Tag: X-Men

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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Comixology Sales: Marvel’s Black Friday Push Starts with X-Men, Spider-Man and Events

As Black Friday approaches, Marvel’s brought out some bigger names for their Comixology sales.  Hickman’s X-Men is on center stage with the Spectacular version of Spider-Man and their Events flanking them.

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

Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men Universe

Let’s start things out with X-Men, because the Dawn of X Sale also features an interesting collection format that’s worth talking about.  Dawn of X is the umbrella title for the X-Men family of titles as overseen/showrun by Jonathan Hickman.  Whichhas been a nice run, truth be told.

This all starts out with the House of X / Powers of X collection that sets the table for this X-Men format.  I suppose you don’t absolutely have to read it before diving in, but it’s definitely helpful.

Once you’re past that, there are two options for reading the Hickman era (both of which are on sale): the collected editions of the individual titles or the Dawn of X collections. Dawn of X is an interesting construction.  Generally speaking, they’re taking 6 of the X-Men comics and packing them as a book format of that month’s titles for $10.99 in digital (the first seven volumes are $3.99@ in this sale).  Now, sometimes they’ll have two issues of one title in the package and so on, but it’s an interesting way to read the story of the X-Men universe as it unfolds in the monthlies, as opposed to how collected edition readers usually only read things title by title.  Personally, as someone reading the X-line in single issues, I find I do get a little more out of the line by reading the entire set.  Some of the story elements bleed into other books, particularly early on, and it does help with the worldbuilding.  This format is probably the best way to experience that in collected editions.

It’s also a format we could see more of in the future.  You frequently hear apocalyptic stories about the death of print comics and single issue comics.  While we’re not seeing any imminent danger of that, this is the sort of format that could effectively bundle single issue comics in a way more compatible with bookstore shelves.  It’s also potentially the way to handle anthology comics, which there are always questions about when industry figures discuss new formats and alternate strategies.

Dawn of X is a themed anthology, though one where the stories are more tightly interwoven than most.  You could picture something similar being down with Batman, especially, as well as properties like Spider-Man, Superman, Avengers and Justice League.  It would take a lot of work to make one of those franchises into its own little corner of a greater superhero universe the way Dawn of X is architected, but it’s certainly an experiment we could see more of and I think it’s worth contemplating the possibilities if reading the X-line in this format is interesting to you.  This sale runs through Sunday (11/29).

House of X / Powers of X   Dawn of X

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man

Next up on Marvel’s Black Friday trail, The Spectacular Spider-Man Sale.  Not Amazing, Spectacular.  The major flavors here are: original series / Peter Parker, the under-rated ’03 -’05  Spectacular Spider-Man  that was primarily written by Paul Jenkins with art by Humberto Ramos or Mark Buckingham and the more recent Chip Zdarksy/Adam Kubert Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man. Of particular note, while it’s on the dark side for Spidey, The Death of Jean DeWolff is considered a classic.  This sale runs through Thursday (11/26 — gobble, gobble).

Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man  Spectacular Spider-Man  Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man  The Death of Jean DeWolff

Marvel does like big crossover Events

Finally, there’s the “Marvel World-Shattering Events Sale.” You’re probably familiar with the more recent events, since Marvel’s marketing typically runs through them.  Have a browse through the sale for those, but I’ll recommend some older Events instead that are a little more contained and with tighter circles of creators.

Avengers: The Kree/Skrull War is the granddaddy of Marvel Events in many ways.  This Roy Thomas / Neal Adams / John Buscema / Sal Buscema reverberated through future events like the Annihilation sequence and Empyre.

Iron Man: Armor Wars(or “Stark Wars” as it was originally known) has Tony looking to repossess some of his stolen technology and finding himself in all manner of trouble over it.  This David Michelinie/Bob Layton/Mark Bright run was a trendsetter.

X-Men: Asgardian Wars  has Loki causing all manner of trouble for the X-Men, New Mutants and Alpha Flight.  Written by Chris Claremont with A+ art from Paul Smith and Arthur Adams, this is one of the more fun X-Men sequences.

This sale runs through Thursday, 12/03.

Avengers: Kree/Skrull War   Armor Wars  X-Men: Asgardian Wars

Still on Sale

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