Tag: Fantastic Four

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Marvel Omnibuses and Epics; Avatar: The Last Airbender

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel drops a new sale with Omnibuses, Epic Collections and Masterworks. Plus, Avatar: The Last Airbender.

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):

Did Somebody Say “Omnibus?”

Planet Hulk Omnibus  Miracleman Omnibus  X-Men Epic Collection: The Sentinels Live

The Marvel Digital Comics Sale runs through Monday, 9/14.

Marvel has a quick-hitter sale with some of the formats you folks like: Omnibus, Complete Collections and a handful of Masterworks, too.

Let’s break it down by format:

Omnibus

Epic Collections

  • X-Factor – We have particular fondness for the Simonson(es) and Peter David eras
  • X-Men – The original run through the Uncanny years. Pay close attention to the $2.99 volumes, that’s a FANTASTIC deal

Masterworks

Marvel Premiere Editions

Normally, we make fun of digital pricing getting based on a special format like HC. With the Premiere Editions, it ends up being a better deal.

Complete / Ultimate Collections

“Normal” Collections

 

Unannounced Sales

Avatar: The Last Airbender  Lafcadio Hearn's "The Faceless Ghost" and Other Macabre Tales from Japan  The Hedge Knight

As always, it isn’t clear when the unannounced sales will end.

Dark Horse is having an Avatar: The Last Airbender sale:

Dark Horse still has a manga sale going on. Some titles we noticed:

Also on sale

And have a look at the $5 and under page.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Jack Kirby; Venom; X-Men; Creepy; Calvin and Hobbes

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel puts the discounts on Jack Kirby, takes a trip to the beach, cuts prices on the Symbiotes and a variety of X-Men titles, too. Plus, Creepy, Eerie and Calvin and Hobbes.

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):

Kirby is King

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus  Thor - The Wrath of Odin  Eternals by Jack Kirby

The Marvel Jack Kirby Sale runs through Monday, 8/31.

Yes, Jack Kirby did a LOT of comics for Marvel. Is he the greatest action artist comic books has ever produced? Quite possibly. And the man could handle 3 books/mo. That’s no small feat.

Let’s first hit the highlights by the numbers:

What’s better than the rest? If you want to split some hairs, I’d say Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The Coming Of Galactus is roughly where FF hits it’s stride leading to the first encounter with Galactus. Thor Epic Collection: The Wrath Of Odin is a good Thor volume. (We found Thor needed a bit of time to get rolling.) Eternals has finally gotten it’s reappraisal after too many years of comparisons to New Gods. Captain America Epic Collection: The Man Who Sold The United States is an odd one for this sale, but a great collection. You get the final act of Steve Englehart’s run and then you get Kirby’s Madbomb saga, which probably reads better today than it did in the original release.

Beach Blanket Punch Out?

Avengers West Coast  Untold Tales of Spider-Man  Jeff The Land Shark: Friends And Rivals

The  Marvel Beach Reads Sale runs through Monday, 8/31.

This is an odd sale with lots of volumes containing random appearances of somone like Sandman. There are, however a few characters and titles with runs, which will make more sense:

What’s good? We like Bill Everett on Namor. (Bill created him and it just works.) For the Silver Age, that means Namor The Sub-Mariner Epic Collection: The Invasion Of New York. For the Golden Age, early Marvel Mystery Comics is most consistently Everett. Untold Tales Of Spider-Man is great. Avengers West Coast is reliable through Byrne (though Byrne is divisive) and is there anything wrong with Roy Thomas or DnA? Not really. Plus, Jeff The Land Shark has his fans.

No, You Were Thinking of Sim-City

Venom by Remender   Venom by Cates   Venom

The Marvel Symbiote Sale runs through Monday, 8/31.

By it’s very nature, a Symbiote sale (read: Venom/Carnage)  is a fairly scattered sale, with multiple formats and a lot of random early miniseries floating around. Browse for a better accounting of the listings.

For the early stuff, the better values are the somewhat scattered Epic Collections.

The early (mostly) Spider-Man appearances can be found in Venom Epic Collection: Symbiosis. That’s largely the David Michelinie / Todd McFarlane / Erik Larsen material.  That’s followed by Venom Epic Collection: Lethal Protector which has a few more villainous appearances and the original Lethal Protector mini. And then Venom Epic Collection: Carnage Unleashed continues the 90s appearances.

Eventually Venom gets his own series:

  • Venom  (2003-4) – The Daniel Way era
  • Venom  (2011-3) – Rick Remender/Tony Moore, then Cullen Bunn/Declan Shalvey
  • Venom (2016-8) – Mike Costa / Tradd Moore / Mark Bagley
  • Venom (2018-21) – Donny Cates / Ryan Stegman
  • Venom (2021-24) – Al Ewing / Ram V / Bryan Hitch
  • Venom War (2024) – Al Ewing / Iban Coello
  • All-New Venom(’24-’25) – Al Ewing / Carlos Gomez

Let’s talk about the last 12 years or so. The ’11-’13 series is more interesting than you might think. That’s when Flash Thompson has the symbiote and uses it (among other things) to replace the legs his lost in the war. There are some interesting pathos floating around, particularly in the Remender/Moore run.

The Cates/Stegman run is probably the most famous right now. That’s where Venom gets Cosmic and leads into the King In Black Event.

