Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Men: The Krakoan Age; Power Man and Iron Fist; Civil War; Stephen King’s The Dark Tower; Critical Role

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel waves goodbye to the Krakoa Age of X-Men with a sale… and some discounts on Power Man & Iron Fist and Civil War, too. Plus, an unannounced Critical Role sale from Dark Horse.

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):

X-Going-Away-Party

House of X / Powers of X  Dawn of X  Sins of Sinister

The Marvel X-Men: The Krakoan Age Sale runs through Monday, 4/29.

Marvel seems to has settled on “The Kakoan Age” for what we’ve been calling the Hickman Era or the HoX/PoX Era.

As things are winding down, ahead of editor Tom Brevoort leading a line wide reset, theoretically helmed by Gail Simone and/or Jed MacKay, the “Krakoan Age” is on sale. And honestly, it was very good for quite a while and some of it stayed good, too.

Let’s talk about the overall arcs and “… of X” editions first. These are the collected editions that approximate reading the Hickman era as single issues. Roughly speaking they cycle through X-Men, Wolverine, X-Force, Marauders, etc. etc.

While this effect dissipates after time, we think this is the better way to read the Hickman X-Men titles. Story elements originally floated between books and their sum was greater than their parts. The order does something like this:

Inferno is the last arc for Hickman before leaving and it fits in roughly after The Trial of Magneto ends, so you can read it somewhere between Trials of X V.3-6.

We’re not as adamant about reading this in issue-to-issue format after Hickman leaves… although X-Force and Wolverine are certainly intertwined at times. Through Inferno, though? Yes.

The next “act” of the Krakoa age was “Destiny of X,” but that’s apparently only available in this format in French?

Our recommendations for your optimal Destiny of X reading is clustered around two tracts:

Track One: the Axis of Gillen/Spurrier/Ewing – the writers of the three “big concept” X-titles that eventually converge in the truly X-cellent Sins of Sinster Event that we might even put ahead of the also X-cellent X-of Swords.

These books are:

  • Immortal X-Men by Kieron Gillen / Lucas Werneck; we’d personally consider this the flagship title for the Destiny of X sequence
  • Legion of X by Si Spurrier / Jan Bazaldua / Rafael Pimentel; The explorations of Legion and Nightcrawler’s crews
  • X-Men: Red – Al Ewing / Stefano Caselli / Juann Cabal; Storm’s adventures leading Arakko (Mars) as Ewing keeps a finger in the cosmic side of Marvel

Track two: Ben Percy continues to keep X-Force and Wolverine intertwined in interesting ways, particularly as the long-running saga of Hank McCoy comes to a head.

Pick up X-Force starting with Vol. 5.

Pick up Wolverine starting with Vol. 4.

A mini-series worth mentioning in the “Destiny” period: X-Terminators by Leah Williams / Carlos Gomez manages to be lighthearted with really dark and occasionally off-color humor as Dazzler, Boom Boom, Laura Kinney and Jubilee get mixed up with vampires in the most humiliating ways.

Now, there’s more to the sale and you can always pull them by individual title… but we really think the “of X” format is additive for the world building while Hickman is running the show.

Sweet Christmas!

Iron Fist  Power Man and Iron Fist  Immortal Iron Fist

The Marvel Luke Cage and Iron Fist Sale runs through Monday, 4/8.

Once upon a time there were two series: Luke Cage, Hero for Hire / Power Man and Iron Fist.

You can get the first 23 issues of Hero for Hire/Power Man in an Epic Collection.  There were several creators involved, including Archie Goodwin, Steve Englehart, Tony Isabella, George Tuska and Billy Graham. There’s a certain amount of camp to it, but the early tale of Doctor Doom trying to skip out on his bill is what we’d call a heart-warming favorite.

Iron Fist had a shorter run and you can get the entire solo series (Marvel Premiere and Iron Fist) in an Epic Collection. The run is most associated with the team it finished with: an early pairing of Chris Claremont and John Byrne. You may have heard of them.

