Month: December 2023

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The Best Bets in the Marvel Masterworks Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales,  we have a look at some of the best bets in the Marvel Masterworks Sale.

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):

The Best of the Marvel Masterworks Sale

As you may recall, The Marvel Masterworks Sale runs through Monday, 1/8.

One of the things you’ll notice about the Masterworks line is they started with relatively thin volumes – around 10 issues/~225-250 pages per book. And then as things got further along, they got bigger. Some of them being effectively the same size as an Epic Collection. So let’s start out by looking at that and the biggest bang for your buck by page count.

I Like Big Page Counts

Masterworks with 400+ pages!
Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Doctor Strange Masterworks Uncanny X-Men Masterworks

  • Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 22 – 410 pages – Roger Stern / John Romita, Jr. era, including THAT Juggernaut story
  • Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 23 – 468 pages – Roger Stern / John Romita, Jr. era… and the Hobgoblin debuts in this volume
  • Avengers Masterworks Vol. 21 – 386 pages (close enough) – Effectively the end of the Jim Shooter/Bob Hall run, plus the first Vision & the Scarlet Witch mini and, notably, a 2-part Steven Grant/Greg Laroque Black Knight storyline.
  • Avengers Masterworks Vol. 23 – this appears to be mislabeled on Amazon and should be closer to 380 pages (close enough) – Roger Stern / Al Milgrom / Mark Gruenwald. Includes the Hawkeye mini-series.
  • Champions Masterworks Vol. 1 – 460 pages – The whole ’70s series + crossovers – Bill Mantlo/Tony Isabella/George Tuska/John Byrne and others.
  • Doctor Strange Masterworks Vol. 10 – 394 pages (close enough) – Roger Stern/Paul Smith (and the Doctor Strange vs. Dracula sequence)
  • Incredible Hulk Masterworks V. 17 – 393 pages (close enough) – Bill Mantlo / Sal Buscema – Includes the Contest of Champions mini-series.
  • Killraven Masterworks Vol. 1 – 471 pages – Don McGregor / P. Craig Russell – the entire Amazing Adventures run plus the OGN follow up
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 9 – 471 pages – OK, get this line-up: Chris Claremont writing all of… Uncanny X-Men w/ Paul Smith; the God Loves, Man Kills OGN w/ Brent Anderson and the original Wolverine mini-series w/ Frank Miller.
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 10 – 458 pages – the beginning of the Claremont/John Romita, Jr. era with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and Morlocks, plus the Magik mini-series w/ John Buscema
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 11 – 457 pages – Claremont writing: X-Men with John Romita, Jr. (including the Kulan Gath issues), X-Men/Alpha Flight with Paul Smith and Kitty Pride & Wolverine with Al Milgrim
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 12 – 466 pages – Claremont writes X-Men w/ John Romita, Jr. (culminating in the trial of Magneto and the end of a big arc); the “Asgardian Wars” crossover with New Mutants w/Art Adams; and then Dave Cockrum’s Nightcrawler mini.
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 13 – 449 pages – Claremont & John Romita, Jr. on X-Men, plus and Ann Nocenti and Art Adams on Longshot.
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 14 – 485 pages – Enter the Mutant Massacre, plus Psylocke joins the X-verse in New Mutants and Fantastic Four Vs. X-Men.
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 15 – 508 pages (!) – Chris Claremont / Marc Silvestri / Roger Stern. Includes the “Fall of the Mutants” arc and the Avengers vs. X-Men mini-series.

Other notable runs (that aren’t Lee/Kirby, since those go without saying).
Black Panther Masterworks Daredevil Masterworks Warlock Masterworks

We’ll link to the first volume in the set on these.

  • Avengers V. 10 – 18; V. 10 is the Kree/Skrull War. V.11 starts the Englehart run through V.15. V. 16 & V.17 are the Jim Shooter run w/ George Perez & John Byrne; V. 18 is David Michelinie/John Byrne -a prime chunk of Avengers
  • Black Panther Masterworks Vol. 1 – The original, classic Jungle Action run with Don McGregor / Rich Buckler / Billy Graham / Gil Kane – a LOT of things get established here.
  • Captain America V. 7 – 11; V.7-9 is the classic Steve Englehart/ (mostly) Sal Buscema run with the Secret Empire, the Red Skull and a snake of an ad man. V.10-11 is Jack Kirby’s return and V.10’s Madbomb is more relevant today than it should be. Also good – V.14 contains the brief, but classic, Roger Stern/John Byrne run
  • Captain Marvel V.3 -4; V. 3 is Jim Starlin’s run, which is the first Thanos arc. Utter classic. V.4 is the half-forgotten, yet quite entertaining Steve Englehart/Al Milgrom run.
  • Daredevil V. 15-17; Frank Miller’s first run. (V. 14 ends with the first issue he drew, but it’s not particularly connected to the rest of the run.) Yes, the whole thing is now in Masterworks and it’s a decent price for the material.
  • Defenders V. 3-5; The inspired strangeness of Steve Gerber’s run. Headmen! Elf With a Gun!
  • Doctor Strange V.5-10; Once Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner show up the 70s and 80s were a strong time for Doctor Strange. Consistently A-list writers and artists. Almost amazingly so for a bi-monthly title.
  • Fantastic Four V. 21-25; The John Byrne era in thick slices
  • Iron Man V.5-7; The meat of Archie Goodwin’s Iron Man run with Gene Colan and George Tuska
  • Iron Man V. 13-15 – V. 13 has David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita, Jr. arrive. They start with “Demon in a Bottle,” the famous arc, but Iron Man is very good for a long time, starting here.
  • Marvel Two-In-One V. 5-6; In V.5 Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio arrive for a fun run that’s not always remembered. George Perez and Ron Wilson handle most of the art. “Project Pegasus” and “The Serpent Crown Affair” are two of the major arcs.
  • Sub-Mariner V. 7 – Something different? Namor’s creator, Bill Everett returns to his creation as writer/artist.
  • Warlock V. 2 – Jim Starlin’s first run on Adam Warlock, complete in one volume. A continuation of his Captain Marvel run, Thanos is back and this one really lays the groundwork for the eventual Infinity Gauntlet.

Remember, New Year’s Day is last call for the DC Holiday Sale. Our extensive annotations for it are here.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales – The DC Holiday Sale – $1.99 Batman, Superman, etc. (Cheap)

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s a DEEP dive into the DC Holiday Sale. Plus, an unannounced Bendis sale at Dark Horse.

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 Commitment to Cheap

The DC Holiday Sale runs through Monday, 1/1.

This is definitely the value sale between now and January 1st. Plenty of $1.99 collected editions and MUCH better than usual prices on expensive volumes that get lousy discounts during the rest of the year. If you have received some gift cards or are about to, this is where your credits will go the furthest at the moment.

There’s 3071 items in it, so it takes a little time to scroll through. When you do, PLEASE remember to right-click on anything you’re interested in and open the link/book in a new tab? You really, really do not want to loose your place. Trust us – this ain’t our first rodeo.