The Ewing / V / Hitch run, is an evolution and big leap forward from the groundwork laid by Cates. Al Ewing drives the Cosmic elements, which are the most interesting part. Eddie Brock is dead. But he isn’t. He’s separated from his body and he’s bouncing around in time as his son becomes Venom in the present. It’s a much, much stranger take on Venom than most others and really dives into the King in Black mythos and timeline, eventually culminating in Venom War. Ewing’s basically picked up the ball and ran with it, creating his own saga.

Carnage

Yes, the other symbiote Bobbsey Twin is also included in the sale (at least part of the catalog)

This is an odd set compared with something like Fantastic Four, since Carnage has been a guest villain or mini-series dweller for part of the time, so here’s the highlights and short tour.

For early Carnage, your best best is probably Carnage Epic Collection: Born in Blood. That gets you the first Carnage tale from Amazing Spider-Man _and_ the Maximum Carnage arc. For more of those early villain and mini-series appearances, there are two more Epic Collections with their own series page.

We liked the 70s-horror flavored ’17-’19 incarnation of Carnage by Gerry Conway and Mike Perkins quite a bit.

Carnage then relaunched in ’22 by Ram V and Francesco Manna. This one weaves in and out of serial killer thriller / fantasy (with a trip to Asgard) / and capes.

The next series of Carnage follows that up with the team of Torunn GrØnbekk & Pere Perez.

After that, it’s Eddie Brock: Carnage by Charles Soule / Jesus Saiz. Is that Venom or Carnage and the answer is “spoilers.”

Also in the mix:

A Cluster of X

Mr. and Mrs. X  Nightcrawler  X-Men

Three X-Men family sales. We’re going to look at the more specialized parts of the sales and then some of the ususal suspects they’re pulling random volumes from.

Rogue and Gambit

Nightcrawler

Jubilee

And the usual suspects

Unannounced Sales

Creepy  It's a Magical World: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection

As always, it isn’t clear when the unannounced sales will end.

Dark Horse now has a Creepy / Eerie sale.

Creepy was the first one and is available in both archive  format and “Creepy Presents” volumes spotlighting individual artists (Alex Toth, Bernie Wrightson, Richard Corben, Steve Ditko).

Eerie was the companion series. By halfway through it’s run, it had evolved into something a little different with multi-part stories and characters who returned, the breakout character being The Rook (a time traveler with some western elements baked in). It’s also available in archive format and “Eerie Presents” for collecting individual features (El Cid and Hunter).

Dark Horse still has a Plants Vs. Zombies sale by Paul Tobin / Ron Chan.  Also available in omnibus form.

Also on sale

And have a look at the $5 and under page.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Marvel’s Early Prime Day Omnibus / Epic Collection Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel hits Prime Day early with plenty of Omnibuses and Epic Collections. Plus, Calvin and Hobbes.

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):

Marvel Celebrates Prime Day Early?

Spectacular Spider-Man By Dematteis & Buscema Omnibus  Avengers Omnibus  Wolverine Omnibus

OK… there’s a page for this sale, but it’s not the Deals page. It appears to be an early Prime Day sale (Prime Day is towards the end of the month). We have no idea at all how long this one is going to last, so this week we’re publishing early! (And you can guess how we were spending our evening.)

Here’s the Marvel Page in question.

[UPDATE: They put a Deals page link up, and it’s even less organized!]

All sorts of interesting things. Omnibuses, Epic Collections and everything in between. Looks like over 800 items. Kind of a June holiday sale, really. You’ll want to browse through it at some point, but let’s try to put some order to Amazon listings chaos:

Omnibuses

Starting at $11.99

Epic Collections

Starting at $5.99

Masterworks

Starting at $5.99

Plenty more comics, including a lot of “regular” collections if you care to browse.

Unannounced Sales

The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury Masters of the Universe: Revelation DC Encyclopedia New Edition

As always, it isn’t clear when the unannounced sales will end.

Masters of the Universe (otherwise known as He-Man)

Dark Horse still has a big block of Brian Bendis titles on sale. Jinxworld, if you prefer. Let’s hit the numbers first:

We encourage you to give the crime/thriller work of Bendis a look. Scarlet has gotten more relevant since it came out and Goldfish is really what got him started. Yes, he got famous doing capes, but he’s a Mamet guy at the end of the day.

Also on sale:

And have a look at the $5 and under page.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Hulk, Fantastic Four, Venom

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel drops a fistful of sales (including Hulk, Fantastic Four and Venom). Plus, Avatar the Last Airbender.

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):

Hulk Is Cheapest There Is

Planet Hulk  Immortal Hulk  Incredible Hulk The Marvel Hulk Sale runs through Monday, 5/25. And what we have here is basically a Hulk Legacy sale. Let’s run down the various titles.
  • Incredible Hulk (1962 – 1999) The original run and then the long running series that picked up a few years later. (For some reason, the Epic Collections have a separate listing.)
  • 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. Included for the sake of completeness, for you shall find no discounts here
  • 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.
  • 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
  • The Incredible Hulk (2023 -25) – Phillip Kennedy Johnson / Nic Klein
For the main series, you can’t go wrong with the Peter David years (now complete in Epic format) and the Bill Mantlo era seems to have gained fans over the years.
The sequence from Planet Hulk to World War Hulk is highly enjoyable.
Let’s be real – Immortal Hulk is a masterpiece. Highly recommended with an approach almost like Gerber’s Man-Thing or Moore’s Swamp Thing.
We’re really enjoying the current run, too. (OK, there was a relaunch. As far as we’re concerned it’s the same book with different numbering and a title tweak.) It’s a return to horror, like the Immortal Hulk run, but it feels a bit more like the Bruce Jones run. Banner is on the run, but this time the conspiracy pursuing him is supernatural in nature. Nic Klein is doing ridiculously good work on this title, too.
Also included in this sale: the original Defenders series (which could use more Gerber discounts than are provided).