The two books then merged into the longer-running Power Man & Iron Fist. Now here’s something we don’t always say: this one’s in Epic Collections, but not Masterworks format. Claremont & Byrne left shortly thereafter, paving the way for Jo Duffy, who might be most associated with it. Among the creators working on it were Duffy, Denny O’Neil, (a very young) Kurt Busiek, Christopher Priest, Kerry Gammil, Denys Cowan, Greg Larocque and Mark Bright. A stronger lineup than you might have guessed and a comic that remembered to be goofy at times.

It was revived as Heroes for Hire by John Ostrander and Pasqual Ferry in ’97. We also have a soft spot for the David Walker / Sanford Greene Power Man & Iron Fist in ’16.

But the best of the bunch? The Immortal Iron FistPeople are most familiar with the first half of the series, with the celebrated team of Ed Brubaker/Matt Fraction/David Aja. We’re here to tell you that the back half by Duane Swierczynski/Travel Foreman is also pretty darn good. Plus, more Fat Cobra! Don’t sleep on the back half. Good value with those collected editions, too!

A Polite Disagreement Among Capes

Civil War  Civil War: Front Line V. 1  Civil War: Wolverine

The Marvel Civil War Sale runs through Monday, 4/8.

One of these days, Marvel is going to quit leaving money on the table and give Civil War the treatment it gives something like Hickman’s Avengers saga or Aaron’s Thor saga: an edition (or series of additions) that integrate the main parts in reading order. After all these years, it’s still piecemeal.

So here’s our take on it:

Civil War the main mini-series by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven – is the action movie version of the story.

Civil War: Front Line – written by Paul Jenkins with art by Ramon Bachs, Steve Lieber and Lee Weeks – is about WHY the Civil War is happening as Ben Urich tries to get to the bottom of things. This title is much more of the Event’s actual plot and motivations than the more famous flagship series and Marvel really need to have a collection that integrates the two.

There are obviously a lot of tie-in books here. You can dip in where you feel like, but Civil War: Wolverine by Marc Guggenheim and Humberto Ramos is a little more relevant than most and has Logan (hellbent on vengeance) tracking down the people responsible for the Stamford incident.

Yes, there is a lot more to the story than the main Millar/McNiven book, it’s just not really emphasized.

Always Specify .22 or .38
Deadworld   The Realm    Jazz Age Chronicles

The Caliber Comics Library Spring Sale runs through Tuesday, 4/30.

There are a few titles here that were notable in the ’80s indie boom.

And plenty of Don Lomax war comics.

But if you want something a little more recent, Ageless might be of interest. It’s written by Torunn GrØnbekk, who’s been recently been writing Thor, with art by San Espina.

Ageless

Unannounced Sales
Critical Role Stephen King's the Dark Tower

Comixology has not announced that 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.

There’s an omnibus format that’s a little better value and a “regular”  collected edition sale.

Then, formerly from Marvel / currently from Gallery 13, Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: Beginnings by Robin Furth / Peter David / Jae Lee and overseen by King is on sale for $1.99 a pop. It’s the backstory/coming of age for a gunslinger name Roland.

Last Call on Batman

A reminder that the Batman anniversary sale ends on Monday. Some of the material likely won’t be at these prices again until the end of year holiday sales zone. Our notes for the sale are here.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Avengers (almost all of it), Civil War, One-Star Squadron and DC’s Spring Break

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, The Avengers (almost the entire catalog) gets discounts, plus Civil War and DC’s “Spring Break,” featuring the under-appreciated One-Star Squadron.

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):

Savings, Assemble!

The Marvel Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Sale runs through Tuesday, 4/1o.

And this as pretty much everything except the Masterworks editions. (Hey, don’t look at us… we think that’s a strange omission, too.)

Let’s start about by breaking down the major series/titles on sale

The Jonathan Hickman era

The Hickman era is a little complicated, because his Avengers and New Avengers titles run together, but getting the “regular” volumes of those are cheaper, but the Avengers by Jonathan Hickman collections are what we’d recommend for a more natural reading experience. Those collect both titles, plus tie-ins… and this is something were reading order counts.

But, this being Marvel collections, it get more complicated. The Avengers/New Avengers material (whichever format you read it in) is just one segment of Hickman’s tale. The story is continued in Avengers: Time Runs Outwhich is the real last arc of Avengers and New Avengers.

