Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The New X-Men Writers; Batman; Patton Oswalt

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts the work of the three new X-Men writers… plus, Ghost Rider. DC has an essential sale (read: Batman) and Patton Oswald experiences unannounced price slashing.

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-Writers of the Future

With the initial X-Men relaunch announcements dropping at SXSW, it looks like Marvel is inviting you to get to know the new writers of the X-line with 3 sales (and perhaps more to come as announcements continue).

Jed MacKay

Moon Knight  The Death of Doctor Strange  Taskmaster

The Marvel Jed MacKay Sale runs through Monday, 3/25.

Of the three announced writers, MacKay’s written the most material for Marvel and most of it in the last ~6 years or so. If you want to see him on a team book, the first volume of his Avengers with C.F. Villa is on sale.

Our favorite work of his is the Doctor Strange sequence, which should absolutely be read in order:

  • The Death of Doctor Strange – w/ Lee Garbett… and yes, Stephen gets himself killed.
  • Strange – w/ Marcelo Ferreira & Garbett, where Clea becomes Sorcerer Supreme.
  • Doctor Strange – w/ Pasqual Ferry, where Stephen’s back (and there IS fallout)

The breakout title for him was probably Moon Knight w/Alessandro Cappuccio, which we’ve also enjoyed quite a bit. And let’s give some credit here: piecing together the various incarnations of Moon Knight of the last 10-15 years is not a small task! Yet, it was done well.

And for something a bit more off the radar… Taskmaster w/ Alessandro Vitti. Maria Hill has been murdered. Taskmaster has been framed. The Black Widow wants blood for said murder. Taskmaster finds himself on the trail of a doomsday weapon as he tries to extricate himself from a situation not of his making. And it’s a very witty farce.

Gail Simone

Domino  Deadpool Classic

The  Marvel Gail Simone Sale runs through Monday, 3/25.

Gail’s big break was Deadpool, but she’s written less Marvel over the years that you might realize. She’s not the main scribe for most of the volumes listed in the sale.

The closest you’re going to get to an X-Men preview is probably the Domino series she did with David Baldeon. (Note, there was a follow-up to this: Domino: Hotshots that is not part of the sale.)

Her Deadpool / Agent X run with art by Udon Studios & Alvin Lee is collected across Deadpool Classic V. 9 and Deadpool Classic V.10.

The final “solo” collection in this sale is The Variantsa Jessica Jones mystery with art by Phil Noto.

Eve Ewing

Black Panther  Ironheart  Champions

The Marvel Eve Ewing Sale runs through Monday, 3/25.

Eve Ewing has the smallest backlist of the three newly announced X-scribes.

Her current run on Black Panther w/ Chris Allen is probably her highest profile project.

Ironheart with Luciano Vecchio is probably the title Ewing is most strongly associated with.

If you’d like to see an example of Ewing on a team book, there’s Champions w/ Kim Jacinto.

Shouldn’t He Be In the Sky?

Ghost Rider  Ghost Rider  Ghost Rider / Wolverine

The Marvel Ghost Rider Sale runs through Monday, 3/25.

This one is similar to a legacy sale, with the recent caveat that most of the original series in only in Masterworks editions and those aren’t included in the sale, just the single Epic Collection.

Let’s run this one down by series… and yes, there have been a TON of relaunches and mini’s.

As a bonus, the absurdity of Cosmic Ghost Rider:

Essential Equals… Batman?

Batman: The Court of Owls  Detective Comics by Tynion  Watchmen

The DC Essentials Sale runs through Monday, 3/25.

What’s essential? Flipping through this sale, one gets the impression that New 52 (and forward) Batman titles are what DC considers it’s most essential product and there are a ton of them here.

Lets do a quick look at some notable items:

  • Batman ’11-’16 – The Scott Snyder / Greg Capullo era (You may have heard of them.)
  • Batman ’16 – present – Starts with the Tom King run, then James Tynion IV, currently Chip Zdarsky
  • DCeased – Tom Taylor / Trevor Hairsine; Kicking off the series of miniseries about the Anti-Life Equation getting loose, turning most of the population (including the metahuman community) into a sort of zombie and the survivors trying to stay alive.
  • Detective Comics ’11-’16 – Starts with Tony Daniel, then John Layman / Jason Fabok, then Francis Manapul/Brian Buccellato
  • Detective Comics ’16 – present – Starts with James Tynion IV’s run, then Peter Tomasi, then Mariko Tamaki (Ram V’s run isn’t yet on sale, it appears). And way too many artists to list.
  • Mister Miracle – Tom King / Mitch Gerads – The Eisner winner
  • Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age – Len Wein/Bernie Wrightson; A legit classic and trendsetter… even before Alan Moore showed up
  • Watchmen – Alan Moore / Dave Gibbons; this one needs no introduction
  • Wonder Woman: Dead Earth – Daniel Warren Johnson; Wonder Woman awakens in a post-apocalyptical hellscape and has some monsters to slay. “Heavy Metal” may be the best description. A great ride.

Unannounced…

Minor Threats

Minor Threats by Patton Oswalt / Jordan Blum / Scott Hepburn is an exercise in subverting tropes (subversion from that group… surely not…) as some low level supervillains go after the A-list villain who’s been bringing the heat down on them.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Deadpool; Marvel “Cosmic” (GoG, Silver Surfer, Annihilation); Doctor Who; Avatar

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts Deadpool and their Cosmic heroes – Silver Surfer, Captain Marvel, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy and the Annihilation Saga.  Keeping it Cosmic, Titan has a Doctor Who sale and Dark Horse has cut prices on Avatar.

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):

Cosmic Slop

The Marvel Cosmic Sale runs through Monday, 3/4.

This is, after a fashion a convergence of smaller sales as we follow the thread of cosmic tales and characters through Marvel. The threads weave in and out, but for the sake of easy processing, let’s look at them this way:

The Marvel World of Jim Starlin
Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin  Warlock  Silver Surfer: The Return of Thanos

Jim Starlin defined “cosmic” for Marvel in the 70s and then returned in the late 80s to revive it (and his signature villain, Thanos) in the run-up to The Infinity Gauntlet, after which things kinda blew up.

You can get the original 70s cosmic saga, which is effectively the original Thanos saga, across two books: Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin: The Complete Collection and Warlock by Jim Starlin: The Complete Collection. Both are highly recommended and foundational works for a lot of what is to come.

The Silver Surfer run is most easily collected in a pair of Epic Collections: The Return of Thanos and Thanos Quest. All good stuff and leading directly into The Infinity Gauntlet, which isn’t in the sale.

Silver Surfer

Silver Surfer by Lee/Kirby  Silver Surfer - Englehart  Silver Surfer

The Surfer is cosmic, but was also mostly stuck on Earth until Englehart & Rogers freed him in the 80s.  You can pretty much break the character into three periods:

First, the classic original series by Stan Lee and (mostly) John Buscema. This ran from ’68-’70 and is a minor legend for a reason.

