Tag: Fantastic Four

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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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Jonathan Hickman’s Marvel Catalog; Jonah Hex; Loki; Kraven the Hunter

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts their Jonathan Hickman catalog, plus Kraven the Hunter and Loki. DC starts to crank up the Halloween sales, Image finishes off it’s alphabet sale and Caliber pops up.

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):

DC Says “Boo”

The DC Fights and Frights Sale runs through Monday, 10/9.

Another eclectic mix of titles, what’s good and/or hasn’t popped up in a bit?

Checkmate by Greg Rucka (and later Eric Trautman) / Jesus Saiz is an under-rated title that hasn’t popped up lately. This is a blend of spies and superheroes with Mister Terrific, Green Lantern and Fire in the initial mix… and, of course, Amanda Waller lurks.

Doctor Fate by Paul Levitz and Sonny Liew – We don’t always like these “reimagining’s,” but Levitz & Liew knock it out of the park as the helmet of Fate settles upon the head of a Brooklyn med student. A lot more is made of Fate’s Egyptian origins in this version, and not just that Anubis is causing trouble. This flew under too many radars.

Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan & Tony Harris. Yeah, that’s right. Pre-Saga Vaughan and post-Starman Harris teaming up for political intrigue as NYC’s first and only superhero, “The Great Machine” finds himself elected mayor. This one mixes political plots with superhero hijinks and how can you have superpowers + politics without a conspiracy? This one’s sometimes overlooked because it was Wildstorm, but not WildCATS.

Checkmate   Doctor Fate  Ex Machina

The ’00s incarnation of Jonah Hex is something of a palette-cleansing delight. Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray are the writers. While there are arcs, they’ll also deal in single issue stories. Why? Because at a certain point, they just get crazy with really high end guest artists. Jordi Bernet is a regular. Darwyn Cooke shows up. Paul Gulacy. Russ Heath. J. H. Williams III. Andy Kubert. Fiona Staples.  Come for the western, stay for the art.

Superman: Phantom Zone is a favorite oddity from the ’80s. Steve Gerber (Man-Thing) and Gene Colan (Tomb of Dracula, Night Force) have celebrated backgrounds in horror comics. What if they did a Superman horror comic? Well, they kind of did. This one gets metaphysical as Superman discovers some problems inside the Phantom Zone. Warning: this gets much weirder than you’re used to Superman getting. Also includes the Gerber/Rick Veitch follow-up from DC Comics Presents. Hey, Halloween beckons.

Daniel Warren Johnson seems to be having a moment right now. Wonder Woman: Dead Earth is his Black Label (read: Elseworlds) tale of Diana waking up in a post-apocalyptic hellscape of world with few humans left and plenty of monsters hunting them.  So she goes monster hunting as she tries to piece together how the world got this way. Does Johnson out-metal Dark Knights: Metal? Yeah, we’d say so.

Jonah Hex   Superman: Phantom Zone    Wonder Woman: Dead Earth

Hickman

The Marvel Jonathan Hickman Sale runs through Monday, 10/9.

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.

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.

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

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 (not on sale) to better appreciate what an unusual tapestry was being weaved.

House of X / Powers of X   X of Swords

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 on sale here.)

Craving What?!?

The Marvel Kraven Sale runs through Monday, 10/9.

Yes, it would appear somebody’s getting out early and ahead of next year’s Kraven the Hunter film. So what are we looking at here?

For most people, “Kraven’s Last Hunt” by J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck is the pinnacle of the character (and count us in that group). Therein, Kraven takes his final revenge on Spidey. One of the darker Spider-Man tales and one that hit classic status pretty much as soon as it hit the shelf. There are plenty of ways to but this one, but we think the Kraven’s Last Hunt Epic Collection is a good buy with a lot of extra comics around this tale.

If you’re looking for a more traditional tale of Kraven, there aren’t really collections built around that (doubtless, there will be when the movie arrives), but the Spider-Man No More Epic Collection includes an early Kraven tale among it’s collection of Stan Lee / John Romita, Jr. goodness.

