Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Image Returns; Blue Beetle; X-Factor; Venom; Watchmen

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Image returns to the deals page! Plus, DC gives Blue Beetle the discount treatment and Marvel slashes prices on X-Factor and Venom.

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):

Image Returns!

The Image Comics Discovery Sale runs through Thursday, 8/31.

Now there’s a publisher we haven’t seen in roughly 6 months. What we have here is a little on the peculiar side. First volumes in a series from the letter M through the beginning of S, or at least that’s what’s showing up as we type this. We looked and Killadelphia V.1 didn’t seem to be discounted yet, so we’re not sure if there will be an A-L sale at a later date or thing will start showing up in a week or two. But hey, it’s been awhile since Image was around.

A few things of note:

Public Domain by Chip Zdarksy. We read this recently and it’s quite good. That’s not a shock, since it won an Eisner. This is a fairly savage parody of corporations and film companies taking over comics as the artist of a classic superhero discovers he really owns the character and his dysfunctional sons try to figure out what to do about it. Zdarsky expertly walks a tightrope with characters that clearly aren’t Stan & Jack, but you can’t help but think of Stan & Jack. Excellent satire of the business.

And as long as we’re talking about Zdarsky, the first first volume of his crime comic Newburn is also on sale. Jacob Phillips draws this tale of a PI with very naughty clients.

Manifest Destiny Chris Dingess and Matthew Roberts is the tale of the real mission of the Lewis & Clark expedition. Oh, sure they were mapping the Louisiana Purchase, but they were also clearing the way of dangerous monsters that might prey on pioneers. They’re also… but that would be a spoiler. This recently wrapped up and it’s a very solid story. Vol. 1 is fairly light-hearted, though the tone gets considerably darker a few volumes into it.

Nocterra by Scott Snyder and Tony Daniel is a post-apocalyptic adventure/horror book about a world where the sun went down and stayed down with monsters inhabiting the darkness and they’re contagious. (Which is to say, Daniel has ample opportunities to cut loose.)

Nita Hawes’ Nightmare Blog by Rodney Barnes / Jason Shawn Alexander / Szymon Kudranski / Patric Reynolds is a companion piece to Killadelphia (which you’re already reading, right?), featuring a professor with a ghostly brother getting drawn into supernatural mysteries… oh, and Anansi keeps popping up.

And for your under the radar classic, Matt Wagner’s Mage: The Hero Discovered. This is the first installment of the Arthurian legend as urban fantasy series from the 80s. Wagner took a looooong break from it after Comico blew up, focusing more on Grendel, but this book is really where Wagner first made his name.

The Mutant Variable

The Marvel X-Factor Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 8/21.

This one’s a little different from most of the Legacy sales in that it’s mainly a Peter David X-Factor sale. Let’s walk through that.

Of the original X-Factor run, you’ll find that only the X-Factor Visionaries by Peter David volumes are on sale (near the bottom of the page).

When people think of Peter David and X-Factor, the run they’re most likely thinking of is the 2005-13 run that starts out with Madrox (The Multiple Man) opening a detective agency. Yes, this is the run where Layla Miller knows stuff. (If you know, you know.) There are also two X-Factor by Peter David: The Complete Collection volumes that are listed separately. (Who knows why?) Vol. 1 is the original Madrox mini-series and X-Factor 1-12. Vol. 2 collects #13-24, 28-32 and two specials.

There was also a ’14-’15 X-Factor relaunch by David and Giuseppe Camuncoli. This sale is all about the Peter David runs!

Out from under the shadow of Mr. David, there are two other notable titles in the sale.

Back in 2010, X-Factor Forever saw Louise Simonson returning to the situation as she left it on the book (prior to Peter David taking over) along with Dan Panosian.

And then, in the aftermath of House of X / Powers of X, Leah Williams and David Baldeon relaunched X-Factor as the mutants who investigate the circumstances of death and missing persons for Krakoa.

Symbiosis

The Marvel Venomverse Sale runs through Monday, 8/21.

This isn’t a sale on the main Venom titles, more the around the periphery of that world. What might be interesting? We have thoughts.

Of this lot, the one we’re the most familiar with is the Venom run by Rick Remender/Tony Moore and then Cullen Bunn/Declan Shalvey. We wish the earlier Remender volumes had bigger discounts on them, too. This is the time period where Flash Thompson is the symbiote’s host. It helps him with his war injuries and he attempts to be a hero.

If you like to roll old school, there’s Venom: Lethal Protector by David Michelinie / Mark Bagley / Ron Lim. Dating back to 1993, this was Venom’s first solo title (OK, Spidey shows up a little, but you know what we mean). Venom in San Francisco… it just might have had some influence on the film version (which didn’t have Spidey).

And for something odd and under the radar? How about Toxin: The Devil You Know? Why? For the unusual team of Peter Milligan and Darick Robertson working on a fringe Venom character.

Feeling Blue

The DC Blue Beetle Sale runs through Monday, 8/28.

That would be the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle and… say, is there a film coming out? What a coincidence.

Jaime first popped up in the Geoff Johns/(mostly) Phil Jimenez Infinite Crisis. Infinite Crisis was a pretty major Event that tweaked the DCU a bit in it’s wake.

The first Jaime Reye Blue Beetle series ran from ’06-’09 with John Rogers & Keith Giffen as the writing brain trust and Cully Hamner and Rafael Albuquerque as the primary artists. (And yes, that’s the John Rogers behind Leverage and The Librarians.)

The next Blue Beetle run was ’11-’13 by Tony Bedard and Ig Guera.

Then for the Rebirth era (’16-18), Keith Giffen returned to Blue Beetle, with his Justice League cohort, J.M. DeMatties and Scott Kolins as the primary artist.

A Sale With a Truncated Name?

The DC to the MAX Sale runs through Monday, 8/28.

What’s interesting and at a better price point for DC’s non-themed sale?

For lowest price, $4.99 will get you Harley Quinn, Breaking Glass, the well-regarded graphic novel from Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh.

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is considered by a whole lot of folks to be the top graphic novel of all time. Plot-wise, the murder of a hero leads to a conspiracy unspooling, but this also a character-based tale and it’s scope widens considerably. A classic and a good number of pages at $5.99

Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. Another from the classics pile as Batman pursues a killer whose exploits are tied to holidays on the calendar. It’s also a Harvey Dent story. Not a Two-Face story, per se, but a Two-Face prequel of sorts.