There wasn’t much solo Surfer for the better part of 17 years because the Surfer was considered to be Stan’s character in a similar way to how Sandman is Neil Gaiman’s. That changed in ’87 when Silver Surfer relaunched under the team of Steve Englehart & Marshall Rogers. (Yes, the Batman pairing.) Predictably, it was excellent. Starlin followed (with Ron Lim), as mentioned above. Ron Marz tagged in for Starlin and had a long run, too and effectively an “Infinity” title for much of the next few years.

Then next major addition to the cannon was the Dan Slott / Michael Allred Silver Surfer in 2014. It is confusing listed in two places. The first three volumes here and the final two volumes here.

And if you’re interested in cherry picking the Surfer’s original appearances in Fantastic Four, the very definition of classic, there’s an Epic Collection that does just that.

Original Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers   Guardians of the Galaxy by Jim Valentino

No, not like the movies or spinning out of Annihilation (we’ll get to that in a bit), this was a super team in the future that occasionally returned to our present. They weren’t created by Steve Gerber, but he built them up in Defenders and then Marvel Presents before moving on.

Honestly, this is our preferred GoG. The originals are solid. The Valentino run is a trip (and seems like it must’ve been an influence on Bendis when he rebooted Legion of Super-Heroes). Very different from what came later, though.

Nova

Nova Classic   Nova by Abnett & Lanning

High school student Richard Rider becomes a centurion of the Nova Corps and tries to figure out his powers in the initial run. By the time DnA get ahold of the character, he’s a veteran and the road to Annihilation has begun.

  • Nova (1976-78) – The original Marv Wolfman/John Buscema/Sal Buscema/Carmine Infantino run
  • Nova (2007-10) – The Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning/Paul Pelletier/Kev Walker/Andrea di Vito era – the Complete Collection is the better deal.
  • Nova (2013-15) – Gerry Duggan / Paco Medina was probably the longest tenured creative team of this volume.
  • Nova: Resurrection (2015) – Jeff Loveness / Ramon Perez
  • Nova: The Human Rocket (2015-16) – Sean Ryan / Cory Smith / John Timms

What’s good here?  We’d go with the original run or the DnA run (complete with a space station carved out of a Celestial’s head – yes, the concept predates Avengers Mountain).

Annihilation

Annihilation

Annihilation was a crossover Event for Marvel’s fledging “cosmic” line in which Annihilus mounted a deadly invasion from the Negative Zone. It struck a nerve.

Annihilation is the first series of mini-series.

Annihilation: Conquest is the sequel as Ultron and the Phalanx make their move.  This leads into the formation of the new Guardians of the Galaxy.

Annihilation: Scourge is 2019 entry in the series.

New Guardians of the Galaxy (The DnA cast or movie version if you must)

Guardians of the Galaxy   Guardians of the Galaxy

We LOVED the final Ewing/Cabal series, which ends with “The Final Annihilation.” And if you liked Nova and the Annihilation Events, the DnA run is the continuation of that format.

We’ll Put $20 on Uncle Ben
Deadpool Classics  Cable & Deadpool  Deadpool by Posehn and Duggan

The Marvel Deadpool Sale runs through Monday, 3/4

Deadpool is… oddly collected. There have been a lot of titles and lot of relaunches. Most of these are absorbed into the Deadpool Classics line of collected editions.  Some, but not all, of the series, have omnibus editions and those are the cheaper way to collect those runs… which means, if you’re a completist and you’re cheap, you’re going to want to be wanting to fill in the Classics volumes around the omnibuses.  And Deadpool Classics V. 1 collects the various miniseries that kicked things off.  In a sense, the easiest way (but perhaps not cheapest – and certainly not the most current) to keep things chronological is to follow the Classics line

Hey, when was getting Marvel collected editions in the proper order ever easy?

So let’s run down the main titles:

  • Deadpool Classics (’93 – as far as they’ve gotten)
  • Deadpool (’97-’02) – Known as the Joe Kelly era (at least what’s collected here)
  • Cable & Deadpool (’04-’08) – Fabian Nicieza / Patrick Zircher / Mark Brooks (among others)
  • Deadpool (’08-’12) – The Daniel Way Era
  • Deadpool Team-Up (’09 – ’11) – all sorts of creators for this Deadpool variant on Marvel Two-In-One
  • Deadpool Max (’10 – ’11) – David Lapham / Kyle Baker in a Max (“adult”) series
  • Deadpool Max 2 (’11 – ’12) Lapham / Baker, back for more
  • Deadpool (’12-15) – The Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan Era
  • Deadpool (’15-’17) – Gerry Duggan and many, many artists
  • Spider-Man / Deadpool (’16-’19) – Initially, Joe Kelly / Ed McGuinness
  • Despicable Deadpool (’17-’18) – Duggan/Mike Hawthorne
  • Deadpool (’18-’19) – Skottie Young / Nic Klein
  • King Deadpool (’19-’21) – Kelly Thompson / Chris Bachalo

There’s a lot more there, including some Epic Collections under the ’97 series link.

Pick your flavor of Deadpool, he’s does seem to have creators stick with him for runs.

XII

Doctor Who

The Titan The Twelfth Doctor Sale runs through Monday, 4/8.

That’s twelfth Doctor, as in Doctor Who. Or as in Peter Capaldi’s Doctor.

The primaries writers here are Robbie Morrison, George Mann and Richard Dinnick. Artists include Dave Taylor, Rachael Stott and Mariano Laclaustra.

This sale comes in 2 flavors:

Avatar, the um… Unbent?

Avatar

There is an unlisted sale on Dark Horse Avatar comics. Not Avatar: The Last Air Bender (although may still be on sale from last week), this would be Avatar, as in the James Cameron films.

And for DC, last week’s sale is still going on.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Batman; Spider-Man; Resident Alien

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC slashes prices on some newer titles, Marvel discounts Axis and a variety of clone adventures; Dark Horse cuts Resident Alien and Avatar the Last Airbender prices, too.

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):

But… Epic is a Marvel Brand?

Batman & The Joker: The Deadly Duo Danger Street World's Finest

The DC Epic eBooks Sale runs through Monday, 3/4.

Hard to see a theme here, though there are a few newer titles on sale, some for the first time at a deep discount.

Some annotations:

  • Batman & The Joker: Deadly Duo – Marc Silvestri’s high profile Batman project (we think this is the first discounting)
  • Batman: The Dark Detective – if you’re getting the ’90s Detective collections, there are three more for $3.99:
  • Batman: Earth One: Complete Collection – The Geoff Johns / Gary Frank trilogy in one volume for $5.99. You already know whether you want it.
  • Batman: Gotham by Gaslight – Brian Augustyn / Mike Mignola; The Victorian Batman Elseworlds, which just had an Andy Diggle-helmed sequel announced.
  • Danger Street – Tom King/Jorge Fornés using all the First Issue Special characters in one series, as the high concept. Again, we think this is the first discounting.
  • Far Sector – N.K. Jemisin / Jamal Campbell; Hugo winner! (Without voting shenanigans, either!)
  • Gotham City: Year One – Tom King / Phil Hestor; This is a noir detective story w/ Slam Bradley. And a good noir, too.
  • The Human Target – Tom King / Greg Smallwood. Great title… but is this an Elseworlds, now that the imprint is back?
  • Kamandi by Jack Kirby – The whole Kirby run is now available on the cheap. Think Kirby riffing on Planet of the Apes… but with the entire animal kingdom. Extremely fun title and Kirby’s longest running at DC.
  • Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow – Tom King / Bilquis Evely; James Gunn sure seems to like it!
  • World’s Finest – Mark Waid/Dan Mora show what the old school DC feel is like.

