Month: November 2023

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Black Friday Sales Part 2 – DC’s $1.99 Collected Editions(!); Star Wars; The Orville

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s more Black Friday Sales as DC has a ridiculous amount of great comics for $1.99 – $2.99. Plus, Dark Horse discounts Star Wars and The Orville.

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):

Earlier in the week, we looked at the Marvel Black Friday Sales. Given the holiday, we’re back a little bit earlier than usual to look at DC and Dark Horse. Take your time and browse this through the weekend. You will want to have a close look at the DC sale.

DC Gets CHEAP for the Holidays

The DC Black Friday Sale runs through Monday, 11/27.

$1.99 collected editions cheap enough for you? Including some double volumes. How about 52? 26 issues per volume, ~570 pages & ~600 pages for $2.99 each. That’s cheap, all right.

We’ll be breaking format and just going down the list with some quick annotations. There is a LOT we like here for the prices and/or think is notable.  Not as much Batman/Superman… but that sale was last week. You’ll also note this only goes from A-J. We expect L-Z will follow.

Without further adieu:

  • 100 Bullets – Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso spin a tale about the intersection of revenge, crime and espionage. A classic from Vertigo. Double volumes for $1.99? Yup.
  • 52 – Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Greg Rucka, Geoff Johns and Keith Giffen got together to produce a weekly comic that spanned the DC universe for a year. 52 issues, 2 volumes (collecting 26 issues each) for $2.99/volume.
  • All-Star Superman – Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely write a love letter to Silver Age Superman tales. A classic we hear James Gunn is a big fan of. All 12 issues for $1.99
  • Batman and Robin – The Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely / Cameron Stewart / Frazier Irving material
  • Batman/Spawn – both of the 90s crossovers for $1.99
  • Batman: Arkham Asylum – The Grant Morrison / Dave McKean classic for $1.99
  • Camelot 3000 – Mike W. Barr / Brian Bolland – King Arthur returns to repel an alien invasion… as was foretold. ~300 pages / $1.99
  • Challengers of the Unknown – Jack Kirby’s late ’50s, pre-Marvel SF/F adventurer team. Not quite superheroes, but you’ll be shocked how Fantastic Four it feels. ~300 pages / $1.99
  • Clean Room – A lesser-known Gail Simone / Jon Davis-Hunt horror tale from Vertigo
  • Creature Commandos – soon to be an animated series, these are the originals
  • The Scott Snyder / Greg Capullo “Metal” crossover Events:
  • DC: The New Frontier: Darwyn Cooke’s must-read classic about the dawn of the Silver Age characters
  • Deadman – Collecting the appearance from Neal Adams in Strange Adventures through the ’80s mini-series.
  • Dial H – The China Mieville / Alberto Ponticelli / Mateus Santolouco “weird fiction” take on the dial that gives it’s wearer new powers each time. A bizarre delight. ~400 pages / $2.99
  • The Doomsday Clock – The Geoff Johns / Gary Frank crossover Event that brought Watchmen into the DC Universe. 455 pages/$2.99
  • Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepus Chronicles – Mark Russell’s and Mike Feehan’s dark satire casts the cartoon character as a gay playwright facing off against the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. No, really. It’s good.
  • Fables – Bill Willingham’s / (mostly) Mark Buckingham’s series about the characters from fairy tales hiding out in New York City as refuges after their worlds have been conquered. A classic.
  • Far Sector – N.K. Jemisin / Jamal Campbell take a new Green Lantern to the edge of the universe to solve a mystery. Absolutely wonderful book. ~300 pages / $1.99 – no excuses
  • Final Crisis – The celebrated crossover Event by Grant Morrison / J.G. Jones / Doug Mahnke / Carlos Pacheco. 456 pages / $1.99 (!)
  • The Flash (’87 – ’09) – $1.99/$2.99 omnibuses of the Mark Waid run. Watch to see if the Geoff Johns volumes prices get better in a couple days…
  • The Flash: The Silver Age – The early stories, ~400 pages / $1.99
  • Gotham Central – Ed Brubaker / Greg Rucka / Michael Lark / Stefano Gaudiano / Jason Alexander / Kano – The Gotham PD handles things without Batman. EXCELLENT series and $1.99 for double volumes. Just get it.
  • Grayson – The Tim Seeley / (early) Tom King / Mikel Janin series with Dick Grayson as a spy/double agent
  • Green Lantern (’60 – ’86)
  • Green Lantern (’05 – ’11) – The Geoff Johns run… and this is more complicated than is should be, but it really is an excellent run.
  • Hard Time: The Complete Series – Steve Gerber / Mary Skrenes / Brian Hurtt in a criminally below the radar of super powered teen who gets (shafted) sent to prison. 458 pages / $2.99
  • Hardware: The Man in the Machine -Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan gave this Milestone book a great opening arc.
  • Hitman – The Garth Ennis / John McCrae bloody farce
  • Infinite Frontier – The crossover Event. 392 pages / $1.99
  • Jack of Fables – The Bill Willingham / Lilah Sturges/ Tony Akins / Russ Braun Fables companion book. (i.e., fun) – 16 issues/volume – $2.99
  • JLA (’97-’06) – Starts with the Grant Morrison/Howard Porter Justice League run. Then some Mark Waid, Joe Kelly… even Chris Claremont / John Byrne. Double volumes for the most part / $1.99
  • Jonah Hex: Shadows West – All of the Joe R. Lansdale / Tim Truman horror take on Jonah Hex for $1.99. Great stuff that started a lawsuit!

