captain Britain, for that matter), you want to look for the stories where Alan Davis is involved – artist or writer, it doesn’t matter. He’s there for the best.  If you pop over to  the original series, the Epic Collections of The Sword is Drawn and The Cross-Time Caper cover the Chris Claremont/Alan Davis collaboration. Skip ahead to Curiouser and Curiouser to start the Alan Davis writer/artist run and then finish that run with V. of Excalibur Visionaries: Alan Davis.  All that Davis goodness will keep you out of trouble.

Excalibur

Bendis Assemble

The Marvel New Avengers Sale runs through Sunday, 11/7.

Brian Bendis revamped Avengers as New Avengers as stayed on it longer than some people realize. Nearly 100 issues worth across two volumes of the title… and that’s before the specials, aligned miniseries and so forth.  That’s a pretty long run. As you might expect, lots of artists passed through the run. Steve McNiven and David Finch early on. Frank Cho, Mike Deodato, Jr.,  Leinil Francis Yu – all sorts of A-listers.

The simplest way to read this is with New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis: The Complete Collection, which pulls in some of the spin-off material, specials and minis.  Otherwise, it can all get a little complicated to keep track of.

New Avengers by Bendis

The Joke’s on You

The DC The Joker’s Greatest Joke’s Sale runs through Monday, 11/8.

And no, The Joker doesn’t appear to be in EVERY comic that’s on sale here. We don’t get it, either.  But what we will tell you is if you want a single volume Joker anthology, The Joker: 80 Years of the Clown Prince of Crime – Deluxe Edition is a bit under 1/2 the price of the 75 year collection at the top of the sale and has ~40 more pages. And Mad Love is included!  Listed at 441 pages, this is a good bang for your buck.

For something recent, there’s The Joker War Saga. This would be the James Tynion IV Batman saga, but with the tie-in issues included.  Alas, the discount is based on HC pricing, but that’s how it goes with DC’s system.

And for something  a little more off-beat, there’s Superman: Emperor Joker by Joe Kelly, Jeph Loeb, Doug Mahnke and Ed McGuinness.  This is essentially House of M, five years BEFORE House of M. Superman awakens trapped in Arkham Asylum as the Joker has somehow gained the ability to remake the world in his own image and rule over it as Emperor. It’s a slapstick world of dark humor and Superman has to figure out how it has happened before he can do much about it.  An odd and influential story arc we’ve always liked.

The Joker: 80 Years of the Clown Prince of Crime   Joker War Saga   Superman: Emperor Joker

Go Straight to Hellboy

The Dark Horse Hellboy Sale runs through Monday, 11/8.

The centerpiece of the Mignola-verse and occasional film franchise, the core of Hellboy is collected in 2 places: The Hellboy Omnibus collections and Hellboy: The Complete Short Stories. (scroll down to the Omnibus section for both)

There’s plenty of material filling in around the edges, but you should read the core first. It’s great fun.

Hellboy   Hellboy: The Complete Short Stories

School for Super Heroes

The  Viz My Hero Academia sales runs through Sunday, 11/7.

This Kohei Horikoshi manga is the tale of a high school for superheroes in a world where 80% of the population manifests super powers.  Yes, it’s one of the those weak Viz 29% discounts, but if you want to get a look at one of the most popular comics out there (it really performs outside the Direct Market), it’s on sale right now.

My Hero Academia

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Comixology Sales: Wolverine, Venom/Carnage, (Solo) X-Men, Justice League, Spawn and Cursed Pirate Girl

This week in Comixology Sales, Marvel discounts Wolverine’s demise and the solo X-Men adventures, DC cuts the Justice League pricing, we have a look at some under-the-radar Image titles in their large Fall sale and… Cursed Pirate Girl!

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

Dead Again

The Marvel  Death of Wolverine Sale runs through Sunday, 10/3.

Spoilers: he gets better.

This sale is pretty straight forward. If you want the full Event experience, Death of Wolverine: The Complete Collection gets you a little more bang for your buck.

Death of Wolverine

Mutants Without Partners

The Marvel X-Men Solo Series Sale runs through Thursday, 10/7.

This would be a collection of some of the mini-series and otherwise short lived titles featuring the various members of the X-family off on their own.

