Tag: Flash

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Secret Invasion, Ultimate X-Men, Flash, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Lone Wolf and Cub

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel discounts Secret Invasion, Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four. DC has a second Flash sale and Dark Horse slashes prices on Lone Wolf & Cub.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

The Flash Sequel

The DC Flash Multiverse Sale runs through Monday, 7/3.

Yes, it’s a sequel… to last week’s Flash sale. (And a lot of the same comics are still on sale). Go back to the last column for a look at some of the Flash comics on sale and we’ll focus on Multiversal goodness here.  For example…

Multiversity by Grant Morrison, Ivan Reis, Frank Quitely and Jim Lee (among others) is just about as multiverse as a person can get. That would be Morrison creating new and fun worlds from whole cloth and conducting and interdimensional tour of sorts. Your basic triumph of imagination and fun. Plus, it’s a 450 page volume.

Justice League of America: The Nail – The Complete Collection by Alan Davis. A nail gives Ma and Pa Kent a flat tire and they don’t find Kal-El’s rocket. Thus, the Justice League forms in a world without Superman and it’s a less trusting world.  A masterwork from Davis. This collects The Nail and the sequel Another Nail.

And for something off the radar – Freedom Fighters: Rise of a Nation by Robert Venditti, Eddy Barrows and Bruno Redondo. This one pretty much shocked us when we read it. A modern, and darker, telling of the traditional Earth X setup. On world where the Germany won WWII and crushed the remaining resistance in a Dallas book depository in 1963, a team of Freedom Fighters reform in the image of the fallen and seek out Uncle Sam to lead them against their Nazi oppressors.  Much closer in tone to The Man in the High Castle than the original. And yes, its a spin-off from Multiversity.

Plenty more to look at in this sale, should you have some time to browse.

Multiversity   The Nail   Freedom Fighters

Is It Still a Secret?

The Marvel Secret Invasion Sale runs through Monday, 7/10.

Why yes, there’s a streaming series coming out. And yes, that’s a longer sale than usual.

This is about the Skrulls invading Earth, assuming identities, embedding themselves and trying to take over.

We’re honestly not sure why Marvel hasn’t come up with a series of omnibuses to better collect this Event. Secret Invasion was a very carefully coordinated series that crossed over into most of the line and was also partially told in flashback. You’d get a little further in plot and then some of the sundry titles would reveal what really happened that you didn’t yet know about. We’re not even sure how official the official reading order is. (Has Bendis ever posted one? He’d be the one to ask.)

The spine of the Event is the Secret Invasion miniseries by Brian Bendis and Leinil Francis Yu.

The next layer of Secret Invasion is the Bendis-penned Avengers titles where a lot of things get fleshed out and you discover how things got to where they did:

Now from there, you spread out closer to the characters you’re interested in. For something clear out of left field, we’d recommend the Secret Invasion: Captain Marvel collection by Brian Reed and Lee Weeks. The original Mar-Vell returns as the Invasion begins and he’s not quite sure how he got there.  It’s a bigger part of the over-all story than you might be expecting going in.

Secret Invasion   Secret Invasion: Captain Marvel

Ultimate Sale III – Now With More Mutants

The Marvel Ultimate X-Men and FF Sale runs through Monday, 6/26.

We told you this was coming, didn’t we?

Since The Maker is the instigator of the upcoming Jonathan Hickman / Bryan Hitch Ultimate Invasion, that makes the original Ultimate Fantastic Four a little more central to the Marvel experience doesn’t it? We’re talk two runs:

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.

Ultimate Fantastic Four

Over on the mutant side of the street, the spread looks like this:

The original Ultimate X-Men run has a very interesting writer rotation. Mark Millar begins and ends it. In between are runs by Bryan K. Vaughan (Saga / Y – The Last Man) and Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead). The artist rotation includes Adam Kubert, Andy Kubert, Chris Bachalo, David Finch, Brandon Peterson, Stuart Immonen, Tom Raney and Salvador Larocca… among others.

Ultimate Comics X-Men was written first by Nick Spencer and later Brian Wood. Artists included Paco Medina, Carlo Barberi, Mahmud Asrar and Alvaro Martinez.

Ultimate X-Men   Ultimate Comics X-Men   Ultimate Comics Wolverine

The Baby Cart Assassin

The Dark Horse Lone Wolf & Cub Sale runs through Monday, 7/3.

As we type this, the sale is currently one of those “Nega-Bands” sales. Amazon has assigned it to the same URL as the Avatar sale and if you reload a few times, it will alternate between the sales like Rick Jones and Mar-Vell switching places in the Negative Zone. Amazon, in their infinite smoothness, does this more often than you’d think.

Since this is a single title sale, we’re linking directly to the title page, which should hopefully prevent confusion.

Where were we? Right.

Lone Wolf & Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima is one of the most respected manga out there and likely the greatest samurai manga of all time. No hyperbole.