And if you’d like something a little more modern and little more off-kilter, X-Force V.5 by Benjamin Percy & Robert Gill hunting mutants as he tries to prove he’s the real apex predator.

Amazing Spider-Man - Kraven's Last Hunt   Spider-Man No More   X-Force

God of Mischief

The Marvel Loki Sale runs through Monday, 10/16.

You’d think a TV show was returning? Anyway, these days you have “post-TV” Loki and traditional Loki.

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).

If your jam is the traditional Loki as a villain, this isn’t the best sale for that, although it does have Loki’s original appearances in Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor Vol. 1: The Vengeance Of Loki.

Loki: Agent of Asgard   Journey Into Mystery   Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor Vol. 1: The Vengeance Of Loki

The End of the Alphabet

The Image Comics Discovery Sale part 4 runs through Sunday, 10/15.

This sale will conclude Image’s return to the Comixology deals page after roughly half a year with the first volumes of titles beginning with the letters S through Z. It ends on a Sunday, but this sale has always been ending on odd days, so that’s not a huge surprise. What are some interesting titles? Let’s hit some highlights in bullet form first:

That’s a pretty nice list, but let’s highlight the volumes with a complete story.

The first nod goes to Six Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton, which is a complete tale in one volume. When an incredibly obnoxious and abusive TV action star is murdered, his six emotionally damaged former sidekicks reluctantly team up to figure out who did the deed. A very, very funny and fairly dark book.

Starlight might be our favorite of Millar’s Image era. The high concept here is an aging Flash Gordon-type returned to Earth, didn’t quite get the hero’s welcome one might expect and is nearing retirement in suburbia, when a ship from the planet he saved some ~40 years prior arrives looking for help. This is a much less over the top Millar staying within the traditional lines of, and writing a love letter to, the classic “planetary romance” space opera and Goran Parlov is vastly under-rated.

twenty-seven has a second volume, but it’s a sequel. V.1 is the secret of why all those musicians have been dying at the age of 27. Spoilers: the deaths weren’t natural.

6 Sidekicks of Trigger Keaton   Star Light   27

But Is It 9mm or .45?

The Caliber Comics October Sale runs through Tuesday, 10/31.

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

Deadworld   The Realm    Jazz Age Chronicles

And plenty of Don Lomax war comics.

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

Ageless

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Fantastic Four; another Batman sale; World War Hulk; The Witcher

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s a nearly full run of Fantastic Four with discounts, plus another Batman sale, World War Hulk 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):

Four Play

Marvel’s Fantastic Four Legacy Sale runs through Tuesday, 9/26.

Take note that the end date is now Tuesday. (And let’s double check that on Tuesday, too.) Does this mean Marvel sales are now starting on Wednesday?  Wait and see. After the last few weeks, we haven’t a clue.

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

  • Fantastic Four ’61-’96 – The original run
  • 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 ’18-’22 – The Dan Slott run with a rotating cast of artists
  • (The current North/Coello run is too recent to be discounted, if you were wondering.)

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 4 volumes of Masterworks on sale (V. 21-24) or you can hop on to Fantastic Four Visionaires: John Byrne. You’d need to cut over to the Visionaries run at V. 5 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.

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus    Fantastic Four by John Byrne   Fantastic Four by Waid

Behind the War Door

The  Marvel World War Hulk sale runs through Tuesday, 9/26.

Again, note the Tuesday end date.

So, this was quite an enjoyable Hulk event from that magical run Greg Pak had. (This followed Planet Hulk.)

The main event is Hulk: World War Hulk by Pak and John Romita, Jr. Hulk is back and he’s a little mad about getting shot out into space (the run-up to Planet Hulk). Someone is likely to get hurt as Hulk looks for revenge.

It’s an Event. You’ve got a few tie-ins available and those are at your discretion if you’re feeling into them. If you wanted to pick one, we’re probably start with World War Hulk: Frontline. The “Frontline” books were a tradition in this Event-driven era and Paul Jenkins would always spin a tale of Ben Urich in the middle of the action as a reporter, sometimes tracking down a conspiracy, sometimes documenting the effects of the Event on common folk. Ramon Bachs joint Jenkins on artist for this one.