Four Play

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus    Fantastic Four by Waid   Fantastic Four by Hickman Marvel’s Fantastic Four Sale runs through Monday, 5/25. Marvel would like to remind you this was a film. First let’s break down the various FF titles/volumes on sale:
  • Fantastic Four ’61-’96 – The original run (In a truly bizarre turn, the Epic Collections are tied to the original series and all the Masterworks are floating in the system untethered to ANY series.)
  • Fantastic Four ’98-’12 – Heroes Return era through Hickman
  • Fantastic Four ’12-’14 – The Matt Fraction / Mark Bagley era
  • Fantastic Four ’14-’15 – The James Robinson/Leonard Kirk run
  • Fantastic Four: Fate of the Four (Marvel Two-in-One) ’17-’18 – Chip Zdarsky / Jim Cheung; Zdarsky’s MTIO run has been rebranded as FF… which is probably fair – not in this sale, but included for the sake of completeness
  • Fantastic Four ’18-’22 – The Dan Slott run with a rotating cast of artists
  • Fantastic Four ’22-’25 – Ryan North / Iban Coello / Carlos Gomez
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 into the Byrne run and then skip ahead to Englehart. 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 7 volumes of Masterworks on sale (V. 21-27) or you can hop on to Fantastic Four Visionaires: John Byrne. These comics really ought to be in an Epic Collections, and that’s started, 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?) Move ahead a bit and Walt Simonson had a stint that may be a little more notable for being an early appearance of the Time Variance Authority (which actually debuted in his Thor run). This is most easily grabbed across Epic Collections V.20 and V.21. 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. Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier jumped in for an arc with Black Panther and Storm briefly joining the team. 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. But that’s not all we have in a fairly expansive sale:

Ultimate Fantastic Four

The original Ultimate Fantastic Four had Brian Bendis, Warren Ellis, Mark Millar and Mike Carey (yes, The Girl With All the Gifts M.R. Carey) tagging off on writer duties. The artist rotation includes Adam Kubert, Stuart Immonen, Jae Lee, Greg Land, Pasqual Ferry, Mark Brooks and Tyler Kirkham.  And a bit of trivia for you: Marvel Zombies?  It’s an Ultimate Fantastic Four spin-off.  Check out V.3 of the omnibuses. That’s where it all begins.

Doctor Doom

A little bit from the arch foe:

Silver Surfer

Skull the Slayer

That’s right. Skull the Slayer.

No, Not Bane’s Juice

Venom by Remender   Venom by Cates   Venom

The Marvel Venom Sale runs through Monday, 5/25. This is a fairly scattered sale, with multiple formats and a lot of random early miniseries floating around. Browse for a better accounting of the listings. For the early stuff, the better values are the somewhat scattered Epic Collections. The early (mostly) Spider-Man appearances can be found in Venom Epic Collection: Symbiosis. That’s largely the David Michelinie / Todd McFarlane / Erik Larsen material.  That’s followed by Venom Epic Collection: Lethal Protector which has a few more villainous appearances and the original Lethal Protector mini. And then Venom Epic Collection: Carnage Unleashed continues the 90s appearances. Eventually Venom gets his own series:
  • Venom  (2003-4) – The Daniel Way era
  • Venom  (2011-3) – Rick Remender/Tony Moore, then Cullen Bunn/Declan Shalvey
  • Venom (2016-8) – Mike Costa / Tradd Moore / Mark Bagley
  • Venom (2018-21) – Donny Cates / Ryan Stegman
  • Venom (2021-24) – Al Ewing / Ram V / Bryan Hitch
  • Venom War (2024) – Al Ewing / Iban Coello
  • All-New Venom(’04-’05) – Al Ewing / Carlos Gomez
Let’s talk about the last 12 years or so. The ’11-’13 series is more interesting than you might think. That’s when Flash Thompson has the symbiote and uses it (among other things) to replace the legs his lost in the war. There are some interesting pathos floating around, particularly in the Remender/Moore run. The Cates/Stegman run is probably the most famous right now. That’s where Venom gets Cosmic and leads into the King In Black Event. The Ewing / V / Hitch run, is an evolution and big leap forward from the groundwork laid by Cates. Al Ewing drives the Cosmic elements, which are the most interesting part. Eddie Brock is dead. But he isn’t. He’s separated from his body and he’s bouncing around in time as his son becomes Venom in the present. It’s a much, much stranger take on Venom than most others and really dives into the King in Black mythos and timeline, eventually culminating in Venom War. Ewing’s basically picked up the ball and ran with it, creating his own saga.

