Tag: X-Men

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Men and Daredevil (nearly) Full Runs; Batman; Infinity Gauntlet; Usagi Yojimbo

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel puts nearly all the Daredevil and Uncanny X-Men collections on sale. And an Infinity (Gauntlet / War / Crusade) sale on top of that. DC does another installment of their “Epic” sale and Dark Horse slips in Usagi Yojimbo.

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):

X Marks the Price Tag

X-Men Epic Collection: The Sentinels Live  X-Men Epic Collection  X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix

The Marvel Uncanny X-Men Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 3/11.

It’s a legacy sale, so it’s the Uncanny X-Men core… although this may shorter list than some of the legacy sales. For instance,  X-Men wasn’t part of Heroes Reborn, so no relaunch there.

As is our custom, let’s run through the key series included, first:

  • Uncanny X-Men ’63-’11 – The original X-Men, the “new” X-Men, Morrison… it’s a long run.
  • Uncanny X-Men  ’11-’12 – The original Kieron Gillen era
  • Uncanny X-Men ’13-’15 – The Brian Bendis / Chris Bachalo era (Battle of the Atom fits in with this run as a crossover)
  • Uncanny X-Men ’16-’17 – The Cullen Bunn / Greg Land / Ken  Lashley era
  • Uncanny X-Men ’18-’19 – The Mathew Rosenberg era

And you might be asking yourself, “aren’t there usually more than one X-Men title and don’t they cross over a lot?” Yes, that would be a potential issue… pun intended. Not so much with the Epic Collections and the Masterworks as with the later series, and there are some Event collections in the sale, too.

You should know our general advice right now. There’s a slight preference for the value of Epic Collections over Masterworks collections, but it depends on the exact price point and the Epic Collections sometimes have gaps.  That still applies here.  The wild card with X-Men is that it can get impenetrable with continuity and all the characters floating around. You can’t always just jump in.

So, recommendations with that in mind.

If you’ve never tried the original X-Men, we’d say go with The Sentinels Live Epic Collection. It’s at the very tail end of the original run that the original X-Men run is at its best: a bit of Jim Steranko and then a Roy Thomas / Neal Adams sequence that ended all too quickly.

For the “new” X-Men, we’re cool with the theory that Giant-Sized X-Men #1 / Uncanny X-Men #94 through #200 is one big arc. That’s where we’d start if we were new. The Epic Collections that are discounted only take you to #153, at which point you need to start cutting in the Masterworks editions with V. 7 through 12. (The next Epic with a discount only takes you to #198, which is short of the finish line!)

For an alternate jumping on point, perhaps the Ed Brubaker era, which is collected in three volumes starting with Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire.

We thought the Bendis era was better than it’s reputation, but aware that it runs parallel with All-New X-Men, which isn’t in this sale.

If you were wondering, Grant Morrison is filed under New X-Men and not part of this sale.

Also be aware that X-Men: Reload is effectively the omnibus version of Uncanny X-Men: The New Age, where Chris Claremont returned to the book with Alan Davis.

Hornhead

Daredevil  Daredevil Epic Collection  Daredevil by Zdarsky

The Marvel Daredevil Sale runs through Monday, 3/11.

Let’s break this down by series. Like X-Men, Daredevil has had fewer relaunches than some titles.

  • Daredevil ’64-’98 – The original run. Oddly, as we type this up, the Epics are on sale and the Masterworks mostly aren’t?
  • Daredevil ’98-11 – The Marvel Knights relaunch. Kevin Smith / Brian Bendis / Ed Brubaker
    • For the Bendis and Brubaker runs, you want the Omnibus section and scroll down for their respective “Ultimate Collections”
  • Daredevil ’11-15 – This was really two volumes with an arbitrary relaunch in the middle, but the excellent run by Mark Waid / Chris Samnee / Paolo Rivera / Javier Javier Rodriguez is a better buy in this 5 volume set that collects both volumes and treats it like the single run it was.
  • Daredevil ’15-’18 – The Charles Soule era with Ron Garney as the main artist.
  • Daredevil ’19-’21 – Chip Zdarsky’s breakout title as a writer. Marco Checcetto is the primary artist.
  • Daredevil: Woman Without Fear ’22 – Zdarsky / Rafael de Latorre; Sort of a bridge title during the Devil’s Reign event, but part of the ongoing plot. Note: this is included in the final DD omnibus for the ’19-’21 run.
  • Daredevil ’22-’23 – Also known as Daredevil & Elektra. The final act to the Zdarsky/Checcetto era

What’s good here? Honestly, with the exception of the “Shadowlands” Event at the end of the Marvel Knights run, DD has been consistently good to great since Frank Miller showed up. You don’t hear us saying that about every title! We will say that Gene Colan’s return to DD (with Joe Kelly writing) seems to be under the radar these days.  But starting with Miller, just pick a run (Miller / O’Neil / Nocenti / Chichester / Kessel / Kelly / Smith / Bendis / Brubaker / Waid / Soule / Zdarsky) and dig in.

Infinite Jest

The  Marvel Infinity Sale runs through Monday, 3/11.

On the one hand, this sale would seem to be a continuation of last week’s Cosmic sale, which naturally segues into The Infinity Guantlet. On the other hand, they’re throwing in anything else with “Infinity” in the title, so we’re going to have to separate this out a little more than we normally would.

Starlin’s Infinity Saga

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

Alongside those titles, Warlock & the Infinity Watch (Starlin / Angel Medina / Tom Grindberg and others) ran parallel and filled some gaps between Events.

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

Avengers

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

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

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

Sounds Like a Marvel Brand – Week Two

Batman: Venom   Manhunter  Jimmy Olsen

The  DC Epic eBooks Part 2 Sale runs through Monday, 03/11.

This time out it’s a seriously eclectic set of volumes. Occasionally just one or two from the middle of a run.  Some things that jumped out at us?

  • Batman: Venom – Denny O’Neil / Jose Luis Garcia Lopez / Russ Braun;  Long before Knightfall, or even Vengeance of Bane, O’Neil and company did a Legends of the Dark Knight arc to introduce “Venom,” the drug that originally fueled Bane’s strength.
  • DCeased – which they really ought to file together, but don’t. It’s still entertaining stuff (and, of course, the opening volume isn’t included):
  • Fables – Bill Willingham / Mark Buckingham; the first half of the series is on sale (in double-volume format) for the classic tales of fairy tale creatures hiding out in Manhattan after their worlds are overrun by invaders.
  • Freedom Fighters: Rise of a Nation – Robert Venditti / Eddy Barrows – in a world where the Nazis discovered the payload of a certain rocket from Krypton and over-ran the world, the Freedom Fighter form up as the resistance. A vastly overlooked take on the original concept.
  • Manhunter – Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson tell a superb tale of spies, ninjas, clone and a certain caped crusader. One of the best adventure comics of all-time.
  • The Road to Perdition – Max Allen Collins / Richard Piers Rayner – A mob enforcer and his son go into hiding after a betrayal. You may have seen the film version.
  • Superman: The Phantom Zone – Steve Gerber / Gene Colan / Rick Veitch – Leave it to Gerber to come up with a creepy, horror-tinged take on Superman. There are much stranger things in the Phantom Zone that you realized. (Big thumbs up.)
  • Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? – Matt Fraction / Steve Lieber – Jimmy wakes up hungover and married in Gorilla City… and that’s not even the silliest part. One of the funniest comics of the last few years. A+

Rabbit Rabbit

Usagi Yojimbo

We have an unannounced Dark Horse sale on Usagi Yojimbo.