When the Shogun’s executioner is framed for treason and his household slaughtered, Itto Ogami flees with his one year old son and becomes an assassin for hire, biding his time as he plans revenge on the clan that tried to ruin him.

There’s a lot of revenge served cold in this series. It’s pretty bloody and not for kids, but very, very good. Also $2.99/volume, so cheap.

Lone Wolf and Cub

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The Flash (and Batman); Ultimate Spider-Man; Black Panther; and Avatar

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s a movie week – comics with The Flash, Black Panther (with a screen writer pedigree), Spider-Man and Avatar.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

The Flash (Featuring Batman)

DC’s Flash Sale runs through Monday, 6/19.

It’s like there’s a movie coming out!  And that means there’s a ton of Batman and Supergirl in the sale, too.

Let’s start with the two most obvious things here:

The Flash film is based on the Flash-centered crossover Event, Flashpoint. That Geoff Johns / Adam Kubert series has The Flash altering the timeline with very unexpected effects and leads into the New 52 relaunch. (Our acquaintance saw a preview of the film, liked it and thought it improved on the comic.)

And since Michael Keaton returns to the Batman role in the film, the obvious tie-in here is Batman ’89.  Sam Ham, the original 80s Batman screenwriter, joins artist Joe Quinones to tell the tale he had in mind for the third Keaton Batman film, had the franchise not had a creative shuffle. And that’s Bill Dee Williams as Two-Face. We enjoyed this one.

Flashpoint   Batman '89

There’s plenty of Batman on sale here at good prices (particularly the 80s material), but let’s have a look at the Flash material, since this is theoretically a Flash sale.

Perhaps the most interesting thing here is the ’87 – ’09, post-Crisis Wally West Flash. It starts out with a collection of the Mike Baron / Butch Guice / Mike Collins run (with William Messner-Loebs tagging in for Baron towards the end of the collection).

Then pop over to the omnibus page of that series for some of the better prices we’ve seen on The Flash by Mark Waid (with Greg Larocque, Mike Collins and Salvador Larocca, among others); the Grant Morrison / Mark Millar / Paul Ryan run; and The Flash by Geoff Johns (with Scott Kolins and Howard Porter, among others). Those are some classic runs and the Flash runs we prefer by Waid and Johns.

The current run of Flash is here, and it starts with a lengthy Josh Williamson run. (It’s a little cheaper to get these three double-volumes which are the equivalent of the first 6 at the first link.)

The Flash   The Flash   Flash

Ultimate Spider-Bendis

The Marvel Ultimate Spider-Man Sale runs through Monday, 6/12.

Is this a companion piece to the Spider-Verse sale? It might as well be, because Miles Morales is the centerpiece of that sale and the saga of the Ultimate Peter Parker runs right into the origin of Miles.  And yes, the two Ultimate Spider-Men could be looked at as one really long Brian Bendis tale.

This sale is easily broken into three parts:

Ultimate Spider-Man   Ultimate Comics Spider-Man   Ultimate Comics Spider-Man: Death of Spider-Man Fallout

Black Pantherama

The Marvel Black Panther Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 6/12.

It’s a Legacy sale, which means the whole catalog, so first lets break down the highlights

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

Honestly, most of the Panther pantheon is pretty good. If you haven’t read the original McGregor run, it’s truly the foundational work on the character and almost everyone calls back to it. (That’s also where Killmonger originates.)

The Priest run might be the most celebrated – and it is extremely good.

And while it’s lesser known (possibly because it’s new), we’ve been pretty happy with the Ridley run, in particular the second volume with its extra biting commentary on colonialism.

Black Panther Masterworks   Black Panther by Priest   Black Panther by John Ridley

Speaking of Movies…

The Dark Horse Avatar Sale runs through Monday, 6/26.

Yes, there are Avatar comics. And they’re displayed in a somewhat confusing way. (Yes, yes… we were shocked, too.)

This link is for the $0.99 single issues AND the three High Ground 88 page “graphic novels.”

The collected editions are here. 6 issues to a $5.99 collected edition, so there’s a 5-cent difference between the two formats, if you’re keeping count.

Avatar   Avatar

The Green Hood

The Zenescope Character Spotlight Sale runs through Saturday, 6/24.

And the character in question is Robyn Hood (the Grimm’s Fairy Tales version).

This is available in 3 formats:

And as we were looking at this, we saw a couple names we weren’t expecting to see.  The volumes “The Curse” and “Justice” are written by Chuck Dixon. “Outlaw” is written by Howard Mackie.

Robyn Hood x Robyn Hood x Robyn Hood

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

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Savings, Assemble!

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

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

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

The Jonathan Hickman era

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

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

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

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

The Jason Aaron era

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

What’s at the top of the list?

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

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

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

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

Avengers Forever   Avengers   Avengers Assemble

Spring Breaking and Entering

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

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

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

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

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

One-Star Squadron   The Human Target   Flash by Mark Waid

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

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

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

The War Between the… Sales Managers

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

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

So here’s our take on it:

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

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

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

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

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC has *a new* $1.99 Graphic Novel Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC offers up a new slate of $1.99/$2.99 collected editions. We could get used to this.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Isn’t this interesting? DC has another week of much better than usual discounts, so they get a solo post today and we’ll be back for the rest of the week at the usual time.

