In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, nearly the entire run of the collected Doctor Strange gets a discount, as does the Black Widow and Marvel’s recent work with Predator. Plus, Nancy and Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer.

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.

The Doctor Will See You Now

   

The  Marvel Doctor Strange Sale runs through Monday, 6/9.

And it’s most of the Doctor Strange material that’s been collected in book form. Alas, the Masterworks are not in this sale, though the “primary” 70s/80s series is very nearly all available here.

• Strange Tales – This is a cluttered series page, but its the original Lee/Ditko run, but it breaks down to  Epic Edition 1.
• Doctor Strange ’68-’69 – Epic Edition 2 catches the rest of the original Strange Tales and most of the first solo series (Some next level Gene Colan art in the solo run.)
• Doctor Strange ’74-’87 – The Epics pick up with the tale end of the ’68 series, catch the Marvel Premiere issues (enter: Englehart & Brunner) and then into the regular series, then you’ll need “regular” collections for the Stern/Smith run.
• Strange Tales ’87-’88 – The rest of the Peter B. Gillis run from Strange Tales with art by Chris Warner, Kevin Nowlan, Terry Shoemaker and Richard Case.
• Doctor Strange ’88-’96 – Probably best known for the Roy & Dann Thomas run with Butch Guice and Geoff Isherwood as notable artists.
• Doctor Strange ’15-’18 – Initially Jason Aaron/Chris Bachalo with Donny Cates tagging in towards the end. (The omnibuses here are the better buy)
• Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme ’16-’17 – Robbie Thompson / Javier Rodriguez
• Doctor Strange ’18-’19 – The Mark Waid / Jesus Saiz / Barry Kitson era with Strange in space.
• Doctor Strange, Surgeon Supreme (’19) – the very much under-rated and too short Mark Waid / Kev Walker run. Walker knocks it out of the park here.
• Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise – Tradd Moore
• Jed McKay’s saga, which needs to be read in order
  • The Death of Doctor Strange – Jed MacKay / Lee Garbett; No, really… he actually dies and it’s clever
  • Strange – Jed MacKay / Marcelo Ferreira; With Stephen dead, Clea assumes the mantle of Sorceress Supreme… and she’s feeling a little tetchy
  • Doctor Strange (’23-’24) – Jed MacKay / Pasqual Ferry; How can a dead man not be dead? The answer is complicated…

What’s good?  The original Lee/Ditko run is great and you can get that in the first Epic Collection. Things pick up again when Englehart and Brunner show up towards the end of the Marvel Premiere run and the whole ’74-’87 run is solid, though we have a particular soft spot for the Roger Stern / Marshall Rogers / Paul Smith material towards the end.  Yes, Doctor Strange had A list creators most of the time.  That’s your core.

The Jed MacKay sequence is very good and Marvel’s best death and rebirth sequence in quite some time, but you really need to start with The Death of Doctor Strange. We seldom give a big thumbs up to this kind of arc, but sometimes the needle gets threaded.

Another personal favorite is Doctor Strange: The Oath by a pre-Saga Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin. They’ve both moved on to bigger things, but a long run by those two would have been a real highlight.

Something under the radar?  The final Waid/Walker run is also a lot more under the radar than it should be.

Apex Predation

   

The Marvel Predator Sale runs through Monday, 6/9.

Yes, Marvel has Predator comics. One of them even knocked our socks off:

Predator Vs. Wolverine by Ben Percy / Ken Lashley / Greg Land / Andrea Di Vito is everything the title sounds like… except it’s good. Such a pleasant surprise and excellence of execution counts! Over the decades, a Predator with a grudge periodically returns to stalk Wolverine. Things eventually come to a head. All hunter and prey, all the time. Recommended.

Predator Vs. Black Panther by Ben Percy / Chris Allen / Sean Damien Hill; A Predator visits Wakanda looking for some Vibranium. Body count ensues. This is in our “to read” pile.

And then there’s the Ed Brisson series, for Predators without superheroes:

• Predator by Ed Brisson Vol. 1: Day Of The Hunter – Ed Brisson / Kev Walker
• Predator by Ed Brisson Vol. 2: The Preserve – Ed Brisson / Netho Diaz
• Predator: The Last Hunt – Ed Brisson / Francesco Manna

Beware the Bite

   

The Marvel Black Widow sale runs through Monday, 6/16.

Let’s walk through the highlights.

There are two Black Widow Epic Collections that collect what were largely guest or co-starring spots (with a couple notable exceptions) through the early 80s.

Black Widow: Marvel Team-Up takes place mostly between those two Epic Collections, strangely enough. It’s primarily Spidey team-ups, including a 4-part Spidey / Black Widow / Nick Fury / Master of Kung Fu serial by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema.

Marvel Knights Black Widow by Grayson & Rucka: The Complete Collection – the end of the 90s saw Yelana enter the Widow’s world. It’s a trilogy of mini-series from Devin Grayson / Greg Rucka / J.G Jones / Scott Hampton / Igor Kordey,

Flash forward to 2004 and the highlight of a series of miniseries was a pair written by Richard K. Morgan with an art rotation of Bill Sienkiewicz, Sean Phillips and Goran Parlov. Conveniently collected in a single volume. (We hold this sequence in high regard.)

A decade later, the team of Mark Waid & Chris Samnee (a known quantity) did their own Black Widow run. Predictably, another highlight. (Also conveniently collected in a single volume.)

Shortly after that, the Eisner winning Black Widow run of Kelly Thompson and Elena Casagrande kicked off. Yes, we enjoyed this run, too… and were kind of thinking there might be a follow up, but we haven’t seen one yet. One of these days?

Unannounced Sales

   

• Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein – Mary Shelley / Gris Grimly
• Money Shot Vol. 3 – Tim Seeley / Sarah Beattie / Caroline Leigh Layne
  • Money Shot Vol. 4: Money Shot Comes Again – Tim Seeley / Gisèle Lagacé
• Nancy: A Comic Collection – Olivia Jaimes
• Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer – Van Jensen / Dusty Higgins
• Red Sonja: Vulture’s Circle – Nancy Collins / Luke Lieberman / Fritz Casas
• Star Trek: Year Four – The Enterprise Experiment – D.C. Fontana / Derek Chester / Gordon Purcell
• Super Chill: A Year of Living Anxiously – Adam Ellis
• A Thief Among the Trees: An Ember in the Ashes Graphic Novel – Sabaa Tahir / Sonia Liao

Additionally, it looks like most of the Thor, Hulk, Spider-Man Team-Up and Spidey/Deadpool 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 Kodansha Heroes and Villains Sale runs through Monday, 6/9