Carnage

Yes, the other symbiote Bobbsey Twin is also included in the sale (at least part of the catalog) This is an odd set compared with something like Fantastic Four, since Carnage has been a guest villain or mini-series dweller for part of the time, so here’s the highlights and short tour. For early Carnage, your best best is probably Carnage Epic Collection: Born in Blood. That gets you the first Carnage tale from Amazing Spider-Man _and_ the Maximum Carnage arc. For more of those early villain and mini-series appearances, there are two more Epic Collections with their own series page. Carnage then relaunched in ’22 by Ram V and Francesco Manna. This one weaves in and out of serial killer thriller / fantasy (with a trip to Asgard) / and capes. The next series of Carnage follows that up with the team of Torunn GrØnbekk & Pere Perez. Also in the mix:

52 Pick Up

Gambit: The Complete Collection  Gambit Classic  Mr. and Mrs. X The Marvel Gambit sale runs through Monday, 5/25. Lots and lots of misc. X-titles in the one. In terms of Gambit (and his Mrs.), you’re looking at: If you’d rather have some X-Men books, there’s plenty to browse, though these two spots might float near the top of the list:

Seeing Ghosts

Spider-Gwen  Spider-Gwen: Gwenverse  Spider-Gwen The Ghost-Spider The Marvel Ghost Spider Sale runs through Monday, 5/25. Ah, the always amusing struggle to balance a character’s movie name with their comics name. Yes, this is really a Spider-Gwen sale.

Not A Big Red Cheese?

Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin Captain Marvel Captain Marvel The Captain Marvel Sale runs through Monday, 5/25. It’s back and now it has the Masterworks. First off, the original Kree Captain Mar-Vell as Captain Marvel: Is Starlin’s Mar-Vell, the best Mar-Vell? We’d say so. You can also look at the  Captain Marvel Masterworks series, but the other one we’d put at the top of the list is V.4 with the Steve Englehart / Al Milgrom run. Carol Danvers as Ms./Captain Marvel: OK… brace yourselves… this one has a ton of relaunches: We think that’s the overly complicated chronology, anyway. For recommendations, we’re not really experts on this set of books, but we’re inclined to say go with the recent Thompson run. Kelly Sue DeConnick has a very dedicated fanbase, so maybe browse the sample pages there and see if that catches your fancy, too? Then there’s Mar-Vell’s son Genis: This one is a Peter David joint, through and through. We did read the ’22 version last year and enjoyed it. It has a little more going on than you might think at first.

Unannounced Sales

Avatar: The Last Airbender Star Wars A Vader Family Sithmas

As always, it isn’t clear when the unannounced sales will end. Dark Horse is having a sale on their Avatar: The Last Airbender line of comics Also on sale, The Legend of Korra Dark Horse still has discounts on their Star Wars line of comics: Also on sale: And have a look at the $5 and under page.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Marvel and Dark Horse drop a pile of holiday discounts

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s time for Marvel and Dark Horse Holiday sales. Plus, another volume of Calvin and Hobbes.

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):

Housekeeping: We would remind you that Marvel’s normal December 8-sale spread for the month is still active and annotated here. We’ve got another batch of Marvel sales that are a little over-weighted with single issues – $0.99/$1.49/$1.99 and up. (We’re probably going to ignore most of the single issues over $2.) These are lasting through the beginning of January, which means… after a few months, someone at Marvel seems to have realized they were having a gap week without a sale. We applaud the arrival of a clue.

You’re probably asking “where’s the DC holiday sale?” We wish we could tell you. As of this typing, we’re not seeing any significant movement with DC. It could just be late arriving (as it was for Black Friday). We would caution you not to get your hopes up too high for a $1.99 tpb sale. All things are possible, but DC seems to have been doing a lot of A/B testing on higher prices in recent months. Perhaps we’ll be back with DC in a day or two. We’ll see.

Cobwebs

Ultimate Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 5  Amazing Spider-Man Modern Era Epic Collection: Big Time  Spider-Man/Deadpool Modern Era Epic Collection: Road Trip

The Marvel Spider-Man Sale runs through Sunday, 1/4.

Lots of $0.99 single issues here, but this is the sale with the most omnibuses in it.

And the $0.99 singles and more conventional collected editions:

Hulk Smash Mistletoe

Incredible Hulk Epic Collection: To Hunt The Hulk  Immortal Hulk  She-Hulk By Rainbow Rowell Omnibus

The Marvel Hulk Sale runs through Sunday, 1/4.

There are fewer titles here than you’d think. It’s mostly single issues. Here are the highlights:

Some Assembly Required

Young Avengers Modern Era Epic Collection: Dark Reign  U.S.Avengers  Avengers: War Across Time

The  Marvel Avenger Sale runs through Sunday, 1/4.

Another one WAY overweighted with single issues. Highlights:

Fore!

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus  Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The Name is Doom  Fantastic Four

The Marvel Fantastic Four Sale runs through Sunday, 1/4.

Ah! Finally a decent selection of Masterworks (and a few Epics). You’ll see some upward drift on the pricing (verily, we are in a fiscal quarter of A/B testing), but the collected editions are going to be better buys than the $0.99 single issues in most cases.

A couple prime cuts of Lee/Kirby goodness at good prices?  Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The Coming Of Galactus and Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The Name Is Doom 

Topmost

The Ultimates  Ultimate Black Panther Ultimate Invasion

The Marvel Ultimate Sale runs through Sunday, 1/4.

That’s right. The current Ultimate Universe:

We’d say Ultimate Spider-Man is the heart of the line and The Ultimates is the world-building engine.

Unannounced Sales

Adventures of Luther Arkwright  Baltimore Omnibus 1  From the World of Minor Threats: Barfly

As always, we really don’t know how long these discounts will last.