But that’s just our take on the highlights. At these prices, you should have a scroll through the sale yourself between now and Monday.

All-Star Superman   Far Sector   Gotham Central

Nothing But Star Wars

The Dark Horse 2023 Star Wars Digital Sale runs through Monday, 12/25.

That’s right Dark Horse has Star Wars again. They have the YA license. Rule of thumb with this sale: the $0.99 single issues are cheaper than the collected editions when available.  What’s in this sale?

Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures   Star Wars Hyperspace Stories    Star Wars: Tales from the Rancor Pit

It Only Looks Like Star Trek

The  Dark Horse 2023 The Orville-Space Job Digital Sale runs through Monday, 12/18.

Again, you want the $0.99 single issues here for maximum cheap.

The Orville   Space Job

Enjoy the holiday and we’ll be back next week.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Black Friday Sales Part 1 – Marvel Omnibuses, Star Wars: The High Republic; Heroes Reborn

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Black Friday has arrived with Marvel’s Omnibus Sale, plus discounts on Heroes Reborn and Star Wars: The High Republic.

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):

Surprise, surprise… normally we expect to see Marvel having an Epic Collection Sale the week of Black Friday.  Apparently, that’s not the case this year. They whipped out an Omnibus sale instead.  As we go into holiday sale season, we’ll be looking at the Marvel sale today and the rest of the sale at the end of the week.

Omni-Man?

The Marvel Omnibus Sale runs through Monday, 12/4.

What we’re looking at here, for the most part, are $19.99 Omnibus editions. How good a deal are these? Depends on the age on the material and what kind of sales you see on it during the year. These editions tend to run in the roughly 800-1000 page range, 40-ish issues. This may be a better deal on newer material and there are a few things you’re only getting in the Omnibus format.

One observation we’ll make. With the print omnibuses, some people complain they’re a little to big to comfortably handle and read. Nobody makes that complaint with digital.

What’s catching our eye, here?

Incredible Hulk by Peter David Omnibus 1-5. That would be Hulk by David with that ridiculous sequence of artists he had, including Todd McFarlane, Gary Frank, Dale Keown, Angel Medina and Liam Sharp. 1-4 collect his original run and V. 5 collects some of the many times he’s revisited Hulk since the original run ended. Why the omnibus? Because this is a weird run to pick up in collected editions. It starts out in “Marvel Visionary” editions and eventually switches over to Epic Collections. This is just a drastically easier way to grab an exceptionally long run and probably cheaper than waiting to score the Visionary editions on sale. We also don’t mind tipping our hat to Peter David when he’s recovering from some health problems.

Aliens: The Original Years – Dark Horse had the Aliens license a really long time and had a lengthy and popular run with the franchise. If you want it, there’s an Epic Collection that contains about half of the first omnibus. Otherwise, if you want these tales, it’s either the omnibuses or back issues.

Captain Britain Omnibus – This has everything from the beginning of the 70s UK run through Captain Britain Magazine and the early X-Men appearances. What you’re really getting this for are the excellent and groundbreaking Alan Moore/Alan Davis and Jamie Delano/Alan Davis runs from the end of this period, which we’re not currently seeing available elsewhere. The rest is a bonus.

Incredible Hulk by Peter David   Aliens: The Original Years   Captain Britain Omnibus

Knights of Pendragon Omnibus was out of the Marvel UK office. Knight of Pendragon was a Captain Britain-adjacent title. Dai Thomas, the supporting character from the main strip, is more of the central character with Captain Britain and Union Jack along for the ride. This was largely a Dan Abnett/John Tomlinson/Garry Erksine feature. You get some Brian Hitch art from Mys-Tech Wars and Carlos Pacheco art from Dark Guard. This is another where if you want the comics, it’s Omnibus or the back issue bins.

