Comixology Sales: War of the Realms, West Coast Avengers, Tynion’s Early Batman and Critical Role

This week in Comixology sales, Marvel drops a discount on War of the Realms and West Coast Avengers, DC offers up samplers of the “Rebirth” era, Dark Horse spotlights Critical Role… and don’t forget that Saga sale is still in effect.

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A little heads up here – as you may have heard, Comixology has been saying that their website will be absorbed into the Amazon website since… September?  The date of the switchover has been pushed back. A lot. But we’ve been hearing around the water cooler that it should be any day now and we’re honestly not sure whether or not it’s going to flip over between now and February 1st.  Maybe it will and maybe the changeover will get pushed back again.  If you get redirected to Amazon, that’s why we’ve been putting the Amazon links for the sales in.

This Means War

The Marvel War of the Realms Sale runs through Sunday, 1/30 (Amazon link)

Yes, the Thor Event.  What you get depends on how you want to read it.

For deep background, the Thor of the Realms anthology will give a selection of stories from Lee/Kirby, Walt Simonson and other. This falls under “classic material.”

Thor V.2: Road to War of the Realms by Jason Aaron and Mike Del Mundo is the lead-in to the actual event, so starting there would also be appropriate.

And then there’s finally War of the Realms, the actual Jason Aaron/Russell Dauterman Event mini-series wherein Malekith invades Midgard after conquering the rest of the ten realms.

You get through that and want more, there are plenty of spin-offs available.

Thor of the Realms   Thor Road to War of the Realms   War of the Realms

Turn Left (Coast)

The Marvel West Cost Avengers Sale runs through Sunday, 1/30. (Amazon link)

We can sum this one up very easily.  Much more easily than most sales. Get the Epic Collections.  “How the West Was Won” has the original Roger Stern/Bob Hall limited series and then jumps into the Steve Englehart/Al Milgrim ongoing series. The Epic’s take you through the beginning of the John Byrne run, so when you get to “Vision Quest,” get that and stop. (Unless you don’t like Byrne, in which case stop before that.) The next Epic Collection, “Darker Than Scarlet,” has been released, but is too recent to be on sale.  If we have learned one thing, it’s that it _will_ be on sale, so exercise a little patience there.

Avengers West Coast

X’d Out

The Marvel X-Force Legacy Sale runs through Thursday, 2/3. (Amazon link)

We have a clear favorite run of X-Force: The Rick Remender era. A dark era, to be sure, but the X-Force concept was supposed to be a little dark. The best way to pick that run up is to scroll down to the Omnibuses section and grab the two “X-Force by Rick Remender” volumes.

If you want something a LOT different, you can opt for the much loved (a little too popular to be “cult”) Peter Milligan/Mike Allred version, which is farcical take on the team.

X-Force   X-Force

When One Birth is Not Enough

The DC Rebirth eBook Sale runs through Monday, 1/31. (Amazon link)

This would be the deluxe editions of the Rebirth era DC titles, which contain the first two “normal” volumes of those titles.

The creative star of Rebirth, as far as we’re concerned was the relaunch of Wonder Woman under Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp and Nicola Scott. A repositioning of Diana’s origins after the New 52 version (an excellent story, but perhaps better suited to the Elseworlds line), this one has Diana probing her origins and why Paradise Island has disappeared.

While the Tom King Batman was the sales star of Rebirth (and it’s here), we honestly like the James Tynion IV / Eddy Barrows Detective Comics run better. It’s really a sort of Batman Family title as Batman taps Batwoman to assemble Gotham’s vigilantes into more of a cohesive unit in the face of a mysterious force targeting the younger heroes.

We also thought the Dan Jurgens / Patrick Zircher / Tyler Kirkham Action Comics run was a lot more fun than it got credit for.  Let’s be brutally honest: DC hasn’t really been able to find a take on Superman to stick with since New 52 dropped.  This one was a throwback to the tone of late 80s through mid-90s Superman and worked well for what it was… until that ridiculous Jor-El plot got inserted into it towards the end of the run.