Finally, there’s the sequel: Hulk: World War Hulk II by Pak and Carlos Barberi. This time it’s the Amadeus Cho Hulk returning from Planet Hulk (2) and going on a rampage.

World War Hulk   World War Hulk: Frontline   World War Hulk II

Bat-Sale Returns

The DC Batman Universe Sale runs through Monday, 9/25.

This is basically a reshuffled version of last week’s Batman Day sale, but with the Batman Family characters added in (so you’ll find Batgirl, Nightwing and Robin in this version) and a few more of the artist-specific collections.

What we’re going to highlight here, since they can be a pain to locate in the listings, are the 90s/00s Event collections. The Batman family of titles was crossing over so much, you’d think they were the X-Men for a few years!

Batman: Knightfall   Batman Contagion   Batman: No Man's Land

Toss a Coin for Recasting…

The Dark Horse 2023 The Witcher Digital Sale runs through Monday, 10/9.

While it’s usually presented as a video game adaptation, since these pre-date the TV series, we usually think of The Witcher as a series of novels.  We’re reasonably sure Andrzej Sapkowski would agree with that assessment.

You can partake here in three formats:

  1. $0.99 single issues
  2. The “regular” collected editions
  3. The omnibuses

The first omnibus is pretty good deal. Looks like you might be a couple bucks better off with single issues over the “Library Edition” of V.2, though.  (If the second Omnibus were on sale… but it’s not even released quite yet.)

Witcher Omnibus

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Factor, The Hulk vs. The Thing, and Mickey Mouse

Recent additions to the Comixology (at Amazon) sales include – the many incarnations of X-Factor, the ongoing slugfest between The Hulk and The Thing and Disney’s Mickey Mouse across the years… and continents.

Since the dates the sales are getting announced have been shuffled, we’re playing this week a little differently and will be back Friday to talk about the new DC sale and what else pops up during the week.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

Mutations

The Marvel X-Factor Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 6/13.

This one can basically be defined as the actual “X-Factor” titles and various crossovers, Events and guest appearances.  Let’s focus on the X-Factor titles.

  • X-Factor ’86-’98 – The first run, and a long one in the days before constant relaunches. The two things highlighted by the collections are Louise & Walt Simonson run and Peter David’s first run with Joe Quesada and Larry Stroman.
  • X-Factor ’05-’13 – commonly referred to as the Peter David era, and yes, he’s written a ton of X-Factor. This is where Madrox the Multiple Man steps in with the detective agency motif.   (You can save a couple bucks on the early volumes with the X-Factor by Peter David: The Complete Collection omnibuses)
  • All-New X-Factor ’14-’15 – I’m sure you’ll be shocked to know X-Factor was relaunched in Marvel’s “All-New” era. Still Peter David.
  • X-Factor ’20-’21 – The House of X / Powers of X era run by Leah Williams and David Baldeon

And then all manner of X-Men family Event/Crossover collections.

Recommendations? It depends on what you’re looking for.  The first two Epic Collections of the original run are more of the traditional X-Men school (and since it’s reuniting the original team, it should be). When Peter David pops up later in that run, things get quirky in a hurry.  It’s not like David is exclusively a humorist, but there’s a lot more humor in his work. His second run is a completely different creature than the how X-Factor began.

X-Factor   X-Factor by Peter David

The Classic Marvel Punch-Up

The Marvel Hulk Vs. Thing Sale runs through Thursday, 6/9.

Oh, yes… this is a reoccurring confrontation that goes back to the EARLY days of Marvel: Ben Grimm facing off with the Hulk. More often than not, this would happen in the pages of Fantastic Four and the various writers would go back to it every so often.

What you’re looking at here depends on whether you’re more of a Hulk person or FF person. After all that first Hulk Epic Collection is duplicating content from the FF Epic Collection and we personally find FF to be the stronger feature at the time.  And actually, that’s probably what we’d recommend here if you were only picking one – Fantastic Four Epic Collection Book 2, which also gives you some early Doctor Doom, Namor and X-Men, in addition The Hulk.

Fantastic Four

House of Mouse

The Fantagraphics Disney Masters and Mickey Mouse Sale runs through Wednesday, 6/22.