Of the set, Legion (or Legion: Legacy as it’s sometimes referred to) by Si Spurrier and Tan Eng Huat is probably the one with the most lasting influence.  You might also be interested in a bit of Chris Claremont.  Everyone once in a while, Marvel will give him the greenlight and this 2014 Nightcrawler series drawn by Todd Nauck is one of those.

Legion   Nightcrawler

Symbiotes

The Marvel Venom-Carnage Sale runs through Sunday, 12/17.

Gosh, it’s like there was a movie out or something…

The Venom saga starts with this Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection. That puts you in the David Michelinie/Todd McFarlane era of the book.

Maximum Carnage isn’t the first appearance of Carnage, but it’s the BIG story arc where Carnage really gets the spotlight, a few years after Venom debuted.

Amazing Spider-Man - Venom   Maximum Carnage

Justice over the Years

The DC Spotlight: Justice League Sale runs through Monday, 10/4.

This is one of those mezzanine level, 50% off sales that are becoming the norm for DC.  What’s on sale?  A whole bunch of Justice League, naturally.  And the older single issues are $0.99, so make sure it’s not cheaper to get single issues than the collected edition. (It’s usually cheaper to get the collected edition if it’s on sale, but not always.)

The original Justice League of America run is here.  You can get the first 41 issues or so in collected editions and another batch in the #80s-#90s, but this is mostly a single issue affair.  We always thought the Steve Englehart/Dick Dillin era was Peak JLA: #139-146; 149-150. The Gerry Conway/Dick Dillin/George Perez era that followed has it’s fans, too.  Conway was on the title a looooooong time.

For an oddity, long before he was doing Deathstroke and Vampirella, Priest did a run on Justice League Task Force. A title you really don’t hear the name of very often. The cleanest place to start (darn those pesky cross-overs) is probably #17, which Mark Waid writes and Priest pops back in with the next issue.

For pure Bang For The Buck, it’s hard to beat Justice League Quarterly. The ’90-’94 series is eclectic as all get out for creators (see for yourself) and it’s 70+ pages for $0.99/pop.  Definitely cheaper getting the single issues on this one. If you see a creator lineup you like on an issue, it’s cheap!

The more recent material is also available, but we figure you’re already familiar with that.

Justice League of America   Justice League Task Force   Justice League Quarterly

Hidden Treasure From Image

The Image Fall Reading Sale runs through Friday, 10/15.

Normally, we don’t recommend $20+ digital collections… but we’ll make an exception for Spawn Compendium V.1 because it’s a 50 issue collection and that comes out to roughly $0.48/issue, which is as cheap as it comes.  Spawn’s pretty hot right now and this is a good way to see how it started. Todd McFarlane is even penciling Spawn before Greg Capullo and Tony Daniel enter the picture. Plus all those early guest writers like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman.

Speaking of things that are hot right now, Kyle Higgins seems to have a hit on his hands with Radiant Black, but not that many people remember his previous indie superhero vehicle, C.O.W.L. Co-written by Alec Seigel and drawn by Rod Reis concerns a labor union for superheroes in ’60s Chicago.

Spawn Compendium x C.O.W.L.

The Monolith, written by Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray and illustrated by Phil Winslade is a comic that was originally published by DC, with the rights having returned to the creators. (Do not say that last part around the Marvel legal offices this week. Someone might get alarmed.) A troubled young woman discovers golem in her basement in this one. A very angry golem who thirsts for revenge. It’s something you may not have heard of and we’re saps for Phil Winslade’s art.

Another lesser-known series by a now more prominent creator is twenty-seven by Charles Soule and Renzo Podestá.  Yes, Soule is on the prolific side. This one explores why all those famous musicians die at the age of 27. An occult conspiracy?  That would be telling.

The Monolith   27

Curses!

The BOOM! YA All Day Sale runs through Friday 10/1.

We would draw your eye to a wonderfully idiosyncratic comic: Jeremy Bastian’s Cursed Pirate Girl. We’re not sure we’d necessarily call it YA, so much as living in it’s own space in sort of an surreal Alice in Wonderland kind of way… but with pirates and ghosts.  Such a unique work!

Cursed Pirate Girl

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: Old Man Logan; Ms. Marvel; V For Vendetta; Early Bendis and a LOT of Image Comics

Highlight of this week’s Comixology Sales include Marvel dropping prices on Old Man Logan and Ms. Marvel, DC having an “essential” sale (why yes, that includes Batman) and a ton of Image gets the discount treatment.