Wonder Woman   Detective Comics by Tynion   Action Comics

Game Night

The Dark Horse Critical Role & Vox Machina Sale runs through Monday, 2/7. (Amazon Link)

This would be the *cough* D&D-like comics exploring the backgrounds of the characters from the extremely popular podcast.  Does that make it the story within the story?  Um, maybe?

Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins combines the previous two volumes into a single edition.

Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins — Jester Lavorre chronicles the early years of Jester Lavorre… as if you couldn’t guess by the title…

Critical Role   Critical Role - Jester

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Still on Sale

Comixology Sales: The Return of Saga, Silver Surfer, Peacemaker, Shockrockets and Silk

This week’s Comixology sales include the Silver Surfer and Silk from Marvel, Peacemaker from DC and Image celebrates the return of Saga with a “Sci-Fi” sale.

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Surf’s Up

The Marvel Silver Surfer Sale runs through Sunday, 1/23. (Amazon link)

You really can’t go wrong with the original Stan Lee/John Buscema (with Jack Kirby at the end) run of Silver Surfer, which is collected across two Masterworks editions.

We’re also fond of the 80s Silver Surfer run. In classic Marvel fashion, it’s collected in a strange way.  That link will take you to the Epic Collections. The first one, “Freedom” is from the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers run, which is excellent.  Naturally the rest of that period isn’t collected. To get the beginning of the Jim Starlin/Ron Lim period that followed it, you need to jump over to Silver Surfer: The Rebirth of Thanos. Then you can jump back to the “Thanos Quest” Epic Collection, which takes you up to issue 50 and the end of the Starlin era that really laying the groundwork for Infinity Gauntlet.  Ron Marz jumps in for the next Epic Collection, “Infinity Gauntlet” and that’s more of a companion series to the mini-series/Event of the same name, so venture forward it you want, but know the next volume is largely a tie-in.  Also – the actual Thanos Quest mini-series is reprinted in both Rebirth of Thanos  and the “Thanos Quest” volume.  Great planning, Marvel collections dept.!

Silver Surfer Masterworks   Silver Surfer - Englehart   Rebirth of Thanos

It Bites

The Marvel Silk Sale runs through Sunday, 1/23.

Yes, this would be the adventures of Silk, the other person bitten by the radioactive spider that gave Peter Parker his powers. For this one, we might go for the Spider-Verse collection

Spider-Verse

Not Dempsey and Makepeace

The DC Peacemaker & Friend Sale runs through Monday, 1/24. (Amazon link)

A small number of random collections and issues here. (Only V.’s 1 and 4 of the Ostrander/McDonnell Suicide Squad?  Weird.)

What can we put a good word in for?  Suicide Squad: Bad Blood by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo is quality book with more double crosses than you can shake a mallet at.  Taylor and Redondo are starting to look like a long term pairing, too.

Vigilante by Marv Wolfman is the beginnings of the Adrian Chase version of the character and gives you an artistic lineup of George Perez/Keith Pollard/Chuck Patton/Ross Andru. (The volume ends before you get some Gil Kane and Trevor Von Eden.)

Suicide Squad Bad Blood   Vigilante

Saga Returns

The Image Sci-Fi Sale runs through Monday, 2/7. (Amazon link)

But let’s call this what it really, and what they’re leading with: the return of SagaYes, everyone’s favorite SF/F title by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staple is FINALLY returning after a ~3.5 year absence.  This one falls under the usual Image collection runs – Saga Compendium V. 1 is a fabulous deal. The entire first run (i.e. – all caught up in 1 volume) is $23.99 for 54 issues of material.  That’s less than 45 cents/issue and that’s stoopid cheap for what you’re getting.  The other omnibuses collecting ~3 “regular” volumes are more expensive than getting what Comixology calls the “Collected Editions,” so go Compendium or go individual volumes.

What else is back? ShockrocketsWith Kurt Busiek’s return to Image, comes this collaboration with Stuart Immonen. A good entry in the sub-genre of military coming of age SF with salvaged alien tech being used to fight the invaders.  This was part of the short-lived gorilla comics imprint and we didn’t harbor many hopes of it returning.  Wrong.