This is Stan Sakai’s revered and long running series about a samurai/ronin rabbit. “Beloved” is a good word for it.

The real bargain is the $6.99 “Saga” omnibus editions.

Filed separately, is the  Saga “Legends” volume, which includes things like Space Usagi.

If you’re in the market for single volumes, those are $4.99… but only for Vol. 8 and higher. (Hey, don’t look at us! We think that’s peculiar, too… but the Saga volumes are a better buy.)

Also Unannounced…

BAKEMONOGATARI

Vertical’s manga series BAKEMONOGATARI is on sale for $3.99/volume (although we can’t tell you where V. 1 went to…)

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Super Sons, Gerry Duggan’s Marvel Catalog; Black Lightning; Spider-Woman; Dark Horse Manga

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts Spider-Woman and Gerry Duggan. DC celebrates “Power” and the Super Sons. Plus, unlisted Dark Horse manga.

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):

Child Welfare Has Questions

Batman & Robin  Superman  Super Sons

The  DC Super Sons Sale runs through Monday, 2/19.

The Super Sons were originally the adventures of Clark Kent, Jr. and Bruce Wayne, Jr. that appeared every so often in World’s Finest from ’73 to ’80 in takes by Bob Haney and Dick Dillon.  When did Superman and Batman have kids? That’s addressed in the final tale. It’s collected in The Saga of the Super Sons.

For post-Crisis (and onward) DC this translates to…

On the Batman side:

  • Batman & Robin ’09-’11 – The Grant Morrison / (initially) Frank Quitely run that ends with the beginning of Peter J. Tomasi / Patrick Gleason
  •  Batman & Robin ’11-’15 – Tomasi & Gleason do another 40 issues.

On the Superman side:

  • Superman ’16-’18 – Tomasi & Gleason swap over to do what’s essentially “Superman & Son”
  • Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent – Tom Taylor / Clayton Henry – Superman’s son grew up (in Space, but now he’s back on Earth)

The current/recent Super Sons:

If you wanted to call this a Tomasi sale, we probably wouldn’t argue with you.

The Evasive Title Sale

The DC Power Sale runs through Monday, 2/19.

Looking at the titles listed, we think this is a Black History Month sale. Is the “Power” in the title supposed to be “Black Power?” Maybe?

So the original headlining black hero in the DC universe is Black Lighting.

The original Black Lightning run is by Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eden. And volume two in that sequence is a collection of the back-up features from Detective and World’s Finest, plus a Justice League of America interlude.

A good Black Lighting value? The 1995 revival by Isabella and Eddy Newell is 347 pages for $3.99.  Plus, we always thought Eddy Newell didn’t get enough love.

Speaking of not getting enough love, Dwayne McDuffie didn’t get nearly the love on the publishing side as he did on the animation side. Especially from editorial. (We’ve heard a few stories…) McDuffie selections:

Also, The DC Universe by Dwayne McDuffie collects several short runs and one-offs… although the price is higher than ideal.

Naomi by Brian Bendis / David Walker / Jamal Campbell is a nominally YA super heroine series about a teen trying to figure out where she comes from. It got a pretty quick (and short lived) TV adaption. We were pleasantly surprised by this one. Hype was real.

With Priest, they’re not putting the full (and excellent) Deathstroke run on sale and it’s not clear the second half of Black Adam will be collected, so we’d point you to his Justice League run with Pete Wood

There’s more here, but that’s the top of our list.  And we wonder if a Milestone sale is set for next week?

Eensy Weensy

Spider-Woman  Spider-Girl  Araña

The Marvel Spider-Woman Sale runs through Monday, 2/19

Except… it’s not just Spider-Woman. It’s Spider-Woman, Spider-Girl and Araña.

We know what you’re asking: where’s Silk? And we have no answer for that.

What do we like out of this? We’re not really current on Spider-Woman, but we can tell you that the original Spider-Woman comic is a deeply weird book. Lots of magic early on. Morgan Le Fey, Werewolf By Night, The Brothers Grim. If you like the more bizarre corners of ’70s/’80s  Marvel for its strangeness, it’s worth a look.

DeFalco & Frenz had around a 12-year run on the various Spider-Girl titles and you don’t see that kind of longevity very often.

  • Araña – Fiona Avery / Mark Brooks

Dig Dugg

Savage Avengers  Maruaders  X-Men by Gerry Duggan

The Marvel Gerry Duggan Sale runs through Monday, 2/19.

It would seem that Gerry Duggan has ignored the usual corporate career advice and let his bosses notice him. In fact, he has been writing a fair amount of comics lately, particularly in the world of X.

Here are the highlights:

What’s good? This may come as a bit of a shock if you haven’t sampled it, but Savage Avengers has a Defenders vibe to it… except it’s Conan’s non-team, not Doctor Strange’s or Nighthawk’s. It’s odd, rambling and fun. The absolute high point? Conan questioning Doctor Doom’s manhood in a thorough dressing down.

The Marauders was one of the more dependable titles in the HoX/PoX era of X-title. This would be Captain Pryde and her pirates.

With Uncanny X-Men, pay special attention to the Pepe Larraz issues. He was hitting a new level.

Manga on the DL

It appears there’s now an unnannounced sale on Dark Horse manga.  Of these, our favorite is the old school classic Lone Wolf and Cub.

Other highlights:

Random Comic Strip Discounts

More random comic strip collections are on the cheap. Not every volume, but scroll through the list and you’ll see a few.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Fantastic Four (all of it); Moon Knight; 90’s X-Men; Devil’s Reign; Cyberpunk 2077

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, practically the entire Fantastic Four catalog is on sale. Plus, Marvel offers discounts on Moon Knight, Devil’s Reign and the world of the 90s X-Men. And, in what seems to be another unannounced sale, Dark Horse presents Cyberpunk 2077.

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):

Four Play

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus    Fantastic Four by Waid   Fantastic Four by Hickman

Marvel’s Fantastic Four Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

So, first let’s break down the various FF titles/volumes on sale

Yes, Fantastic Four has been relaunched less than other Marvel titles.  As to what’s good, the gold standard has always been the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run. (And yes, we do think you can draw a straight line from Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown at DC to Fantastic Four.) We’d say they start to hit their stride a few issues before Galactus shows up – V.3 of the Epic Collections (“The Coming of Galactus“) or V.4/5 of the Masterworks editions and you can ride a very fun train from there to the end of Lee/Kirby.

And at this point, we should talk about the “pick your poison” of Epic vs. Masterworks.  The Masterworks are built out straight into the Byrne era. We think the $6.99 Epic Collections are the best value here, though some of the newer ones are priced higher. The discounted Epics are now a little past the Lee/Kirby era, but stop with #146 and then pick up again after Byrne’s run. Pick the format that works for you and has the issues you’re looking for.

Speaking of Byrne’s run, that’s the next highpoint that everyone agrees on.  How to read Byrne? Well, there are 5 volumes of Masterworks on sale (V. 21-25; note: V. 25 is here and not linked in with the rest of the series) or you can hop on to Fantastic Four Visionaires: John Byrne. You’d need to cut over to the Visionaries run at V. 6 to pick up where the discounted Masterworks leave off.  These comics really ought to be in an Epic Collection, but Marvel doesn’t seem in any hurry to roll the Visionaires up into a more economical package. (Or should we say, economical when it’s on sale?)