First up, Dark Horse doesn’t quite have a line-wide sale… but it’s close. Here are things we noticed with better pricing:

Recommendations? Sure.

If you’ve never sampled Bryan Talbot’s Adventures of Luther Arkwright, this is a good time. It’s a dimension hopping, psychic spy tale with not a small amount of rebellion in it. It’s also VERY appropriate for a Michael Moorcock introduction, too. A classic of the field.

Minor Threats is popular when it pops up, so if that’s your jam, have a look for fresh volumes in the From the World of Minor Threats link.

The Mignola-verse is quite reliable (and much of it is discounted right now). Something a little under the radar, relative to Hellboy, that we enjoyed quite a bit was Baltimore.  At the end of World War I, the vampire hoards are unleashed and one Lord Henry Baltimore enters into a bitter feud with them. Two omnibuses make for a nice ride.

Also on sale:

It's a Magical World: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection

Two modern classics on the list – American Born Chinese and Saga

 

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Marvel Holiday Sale Part 3 – Last of the $0.99 Titles

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we finish off those $0.99 single issues from the Marvel Holiday Sale and see what else was there.

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):

Housekeeping: We’re still going through that Marvel Holiday Sale to make it more digestible for you. We’ll forgive you if you looked at the display and decided it was just a bunch of random issues. The presentation leaves a lot to be desired (though that’s why we’re here). What the bulk of the holiday sales appears to be is $0.99 single issues. Not exclusively from the ’22-’24 time frame, but a lot from there. Some discounted newer issues, too. And some collected editions, which we touched on.

In this third installment, we’re still consolidating the $0.99 single issue titles. NOW… you might see $1.49 for issue #1 at times. <shrugs> You may also see collected editions of some of these. We’re not quite that far along yet. You may also find that the single issues are sometimes cheaper than a collected edition, especially if the collected edition is only 4-5 issues. This doesn’t necessarily hold for a decent sale on Epic Collections, Masterworks or Omnibuses, so do a little math in your head if the single issue isn’t your preferred format.

Here’s the list of the newly discounted omnibuses / Masterworks / Epic Collections from Monday, btw.

Here’s the first breakdown of $0.99 titles.

We’ll return in the normal weekly slot for the REST of the week’s sales, which are a bit less peculiar than this holiday sale.

First, the official holiday sale link:

Marvel Holiday Sale – Ends 12/08

More Titles With $0.99 Single Issues

Immortal Hulk  Black Widow  Namor

Right, then… back in the saddle. This is going to be more of a quick and dirty, but we’ll annotate here and there when we think something is particularly good.

Best bets from this batch? Immortal Hulk and Black Widow.  For something more under the radar? Namor The Sub-Mariner: Conquered Shores.

The Best of the Rest

Micronauts Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years - They Came From Inner Space  Rom Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years  Fantastic Four by Waid & Wieringo Omnibus

Looking at the rest of sale, here are some things we like and think the price is OK.

Licensed books: not the best discounts, but these are usually not discounted at all.

And for non-licensed:

Unannounced Sales

American Born Chinese  Barbaric  Superman The Ultimate Guide

As always, we really don’t know how long these will last.

American Born Chinese is widely considered a modern classic, btw.

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Amazon (at Comixology) Sales: Starhenge, Dynamite Horror, Fantastic Four, Dark Tower

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Dynamite starts off spooky season with a horror sale and we dig up some unannounced Fantastic Four, Starhenge  and Dark Tower.

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):

Housekeeping: It’s been a consistently strange few weeks and this one is no exception. Marvel is now completely missing from the Deals page. Does that mean there’s no Marvel on sales? Certainly not. Not all the expired prices have truly disappeared and we found some odds and ends floating around.

Enter: Spooky Season

Army of Darkness: Ash Saves Obama  Devolution  The Twilight Zone

The Dynamite World of Horror Sale runs through Friday, 10/31.

Dynamite does quite a bit of horror and ’tis the season. Let’s have a look at some highlights:

Yes, there’s some variety to the horror and some new creations in the mix. We would also note that a certain Mr. Straczynski was a story editor on the 80s revival of The Twilight Zone.

Unannounced Sales

Starhenge  Fantastic Four: Grand Design Incredible Doom: A Graphic Novel

As usual, we’re not sure when these sales are ending, but here’s what we’re seeing:

Fantastic That Something’s Discounted

Yes, we did find a swatch of Fantastic Four titles quietly discounted:

[Note: The Complete Collection overlaps with Vol. 3 of the Hickman run]

The Unusual Suspects

Of note: Starhenge is Liam Sharp pushing his artistic envelope.

Additionally, it looks like much of the Ultimates, Punisher, Nova and Red Sonja material from recent weeks is still on sale. The Under $5 Page has the lower priced volumes.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Fantastic Four; Loki; Ms. Marvel; Dark Horse Line-Wide

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel celebrates the Fantastic Four movie with some discounts. Plus, slashed prices on Loki and Ms. Marvel, should you be in a cinematic mindset. For dessert, Dark Horse has a line-wide sale for Comic-Con.

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 Sale runs through Monday, 7/28.

A cynical person might think there was a movie coming out… but surely you’re not cynical?

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 #191 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 7 volumes of Masterworks on sale (V. 21-27) or you can hop on to Fantastic Four Visionaires: John Byrne. These comics really ought to be in an Epic Collections, 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?)