That said, here’s an entirely too large list of annotations of things we like, think are particularly good deals or otherwise notable. And we’ll try and get a *little* organization to it, because it’s still a lot of info.  Yes, that we can make this list may also be an indictment of our lifestyle, but we’re used to it. 😉

Batman

Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart  Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin  Legends of the Dark Knight Norm Breyfogle 2

  • Batman (1940-’11) -We especially like $2.99 “Caped Crusader” (the ’80s run) and $2.99 Ed Brubaker volumes if you scroll down.
  • Detective Comics(1937-’11) – We especially like $2.99 “Dark Knight Detective” (the ’80s run) and “New Gotham” volumes.
  • Batman and the Outsiders – The classic ’80s team book by Mike W. Barr / Jim Aparo / Alan Davis. It’s rare to see all three volumes on sale at the same time (and the first volume rarely gets a proper discount)
  • Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo – Marc Silvestri does Batman. $2.99
  • Batman/Superman: World’s Finest – Mark Waid & Dan Mora’s excellent current series. (And yes, this is a star turn for Mora.) – $2.99@
  • 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! A lot more than $1.99 worth of entertainment.
  • 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
  • Batman (2016-present) – Tom King’s run through the current Chip Zdarksy run, mostly $1.99/volume with some $2.99 sprinkled in.
  • Detective Comics (2016-present) – James Tynion IV’s first and – we’ll say it – better Batman run for $1.99@.
  • Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart – Mostly Englehart/Marshall Rogers, but also some Walt Simonson. This is the Detective Comics run that’s on most “best Batman run” short lists, plus the follow-ups over the years. 452 pages / $5.99
  • Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin – The Batman tales of one of the best writers (who moved up to editorial) and also one of the nicest guys in comics. Probably The nicest guy. 471 pages / $4.99
  • Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle V.1 and V.2 – The Batman team of Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle, who had a fantastic run in the late 80s/early 90s and (get this) introduced a lot of new villains. 522 / 471 pages, $5.99
  • Tales of the Batman: Gerry Conway Vol. 1 / Vol. 2 / Vol. 3 – Conway wrote Batman & Detective in the early 80s and the stories bounced between the two books quite a bit, so this is the better way to read the Don Newton and Gene Colan stories. 438 / 472 / 502 pages, $5.99
  • Tales of the Batman: Alan Brennert – Normally a TV screenwriter, Brennert wrote some notable Batman over the years, all collected here. 207 pages / $2.99
  • Legends of the Dark Knight: Alan Davis – The Mike W. Barr / Alan Davis run from Detective. 270 pages / $4.99
  • Legends of the Dark Knight: Jim Aparo Vol. 1 / Vol. 2 / Vol. 3 – This is mostly the very long and rather amazing Bob Haney / Jim Aparo run from The Brave and the Bold. Every volume over 500 pages / $5.99. Fun stuff, off in it’s own little world.
  • Batman: Tales of the Demon – Denny O’Neil / Neal Adams / Don Newton. This is the original set of Ra’s al Ghul stories. Because it’s a HC in print, it usually has a ridiculous digital price, so $5.99 is a good price for it, right now.

Superman

All-Star Superman  Adventures of Superman  Superman Smashes The Klan

Wonder Woman 

Wonder Woman: The Golden Age  Wonder Woman New 52  Wonder Woman - True Amazon

  • Wonder Woman: The Golden Age – Early Wonder Woman is strange. Lots of bondage and domination themes. Seriously. ~400 pages for $2.99. 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

Justice League

Justice League of America  Justice League Quarterly  JLA

  • Justice League of America (1960 – 87) – The biggest highlight here is the set of $1.99/$2.99 Silver Age collections of the earliest stories. The JSA/JLA team-ups (Crisis on Multiple Earths) are also deep discounted at $1.99. This series hasn’t really been collected often.
  • Justice League of America (1987 – 96) – This is the Justice League International era, as started by Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis/Kevin Maguire. Bwa ha ha. And that’s the best place to start.  $1.99 each.
  • 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/$2.99
  • Justice League of America (2006 – 11) – The gems here are the 4 volumes written by Dwayne McDuffie (from the animated series): V1 / V2 / V3 / V4
  • Justice League (2016 -18) – The gem here is the Priest / Pete Woods arc.
  • The Nail – Alan Davis weaves a masterpiece in this pair of Elseworlds about a world where the Kents don’t find baby Kal-El in his spaceship and Superman does not emerge. A+ for $2.99

Green Lantern

Green Lantern  Green Lantern  Green Lantern by Geoff Johns

  • Green Lantern (’60 – ’86)
    • Silver Age omnibuses for $2.99
    • This listing has O’Neil / Adams for $2.99 and don’t sleep on the Len Wein / Dave Gibbons -> Steve Englehart / Joe Staton volumes at the end –  $1.99@
    • Tales of the Green Lantern Corps, V.3  – Bizarrely mislabeled, this is the first six issues of the Steve Englehart/Joe Staton Green Lantern Corps, which extends their Green Lantern run
    • Green Lantern Corps continues the Englehart/Staton run… after that Tales volume
  • Green Lantern (’05 – ’11) – The Geoff Johns run… and this is more complicated than is should be, but it really is an excellent run.
  • The Green Lantern by Grant Morrison & Liam Sharp – One of the more imaginative Lantern stories in a while, especially as illustrated, this is really one long story in four volumes, broken up as Season One  and Season Two (even though the first series was never referred to as a season… that or DC is actively trying to confuse you, which is not beyond the realm of possibility).

Legion of Super-Heroes

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes   Legion of Super Heroes The Great Darkness Saga  Legion of Superheroes: The Curse

Not as much of the Legion run is in digital or currently in print as you might think. Of what is, here are some highlights and recommendations.

  • Legion of Super-Heroes: The Silver Age – The earliest appearances, through the first 10 issues of their Adventure Comics feature.
  • Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes – These two volumes pick up roughly where Paul Levitz starts writing and takes you through where Superboy leaves the Legion (which is the Gerry Conway run). Artists include Mike Grell, James Sherman, Joe Staton and a bit of Jim Starlin. Included are the wedding of Lightning Lad & Saturn Girl and the Earthwar sequence.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (1980-85) – What you’re really looking at here are the last two volumes where Paul Levitz returns and starts to hit his stride, with Keith Giffen joining him fairly quickly.
    • The Great Darkness Saga  – Levitz/Giffen with their all-time classic arc in the middle of it. 414 pages for $2.99? A steal.
    • The Curse – Levitz/Giffen continue to deal with the fallout from The Great Darkness. 544 pages for $2.99? Very hard to beat for value.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (1985-89) – Only one volume available and they really need to get on the stick about collecting the rest of the Levitz run.
  • Legion Lost – The entertaining (if controversial) Dan Abnett / Andy Lanning / Oliver Copiel run. The setup and then the actual Legion Lost.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (2005-09) – Starts out with the now familiar team of Mark Waid and Barry Kitson. Ends with a flawed, but interesting run by Jim Shooter, returning to the feature he started out on.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (2010-11) – Paul Levitz returns.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (2011 – 13) – The Levitz run is relaunched for New 52… and Keith Giffen returns for the final volume in the set.