Fast forward a bit to the Heroes Reborn era and there is a LOT to love about the Mark Waid / Mike Wieringo run. They brought back the “explorer” vibe from Lee/Kirby era that isn’t always there and upped the sense of wonder. You’d want the four Ultimate Collection volumes that start here. The “regular” collections don’t go all the way to the end.

And then, of course, there’s the the Hickman era. A long storyline that laid the groundwork for his Avengers run and you can certainly argue that his Secret Wars endcap to that is a Fantastic Four / Doctor Doom story. The omnibus editions we highlighted above include his FF spin-off comic that frequently crossed over with Fantastic Four, much like the Avengers titles flowed together. That packaging will be a better experience.

The Light of the Silvery Moon

Moon Knight  Moon Knight Epic Collection   Moon Knight

The Marvel Moon Knight Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

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

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

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

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

Highlights of the rest:

  • Moon Knight ’89-’94 – Most of this is only collected in omnibus form for some reason for the longest running volume. This is largely the Terry Kavanaugh years with Gary Kwapisz and James Fry on art. Possibly more interesting, it also includes a Bruce Jones/Denys Cowan special and a Doug Moench/Art Nichols team-up with Shang Chi.
  • Moon Knight ’10-12 – Brian Bendis / Alex Maleev; Controversial to say the least, this one really leans into Moon Knight’s multiple personality disorder and breaks the character if you prefer the original concept. On the other hand, it’s surprisingly witty and funny. One of the oddest takes on the character.
  • Moon Knight  ’14-’15- Most notable for the style-forward Warren Ellis/Declan Shalvey reworking (introducing the business suit)

Deviltry

Devil's Reign   Devil's Reign X-Men

The Marvel Devil’s Reign Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

Devil’s Reign is effectively a section of the excellent Chip Zdarsky/Marco Checchetto Daredevil run where The Kingpin, in his capacity as Mayor of NYC, declares war on superheroes and organizes his own version of the Thunderbolts to hunt them down. This main mini-series in the main thing you’re looking for, here.

That said, in term of tie-ins, Devil’s Rain: X-Men by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto has a little more, by way of echoes moving forward, than you might expect. It establishes the ongoing relationship between Emma Frost and the Kingpin, which does crop up again further down the line in both the Daredevil and X-Men worlds. Plus, Phil Noto.

Hot Tub Mutant Machine

Wolverine   X-Factor Epic Collection   Generation X

The Marvel 90s X-Men Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

We know what you’re thinking and, yes, this is about the time the X-world got a lot more complicated and Event-heavy.  And this is a pretty eclectic set. What do we recall as the winners from this period?

For X-Men (proper) we’d start with Mutant Genesis, which has the last bit of Chris Claremont’s original run as Jim Lee started to steer the boat a bit more.

For a lot of people, ’90s X-Men is about Onslaught. If you’re in that camp, there’s The Road to Onslaught  and the actual Onslaught Event.

Open things up a little wider and X-Factor pops to the top of the list. The selection of Epic Collections includes the Lousie & Walt Simonson run *and* the delightfully off-kilter first Peter David run (featuring Joe Quesada and Larry Stroman on art duties).

The Larry Hama Wolverine run is also on sale in Epic Collections. A fairly long run, too, and one of the most popular titles of the 90s. Marc Silvestri and Adam Kubert figure prominently on the artist lineup.

Now, a lot of people associate Scott Lobdell with 90s X-Men. If you want to read Lobdell’s best mutant work, that’s Generation X. It’s sort of a new New Mutants, since that title had morphed into X-Force, and we don’t think it’s even close. Chris Bachalo is the originating artist and sets the tone nicely.

There’s a bit more here for you to browse.

A Hugo Winner in an Unannounced Sale

Cyberpunk 2077   Cyberpunk 2077 Big City Dreams  The Nasty

Looks like there’s an unannounced sale on Dark Horse’s Cyberpunk 2077. A video game adaptation with an interesting award to its credit.

The first three collections can be found here.

After which, the property went to the album format Dark Horse sometimes uses for titles with a higher bookstore profile, which are listed with the single issues:

Big City Dreams was the 2023 Hugo Award winner for Best Graphic Story or Comic. And there you have it.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s Superman / Batman / Wonder Woman Pre-Holiday Sale; X-Men; Runaways; Young Avengers; Elfquest

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC starts the holiday sale season with a Batman / Superman / Wonder Woman “Trinity” sale, Marvel discounts all things “Hellfire” (as in X-Men) and “Young Heroes” (like Young Avengers), plus… Elfquest, but not on a shelf.

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):

First, a little housekeeping. If you normally use the Comixology app, you’ve probably heard that Amazon is shuttering it on 12/4. If you haven’t heard that, open the app and it’ll notify you. Comics reading is moving over to the Kindle app.

We have a couple tips/warnings for you about that.

  1. You can force a sync by pressing the “MORE” button at the lower right hand corner of the screen of the Kindle App and selecting “Sync.” Be warned, this is a SLOW process and you might need to press the button several time before a sync really starts. We had had 4 or 5 attempts break before one finally took. A little bit of system overload? That should not surprise anyone. It took us maybe 3 hours before the “real” sync concluded.
  2. In the Kindle App’s library display screen, there is a “FILTER” button in the upper left corner. This is where you can change your view to comics-only, book-only, unread items-only, etc., etc. This is mentioned in Amazon’s update announcement, but we didn’t think they made it quite clear enough. Play with the filter and it will make things a little easier, particularly if you read both books and comics on Kindle. You really want to be able to view those separately.

We have not yet done a two-screen audit to compare what’s in the Kindle with what’s in the Comixology app, but we’re looking to carve out some time for that before the 4th. At first glance it looks OK, but we’ve heard people saying not everything came over (make sure Read/Unread are both off in the filters) and others saying it took multiple syncs, so we’re looking to err on the side of caution.

If you’re already using the Kindle App, this is a non-issue. And, let’s face it, we all knew this would eventually happen from the moment that Amazon acquired Comixology. Honestly, we’re a little surprised they’re still calling the comics section “Comixology” and not something like Amazon Comics.

The Holidays Start Early?

The DC Trinity Sale runs through Monday, 6/20.

Trinity means Superman / Batman / Wonder Woman, over at DC. But that’s not what we noticed.

What we noticed was all the $2.99/$3.99 collected editions, so we’re treating this like the first shot fired on Holiday Sales. (A pre-Black Friday sale? Maybe.) Will there be cheaper prices from DC in the next couple months? Maybe, but they don’t get lower than $2.99 very often, so it would a (pleasant) surprise.

If you’re looking for a “Trinity” title… basically since New 52 dropped, it’s going to be cheap. This sale is worth taking some time to browse.