Move ahead a bit and Walt Simonson had a stint that may be a little more notable for being an early appearance of the Time Variance Authority (which actually debuted in his Thor run). This is most easily grabbed across Epic Collections V.20 and V.21.

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.

Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier jumped in for an arc with Black Panther and Storm briefly joining the team.

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.

Kamala Sale

Ms. Marvel  Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant

The Ms. Marvel Sale runs through Monday 7/21.

Thank goodness they’re not calling this “The Marvel Ms. Marvel Sale!” This would be Ms. Marvel as in Kamala Khan, not the current Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers. Let’s break this down by volume, since there have been relaunches.

  • Ms. Marvel ’14-15 – The original run with G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona as the primary artist
  • Ms. Marvel ’15-’19 – How silly is this relaunch? The collected edition number doesn’t even reset! It’s still Wilson and Alphona, although the artist rotate a bit as it goes on.
  • Magnificent Ms. Marvel ’91-’21 – Relaunched after Wilson’s departure, this is written by Saladin Ahmed with Minkyu Jung and Joey Vazquez as the lead artists
  • Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit – The mini-series by Samira Ahmed and Andrés Genolet.
  • Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant – Iman Vellani / Sabir Pirzada / Carlos Gomez; Yes, that’s right, the actress who plays Ms. Marvel is co-writing this with the show’s supervising producer

Recommendations? We thought Ms. Marvel was at its best early in the run, before it got too integrated into the Marvel universe, but that’s just us.  Definitely start with Wilson’s run, though.  It made quite the mainstream splash.

God of Mischief

Loki: Agent of Asgard   Journey Into Mystery  

The Marvel Loki Sale runs through Monday, 7/21.

The interesting thing about a Loki sale? These days you have “post-TV” Loki, which is to say Loki as the lead and not the villain (as in Thor or something like X-Men / Alpha Flight).

If you’re looking for Loki as the lead, the closest you’re likely to get to the TV show (thus far) is probably looking for either Loki, Agent of Asgard by Al Ewing, Lee Garbett and Jorge Coelho or the Loki run in the revived Journey Into Mystery by Kieron Gillen, Doug Braithwaite, Richard Elson (and a few more artists).

Unannounced Sales

Hellboy  Martha Washington  Minor Threats

Dark Horse is having a “Comic-Con @Home digital sale” and has most of their collected editions discounted, but not the newest material and not the single issues.  Here’s a link that will *eventually* get you through their catalog in a very laborious way and with the single issues mixed in. (It’s not perfect, but we’re trying.) Figure this will be around 50% off, but it might vary a little from book to book.

Here are some direct links to various series:

Additionally, it looks like most of the Captain America, Wolverine and Ghost Rider material from recent weeks is still on sale. The Under $5 Page has the lower priced volumes. Go back a couple columns for the links to find the Epic Collections.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Fantastic Four; Black Panther; Miles Morales; Doctor Doom; Black Lightning; Hard Case Crime

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts the full run (mostly) of Fantastic Four, plus Black Panther, Miles Morales and Doctor Doom. DC offers a “Power” sale (Black Lightning, John Stewart and friends). Titan slashes prices on Hard Case Crime titles and Dark Horse has a manga 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):

Four Play

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

Marvel’s Fantastic Four Sale runs through Monday, 2/17.

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 #191 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 6 volumes of Masterworks on sale (V. 21-26) or you can hop on to Fantastic Four Visionaires: John Byrne. You’d need to cut over to the Visionaries run in the middle of  V. 7 to pick up where the discounted Masterworks leave off.  These comics really ought to be in an Epic Collections, 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?) We figure the run will at least need to finish up in Masterwork format first and V. 27 is scheduled for June ’25, so there you go.

Move ahead a bit and Walt Simonson had a stint that may be a little more notable for being an early appearance of the Time Variance Authority (which actually debuted in his Thor run). This is most easily grabbed across Epic Collections V.20 and V.21.

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.

Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier jumped in for an arc with Black Panther and Storm briefly joining the team.

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.

T’Challa Forever

Black Panther Masterworks  Black Panther by Priest  Black Panther

The Marvel Black Panther Sale runs through Monday, 3/3.

  • 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 – with art by Chris Allen

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, 3/3.

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 pop over to the  ’16-18 Bendis /Pichelli Spider-Man run.

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

The current series is Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Cody Ziglar and Federico Vicentini. 

Victor Von Doom Bows Before No Man!

Doctor Doom  Avengers - The Private War of Doctor Doom  Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment

The Marvel Doctor Doom Sale runs through Monday, 2/17.

The top dog here is the Doctor Doom series by Christopher Cantwell and Salvador Larroca. Its an instant classic well worth your time. Doom has been framed. For now he’s on the run, but his vengeance will be terrible. Featuring Kang in a highly amusing frenemy role.

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 cross-over between Super Villain Team-Up (a better than you might think series that was basically Namor and Doom plotting against each other) and Avengers.

Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment by Roger Stern and Mike Mignola has Strange and Doom invading Hell to free Doom’s mother from the clutches of Mephisto.

Also of possible interest – Iron Man: Doomquest collects a famous pair of David Michelinie / Bob Layton tales (w/John Romita, Jr. on the first) that have a time travelling Doom clashing with Iron Man.  Iron Man: Legacy of Doom is the lesser-known Michelinie/Layton/Ron Lim follow-up.

