Christmas sales Archives

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we have a look at some of the best bets in the Marvel Masterworks Sale.

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 Best of the Marvel Masterworks Sale

As you may recall, The Marvel Masterworks Sale runs through Monday, 1/8.

One of the things you’ll notice about the Masterworks line is they started with relatively thin volumes – around 10 issues/~225-250 pages per book. And then as things got further along, they got bigger. Some of them being effectively the same size as an Epic Collection. So let’s start out by looking at that and the biggest bang for your buck by page count.

I Like Big Page Counts

Masterworks with 400+ pages!

Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 22 – 410 pages – Roger Stern / John Romita, Jr. era, including THAT Juggernaut story
Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Vol. 23 – 468 pages – Roger Stern / John Romita, Jr. era… and the Hobgoblin debuts in this volume
Avengers Masterworks Vol. 21 – 386 pages (close enough) – Effectively the end of the Jim Shooter/Bob Hall run, plus the first Vision & the Scarlet Witch mini and, notably, a 2-part Steven Grant/Greg Laroque Black Knight storyline.
Avengers Masterworks Vol. 23 – this appears to be mislabeled on Amazon and should be closer to 380 pages (close enough) – Roger Stern / Al Milgrom / Mark Gruenwald. Includes the Hawkeye mini-series.
Champions Masterworks Vol. 1 – 460 pages – The whole ’70s series + crossovers – Bill Mantlo/Tony Isabella/George Tuska/John Byrne and others.
Doctor Strange Masterworks Vol. 10 – 394 pages (close enough) – Roger Stern/Paul Smith (and the Doctor Strange vs. Dracula sequence)
Incredible Hulk Masterworks V. 17 – 393 pages (close enough) – Bill Mantlo / Sal Buscema – Includes the Contest of Champions mini-series.
Killraven Masterworks Vol. 1 – 471 pages – Don McGregor / P. Craig Russell – the entire Amazing Adventures run plus the OGN follow up
Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 9 – 471 pages – OK, get this line-up: Chris Claremont writing all of… Uncanny X-Men w/ Paul Smith; the God Loves, Man Kills OGN w/ Brent Anderson and the original Wolverine mini-series w/ Frank Miller.
Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 10 – 458 pages – the beginning of the Claremont/John Romita, Jr. era with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and Morlocks, plus the Magik mini-series w/ John Buscema
Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 11 – 457 pages – Claremont writing: X-Men with John Romita, Jr. (including the Kulan Gath issues), X-Men/Alpha Flight with Paul Smith and Kitty Pride & Wolverine with Al Milgrim
Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 12 – 466 pages – Claremont writes X-Men w/ John Romita, Jr. (culminating in the trial of Magneto and the end of a big arc); the “Asgardian Wars” crossover with New Mutants w/Art Adams; and then Dave Cockrum’s Nightcrawler mini.
Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 13 – 449 pages – Claremont & John Romita, Jr. on X-Men, plus and Ann Nocenti and Art Adams on Longshot.
Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 14 – 485 pages – Enter the Mutant Massacre, plus Psylocke joins the X-verse in New Mutants and Fantastic Four Vs. X-Men.
Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 15 – 508 pages (!) – Chris Claremont / Marc Silvestri / Roger Stern. Includes the “Fall of the Mutants” arc and the Avengers vs. X-Men mini-series.

Other notable runs (that aren’t Lee/Kirby, since those go without saying).

We’ll link to the first volume in the set on these.

Avengers V. 10 – 18; V. 10 is the Kree/Skrull War. V.11 starts the Englehart run through V.15. V. 16 & V.17 are the Jim Shooter run w/ George Perez & John Byrne; V. 18 is David Michelinie/John Byrne -a prime chunk of Avengers
Black Panther Masterworks Vol. 1 – The original, classic Jungle Action run with Don McGregor / Rich Buckler / Billy Graham / Gil Kane – a LOT of things get established here.
Captain America V. 7 – 11; V.7-9 is the classic Steve Englehart/ (mostly) Sal Buscema run with the Secret Empire, the Red Skull and a snake of an ad man. V.10-11 is Jack Kirby’s return and V.10’s Madbomb is more relevant today than it should be. Also good – V.14 contains the brief, but classic, Roger Stern/John Byrne run
Captain Marvel V.3 -4; V. 3 is Jim Starlin’s run, which is the first Thanos arc. Utter classic. V.4 is the half-forgotten, yet quite entertaining Steve Englehart/Al Milgrom run.
Daredevil V. 15-17; Frank Miller’s first run. (V. 14 ends with the first issue he drew, but it’s not particularly connected to the rest of the run.) Yes, the whole thing is now in Masterworks and it’s a decent price for the material.
Defenders V. 3-5; The inspired strangeness of Steve Gerber’s run. Headmen! Elf With a Gun!
Doctor Strange V.5-10; Once Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner show up the 70s and 80s were a strong time for Doctor Strange. Consistently A-list writers and artists. Almost amazingly so for a bi-monthly title.
Fantastic Four V. 21-25; The John Byrne era in thick slices
Iron Man V.5-7; The meat of Archie Goodwin’s Iron Man run with Gene Colan and George Tuska
Iron Man V. 13-15 – V. 13 has David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita, Jr. arrive. They start with “Demon in a Bottle,” the famous arc, but Iron Man is very good for a long time, starting here.
Marvel Two-In-One V. 5-6; In V.5 Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio arrive for a fun run that’s not always remembered. George Perez and Ron Wilson handle most of the art. “Project Pegasus” and “The Serpent Crown Affair” are two of the major arcs.
Sub-Mariner V. 7 – Something different? Namor’s creator, Bill Everett returns to his creation as writer/artist.
Warlock V. 2 – Jim Starlin’s first run on Adam Warlock, complete in one volume. A continuation of his Captain Marvel run, Thanos is back and this one really lays the groundwork for the eventual Infinity Gauntlet.

