In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel celebrates the holiday with Captain America. Storm also gets a discount. Superman returns. Plus Dark Tower, James Bond, Critical Role and the EC Archives.
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 new releases page is here.
- The “Comics Deals” page is here.
- The Kindle Deals comics page is here.
Super Soldier Sale
The Marvel Captain America Sale runs through Monday, 7/14.
Seems like an appropriate call for the holiday.
First, a couple unusual things you might notice while browsing the sale.
- There is a single Masterworks Edition on sale. Stranger, it’s a pre-order. Hey, gift horse rules apply to this: Captain America Vol. 17 Masterworks – J.M. DeMatteis / Mike Zeck; It includes a notable Deathlok adventure and also the Christopher Priest / Mark Bright Falcon limited series.
- Captain America Epic Collection: The Swine – Jack Kirby is also a discounted pre-order, though it should be available by the time you see this newsletter. This wraps up Kirby’s 70s run.
There’s a lot of material to cover here, so we’ll go with the usual format and start by breaking out the major series involved:
- Tales of Suspense ’59-’68 – Cap’s Silver Age solo stories were in a title shared with Iron Man… more specifically this Epic Collection
- Captain America ’68-’96 – The original Silver/Bronze Age solo series.
- Captain America ’98-’02 – The second Mark Waid / Ron Garney run with some Andy Kubert and Lee Weeks art, too. Smaller volumes here, plus the underrated Dan Jurgens run that followed.
- Captain America ’02-’04 – The Marvel Knights era
- Captain America & the Falcon’04 – Under-rated run by Priest & Bart Sears
- Captain America ’04-’11 – The main Winter Soldier/Death of Captain America Ed Brubaker run with Steve Epting, Michael Lark, Mike Perkins and Butch Guice in the artistic rotation. Note: you can pick up chunks of it cheaper in these omnibuses (and the third one includes Reborn… but, of course, is not discounted)
- Captain America: Reborn – The actual end to the “Death of Captain America” sequence by Ed Brubaker, Bryan Hitch and Butch Guice
- Captain America ’11-’12 – Brubaker sticks around for a relaunch, post-Death/Reborn
- Captain America ’12-’14 is the Rick Remender run with John Romita, Jr, Carlos Pacheco, Pascal Alixe and Nic Klein in the artistic rotation.
- All-New Captain America ’14-’15 – Sam Wilson picks up the shield by Rick Remender and Stuart Immonen
- Captain America: Sam Wilson ’15-17 – Nick Spencer with Daniel Acuna as the primary artist. The seeds of “Secret Empire,” which was a long game, start here. Note: There’s a Complete Collection omnibus set of the Sam Wilson material that’s a bit cheaper.
- Captain America: Steve Rogers ’16-’17 – The main runup to Secret Empire by Nick Spencer with Jesus Saiz and Javier Pina as the primary artists.
- While not on sale, you can’t talk about the Spencer era without mentioning Secret Empire, the controversial “Hydra Cap” arc that Spencer’s entire run builds towards.
- Captain America ’17-’18 – AKA Captain America by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee (and Leonardo Romero)
- Captain America ‘18-’21 – The Ta-Nehisi Coates run with art by Leinil Francis Yu, Adam Kubert, Jason Masters and Leonard Kirk. Save a couple bucks with the 2 omnibuses.
- Captain America: Symbol of Truth ’22-’23 – Tochi Onyebuchi and R. B. Silva on the Sam Wilson Captain America
- Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty ’22-’23 – Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing and Carmen Carnero on the Steve Rogers Captain America
- The Symbol of Truth / Sentinel of Liberty saga wraps up in Captain America: Cold War and Captain America: Cold War Aftermath
- Captain America ’23-’25 – J. Michael Straczynski / Jesus Saiz
So… do you think Captain America gets relaunched enough? The current JMS relaunch isn’t even in the sale… and it takes things on more of an urban fantasy spin than you’re likely expecting, too.