While we’re not sure we’d call it a Doom story, per se, Blood Hunt‘s ending certainly sets up the next big Doctor Doom story arc. This would be a Jed MacKay/Pepe Larraz tale. We’re thinking this is Blood Hunt‘s first time discounted?

Power Up

Black Lightning  Green Lantern War Journal  The Terrifics

The DC Power 2025 Sale runs through Monday, 2/10.

A few things we saw that caught our eye:

  • Black Lightning – Tony Isabella / Trevor Von Eeden; Then Denny O’Neil / Gerry Conway / Dick Dillon / Marshall Rogers; V.1 is the original solo series, V.2 is the backups that rounded out the ’70s.
  • Green Lantern: War Journal Vol. 1: Contagion – Phillip Kennedy Johnson / Montos; Particularly horrific extradimensional beings hunt John Stewart
  • Justice League by Christopher Priest – Priest / Pete Woods – An ode to toxic fandom
  • The Terrifics – Jeff Lemire / Gene Yang / Ivan Reis / Doc Shaner / Steven Segovia; Mister Terrific, Metamorpho, Plastic Man and Phantom Girl in a team book. Whatever made you think it’s offbeat? The only DC New Age of Heroes title to get traction.

Theft

Gun Honey  Ms. Tree  Tyler Cross

The Titan Hard Case Crime Comics Sale run through  Friday, 2/28.

Hard Case was originally a publisher of pulp-influenced crime novels that eventually came into Titan’s publishing orbit and added a line of comics, often written by well known crime novelists. Most of these titles come in two flavors: collected editions and $0.99 single issues. Watch the page count, but you’ll usually find the single issues are cheaper when available.

  • The Big Hoax – Carlos Trillo / Roberto Mandrafina
  • Breakneck – Duane Swierczynski / Simone Guglielmini
  • Frank Lee, After Alcatraz – David Hasteda / Ludovic Chesno
  • Gamma Draconis – Eldo Yoshimizu / Benoist Simmat
  • Gun Honey – Charles Ardai  / Ang Hor Kheng
  • The Millennium Trilogy – Sylvain Runberg / Stieg Larsson / Jose Homs  / Manolo Carot / José Homs / Belen Ortega; as in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • Ms. Tree – Max Allan Collins / Terry Beatty; Collins riffs on Mike Hammer decades before working on those novels. V. 1-2 are actually the Ms. Tree Quarterly issues from DC at the end of the run. The original run starts in V. 3. Beatty now works on the Rex Morgan, MD and Phantom comic strips
  • Normandy Gold – Megan Abbott / Alison Gaylin / Steve Scott
  • Peepland – Christa Faust / Gary Phillips / Andrea Camerini
  • The Prague Coup – Jean-Luc Fromental / Miles Hyman; Graham Greene is reimagined into a coup attempt
  • Quarry’s War – Max Allan Collins / Szymon Kudranski; The novels about the assassin, Quarry, go all the way back to ’76 and precedes Collins writing Dick Tracy
  • Ryuko – Eldo Yoshimizu
  • Tyler Cross – by Fabien Nury / Bruno

Ms. Tree is probably the most famous comic here. Max Allan Collins has all his bona fides from Dick Tracy to The Road to Perdition to getting named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.

What you might not realize is that Charles Ardai, the head of Hard Case, is actually an Edgar and Shamus winner in his own right.

Unannounced Sales

Astro Boy Elfen Lied Path of the Assassin

Dark Horse has a wide selection of their manga titles on sale this week. Some titles we noticed:

Also on sale:

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

The Ultimates  Daredevil  The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe

The trend continues. New releases at lower than expected price points and discounted pre-orders. Is this the new normal? We’re not sure, but let’s run them down.

Dropping This Week

  • Ultimates By Deniz Camp Vol. 1: Fix The World – Deniz Camp / Juan Frigeri; While not the cheapest thing listed, we’ve been pretty happy with this dark and twisted world builder. Doom and She-Hulk? Not necessarily what you were expecting. $12.99

Dropping Next Week

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Aquaman and the Justice League; Jonathan Hickman’s Marvel Library; Cable and Bishop; The Millarverse

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has some holiday-esque pricing on Aquaman and the Justice League. Marvel discounts the works of Jonathan Hickman, pluc Cable and Bishop. Dark Horse has deals on the Millarverse and The Witcher.

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):

Administrative Note

Earlier in the week, we looked at which titles are newly included in this year’s annual Marvel Masterworks Sale.

He’s All Wet

Aquaman  Aquaman by Peter David  Justice League of America

The DC Aquaman Sale runs through Monday, 1/13.

OK, it’s really an Aquaman and the Justice League sale… but here’s the real wrinkle: holiday-like sales pricing. Could DC be turning over a new leaf? Wouldn’t that be a thing?

Things that caught our eye:

Aquaman

  • Aquaman (’62 – ’78) – You’re looking at 2 volumes of Steve Skeates / Jim Aparo that ended the original run, then Death of a Prince primarily written by David Michelinie/Paul Levitz with art by Jim Aparo/Mike Grell/Don Newton; $2.99 is a lot cheaper than these used to get listed for
  • Aquaman: The Legend of Aquaman (’89) – Keith Giffen / Robert Loren Fleming / Curt Swan; Sometimes you need to see Swan doing something other than Superman to really appreciate him
  • Aquman (’94- ’01) – Peter David / Martin Egeland; The controversial run where Aquaman loses a hand
  • Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis (’06-’07) – Kurt Busiek / Butch Guice; We really enjoyed this entirely too short-lived “Conan under the sea”-type take on Aquaman
  • Aquaman (’11-’16) Geoff Johns / Ivan Reis; We thought V.2 was the peak here with “The Others” and the Trench’s aftermath
  • The Atlantis Chronicles – Peter David / Esteban Maroto; A gorgeously illustrated high fantasy tale of this history of Atlantis and its sorcerers. This is where all the “Orin” business comes from.