The Manhattan Projects is also a fun ride. This Jonathan Hickman / Nick Pitarra has the Manhattan Project brain trust being brought together not just for the atomic bomb, but for a secret program of Mad Science. Space exploration, parallel dimensions and all manner of strangeness. Sometimes it’s silly and sometimes it borders on horror. All in all, quite a ride.  As with Saga, the individual collected editions are slightly less expensive than the “deluxe edition” omnibuses.

Saga   shockrockets   The Manhattan Projects

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Still On Sale

Comixology Sales: Deadpool, Naomi, Hulk / Maestro, Spidey Meets Invincible… plus Micky Mouse

In this week’s Comixology sales: Deadpool breaks out some omnibus editions almost as wide as his mouth, Marvel highlights its eclectic Team-Ups, the Maestro gets discounted, Naomi goes on sale to celebrate the TV review and Fantagraphics has a deep bench.

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Team-Ups Assemble

The Marvel Team-Ups Sale runs through Sunday, 1/6. (Amazon link)

This is actually a grouping of a variety of team up titles. We’ll ignore the Masterworks that we really hope you picked up a few weeks ago when they were 99-cents and look at some other, odder things.

We read Super-Villains Unite: The Complete Super-Villain Team-Up back when it was Essential Super-Villain Team-Up.  We were surprised how much fun it was.  Until you get to the final arc, this is essentially a Sub-Mariner/Doctor Doom tale where Namor flips between hero and anti-hero and the two are constantly trying to manipulate and/or backstab each other. That extended arc ends up crossing over memorably with Avengers. There were a lot of hands involved with this one, but Steve Englehart, Bill Mantlo and Jim Shooter are prominent. Artists range wildly and include Herb Trimpe, Keith Giffen and George Perez (for the Avengers issues). When Namor exits, Doom takes over and then things get darker with the Red Skull.  All-in-all, a good example of the 70s Marvel style.

And sticking with obscure, do you remember the ’04-’06 run of Marvel Team-Up? That was one of Robert Kirkman’s titles when he spent a couple years at Marvel. The primary artists for the run would be Scott Kolins, followed by Paco Medina. The oddest thing about this run would be in V. 3 where Invincible (with Cory Walker on art) comes visiting from the Image/Kirkman-verse!

Super-Villain Team-Up   Marvel Team-Up

Grumpy Old Hulks

The Marvel Maestro Sale runs through Sunday, 1/16. (Amazon link)

That would be Maestro, as in the Hulk’s despotic future self… in certain timelines.

You could go slim with the original (and classic) Future Imperfect by Peter David and George Perez. [Note: Hulk: The End has the same contents, just a different cover] You could also go with The Incredible Hulk Epic Collection: Future Imperfectwhich has the series in the context of the ongoing Hulk title of the time (Gary Frank era of the PAD run).  Either one will introduce you to the character.

The most recent entries for the character are Maestro: Symphony in a Gama Key by PAD & German Peralta and Maestro: War & Pax by PAD and Javier Pina. These are tales of the Maestro arriving in that future hellscape and ascending to power. We read these a few months back and gobbled them up as a sort of dark and twisted flavor of bubblegum.

Hulk: Future Imperfect   Hulk Epic Collection   Maestro   Maestro

Not the Dirty Harry Film

The Marvel Deadpool Legacy Sale runs through Thursday, 1/20. (Amazon link)

Your value buy here is probably the double-sized Deadpool by  Joe Kelly, The Complete Collection.  You can get 2 volumes of that before cutting back over to Deadpool Classics.

Others would say you want Deadpool by Posehn and Duggan, in which case we caution you that a single omnibus edition is almost half the price of a thinner “regular” collection, so omnibi are the way to go here!

Deadpool by Joe Kelly   Deadpool by Posehn and Duggan

CW Comix & Stories

The “DC on TV Sale: Naomi Sale” runs through Monday, 1/17. (Amazon link)

No, we’re not going to grammar check that sale name… but, as you may have heard, Naomi made a quick leap to TV.