Some recommendations? Absolutely. And no Masterworks on sale this time. (Masterworks seem to be on sale less often in ’24 for whatever reason.)
For Silver/Bronze Age adventures, “Captain America Lives Again“ catches the bulk of the early Lee/Kirby run. Jump ahead to “Hero or Hoax,” which you’re getting for the final arc, which begins the superlative Steve Englehart/Sal Buscema era. “The Secret Empire” is the bulk of the Englehart/Buscema run. “The Man Who Sold The United States” wraps up Englehart/Buscema and includes Madbomb, the beginning of Jack Kirby’s return run that is way more timely than it should be in the age of social media outrage.
Jump ahead to “By Dawn’s Early Light,” which you’re looking at for the all too brief Roger Stern / John Byrne run. The highlight of the J.M. DeMatties / Mike Zeck run is their wrap up with the Red Skull in “Sturm und Drang.”
“The Captain“ is the sequence from the Mark Gruenwald run where Steve Rogers loses the shield and his Captain America identity for a time. That’s the famous one. You might consider backing up a volume for “Justice is Served,” which introduces the Super-Patriot and leads into the more famous sequence a bit.
Once you get past around the middle of the Gruenwald run, your best of the best is anything written by Mark Waid or Ed Brubaker, and know that Brubaker’s first run is basically one long and epic story – and be sure to get Reborn or you’re missing a piece.
Hurricane Ororo
The Marvel Storm Sale runs through Monday 7/7.
This is _mostly_ flavors of X-Men with a bit of solo material, but let’s point out the unusual feature. After all these months of Masterworks disappearing, this sale has Uncanny X-Men Masterworks on sale through V. 12 (scroll down past the original series to find the new team and the sale prices.)
- Black Panther: The Bride – Reginald Hudlin / Scot Eaton; Storm and Black Panther get married
- Marauders By Gerry Duggan Vol. 1: Collection – Gerry Duggan / Matteo Lolli
- Ororo: Before The Storm – Marc Sumerak / Carlo Barberi; young Ororo, picking pockets and doing the Oliver Twist thing in Cairo
- Storm ’06 – Eric Jerome Dickey / David Yardin
- Storm ’14-’15 – Greg Pak / Victor Ibanez
- Uncanny X-Force – Sam Humphries / Ron Garney / Adrian Alphona
- Uncanny X-Men by Kieron Gillen: The Complete Collection – Gillen and So. Many. Artists. This would be Gillen’s run from ’11
- X-Men: Gold – Marc Guggenheim / Ken Lashley / R.B. Silva / Ardian Syaf
A Smattering of… Superman?
The DC Summer of Superman 2025 Sale runs through Tuesday 7/22.
Are DC sales back? Let’s wait three weeks and find out. This could just be the publishing unit getting told by the film unit to show some corporate synergy and we see some warning flags here. To whit, not everything listed in the sale is actual bargain.
We’ve documented DC’s pricing quirks before, but it’s probably time for a quick summary: $5.99 for a collected edition or $0.99 for a single issue is a sale price. $9.99 for a collected edition is not a sale price, that’s the price their collected editions drop to after a few months. $11.99 and up – often something that’s hardcover in print and DC is insisting on pretending that the stiffness of the cover is something that’s relevant in digital, but still basing the pre-discounted price on cover format.
Fortunately, we’re seeing a lot more $5.99 and under than anything else, but do pay attention to the prices. (We’re not listing the otherwise excellent All-Star Superman because of pricing shenanigans. It’s actually worth the money, but we try not to encourage what we consider questionable ethical practices for SUPERMAN of all things.)
Here are the base links:
- Absolute Superman #1 – Jason Aaron / Rafa Sandoval; 99-cent taste of the new version
- Action Comics (’37 – ’11) –
- Action Comics (’11-’16) – Best known for the opening arc by Grant Morrison & Rags Morales
- Action Comics (’16-present) – The better Superman title for _most_ of this period. The Phillip K. Johnson Warworld sequence is particularly good.