There’s a whole lot more to browse here. Lots of Batman/Superman/Nightwing, too.

Clone Wars… Nothing But Clone Wars

All-New Wolverine  Spider-Man: The Original Clone Saga  Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Epic

The Marvel Clones Sale runs through Monday, 2/26.

Yes, yes… you’re initially thinking Spidey, but our favorite clone series might be the Tom Taylor / David Lopez / Juan Cabal run on All-New Wolverine. You know, the one where Logan’s clone daughter takes up the Wolverine mantel while he’s dead. It’s a very good comic. Astonishingly good when you consider it was almost there as a placeholder after the Death of Wolverine stunt. But what do we always say about Tom Taylor making lemonade? Drink up.

As for Spidey, before there was the “Clone Saga,” there was the original Clone Saga and there’s a couple ways you can get this. The Epic Collection with The Jackal’s initial clone plot by Gerry Conway & Ross Andru and several non-clone related tales as the Len Wein era begins. You can also opt for Spider-Man: The Original Clone Saga which includes that Jackal tale, plus the Bill Mantlo / Jim Mooney arc from Peter Parker that introduces Carrion (and includes Frank Miller’s first Daredevil work), plus some later Gerry Conway/Sal Buscema Carrion appearances.  We’d probably go Clone Saga for Carrion and a few more pages at the same price, but there’s not really a wrong answer there.

As for the 90s Clone Saga.  Again, you have options:

  • The Complete Clone Saga – and that’s a lot of clones
  • The Complete Ben Reilly Epic – because Ben Reilly was Spidey in the aftermath of the Clone Saga
  • Spider-Man: The Real Clone Saga – Years later, Tom DeFalco, Howard Mackie and Todd Nauck get back together to tell the story of Clone Saga with the original ending, before Marvel’s marketing department decided the storyline needed to be extended.

There’s a bit more to it, but we’d call those the highlights.

OK Axis, Here We Come

Uncanny Avengers Access Prelude  Avengers & X-Men: Axis

The Marvel Axis Sale runs through Monday, 2/26.

What’s Axis? It was an Avengers / X-Men team-up event spinning out of Uncanny Avengers and dealing with the (then) ongoing situation of the Red Skull stealing Xavier’s powers and becoming Onslaught.

The run-up to the Event, Uncanny Avengers: Axis Prelude is probably a little more appropriate here than the usual “Road to” offering.  This is by Rick Remender / Salvador Larroca / Daniel Acuna / Sanford Greene .

The main event is Avengers & X-Men: Axis by Remender /Lienil Francis Yu / Terry Dodson / Jim Cheung.

Grimm Negaband Sale

Grimm Spotlight

The Zenoscope Grimm Spotlight Sale runs through Wednesday,  3/6… but there’s a catch…

Amazon has placed this sale on the same URL as the Media Do Valentine’s Day Fair BL Sale.  (And we’re not sure those sales appeal to the same demographic, either.)  So, whichever one you’re looking for, if you see the other, reload a few times and the sale you seek should eventually appear as you appreciate the attention to detail paid by whoever assigned the URLs!

Incidentally, this is a small sale on – you guessed it – Grimm Spotlight.

Unlisted Dark Horse Sales

Resident Alien  Avatar: The Last Airbender

The know the drill on this – we’re not 100% sure how long these sales are going to last, but the discounts are there.  This time out… TV tie-in sales!

Resident Alien 

This Peter Hogan / Steve Parkhouse comic was around before the TV show. The Omnibus editions are the better buy for V. 1-6; V. 7 needs to be bought as a “regular” volume.

Funny this should go on sale when the first two seasons hit Netflix and the third season hits SyFy.  Must be a coincidence…

Avatar the Last Airbender

The Omnibus editions are the better buy here. And yes, many of them are by the team of Gene Yang and Gurihiru.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Super Sons, Gerry Duggan’s Marvel Catalog; Black Lightning; Spider-Woman; Dark Horse Manga

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts Spider-Woman and Gerry Duggan. DC celebrates “Power” and the Super Sons. Plus, unlisted Dark Horse manga.

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):

Child Welfare Has Questions

Batman & Robin  Superman  Super Sons

The  DC Super Sons Sale runs through Monday, 2/19.

The Super Sons were originally the adventures of Clark Kent, Jr. and Bruce Wayne, Jr. that appeared every so often in World’s Finest from ’73 to ’80 in takes by Bob Haney and Dick Dillon.  When did Superman and Batman have kids? That’s addressed in the final tale. It’s collected in The Saga of the Super Sons.

For post-Crisis (and onward) DC this translates to…

On the Batman side:

  • Batman & Robin ’09-’11 – The Grant Morrison / (initially) Frank Quitely run that ends with the beginning of Peter J. Tomasi / Patrick Gleason
  •  Batman & Robin ’11-’15 – Tomasi & Gleason do another 40 issues.

On the Superman side:

  • Superman ’16-’18 – Tomasi & Gleason swap over to do what’s essentially “Superman & Son”
  • Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent – Tom Taylor / Clayton Henry – Superman’s son grew up (in Space, but now he’s back on Earth)

The current/recent Super Sons:

If you wanted to call this a Tomasi sale, we probably wouldn’t argue with you.

The Evasive Title Sale

The DC Power Sale runs through Monday, 2/19.

Looking at the titles listed, we think this is a Black History Month sale. Is the “Power” in the title supposed to be “Black Power?” Maybe?

So the original headlining black hero in the DC universe is Black Lighting.

The original Black Lightning run is by Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eden. And volume two in that sequence is a collection of the back-up features from Detective and World’s Finest, plus a Justice League of America interlude.

A good Black Lighting value? The 1995 revival by Isabella and Eddy Newell is 347 pages for $3.99.  Plus, we always thought Eddy Newell didn’t get enough love.

Speaking of not getting enough love, Dwayne McDuffie didn’t get nearly the love on the publishing side as he did on the animation side. Especially from editorial. (We’ve heard a few stories…) McDuffie selections:

Also, The DC Universe by Dwayne McDuffie collects several short runs and one-offs… although the price is higher than ideal.

Naomi by Brian Bendis / David Walker / Jamal Campbell is a nominally YA super heroine series about a teen trying to figure out where she comes from. It got a pretty quick (and short lived) TV adaption. We were pleasantly surprised by this one. Hype was real.