Naomi: Season One is the initial comic by Brian Bendis, David Walker and Jamal Campbell. It’s a good thing “season” has been interchangeable with “miniseries” for a few years or we’d think this was a “developed for TV” thing from the get-go. 😉

We’d call it a riff on the Superman legend as a teen explores her emerging superpowers and her mysterious origins.

Naomi

Stripping

The Fantagraphics Massive Sale runs through Sunday, 1/20. (Amazon Link)

It seems like Fantagraphics is starting to have sales just a tiny bit more regularly, but it’s not like they’ve gone monthly.  This is a pretty wide selection… and really, idiosyncratic content is one of their strengths, so we’re going to focus in a little and look at their lineup of comics strips.

Barnaby by Crockett Johnson (yes, the Harold and the Purple Crayon guy… this is before that) is a strip about a boy and his fairy godfather. Popular with the literary set of the late 40s, this is a fantasy strip with a sense of the absurd and quick to float a sly reference in. Johnson is a master of mood and creating his own peculiar atmosphere.

Walt Kelly’s Pogo was an innovator in the social and political satire field. You can draw a fairly straight line between it and Bloom County. All sorts of shenanigans go on the swamp and all sorts of critters would really like to be in charge…

It’s not the first thing you necessarily think of for the character, but Mickey Mouse was an adventure strip in the 1930s.  Floyd Gottfredson was the cartoonist putting Mickey through is paces and if you were wondering where The Phantom Blot came from, he came from the comic strip.

Barnaby  Pogo   Mickey Mouse

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Still on Sale

Comixology Sales: Spider-Man, Marvel Max / Punisher, She-Hulk, Silver Surfer, DC’s Joshua Williamson, Spawn and DH’s Matt Kindt

This week’s Comixology Sales includes a bunch of Marvel titles as they break out the Marvel Max line for a rare appearance, plus Sabretooth, She-Hulk and the world of Dan Slott. Speaking of creator spotlights, DC shines one on Joshua Williamson, Dark Horse on Matt Kindt and Spawn has always been a Todd McFarlane spotlight.

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

X-Villain

The Marvel Sabretooth sale runs through Sunday, 1/9. (Amazon link)

Victor Creed, the Wolverine villain who Marvel’s never quite turned into a leading man/anti-hero.

You can go back to the beginning in Iron Fist Masterworks V. 2. Yes, Sabretooth is a Chris Claremont/John Byrne creation and started out in Iron Fist’s sphere. (Later teaming with the Constrictor in Power Man and Iron Fist.)

If you think of Sabretooth as an X-Men villain, Mutant Massacre is likely a major touchpoint for you. That would be the Claremont/John Romita, Jr. era, plus crossovers.

If you think of him as a Wolverine villain… well, there’s plenty there, but we’ve also had a soft spot for the lower key Greg Rucka run. Sabretooth shows up at the end of that sequence when Darrick Robertson was on art duties.

Iron Fist   X-Men: Mutant Massacre   Wolverine by Greg Rucka

Spiders and Surfboards and Avengers, oh my

The Marvel Dan Slott Sale runs through Sunday, 1/9.

And yes, Slott has spent a fair amount of time at Marvel, so this sale covers some territory.

His most famous work has probably been Superior Spider-Man with art by Humberto Ramos and Ryan Stegman. This is the saga of when Doc Ock inhabited Peter Parker’s body. The two omnibus editions are the best deal here.

Slott’s most critically acclaimed work might be his Silver Surfer run with Mike Allred. Ah, mid-aught Marvel, OF COURSE there was a relaunch and despite the numbering, the collections are listed with series 1 and series 2. (Oh, Marvel…)

For something a little more off the beaten path, we always enjoyed Slott’s Mighty Avengers run, now conveniently collected in one volume. Back when Bendis was doing his New Avengers run, this was the only thing that felt like a traditional Avengers title for some time.