Jack Kirby

New Gods by Jack Kirby  Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby  Kamandi

Most of his DC material is included

Fourth World:

Non-Fourth World DC work:

And more gems from that tall pile of comics:

Creature Commandos  Doctor Fate  Doomsday Clock

  • 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 $2.99.
  • The Atlantis Chronicles – Sometimes filed under Aquaman, this is an undersea high fantasy series about the history of Atlantis and Atlantean royalty. (And where all this “Orin” stuff comes from.) Always under the radar because there isn’t usually a reasonably priced edition. Peter David writes. Estabon Maroto draws – and slays. We don’t usually see this for $5.99 outside the holidays.
  • Camelot 3000 – Mike W. Barr / Brian Bolland – King Arthur returns to repel an alien invasion… as was foretold. ~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 for a lousy $1.99
  • 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 appearances 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 / $3.99
  • Doctor Fate – Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew did a wonderful, mythology forward update of the character.
  • The Doomsday Clock – The Geoff Johns / Gary Frank crossover Event that brought Watchmen into the DC Universe. 455 pages/$4.99
  • 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. Double (deluxe) volumes for $2.99!
    Far Sector  Gotham City: Year One  John Constantine, Hellblazer
  • 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 / $2.99.
  • Final Crisis – The celebrated crossover Event by Grant Morrison / J.G. Jones / Doug Mahnke / Carlos Pacheco. 456 pages / $2.99
  • The Flash (’87 – ’09) – $2.99/$3.99 omnibuses of the Mark Waid and Geoff Johns runs… plus the “it’s not happening again” team of Grant Morrison & Mark Millar for $1.99.
  • The Flash: The Silver Age – The early stories, ~400 pages / $2.99
  • The Flintstones – Mark Russell and Steve Pugh hit a high water mark with a satirical and bittersweet take on the stone age.
  • 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.
  • Gotham City:  Year One – Tom King & Phil Hester’s very recently collected noir detective series where Slam Bradley is sucked into a chain of events that create the Gotham City as we know it today.
  • Grayson – The Tim Seeley / (early) Tom King / Mikel Janin series with Dick Grayson as a spy/double agent
  • 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 / $4.99
  • Hardware: The Man in the Machine -Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan gave this Milestone book a great opening arc.
  • Hellblazer – Vertigo’s longest running title for $1.99/$2.99 per volume.
    • John Constantine, Hellblazer – The superlative Si Spurrier / Aaron Campbell / Matias Bergara that’s right up there with the best of a storied franchise. $1.99/volume, so no excuses!
  • Hitman – The Garth Ennis / John McCrae bloody farce
  • Infinite Frontier – The crossover Event. 392 pages / $2.99
  • Jack of Fables – The Bill Willingham / Lilah Sturges/ Tony Akins / Russ Braun Fables companion book. (i.e., fun) $1.99/volume
  • Jonah Hex: Shadows West – All of the Joe R. Lansdale / Tim Truman horror take on Jonah Hex for $2.99. Great stuff that started a lawsuit!
    Kingdom Come  Manhunter  Mister Miracle
  • Kingdom Come – Mark Waid and Alex Ross paint a dystopian future (and comment on the 90s grim ‘n’ gritty trend) – $1.99
  • Lobo by Keith Giffen and Alan Grant – With art by Simon Bisley, until the editors realized what he was sneaking into the cover. The rude, crude humor version that screams “Jason Momoa” to everyone. Much fun, but not for puritans.
  • Manhunter – Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson did an absolute classic as a backup in Detective. Spies, ninjas, a secret society and Batman crosses over in the end. Highest recommendation – $1.99.
  • Marshal Law– Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill do a satire of superheroes as a Judge Dredd-like vehicle. If you like The Boys, this is worth a look for $5.99. Darker and more violent, not for kids.
  • Mister Miracle by Steve Englehart & Steve Gerber – A few years after Kirby left, DC revived Mister Miracle, only to have it fall in the “DC Implosion.” That’s actually Englehart/Marshall Rogers and Gerber/Michael Golden/Russ Heath. Yes, Heath inking Golden and it’s GREAT. The Gerber/Golden/Heath run is the star and you’ll be mad it was cancelled. Totally under the radar for years.
  • Mister Miracle (2017-19) – The Tom King / Mitch Gerads Eisner-Winning revival. $2.99
  • New Teen Titans – Marv Wolfman / George Perez for $1.99@
  • Night Force – Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan (as in Tomb of Dracula) reunite at DC for horror/time travel series that flew under too many radars.
  • Nightwing – Tom Taylor / Bruno Redondo – the series that could be the current center of the DCU. Vol. 1 for $1.99;  Vol. 2  and  Vol. 3 for $2.99@. (We think it hits its stride in V.2)
  • The Omega Men: The End – Tom King and Barnaby Bagenda turn the Omega Men into a study of fanaticism and terrorism. Also a Green Lantern tale as Kyle Rayner is abducted. Near the top of the King cannon.
  • One-Star Squadron – The “wait… why haven’t they collaborated before?” team of Mark Russell and Steve Leiber pit Red Tornado and Power Girl against the gig economy! Yes, it’s a pitch black satire. – $1.99
  • Orion by Walt Simonson – Walt at the top of his game exploring the Kirby mythos. We’d put it up with his Thor, but DC didn’t market it very well and hardly anyone remembers it. Recommended.
  • Planetary – Warren Ellis & John Cassaday.
  • Preacher – Garth Ennis / Steve Dillion. Double volumes for $1.99 (!)
    Road to Perdition  Sandman Mystery Theater  Sheriff of Babylon
  • Prez: Corndog-in-Chief – Mark Russell & Ben Caldwell. We wish this book wasn’t so darn relevant. An accurate satire of election law and political horse trading finds a teen becoming president after a video of her mishap with a corn dog deep fryer goes viral. It’s a winner, especially as we approach an election year. – $1.99
  • Promethea – Alan Moore & J.H. Williams explore mythology and symbolism as a college student becomes the latest incarnation of the avatar of imagination… and tries to head off a looming apocalypse. Smart and beautifully illustrated book. – $1.99@
  • The Road to Perdition – Max Allan Collins & Richard Piers Rayner – this is where the film came from.
  • Saga of the Swamp Thing – The legendary Alan Moore years for $1.99@.
  • Sandman Mystery Theater – Matt Wagner / Steven T. Seagle / Guy Davis (main artist) – A wonderful pulp detective series from Vertigo with the Golden Age Sandman (pre-teen sidekick). Pulp with more introspection. 300+ page installments for $2.99. Great series.
  • Scalped – Jason Aaron & R.M. Guéra – A Vertigo crime series. An FBI agent goes undercover at the casino on the reservation he grew up in and thought he’d escape. Nobody does rural noir like Aaron.
  • Secret Society of Super Villains – For the completists, at a better price.
  • Seven Soldiers of Victory – Grant Morrison’s self-contained series of mini-series/Event in two volumes
  • Shade, The Changing Man – Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo reimagine the Ditko character for Vertigo. – $1.99
  • The Sheriff of Babylon – Tom King & Mitch Gerads explore murder and crime in Baghdad’s Green Zone. The full series for $2.99
  • Starman – James Robinson & Tony Harris reinvent the legacy superhero (and legacy villain) with one of the best things to come out of DC in the 90s. DC really needs to finish collecting this one.
  • Stormwatch – The original Warren Ellis / Tom Raney / Brian Hitch run
  • Strange Adventures – Tom King & Mitch Gerads with a political/deconstructionist take on Adam Strange
  • Suicide Squad – John Ostrander / Luke McDonnell – the original ’80s Dirty Dozen riff that spawned the current franchise. -$1.99@
  • Suicide Squad: Get Joker – Brian Azzarello & Alex Maleev did a Black Label version
    Jimmy Olsen    The Human Target  The Brave and the Bold
  • Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? – Matt Fraction & Steve Leiber drop a joke bomb disguised as a murder mystery. HILARIOUS. Highly recommended.
  • The Authority – Warren Ellis & Bryan Hitch revamp Stormwatch, then Mark Millar & Frank Quitely tag in.
  • The Brave & The Bold – Liam Sharp teams Batman and Wonder Woman against Celtic gods.
  • The Hawk and the Dove: The Silver Age – Steve Ditko’s original run for $2.99
  • The Human Target – One of the most recent releases listed, Tom King & Greg Smallwood craft a noir mystery about Christopher Chance investigating who poisoned him and it looks like one of the BWA HA HA era Justice League did the deed. Noir and slapstick intermingling? YES. Very well done and especially great art. And, apparently, James Gunn’s favorite DC title of ’23. Both volumes for ~$5, total.
  • The Huntress: Origins – Paul Levitz and (mostly) Joe Staton with The Huntress’s adventures from Batman Family and Wonder Woman. – $1.99
  • The Invisibles – Grant Morrison / Jill Thompson / Phil Jimenez – The one with the letter column request. If you know, you know.
    Multiversity  Nice House on the Lake  
  • Multiversity – Grant Morrison’s tale of parallel worlds. One volume/$2.99.
  • The Nice House on the Lake – James Tynion IV and Alvaro Martinez Bueno spin a horror table in what was a pretty big hit. – $1.99@
  • The Spectre – John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake’s under the radar classic about a man who isn’t alive and the force of destruction he’s bound to. – $1.99@
  • The Unwritten – Mike (M.R.) Carey and Peter Gross in a tale of fiction shaping reality (with a mild Harry Potter satirical element in the premise).
  • The Wild Storm – Warren Ellis and John Davis-Hunt reimagine the Wildstorm universe.
    • The Wild Storm: Michael Cray – Bryan Hill / N. Stephen Harris companion book where an assassin goes after funhouse mirror versions of the DC heroes.
  • Top 10 – Alan Moore / Gene Ha / Zander Cannon – What if Alan Moore wrote Hill Street Blues, but the police were superheroes? That’s essentially what this is and it’s wonderful.
  • Transmetropolitan – Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson present the absurdist adventures of a Hunter S. Thompson-esque journalist in a dystopian future, butting heads against a corrupt president. The interesting thing is how many different presidents/prime ministers/etc. have been compared to “The Smiler.”
  • Watchmen – Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. We figure you’ve heard of it by now. $2.99. We do find it a little offensive this is listed as “Media Tie-in / Adaptation,” though…
  • Y: The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan / Pia Guerra in $1.99 double volumes. A deal!