With Priest, they’re not putting the full (and excellent) Deathstroke run on sale and it’s not clear the second half of Black Adam will be collected, so we’d point you to his Justice League run with Pete Wood

There’s more here, but that’s the top of our list.  And we wonder if a Milestone sale is set for next week?

Eensy Weensy

Spider-Woman  Spider-Girl  Araña

The Marvel Spider-Woman Sale runs through Monday, 2/19

Except… it’s not just Spider-Woman. It’s Spider-Woman, Spider-Girl and Araña.

We know what you’re asking: where’s Silk? And we have no answer for that.

What do we like out of this? We’re not really current on Spider-Woman, but we can tell you that the original Spider-Woman comic is a deeply weird book. Lots of magic early on. Morgan Le Fey, Werewolf By Night, The Brothers Grim. If you like the more bizarre corners of ’70s/’80s  Marvel for its strangeness, it’s worth a look.

DeFalco & Frenz had around a 12-year run on the various Spider-Girl titles and you don’t see that kind of longevity very often.

  • Araña – Fiona Avery / Mark Brooks

Dig Dugg

Savage Avengers  Maruaders  X-Men by Gerry Duggan

The Marvel Gerry Duggan Sale runs through Monday, 2/19.

It would seem that Gerry Duggan has ignored the usual corporate career advice and let his bosses notice him. In fact, he has been writing a fair amount of comics lately, particularly in the world of X.

Here are the highlights:

What’s good? This may come as a bit of a shock if you haven’t sampled it, but Savage Avengers has a Defenders vibe to it… except it’s Conan’s non-team, not Doctor Strange’s or Nighthawk’s. It’s odd, rambling and fun. The absolute high point? Conan questioning Doctor Doom’s manhood in a thorough dressing down.

The Marauders was one of the more dependable titles in the HoX/PoX era of X-title. This would be Captain Pryde and her pirates.

With Uncanny X-Men, pay special attention to the Pepe Larraz issues. He was hitting a new level.

Manga on the DL

It appears there’s now an unnannounced sale on Dark Horse manga.  Of these, our favorite is the old school classic Lone Wolf and Cub.

Other highlights:

Random Comic Strip Discounts

More random comic strip collections are on the cheap. Not every volume, but scroll through the list and you’ll see a few.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Hulk; She-Hulk; Red Hood; Ultimate Universe; Dark Horse SF

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts The Hulk and She-Hulk, as well as the (original) Ultimate universe. DC cuts prices on Red Hood. Dark Horse has an unlisted science fiction 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):

Now with sale page links!

All-Hulks, All the Time

Hulk Planet Hulk Immortal Hulk

The Marvel Hulks Sale runs through Monday, 12/12.

And what we have here is basically a Hulk Legacy sale and a She-Hulk Legacy sales married up in the same listing. Holy keeping it in the family, Hulk-Man!

First up, The Hulk (Green / Red / Blue… yet Rainbow writes for She-Hulk… contemplate that for a moment):

  • Incredible Hulk (1962 – 1999) The original run and then the long running series that picked up a few years later.
  • Tales to Astonish (1964-68) In between the two Hulk solo runs above, Hulk was splitting Tales to Astonish with Ant-Man/Giant Man and then Namor. A lot of the foundational work was really in this run, with Stan Lee/Steve Ditko responsible for a lot of it.
  • Incredible Hulk (1999-2007) – Best known for the Bruce Jones / Lee Weeks/ Mike Deodato run towards the beginning and the Greg Pak / multi-artist “Planet Hulk” and “World War Hulk” epics at the end… though World War Hulk is at this different link.
  • Hulk (2008-13) This is the Red Hulk run (and the title changes to that after awhile). It starts out with the better known Jeph Loeb/Ed Mc Guiness run and then Jeff Parker takes over with Gabriel Hardman, Dave Eaglesham and Patrick Zircher in the artist rotation.
  • Incredible Hulk by Jason Aaron (2011-12) – Lots of artists rotating through here, Marc Silvestri, Steve Dillon and Carlos Pacheco among them
  • Indestructible Hulk (2012 – 14) – Mark Waid’s the writer with an artist rotation including Leinil Francis Yu, Matteo Scalera and Walt Simonson draws the Thor team-up.
  • Hulk by Waid and Duggan (2014-15) – That would be Mark Waid and Gerry Duggan with Duggan doing the bulk of the run. Mark Bagley is the main artist here.
  • The Totally Awesome Hulk (2015-17) – This would be Amadeus Cho’s turn as Hulk, which mean Greg Pak is you primary writer with an artist rotation including Frank Cho, Alan Davis and Luke Ross
  • Immortal Hulk (2018-21) – Al Ewing’s masterpiece as the Hulk slides over towards horror and find a green door that leads to Hell.
  • Hulk (2021-23) – The Donny Cates / Ryan Ottley run

We don’t think it’s really a sale price on the first volume of the current Johnson/Klein series (but we’re enjoying it).

What’s good, we really like the Tales to Astonish days where Banner was still with the military and trying to keep his identity a secret amidst cold war intrigue. The Hulk Must Die captures that era.

For the main series, you can’t go wrong with the Peter David years and the Bill Mantlo era seems to have gained fans over the years.

And let’s be real – Immortal Hulk is a masterpiece.

She-Hulk:

Sensational She-Hulk   She-Hulk by Dan Slott   She-Hulk

  • The Savage She-Hulk (’80-’82) – mostly by David Anthony Kraft and Mike Vosburg
  • Sensational She-Hulk (’89-’94) – John Byrne, then the unlikely team of Steve Gerber & Bryan Hitch
  • She-Hulk (’04-’05) – Dan Slott / Juan Bobillo
  • She-Hulk (’05 – ’09) – Initially Dan Slott / Juan Bobillo, then Peter David takes over.
  • She-Hulk (’14-’15) – Charles Soule & Javier Pulido in one omnibus
  • She-Hulk (’16-’18) – Mariko Tamaki / Nico Leon
  • She-Hulk (’22-’23) – Rainbow Rowell / Roge Antonio / Luca Maresca

If you’re coming into She-Hulk through the TV show, the legal angle for the character really started getting emphasized with the Dan Slott era and then was followed up on by Charles Soule (who just might be a lawyer in his secret identity). Rainbow Rowell’s also picking up a pretty dedicated following with her current runs.

The Ultimate Call-Back

Ultimates Ultimate Fantastic Four Ultimate Comics - The Ultimates

The Marvel Ultimate Universe Sale runs through Monday, 2/12.

There a bit more to the sale, but that’s the bulk of the highlights. What’s good? The Millar/Hitch Ultimates are hugely influential (especially to the film world). Ultimate FF absolutely has it’s moments. Not everybody realizes that the Marvel Zombies debuted in V. 3 (omnibus version) and are not played for laughs.  Now, we don’t often issue “avoid” warnings around here, but there are a couple things here that we’ll advise against. The Orson Scott Card Ultimate Iron Man? Don’t bother. It’s awful. Ultimatum? Nope! That very nearly killed the line. There are MUCH better things to read in this imprint than those two.