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

Ageism For Mutants?!?

The Old Man Logan Sale runs through Sunday, 7/25. If Jennifer Walters finds out they’re calling Logan that at the office, there might be a discrimination suit!

You’re mostly looking at two flavors here: The original post-apocalyptic Mark Millar / Steve McNiven Old Man Logan. While we’d probably call this a variation on Days of Future Past, in terms of the superheroes in a bleak future, this one really was a trend setter and has inspired a lot of imitators. “Old Man” is not an uncommon way to start a title at Marvel these days.

Then you’ve got the ongoing Old Man Logan series, initially by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino. This one brings the older Logan back in time to the present and, frankly, was better than most people were expecting at the time.

Wolerine: Old Man Logan   Wolverine: Old Man Logan

You Look Mahvellous

The Ms. Marvel Sale runs through Thursday, 7/29.

This would be the Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel, as opposed to Carol Danvers, and we’re firm in thinking you need to start with the original G. Willow Wilson / Adrian Alphona series that caused quite a stir (especially on the Scholastic circuit).

Ms. Marvel

Essential Oils Minus the Oil

The DC Essentials Sales runs through Monday, 7/26.

For something relatively current, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed DCeased, the Tom Taylor / Trevor Hairsine / Stefano Gaudiano vehicle where the Anti-Life Equation gets lose and creates a zombie doomsday scenario. What can we say, as he often does, Taylor takes a pitch that sounds like “Marvel Zombies for DC” and creates something new with depth. (Mind you, Marvel Zombies was also a lot of fun for a few installments.)

Going back a bit further, Multiversity is one of Grant Morrison’s best vehicles for sheer world building fun. This one hops dimensions as we follow a conspiracy across the multiverse. And, being that rare self-contained event, Morrison’s got a murderer’s row of artists for the story, including Frank Quitely, Jim Lee, Chris Sprouse and Doug Mahnke.

And if you want to go back to the 80s, Alan Moore and David Lloyd did a project called V for Vendetta that started as a serial in Warrior magazine and finished up at DC. A very political tale of resistance to tyranny, it’s proven influential and was an early hit that crossed over to the mainstream.

DCeased   Multiversity   V for Vendetta

Image HumbleBrag Sale

The Image Eisner Sale runs though Monday, 8/2.

There’s some pretty strong and recent content here, so we’ll just highlight three things we particularly liked.

The Department of Truth by James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds is the real deal. It’s an X-Files-esque tale of conspiracies theories become real and the power of belief. Tynion’s definitely having a moment right now. Simmonds’s art style is a good fit for the material, too.

The team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have also been having a particularly strong run that’s represented here by two original graphic novels. We’d probably put Pulp slightly ahead, that would be the meditative tale of pulp writer in 1930s reliving his wild younger days with a hail of bullets.  That said, Reckless, the opener for a series about an ex-FBI undercover man turned underground fixer, is pretty darn good, too.

Department of Truth   Pulp  Reckless

Image Throws in the Kitchen Sink

The Image Mega Sale runs through Monday, 8/2. It might not be the entire Image library, but it’s close enough. Plenty to browse, but let’s highlight a few things that might not pop to the top of your mind.

Once upon a time, Bendis was not a big name creator. Yes, that really was quite a while ago, but back when he was an emerging writing, Todd McFarlane tapped him to write the Spawn spin-off Sam and Twitch.  Yes, the oddball detectives investigating dark things. Who was drawing it?  Names you’ll recognize: Angel Medina, Ashley Wood, Alex Maleev.  Yes, Bendis and Maleev go WAY back.

Lewis & Clark – Monster Hunters.  That’s the elevator pitch for Manifest Destiny by Chris Dingess, Matthew Roberts and Tony Akins. Lewis & Clark are sent to map out the Northwest Territory, but also to investigate unsettling supernatural questions and clear out the territory of monsters. It starts out light and fun before descending into madness. Usually under the radar, always enjoyable.

The Black Monday Murders by Jonathan Hickman and Tom Coker is a tale of an occult cartel controlling the world’s financial system and the power struggle an apparent murder sets off in it. One of our favorite things from Hickman and Coker knocks it out of the park with some downright haunting art.  Coker occasionally posts pages from his work on the third act, so we’re hoping it’s not too far away from being scheduled.