Here are some mostly less recent things we saw and liked the prices:

Superman

Batman

  • Batman (1940-’11) -We especially like $3.99 “Caped Crusader” (the ’80s run) and $2.99 Ed Brubaker volumes if you scroll down.
  • Detective Comics (1937-’11) – We especially like $3.99 “Dark Knight Detective” (the ’80s run) and “New Gotham” volumes.
  • Batman: Damned – Brian Azzarello / Lee Bermejo; It will go down as infamous for the “bat pole” and the behind the scenes political upheaval it caused.
  • Batman: Death and the Maidens – A Ra’s Al Ghul tale by Greg Rucka / Klaus Janson
  • Batman: Gates of Gotham – Scott Snyder / Kyle Higgins / Trevor McCarthy – early Snyder Batman
  • Batman Universe – Brian Bendis channeling pure fun? Believe it! This is the Bendis/Nick Derington tale that was hidden away in the Walmart comics and we want another volume!

Wonder Woman

  • Wonder Woman: The Golden Age – Early Wonder Woman is strange. Lots of bondage and domination themes. Seriously. ~400 pages for $3.99. Worth getting one cheap to see how off the wall these are.
  • Wonder Woman (1987 series) – Don’t ask us why, but you need to click here and here to get everything. We don’t know why the listings are split like that. Anyway, you can’t go wrong with the George Perez run or the first Greg Rucka run at the end of this series. And be away that V.6 of the Perez run and the War of the Gods collection that isn’t numbered contain the same comics.
  • Wonder Woman (2011 series) – The first six issues by Brian Azzarello / Cliff Chiang / Goran Sudzuka are a top notch story. A little sacrilegious to the character? Probably. Consider it an Elseworlds take, but it’s good.
  • Wonder Woman (2016 series) – You want the first two “Rebirth Deluxe Editions” as Greg Rucka / Nicola Scott / Liam Sharp reset Wonder Woman, post-Azzarello
  • Wonder Woman: True Amazon – Jill Thompson’s Eisner Award winner

Adventures of Superman   Batman Universe   Wonder Woman - True Amazon

Arthur Brown’s Favorite Event

The Marvel Hellfire Sale runs through Monday, 11/20.

Is this a Hellfire Gala sale or a Hellfire Club sale?  Perhaps it’s both?

You have a couple options for the first Hellfire Gala, depending on how many tie-ins you want. You’ve got the ’22 Hellfire Gala.

We definitely enjoyed the Krakoa-era Marauders by Gerry Duggan, Matteo Lolli & Stefano Caselli. That had Captain Kate Pryde and her merry band of mutants patrolling the seas on behalf of the “Hellfire Trading Company” and breaking up the plotting of the original Club’s Black King.

For something something under the radar, Cable: The Hellfire Hunt by a pre-Starman James Robinson and Jose Ladronn putting Cable up against a scheme involving the Hellfire Club and Apocalypse.

Hellfire Gala   Hellfire Gala - Immortal   Maruaders

Somebody Card These Heroes

The Marvel Young Heroes Sale runs through Monday, 11/20.

Technically the “young heroes” title trend at Marvel goes back to Young Allies in the 1940s, but that’s not on sale here.

What is in the sale?

Runaways by  Bryan K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona might be the best title. When six friends discover their parents are super villains, they make a run for it. Vaughan was already writing Y- The Last Man when this came out, but his fame hadn’t reached a critical mass yet and this one isn’t always remembered.

Young Avengers by Allen Heinberg and Jim Cheung is a close second. Notable for introducing Hulking and Wiccan, also with Kate Bishop and Cassie Lang, this is a fun one. Doesn’t hurt that you can get the whole thing in one volume, either.

Another one that’s available in a single volume is the Kieron Gillen / Jamie McKelvie Young Avengers from  ’13. Gillen & McKelvie? You already know if you’ll like it. (They add Kid Loki to the team,  incidentally.)

Runaways   Young Avengers   Young Avengers

Elves Off the Shelves

The Dark Horse 2023 Elfquest Digital Sale runs through Monday, 12/4.

This is elf season, right? These are a different sort of elves. This would be Wendy and Richard Pini’s long running epic fantasy series about a tribe of elves driven from their land by a fire and humans.

The Complete Elfquest is the omnibus series that will take you all the way from the beginning through The Final Quest. It’s a very good value. Don’t look elsewhere unless you’re only missing a couple issues of The Final Quest.

Elfquest: Stargazer’s Hunt came out after The Final Quest and isn’t in the Complete series of omnibuses. Your purchase options here require a little explanation.

The first half of the story is available as  single issues (#1-4) and they’re a little cheaper to purchase this way.  The second half is only available as a graphic novel (V.2 of the series).

Elfquest   Elfquest: Stargazer's Hunt

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Men, DC Black Label, Deadpool, Attack on Titan

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts X-Men and Deadpool. DC drops deals on Black Label. Plus, Attack on Titan and Wonderland.

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):

Paint It Black

The DC Black Label Sale runs through Monday, 11/6.

What is Black Label? Something of a cross between Vertigo and Elseworlds. Stories of DC characters that are… not necessarily in continuity. (We say not necessarily because  things like Batman: The Three Jokers might end up in continuity.) A little more on the mature reader side. Sometimes fantasy or horror that has nothing to do with the DCU.

What’s good? An awful lot of it. A few highlights (and yes, Tom King does do some of his best work for this imprint):

We’re not listing the Spurrier/Campbell Hellblazer because only the first volume is on sale. A oversight we disapprove of for a wonderful comic.

Best o’ the best?

If you’re looking for a Vertigo replacement at DC, direct your attention to The Nice House on the Lake. Tynion and Bueno deliver an excellent SF/Horror fusion series about the end of the world. The bestselling horror comic DC’s seen in quite a while, too.

The Human Target by King and Smallwood is a very unique comic. One part hardboiled noir as Christopher Chance tries to figure out who poisoned him before he died. One part loving homage to the Bwa Ha Ha era Justice League. Amazingly the JL cast is mostly in goofy character, despite popping up in a noir. Quite a feat. Well written and you really can’t say enough about Smallwood’s art.

Rorschach by Tom King & Jorge Fornés is even more unusual than The Human Target. It’s a Watchmen sequel that we actually like and don’t think is a cash grab. OK, it’s not so much a sequel as a tale that takes place in the same universe and in the aftermath of the original graphic novel. It’s a detective story about conspiracy, identity, mythology and… Frank Miller?  Yes, Frank Miller. It’s a keeper.

Nice House on the Lake   The Human Target   Rorschach

Brand X

The Marvel Uncanny X-Men Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 11/6.

It’s a legacy sale, so it’s the Uncanny X-Men core… although this may shorter list than some of the legacy sales. For instance,  X-Men wasn’t part of Heroes Reborn, so no relaunch there.

As is our custom, let’s run through the key series included, first:

And you might be asking yourself, “aren’t there usually more than one X-Men title and don’t they cross over a lot?” Yes, that would be a potential issue… pun intended. Not so much with the Epic Collections and the Masterworks as with the later series, and there are some Event collections in the set.

You should know our general advice right now. There’s a slight preference for the value of Epic Collections over Masterworks collections, but it depends on the exact price point and the Epic Collections sometimes have gaps.  That still applies here.  The wild card with X-Men is that it can get impenetrable with continuity and all the characters floating around. You can’t always just jump in.

So, recommendations with that in mind.

If you’ve never tried the original X-Men, we’d say go with The Sentinels Live Epic Collection. It’s at the very tail end of the original run that the original X-Men run is at its best: a bit of Jim Steranko and then a Roy Thomas / Neal Adams sequence that ended all too quickly.