Black Red Hood

Batman: A Death in the Family  Batman: Under the Red Hood  Red Hood and the Outlaws

The  DC Red Hood Sale runs through Monday, 2/12.

Turns out those Batman titles we were looking at Monday were part of a big Red Hood sale.

Let’s hit the highlights:

Spaced Out

Black Hammer Omnibus  Nexus  Resident Alien

The new unannounced / unlisted Dark Horse sale is a Science Fiction sale:

Some of the more interesting things we’ve seen with a discount:

Strips

OK, we really aren’t sure how long these discounts are lasting and (odder still), which titles in these series are on sale seems to change a little, but if you go through the list for each series, you’re going to find some $1.99/$2.99 volumes of these high profile comic strips:

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Current Unlisted Sales – Hulk; Ultimate Universe; Batman / Red Hood; Nexus

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we’re seeing unlisted sales on Hulk, the original Ultimate Universe, Dark Horse SF, Red Hood and a tiny bit of Batman

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):

Here we go again. We don’t know if there’s a new policy at Amazon to take down the expiring sales and not post new ones for 24-48 hours or there’s been another posting error… but we know there are some new sales up and we know you were wondering… so here’s what we’re seeing.

As usually we’ll be back at the end of the week with the actual sales links, things that we missed, and recommendations. This is more of a quick and dirty while we’re scavenging.

Hulk Smash Prices Like Used Cars

Hulk Planet Hulk Immortal Hulk

Looks like this is probably a Hulk legacy sale with (nearly) everything on sale?

  • Incredible Hulk (1962 – 1999) The original run and then the long running series that picked up a few years later.
  • Tales to Astonish (1964-68) In between the two Hulk solo runs above, Hulk was splitting Tales to Astonish with Ant-Man/Giant Man and then Namor. A lot of the foundational work was really in this run, with Stan Lee/Steve Ditko responsible for a lot of it.
  • Incredible Hulk (1999-2007) – Best known for the Bruce Jones / Lee Weeks/ Mike Deodato run towards the beginning and the Greg Pak / multi-artist “Planet Hulk” and “World War Hulk” epics at the end… though World War Hulk is at this different link.
  • Hulk (2008-13) This is the Red Hulk run (and the title changes to that after awhile). It starts out with the better known Jeph Loeb/Ed Mc Guiness run and then Jeff Parker takes over with Gabriel Hardman, Dave Eaglesham and Patrick Zircher in the artist rotation.
  • Incredible Hulk by Jason Aaron (2011-12) – Lots of artists rotating through here, Marc Silvestri, Steve Dillon and Carlos Pacheco among them
  • Indestructible Hulk (2012 – 14) – Mark Waid’s the writer with an artist rotation including Leinil Francis Yu, Matteo Scalera and Walt Simonson draws the Thor team-up.
  • Hulk by Waid and Duggan (2014-15) – That would be Mark Waid and Gerry Duggan with Duggan doing the bulk of the run. Mark Bagley is the main artist here.
  • The Totally Awesome Hulk (2015-17) – This would be Amadeus Cho’s turn as Hulk, which mean Greg Pak is you primary writer with an artist rotation including Frank Cho, Alan Davis and Luke Ross
  • Immortal Hulk (2018-21) – Al Ewing’s masterpiece as the Hulk slides over towards horror and find a green door that leads to Hell.
  • Hulk (2021-23) – The Donny Cates / Ryan Ottley run

We don’t think it’s really a sale price on the first volume of the current Johnson/Klein series (but we’re enjoying it).

The Ultimate Call-Back

Ultimates Ultimate Fantastic Four Ultimate Comics - The Ultimates

Looks like the original Ultimate Universe is also on sale.

Spaced Out

Nexus

Looks like some sort of science fiction sale over at Dark Horse. We’ll dig in a little more at the end of the week, but for now, a couple likely lads are Nexus, the classic Mike Baron/Steve Rude series about a reluctant assassin with superhero trappings (although it’s not really a superhero series) and Bryan Talbot’s Luther Arkwright – now in a big ‘ole omnibus edition.

Bats on Deck?

Batman: A Death in the Family  Batman: Death of the Family

DC might be holding out with just last week’s continuing Suicide Squad / Justice League sale… but we’re seeing an odd Batman juxtaposition on sale:

And then some Red Hood. First the New 52 Red Hood and the Outlaws by Scott Lobdell and (initially) Kenneth Rocafort, then the Scott Lobdell / Dexter Soy / Pete Woods DC Rebirth run of  Red Hood and the Outlaws.

It’s getting around the time of the year for a Bat-sale, so this might be the run up?

Anyway, we’ll be back at the end of the week to look at the “official” sales, which ought to have been posted by then.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Black Panther; Miles Morales; Suicide Squad; Justice League; Dark Horse Horror

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, now with *official* links and listings, Marvel discounts Black Panther and Miles Morales. DC drops prices on Suicide Squad and Justice League comics. Plus, an unlisted Dark Horse Horror 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):

And behold, the deal page updated about a day later than normal…

T’Challa Forever

Black Panther Masterworks  Black Panther by Priest  Black Panther

The Marvel Black Panther Sale runs through Monday, 2/26.

  • The Don McGregor era (AKA, pre-Priest), where Don McGregor was primary author… with a notable Kirby interlude. The best way to navigate the multiple editions is:
  • The Chrisopher Priest era  – with art by Mark Texiera, M.D. Bright and Sal Velluto (among others)
  • The Reggie Hudlin era (yes, “House Party” / “Boomerang” Hudlin) – with art by John Romita, Jr., Scot Eaton and Denys Cowan (among others)
    • Separate from the regular series is the excellent Flags of Our Fathers by Hudlin and Denys Cowan, which features a WWII era tale of Captain America “visiting” Wakanda and meeting T’Challa’s grandfather, the Black Panther of that period.
  • The Ta-Nehisi Coates era (yes, from The Atlantic) – while the volumes are numbered consecutively, it’s split into two listing
    • Part one – with art by Brian Stelfreeze and Chris Sprouse (among others)
    • Part two – with art by Daniel Acuna and Kev Walker (among others)
  • The John Ridley era (Yes, Oscar-winner Ridley from 12 Years a Slave) – with art by Juann Cabal and German Peralta
  • The Eve Ewing era – We think V. 1 is discounted slightly?

That first McGregor / Graham run really is the foundational work for everything that comes and should be read first. As a major bonus, it’s great work and ahead of its time.

Priest’s extended run lives up to it’s reputation for excellence, so that’s your second must-read for exploring the Panther.

We like Hudlin’s run, too. For something a little off the beaten path, Range Wars is something you get for the titular arc that’s the last two issues of the collection. John Ridley and German Peralta offer a particularly savage satire of colonialism.

There’s a bit more to sale, but the above is the core.

The Once and Future Ultimate Spidey

  Miles Morales: Spider-Man  Miles Morales

The Marvel Miles Morales Sale runs through Monday, 2/26.