This is really two sales under one umbrella:

First, it’s a sale on the Floyd Gottfredson Mickey Mouse comic strip. While perhaps not as heralded as Dick Tracy or Terry and the Pirates, Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse was an influential adventure strip and he stayed on it for decades.

Second, it’s a sale on the “Disney Master’s” line, which probably needs a word of explanation. It’s not clear that ALL of these titles are from the international markets, but certainly a number of them are Disney comics produced for the European markets (where Disney is very popular) and are making a US market debut.

Mickey Mouse   Mickey Mouse

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Far Sector, Gotham Central, Pulp, Stray Dogs

This week in Comixology (at Amazon) Sales, Marvel has most of their Iron Man titles on sale, plus alternate Fantastic Four lineups. DC has a memorial day say… though more of that seems to be on sale in the UK and Image has OGNs on sale with collected editions sneaking into the listing.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

Does Whatever An Iron Can…

The Marvel Iron Man Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 5/23.

This would be one of those sales where most of the hero’s run is on sale, so we’re going to follow our usual protocol and start out by breaking out the primary titles and volumes first (because Amazon can’t be bothered to present things in a civilized manor).

  • Tales of Suspense – Iron Man debuted here in what was a split book with Captain America for most of the run.
  • Iron Man ’68-’96 – The original solo run in the era before constant relaunch gimmicks

OK, sit tight. The ’98 -’04 run is collected in VERY odd ways and poorly cataloged for browsing.  The truly excellent Kurt Busiek run lasts from 1-25. We can’t find 20-25 reprinted?!?  You can catch 1-19 and the Mike Grell run (50-59) in cheap omnibus form here.  You can catch Joe Quesada’s scripting run (26-32) and the Avengers: Disassembled tie-in late in this run in single volumes here. (But get the omnibus for Busiek, not the singles.)

  • Iron Man ’04-07 – Best known for launching with the “Extremis” storyline
  • Invincible Iron Man ’08-’12 – The excellent Matt Fraction / Salvador Larroca run. Save some money with the omnibus collecting the first 3 volumes.
  • Iron Man ’12-’14 – The Kieron Gillen run with Greg Land as initial artist
  • Superior Iron Man ’14-’15 – The Tom Taylor / Yildiray Cinar run.
  • Invincible Iron Man ’15-’16 – Brian Bendis and David Marquez/Mike Deodato, Jr. start out with Tony Stark in the armor
  • International Iron Man ’16 – Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev (And yes, we’re in the thick of the relaunches now)
  • Infamous Iron Man  ’16-’17 – Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev have Doctor Doom step in as Iron Man
  • Invincible Iron Man ’16-’18 – Brian Bendis and Stefano Caselli with Riri Williams/Ironheart filling Tony Stark’s shoes (yes, parallel substitute Iron Man runs)
  • Tony Stark: Iron Man ’18-’19 – The Dan Slott era with Valerio Schiti as the principle artist in the rotation.
  • Iron Man ’20 – ? – The current Christopher Cantwell / Cafu run. (Also available as $0.99 single issues but the collected editions are the better buy by a lot.)

Before we get into what’s good, a tweak on the general advice: The Masterworks and Epic Collections are both good deals and *in general* we like the Epic Collections as a slightly better buy. In this case, keep an eye on the Epic pricing. The $6.99 Epics are much better buys than the $8.99/$9.99 Epics.  We can all agree inflation sucks?

So what’s good?  We haven’t read ALL the Iron Man out there, but we’ve read a lot of them.

In our opinion Iron Man starts hitting it’s stride when Archie Goodwin arrives toward the end of the Tales of Suspense run and then is pure gold through issue 28 of the ’68 Iron Man series. Artists for this run include Gene Colan and George Tuska.

The next “all-star” run is #116-157 of the original Iron Man, that’s the David Michelinie / John Romita, Jr. / Bob Layton run that’s most famous for the “Demon in a Bottle” alcoholism arc, but there’s more to the run than just that arc.  The Denny O’Neil / Luke McDonnell run that follows is solid, but Michelinie & Layton return for #215-250 with a few artists, including Mark Bright and Jackson Guice… with Layton even switching to penciller, instead of his usual inking post, for parts of it.  This second run is most famous for “Armor Wars” (originally known as Stark Wars).