   Sam and Twitch   Manifest Destiny   The Black Monday Murders

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: Invincible (and The Walking Dead), X-Men, Giant-Size Man-Thing and the DCU

Highlights of the Comixology Sales this week include Robert Kirkman taking a discount victory lap for the debut of the Invincible animated series, X-Men and Steve Gerber’s Man-Thing at Marvel and a DC universe mass sampling event.

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

Foundational X-Men Spin-Offs

The Marvel X-Men Universe Sale runs through Sunday, 3/28.

There’s a lot of X-Men material here, some of which we’ve discussed before, so we’ll look at some ’80s foundational pieces here.

X-Men: Kitty Pride & Wolverine by Chris Claremont and Al Milgrom was a sequel of sort to the Wolverine mini-series and is where Kitty got her martial arts training.

Longshot by Ann Nocenti and Art Adams is the original Longshot/Mojo tale. Nocenti’s having a moment over at Berger Books with The Seeds and… it has been awhile since we’ve seen Art Adams doing extended interior work.

Magick by Chris Clarement with a succession of John Buscema, Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema all finished by Tom Palmer on the art. This was a fairly dark story when it came out: the tale of how Illyana Rasputin was kidnapped to Limbo, taught sorcery by the demon Belasco and emerged as the Magick we know today.

Kitty Pride & Wolverine   Longshot   Magick

Includes Giant-Size Man-Thing (yes, that’s a real comic)

The Marvel Man-Thing Sale runs through Sunday, 3/28… but let’s call this a Steve Gerber sale because his runs on the feature are the prize here.  Gerber being one of the finest writers to grace a comics page.

The original run is collected in Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection.  Yes, these do collect the infamous Giant-Size Man-Thing issues. A third volume isn’t out yet (thus, not on sale) and it even contains the late 80s Marvel Comics Presents serial, so they aren’t kidding about complete.

The Infernal Man-Thing is more recent, a posthumously published tale by Gerber with art by Kevin Nowlan. (!) It’s actually a sequel to “Song-Cry of the Living Dead Man” from the original run (which is included in the book).

Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection is probably Gerber’s signature work. It’s also a Man-Thing spin-off. Here at the Tower of Cheap, we try to avoid non-Gerber Howard the Duck (though we’re quite happy with Destroyer Duck), you need the first two volumes. Past that… it ain’t Gerber.

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber   Infernal Man-Thing   Howard the Duck

 

Across the Multiverse

The DC Explore the Multiverse Sale is split into to parts, A-L and M- Z.  The sale runs through Monday, 4/1.  There’s quite a bit here, so it’s worth and extended browse.  Some of the better material:

Man and Superman (Deluxe Edition) by Marv Wolfman and Claudio Castellini is something of a miracle. It was sitting in a draw at DC for YEARS before someone had the good sense to publish it. There have been several “how Clark Kent came to Metropolis and became Superman.” This is one of, possibly THE best of those.  They’d be well served to make it the jumping off point next time Superman gets reset. Excellent comic and a love letter to the Man of Steel.

Speaking of Superman, you’ve probably heard good things about Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Yuen Yang and Gurihiru. Believe them. This is the top shelf of the Young Adult superhero comics from DC.

If you’d like something rare, Batman Death Mask, the manga by Yoshinori Natsume is one of the few comics DC is discounting over 50%.  60% off is not common for DC these days!

Man and Superman   Superman Smashes The Klan   Batman Death Mask

Everything’s Coming Up Kirkman

The Robert Kirkman Sale Featuring Invincible runs through Tuesday, 5/4.

You might have heard that the Invincible animated series has dropped on Amazon Prime, but this is actually a sale on pretty much all of Kirkman’s Image output.  As always, the “Compendium” omnibus editions are incredible values, particularly Invincible and Walking Dead.  The Astounding Wolf-Man Complete Collection is not quite as good a buy, but you know what?  It still comes out to less than 99-cents per issue and it’s not on sale as often.

Invincible   Walking Dead   Astounding Wolf-Man

 

Still On Sale

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Comixology Sales: Wolverine, Claremont’s X-Men, (Karen) Berger Books and DC’s First Volumes Sale

This week in Comixology Sales, Claremont’s X-Men gets the nod and “Weapon X” means Wolverine is underfoot. We root out some DC Vol. 1s that are more self-contained and find some highlights from Karen Berger’s imprint.

