Tag: Avengers

Comixology Sales: Avengers, Spider-Man, Batman, James Bond and Dark Horse Celebrates Halloween

Highlights of this week’s Comixology Sales include Hickman’s Avengers, the chronology of once and future Spider-Man, Ben Reilly, Dark Horse’s Halloween sale and a whole bunch of DC graphic novels… which is to say, Batman.

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commissions)

The New Spider-Man (Again)

The Marvel Ben Reilly: Spider-Man Sale runs through Sunday, 10/10.

If you’re not up on this, it’s going to take some explaining. When Nick Spenser leaves Amazing Spider-Man, the Ben Reilly character will be putting on the Spidey suit and taking over. (Yeah, we know. It almost certainly won’t be forever.) So this sale is about catching you on the character.  You’re going to need a score card, so let’s walk you through this.

Spider-Man: The Original Clone Saga is where this kicks off, way back in the 70s. (Yeah, we’re talking clones, so this is a long and winding road.)  The clone saga truly starts with a plot by The Jackal spawning the first clones at the end of the Gerry Conway/Ross Andru run. Then we fast forward to the first encounter with Carrion in the Bill Mantlo/Sal Buscema Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man run as the clones return.  This is where Ben Reilly comes from, though you won’t read that name yet.

Flash forward to the ’90s. Nobody really called the “Original Clone Saga” anything like that until the “Clone Saga” took over the Spidey line in the 90s. It’s collected in the 5 (thick) volume “Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Epic” series. This is where Ben Reilly, Peter’s clone,  shows up as the Scarlett Spider. So you’ve got the Jackal back running around, and hijinks with Venom and Carnage in the middle of it.

At the conclusion of how Marvel’s collecting the Clone Saga, Ben Reilly takes over as Spidey. This run is collected as Spider-Man: The Complete Ben Reilly Epic. At the end of it, we’re done with Ben Reilly for awhile and many would say that’s the real end of the Clone Sage (90s version).

Spider-Man: The Original Clone Saga   Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Epic   Spider-Man: The Complete Ben Reilly Epic

Of course, this is comics, so of course Ben Reilly is back from the grave in the Dan Slott-era Amazing Spider-Man: The Clone Conspiracy. And then he spins off into his own series, as you knew he would in the current era.  But hey, we warned you all this clone stuff is a long and winding road. That’s your primer for the new Spidey era.

Amazing Spider-Man: The Clone Conspiracy

Hickman’s Revenge

The Marvel Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Sale runs through Sunday, 10/10.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Hickman’s Avengers run is really one long story and you need to treat it as such.  Do not try and read Avengers and New Avengers as separate collections.  That’s not how the material was published.

Fortunately, Avengers by Jonathan Hickman: The Complete Collection seems to be taking that approach. Yes, this sequence includes Infinity, so you don’t need to buy that on its own.  Next up is Time Runs Out, which is the ending arc of Avengers and New Avengers. All in one oversized volume. And finally, after the collapse of known universes, the story wraps up in Secret Wars.

“Epic” is a word that gets thrown around a lot at Marvel. Hickman’s Avengers tale earns that word. The sheer scope of the story is stunning and is really a vital part of the experience. Don’t jump in at the end. Start at the beginning and take the full ride. In for a penny, in for a pound.  Or maybe five pounds in this case.

Avengers by Jonathan Hickman - the Complete Collection   Avengers: Time Runs Out    Secret Wars

Let the Halloween Sales Begin

‘Tis the season for horror-ish sales and The Dark Horse Halloween Sale kicks it off (and runs through Monday, 11/1).

There’s a lot of stuff in here, since Dark Horse has always published a lot of horror. We’ll assume you already know about Hellboy and B.P.R.D – both are in there and both are worth your time if you haven’t partaken, but we’ll focus on some different offerings.