Miles, of course, was the second Ultimate Spider-Man, but that world no longer exists and now there’s a new Ultimate Spider-Man and… we wouldn’t want to explain that to somebody walking in off the street.

For the first Brian Bendis/David Marquez/Sara Pichelli run, you’re probably best off with the Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection set.

Then jump to the Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Vol. 2 collection for the ’16 Bendis/Pichelli/Nico Leaon run. (Do not ask us why the first omnibus isn’t on sale…)

And after that wraps, it’s time for Miles Morales by Saladin Ahmed and Javier Garron.

The current series (only V.1 is discounted and we didn’t see it on the sale page) is Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Cody Ziglar and Federico Vicentini. 

Something About a Video Game

Justice League of America  Suicide Squad  Suicide Squad Bad Blood

The DC Suicide Squad and Justice League Sale runs though Monday, 2/12.

When it comes to Suicide Squad, we have a strong preference for the original run where the undercurrent of humor was more the bailiwick of Captain Boomerang. Now, that said… who doesn’t like a Tom Taylor / Bruno Redondo take on… anything?

And a Justice League Sale

Under the radar?  The Christopher Priest / Pete Woods arc from ~3 years back. It’s just good comics without silly crossovers.

Justice was a maxi-series from Jim Kreuger / Doug Braithwaite / Alex Ross with a certain “Legion of Doom” vibe to it.

The Nail is Alan Davis with an A+ Elseworlds take on a Justice League on a world where Superman did not emerge as the first hero.

Plenty of side series and ancillary material to be browsed in this one.

Dark Horse

Baltimore Omnibus 1  Hellsing  The Seeds

Dark Horse sales continue to be unannounced on Amazon – no clue why. The usual warning applies that we’re not entirely sure how long there are running. There appears to be a horror sale going on… and Dark Horse has lots of horror titles, so if you go poking around, there’s plenty of stuff to be seen. Some highlights we’ve noticed:

Yes, Mike Mignola and Cullen Bunn dominate here, don’t they?

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: This Week’s Unposted Sales

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we have some sales that aren’t officially on the deals page yet: Black Panther, Suicide Squad, Justice League, Hellsing.

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):

For whatever reason, Amazon has failed to update the Deals page at the usual time. This is happening more frequently since the (presumably) final round of Comixology layoffs. We expect that things will eventually get updated, but since people are understandably a little put off by this – and to demonstrate that there are sales going on and some of this isn’t necessarily the fault of the publishers, we’re going to cobble together a listing of some of what we know to be on sale right now.

Marvel

Black Panther Masterworks  Black Panther by Priest  Black Panther

We suspect some Black History Month programming here, starting with Black Panther

  • The Don McGregor era (AKA, pre-Priest), where Don McGregor was primary author… with a notable Kirby interlude. The best way to navigate the multiple editions is:
  • The Chrisopher Priest era  – with art by Mark Texiera, M.D. Bright and Sal Velluto (among others)
  • The Reggie Hudlin era (yes, “House Party” / “Boomerang” Hudlin) – with art by John Romita, Jr., Scot Eaton and Denys Cowan (among others)
  • The Ta-Nehisi Coates era (yes, from The Atlantic) – while the volumes are numbered consecutively, it’s split into two listing
    • Part one – with art by Brian Stelfreeze and Chris Sprouse (among others)
    • Part two – with art by Daniel Acuna and Kev Walker (among others)
  • The John Ridley era (Yes, Oscar-winner Ridley from 12 Years a Slave) – with art by Juann Cabal and German Peralta
  • The Eve Ewing era – We think V. 1 is discounted slightly?

DC

Justice League of America  Suicide Squad  Suicide Squad Bad Blood

Looks like a Suicide Squad sale.

And a Justice League Sale

Dark Horse

Hellsing

Hellsing

There is doubtless more on sale and, Amazon permitting, we’ll be back at the usual time at the end of the week with the real links.  Until then, browse away with the partial listings we were able to cobble together, quick and dirty.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Fantastic Four (all of it); Moon Knight; 90’s X-Men; Devil’s Reign; Cyberpunk 2077

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, practically the entire Fantastic Four catalog is on sale. Plus, Marvel offers discounts on Moon Knight, Devil’s Reign and the world of the 90s X-Men. And, in what seems to be another unannounced sale, Dark Horse presents Cyberpunk 2077.

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):

Four Play

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus    Fantastic Four by Waid   Fantastic Four by Hickman

Marvel’s Fantastic Four Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

So, first let’s break down the various FF titles/volumes on sale

Yes, Fantastic Four has been relaunched less than other Marvel titles.  As to what’s good, the gold standard has always been the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run. (And yes, we do think you can draw a straight line from Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown at DC to Fantastic Four.) We’d say they start to hit their stride a few issues before Galactus shows up – V.3 of the Epic Collections (“The Coming of Galactus“) or V.4/5 of the Masterworks editions and you can ride a very fun train from there to the end of Lee/Kirby.

And at this point, we should talk about the “pick your poison” of Epic vs. Masterworks.  The Masterworks are built out straight into the Byrne era. We think the $6.99 Epic Collections are the best value here, though some of the newer ones are priced higher. The discounted Epics are now a little past the Lee/Kirby era, but stop with #146 and then pick up again after Byrne’s run. Pick the format that works for you and has the issues you’re looking for.

Speaking of Byrne’s run, that’s the next highpoint that everyone agrees on.  How to read Byrne? Well, there are 5 volumes of Masterworks on sale (V. 21-25; note: V. 25 is here and not linked in with the rest of the series) or you can hop on to Fantastic Four Visionaires: John Byrne. You’d need to cut over to the Visionaries run at V. 6 to pick up where the discounted Masterworks leave off.  These comics really ought to be in an Epic Collection, but Marvel doesn’t seem in any hurry to roll the Visionaires up into a more economical package. (Or should we say, economical when it’s on sale?)

Fast forward a bit to the Heroes Reborn era and there is a LOT to love about the Mark Waid / Mike Wieringo run. They brought back the “explorer” vibe from Lee/Kirby era that isn’t always there and upped the sense of wonder. You’d want the four Ultimate Collection volumes that start here. The “regular” collections don’t go all the way to the end.

And then, of course, there’s the the Hickman era. A long storyline that laid the groundwork for his Avengers run and you can certainly argue that his Secret Wars endcap to that is a Fantastic Four / Doctor Doom story. The omnibus editions we highlighted above include his FF spin-off comic that frequently crossed over with Fantastic Four, much like the Avengers titles flowed together. That packaging will be a better experience.

The Light of the Silvery Moon

Moon Knight  Moon Knight Epic Collection   Moon Knight

The Marvel Moon Knight Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

The original Moon Knight run is mostly in Epic Collections, but it’s in two separate links because… well, we shouldn’t be surprised by this, should we?  The first link has two volumes that are not closely related. Bad Moon Rising is the Werewolf by Night appearances through the backups in Hulk Magazine and the first issues of 1980 solo series. The other volume in that link… we’re not as big on. That was later volumes.