Things are probably going to be quiet through New Year’s Day. We may or may not pop in sometime next week to drop some recommendations on individual Masterworks editions. If you want to see what was new to the annual Masterworks sale this year, click here.

In the meantime… holiday vacations are a good time to read some comics.

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Comixology (At Amazon) Sales: The Annual Marvel Masterworks Sale, Plus Star Wars and What If

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, its the Annual Marvel Masterworks sale, plus Star Wars and What If.

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):

Marvel’s Annual Masterworks Sale
Daredevil Masterworks Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Black Panther Masterworks

The Marvel Masterworks Sale runs through Monday, 1/8.

Yes, we’ve been getting a lot questions about whether this sale was happening this year. It’s happening now, though the $4.99 price point is not as cheap as it’s been the last couple years.  Since a lot of folks make this an annual “stock-up sale,” and wandering what’s come out since last year’s sale, we’ve compiled a list of those titles.  We’re looking out for you on that.

For the most part, we’re into the 1980s with this batch. Daredevil is the end of the first Frank Miller run. Fantastic Four is nearing the end of the John Byrne era and V. 25 includes The Last Galactus Story. Iron Man sees the transition from the first David Michelinie / Bob Layton run to Denny O’Neil / Luke McDonnell run and Rhodey taking over armor duties.

We also feel we should point out the oddity of that last Dazzler collection. Did you realize that the original series ended with a short run by Archie Goodwin and Paul (Concrete) Chadwick? It also contains the more X-centric Beauty and the Beast mini-series by Ann Nocenti and Don Perlin.

Past that, hit the main sales page and dig it. Plenty of classic Marvel on sale for what usually works out to under $0.50/issue.  Cheap.

Whither the Epic Edition Sale?

Yes, we’ve been hearing that question, too. In past years, the Epic Editions were on sale the week of Black Friday. This year, there was an Omnibus sale the week of Black Friday.  Since the Masterworks sale is in it’s normal time slot, we’re guessing the Epic Editions sale is pushed back to January… although whether the second week or later is beyond us.  We can’t imagine they’d skip it altogether, though.

Nothing But Star Wars

Original Marvel Star Wars   Star Wars Wild Space

The Marvel Star Wars Omnibus Sale runs through Monday, 1/8.

$4.99 collections of the original Marvel run and the Dark Horse Material. This is broken up in the series entries a little oddly:

What’s good?  Over in “The Rebellion” link, some of those volumes of the original Marvel series get over 500 pages.  Lets call those V. 1, V.2, V.3, V.4 and V.5.  V. 3 catches most of the under-rated David Michelinie / Walt Simonson run.

This is really organized to let you pick your era and go.

If Not, Why Not?

What If?

The Marvel What If? Sale runs through Monday, 1/8.

NOTE: as we type this, What If is in a negaband sale, assigned to the same URL as last week’s Alpha Flight sale. If you click the link and get Alpha Flight, reload a few times until What If shows up.

We have a preference for the original What If, here, but we’d like to point something out to you first. When you go to the series link for the original, toward the top of the page, you’ll see a new navigation feature that’s a little more relevant here. Under the series graphic on the left hand side is a pulldown menu where you can select “Volumes” or “Omnibus.” Volumes being the “normal” sized collections.  We’ll have to have a longer look at how that’s implemented. It might be useful… IF it works.  In this case it only shows the omnibus on sale. Yes, that’s right, there are actually four omnibuses containing ~12 issues each of What If. Only one of them is on sale and that’s the only one that shows up on the Omnibuses page, ergo the Omnibuses page appears to be broken. (Why are you acting surprised?)

So, here’s the link for the “regular” volumes. Here’s the link for the lone omnibus on sale (which is issues #1-12).  And we’ll look at some of the more interesting stuff in the individual volumes, since What If is all over the map. Some of these are going to sound awfully darn familiar, too.  What If seems like a gold mine for pitching your editor!

  • #1 – What If Spider-Man Joined the Fantastic Four? (V. 1 / Omnibus)
  • #2 – What If The Hulk Had the Brain of Bruce Banner? (V. 1 / Omnibus)
  • #10 – What If Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor? (V. 2 / Omnibus)
  • #12 – What If Rick Jones Had Become The Hulk? (V. 2 / Omnibus)
  • #13 – What If Conan the Barbarian Walked the Earth Today?  (NOPE, no longer collected)
  • #23 – What If The Hulk Had Become a Barbarian? (V. 4)
  • #30 – What If Spider-Man’s Clone Had Lived? (V. 5)
  • #35 – What If Elektra Had Lived? (V.6)
  • #37 – What If The Beast and The Thing Continued to Mutate? (V.6)
  • #43 – What If Conan Were Stranded in the 20th Century? (No longer collected).