Miracleman Omnibus is the 80s revival of the British character Marvelman by Alan Moore, Gary Leach, Alan Davis, John Totleben and Rick Veitch. Another of Moore’s pre-Watchmen superhero deconstructions with a Captain Marvel (Shazam)-like character rediscovering his magic word after years of a normal life and very bad things following that. A landmark book that fell to the wayside after years and years of legal battles over who held which rights. This one isn’t on sale very often it’s roughly as cheap as you’ll find it.

Predator: The Original Years – Much like Aliens (and where do you think the movie people got the idea for Aliens vs. Predator?) Dark Horse had the Predator license for a really long time. These are the original Predator comics. Some of them you can get digital single issues of for $1.99@ and some of them you’d need to dive into the back issue bins for.

Knights of Pendragon   Miracleman Omnibus   Predator: The Original Years

And, NOT LISTED on the sale page:

Planet Of The Apes Adventures: The Original Marvel Years

Planet of the Apes Adventures

Rebirth

The  Marvel Heroes Reborn sale runs through… Tuesday 11/21?!?

OK, we’re thinking there was a typo and it’s running through Monday, 11/27?

At any rate, Heroes Reborn was when (spinning out of the X-Men storyline of Onslaught), Marvel’s frontline heroes were relocated to a different dimension/incarnations and Marvel outsourced those titles to Image.

Those books were:

  • Heroes Reborn: Avengers – originally Jim Valentino/Rob Liefeld, with Jeph Loeb, Ian Churchill, Walter Simonson and Michael Ryan all having turns.
  • Heroes Reborn: Iron Man – originally Jim Lee / Scott Lobdell / Whilce Portatco with Ryan Benjamin and Jeph Loeb tagging in later.
  • Heroes Reborn: Captain America – Rob Liefeld w/Jeph Loeb, later James Robinson/Joe Bennett
  • Heroes Reborn: Fantastic Four – *WARNING* as we type this, somebody forgot to put this on sale. Maybe the sale price is adjusted, maybe not. This was originally Jim Lee w/ Brandon Choi, with Brett Booth and Ron Lim eventually tagging in on art duties

All the heroes returned to their old forms in the Marvel Universe in Heroes Reborn: The Return. 

And then the titles relaunched. Not everything relaunched is in the sale (notably the WONDERFUL Kurt Busiek/George Perez Avengers) but we loved both “Captain America: Heroes Return” – better known as the second Mark Waid / Ron Garney run and “Iron Man: Heroes Return,” which was Kurt Busiek / Sean Chen. Top runs for both characters, really.

Captain America Heroes Return   Iron Man: Heroes Reborn

How High?

The Marvel High Republic Sale runs through… 11/21?

Again, we think this is a typo and it’ll run through Monday, 11/27, but I guess we’ll find out?

What’s this, it’s the new Star War initiative taking place during the “height” of the Galactic Republic, prior to the rise of the Empire. Which is to say, the Golden Age of the Jedi.

What’s on sale?

Star Wars: The High Republic   Star Wars: The High Republic - Season 2   Star Wars: The High Republic - The Blade

What else is newly on sale (that we’ll look at later in the week)?

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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: “Marvels” with Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel; Secret Wars; DC on TV; Jeff Lemire at DH

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel get “Marvels” discounts… and Secret Wars, too.  DC drops prices on their TV properties. Plus, the Dark Horse work of Jeff Lemire.

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):

We Will Control The Horizontal

The DC on TV Sale runs through Monday, 11/13.

There’s just a little bit of difference between how many DC characters had been on TV in 2000 vs. today. This would’ve been a lot smaller sale then.  A few things that caught our eye… no matter how limited the screen time.

Let’s point out some of the more unusual items, here:

Superman Adventures has a really odd pedigree. Yes, it’s the animated Superman from Batman/Superman/Justice League era of animation, but the writers? Paul Dini from the animated world. Scott McCloud… at this point, it should probably be pointed out to readers under 30 that before Understanding Comics, McCloud was the writer/artist of a much loved indie comic titled Zot!, an Astro Boy-influenced quasi-superhero adventure comic. It doesn’t get mentioned as much these days, but this was McCloud playing with Superman. This was followed by a young Mark Millar. Again, intended for all-ages, but Millar on Superman before he was a big name.

The Justice Society of America series on sale has something in it that flew under the radar at the time and is still under the radar. Alex Ross joins Johns & Eaglesham for a Kingdom Come prequel/sequel. DC never really gave it much push, but the Kingdom Come Superman shows up to battle Gog in the present. Look for the three volumes titled “Thy Kingdom Come.”