When Heroes Return hits, Kurt Busiek and Sean Chen are pop in for the excellent 1998 run, of which only 1-19 are currently reprinted.

The ’08 – ’12 run by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca is particularly good. You know how modern Marvel titles can get sidetracked by Events. Fraction and Larroca lean into it and produce a lengthy and self-contained arc with Tony Stark on the run and attempting to overwrite his brain to keep everyone’s secrets out of the hands of Norman Osborn. Yes, an honest to goodness great Event tie-in arc. It’s a rare thing.

We’re not quite ready to put the current Christopher Cantwell/Cafu run up in the above pantheon quite yet, but we think it’s the best Iron Man in a while and it’s one of the more ambitious arcs with Tony chasing Korvac into outer space and meditating on the nature of godhood and good intentions.

Iron Man: The Man Who Killed Tony Stark  Iron Man: Heroes Reborn  Iron Man: Big Iron

The More Things Change

The Marvel New Fantastic Four Sale runs through Monday, 5/23.

This would be a very small sale built around alternate FF lineups.

For instance, the “New Fantastic Four” Epic Collection is built around a Walter Simonson/Arthur Adams sequence where Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk and Ghost Rider become the new Fantastic Four. We also like the Simonson arc featuring the FF’s showdown with the Time Variance Authority in the first half of this volume.

Or another “New Fantastic Four,” this time by Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier, where Black Panther and Storm tag in.

Fantastic Four   Fantastic Four

In Memoriam

The DC Memorial Day eBook Sale runs through Monday, 5/23.

There are a LOT of books to browse here and more is on sale that not on sale, so if you’ve got something from DC on your list, pop over and see if it’s on sale.

And there’s a catch. In a uniquely “Amazon trying to be Comixology” twist, there was originally a Part 2 to this sale. We are unable to locate the link for that from Thursday on.  We can find the link for the UK version of part 2… but it’s not clear to us that the books on sale in the UK part 2 are all on sale in the US. No idea what happened. Maybe the part 2 link will re-appear and maybe it won’t. It sure does seem like there’s a lot of drama around DC sales, doesn’t it?

Some recommendations?

Far Sector is one of DC’s best titles of the last couple years. N.K. Jemisin, who owns too many SF/F prose awards to reasonably keep track of, makes her comics debut with Jamal Igle excelling on the art duties. The setup – a rookie Green Lantern with an experimental new type of power ring is sent to world on the edge of the known universe where emotion was done away with generations ago in the aftermath of a horrific war. The first murder in 500 years has occurred and political alliance are about to upside down.  On top of everything else, superior world building. Highly recommended if you haven’t had a look yet.

Are you familiar with Gotham Central? Tales of the Gotham City Police Department trying to handle the sort of threats that Gotham produces. With a pre-Question Rene Montoya. Near-universally praised and an enviable creative rotation of Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano and Kano.  Excellent stuff from the fringes of the Batman Family for $5.99@.

And for something completely different, and perhaps not even in the sale (since we can’t see the back half of the alphabetical listings) there’s Kamandi, Jack Kirby’s post-apocalyptic spin on Planet of the Apes with the last boy on Earth having adventures on a world where the animals are intelligent, bipedal and not always friendly. We’ve been seeing Kamandi’s influences on a lot of comics in the last year (Geiger quickly comes to mind). The bulk of the Kirby run is available for $0.99 each. Yes, there are a few issues missing, but this is an extremely fun run… and was probably Kirby’s biggest newsstand success at DC.  And yes, DC really ought to get this back in print as a collected edition!

Far Sector   Gotham Central   Kamandi

OGN

The Image Original Graphic Novel Sale runs through Thursday, 6/2.

Now, you might flip through this sale and say “a lot of these are really collected editions.” And you’d be right. So let’s recommend a few things from Image’s flagship OGN creative team, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips.