For the “new” X-Men, we’re cool with the theory that Giant-Sized X-Men #1 / Uncanny X-Men #94 through #200 is one big arc. That’s where we’d start if we were new. The Epic Collections only take you to #153, at which point you need to start cutting in the Masterworks editions with V. 7 through 12.

For an alternate jumping on point, perhaps the Ed Brubaker era (# to # ) which is collected in three volumes starting with Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire.

We assume you already know about the Morrison run.

And if you were looking for the Events that started after #200… well, that’s next.

X-Men Epic Collection: The Sentinels Live   

No, Not the Dirty Harry Film

The Marvel Deadpool Vs. the Marvel Universe Sale runs through Monday, 11/6.

Deadpool has always had a lot of fairly short run titles swapping around at any given time, this is a collection of those secondary titles.

The longest running of the set is Deadpool & Cable, Fabian Nicieza and Patrick Zircher being the team most associated with it. Amusingly, the monthly comic was called Cable & Deadpool, but the character popularity has flipped since then.

Spider-Man / Deadpool also ran 50 issues. Joe Kelly / Ed McGuinness was the early creative team with Robbie Thompson / Chris Bachalo tagging in later.

Deadpool Corps maybe of heightened interest with Rob Liefeld joining writing Victor Gischler for it.

Deadpool & Cable    Spider-Man / Deadpool    Deadpool Corps

Attaaaaaaack of the Killer Tomatoes

The Kodansha Attack on Titan Sale runs through Monday, 11/13.

By cosmic coincidence, this is what we’ve been reading here at the Tower of Cheap. 2/3 of the way through V. 33 as this is being typed.

Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama is a genre-bender and a half. It starts out as more of a horror story with people living inside a barrier of giant walls, besieged by “Titans.” Mindless giants who roam around eating people. And since the technology level in this world is roughly ~1920, there’s a touch of steampunk around the edges. Then some Titans appear who aren’t mindless. As the heroes try to solve the mystery of the Titans, it turns into a political conspiracy. Then the applecart gets turned over and there’s more political conspiracy on a wider scale, Titans as weapons of mass destruction and ethnic cleansings. This one really is something else and is operating on a very wide scale as it wraps up. It goes to some very dark places and doesn’t really back away from them, either.

There are also several spin-offs in the sale.

Attack on Titan

You’re a Wonder

The Zenescope Return to Wonderland Digital Sale runs through Wednesday, 11/22.

Zenescope’s Wonderland titles were their buzziest titles when Raven Gregory was writing them.

The original trilogy was

Beyond that (pun intended)

Tales from Wonderland will fit in-between various volumes and the rough order of the rest is:

Return to Wonderland   Beyond Wonderland   Escape From Wonderland

Additionally, we think the unlisted Dark Horse sale from last week is still in effect, but we’re unsure for how much longer.

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Comixology (at Amazon Sales) – DC and Marvel Halloween Sales; Unannounced Dark Horse Halloween Sale; X-Men

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC & Marvel Halloween sales. An *unannounced* Dark Horse Halloween Sale. Plus, discounts on X-Men.

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):

DC’s Halloween Sale

The DC Horror and Mystery Sale runs through Monday, 10/30.

Picking up where we left off last week, let’s have a look at the back half of this most interesting sale, where the prices are uniformly good.

What’s good? Pretty much all of it, and much of it at a friendly $2.99 price.  Some more off the beaten path recommendations you might be less familiar with:

Night Force is the Tomb of Dracula team of Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan getting back together at DC a few years later for a new horror comic. Marv once told us it’s his favorite of his books. Baron Winters lives in an old mansion in the Georgetown neighborhood of DC with his pet leopard. He doesn’t leave the mansion. The mansion has a door that leads to other times and places. He also has somewhat reluctant minions that look into things for him. Supernatural things. It’s a good one for Halloween that doesn’t get enough love.

The Spectre by John Ostrander & Tom Mandrake was quietly one of DC’s best books of the 90s, along with Starman and Sandman Mystery Theater. Jim Corrigan died, yet he still walks the Earth. His soul has been intertwined with The Wrath of God, an entity that manifests itself as The Spectre. The Spectre seeks vengeance and Jim Corrigan struggles to come to grips with his existence. Sound like a Vertigo book? It would have fit in, though Vertigo was mostly operating in it’s own space, away from DC continuity at that point.

Speaking of DC in the 90s, The Books of Magic is one of Neil Gaiman’s lesser known DC works and his entry in the “boy wizard” sub-genre. Timothy Hunter is child destined to be a most powerful wizard, though there is some question about how he might use his aptitude for magic. The Phantom Stranger, John Constantine, Doctor Occult and Mister E (yes, this is the introduction of the Trenchcoat Brigade) give him a tour of the magical side of the DC universe in an attempt to feel him out, as the Cult of the Cold Flame also searches for Tim. It’s not exactly Harry Potter, but it’s ballpark. Gaiman attributes it to he and Rowling drawing on the same literary sources. This one just happened to come out a few years earlier.

Night Force      The Books of Magic

Marvel’s Halloween Sale

The Marvel Halloween Sale runs through Tuesday, 10/31.

That’s right, an extra day so it’s on the proper day.

Lots of titles in this one, but if we were to boil it down to three series, here’s how it would fall:

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection – three volumes get you the full run of one of Gerber’s longest running associations. He didn’t create the Man-Thing, but Gerber defined him. The final volume even catches you up on the Marvel Comics Presents serial and The Infernal Man-Thing miniseries that was published post-posthumously. There are a lot of artists tagging in and out, but prominent ones include Mike Ploog, Val Mayerick, John Buscema, Tom Sutton and Kevin Nowlan. Yes, both DC and Marvel had great swamp monster runs that kicked off at roughly the same time.

Tomb of Dracula – This one had some creative false starts, but once Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan have a couple issues to settle in and start building their supporting cast, this quickly becomes one of the most interesting books Marvel was publishing for it’s 70 issue issue run. Like Man-Thing, it’s one of the gems of the ’70s.

And for something a little more modern, there’s Marvel Zombies. The “Complete Collection” editions are extra interesting because the first one collects the Zombie dimension’s initial appearances away from the miniseries that followed. While the mini’s have occasion to float into the absurd, the initial appearances where a little more firmly in the horror world. And yes, the first two mini’s were Robert Kirkman writing zombies at Marvel.

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber   Tomb of Dracula   Marvel Zombies

X Marks the Spot

The Marvel Dawn of X/Reign of X/Trials of X Sale – runs through Monday, 10/30.

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:

  • House of X / Powers of X  <initial limited series/Event, not in the sale>
  • Dawn of X
  • X of Swords <line wide Event, not in the sale>
  • Reign of X
  • Hellfire Gala <line wide Event, not in the sale>
  • Trials of X

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. Again, not part of this sale.

We’re not as adamant about reading this issue-to-issue format after Hickman leaves… although X-Force and Wolverine are certainly intertwined at times. Through Inferno, though? Yes.

Dawn of X   Reign of X   Trials of X

Unannounced Dark Horse Halloween Sale

No link for an overall sale, but we’re seeing a lot of Dark Horse horror titles at $6.99 or $7.99/volume. There’s a sale, we just don’t know why Amazon hasn’t posted it.

Some things to have a look at:

Hellboy   Creepy   Harrow County Omnibus 1

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Jonathan Hickman’s Marvel Catalog; Jonah Hex; Loki; Kraven the Hunter

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts their Jonathan Hickman catalog, plus Kraven the Hunter and Loki. DC starts to crank up the Halloween sales, Image finishes off it’s alphabet sale and Caliber pops up.