Gosh, we’re sure NOBODY ever picked up those topics a decade or four later…

We’ll be back at the normal time at the end of the week to look at the rest of the new sales. The DC sale looks familiar and cheap, but we need some time to dig through it.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: (Pre-Film) Aquaman; Old Man Logan; Alpha Flight

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC discounts Aquaman ahead of the film, while Marvel drops prices on Old Man Logan and Alpha Flight.

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):

Wolverine… and the Sea?

Wolerine: Old Man Logan   Wolverine: Old Man Logan

The Marvel Old Logan and the Wasteland Sale runs through Monday, 12/18.

Yes, the Old Man Logan storyline has spawn a series of miniseries set in “The Wasteland” setting from the original.

That’s what the real spread is here with the rest of the sale being side attractions you may or may not be into.  The original storyline of a cranky, aged (“Old Man”) version of Wolverine living in a dystopic future came off as a sort of Elseworlds tale and is fairly well regarded as a standalone tale.

It was popular enough that the “Old Man Logan” version of the character was contrived to appear in the present (his past… before the disaster that spawned a dystopia) in the period when Wolverine was supposed to be “dead.” It even lasted 50 issues. We’d say give the Jeff Lemire issues a look if it sounds interesting, particularly the Lemire/Sorrentino issues. This was one of their pre-Image collaborations and it’s much more entertaining than the editorial premise sounds.

The Great White North

Alpha Flight  X-Men / Alpha Flight

The Marvel Alpha Flight Sale runs through Monday, 12/18.

We know what you’re thinking: “If Spider-Man could team up with the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, why couldn’t Alpha Flight team up with Bob and Doug McKenzie?” The way we heard it, this was proposed, but Guy Caballero nixed it.

The main item of note here is Alpha Flight Classic, 3 volumes that comprise the John Byrne run on the original series and a Bill Mantlo/Mike Mignola issue and Byrne essentially traded Alpha Flight for The Incredible Hulk. (We recall the Mantlo run being better than advertised, but there doesn’t currently seem to be interest in collecting it.)

Of possible related interest is X-Men / Alpha Flight, which features some early Uncanny X-Men appearances and two crossover mini-series. The 1985 mini by Chris Claremont and Paul Smith is particularly good and the first half of the “Asgardian Wars” story arc.

And for something out of left field, there’s the more recent Gamma Flight, which is an Alpha Flight adjacent spin-off of Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing, Crystal Frazier and Len Medina.

The Deep Blue Sea

Aquaman    Aquaman  Aquaman by Peter David

The DC Aquaman Sale runs through Monday, 12/18.

You’d think there was a movie coming out?

We’ve heard a few versions of what the new film is supposed to be about. Inspired by Silver Age Aquaman stories with Black Manta as the villain is one story we’ve heard. That it’s incorporating elements from the abandoned “The Trench” spin-off film in another.

We always associated Black Manta a little more with the 70s and the Death of a Prince storyline, but he debuted in ’67 and made some more appearances as the first Aquaman run was ending. And, really, the Steve Skeates/Jim Aparo run was one of the better Silver Age runs, so there you go. That’s collected in a couple books that are a little more expensive than things we’ve seen in recent weeks. Manta pops up in The Search for Mera, but we think what the filmmakers are referring to are the Deadly Waters stories, where Manta tries to usurp Atlantis.

All this business about “The Trench” is from the first two volumes of the Geoff Johns / Ivan Reis (New 52) run, where Aquaman encounters a scary race of creatures from the deepest depths of an undersea trench. The second volume, “The Others,” is particularly good.

Another take was the Peter David / Martin Egeland ’90s Aquaman run, which featured an angrier, more violent Aquaman who’d lost a hand and replaced it with a hook. Popular, but controversial.

But if you want an unusual (and quite enjoyable) run, you’re looking for Aquman: Sword of Atlantis. Kurt Busiek and Jackson Guice added an undersea Conan feel to the feature with plenty of sorcery and a bit of mystery around who various characters really were. We wished this version had a longer run.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Howard the Duck; Doctor Who; Aliens; Inhumans; Planet of the Apes and Ms. Tree

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts the unique mix of Howard the Duck, Inhumans and Alien. Plus, Doctor Who and Ms. Tree.

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):

You can find the highlights of this week’s DC sale here (plenty of $1.99 collected editions).

And a quick word about the Marvel sales. There’s usually a Masterworks sale around the holidays. You want what you want, when you want it… but keep that in the back of your mind. At this point we’re not sure if they’re holding that back for NYE or not, but we can’t imagine it’s not coming.  That said…

Duck Soup

Howard the Duck  Howard the Duck  Howard the Duck

The Marvel Howard the Duck Sale runs through Monday, 12/11.

The original 27-issue Howard the Duck run by Steve Gerber/Frank Brunner/Gene Colan is a classic and a delight. (You may have noticed Gerber has several classics, too.) Wonderful comics.

Now, Howard was Geber’s baby and Gerber didn’t necessarily like other people writing Howard. We tend to feel that way, too, but you be you.  After a handful of issues post-Gerber, the series was relaunched (outside the comics code) as Howard the Duck Magazine. That was largely written by Bill Mantlo with Gene Colan, John Buscema and Michael Golden on art.

Then in ’15 (possibly due to a movie cameo), Howard got brought back by Chip Zdarksy and Joe Quinones. First in a mini-series. Then in a regular series.

We’re So Glad Disney Re-Acquired the Film Rights and Ended the Nightmare…

Inhumans.  The Origin of the Inhumans  Inhumans: Once and Future Kings

The Marvel Inhumans Sale runs through Monday, 12/11.

Yeah, sign us up for the “The Inhumans shouldn’t replace the X-Men” party. And yes, Ms. Marvel should have been a mutant the entire time. Notarize it.

With Inhumans comics there is one volume that stands far above the rest: Inhumans by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee, which was part of the old Marvel Knights imprint when it came out as a 12 issue maxi-series. That’s your gold standard.

Curiously, the Black Bolt series by Saladin Ahmend and Christian Ward isn’t in the sale. We’d have probably slotted that at #2. It’s quite good and the first six issues? Extra special.

There’s nothing wrong with going back to the beginning. Inhumans: The Origin of the Inhumans is a collection of the early Stan Lee & Jack Kirby appearances from Fantastic Four and Thor. It’s also a thick 425 pages.

For something under the radar? Inhumans: Once and Future Kings by Priest and Phil Noto. Inhuman politics from the younger days of Black Bolt and Maximus… plus, Lockjaw comics.

Foxy

The Marvel 20th Century Sale runs through Monday, 12/11.

Aliens: The Original Years  Alien  Planet of the Apes Adventures

And by “20th Century,” they mean 20th Century Fox. These are movie comics.

The Aliens: The Original Years Omnibus program is extended from last month’s omnibus sale. That’s the Dark Horse Aliens material. The first chunk of that Dark Horse Aliens material is also available in an Epic Collection, if you’d rather just dip a toe in. It’s likely the rest will eventually get in Epic format, but that will likely take a few years.

You may recall that Marvel was doing some new Aliens material. It’s true and we quite enjoyed it. Phillip Kennedy Johnson writes it. Salvador Larocca illustrates the first two volumes and Julius Ohta does the third. Weyland-Yutani Corporation is the through line for these tales, as you might expect, manipulating all manner of things as they look for that perfect weaponized life form. This one is split up oddly – Vol. 1 & 2 are here, while Vol. 3 is here.