Superior Spider-Man   Silver Surfer   The Mighty Avengers by Dan Slott

Hulking Out

The Marvel She-Hulk Sale runs through Thursday, 1/13. (Amazon link)

You have a few different directions in the She-Hulk cannon. The ones that seem to get revisited the most are She-Hulk as broad farce, like the Sensational She-Hulk run of John Byrne and lawyer She-Hulk, such as the Charles Soule/Javier Pulido run.

Sensational She-Hulk   She-Hulk

Not For Kids

The  Marvel Max sale runs through Thursday, 1/20. (Amazon link)

Yes, this the Marvel imprint for ages 17+ that’s a little darker, more violent and not on sale quite as often.

The flagship here is probably Punisher. Particularly the first 4 “Complete Collection” volumes that pair Garth Ennis with Leandro Fernandez, Goran Parlov and Doug Braithwaite. This isn’t the comedy of “Welcome Back, Frank.” This is a quite serious and brutal sequence. It’s also a very good one… just not for kids.

Speaking of Welcome Back, Frank, it’s been moved over to Marvel Max. For those who haven’t heard of it, this is an Ennis/Steve Dillon/Jimmy Palmiotti Punisher series that takes a very idiosyncratic direction – Frank is still a very angry, death dealing man… but he’s thrust into the middle of an absurdist farce as he tries to bring down the Gnucci crime family. It’s utterly hilarious and something multiple directors have unsuccessfully tried to translate the screen. Influential and impossible to replicate.

There’s a lot more to the sale, but our off-the-radar pick is Dominic FortuneHoward Chaykin’s pulp homage that also includes the character’s original appearances.

Punisher Max   Welcome Back Frank   Dominic Fortune

The Flash and Beyond

The DC Spotlight: Joshua Williamson Sale runs through Monday, 1/10. (Amazon link)

This is one of the smallest DC sales we’ve seen – only 20 items.  Williamson’s profile at DC has been raised in recent months and outside of $1.99 Robin single issues, that’s not really reflected in the sale.  What is here is the first six volumes of his popular Flash run where Carmine Di Giandomenico is the headlining artist.

Now, if you want to fly under the radar, there are a couple Vertigo volumes here pairing Williamson with artists we tend to associate with Image… and if you’re a .cheap regular, you know we mention his Image work fairly often.

Frostbite with art by Jason Shawn Alexander concerns a post-apocalyptical wasteland of a future where a plague is freezing people from the inside out.

Deathbed with Riley Rossmo finds a reporter sent to investigate the deathbed confessions of a 90-year old man who was once a famous adventure and who resurfaced after a 20-year disappearance. Could something unnatural be behind all this?  Surely not.

Flash   Frostbite   Deathbed

Capes and Chains

The Image Spawn Sale runs through Thursday 1/20. (Amazon link)

Did you know Spawn has more issues out than Cerebus?  It’s true!

Your best buy here is Spawn Compendium Vol. 1. That’s the first 50 issues and that comes out to roughly $0.48/issue. That’s the original run with Todd McFarlane doing full art, guest writers Alan Moore, Dave Sim, Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison. Early Greg Capullo art and some Tony Daniels , too.

The off-beat book here is Sam and Twitch, where a young Brian Bendis teams with Angel Medina, Alberto Ponticelli, Clayton Crain and Alex Maleev for some quirky horror detective stories about Spawn’s police acquaintances. It’s not always remembered, but it certainly helped launch some careers.

Spawn Compendium   Sam and Twitch

Underwater Minds

The Dark Horse Matt Kindt sale runs through Monday, 1/10.

Kindt’s most celebrated work at Dark Horse is definitely Mind MGMT.  It’s a bit of a genre mashup about conspiracies and psychic espionage. Kindt writes AND draws it.  One man gang, as it were.  The omnibus editions are the best deal here.

If you’re looking for something similar to Mind MGMT, we’d point you towards Dept. H, wherein an investigator is sent to an underwater base to investigate sabotage and there are much stranger things going on than meets the eye.

Mind MGMT   Dept. H

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