Point in case, one of the… outer resident of the Mignola-verse is Baltimore, the tale of a world where the vampires rose at the end of WWI and the bloody quest for vengeance Lord Baltimore sets out for against those vampires. Now conveniently contained in two omnibus editions, we had a good time reading those a few months back. Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden are the authors with Ben Steinbeck and Peter Bergting tagging off on art.

It seems like this is the season for some Neil Gaiman, and there’s plenty on sale. Perhaps it’s a good year for Snow, Glass, Apples? That would be Colleen Doran adapting Neil’s twisted retelling of the legend of Snow White. (Also available in The Neil Gaiman Library V. 3)

And for something extra below the radar, we offer up The Marquis.  Originally published by Oni, this is a supernatural affair written and drawn by Guy Davis. Yes, the same Guy Davis who rocked B.P.R.D. The Marquis concerns an ex-inquisitor in the 18th century who can see the demons who are possessing members of society as he dons a mask to root them out… in a hail of bullets. It’s Guy Davis with the gloves off, slinging horrors at the reader.

Baltimore Omnibus 1   Snow, Glass, Apples   The Marquis

The Road to PR

The DC Road to FanDome Sale comes in Part 1 (100 Bullets to New Teen Titans) and Part 2 (New Teen Titans to Zero Hour). FanDome is DC’s attempt to pass off a PR event as their own convention, so they’re pretty much putting most of their graphic novels up for 50% off.

If you’d like a little bang for your buck, you could do a lot worse than Batman by Ed Brubaker V. 1. That’s Brubaker with Scott McDaniel and Karl Story as the primary art team. 317 pages for $5.99. There’s a second volume, but heads up that it’s in the middle of the “Bruce Wayne: Fugitive” event, so parts of it might read a little odd – not an uncommon problem with single-creator themed Batman collections.

Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby is essentially the Fourth World Superman title and it’s a little under-rated.  Jimmy Olsen hooks up with the Cadmus Project as Intergang and Darkseid loom over things and Superman keeps watch. A more influential series than you might realize – these additions to the mythos have largely stuck around over the years.

The Brave and the Bold: Batman and Wonder Woman is Liam Sharp’s tale of Batman and Wonder Woman investigating the death of a Celtic god from a couple years back (before Sharp hooked up with Grant Morrison for Green Lantern).

Batman by Ed Brubaker   Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby   The Brave and the Bold

No Time to Die Shop

The Dynamite James Bond Sale runs through Monday, 10/18.

If you like Ian Flemming’s novels, have we got a comic for you.  Kill Chain by Andy Diggle and Luca Casalanguida bring Bond back into the crosshairs of SMERSH. One of the best 007 updates, period.

James Bond Kill Chain

Still On Sale

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Comixology Sales – Massive May the Fourth Be With You Star Wars Sale, Avengers, She-Hulk, Greg Rucka and Mike Mignola

This week in Comixology sales, Marvel has CRAZY deals on Star Wars for May the Fourth Be With You. Up to 96% off kind of crazy. Plus Avengers vs. X-Men, She-Hulk, Image selections from Greg Rucka and Dark Horse selections from Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden.

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

May the Fourth Be With You

The Star Wars Day Sale runs through Thursday, 5/6.

Go to that page and look it up and down. You’ve got the “Legends” material, most of which originated at Dark Horse. You’ve got the current Marvel era. You’ve got the IDW “Adventures” line.  We’ve gone on at length about how much we like Gillen and Soule on Darth Vader, but this is Comics.Cheap and when it comes to cheap, that “Legends” section at the top of the page is in some rarified air.  Volume 1’s for $0.99 and subsequent volumes for $1.99.  Including omnibuses editions. It’s enough to make Uncle Scrooge cry!

