In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel drops another 7 sales. Plus, Cyberpunk 2077 and more Calvin and Hobbes.
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):
[Housekeeping]: We’re not sure how long that Marvel early Prime Day sale is running, but check out last week for a rundown.
Does Whatever An Iron Can…
The Marvel Iron Man Sale runs through Monday, 6/29.
This would be one of those sales where most of the hero’s run is on sale, so we’re going to follow our usual protocol and start out by breaking out the primary titles and volumes. Iron Man isn’t as goofy to follow as, say, Spider-Gwen… but there are “quirks.” Oddly, this time out, titles with a word other than “Invincible” in front of “Iron Man” are omitted. (Infamous, International, etc.) Intentional or the new digital guy is from a film background and unfamiliar with the catalog? We’re not sure.
- Tales of Suspense – Iron Man debuted here in what was a split book with Captain America for most of the run. (The Epic Collections have been redirected to the next link)
- Iron Man ’68-’96 – The original solo run in the era before constant relaunch gimmicks. This is now the Epic Collection link and all other collections from this run appeared to be floating on Amazon, untethered to a series.
OK, sit tight. The ’98 -’04 run is collected in VERY odd ways and poorly cataloged for browsing. The truly excellent Kurt Busiek/Sean Chen/Patrick Zircher run lasts from 1-25. We can’t find 15-25 collected? (That entire run should be!) You can catch 1-14 in cheap omnibus form here. (No idea why the Mike Grell omnibus isn’t on sale.) You can catch Joe Quesada’s scripting run (26-32) and the Avengers: Disassembled tie-in late in this run in single volumes here. (But get the omnibus version for Busiek.)
So what’s good? We haven’t read ALL the Iron Man out there, but we’ve read a lot of them.
In our opinion Iron Man starts hitting it’s stride when Archie Goodwin arrives toward the end of the Tales of Suspense run and then is pure gold through issue 28 of the ’68 Iron Man series. Artists for this run include Gene Colan and George Tuska. Iron Man Epic Collection: The Man Who Killed Tony Stark collects most of that.
The next “all-star” run is #116-157 of the original Iron Man, that’s the David Michelinie / John Romita, Jr. / Bob Layton run that’s most famous for the “Demon in a Bottle” alcoholism arc, but there’s more to the run than just that arc. The Denny O’Neil / Luke McDonnell run that follows is solid (make sure you get a collection that includes #200!!!), then Michelinie & Layton return for #215-250 with a few artists, including Mark Bright and Jackson Guice… with Layton even switching to penciller, instead of his usual inking post, for parts of it. This second run is most famous for “Armor Wars” (originally known as Stark Wars).
When Heroes Return hits, Kurt Busiek and Sean Chen are pop in for the excellent 1998 run, of which only 1-14 are currently collected.
The ’08 – ’12 run by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca is particularly good. You know how modern Marvel titles can get sidetracked by Events? Fraction and Larroca lean into it and produce a lengthy and self-contained arc with Tony Stark on the run and attempting to overwrite his brain to keep everyone’s secrets out of the hands of Norman Osborn. Yes, an honest to goodness great Event tie-in arc. It’s a rare thing.
We were quite happy with the Christopher Cantwell/Cafu run. Tony Stark chases Korvac into outer space and meditates on the nature of godhood, good intentions and addictions. Lots of character work and action.
Crime and Punisher-ment
The Marvel Punisher Sale runs through Monday, 6/29.
Gosh, you’d think Frank Castle had been on streaming or something…
First, the “general audience” Punisher:
- The Punisher ’87-’95 – Note that the first Epic Collection here collects the ’86 Steven Grant/Mike Zeck Circle of Blood mini-series that kicked off the Punisher’s rise to prominence. Yes, Whilce Portacio drew Punisher before X-Men
- Punisher War Journal ’88-’95 – This volume is notable for the Carl Potts / Jim Lee work. Yes, Jim Lee drew Punisher War Journal before X-Men.
- Punisher War Zone ’92-’95 – Yes, Frank Castle was holding down three titles/month in the early ’90s! Collected here are a pair of Chuck Dixon tales with John Buscema and Joe Kubert as the respective artists.
- Punisher War Journal ’06-’09 – Probably best known for Matt Fraction and Ariel Olivetti
- Punisher ’00 – Garth Ennis / Steve Dillon; Collects the immortal “Welcome Back, Frank”
- Punisher: The Resurrection of Ma Gnucci (Punisher War Zone) ’08-’09 – Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon team for a sequel to Welcome Back, Frank
- Punisher ’09-’10 – The Rick Remender run, for which the third volume is Franken-Castle
- The Punisher ’11-’12 – The Greg Rucka / Marco Checchetto (now more associated with Daredevil) run
- The Punisher ’14-15 – Nathan Edmondson / Mitch Gerads. Yes, Mitch Gerards as in Mister Miracle and Sheriff of Babylon
- The Punisher ’16-18 – Starts out with Becky Cloonan / Steve Dillon
- The Punisher ’18-’19 – Matthew Rosenberg / Szymon Kudranski
- Punisher ’22-’23 – Jason Aaron / Jesus Saiz / Paul Azaceta
- Punisher War Journal ’22-’23 – Torunn GrØnbekk / Djibril Morissette-Phan
What’s good? Actually, we like the original Marvel Super Action magazine version by Archie Goodwin and Tony DeZuniga, but that’s not on the menu.
