Comixology Sales: Batman Family; Moon Knight; Shazam!; Annihilation

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC drops prices on the Batman family and Shazam!, Marvel discounts Moon Knight and their cosmic world.

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):

NOTE: We’re seeing Tuesday, 3/14 as the end date for a lot of this week’s sales. Sales usually end on a Monday, so we’re not sure if they’re changing the schedule or somebody put in the wrong date for this week’s sales. We’ll find out Tuesday? And wait until you get a load of the “Nega-Bands” sale conundrum. It’s special.

Bats Everywhere

The DC Bat Family Sale runs through Tuesday, 3/14.

Lucky you, the “real” sale prices arrived Friday morning. Another slow roll-out, but they’re here for the weekend. Also “Bat Family,” not “Batman Family?” Lean in, already.

So, what’s good? We’ve always been very large fans of the original Greg Rucka / J.H. Williams III Batwoman arc, when it took over Detective Comics. Good stuff! (That volume also includes the Jock-illustrated arc.)

You say you’d rather have Batman & Robin? Well, we’ve got two options for you: The Grant Morrison Batman & Robin with Frank Quitely and Frazier Irving art and the Peter Tomasi / Patrick Gleason Batman & Robin.

And for the Nightwing fans:

The Tom King / Tim Seely /Mikel Janin Grayson series with Dick Grayson as an undercover spy of sorts.
The current Nightwing series ($0.99 single issues here)
The ’96 Nightwing series
The New 52 Nightwing series

The Light of the Silvery Moon

The Marvel Moon Knight Sale runs through Tuesday, 3/14.

The original Moon Knight run is mostly in Epic Collections, but it’s in two separate links because… well, we shouldn’t be surprised by this, should we? The first link has two volumes that are not closely related. Bad Moon Rising is the Werewolf by Night appearances through the backups in Hulk Magazine and the first issues of 1980 solo series. The other volume in that link… we’re not as big on. That was later volumes.

You can go here for the rest of the 1980 Moon Knight series, which was the most famous version for quite some time. If you came into the character through the TV series, know that the original Moon Knight was a lot closer to Batman and The Shadow. Oh, sure the werewolf showed up, but most of the mystical things around Konshu were kept in the background and a lot more mysterious. The multiple identities were originally more like the cover identities adopted by the Shadow (and the original series editor, Denny O’Neil, adapted The Shadow for DC.) This is where Moon Knight got popular.

If you came in through the TV show, there really isn’t a comic that quite matches that version of the character, but the series did draw on the Jeff Lemire / Greg Smallwood Moon Knight series in which Moon Knight has a run-in with the Egyptian gods and his personalities run amok. It’s also a good run.

We also have been enjoying the current Jed MacKay/Alessandro Cappuccio Moon Knight series. This one takes up the unenviable task of rationalizing the various incarnations over the years (and there have been a lot of different takes on the character). Mr. Knight is in therapy for his multiple personality issues. He’s running the Midnight Mission and conduct himself as Konshu’s ambassador… after a fashion, although he’s not really happy with Konshu. And there are vampires. Lots of vampires. $0.99 single issues, too, if you prefer that format.

The Nega-Bands / Magic Word Sales

You might want sit down for this, ’cause it’s WEIRD. There’s a Marvel Cosmic Heroes sale and a Shazam sale. And they have the same URL (that’s techie for web address). We can’t be sure if this is a coding error or the world’s most awkward A/B test, but when you click on the link to either sale (or load the overall Deals page at Amazon), you won’t know which one will show up. If you get the wrong one, start reloading and the other should show up within 5 reloads. Maybe Amazon will fix it and BOTH sales will show up on the Deals page? As we said, we aren’t 100% if this is by design or not.

It’s like when Mar-Vell would clang the Nega-Bands together and trade places with Rick Jones in the Negative Zone. Or when Billy Batson speaks the magic word and is replaced by Captain Marvel. Are both Captain Marvels in this sale? Yes. So we’re really not sure if this is a sort of prank or performance art piece.

The Magic Word

The DC Shazam Sale runs through Monday, 4/3.

You’d think there was a movie or something. The original Captain Marvel has some very different incarnations. The sampler is Shazam!: A Celebration of 75 Years, which has tales from the 40’s through the Geoff Johns reimagining a few years back. It’s also the only place to get the original, more whimsical, 1940s version.

It was revived in the 1970s and for this run, we’d direct you to V.3, which is the E. Nelson Bridwell / Don Newton “new look” run that began at the tail end of the solo series and continued into World’s Finest and Adventure Comics digest. An obvious labor of love, and some of the best work of both, it’s a fairly successful attempt to write the original characters and scenarios from a slightly more adult perspective, while sometimes retaining the whimsy (depending on the individual plot). It’s under rated. Technically, this run begins in the last two issues collected in V.2, but most of that volume is younger audience material and the influences of the TV show weren’t helping. V.3 is a better place to start if you aren’t a completist.

The next major revival was the Power of Shazam by Jerry Ordway and Peter Krause, this was the post-crisis reinvention and still faithful to the spirit of the originals. This is a little goofy in the usual way – you can get the first 12 issues cheaper in the collected edition and the #13 onwards are $0.99 single issues.

Also of possible interest: $0.99 issues of the current Josie Campbell / Doc Shaner New Champion of Shazam!

The Cosmic Ride

The Marvel Cosmic Heroes Sale runs through Tuesday, 3/14.

We promised Mar-Vell and he makes a couple appearances in Captain Marvel: Starforce. Let’s refer to this one as creative packaging, reprinting some very random tales with Kree villains as a theoretical movie tie-in. But it fits the theme of Nega-Band links!

A lot closer to the current definition of “cosmic” at Marvel is Annihilation. This started out a series of mini-series bring some of the comic heroes of the present, like Nova, Star-Lord and Drax, together to face down an invasion by Annihilus. After some sequels, the format eventually reformed as the current incarnation of The Guardians of the Galaxy, so this is roughly where all that starts. (You’ll want the two “complete collection” volumes.)

The Last Annihilation is a sort of mini-event centered around the final Al Ewing/Juan Frigeri Guardians of the Galaxy arc. The Guardians, plus S.W.O.R.D., the Wakandans and Doctor Doom face down a different type of incursion… and the cover should tell you all you need to know about that. It’s quite good.