Some highlights:

  • The original Marvel Star Wars series is available as a series of omnibus editions. With this link you’ll also find the excellent newspaper strip by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson listed as Classic Star Wars.
  • For a real oddity, try the “Wild Space” Omnibus which collects the Star Wars strips Marvel made for the UK comics from some of the usual Marvel suspects… and Alan Moore, too.
  • Remember Dark Empire? Tom Veitch, Jim Baikie and Cam Kennedy did a series of mini-series in the mid-90s that were key to reinvigorating Star Wars.  Star Wars Dark Empire Trilogy has the whole set for 99 pennies – good AND cheap.
  • Star Wars: Legacy by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema takes place 125 years after return of the Jedi and follows the adventures of Cade Skywalker, a descendant of Luke who might have more in common with Han.
  • Agent of Empire by John Ostrander, Stéphane Créty, Stéphane Roux and Davidé Fabbri has an elevator pitch of “What if James Bond worked for The Empire?”

Star Wars Omnibus   Star Wars Wild Space   Star Wars Dark Empire Trilogy   Star Wars: Legacy   Agent of Empire

AVX

The Marvel Avengers Vs. X-Men Sale runs through Sunday, 5/2.

Avengers Vs. X-Men Collection collects the core mini-series written by Brian Bendis, Jason Aaron, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction and Jonathan Hickman with art by Frank Cho, John Romita, Jr., Olivier Coipel and Adam Kubert.

Expand to the tie-in series at will, there are a ton of them, but be aware there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen here.

Avengers vs. X-Men

Gama Sale

The Marvel She-Hulk Sale runs through Sunday, 5/2.

You can get the Masterworks of the original run, but there are three series that are more likely to come to mind here.

Sensational She-Hulk is the late 80s series by John Byrne.

The Dan Slott / Juan Bobilla era runs across two volumes. (Ah, yes – the Marvel relaunch era)

She-Hulk by Soule and Pulido: The Complete Collection is a one-volume collection of the well-received Charles Soule / Javier Pulido run.

Sensational She-Hulk   She-Hulk   She-Hulk by Soule

Rucksack!

The Image Greg Rucka Sales runs through Thursday, 5/6.

The Old Guard by Rucka and Leandro Fernandez is a tale of immortal soldiers of fortune that’s gotten a bit of notoriety after being adapted on Netflix.

Lazarus by Rucka and Michael Lark is dystopian tale of a future where corporate families have carved up the world into feudal fiefdoms and a genetically engineered guardian of the system who’s coming to understand a few things she wasn’t intended to. This is Rucka’s signature series at Image. Here, the “regular” collected editions are less expensive than the omnibus editions.

Black Magick by Rucka and Nicola Scott tells the tale of a police detective who’s also a witch and what’s come looking for her. Once again, pick up the normal collected editions, not the more expensive omnibus.

Old Guard   Lazarus   Black Magick

The Horror, The Horror…

The Dark Horse Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden Sale runs through Monday, 5/3.

Fun fact, the two highlighted series were originally written as novels by the Mignola/Golden partnership and then expanded into comic series.

Baltimore, the post-WWI vampire hunting saga with art by Ben Steinbeck and Peter Bergting, is probably Mignola’s and Golden’s best known and longest comics collaboration. The Omnibus editions are a value buy.

Joe Golem: Occult Detective is just what it sounds like and features art by Patric Reynolds and Peter Bergting.

Baltimore Omnibus 1   Joe Golem

Still on Sale

 

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Comixology Sales: Lots of Avengers, Nick Fury, Scott Pilgrim and Valiant “Fierce Females”

Highlights from this week’s Comixology sales include Marvel breaking out a deep slab of Avengers and Nick Fury, Scott Pilgrim’s omnibuses get discounts and Valiant unleashes Secret Weapons.

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

All Avengers, All the Time

The awkwardly named “Marvel Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Sale” runs through Thursday, 4/8.  There’s a lot of quality material on sale, but it can be a little hard to parse because of how poorly Marvel manages it’s backlist. You can browse the main sale page or follow the links to the individual series and scroll down to the Collected Edition sections.  But if in a collected edition, it’s most in there.  Hickman and Aaron runs, too.