- Luthor – Brian Azzarello / Lee Bermejo
- Superman (’39 – ’11) –
- Superman (’16-’18) – Peter J. Tomasi / Patrick Gleason
- Superman (’18 – ’21) – Brian Bendis / Ivan Reis and then a bit of the Phillip Kennedy Johnson run
- Superman (’23 – Current) – Josh Williamson / Jamal Campbell
- Superman and the Authority – Grant Morrison / Mikel Janin; Effectively a prelude to the War World saga
- Superman ’78 – Robert Venditti / Wilfredo Torres; Continuing the continuity of the original film series (i.e. Christopher Reeves)
- Superman Adventures – Paul Dini / Scott McCloud / Mark Millar; based on the 90s animated series continuity
- Superman: American Alien – Max Landis / Francis Manapul / Jock / Jae Lee
- Superman: Birthright – Mark Waid / Leinil Francis Yu
- Superman: The Death of Superman – The whole sequence through “Return” cordoned off as a series
- Superman: Earth One – J. Michael Straczynski / Shane Davis
- Superman: For All Seasons – Jeph Loeb / Tim Sale
- Superman: The Man of Steel (’91-’03) – John Byrne / Marv Wolfman / Jerry Ordway; The John Byrne era
- Superman: Red Son – Mark Millar / Dave Johnson / Kilian Plunkett; What if baby Kal-El’s rocket landed in the Soviet Union?
- Superman: Secret Identity – Kurt Busiek / Stuart Immonen
- Superman: Son of Kal-El – Tom Taylor / John Timms; The adventures of Jon Kent
- Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent – Tom Taylor / Clayton Henry
- Superman Smashes the Klan – Gene Yang / Gurihiru
- Superman: Up in the Sky – Tom King / Andy Kubert
- Superman: Year One – Frank Miller / John Romita Jr.
And a bit of space for the supporting cast of the upcoming film:
- Green Lantern Corps: Recharge – Geoff Johns / Dave Gibbons / Patrick Gleason
- Green Lantern Corps ’06 – ’11 – Dave Gibbons / Peter J. Tomasi / Patrick Gleason
- Green Lantern Corps ’11 – ’15 – Peter J. Tomasi / Robert Venditti / Fernando Pasarin
- Hawkgirl Vol. 1: Once Upon a Galaxy – Jadzia Axelrod / Amancay Nahuelpan
- Metamorpho: The Element Man #1 – Al Ewing (Author), Steve Lieber; 99-cent taste of the current series
- Metamorpho: Two Worlds, One Destiny – Aaron Lopresti
- Mister Terrific Vol. 1: Mind Games – Eric Wallace / Gianluca Gugliotta
- The Terrifics – Jeff Lemire / Evan “Doc” Shaner / Ivan Reis – Mr. Terrific, Plastic Man and Metamorpho (and Phantom Girl) teaming up in a quirky book… gosh, do you think James Gunn is aware of this?
What’s good?
One of the somewhat rare ’80s reprints that we’ve enjoyed is Superman: The Phantom Zone by Steve Gerber and Gene Colan. This is a very odd, horror-flavored Superman tale as he confronts something unnatural that’s been living in the Phantom Zone… but you weren’t expecting Gerber & Colan to give you the ’50s TV version, were you?
Emperor Joker is a 2000 storyline from Jeph Loeb / Ed McGuinness / Joe Kelly / Doug Mahnke that finds the Joker acquiring godlike powers and remaking the world in his image. Not an Elseworlds, but entertainingly over the top.
Superman Smashes the Klan has Gene Yang and Gurihiru revisiting and revising the original Superman radio show arc, “Clan of the Fiery Cross.” It’s on the YA side of Superman, but has picked up a LOT of good reviews.
Superman: Man of Tomorrow is an very witty collection of tales by Robert Venditti and Paul Pelletier that went under most radars because it was originally serialized digitally.