We’re quite fond of Reckless, an OGN series by Brubaker and Phillips that calls back to the pulp paperback adventure novels of the 70s and early 80s. An off the books private detective/fixer who had a… falling out with his original government employers operates in 80s Los Angeles… a noir flavor of LA, to be precise.  Evil voices from the past, satanic sex cults, and real estate scams.  The first two are on sale and it’s a quality series.

And then there’s Pulp. Let’s face it, Brubaker and Phillips have a fair sized body of work and it’s quality work… but Pulp strikes us as one of the high points of their collaboration.  One part crime novel, one part meditation on aging, it’s got a little more gravitas than most. An aging pulp writer contemplates the youth he’s been trying to hide while stumbling into a combustible stew involving an obnoxious editor, a bank heist, nazi spies and a lot of gunplay. Highly recommended and this one has a more friendly $6.99 price point.

Now if you want a collected edition, not an OGN, you might be interested in Stray Dogs. We haven’t had a chance to read this yet, but it’s on our list and has stirred up quite a buzz. The tagline is “Lady and the Tramp meets Silence of the Lambs,” which is to say, cute cartoon dogs in a psychological thriller by Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner. It’s also on the Eisner Awards nomination list that recently dropped, so it’s definitely getting some notice.

  Pulp   Stray Gods

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Still On Sale

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Comixology Sales: Fantastic Four, Marvel Zombies, Star-Lord, Usagi Yojimbo, Derf and DC’s TV Sale

This week’s Comixology sales have a bit of variety. Marvel leads with Fantastic Four, Star-Lord and the Marvel Zombies. DC has a TV-themed selection. Dark Horse has “teen” titles on sale and the “Small Press” sales offers up some Kyle Baker, Ahoy and Kickstarter comics.

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

It’s Price Clobbering Time

The Marvel Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Sale runs through Sunday, 8/15.

That’s a lot of FF and it’s a really, really cluttered sale because of how many different FF reprint volumes there are, so here’s how we’re going to do it: Click here for the original series that started in 1961. Scroll down to the Collected Editions section so we can look at this in roughly chronological order.  The Masterworks are not on sale, but the Epic Collections are, so Epics are your best buy and they start on the second screen. We think Lee/Kirby hits it stride with the Epics “The Coming of Galactus” and “Thy Name Is Doom,” but you can’t go wrong with anything by that team. As you move forward the next really notable period is John Byrne’s, which hasn’t gotten Epic treatment yet, just the “Visionaries” line. Remember, he didn’t write V. 0 for that.  We’d end up with the Walt Simonson run, which is in a couple Epics or smaller Visionaries volumes.

Now click here for the ’98 relaunch.  In the Omnibus section is the Hickman material, and that’s probably the best way to read that run.  Scroll down to the “Collected Editions” section and after V.5, the Fantastic Four by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo volumes start. These are the omnibuses for that landmark run and the better pricing (good stuff). When you get past the Civil War volume, you come into 2 volumes of Dwayne McDuffie (Nuff said).

That’s a lot of FF and should keep you out of trouble.

Fantastic Four Epic Collection: The Name is Doom   FF by Waid and Ringo

A Solo Guardian

The Marvel Star-Lord Sale runs through Sunday, 8/15.

The bulk of the sale is the more recent incarnation, but we’d recommend going back to the original conception of Star-Lord in Star-Lord: Guardian of the Galaxy.  Al Ewing’s been revisiting some of this source material in the current GoG run. Peter Quill started out in the Marvel magazines of the ’70s before moving over to the normal comic line. You’ve got Steve Englehart, Chris Claremont and Doug Moench for writers and for artists, Carmine Infantino, John Byrne and Bill Sienkiewicz.  Not a bad set of talent.

Star-Lord

Marvel’s Walking Dead

The Marvel Zombies Sale runs through Thursday, 8/19.