And for something a little more odd, there’s Planet Of The Apes Adventures: The Original Marvel Years. What is this? Marvel’s Planet of the Apes magazine adapted the first two films. Marvel then reprinted the adaptations in color as the “normal” Adventures on the Planet of the Apes comic. Doug Moench writes, George Tuksa illustrates the first film and Alfredo Acala illustrates Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Unusually, they’ve got this “omnibus” priced at $6.99, although this is a lot skinner than the typical omnibus.

Hammer-isms

Ms. Tree

The Titan Ms. Tree Sale runs through Sunday, 12/31.

You don’t hear the name pop up that often, but Ms. Tree had a 50-issue run (plus specials) before DC Comics picked it up for a ~2.5 year run as an ~80 page quarterly, at which point everything stopped. Including the specials, that’s pushing the equivalent of a 100-issue run. Not something many 80s/90s indies can boast of.

Max Allan Collins, these days, is probably best known as the writer of The Road to Perdition. When this started he was fresh off some awards for his detective novels and was also writing the Dick Tracy comic strip. He was joined on his comic book adventure by Terry Beatty, who’s currently writing and drawing the Rex Morgan, MD comic strip.

Ms. Tree’s premise is essentially “what if Mike Hammer got killed and Velda took over?” (Velda being Hammer’s secretary who’s quite a bit more hardboiled in the books than in the TV adaptations.) So this is a Mickey Spillane/Mike Hammer-esque detective series. And yes, these days Collins – at Spillane’s request – has been completing the manuscripts and manuscript fragments from Spillane’s files. So if you’re looking for Spillane-esque, this is pretty close to official.

Now, these collections are somewhat out of order. V. 1 and V.2 are actually collecting the Ms. Tree Quarterly stories from DC, which weren’t collected before. V. 3 goes back to the beginning and starts going through the original material, which did have a couple different book collections (including mass market paperback).

V.1 – 3 are here.

V.4 (and the upcoming, not discounted, V.5) are here.

Knock Knock

Doctor Who

The Titan 10th Doctor Sale runs through Monday, 1/15.

That’s 10th Doctor as in David Tennant’s first run on Doctor Who. Nick Abadzis is your writer, initially with Elena Casagrande and then Giorgia Sposito on art.

It’s available as single issues and collected editions.

We would point out that five issues @ $0.99 is cheaper than a five issue collection for $5.99. Just saying…

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Holiday Sales March on – More $1.99 DC Titles

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has a new set of $1.99/$2.99 titles, include more recent selections and a heads up on the latest Marvel sale incidents.

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. We’re not sure what’s going on with the Marvel sales this week, so we’re going to look at DC right now, since they have another holiday-priced ($1.99/$2.99) sale, and then circle back around to Marvel at the end of the week at the usual time.

Marvel’s sales from two weeks ago are still up – we’re not sure if they’re supposed to be – and we have some Nega-Band action! (This is when two sales occupy the same URL. Reload ~5 times and watch the sales switch places, just like Mar-Vell and Rick Jones did with their Nega-Bands.)

The Heroes Reborn Sale and Marvel 20th Century Sale occupy the same URL. And that’s supposed to be 20th Century Fox – Planet of the Apes / Aliens / Predator. We also don’t think this Planet of the Apes Omnibus is supposed to be $6.99, so if it’s appealing, you might want to grab it before it gets corrected.

The Marvel Omnibus sale page is still up, but except for the Aliens collections, the prices are no longer $19.99, so heads up on that. The Secret Wars prices seem to be intact.

And, 6 hours later, there have been some adjustments. But we’re still not sure that PoA price will stand.

It’s always something, isn’t it?

Freshly Discounted

The DC Recent Hits Sale runs through Monday, 12/11.

This is a fairly odd sale. It appears to be collected editions released from the first week of September and then back as far as April ’21.  That said, there a lot of the $1.99/$2.99 price points of the last few weeks (it must be the holiday season) and this will be the first time a decent chunk of these have been on sale, so let’s hit the highlights (roughly speaking, from newest to oldest):

Nightwing  DCeased: War of the Undead Gods  Gotham City: Year One

  • Gotham City: Year One by Tom King and Phil Hester. This one needs some contextual framing. First off, we’re under the impression this isn’t a Black Label title, so it could be in continuity. It sure reads like a Black Label. From a Batman perspective, it’s an attempt to explain how Gotham City got to its current state. From a reader perspective, this isn’t a Batman comic. It’s hardboiled/noir detective story somewhere in between the Hammett and Spillane schools, featuring Slam Bradley (who is, broadly speaking, more in the Mike Hammer role than Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe). There’s been a kidnapping. The Wayne family is involved. Bradley doesn’t realize he’s up to his chin in sewage until he’s trapped. It’s a good detective (graphic) novel that might actually be better if it wasn’t tied into the Bat-mythos. Don’t get it for a child thinking it’s just a Batman comic, though. This one goes to dark places.
  • DCeased: War of the Undead Gods by Tom Taylor and Trevor Hairsine – the final chapter in the DCeased series of mini-series. We know a lot of you have been waiting on this to get a discount.
  • Batman V.2: The Bat-Man of Gotham – Chip Zdarksky / Mike Hawthorne. 2nd Zdarksky collection. If you go to the end of the series page, you’ll also see V.1 of Zdarky run, the Josh Williamson collection and the final Tynion Fear State on sale for $1.99/$2.99.
  • Batman: The Knight – Speaking of Zdarksy, this is his take on Bruce Wayne’s training years with art by Carmine Di Giandomenico.
  • The Human Target – Tom King / Greg Smallwood. Still on sale. Still great, especially at $1.99 a volume.
  • Nightwing Vol. 3: The Battle for Bloodhaven’s Heart – Tom Taylor / Bruno Redondo. This was not on sale last week and will put you back $2.99. First two volumes are $1.99@ and still on sale. And this volume is very nearly a Titan’s tale.
  • Batman: One Bad Day – The whole line is $1.99/volume.
  • Wonder Woman Historia – The Amazons – Kelly Sue DeConnick / Phil Jimenz / Gene Ha / Nicola Scott. Want to see some absolutely jaw dropping art? This one.
  • Black Adam: Theology – Priest / Rafa Sandoval / Eddy Barrows.  Black Adam catches a plague and thinks about his line of succession. Priest exploring a really odd angle? Go figure. Interesting read with a caveat: we’re not sure if V.2 is going to be collected or not in digital, so you might need single issues to finish the series. (Print orders apparently didn’t meet DC’s expectations?)
  • Batman/Superman: World’s Finest – Mark Waid / Dan Mora. If you’re looking for the classic/traditional DC feel, this is your book. Bats and Supes encounter a demon and the Doom Patrol is along for the ride. Lots of fun and Mora has made the transition to superheroes VERY well.
  • Batman: Killing Time – Tom King/David Marquez. We’ve mentioned it before but a solid noir/caper tale.
  • Suicide Squad V.1: Trial by Fire – John Ostrander / Luke McDonnell. You remember on Friday, we said that V. 1 of the original series would be on sale soon enough. Well, it’s on sale. As we’re typing this, it looks like the entire series is now on sale, but we’re not sure how much longer V.2-8 will be $1.99, so heads up.
  • The Flash: The Death of Iris West – Cary Bates / Alex Savuik / Don Heck. A collection that digitally suffers from HC pricing is now $4.99 in digital, so if you’re curious now is the time. This is a real oddity. First off, she’s going by Iris Allen at this point in the continuity, not Iris West. This is the famed storyline where Professor Zoom murders her and Barry loses it. It’s a particular oddity because this is a fairly early attempt to write a DC comic in more of a Marvel style with more subplots lurking in the background before coming to the surface. And not all of it works. Some folks swear by this arc, though.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Black Friday / Cyber Monday Part 2 – More DC $1.99 Books (w/ More Batman), Plus Dark Horse

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s the second half of DC’s $1.99 Black Friday/Cyber Monday blowout… now with more Batman. Plus, Dark Horse has a Black Friday sale.