Our favorite run of the above is probably the Ennis/Dillon “Welcome Back, Frank.” We also were pretty fond of the Rucka / Checchetto run when it was coming out. It’s also worth going back and seeing where all the fuss started with the Grant/Zeck mini and the Baron/Janson/Portacio ongoing.
Then there’s the Max line. “Mature Readers” Punisher, if you will.
Punisher Max: The Complete Collection is the ’04-’09 run that’s most associated with Garth Ennis returning to the character (with art by Darick Robertson, Leandro Fernendez, Doug Braithwaite and Goran Parlov, among others). This is Ennis doing the serious Punisher, as opposed to the hilarity of Welcome Back, Frank. Mike Benson, Victor Gischler and Jason Aaron pop up at the end of the run. There’s also an omnibus available.
Ultimate… Everything?
The Marvel Ultimate Universe Sale runs through Monday 6/29.
Yes, this is pretty much EVERYTHING Ultimate – old and new universes. Perhaps it’s less clunky if we break this into segments?
The New Ultimate Universe
The setup for the new Ultimate Universe is Ultimate Invasion by Jonathan Hickman & Bryan Hitch. The original Ultimate Universe was destroyed, but not everyone from that dimension was destroyed. Miles Morales survived and moved over the “616” or main Marvel universe. As did Reed Richards… except the Ultimate Reed Richards went bad and has been calling himself “The Maker.” That’s the setup before Invasion where The Maker escapes captivity, escapes into the multiverse and causes the origins of a new world’s heroes not to happen. Peter Parker is never bitten by a radioactive spider for instance. He’s just a photographer with a family by the time this series hits and this sets up the new line of titles.
Ultimate Spider-Man is a definite contender for the best thing Marvel’s putting out right now and we’re big on Ultimates, too.
Ultimate Spider-Man
This is the original Brian Bendis/Mark Bagley Ultimate Spider-Man. The first Ultimate title and (along with Daredevil) what originally made Bendis his reputation at Marvel. And it’s a good run, too. Afterwards… enter Miles Morales, who’s become celebrated in his own right.
Ultimate X-Men
Over on the mutant side of the street, the spread looks like this:
The original Ultimate X-Men run has a very interesting writer rotation. Mark Millar begins and ends it. In between are runs by Brian K. Vaughan (Saga / Y – The Last Man) and Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead). The artist rotation includes Adam Kubert, Andy Kubert, Chris Bachalo, David Finch, Brandon Peterson, Stuart Immonen, Tom Raney and Salvador Larocca… among others.
Ultimate Comics X-Men was written first by Nick Spencer and later Brian Wood. Artists included Paco Medina, Carlo Barberi, Mahmud Asrar and Alvaro Martinez.
The Ultimates, Ultimate FF and the greater Ultimate Universe
There a bit more to the sale, but that’s the bulk of the highlights. What’s good? The Millar/Hitch Ultimates are hugely influential (especially to the film world). Ultimate FF absolutely has it’s moments. Not everybody realizes that the Marvel Zombies debuted in V. 3 (omnibus version) and are not played for laughs. Now, we don’t often issue “avoid” warnings around here, but there are a couple things here that we’ll advise against. The Orson Scott Card Ultimate Iron Man? Don’t bother. It’s awful. Ultimatum? Nope! That very nearly killed the line. There are MUCH better things to read in this imprint than those two.
Red… Like a Valentine
The Marvel Red Hulk sale runs through Monday 6/29.
The main title is the ’08 – ’13 Hulk series. 17 years after the series launched, we’ll risk the spoiler of the opening arc and say this is where Thunderbolt Ross becomes the Red Hulk. (There’s also an Epic Collection available.)
You might want to add Fall of the Hulks: Red Hulk and read it before you get to issue #18. It’s part of the larger “Fall of the Hulks” event that’s not totally collected in the Hulk series. This is by Jeff Parker and Carlos Rodrigues.
After Loeb leaves, Jeff Parker takes over writing and we actually prefer the Parker take on the character. The artists move around a little (it’s that era of Marvel) but Gabriel Hardman / Patrick Zircher / Dale Eaglesham is a pretty good rotation. (And you should have a look at Zircher’s Solomon Kane over in the recent Savage Sword of Conan.)
The more recent title is Red Hulk by Benjamin Percy &Geoff Shaw.
The Hela You Say…
The Marvel Hela Sale runs through Monday, 6/29
Hela as in Marvel’s version of Hel, the Norse goddess of death. What we have here is largely a set of Thor collections (a ton of those between this sale and the Pride sale).
Some highlights:
Living in the Past
The Marvel X-Men ’97 Sale runs through Monday, 6/29.
This… is perhaps a misnamed sale. X-Men ’97 is a continuation of the ’90s cartoon. In this sale we find everything for the ’24-’25 X-Factor by Mark Russell & Bob Quinn (which we liked) to the first adventures of The New Mutants from the early 80s. It’s worth browsing for your mutant fix.
Also of note:
Kitty’s Name Is Spelled Differently
The Marvel Pride Sale runs through Monday 6/29.
Unusual to see Marvel having a Pride Month sale and DC not. My, how the times are changing.
This is a wide-ranging sale and not everything in it is particularly Pride-centric (like every appearance of Hercules going back to the 60s). There’s a LOT of books here, so take a browse at your leisure. We’ll be pointing out some books that are a little more appropriate for the sale and are good reads.
Unannounced Sales
As always, it isn’t clear when the unannounced sales will end.
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 five 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:
There’s also The World of Cyberpunk 2077.
Masters of the Universe (otherwise known as He-Man) is still on sale.
Also on sale:
And have a look at the $5 and under page.
Still on Sale