Yes, when Robert Kirkman wrote for Marvel, he did a zombie comic. And it was a scream.  It’s technically a spin-off of Ultimate Fantastic Four, which was a more serious story than the very entertaining farce it involved into. We’d say to go with the Marvel Zombies Complete Collections. Vol. 1 gives the the Millar/Land Ultimate FF and Hudlin/Portela Black Panther lead-ins and the the original Marvel Zombies by Kirkman and Sean Phillips. (Yes, you might have vague feelings that Phillips is cheating on Ed Brubaker while reading this. It’s a natural reaction.)  Vol. 2 continues with the Marvel Zombie minis, Kirkman writes the first one before Fred Van Lente tags in and Seth Graeme-Green puts in an appearance. When Phillips leaves, Kev Walker tags in as the primary artist.  We’d say go for V.1 and V.2 initially. If you’re still wanting more, V. 3 is still there, but that might be a bit much for a single sitting.

Marvel Zombies

DC thinks about Television

The DC on TV sale runs through Monday, 8/16 and comes in 2 parts:  Part 1 is the collected editions and single issues through The Flash.  Part 2 finishes up The Flash through the end of the alphabet.

We’ll be straight with you: this isn’t a great sale for collected editions. Lots of lowball 45%-46% discounts. Lower than what you’re used to. $0.99 single issues are more what you’re used to and you’ll want to make sure it’s not cheaper to buy the single issues over collected editions.  Of possible note: we don’t always see the original Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane on sale.

Lois Lane

The Rabbit

The Dark Horse Teen Sale runs through Monday, 8/16.

There’s some manga, a tone of Avatar: The Last Airbender and some Stranger Things, but we think this is a great excuse to highlight Usagi Yojimbo, Stan Sakai’s long running saga of a ronin rabbit.  When we say long running, we mean since the early 80s.

Usagi Yojimbo

Indie Comics on Parade

The Small Press Graphic Novel Mega Sale runs through Thursday, 9/9.

As usual, we wouldn’t call all of it “small press,” but there’s a lot here that really runs the gamut.  A few things we noticed in there:

The Cowboy Wally Show by Kyle Baker is a legendary graphic novel and a real riot. Always highly recommended. We’ll call a satire of the entertainment biz and save the spoilers.

Billionaire Island by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh is one of the best things we’ve read recently. A _dark_ satire where Billionaires create a mobile island to escape things like taxes, global warming and… laws. A dot com billionaire has done something especially heinous and the pigeons are coming home to roost.  This one takes the satire further than we’re accustomed to seeing.  Also highly recommended.

Punk Rock & Trailer Parks is Derf Backderf’s initial foray into graphic novels after years of The City strip in alt weekly papers and before going on to do My Friend Dahmer and Kent State. It’s about the punk scene in ’79 Akron, OH.

Leaving Megalopolis by Gail Simone and Jim Calafiore is a tale of super heroes gone berserk and an popular Kickstarted comic.

Cthulhu is Hard to Spell is actually two anthologies about the slumbering one that don’t take themselves particularly seriously.

The Cowboy Wally Show   Billionaire Island  Punk Rock and Trailer Parks   Leaving Megalopolis   Cthulhu is Hard to Spell

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: Black Panther, Miles Morales, N.K. Jemisin, George Takei, Alan Moore and quite a bit more

In this week’s Comixology Sales, we start to look at the Black History Month sales, which includes some *choice* Black Panther material, Miles Morales, N.K Jemison and John Ridley at DC, plus George Takei, Alan More, Elektra, the Fantastic Four and the Black Hammer.

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

Wakanda Forever

The Marvel Black Panther Sale runs through Sunday (2/28).

T’Challa has been gifted with some excellent runs and superior creators over the years.  The earlier material was not as visible as the more recent adventures, so we’re going to highlight those.

The Black Panther Epic Collection: Panther’s Rage is the original Don McGregor run with art by Billy Graham, Rich Buckler and Gil Kane (among others) that really fleshes out the Black Panther cast.  This is where Killmonger first turns up, along with the original rogues gallery.  A classic.

Black Panther: Panther’s Quest is Don McGregor returning to Black Panther for a serial in Marvel Comics Presents. Gene Colan provides the art for this serial, which is a much more grounded take on the character as T’Challa sneaks into South Africa looking for his mother.

Black Panther by Christopher Priest: The Complete Collection is the Priest run (with a rotating cast of artists, particularly early on). Probably the wittiest Black Panther run, this one really runs the gamut from broad farce to thriller. It also builds firmly on the foundation from the original Panther’s Rage sequence.

