Charles Soule Archives - Comics.Cheap

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):

Yes, we know May 4th is a holy day for many of you, so we’re breaking down the Star Wars Sale today and then we’ll be back at the normal time for the rest of this week’s sales.

Nothing But Star Wars… except for Carnage

First, let’s run through the highlights. Where appropriate, we’ll be linking the the omnibus editions. You can toggle between “omnibuses” and “volumes” (i.e. the “regular,” thinner collected editions) using the drop down menu on the left hand side of the screen under the series picture/graphic.

Bounty Hunters (’20 – present) – Ethan Sacks / Paolo Villanelli

War of the Bounty Hunters (’21) – Charles Soule / Steve McNiven / Luke Ross, wherein Boba Fett tries to deliver a carbonite encased Han Solo to Jaba the Hutt

Darth Vader (’15-’16) – The AMAZING Kieron Gillen / Salvador Larroca run
Vader Down – the Darth Vader / Star Wars crossover sequence that is KEY to this run if you’re getting the “regular” volumes – it’s in the omnibus editions.

Darth Vader (’17 – ’18) – The also great Charles Soule / Giuseppe Camuncoli run

Darth Vader (’20 – present) – Greg Pak and Raffaele Ienco step in.

Doctor Aphra (’16-’19) – Sort of an evil Indiana Jones in the Star Wars universe, spinning off from Darth Vader. The early Gillen/Walker run is particularly good.
The Screaming Citadel – Star Wars/Aphra crossover with key plot points to the early sequence – it’s included in the Omnibus, but not the “regular” volumes. (Seeing a pattern?)

Doctor Aphra (’20 – present) – Alyssa Wong / Marika Cresta / Minkyu Jung

Kanan: The Last Padawan – Star Wars Rebels prequel by by Greg Weisman and Pepe Larraz

The Mandalorian (’22-’23) – Steven Barnes and Georges Jeanty adapt the first season

Star Wars (’15-’19) – The Marvel flagship title amazingly went 4 years without a relaunch!

Star Wars (’20 – present) – The relaunch! And, following protocol, Charles Soule moves from Darth Vader to Star Wars, like Gillen before him.

Star Wars: The High Republic (’21-’22)

Recommendations? For whatever reason, Darth Vader seems to bring out the best in Marvel. Those first two series with Gillen and Soule, especially. Is is a coincidence Lucasfilm hired Charles Soule as a creative consultant?

Your under the radar title is Kanan. A very solid series from one the Star Wars Rebels producers and Pepe Larraz has since been promoted to X-Men.

And then, at the bottom of the Star Wars sales page, there are a bunch of Carnage comics on sale. We have absolutely no idea why this is. Then again, is it the first time we were baffled? That would be a big NOPE.

So, if you want old school Spidey vs. Carnage, our recommendation would be the Carnage: Born in Blood Epic Collection. This gets you the first Carnage arc, as well as Maximum Carnage.

While we’re not seeing Ram V’s current horror (and Asgard) tinged Carnage title in the sale, we’re fans (the few, the proud) of the Gerry Conway / Mike Perkins Carnage run that took it in a definite horror direction with an almost Tomb of Dracula-like vibe.

This week in Comixology (at Amazon) sales: Star Wars gets nice and cheap for the “May the Fourth” holiday, plus Spider-Man and his friends (OK, acquaintances), Batman, Doctor Fate and The Witchfinder (but not the Witchfinder General, that’s different).

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

In case you’re having troubles with the new UIX (a LOT of people have been):

Nothing But Star Wars

The Marvel Star Wars May the Fourth Sale runs through Monday, 5/16.

Let’s break this down by key series first (since Amazon can’t be bothered to organize things this way). There are a lot more shorter runs included, too and the prices are GOOD. Lots of $0.99 first volumes and $1.99 after that. This is the time of the year to go hog wild on Star Wars.