Remember, New Year’s Day is last call for the DC Holiday Sale. Our extensive annotations for it are here.

Still on Sale

The Marvel Masterworks Sale runs through Monday, 1/8
The DC Holiday Sale runs through Monday, 1/1
The Marvel Star Wars Omnibus Sale runs through Monday, 1/8
The Marvel What If? Sale runs through Monday, 1/8
The Kodansha Season’s Givings Sale runs through Friday, 1/5
The Titan Ms. Tree Sale runs through Sunday, 12/31
Zenescope Cinderella Serial Killer Princess Digital Sale runs through Wednesday, 1/10
The Titan The Tenth Doctor Sale runs through 1/15
The Titan Dark Souls Sale runs through Sunday, 12/31
The Titan Life is Strange Sale runs through Sunday, 12/31
The Titan Robotech Sale runs through Sunday, 12/31

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC discounts Aquaman ahead of the film, while Marvel drops prices on Old Man Logan and Alpha Flight.

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):

Wolverine… and the Sea?

The Marvel Old Logan and the Wasteland Sale runs through Monday, 12/18.

Yes, the Old Man Logan storyline has spawn a series of miniseries set in “The Wasteland” setting from the original.

Wolverine: Old Man Logan by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven is what started the line.
Old Man Logan V.0 : Warzones! by Brian Bendis and Andrea Sorrentino is the Secret Wars / Battleworld version.
Old Man Logan is the ongoing series, initially by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino.

That’s what the real spread is here with the rest of the sale being side attractions you may or may not be into. The original storyline of a cranky, aged (“Old Man”) version of Wolverine living in a dystopic future came off as a sort of Elseworlds tale and is fairly well regarded as a standalone tale.

It was popular enough that the “Old Man Logan” version of the character was contrived to appear in the present (his past… before the disaster that spawned a dystopia) in the period when Wolverine was supposed to be “dead.” It even lasted 50 issues. We’d say give the Jeff Lemire issues a look if it sounds interesting, particularly the Lemire/Sorrentino issues. This was one of their pre-Image collaborations and it’s much more entertaining than the editorial premise sounds.

The Great White North

The Marvel Alpha Flight Sale runs through Monday, 12/18.

We know what you’re thinking: “If Spider-Man could team up with the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, why couldn’t Alpha Flight team up with Bob and Doug McKenzie?” The way we heard it, this was proposed, but Guy Caballero nixed it.

The main item of note here is Alpha Flight Classic, 3 volumes that comprise the John Byrne run on the original series and a Bill Mantlo/Mike Mignola issue and Byrne essentially traded Alpha Flight for The Incredible Hulk. (We recall the Mantlo run being better than advertised, but there doesn’t currently seem to be interest in collecting it.)

Of possible related interest is X-Men / Alpha Flight, which features some early Uncanny X-Men appearances and two crossover mini-series. The 1985 mini by Chris Claremont and Paul Smith is particularly good and the first half of the “Asgardian Wars” story arc.

And for something out of left field, there’s the more recent Gamma Flight, which is an Alpha Flight adjacent spin-off of Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing, Crystal Frazier and Len Medina.

The Deep Blue Sea

The DC Aquaman Sale runs through Monday, 12/18.

You’d think there was a movie coming out?

We’ve heard a few versions of what the new film is supposed to be about. Inspired by Silver Age Aquaman stories with Black Manta as the villain is one story we’ve heard. That it’s incorporating elements from the abandoned “The Trench” spin-off film in another.

We always associated Black Manta a little more with the 70s and the Death of a Prince storyline, but he debuted in ’67 and made some more appearances as the first Aquaman run was ending. And, really, the Steve Skeates/Jim Aparo run was one of the better Silver Age runs, so there you go. That’s collected in a couple books that are a little more expensive than things we’ve seen in recent weeks. Manta pops up in The Search for Mera, but we think what the filmmakers are referring to are the Deadly Waters stories, where Manta tries to usurp Atlantis.

All this business about “The Trench” is from the first two volumes of the Geoff Johns / Ivan Reis (New 52) run, where Aquaman encounters a scary race of creatures from the deepest depths of an undersea trench. The second volume, “The Others,” is particularly good.

Another take was the Peter David / Martin Egeland ’90s Aquaman run, which featured an angrier, more violent Aquaman who’d lost a hand and replaced it with a hook. Popular, but controversial.

But if you want an unusual (and quite enjoyable) run, you’re looking for Aquman: Sword of Atlantis. Kurt Busiek and Jackson Guice added an undersea Conan feel to the feature with plenty of sorcery and a bit of mystery around who various characters really were. We wished this version had a longer run.