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):

DC Says “Boo”

The DC Fights and Frights Sale runs through Monday, 10/9.

Another eclectic mix of titles, what’s good and/or hasn’t popped up in a bit?

Checkmate by Greg Rucka (and later Eric Trautman) / Jesus Saiz is an under-rated title that hasn’t popped up lately. This is a blend of spies and superheroes with Mister Terrific, Green Lantern and Fire in the initial mix… and, of course, Amanda Waller lurks.

Doctor Fate by Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew – We don’t always like these “reimagining’s,” but Levitz & Liew knock it out of the park as the helmet of Fate settles upon the head of a Brooklyn med student. A lot more is made of Fate’s Egyptian origins in this version, and not just that Anubis is causing trouble. This flew under too many radars.

Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris. Yeah, that’s right. Pre-Saga Vaughan and post-Starman Harris teaming up for political intrigue as NYC’s first and only superhero, “The Great Machine” finds himself elected mayor. This one mixes political plots with superhero hijinks and how can you have superpowers + politics without a conspiracy? This one’s sometimes overlooked because it was Wildstorm, but not WildCATS.

Checkmate   Doctor Fate  Ex Machina

The ’00s incarnation of Jonah Hex is something of a palette-cleansing delight. Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray are the writers. While there are arcs, they’ll also deal in single issue stories. Why? Because at a certain point, they just get crazy with really high end guest artists. Jordi Bernet is a regular. Darwyn Cooke shows up. Paul Gulacy. Russ Heath. J. H. Williams III. Andy Kubert. Fiona Staples.  Come for the western, stay for the art.

Superman: Phantom Zone is a favorite oddity from the ’80s. Steve Gerber (Man-Thing) and Gene Colan (Tomb of Dracula, Night Force) have celebrated backgrounds in horror comics. What if they did a Superman horror comic? Well, they kind of did. This one gets metaphysical as Superman discovers some problems inside the Phantom Zone. Warning: this gets much weirder than you’re used to Superman getting. Also includes the Gerber/Rick Veitch follow-up from DC Comics Presents. Hey, Halloween beckons.

Daniel Warren Johnson seems to be having a moment right now. Wonder Woman: Dead Earth is his Black Label (read: Elseworlds) tale of Diana waking up in a post-apocalyptic hellscape of world with few humans left and plenty of monsters hunting them.  So she goes monster hunting as she tries to piece together how the world got this way. Does Johnson out-metal Dark Knights: Metal? Yeah, we’d say so.

Jonah Hex   Superman: Phantom Zone    Wonder Woman: Dead Earth

Hickman

The Marvel Jonathan Hickman Sale runs through Monday, 10/9.

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

That’s all you need. “Time Runs Out” is even in the final Avengers Complete Collection volume. And here’s something that cannot be understated, the sheer scope of this tale makes it increasingly compelling the further into it you go. Once you’re past the Infinity sequence, it really starts getting jaw-dropping.

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

For the X-Men material, House of X / Powers of X is self-contained. X of Swords is relatively self-contained (and a very successful cross-over). Past that, we think the Hickman era is best enjoyed with the Dawn of X collections (not on sale) to better appreciate what an unusual tapestry was being weaved.

House of X / Powers of X   X of Swords

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

Craving What?!?

The Marvel Kraven Sale runs through Monday, 10/9.

Yes, it would appear somebody’s getting out early and ahead of next year’s Kraven the Hunter film. So what are we looking at here?

For most people, “Kraven’s Last Hunt” by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck is the pinnacle of the character (and count us in that group). Therein, Kraven takes his final revenge on Spidey. One of the darker Spider-Man tales and one that hit classic status pretty much as soon as it hit the shelf. There are plenty of ways to but this one, but we think the Kraven’s Last Hunt Epic Collection is a good buy with a lot of extra comics around this tale.

If you’re looking for a more traditional tale of Kraven, there aren’t really collections built around that (doubtless, there will be when the movie arrives), but the Spider-Man No More Epic Collection includes an early Kraven tale among it’s collection of Stan Lee / John Romita, Jr. goodness.

And if you’d like something a little more modern and little more off-kilter, X-Force V.5 by Benjamin Percy & Robert Gill hunting mutants as he tries to prove he’s the real apex predator.

Amazing Spider-Man - Kraven's Last Hunt   Spider-Man No More   X-Force

God of Mischief

The Marvel Loki Sale runs through Monday, 10/16.

You’d think a TV show was returning? Anyway, these days you have “post-TV” Loki and traditional Loki.

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

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

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

The End of the Alphabet

The Image Comics Discovery Sale part 4 runs through Sunday, 10/15.

This sale will conclude Image’s return to the Comixology deals page after roughly half a year with the first volumes of titles beginning with the letters S through Z. It ends on a Sunday, but this sale has always been ending on odd days, so that’s not a huge surprise. What are some interesting titles? Let’s hit some highlights in bullet form first:

That’s a pretty nice list, but let’s highlight the volumes with a complete story.

The first nod goes to Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton, which is a complete tale in one volume. When an incredibly obnoxious and abusive TV action star is murdered, his six emotionally damaged former sidekicks reluctantly team up to figure out who did the deed. A very, very funny and fairly dark book.

Starlight might be our favorite of Millar’s Image era. The high concept here is an aging Flash Gordon-type returned to Earth, didn’t quite get the hero’s welcome one might expect and is nearing retirement in suburbia, when a ship from the planet he saved some ~40 years prior arrives looking for help. This is a much less over the top Millar staying within the traditional lines of, and writing a love letter to, the classic “planetary romance” space opera and Goran Parlov is vastly under-rated.

twenty-seven has a second volume, but it’s a sequel. V.1 is the secret of why all those musicians have been dying at the age of 27. Spoilers: the deaths weren’t natural.

6 Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton   Star Light   27

But Is It 9mm or .45?

The Caliber Comics October Sale runs through Tuesday, 10/31.

There are a few titles here that were notable in the ’80s indie boom.

Deadworld   The Realm    Jazz Age Chronicles

And plenty of Don Lomax war comics.

But if you want something a little more recent, Ageless might be of interest. It’s written by Torunn GrØnbekk, who’s been recently been writing Thor, with art by San Espina.

Ageless

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Avengers Vs. X-Men; DC in the 90s; Hawkeye; Critical Role

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC discounts the 90s. Marvel slashes sales prices on the Avengers vs. X-Men line of Events and also Hawkeye. Dark Horse offers up Critical Role and Zenescope slips Robyn Hood into the mix.

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):

After the 80s…

The  DC 90s Rewind Sale runs through Monday, 8/7.

DC in the 90s… well, we’ll tell you straight off the bat, they’re missing Starman. And they’re missing the Strazeswki/Parobeck Justice Society. (The lead-in mini is collected, but not the lost classic ongoing.) Some of the better 90s material from DC isn’t currently in print. That said, let’s look at some deals and maybe a little off the beaten path.

Batman: Haunted Knight is the Batman material that Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale did before they did The Long Halloween. It doesn’t get talked about as much, but trust us, that first Halloween special they did came out of nowhere and was a jolt to the system.