Darth Vader (’15-’16) – The AMAZING Kieron Gillen / Salvador Larroca run
Vader Down – the Darth Vader / Star Wars crossover sequence that is KEY to this run.
Darth Vader (’17 – ’18) – The also great Charles Soule / Giuseppe Camuncoli run
Doctor Aphra (’16-’19) – Sort of an evil Indiana Jones in the Star Wars universe, spinning off from Darth Vader. The first three volumes are especially entertaining
The Screaming Citadel – Star Wars/Aphra crossover with key plot points to the early sequence
Kanan: The Last Padawan – Star Wars Rebels prequel by by Greg Weisman and Pepe Larraz
Star Wars (’15-’19) – The Marvel flagship title amazingly went 4 years without a relaunch!
Star Wars: The High Republic ($0.99 for Vol. 1)

Recommendations? For whatever reason, Darth Vader seems to bring out the best in Marvel. Get both series first. Is is a coincidence Lucasfilm recently hired Charles Soule as a creative consultant?

Your under the radar title is Kanan. A very solid series from one the animated show’s producers and Pepe Larraz has since been promoted to X-Men.

Team-Up

The Marvel Spider-Man and Friends Sale runs through Sunday, 5/1.

There have been a few Spidey team-up books over the years and the listed here include:

The OG title, however, was Marvel Team-Up. While we like the value of Masterworks editions in general, the standout sequence of this title is the too-short Chris Claremont/John Byrne run. Yes, the classic X-Men team did a Spidey run here. Masterworks V.6 catches the beginning of that, but Marvel also has Spider-Man: Marvel Team-Up by Claremont and Byrne that catches it all in one place. And yes, that business with the Soul Catcher from issues 60-62 is a follow up to a Tigra story line. (The more you know…)

Some of the Discounts Are Decent…

The DC Epic eBooks Sale runs through Monday, 5/9.

The usual DC disclaimers apply – Amazon and/or DC seem to screw up the sale prices, initially pricing many books at bizarre numbers like $9.32 or $24.87 before settling down to something like $5.99 or $7.99. So if the price doesn’t end in $*.99, be aware it might not be the final sale price. Then again, they might not get around to fixing it. We wish we were making it up, but that’s the cold, hard reality of the situation.

Anyway, some things we saw and thought the “real” sale price was active for:

WE3 is a unusual and downright disturbing self-contained story by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely about about three house pets – a dog, a cat and a rabbit – who have been converted into cybernetically enhanced weapons systems by a government agency. They make a break for it and all hell breaks loose. Seriously, this is not The Secret of N.I.H.M. This is bloody. $5.99 is a good price, here.

Brave and the Bold: Batman and Wonder Woman is Liam Sharp’s tale of Batman & Wonder Woman investigating the murder of a Celtic god. $4.99 for a proper discount.

Doctor Fate in this case is the 2015-16 revival by Paul Levitz, with the amazing Sonny Liew as the primary artist. We don’t always like updates, but Levitz and Liew nailed this one. The helmet of Fate falls into the possession of an Egyptian American medical student for a series of adventures tied into Egyptian mythology and history. An underappreciated gem that blends a sliver of classic Peter Parker into the Fate mythos.

There’s a LOT of collections to sort through here, we just wish it were easier to find a series that had ALL the volumes priced consistently.

Lost and Found

The Dark Horse Witchfinder Sale runs through Monday, 5/2.

This is another entry in the extended Mignolaverse, a staple of Dark Horse’s horror efforts. Sir Edward Grey is a witchfinder in Victorian England, who hunts things that go bump in the night while in the service of the Queen. And yes, of course Saucy Jack eventually turns up. Mike Mignola with John Arcudi and Chris Robeson. Ben Stenbeck is the primary artist, but the some of other artists popping include John Severin, Tyler Crook, D’Israeli and Christopher Mitten.

This series of mini-series is now conveniently collected in two omnibus editions on sale for $6.99 each and that’s a lot of bang for your buck.