Superman, the current series by Josh Williamson and Jamal Campbell is also on sale and it’s a good one.
And for something under the radar, the Warworld saga from a couple years back is worth a look. Phillip Kennedy Johnson wrote Action Comics for a spell and there was very little discussion on it. We’ve since had it recommended a couple times and just finished reading it. Severely under-rated and we’d go so far as to call the first two volumes great. The set up is there’s a new Mongul running Warworld. Mongul has been subjugating a lost tribe from Krypton and uses them to lure Superman to Warworld (with The Authority in tow). A trap is sprung and Superman has to lead a rebellion.
Now, you might be saying “haven’t we seen this before on Apokolips? And the answer is, not exactly. Kennedy Johnson takes a full arc to set this up with signs of portent and excels at creating an atmosphere of foreboding leading into the final act. The characterization is strong and there’s an interesting thread about the problem of leading a revolution when the underclass has never known freedom. (And a bit of political skullduggery in the background.) Several artists tag in and out, but the more prominent ones are Daniel Sampere, Riccardo Federici and Will Conrad.
This storyline is collected across three volumes:
The optional fourth volume to the arc, which takes place in the background during Warlord Rising, is Superman and The Authority by Grant Morrison and Mikel Janin. This is where Superman recruits The Authority for his mission to Warworld… and trust us, this series works better in the greater context of the Warworld arc than it does as a standalone.
Unannounced Sales
As always, we don’t know how long these sales will last.
Critical Role from Dark Horse is currently on sale. That would be the comics based on the campaigns from the popular web series about Dungeons & Dragons campaigns… and this will take a moment to explain.
There’s an omnibus format that’s a little better value and a “regular” collected edition sale. There are some OGNs/albums filed under the single issue format. (Hey, don’t look at us.)
Dark Horse also has their EC Archives on sale. Tales From the Crypt, Weird Science, Two-Fisted Tales and that whole family of famous titles. Some would say these are a perfect pairing with cable news.
Plus:
- The Cartoon Guide to Geometry – Larry Gonick
- Demonic – Christopher Sebela / Niko Walter
- The Hedge Knight (A Game of Thrones) – George R. R. Martin / Ben Avery / Mike S. Miller
- How I Broke Up with My Colon: Fascinating, Bizarre, and True Health Stories – Nick Seluk / The Awkward Yeti
- James Bond 007: Your Cold Cold Heart – Garth Ennis / Rapha Lobosco
- Murder Book: A Graphic Memoir of a True Crime Obsession – Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell
- Red Sonja: Vulture’s Circle – Nancy Collins / Luke Lieberman / Fritz Casas
- Stephen King’s The Dark Tower (why they can’t get this in a series page is a mystery)
- The Journey Begins (Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Book 1) – Stephen King / Robin Furth / Peter David / Sean Phillips
- The Little Sisters of Eluria (Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Book 2) – Stephen King / Robin Furth / Peter David / Luke Ross
- The Battle of Tull (Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Book 3) – Stephen King / Robin Furth / Peter David / Michael Lark
- The Way Station (Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Book 4) – Stephen King / Robin Furth / Peter David / Laurence Campbell
- The Man in Black (Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Book 5) – Stephen King / Robin Furth / Peter David / Richard Isanove / Alex Maleev
- Last Shots (Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Book 6) – Stephen King / Robin Furth / Peter David / Dean White
- The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks – Max Brooks / Ibraim Roberson
Additionally, it looks like most of the Iron Man and Ghost Rider material from recent weeks is still on sale. The Under $5 Page has the lower priced volumes. Go back a couple columns for the links to find the Epic Collections.
Still on Sale
- The Zenescope Year 20 Robyn Hood 99 cent Sale runs through Sunday, 7/27
- The Kodansha Shonen Magazine Sale runs through Monday, 7/7
- The Media Do VAST Visual July Event Sale runs through Tuesday, 7/8