Aztek: The Ultimate Man is quite the oddity today. For a little while, Grant Morrison and Mark Millar were a writing team. This was their superhero offering, who would later show up in JLA. N. Steven Harris was the artist.

The Spectre by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake was one of the best under the radar books of the 90s. A character study, too, as Jim Corrigan comes to grips with being dead and sharing an existence with an avenging spirit. We wish the entire run was available.

Batman - Haunted Knight   Aztek   The Spectre

And some of the better 90s DC comics were outside the confines of the DC imprint.

Ignore that awful film, the original League of Extraordinary Gentleman comic was great. Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neil assembled (on behalf of the government, naturally) a team of characters drawn from Victorian fantasy and horror novels. Alan Quarterman, Captain Nemo, Mina Harkness, Mister Hyde and The Invisible Man. It’s a fun one… in a dark way. Originally set up at Wildstorm, DC was the early publisher.

You could probably argue that Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon was Vertigo’s flagship title, post-Sandman and it ran for the back half of the 90s as Jesse Custer goes on a rather angry quest to find out why God has gone missing. You may have seen it on TV.

And then there’s Hellblazer. It technically started in ’88, but was Vertigo’s longest lived title and supported a parade of high end writers and artists. The first two volumes, ironically the 80s material, are at a particularly good price and this was a consistently good title.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen   Preacher   Hellblazer

Crossovers!

The Marvel Uncanny X-Men/Avengers Crossover Sale runs through Monday, 8/7.

This is quite a jumble of Events. Let’s try and put a little context around them.

This batch starts with X-Men Vs. Avengers/Fantastic Four, which collects two miniseries from 1987. X-Men Vs. Avengers (Roger Stern/Marc Silvestri for three issues, the Tom DeFalco/Jim Shooter/Keith Pollard)  and X-Men vs. Fantastic Four (Chris Claremont / Jon Bogdanove).

Fast forward to 1993 and Avengers/X-Men: Bloodties, a Genosha-centric arc that spanned the Avengers and X-Men titles.

In 1996, X-Men/Avengers: Onslaught (yes, most people just call it “Onslaught”) was more of an X-event, but spanned a number of Avengers titles… and Spidey, and FF… as it set things up for the Image founders to take over some titles in the aftermath.

2000 brought us Maximum Security, wherein The Supreme Intelligence manages to get Earth designated a penal colony for dumping off the worst intergalactic offenders. Kurt Busiek & Jerry Ordway handle the miniseries and it crosses over with many Avengers and X-Men family titles.

Onslaught   Maximum Security

In 2009, Avengers/X-Men: Utopia isn’t really an Avengers/X-Men event in the traditional sense. This is set during the “Dark Reign” period and the X-Men have a run in with Norman Osborn’s “Dark Avengers” team as Normy tries to set up a “Dark X-Men.”

Alrighty, then! Now, we’re to the part where things start to bleed together (in the name of circulation, naturally). Hold tight.

Things kick off with Avengers Vs. X-Men (promoted as AVX). Who were the creators? Almost everyone at Marvel in 2012. Check out all the varieties of companion books in the main listing!

In the aftermath of AVX, Uncanny Avengers debuts. This is an attempt to have a sort of merged Avengers/X-Men personnel unit. Naturally, the Red Skull shows up to cause trouble. Rick Remender is the writer. John Cassaday is the launch artist and Daniel Acuna is the primary artist after he leaves. The end of the first volume/run leads right into…

Avengers & X-Men: Axis, wherein the Red Skull powers up, gets some allies and turns everything upside down. Remender’s the writer with Adam Kubert, Leinil Francis Yu, Terry Dodson and Jim Cheung hopping in and out on art. There were quite a few tie-ins at the time, but those collected editions don’t appear to be on sale.

In the aftermath of Axis, Remender and Acuna return for one more Uncanny Avengers outing. Then Uncanny Avengers relaunches with Gerry Duggan writing and an artist rotation of Ryan Stegman / Carlos Pacheco / Pepe Larraz.

Avengers Vs. X-Men   Uncanny Avengers   Avengers & X-Men: Axis

Hawk-Guy

The Marvel Hawkeye Sale runs through Monday, 8/7.

Let’s run through the highlights of the sale, knowing that Hawkeye’s typically been in fairly short runs.

  • Hawkeye Epic Collection – This builds around the Mark Gruenwald (yes, writer/artist) miniseries from ’83 and fills it out with various earlier appearances from Avengers, Marvel Team-Up, Tales of Suspense, etc.)
  • Hawkeye (2012-15) – The famous Matt Fraction/David Aja run, now in one volume.
  • Hawkeye (2015-16) – The Jeff Lemire/Ramon Perez follow-up to Fraction/Aja
  • Hawkeye (2016-18) – The Kate Bishop run by Kelly Thompson & Leanardo Romero
  • Old Man Hawkeye (2018) – Ethan Sacks and Marco Checcetto craft a prequel to Old Man Logan

What’s good? While a little goofier than the traditional portrayal of Clint Barton, the Fraction/Aja run is almost universally acknowledged at the best Hawkeye run. We’re not going to argue with that. Nope. It’s a good one.

If you’re looking for the Kate Bishop version of Hawkeye, the Thompson/Romero run is the one you want.

Hawkeye   Hawkeye

Dice Can Be Very Critical of You

The  Dark Horse Critical Role Sale runs through Monday, 8/28

Yes, this would be the comic adaption of the web series about a Dungeons & Dragon campaign. (That would be comics about the campaign and characters in it.)

This one is organized a little oddly, so lets walk through that.

Price-wise, it doesn’t really matter which format you go with, however… if you scroll down to the bottom of the single issues, you’ll find a series of original graphic novels that are closer to the European album format. Should they be listed elsewhere? Maybe. But know that they’re at the bottom of the single issues page.

Critical Role

The Other Hood

The Zenescope Robyn Hood Sale runs through Monday, 8/21.

Much like Critical Role, this sale is in three flavors with three links:

Unlike Dark Horse, this is looking like the Omnibus is cheaper than the collected editions and the collected editions are cheaper than the single issues, but you can double check that on individual collections. 99-cent single issues make that easy.

And yes, those really are Chuck Dixon and Howard Mackie on runs towards the bottom of the listings.

Robyn Hood

 

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Men, Deadpool and Ms. Marvel

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s Marvel on parade with X-Men, Deadpool and Ms. Marvel getting the discount treatment.

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):

Note: Looks like our projections from last week were off. The DC sale was extended a week — so we’re not sure if DC’s sales are now going to be bi-weekly or not. The Dark Horse sale was also not updated, so… maybe they’re just not going to display the rest of the alphabet? It’s bad form. As far as we know, everything is on sale, not just what’s displayed.

X-Sale

The Marvel X-Men: Epic Collections & Milestones Sale runs through Monday, 7/24.

Our appreciate for an Epic Collection sale is well documented, and we like the value of 400-500 pages for $4.99, as some of these are priced.  But let’s do some cherry picking for the more interesting things.

For Excalibur, you’re better off when Alan Davis is attached, be it with Chris Claremont writing or Davis as writer/artist (and we might even put Davis higher while doing the full cartoonist).