The  original ’63 – ’96 Avengers series is broken up into the Masterworks editions (chronological), the Epic editions (seemingly random chunks) and a few stray mostly one-off collections. The Epic editions are your best value, particularly the $7.99 ones. Eventually, the Epic editions should be a continuous run, but Marvel isn’t there yet.  We particularly like the Englehart era “The Avengers Defenders War,” “The Final Threat” is primarily Gerry Conway/Jim Shooter era with George Perez and John Byrne as primary artists collecting the Private War of Doctor Doom and Bride of Ultron arcs AND the Jim Starlin Thanos showdown.  “Under Siege” and “Judgement Day” will get you most of the delightful Roger Stern/John Buscema/Tom Palmer run, which is one of the best.

Avengers Assemble is what you want from the ’98-’04 run. This is the Kurt Busiek era (with a few side series with folks like Roger Stern and Roy Thomas popping in as writers). George Perez is the initial art and it ends with a rotation of artists. This is also one of the best periods of the franchise. Vol. 1-5 will keep you out of trouble for awhile.

One you might not be familiar with that we liked back in the day was The Mighty Avengers by Dan Slott – The Complete Collection. It wasn’t particularly long lived, but Slott’s run was the rare Avengers book with a classic Avengers feel during the Bendis era.

Avengers   Avengers Assemble   The Mighty Avengers by Dan Slott

Cloak & Dagger & Eyepatch

The Marvel Nick Fury Sale runs through Sunday, 4/4.

Frankly, we’ve read and enjoyed most of the things on sale here. First a heads up on something that’s on sale, but we’re not seeing the collected editions list on the sale page: Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD Masterworks Vol. 1, Vol. 2 and Vol. 3. Vol. 1 starts the Strange Tales run, Vol. 2 is where Steranko turns up and starts the Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD solo series. Vol. 3 collects the rest of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, so more Steranko, a bit of Archie Goodwin and early Barry Windsor-Smith.

One thing that most people appeared to sleep on was Nick Fury: Deep-Cover Capers by James Robinson and ACO from ’17. This is simply an extremely fun book.  007 spy hijinx beautifully illustrated in a slightly modernized pop art style.  We were hoping for a sequel.  Our personal favorite Nick Fury, Jr. tale.

The plot of SHIELD being infiltrated and compromised has been done a few too many times.  That said, Nick Fury vs. SHIELD did it the best and sparked the late 80s/early 90s Nick Fury revival. Bob Harras and Paul Neary sent Fury on the run, framed for treason and trying to work out exactly what’s happened to his agency.

Nick Fury   Nick Fury Deep-Cover Capers   Nick Fury vs. SHIELD

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Sale

The Oni Scott Pilgrim Sale runs through Thursday, 4/15.

Oni’s conveniently collected the iconic Bryan Lee O’Malley series an omnibus. The choice is between the original black & white or the colorized edition.

Scott Pilgrim   Scott Pilgrim in Color

Maternal Mayhem

The  Valiant Fierce Female Sale runs through Thursday, 4/8.

We enjoyed War Mother, a future dystopian science fiction tale by Fred Van Lente, Stephen Segovia and Tomás Giorello.

Secret Weapons by Academy Award nominee Eric Heisserer, Raúl Allén and Patricia Martin is in the conversation for the best comic Valiant has published. Psiots are essentially the Valiant equivalent of mutants.  Livewire, a technopath psiot, discovers that the recently deposed big bad of the universe had been “activating” psiots and unbeknownst to the world at large, was discarding the kids whose powers weren’t useful as weapons. As Livewire’s trying to track them down, something else is trying to consume them. A little bit of X-Men, a little bit of Legion of Substitute Heroes (but not as goofy).

War Mother   

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: Immortal Hulk, Billionaire Island, Avengers: The Initiative, Pat Mills has a new anthology, Lady Mechanika

The Comixology sales this week include the wonder that is The Immortal Hulk, a stroll through Event tie-ins past with Avengers Academy and a deep dive into the big Small Press Sale.

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn commission.)