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

Let’s say it’s Chris Claremont-centric

The X-Men Legends Sale runs through Sunday (2/21). It might be a little reductionist to call it a Chris Claremont sale when they’re launching the X-Men Legends comic as a monthly, but… we know what we’re looking at here.

X-Men Forever  is Claremont returning to X-Men and picking up where he left off when he exited the title.  And you know what? It moves with a faster and more deliberate pace than the original Tom Grummett is the primary artist on the run, though Vol. 2 is notable for having some Paul Smith work.

X-Men: Legion – Shadow King Rising is a set of stories featuring Legion and the the Shadow King.  Again, this is largely a Claremont collection and notably includes the excellent Legion sequence from New Mutants with Bill Sienkiewicz.

X-Men: Mutant Genesis is where Claremont got off the airplane, the first time around. It’s the launch of the “adjective-less” X-Men with Jim Lee.

X-Men Forever   X-Men: Legion  X-Men: Mutant Genesis

Wolverine by any other name

Marvel’s Weapon X Sale runs through Sunday (2/21).  Let’s just call it a Wolverine sale, shall we? A couple things stand out here.

Wolverine: Weapon X is the Barry Windsor-Smith serial from Marvel Comics Presents that tales the brutal tale of how the adamantium got into Logan.  You want Weapon X? This is Weapon X. An influential comic.

Wolverine: Weapon X Unbound is the tail end of the Larry Hama/Marc Silvestri run.  Hama had a pretty long run on Wolverine and Silvestri was destined for Image.

Wolverine: Weapon X   Wolverine: Weapon X Unbound

DC’s V.1  sale

DC’s Start Here Sale comes in 2 flavors: Graphic Novels and Single Issues.  DC would probably like you to buy Volume 1 at a discount and keep buying the rest at regular prices. We’re cheap, so let’s talk about some volumes that aren’t the first part of sagas you’ll need another five collections of.

DC’s 1st Issue Specials is an oddball book. In the 70s, it was a sort of tryout book, although the only thing it really launched was Warlord. That said, there are some gems in here. Martin Pasko and Walt Simonson have a stellar Doctor Fate strip.  Jack Kirby has three concepts here that are worth a look. Manhunter actually sorta/presages Englehart’s use of the concept in Justice League, even if Englehart takes the ball and runs in a very different direction.  Atlas would have been an epic fantasy. The Dingbats of Danger Street — your mileage may vary on this one, but it’s an extra goofy updating of ’40s kid gang comics with a little more bite.  This one comes at a good discount, too. It’s not for everyone, but if you’re interested in Bronze Age ephemera or Kirby, jump on it.

Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age Vol. 1 is the original Len Wein/Bernie Wrightson run. It is legendary for a reason.

Green Lantern: Sector 2814 Vol. 1 is another Lein Wein project. This is his Green Lantern run with a pre-Watchmen Dave Gibbons and a pleasant run it is.

DC's First Issue Specials   Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age   Green Lantern

Don’t call it Vertigo (while anybody’s looking)

The Dark Horse Berger Books Sale runs through Monday (3/1).

We’re not saying Berger Books is Vertigo, so much as we’re saying Karen Berger is Vertigo and she happened to switch publishers.  There is a certain throughline to Berger’s editorial work.

Incognegro by Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece is a wonderful mystery/crime comic about an African-American reporter from New York sent to Mississippi in the 1920s to investigate a murder his brother’s been accused of… and he does so by “passing” as a white man.  Excellent book that moved over from DC with Berger. There’s also a second volume if you like the original.

Invisible Kingdom by G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward is conspiracy tale about a religious sect and an intergalactic religion having some backdoor relations when they’re supposed to be at each other’s throats.  It also won 2 Eisner Awards in 2020.

The Seeds hasn’t been out much more than 6 weeks as a collected edition, but the buzz has been building on it.  Ann Nocenti and David Aja construct a strange and eerie tale of a collapsing ecosystem, an anti-tech movement, click bait journalism and aliens who harvest the seeds of dying races. We’re going to have to invoke those pretentious film students you went to college with and say the real star here is the comic’s mise-en-scène.  The non-pretentious phrasing would be atmosphere, but Seeds has so much texture to the atmosphere, it needs the fancy term to really do it justice.

Incognegro  Invisible Kingdom  The Seeds

Still on Sale

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