Excalibur    Excalibur

For New Mutants, we’ve always thought The Demon Bear Saga‘s period, which paired Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, as the high point of the whole series.

 x New Mutants: The Demon Bear Saga

For X-Factor, two titles stand out:

  • Angel of Death – a big chunk of the Louise & Walt Simonson run, notable for Apocalypse, Cameron Hodge and Angel’s transformation into Death.
  • All-New, All-Different X-Factor – this collects the bulk of Peter David’s first run with art by Larry Stroman, Joe Quesada and Dale Keown

X-Factor Epic Collection

For X-Men… you can pick your poison.

We’d say the highlight of the original run would be Roy Thomas/Neal Adams (as well as Jim Steranko) sequences in The Sentinels Live.

For the “New” X-Men, we’d say the golden period starts somewhere around issue 100 and runs through 200, although you’ll hear a lot of opinions about the golden period of X-books. That would be:

No, they don’t have that full period complete in the Epic format yet. There are some as-yet uncollected volumes between I, Magneto and The Gift, and The Gift stops just short of 200, but that’s what we’d call the best period.

X-Men Epic Collection: The Sentinels Live   X-Men Epic Collection   X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix

No-Prize Winning Sale Title

The Marvel Ms. Marvel Sale runs through Monday 7/17.

This would be Ms. Marvel as in Kamala Khan, not the current Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers. Is there a movie coming out in a few months? Hmm…  Let’s break this down by volume, since there have been relaunches.

  • Ms. Marvel ’14-15 – The original run with G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona as the primary artist
  • Ms. Marvel ’15-’19 – How silly is this relaunch? The collected edition number doesn’t even reset! It’s still Wilson and Alphona, although the artist rotate a bit as it goes on.
  • Magnificent Ms. Marvel ’91-’21 – Relaunched after Wilson’s departure, this is written by Saladin Ahmed with Minkyu Jung and Joey Vazquez as the lead artists
  • Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit – The most recent mini-series (only single issues are on sale) by Samira Ahmed and Andrés Genolet.

There’s a selection of Champions, where Ms. Marvel was a member, also on sale.

Recommendations? We thought Ms. Marvel was at its best early in the run, before it got too integrated into the Marvel universe, but that’s just us.  Definitely start with Wilson’s run, though.  It made quite the mainstream splash.

Ms. Marvel

Not the Dirty Harry Movie

The Marvel Deadpool Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 7/17

Deadpool is… oddly collected. There have been a lot of titles and lot of relaunches. Most of these are absorbed into the Deadpool Classics line of collected editions.  Some, but not all, of the series, have omnibus editions and those are the cheaper way to collect those runs… which means, if you’re a completist and you’re cheap, you’re going to want to be wanting to fill in the Classics volumes around the omnibuses.  And Deadpool Classics V. 1 collects the various miniseries that kicked things off.

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

So let’s run down the main titles:

  • Deadpool Classics (’93 – as far as they’ve gotten)
  • Deadpool (’97-’02) – Known as the Joe Kelly era (at least what’s collected here)
  • Cable & Deadpool (’04-’08) – Fabian Nicieza / Patrick Zircher / Mark Brooks (among others)
  • Deadpool (’08-’12) – The Daniel Way Era
  • Deadpool (’12-15) – The Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan Era
  • Deadpool (’15-’17) – Gerry Duggan and many, many artists
  • Despicable Deadpool (’17-’18) – Duggan/Mike Hawthorne
  • Deadpool (’18-’19) – Skottie Young / Nic Klein
  • King Deadpool (’19-’21) – Kelly Thompson / Chris Bachalo

 

Deadpool Classics  Deadpool by Joe Kelly  Cable & Deadpool

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Still On Sale

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: A Trio of $0.99 Masterworks; Rogue and Gambit; Milestone Media; Resident Alien

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel sneaks some $0.99 Masterworks into their Women of Marvel sale, plus Rogue & Gambit. DC celebrates the anniversary of Milestone Media and Dark Horse discounts their aliens.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

McDuffie & Friends

The DC Milestone 30 Anniversary Sale runs through Monday, 3/6.

Yup, it’s been 30 years since Milestone debuted and we’re just going frame this as a Dwayne McDuffie tribute sale, whether that’s overstating things or not. He got enough grief from DC over the years, we’ll let the spotlight sit on him for a moment.

First, let’s just list out the content involved:

The first thing to say here is that most of the content is cheaper in single issues.  The original Icon and Hardware collected editions are slightly cheaper than single issues, as is the ’11 version of Static Shock. Other than that? Go with the singles. Especially with the current versions.

Favorites? We say start with the originals. McDuffie had a strong hand in most of the launches, though they gave a lot of people a few issues of various titles as it went on. Hardware‘s opening arc is a particular favorite and you get the McDuffie wit with Icon’s conservative nature. And we’ll also say Xombi is conspicuous by its absence.

Hardware   Icon

The Other Kind of X

The Women of Marvel Sale runs through Monday, 4/3.

Yes, this one will run all month. What’s good?

You may recall that Kelly Thompson and Elena Casagrande won an Eisner Award for their Black Widow run? It’s good. It starts out with Natasha getting abducted and then there’s a lot of revenge. We were a little surprised and sad this series wrapped up when it did and we keep expecting it to return in some form.

We have also sung the praises of the Tom Taylor / David Lopez / Marcio Takara / Leonard Kirk All-New Wolverine before and we’ll probably sing it again. Great series that runs the gamut of themes and moods. This is Laura / X-23’s debut as Wolverine (while Logan was “dead”).

Black Widow   All-New Wolverine

Did somebody say $0.99 Masterworks?

Oh, that’s not cheap enough for you? You want $0.99 Masterworks? Ordinarily, we’d say wait until December, but it appears we have some for you. Yes, this is unusual:

The original Carol Danvers Ms. Marvel which was largely written by Chris Claremont (with Gerry Conway starting it). Art by Jim Mooney, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Carmine Infantino and Dave Cockrum.

The original (Jessica Drew) Spider-Woman. Authors include Marv Wolfman, Mark Gruenwald and Michael Fleisher . Artists include Carmine Infantino and (the beginning of an under-rated run by) Steve Leialoha.

Savage She-Hulk starts out with Stan Lee / John Buscema and then continues with David Anthony Kraft / Mike Vosburg

The first two volumes are $5.99, but Dazzler Masterworks V. 3 is $1.99. It’s largely by Jim Shooter and Frank Springer.

‘Til Death Do Us Discount

The Marvel Rogue and Gambit Sale runs through Monday, 3/6.

The series the best lives up to the sale’s theme is Mr. & Mrs. X by Kelly Thompson, Oscar Bazaldua and David Lopez. That would be Rogue and Gambit, if you missed the wedding.

While Gambit is the newer character, he’s had more exposure in solo titles. Gambit Classic collects the original Uncanny X-Men arc and the early mini’s, including the 1995 Rogue mini-series in V.2.

Gambit: The Complete Collection is the slightly better known 1999 series primarily by Fabian Nicieza / Steve Skroce / Yanick Paquette

Mr. and Mrs. X   Gambit Classic   Gambit: The Complete Collection

No… The “Other” Aliens

The Dark Horse – Aliens Digital Sale runs through Monday, 3/13.

Let us first pause to comment how jarring it is to see “Dark Horse” and “Aliens” without the film franchise being involved.

This is a media tie-in sale (a DH specialty), but Resident Alien by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse was a comic before it was a TV show.

Resident Alien Omnibus collects the first three volumes.

You can pull V.4-6 here.

And the single issues are $0.99.

Resident Alien

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