All You Need Is Hulk

Probably the best sale currently going on is Marvel’s Immortal Hulk Sale which runs through Thursday (12/17).  Simply put, this comic would be our pick for Marvel’s best comic of the last couple years. Al Ewing writes and Joe Bennett is the primary artist on this horror take on ‘ole Jade Jaws.  Psychological horror, body horror, resurrections and that green doorway to <spoilers>.  It’s a great comic and $2.99/tpb is cheap!
Immortal Hulk

The Marvel Avengers Academy Sale is, at its core, a series of Event spin-offs about teen superheroes.  Avengers: The Initiative spun out of Civil War and continued through Secret Invasion, then morphed into Avengers Academy with the Dark Reign era of Marvel. This will come as no shock to folks who’ve been watching the Marvel documentaries on Disney+, but Avengers: The Initiative started out as a Dan Slott written title that transitioned over to Christos Gage taking it over.  Yes, that trend really does go back to 2008.
Avengers: The Initiative

Sifting Through the Small Press

The “Best of Small Press Sale” is running through 1/7 and comes in two flavors: Graphic Novels and Single Issues.  That’s a lot to plough through, so let’s take a bit of time and take a look at some of the more interesting bits.

Over at The Tower of Cheap, we’ve been suitably impressed with what we’ve seen out of Ahoy, an indie publisher with bent towards satire and fun.  The majority of their material is on sale right now, so as a shortcut, here’s their Publisher Page. The Ahoy single issues are $0.99, so keep in mind you’re going to be saving money if you get those instead of the collected editions.   We will personally vouch for The Wrong Earth and Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror.  Billionaire Island is currently in our reading queue.

The Wrong Earth by Tom Peyer, Jamal Igle and Juan Castro fits the elevator pitch of “what happens when Adam West’s campy TV Batman and Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Batman end up in each other’s universe?”  It’s funny _and_ satisfying.

Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror is a sort of funhouse mirror of a horror anthology. A blind drunk Edgar Allan Poe stands in for the Crypt Keeper: our host guiding us through snarky horror stories.  It’s well worth your time.

Billionaire Island by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh – the sublime team behind The Flintstones at DC a few years ago – has the Billionaires escaping the ravages of climate change to their own artificially made island… a tax-free domicile, naturally…


The Wrong Earth   Edgar Allan Poe's Snifter of Terror   Billionaire Island

You remember Pat Mills?  One of the original architects of Judge Dredd. Famed for things like Nemesis the Warlock, Charley’s War (which is excellent and almost totally unknown in the US) and Marshall Law.  It seems he has his own “Millsverse” publishing imprint at Comixology.  Of particular interest may be the Requiem Vampire Knight  series with art by Olivier Ledroit. I’m given to understand this is a particularly dark one, not for kids, and was originally written for the French market.

And then there’s his current project – Spacewarp, which has Mills creating a new 2000 AD-esque science fiction anthology.  Something he’s well qualified to be doing.  From the description:

“Featuring Special Forces One at war with Giant Viruses! Jurassic Punks versus Dinosaurs! Xecutioners: authorized to terminate Aliens! Slayer – one Robot in a Galactic war against a million Space Knights. Hellbreaker escapes from Hell to punish the Living. Fu-tant – a terrifying school for Mutants! Space Cops! Mutant secret agents! Killer robots! Virus armies! Alien invasions! Interacting in a unique Spacewarp Universe! Inventive, action-packed, heartfelt, heroic, humorous, fast-paced and fantastic value for money – as only the Brits know how. Aimed at ordinary readers of all ages. ”

Requiem Vampire Knight   Spacewarp

Speaking of folks doing their own publishing, if you follow the Diamond sales charts for the US Direct Market, very few people are having much luck being their own publisher.  One of the two exceptions that come to mind is Joe Benitez, who steampunk cyborg adventure/SF/F series Lady Mechanika has outsold a lot of comics from larger publishers.
Lady Mechanika

Still on sale

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