And all this funnels into Secret Wars, the true endgame of Hickman’s Avengers run… which, of course, is not included in the sale. (Silly Marvel.)

The Hickman era really is it’s own beast. A lot of comics talk about having an “epic scale.” This one’s scope is staggering and it sheer size of the scope means it gets better and better as things progress in a way few comics really do. So just know that the entire era is effectively one extended story and it’s a real “in for a penny, in for a pound” thing.

The Jason Aaron era

While not necessarily as complex as the Hickman era, there are a few different ways to read it:

What’s at the top of the list?

As a self-contained unit, it’s hard to beat Avengers ForeverIt’s one of the best Kang stories and it’s not spilling into anything else. Busiek + Stern + Pacheco = Excellence.

For the classic series, there are a lot of good runs. The first Roy Thomas/John Buscema run, particularly around the introduction of The Vision. The Kree-Skrull War. Steve Englehart’s Run. Jim Shooter’s run. Roger Stern’s run, particularly when the team of John Buscema and Tom Palmer return. There is a ton of good stuff to look at. When we factor in price point and page count (some of the newer Epic Collections are a little more expensive), we keep coming back to The Final Threat. Steve Englehart/ Gerry Conway / Jim Shooter / George Perez / John Byrne / John Buscema / Sal Buscema. You get the return of Wonder Man, “The Private War of Doctor Doom,” and “Bride of Ultron” for the major arcs. It’s a nice cross-section of creators and stories for $5.99.

We’re also major fans of the Kurt Busiek / George Perez run that begins here. A second golden age that stands up with the best runs. Also, $5.99 (mostly) for some page counts that sometimes approach Epic Collection length, so a little extra value from that end.

Let’s face it, there have been a lot of good Avengers run.

Avengers Forever   Avengers   Avengers Assemble

Spring Breaking and Entering

The DC Spring Break Sale runs through Monday, 4/10.

Another random-ish drop of title from DC. What’s good?

We read One-Star Squadron by Mark Russell and Steve Leiber a couple weeks back and loved it, which is not surprising with that pairing. We also think this is the first time the book’s been discounted. Definitely in the “bittersweet humor” category, this is a satire of the gig economy and venture capital as Red Tornado runs company whose app sends out third string heroes for appearances and gig work. His gig workers are not necessarily happy in life, nor his office workers. Recommended, especially if you’ve interacted with the gig world.

The Human Target (V.1) by Tom King and Greg Smallwood is an excellent ride. Christopher Chance has been poisoned and has twelve days to figure out who did the deed. And the Bwa Ha Ha era Justice League International are at the top of the suspect list. One part noir, one part deconstruction of the JLI. A very strong first collection. (The full series wrapped in Feb, but the second collected edition isn’t out yet.)

Two classic Flash runs are on sale at the same link. First, there’s The Flash by Mark Waid with Greg Larocque, Mike Wieringo and Oscar Jimenez among the primary artists. This was Waid’s breakout series with “The Return of Barry Allen” probably being the most famous arc. The you’ve got The Flash by Geoff Johns with Scott Kolins and Howard Porter as the primary artists. Early (and very entertaining) work from Johns.

One-Star Squadron   The Human Target   Flash by Mark Waid

And then we have a few things we think are getting discounted for the first time. (And heads up, some of those discounts are based on the HC price, so be aware of that.)

Of interest, due to the movie trailer:  Blue Beetle: Jaime Reyes, Book 1. The first 12 issues of the Keith Giffen / John Rogers / Cully Hamner series that’s being adapted.

And a few more things we think are on sale for the first time:

The War Between the… Sales Managers

The Marvel Civil War: Complete Events Sale runs through Tuesday, 4/10.

Yes, Civil War is one of those Events we really believe Marvel needs to rethink its collection strategy for.  All these various and sprawling collections need to be integrated. Or at least SOME of them need to be integrated.

So here’s our take on it:

Civil War the main mini-series by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven – is the action movie version of the story.