Batwoman by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III is the full Detective Comics run that preceded the solo series (which was after Rucka exited DC). Batwoman has had… drama… on TV and the big screen, but this initial foray from Rucka and Williams III is top shelf material.

Superman Adventures   Justice Society of America: Thy Kingdom Come   Batwoman

Marvel Movie Comics

The Marvel Captain Marvels Sale runs through Monday, 11/20.

Yes, there’s a moving coming out!

Yes, this is kind of a convoluted assortment of people with the same name, so give us a minute!

The first one, the Kree Captain Mar-Vell kinda gets short changed here:

The Kree/Skrull War is a classic Avengers tale, one of the first Events in a sense, and Mar-Vell figures prominently in it.

The Death of Captain Marvel is the end of the Jim Starlin era with the graphic novel of the same name and the battle with Nitro in the original series.

Then you had the Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel, sometimes called Photon. She was the next to take that name. This sale has two books with the same content, so we’ll pick Captain Marvel: Monica Rambeau. This is a collections of stories she features in.

Mar-Vell’s son, Genis, took up the name of Captain Marvel in the early aughts.

And then there’s Carol Danvers, the former/original Ms. Marvel who took up the name and is the current Captain. Also one of the most relaunched characters in all of Marveldom (which means they’re trying.)

The Carol Danvers Captain Marvel has been very writer-driven in the last decade.

Avengers: Kree/Skrull War   Captain Marvel   Captain Marvel

The Road to Palindromes

The Marvel Ms. Marvel Sale runs through Monday 11/20.

This would be Ms. Marvel as in Kamala Khan, not the current Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers. Is there a movie coming out? 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 by Samira Ahmed and Andrés Genolet.

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

But Is It REALLY a Secret?

The  Marvel Secret Wars sale runs through Monday, 12/4.

We all know which one this is really about, but let’s go through the other ones first.

The original Secret Wars by Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck is a big ‘ole action comic.

Secret Wars II by Jim Shooter and Al Milgrom didn’t quite work. Except for Peter Parker having to explain “going to the bathroom” to The Beyonder. That was gold.

Beyond! by Dwayne McDuffie and Scott Kolins is an under-the-radar sequel where Spidey and a handful of others (unwillingly) return to Battleworld from the original series. Is it good? It’s McDuffie and Kolins, so you should already know the answer to that.

Secret War by Brian Bendis and Gabriele Dell’Otto has NOTHING to do with the above. Somebody had a cute idea with the name. It’s really about Nick Fury running a black op and fallout afterwards. If you like Bendis, you’ll like this.

Then there’s the Secret Wars (Event) that’s the endcap to the Jonathan Hickman Avengers run (and to an extent, his Fantastic Four run as well). When the timestream collapses… well, that would be telling, wouldn’t it? The main Secret Wars mini-series by Hickman and Esad Ribic is where you want to start with this and you can move on to the myriad of tie-in titles included in the sale if a character’s side-story catches your eye.

Secret Wars    Beyond!   Secret Wars

Le Mired in Discounts

The  Dark Horse 2023 Jeff Lemire Digital Sale runs through Monday, 11/27.

Why yes, Mr. Lemire has done more than just Black Hammer at Dark Horse… although he’s certainly done a lot of Black Hammer. Remember to keep an eye on prices with this one. Some of the time, $0.99 single issues will be cheaper than the collected edition.

What’s in this sale?

Black Hammer, naturally, with Dean Ormston. (Note: the Omnibus Editions are the better buy and the “regular” collected editions are a wash with single issues.) Then you’ve got your World of Black Hammer, Black Hammer / Justice League, and Black Hammer Reborn.

Then you’ve got Mazebook, which is Lemire wearing both writer and artist hats.

And, finally, Berserker Unbound with Mike Deodato, Jr. where an warrior from ancient times, hot on the trail of a wizard finds himself in the modern day. Urban fantasy ensues.

Black Hammer Omnibus   Mazebook   Berserker Unbound

Is that… print?!?

Finally, if you need some *gasp* print comics, we were passed a link to a “Get 3 For the Price of 2” sale. Most people would call that “Buy 2, Get 1 Free,” but it’s not the first thing we couldn’t explain. We’re not sure how long that link will be good for. On the left hand rail of the page, under “Departments,” click on “Superhero Comics & Graphic Novels.” There was a manga link there yesterday, but we’re not seeing it today, so what’s on sale might be fluid?

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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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Still on Sale

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