Justice League

  • Justice League of America (’60-’87) – The Silver Age editions are $1.99@
  • JLA (’97 – ’01) – Grant Morrison / Howard Porter -> Mark Waid / Bryan Hitch -> Joe Kelly / Doug Mahnke -> Chris Claremont / John Byrne; There’s more to this classic run than just Morrison and it’s $1.99/volume
  • JLA Year One – Mark Waid / Brian Augustyn / Barry Kitson; An extended Justice League origin tale
  • Justice League by Christopher Priest (’18) – Christopher Priest / Pete Woods; Priest’s meditation on toxic fandom in a single volume
  • Justice League (’18) – Scott Snyder / James Tynion IV / Jorge Jiménez / Francis Manapul / Jim Cheung; The Snyder era is best enjoyed with double volumes for $2.99
  • Justice League of America: The Nail: The Complete Collection – Alan Davis made a stone cold classic with his tale of a world where a flat tire caused the Kents to miss the rocket and the Justice League tries to form without a Superman. Suffice it to say, things go sideways

Hickman

Fantastic Four by Hickman   Avengers by Jonathan Hickman - the Complete Collection   Secret Wars

The Marvel Jonathan Hickman Sale runs through Monday, 1/20.

The big opus was the story that ran through Fantastic Four, Avengers and then ended in Secret Wars. And it’s infinitely easier (yes, that was a pun) to read that in the Complete Collection editions, because that puts the issues in the correct reading order and includes the mini-series tie-ins. Otherwise, at a certain point, you’re reading an issue from an Avengers collection and then having to open a New Avengers collection for the next issue. Or an issue of FF. We had to do that back in the day and it was REALLY annoying. This is just a better way to read them.

That’s all you need. “Time Runs Out” is even in the final Avengers Complete Collection volume. And here’s something that cannot be understated, the sheer scope of this tale makes it increasingly compelling the further into it you go. Once you’re past the Infinity sequence, it really starts getting jaw-dropping. And this falls under the category of “in for a penny, in for a pound.” You start the sequence, you need to finish through Secret Wars. Especially with the Avengers.

House of X / Powers of X   X of Swords  Secret Warriors

For the X-Men material, House of X / Powers of X is self-contained. X of Swords is relatively self-contained (and a very successful cross-over). Past that, we think the Hickman era is best enjoyed with the Dawn of X collections to better appreciate what an unusual tapestry was being weaved. Reign of X, as well.

Past his more famous outings, The Human Machine is the complete version of Hickman’s second S.H.I.E.L.D. series. (The first series, Architects of Forever, is not discounted here.)

Secret Warriors, launched under Bendis, but continued under Hickman and Alessandro Vitti, is a Nick Fury/S.H.I.E.L.D. series.

G.O.D.S. Ultimate Invasion  Ultimate Spider-Man

G.O.D.S. is the recently ended Hickman / Valerio Schiti series that’s effectively a traditional Urban Fantasy tale in the Marvel universe (guest starring Stephen Strange). We liked it quite a bit and are up for a sequel.

Ultimate Invasion with Bryan Hitch is the set up for the current incarnation of the Ultimate universe as The Maker (Ultimate Reed Richards) escapes and decides to make a parallel world his personal experiment.

Ultimate Invasion leads right into the excellent Ultimate Spider-Man with Marco Checchetto, where an older, married with children, Peter Parker suddenly becomes Spidey.

You Were Expecting Disney+?

Cable   Cable & Deadpool   Cable

The Marvel Cable and Bishop Sale runs through Monday, 1/13.

There really have been a lot of Cable titles over the years.

New Mutants Epic Collection: Cable by (mostly) Louise Simonson & Rob Liefeld contains the original appearances of Cable as he stalks the Mutant Liberation Front.

The original Cable series was the longest-lived. It starts out as Cable Classic with the original mini’s, but we might lean a little further down the page – Ladronn art and early stories by Joe Casey and James Robinson.

The other long-running title was Cable & Deadpool. Fabian Nicieza was the writer, with Patrick Zircher and Reilly Brown as the primary artists.

The most recent Cable ongoing series was the HoX/PoX era series by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto which finds Cable much younger, but still up to his neck in time paradoxes.

X-Men Epic Collection: Bishop’s Crossing is where Bishop first pops up, at the beginning of the post-Claremont, Jim Lee / Whilce Portacio era.

Unannounced Sales

Nemesis Reloaded  Night Club  Witcher

Dark Horse has a Millarverse Sale going on:

Dark Horse has put their adaptations of The Witcher on sale. They’re available in:

Also on sale:

  • Run: Book One – John Lewis / Andrew Aydin / L. Fury / Nate Powell

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Symbiote Spider-Man 2099  Venom: The King in Purple

The trend continues. New releases at lower than expected price points and discounted pre-orders. Is this the new normal? We’re not sure, but let’s run them down.

Dropping This Week

Dropping Next Week

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