Panther's Rage x Panther's Quest x Black Panther by Priest

…or you could call it a Spider-Man sale

Marvel’s Miles Morales Sale will run through Sunday (2/28).

These comics can be a little hard to keep track of because of how often Marvel’s felt compelled to give the series a new first issue.  It’s best to start with Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection. This omnibus sequence starts from the beginnings in the old Ultimate Universe, where introducing Miles seemed to re-energize Bendis and set him on the path for another long character run.

Miles Morales - Spider-Man

A couple BIG writing names from other fields

The DC Black History Month Sale runs through Monday (2/8).

We seem to recall enjoying American Way when it first came out as a collected edition several years ago.  It’s a well regarded superhero saga that came out from the Wildstorm long before author John Ridley won his Oscar for 12 Years a Slave.  Georges Jeanty and Karl Story provide the art. Interestingly, there’s no collected edition in digital, so you’ll need the single issues here.

Far Sector is a Green Lantern tale by multiple Hugo award winning author N.K. Jemisin and Jamal Campbell. A rookie Green Lantern on the far side of galaxy investigates a murder in a world where emotions have been suppressed.  This series hasn’t actually wrapped up yet, but you can get a chunk of it for $0.99 a pop.

Michael Cray  by Bryan Hill and N. Steven Harris might be an odd one to pick up solo, but it’s a good one. A companion piece to the Warren Ellis Wildstorm revival, Cray is an assassin for International Operations and is leaving the bodies of the Wildstorm universe’s funhouse mirror versions of the Justice League in his wake.

American Way   Far Sector   Michael Cray

Ninja Assassin

Marvel’s Elektra Sale runs though Sunday (2/7).  Elektra’s one of those characters that’s so strongly associated with her creator, we’re also going to recommend the early material as a starting point.

Elektra Assassin is probably the artistic high point. This Frank Miller/Bill Sienkiewicz series involves Elektra and a SHIELD agent named Garrett chasing and being chased by The Beast. It’s a very subversive take on Elektra and extremely influential.

You also can’t go wrong with Miller’s original run which is contained in 3 volumes of Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson.

Elektra Assassin   Daredevil by Frank Miller

Hammered

Dark Horse has the Black Hammer Sale running through Monday (2/8).  No, we don’t think this is a Black History Month sale. This is the much celebrated superhero tale by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston. It starts out with a group of heroes trapped for years in rural community and eventually builds out an entire universe around it. It’s probably best to start with the main series before branching out into the supporting mini-series.  It’s a comic that’s earned it’s way over the years.  Head up: the “regular” collections are slightly less expensive that the “library” editions.

Black Hammer

All kinds of FF on sale

Marvel’s Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Sale runs through Thursday (2/11).

This is a challenging one to provide links for.  There are tons of digital collections crammed into long running series and you’re probably better off going through the main sale link for individual items.  But what do we like?  The Epic Editions are nice and thick. You can get the whole Lee/Kirby run there, as well as later material.  The best volume is probably The Coming of Galactus or The Name is Doom… but we’ve nothing but good things to say about the Walt Simonson run.

Past that, Fantastic Four by Mark Waid & Mike Wieringo is awfully good.

The Coming of Galactus  Fantastic Four by Walt Simonson  FF by Waid and Ringo

The inverse of “well” comics

The (IDW) Top Shelf Sale runs through Monday (12/15).  Top Shelf being an imprint IDW pulled into its orbit a few years ago with a longer history of alternative and arts comics.

The Bojeffries Saga is one of the thinner volumes we’ll recommend, but it’s one we’ve always liked.  The easiest way to describe it is Alan Moore’s British Adams Family.  Yes, Alan Moore’s pretty darn funny when he has a mind to be. This is him and Steve Parkhouse telling tales of a monstrous family.

They Called Us Enemy is George Takei’s multiple award winning memoir of his childhood in a Japanese Internment Camp during World War II. It’s co-written with Steven Scott and Justin Eisinger with art by Harmony Becker.

The Bojeffries Saga   They Called Us Enemy

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