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 Cyber Monday… AKA Black Friday Part 2 – Happy Holidays

The DC Cyber Savings Sale runs through Monday, 12/4.

Let’s call this what it is, the second half of the CRAZY sale that started last week.  This installment is Justice League through Zero Hour.  Lots of $1.99 collected editions and a few more expensive volumes that finally have a reasonable price. We’re going with annotation format again to cover more ground, but we’ll try and organize it a little better than Amazon does. As you can tell by the unusual length, we’re impressed with the deals and there’s a lot of good stuff here. And yes… we’re shocked something as recent as The Human Target is $1.99.

Batman

Tales of the Batman: Steve Englehart  Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin  Legends of the Dark Knight Norm Breyfogle 2

Yes, there’s a little more Batman this week and it’s those “Legends of” and “Tales of” volumes that usually have lousy discounts. We hate to say “this week only,” but these aren’t usually at friendly prices and there are some particularly choice bits.

Justice League

Justice League of America  Justice League Quarterly  Justice League by Priest

Everything’s there except the Grant Morrison run, but here are our highlights.

  • Justice League of America (1960 – 87) – The biggest highlight here is the set of $1.99 Silver Age collections of the earliest stories. The JSA/JLA team-ups are also deep discounted. This series hasn’t really been collected often.
  • Justice League of America (1987 – 96) – This is the Justice League International era, as started by Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis/Kevin Maguire. Bwa ha ha. And that’s the best place to start.
  • Justice League of America (2006 – 11) – The gems here are the 4 volumes written by Dwayne McDuffie (from the animated series): V1 / V2 / V3 / V4
  • Justice League (2016 -18) – The gem here is the Priest / Pete Woods arc.
  • The Nail – Alan Davis weaves a masterpiece in this pair of Elseworlds about a world where the Kents don’t find baby Kal-El in his spaceship and Superman does not emerge. A+

Legion of Super-Heroes

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes   Legion of Super Heroes The Great Darkness Saga  Legion of Superheroes: The Curse

Not as much of the Legion run is in digital or currently in print as you might think. Of what is, here are some highlights and recommendations.

  • Legion of Super-Heroes: The Silver Age – The earliest appearances, through the first 10 issues of their Adventure Comics feature.
  • Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes – These two volumes pick up roughly where Paul Levitz starts writing and takes you through where Superboy leaves the Legion (which is the Gerry Conway run). Artists include Mike Grell, James Sherman, Joe Staton and a bit of Jim Starlin. Included are the wedding of Lightning Lad & Saturn Girl and the Earthwar sequence.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (1980-85) – What you’re really looking at here are the last two volumes where Paul Levitz returns and starts to hit his stride, which Keith Giffen joining him fairly quickly.
    • The Great Darkness Saga  – Levitz/Giffen with their all-time classic arc in the middle of it. 414 pages for $1.99? A steal.
    • The Curse – Levitz/Giffen continue to deal with the fallout from The Great Darkness. 544 pages for $1.99? Very hard to beat for value.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (1985-89) – Only one volume available and they really need to get on the stick about collecting the rest of the Levitz run.
  • Legion Lost – The entertaining (if controversial) Dan Abnett / Andy Lanning / Oliver Copiel run. The setup and then the actual Legion Lost.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (2005-09) – Starts out with the now familiar team of Mark Waid and Barry Kitson. Ends with a flawed, but interesting run by Jim Shooter, returning to the feature he started out on.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (2010-11) – Paul Levitz returns.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (2011 – 13) – The Levitz run is relaunch for New 52… and Keith Giffen returns for the final volume in the set.

Jack Kirby

New Gods by Jack Kirby  Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby  Kamandi

Most of his DC material is included (in the back half of the alphabet)

Fourth World:

Non-Fourth World DC work:

“At-Large” gems:

Kingdom Come  Manhunter  Mister Miracle

  • Kingdom Come – Mark Waid and Alex Ross paint a dystopian future (and comment on the 90s grim ‘n’ gritty trend) – $1.99
  • Lobo by Keith Giffen and Alan Grant – With art by Simon Bisley, until the editors realized what he was sneaking into the cover. The rude, crude humor version that screams “Jason Momoa” to everyone. Much fun, but not for puritans.
  • Manhunter – Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson did an absolute classic as a backup in Detective. Spies, ninjas, a secret society and Batman crosses over in the end. Highest recommendation.
  • Marshal Law– Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill do a satire of superheroes as a Judge Dredd like vehicle. If you like The Boys, this is worth a look for $3.99. Darker and more violent, not for kids.
  • Mister Miracle by Steve Englehart & Steve Gerber – A few years after Kirby left, DC revived Mister Miracle, only to have it fall in the “DC Implosion.” That’s actually Englehart/Marshall Rogers and Gerber/Michael Golden/Russ Heath. Yes, Heath inking Golden and it’s GREAT. The Gerber/Golden/Heath run is the star and you’ll be mad it was cancelled. Totally under the radar for years.
  • Mister Miracle (2017-19) – The Tom King / Mitch Gerads Eisner-Winning revival. $1.99?!?
  • Night Force – Marv Wolfman & Gene Colan (as in Tomb of Dracula) reunite at DC for horror/time travel series that flew under too many radars.
  • Nightwing – Tom Taylor / Bruno Redondo – the series that could be the current center of the DCU. Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, $1.99@. (We think it hits its stride in V.2)
  • The Omega Men: The End – Tom King and Barnaby Bagenda turn the Omega Men into a study of fanaticism and terrorism. Also a Green Lantern take as Kyle Rayner is abducted. Near the top of the King cannon.  Yes, $1.99.
  • One-Star Squadron – The “wait… why haven’t they collaborated before?” team of Mark Russell and Steve Leiber pit Red Tornado and Power Girl against the gig economy! Yes, it’s a pitch black satire.
  • Orion by Walt Simonson – Walt at the top of his game exploring the Kirby mythos. We’d put it up with his Thor, but DC didn’t market it very well and hardly anyone remembers it. Recommended.
  • Planetary – Warren Ellis & John Cassaday. Yes, you can get the whole deconstruction of pulp heroes in 2 volumes for ~$4, all-in.
  • Plastic Man: Rubber Banded – Very few people have really done Plastic Man right since Jack Cole shuffled off the mortal coil. Kyle Baker is one of them. Hilarious and silly book.
    Road to Perdition  Sandman Mystery Theater  Sheriff of Babylon
  • Prez: Corndog-in-Chief – Mark Russell & Ben Caldwell. We wish this book wasn’t so darn relevant. An accurate satire of election law and political horse trading finds a teen becoming president after a video of her mishap with a corn dog deep fryer goes viral. It’s a winner, especially as we approach an election year.
  • Promethea – Alan Moore & J.H. Williams explore mythology and symbolism as a college student becomes the latest incarnation of the avatar of imagination… and tries to head off a looming apocalypse. Smart and beautifully illustrated book.
  • The Road to Perdition – Max Allan Collins & Richard Piers Rayner – this is where the film came from.
  • Sandman Mystery Theater – Matt Wagner / Steven T. Seagle / Guy Davis (main artist) – A wonderful pulp detective series from Vertigo with the Golden Age Sandman (pre-teen sidekick). Pulp with more introspection. 300+ page installments for $1.99. Great series.
  • Scalped – Jason Aaron & R.M. Guéra – A Vertigo crime series. An FBI agent goes undercover at the casino on the reservation he grew up in and thought he’d escape. Nobody does rural noir like Aaron.
  • Secret Society of Super Villains – For the completists, at a better price.
  • Seven Soldiers of Victory – Grant Morrison’s self-contained series of mini-series/Event in two volumes for ~$4 total.
  • Shade, The Changing Man – Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo reimagine the Ditko character for Vertigo.
  • The Sheriff of Babylon – Tom King & Mitch Gerads explore murder and crime in Baghdad’s Green Zone. The full series for $1.99
  • Starman – James Robinson & Tony Harris reinvent the legacy superhero (and legacy villain) with one of the best things to come out of DC in the 90s. DC really needs to finish collecting this one.
  • Stormwatch – The original Warren Ellis / Tom Raney / Brian Hitch run
  • Strange Adventures – Tom King & Mitch Gerads with a political/deconstructionist take on Adam Strange
  • Suicide Squad – John Ostrander / Luke McDonnell – the original ’80s Dirty Dozen riff that spawned the current franchise. Some genius forgot to discount V. 1, but that will be on sale again at some point. The rest are $1.99
  • Suicide Squad: Get Joker – Brian Azzarello & Alex Maleev did a Black Label version
    Jimmy Olsen  Green Lantern  The Human Target
  • Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? – Matt Fraction & Steve Leiber drop a joke bomb disguised as a murder mystery. HILARIOUS. Highly recommended.
  • Tales of the Green Lantern Corps, V.3  – Bizarrely mislabeled, this is the first six issues of the Steve Englehart/Joe Staton Green Lantern Corps
  • The Authority – Warren Ellis & Bryan Hitch revamp Stormwatch, then Mark Millar & Frank Quitely tag in.
  • The Brave & The Bold – Liam Sharp teams Batman and Wonder Woman against Celtic gods.
  • The Flash by Mark Waid – The volumes that weren’t on sale last week are on sale this week. No, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to us either, but there it is.
  • More Flash – Also from the original Wally West run – the Mike Baron and Grant Morrison runs.
  • The Green Lantern by Grant Morrison & Liam Sharp – One of the more imaginative Lantern stories in a while, especially as illustrated, this is really one long story in four volumes, broken up as Season One  and Season Two (even though the first series was never referred to as a season… that or DC is actively trying to confuse you, which is not beyond the realm of possibility).
  • The Hawk and the Dove: The Silver Age – Steve Ditko’s original run for $1.99
  • The Human Target – One of the most recent releases listed, Tom King & Greg Smallwood craft a noir mystery about Christopher Chance investigating who poisoned him and it looks like one of the BWA HA HA era Justice League did the deed. Noir and slapstick intermingling? YES. Very well done and especially great art. Both volumes for ~$4, total.
  • The Huntress: Origins – Paul Levitz and (mostly) Joe Staton with The Huntress’s adventures from Batman Family and Wonder Woman.
  • The Invisibles – Grant Morrison / Jill Thompson / Phil Jimenez – The one with the letter column request. If you know, you know.
    Multiversity  Nice House on the Lake  
  • Multiversity – Grant Morrison’s tale of parallel worlds. One volume/$1.99.
  • The Nice House on the Lake – James Tynion IV and Alvaro Martinez Bueno spin a horror table in what was a pretty big hit.
  • The Spectre – John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake’s under the radar classic about a man who isn’t alive and the force of destruction he’s bound to.
  • The Unwritten – Mike (M.R.) Carey and Peter Gross in a tale of fiction shaping reality (with a mild Harry Potter satirical element in the premise).
  • The Wild Storm – Warren Ellis and John Davis-Hunt reimagine the Wildstorm universe.
    • The Wild Storm: Michael Cray – Bryan Hill / N. Stephen Harris companion book where an assassin goes after funhouse mirror versions of the DC heroes.
  • Top 10 – Alan Moore / Gene Ha / Zander Cannon – What if Alan Moore wrote Hill Street Blues, but the police were superheroes? That’s essentially what this is and it’s wonderful.
  • Transmetropolitan – Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson present the absurdist adventures of a Hunter S. Thompson-esque journalist in a dystopian future, butting heads against a corrupt president. The interesting thing is how many different presidents/prime ministers/etc. have been compared to “The Smiler.”
  • Watchmen – Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. We figure you’ve heard of it by now. $1.99. We do find it a little offensive this is listed as “Media Tie-in / Adaptation,” though…

You’ll want to browse this one yourself. Last week’s first half of the sale was good, but this week’s back half is even better.

Black/Cyber/Holiday Horsefeathers Sale

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

And it’s pretty much the entire Dark Horse catalog, as near as week can tell, so this is another one you might want to browse between now and Monday night.  Yes, Hellboy and BPRD are in there, but we’ll look a bit more off the beaten path for our overview.

Air by G. Willow Wilson and M.R. Perker. Berger Books is re-issuing Wilson’s pre-Ms. Marvel Vertigo series. It’s a good one, though a bit hard to describe. A flight attendant finds herself caught up in a far-ranging conspiracy that involves jihadists, dimension-hopping and… Amelia Earhart? This one came out around the time DC started micromanaging Vertigo and got wrapped up before it connected with it’s audience (or Wilson’s name became a selling point). We liked it quite a bit and would love a continuation.

Blacksad by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido is something fairly unique. Private detective stories in the vein of Philip Marlowe, except the cast is anthropomorphic animals. No, absolutely not funny animals and not a bit of camp to it. Hardboiled detective stories. Good ones and some of the best art in comics. Manga is not the only import.

The Eltingville Club by Evan Dorkin is a parody of obnoxious fanboys run amok. Or is it actually a parody? We’re not sure how far fetched it is and it might be on the pointed side, but that’s why everyone loves Dorkin.

Air   Blacksad  Eltingville Club

Finder by Carla Speed McNeil is one of the smarter science fiction comics out there and it’s been popping up since the ’90s. Sometimes referred to as “aboriginal science fiction,” Finder spends more time building worlds and, more importantly, cultures than most comics. The nominal lead, Jaeger, is a “Finder” – an uncanny tracker with mysterious abilities related to healing and travel. He’s also a Sin Eater, which causes him no end of trouble. This one has never really popped above the radar like it should.

Grandville by Bryan Talbot is a different flavor of anthropomorphic comic – steampunk. In a world where Britain fell to Napoleon and France is the center of Europe, a badger named Detective-Inspector LeBrock, based out of Scotland Yard, pursues scoundrels. Unlike Blacksad, Grandville does have a sense of humor.

Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan: The Complete Joe Kubert Years – Joe Kubert is generally acknowledged as one of the masters of the artform. Tarzan was always a favorite for him and when DC was able to get the Tarzan license, a passion project ensued. This just might be Kubert’s finest art.

Finder  Grandville  Joe Kubert's Tarzan

Plenty of things still on sale, and then a big turnover on Tuesday.

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