You can go here for the rest of the 1980 Moon Knight series, which was the most famous version for quite some time. If you came into the character through the TV series, know that the original Moon Knight was a lot closer to Batman and The Shadow. Oh, sure the werewolf showed up, but most of the mystical things around Konshu were kept in the background and a lot more mysterious. The multiple identities were originally more like the cover identities adopted by the Shadow (and the original series editor, Denny O’Neil, adapted The Shadow for DC.) This is where Moon Knight got popular.

If you came in through the TV show, there really isn’t a comic that quite matches that version of the character, but the series did draw on the Jeff Lemire / Greg Smallwood Moon Knight series in which Moon Knight has a run-in with the Egyptian gods and his personalities run amok. It’s also a good run.

We also have been enjoying the current Jed MacKay/Alessandro Cappuccio Moon Knight series. This one takes up the unenviable task of rationalizing the various incarnations over the years (and there have been a lot of different takes on the character). Mr. Knight is in therapy for his multiple personality issues. He’s running the Midnight Mission and conduct himself as Konshu’s ambassador… after a fashion, although he’s not really happy with Konshu. And there are vampires. Lots of vampires.

Highlights of the rest:

  • Moon Knight ’89-’94 – Most of this is only collected in omnibus form for some reason for the longest running volume. This is largely the Terry Kavanaugh years with Gary Kwapisz and James Fry on art. Possibly more interesting, it also includes a Bruce Jones/Denys Cowan special and a Doug Moench/Art Nichols team-up with Shang Chi.
  • Moon Knight ’10-12 – Brian Bendis / Alex Maleev; Controversial to say the least, this one really leans into Moon Knight’s multiple personality disorder and breaks the character if you prefer the original concept. On the other hand, it’s surprisingly witty and funny. One of the oddest takes on the character.
  • Moon Knight  ’14-’15- Most notable for the style-forward Warren Ellis/Declan Shalvey reworking (introducing the business suit)

Deviltry

Devil's Reign   Devil's Reign X-Men

The Marvel Devil’s Reign Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

Devil’s Reign is effectively a section of the excellent Chip Zdarsky/Marco Checchetto Daredevil run where The Kingpin, in his capacity as Mayor of NYC, declares war on superheroes and organizes his own version of the Thunderbolts to hunt them down. This main mini-series in the main thing you’re looking for, here.

That said, in term of tie-ins, Devil’s Rain: X-Men by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto has a little more, by way of echoes moving forward, than you might expect. It establishes the ongoing relationship between Emma Frost and the Kingpin, which does crop up again further down the line in both the Daredevil and X-Men worlds. Plus, Phil Noto.

Hot Tub Mutant Machine

Wolverine   X-Factor Epic Collection   Generation X

The Marvel 90s X-Men Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

We know what you’re thinking and, yes, this is about the time the X-world got a lot more complicated and Event-heavy.  And this is a pretty eclectic set. What do we recall as the winners from this period?

For X-Men (proper) we’d start with Mutant Genesis, which has the last bit of Chris Claremont’s original run as Jim Lee started to steer the boat a bit more.

For a lot of people, ’90s X-Men is about Onslaught. If you’re in that camp, there’s The Road to Onslaught  and the actual Onslaught Event.

Open things up a little wider and X-Factor pops to the top of the list. The selection of Epic Collections includes the Lousie & Walt Simonson run *and* the delightfully off-kilter first Peter David run (featuring Joe Quesada and Larry Stroman on art duties).

The Larry Hama Wolverine run is also on sale in Epic Collections. A fairly long run, too, and one of the most popular titles of the 90s. Marc Silvestri and Adam Kubert figure prominently on the artist lineup.

Now, a lot of people associate Scott Lobdell with 90s X-Men. If you want to read Lobdell’s best mutant work, that’s Generation X. It’s sort of a new New Mutants, since that title had morphed into X-Force, and we don’t think it’s even close. Chris Bachalo is the originating artist and sets the tone nicely.

There’s a bit more here for you to browse.

A Hugo Winner in an Unannounced Sale

Cyberpunk 2077   Cyberpunk 2077 Big City Dreams

Looks like there’s an unannounced sale on Dark Horse’s Cyberpunk 2077. A video game adaptation with an interesting award to its credit.

The first three collections can be found here.

After which, the property went to the album format Dark Horse sometimes uses for titles with a higher bookstore profile, which are listed with the single issues:

Big City Dreams was the 2023 Hugo Award winner for Best Graphic Story or Comic. And there you have it.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Vertigo, Hellblazer, War of the Realms, Silk, Doctor Who and an Unannounced Dark Horse Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC discounts the Vertigo line and Hellblazer. Marvel drops prices on War of the Realms and Silk. Plus, Doctor Who and is that another unannounced Dark Horse 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):

So Much For Balance

100 Bullets   Doom Patrol  DMZ

The  DC Vertigo Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

For an imprint DC shuttered years ago, it sure does have a prominent place on their online promotional list, doesn’t it? DC would probably tell you Black Label serves a similar purpose, but we keep expecting Vertigo to rise from the ashes one of these days. They had an awful lot of interesting material and some of it is starting to migrate to other publishers (like Dark Horse’s Berger Books imprint, to the surprise of exactly no one).

The nickel tour of Vertigo titles:

  • 100 Bullets – Classic revenge/crime/spies mashup by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso
  • American Vampire – The comic that first put Scott Snyder on the map as a new breed of Vampire emerges in the West and clashes with what came before. Rafael Albuquerque is the artist and Stephen King lends a hand at launch.
  • The American Way: Those Above and Those Below – John Ridley / George Jeanty; Just your average superhero alternate history tale written by an Oscar winner. Sequel to the Wildstorm series that isn’t collected/on sale.
  • Animal Man – While the Grant Morrison/Chas Troug run is what gets talked about, This is followed by Peter Milligan, Tom Veitch and Jamie Delano with Steve Dillon and Steve Pugh on art. Not exactly chopped liver.
  • Daytripper – Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba
  • Dead Boy Detectives – Toby Litt & Mark Buckingham. Young ghosts solve crimes. Coming soon to Netflix…
  • Doom Patrol ’89 – The Grant Morrison / Richard Case run. Legendary and adapted for television. Perhaps one day they’ll adapt the rest of the run. 
  • DMZ – Brian Wood / Riccardo Burcchielli; As the US is in the middle of a civil war, a reporter becomes trapped in the no man’s land that is NYC and navigates of landscape of warlords and political intrigue from both sides.  Doesn’t get hype anymore, but a solid series that hasn’t exactly gotten stale.
  • Ex Machina – Brian K. Vaughan (Saga) / Tony Harris (Starman); Originally Wildstorm, now Vertigo, this political thriller/powers genre bender finds a world’s only superhero being elected mayor of NYC. (Long before Lucas Cage or even Wilson Fisk.)
    Fables   Preacher   Swamp Thing
  • Fables – Bill Willingham / Mark Buckingham
  • Flex Mentallo – Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely; A delightfully odd/surreal tale that starts out as parody of the old Charles Atlas ads. And an early Morrison/Quitely pairing. They work well together.
  • iZombie – Chris Roberson / Mike Allred; A zombie detective dramedy adapted for television
  • Jew Gangster – Joe Kubert; Kubert lets loose with a ’30s crime tale.
  • Lucifer – Before he was M.R. Carey and handing out “all the gifts,” Mike Carey had a long run on this Sandman spin-off. Peter Gross is the artist.
  • Preacher – Garth Ennis / Steve Dillion; Another Vertigo TV adaption (you might be noticing a pattern), God has gone missing and Jesse Custer would like to have a word with him. Also, power abhors a vacuum.
  • Punk Rock Jesus – Sean Murphy’s tale of reality TV, religion and Punk (before his solo Batman work)
  • Saga of the Swamp Thing – The classic Alan Moore years (he’s good, that one); plus the Mark Millar years.
  • Sandman Mystery Theater – Matt Wagner / Steven T. Seagle / Guy Davis; The Golden Age Sandman in a pulpy mystery series (but with a bit more character work than your average pulp). Highly recommended.
  • Sandman By some chap named Gaiman. You may have heard of it.
    Scalped   Unwritten   Y the Last Man
  • Scalped – Jason Aaron / R.M. Guera – An FBI agent goes undercover (as himself) on the reservation he thought he’d escaped to investigate the reservation casino. Aaron starting out in the crime genre we wish he could do more of.
  • Sweet Tooth – Jeff Lemire; As seen on Netflix.
  • Top 10 – Alan Moore / Gene Ha / Zander Cannon – Another Wildstorm (OK, technically America’s Best Comics) series now dubbed “Vertigo,” this is Alan Moore’s delightful excursion into the Hill Street Blues style of police procedural… but with superheroes as the law. Good stuff.
  • The Unwritten – Mike (M.R.) Carey and Peter Gross reunite for the tale of a boy one whom a Harry Potter-esque series of books was based discovers he might actually be the literary character made flesh and the lines between fiction and reality are fluid.
  • Y: The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan (him again) and Pia Guerra in the tale of the last man alive after a mysterious incident kills everyone else on Earth with a Y chromosome. Well, except his monkey. You may have even seen the TV series.

What the Hel…
Hellblazer  Hellblazer Hellblazer: rise + fall

The DC John Constantine, Hellblazer Sale runs through Monday, 1/22.

While perhaps not the original Vertigo flagship book, Hellblazer ended up being the longest running title and something DC has tried to revive (with mixed results) post-Vertigo. Let’s run it down:

  • Hellblazer ’88 – DC would like to call it “John Constantine, Hellblazer” in the post-Keanu world, but that’s not what anyone calls it. The first run is just Hellblazer. And it’s as solid a 300 issues as you’ll find. Jamie Delano. Neil Gaiman. Garth Ennis. Brian Azzarello. Mike Carey. Paul Jenkins. John Ridgeway. David Lloyd. Steve Dillon. The list goes on quite a while. A parade of top talent, if we’re honest. Good horror comics!
  • John Constantine: Hellblazer – City of Demons ’11- One-off graphic novel by Si Spencer and Sean Murphy. We seem to recall liking it.
  • Constantine ’13 – The new 52 relaunch. Mostly Ray Fawkes / Renato Guedes
  • Constantine: The Hellblazer ’15 – Ming Doyle / James Tynion IV / Riley Rossmo
  • The Hellblazer ’16 – Rotating creators; we haven’t read this one, but it’s notable that V. 4 is co-written by Sandman Slim novelist Richard Kadrey
  • John Constantine, Hellblazer ’19 – This is the Si Spurrier/Aaron Campbell version we’ve been stumping for around here. Right up there with the best runs and DC just started a new series of it. Both volumes make for 1 story and it’s great.
  • Hellblazer: Rise and Fall ’20 – Tom Taylor/Darick Robertson Black Lablel tale. (And with that team, you should know if you want it.)
  • The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher: A Johnny Constantine Graphic Novel ’21 – Ryan North / Derek Charm YA tale
  • Constantine: Distorted Illusions – Kami Garcia / Isaac Goodhart do teen Constantine and his band

This Means War

War of the Realms  Thor Road to War of the Realms

The Marvel War of the Realms Sale runs through Monday, 1/22.

This would be the Jason Aaron Thor Event.

You know how all these Events have “The Road to” type lead-ins? That’s the case here, except it’s part of the Thor series: Thor V.2: The Road to War of the Realms (Jason Aaron / Mike del Mundo / Tony Moore).

There’s also War of the Realms Preludewhich is a collection of issues from various Thor titles that have some bearing/build-up to the Event.

The meat of the Event is the collection of the miniseries (War of the Realms – Aaron/Russell Dauterman). If it were us, we’d probably have included Thor V.3 – War’s End (Aaron/Del Mundo), but that’s not actually part of the sale for whatever reason.

As usually there are a lot of tie-in books. Choose those at your liberty, though Aaron writes the Avengers tie-in (with Ed McGuinness).

Not Just For Handkerchiefs

The Marvel Silk Sale runs through Monday, 1/22
Silk  Silk

We know what you’re thinking: “I thought Silk belonged to Quality Comics.”  And you’d be right, but that’s “Her Highness and Silk,” the Kid Eternity foes who got spun off into their own feature. This is the Marvel Spidey spin-off.

Silk starts out in the ’14 edition of Amazing Spider-Man by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos.

Then Silk gets handed off to Robbie Thompson, whom we can safely call Cindy Moon’s primary writer.

  • There was a ’15 mini-series that Marvel identifies as a  Vol. 0 by Thompson and Stacy Lee.
  • Followed by the ’15 ongoing Silk series by Thompson with Lee as the primary artist.
  • Both of the ’15 series, plus the Amazing Spider-Man material are also collected in Silk: Out of the Spider-Versebecause… well, you know how it goes with Marvel collections. They like to rebrand.
  • During the above run, there was also an Amazing Spider-Man & Silk: Spider(Fly) Effect infinity comic (i.e. webcomic) by Thompson and Todd Nauck
  • There was a ’21 Silk series by Maurene Goo and Takeshi Mitazawa (Amazon appears to have incorrect creator credits on this.)

Who Dat?

Doctor Who

The Titan The Eleventh Doctor Sale runs through Monday, 2/26.

That’s Eleventh Doctor, as is Matt Smith’s Doctor.

These comics come in two formats:

The single issues are cheaper. (Collected editions tend to be 5 issues.)

We would like to point out some creator names you might recognize. Early in the run, you’ve got writing by Al Ewing and Simon (Si) Spurrier. Both of whom get mentioned around here a fair amount.

Unannounced Dark Horse Sale
Empowered

We’re not sure how long this is running, but the omnibus editions of Adam Warren’s Empowered on sale. It’s superhero satire about a heroine with terrible luck and unreliable powers.

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Still on Sale