Civil War: Front Line – written by Paul Jenkins with art by Ramon Bachs, Steve Lieber and Lee Weeks – is about WHY the Civil War is happening as Ben Urich tries to get to the bottom of things. This title is much more of the Event’s actual plot and motivations than the more famous flagship series and Marvel really need to have a collection that integrates the two.

There are obviously a lot of tie-in books here. You can dip in where you feel like, but Civil War: Wolverine by Marc Guggenheim and Humberto Ramos is a little more relevant than most and has Logan (hellbent on vengeance) tracking down the people responsible for the Stamford incident.

Yes, there is a lot more to the story than the main Millar/McNiven book, it’s just not really emphasized.

Civil War   Civil War: Front Line V. 1   Civil War: Wolverine

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Still On Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Batman, Civil War and… No, Not West Coast Avengers?

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) Sales, we attempt to sort through the mis-priced DC Starter sale, Marvel offers up a Civil War Sale and… say, that’s not a West Coast Avengers sale, is it? Oh, Amazon…

(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):

Maybe They Should Start With the Right Prices?

The DC Start Here Sale runs through Monday, 4/11.

The usual “some of the prices are off” warning still applies. $12.43 for Batman: The Golden Age does not seem like the right price and most of those weird prices have changed to something that ends in .99.  Much of it being $5.99/$6.99/$7.99. So if you see a weird and kind of high price, move on.

That out of the way, this is effective a first volume sale and they’re hoping you’ll get the rest at full price. (Don’t they know how cheap you are?) In the spirit of not overspending, we’ll also look at things that are a bit more self contained, like…

Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age, Vol. 1 by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson with a bit of Nestor Redondo and Mike Kaluta. Len Wein doesn’t always get listed high on the pantheon of 70s writers and we think that’s a combination of his not have particularly long runs on many comics and some of his very best work being on smaller titles like Swamp Thing and Phantom Stranger. Well, here’s what just might be Wein’s best work – the original Swamp Thing run (the House of Secrets debut and then 1-13 of the regular series). Does anything need to be said about Wrightson’s art?  You already know it’s great.

Batman: The Adventures Continue Season One is a continuation of Batman: The Animated Series by Alan Burnett and Paul Dini (you, know… from the show) writing and Ty Templeton on art.  And it is wonderful. Like and old friend dropping by out of the blue. In this case it involves a giant robot causing trouble in Gotham right around when Lex Luther shows up.  Surely, that couldn’t be a coincidence.

And for a change of pace, it’s hard to go wrong with with The Flintstones as re-imagined by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh. It’s just a great comic. Funny, oddly bittersweet and sometimes dark… yet still the Flintstones.

Have a browse, but beware of the flaky, non-final sale prices. Things that end in .99 only.  The “Golden Age” / “Silver Age” / “Bronze Age” editions (like Swamp Thing) that have been properly marked down to $6.99 are a good chunk of pages for the price.

Swamp Thing   Batman: The Adventures Continue  The Flintstones

Incivility

The Marvel Civil War: The Complete Collection Sale runs through Thursday, 4/14.

Yes, Civil War is one of those Events we really believe Marvel needs to rethink its collection strategy for.  All these various and sprawling collections need to be integrated. Or at least SOME of them need to be integrated.

So here’s our take on it:

Civil War the main mini-series by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven – is the action movie version of the story.

Civil War: Front Line – written by Paul Jenkins with art by Ramon Bachs, Steve Lieber and Lee Weeks – is about WHY the Civil War is happening as Ben Urich tries to get to the bottom of things. This title is much more of the Event’s actual plot and motivations than the more famous flagship series and Marvel really need to have a collection that integrates the two.

There are obviously a lot of tie-in books here. You can dip in where you feel like, but Civil War: Wolverine by Marc Guggenheim and Humberto Ramos is a little more relevant than most and has Logan (hellbent on vengeance) tracking down the people responsible for the Stamford incident.

Yes, there is a lot more to the story than the main Millar/McNiven book, it’s just not really emphasized.

Civil War   Civil War: Front Line V. 1   Civil War: Wolverine

What West Coast?

So you may have seen this on the Deals Page:

And you may have thought to yourself, “That sure doesn’t look like West Coast Avengers?”

That’s because if you click through, you’ll find it’s really the Marvel Ironheart Sale and it runs through Sunday, 4/10.

