Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Excalibur, Batman, Deathlok, Shazam!, Punisher

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts Excalibur, Deathlok and the anti-heroes. DC sneaks a bunch of Batman into their latest “Road to” sale.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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In case you’re having troubles with the new UIX (a LOT of people have been):

A Sword in a Stone?

Marvel’s Excalibur Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 2/27.

The original run of Excalibur is here. We’re big fans of anything Alan Davis touched on this book and especially his second run as writer/artist. The Epic Collections are the better deal here, so you’re looking at The Sword is Drawn and The Cross-Time Caper as the two Epic Collections with Chris Claremont writing. We’d probably skip ahead to Curiouser and Curiouser, which begins the Davis solo run. HOWEVER, the last segment of the Davis run is only in Excalibur Visionaries: Alan Davis, Vol. 3 further down the page.

Also of particular interest here is the HoX/PoX era of Excalibur by Tini Howard and Marcus To. We’ve enjoyed it, but you might enjoy it even more the CHEAPER way… which is to replace the first two volumes from the first link with this double volume of the first 12 issues.

Your Not-So Friendly Neighborhood…

The Marvel Anti-Heroes Sale runs through Monday, 2/27.

We found the Deathlock component to the sale the most interesting. This would be Deathlok the cyborg, whose original Astonishing Tales run by Rich Buckler / Doug Moench / Bill Mantlo through the wrap in Captain America a few years later is collected in Deathlock Masterworks.

Then in 1990, Deathlok: The Living Nightmare of Michael Collins by Dwayne McDuffie, Gregory Wright, Jackson Guice and Denys Cowan revived Deathlok with a new transplant victim. We hold hold McDuffie in high regard at the Tower of Cheap, that that’s a strong creative group that doesn’t disappoint as Michael Collins is transformed very much against his will. For $2.99? VERY highly recommended.

Living Nightmare was a prestige format mini-series and a successful one. Successful enough to launch an ongoing from the same team. Deathlok: The Souls of the Cyber-Folk collects the first 15 issues.

Also of note: before he started on Uncanny X-Men, Jim Lee’s first high profile Marvel assignment was on Punisher War Journal with Carl Potts writing. In fact, Potts penciled the first few issues with Lee inking before Lee fully tagged in.

Elektra: Assassin by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz was originally published by Marvel’s Epic line because it’s waaaaaay over the top and likely would have given the old Comics Code Authority fits. Elektra tracks down The Hand’s (or rather, The Beast’s) involvement in a political conspiracy. People get stabbed along the way. An absolute classic of the 80s, but NOT for children.

Road to Utopia?

The Road to Dawn of DC Sale runs through Monday, 2/27.

Comics that lead into the new promotion? That might include a loose definition of “leading in, but if you like Batman, they’ve got the main titles on sale going back to New 52:

Batman (’11-’16) – The Scott Snyder / Greg Capullo run
Batman (’16-present) – The Tom King / James Tynion IV / Josh Williamson runs and So. Many. Artists. rotating in and out. Zdarsky’s material isn’t in collected edition yet.
Detective Comics (’11-’16) – runs by Tony Daniel, John Laymon & Jason Fabok, Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato
Detective Comics (’16 – present) – Once more, musical chairs with the artists and runs written by James Tynion IV, Peter J. Tomasi and Mariko Tamaki.

If we were to pick one run here, we’d probably be heretical and say the Tynion/Eddy Barrows/Álvaro Martínez Bueno Detective run that started out the ’16 series. It’s a little more “Batman Family” in approach and we think it’s the better Tynion run. Plus, you see an early pairing of the Nice House on the Lake team.

Also of interest: Jeff Smith’s Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil is an excellent distillation of the whimsical feel of the 1940s Captain Marvel comics. Something that is often lacking in the revival attempts.

Hawkworld by Tim Truman is a gritty science fiction reworking of the Silver Age Hawkman’s origins as a lawman on the planet Thanagar. A classic.