We’re not going to be good guides for this series… but know what you’re really looking at. (Amazon’s not having a good week, are they?)

Spider-Sale

The big sale of the week continues to be the Amazing Spider-Man sale.  We broke it down by title in our last column.

Spider-Man Brand New Day

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Still on Sale:

Comixology Sales: Civil War, Doctor Doom, Shang-Chi and 50% off BOOM! (and better for Power Rangers)

Highlights from this week’s Comixology Sales include Marvel revisiting Civil War (and including Front Line for a change), Doctor Doom and Shang-Chi; plus CU subscribers get 50% off the BOOM! line which stacks on top of a Power Rangers sale.

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

50% off BOOM! for Subscribers

In what seems to be a fairly regular thing, we have another half-off sale for Comixology Unlimited subscribers.  This time it’s 50% off BOOM! – log in and the discount appears. The sale runs through 11PM ET on Monday 5/17.  You know the drill by now: go to the release date view to get this week’s new comics half off or move forward to pre-order at the same discount. A couple series you might have heard of that we’re happy to vouch for are Once & Future (Kieron Gillen & Dan Mara) and Something Is Killing the Children (James Tynion IV & Werther Dell’Edera).

And since the discount stacks, that means you’re looking at 75% discounts for the Power Rangers Sale.

Power Rangers

Civil War

The Marvel Civil War Complete Event Sale runs through Sunday, 5/16.

Which is to say, all the copious tie-in volumes are also on sale. We’ve been saying this for YEARS – Marvel has done a lousy job packaging the Civil War reprints. There are two titles you need to read Civil War properly. The titular Civil War mini-series is sort of the action movie version of the story. This is the more famous series by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven.  Civil War: Front Line Vol.1  and Vol. 2 written by Paul Jenkins and drawn by lots of folks, including Ramon Bachs, Steve Lieber and Lee Weeks, is the actual plot of the story as reporters (notably Ben Urich) try to track down who caused the conflict and why.  We firmly maintain you should not read Civil War without also reading Front Line.

You can expand to the rest of the line after these two series.  Maybe start with the Wolverine volume as that has Logan going after the people responsible for the inciting incident.

Civil War   Civil War: Front Line V. 1   Civil War: Front Line V. 2

The Face of Doom

The Marvel Doctor Doom Sale runs through Sunday, 5/16.

The recent Doctor Doom series by Christopher Cantwell and Salvador Larroca is an instant classic well worth your time. (There’s a second volume not on sale.)

Avengers: The Private War of Doctor Doom has a lot of creators with Gerry Conway, Steve Englehart and Jim Shooter as the primary writers and George Perez as the primary artist. This is a sort of off-shoot of the Doctor Doom vs. Sub-Mariner Super Villain Team-Up title and a fun enough sequence.

Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The Name is Doom by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby is one of two Fantastic Four Epic Collections in the sale and we just like this volume slightly better for having a particularly iconic Doom story.

Doctor Doom   Avengers - The Private War of Doctor Doom   Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The Name is Doom

Master of Kung Fu

The Marvel Shang-Chi Sale runs through Thursday, 5/20.

As you may have heard, Marvel has a movie coming out with their 70s Kung Fu hero, Shang-Chi. There’s a bit of controversy around the character, as it was originally a licensed feature spinning out of the Fu Manchu franchise. Marvel’s currently re-inventing Shang-Chi without Fu Manchu as more of a fantasy-tinged Kung Fu strip.  We’d suggest checking out the original version, which was much more of an espionage comic. Sort of Shaw Brothers crossed with Ian Fleming.  There are two Epic Editions on sale: Master of Kung Fu Epic Edition: Weapon of the Soul and Master of Kung Fu Epic Edition: Fight Without Pity. Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin launch it, then Doug Moench takes over as writer with several artists rotating through including Jim Craig, Keith Pollard and (most famously) Paul Gulacy. Potential trigger warning on ’70s tropes and color palettes, but a lot of people place MOKF at the top of Marvel’s 70s titles alongside Tomb of Dracula and Man-Thing.

Master of Kung Fu   Master of Kung Fu

Still on Sale