The question you might be asking yourself: “Will DC have even better discounts next week or did they wisely decide to unleash the good prices while everyone else was waiting for the week of the 20th?”

We won’t have an answer to that until next week, but we’re awfully curious.

The Hit Parade

The DC’s Greatest Hits Sale runs through Monday, 12/19.

There’s a little bit of everything here and a few items, like Far Sector and the George Perez Wonder Woman run, hanging on from previous recent sales.

First a piece of real good advice. This sale is monster to get to the end of. We lost track of how many times we had to click for more books. It you want to examine something, right click it and open it in a new window so you don’t lose your place and have to manually reload everything from the top!

So let’s break this into highlights by price points. Here’s what caught our eye in terms of story and pricing:

$2.99 “Deluxe” Editions

These are great values – they generally contain the equivalent or 2 “regular” collected editions (10-12 issue worth), so you’re paying an effective $1.50 per collected edition. That’s about as cheap as it gets with DC!

  • 100 Bullets – Brian Azzarello / Eduardo Risso
  • Batman: Shadow of the Bat – Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle/Tim Sale/Bret Blevins
  • DMZ – Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli
  • Fables – Bill Willingham / Mark Buckingham
  • The Flash by Geoff Johns – with Scott Kollins as the lead artist; scroll to the bottom of the page for this, but a couple Flash by Mark Waid volumes are also $2.99
  • JLA – Initially by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter
  • New Gods – Jack Kirby’s classic saga + the ’84 wrap-up from the reprints + The Hunger Dogs OGN

$1.99 Collected Editions

  • Batman (’16-current) – All but the end of the Tom King run, then $2.99
  • Detective Comics (’16-current) – The James Tynion IV & Peter J. Tomasi runs are mostly $1.99, and then $2.99
  • Ex-Machina – Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris; “Deluxe” double volumes – usually 10 issues worth – cheap!
  • Green Arrow (’88-’98) – Best known as the Mike Grell era with Ed Hannigan, Dan Jurgens and Rick Hoberg illustrating the Grell run
  • Green Lantern: Sector 2814 (’60-’86) – at the bottom of the page, the Len Wein/Dave Gibbons run into the Steve Englehard/Joe Staton run
  • Green Lantern (’05-’11) – The Geoff Johns run, a GL highlight
  • The Nice House on the Lake – James Tynion IV / Alvaro Martinez Bueno
  • Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil – by Jeff Smith
  • Superman: Emperor Joker – Joe Kelly/Jeph Loeb/Doug Mahnke/Ed McGuinness
  • Superman: Phantom Zone – Steve Gerber / Gene Colan / Rick Veitch
  • Superman: The Man of Steel  – The John Byrne era, also with Marv Wolfman, Jerry Ordway, Ron Frenz and some Roger Stern
  • Superman Vs. Mongul – Len Wein/Jim Starlin are behind the early DC Comics Presents appearances of Mongul, plus the classic Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons “For the Man Who Has Everything”
  • Y- The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra; this version is actually the “Deluxe” double volumes for $1.99, so extra cheap!

A little pricier at $4.99, but of potential interest this week, First Issue Special is what Tom King’s Danger Street is based on. This is sort of the ’70s version of Showcase. The only “hit” to come out of it was Mike Grell’s Warlord, which one was of DC’s best sellers into the early 80s. The Martin Pasko/Walt Simonson Doctor Fate issue is a classic. Kirby’s Manhunter and Atlas issues are also worth your time. A mixed bag, but an interesting mixed bag.

What’s the pick of the litter? When all the prices are this good, it really depends on your tastes.  If you emphasize page count vs. price, New Gods might just get the crown. ~420 pages of great comics whose influence is hard to overstate for a mere $2.99. For the uninitiated, this is Jack Kirby’s epic of superhero-esque gods on the planets of New Genesis and Apokolips. Orion is the lead hero, Darkseid is the big bad and Mister Miracle was actually a companion book, not the main title. This is where Darkseid comes from.

Ex-Machina is pre-Saga Brian K. Vaughan and post-Starman Tony Harris telling the tale of the mayor of NYC and his unsuccessful efforts to stay retired from superheroing. A more adult take on superheroes set against a backdrop of politics long before the Kingpin or Luke Cage was mayor. $1.99/volume for the double volumes? Yes, please.

For “traditional” DC capes hijinx, we’ll give the JLA run a slight nod over Flash. As JLA moves forward, the page counts get a little higher than Flash. Particularly the Waid/Hitch volume. The Flash also doesn’t wear a cape, so there’s that, too. And for bonus points, the first volume of JLA is $1.99. Cheap. Really, both of those are fine, iconic runs. Pun intended.

There’s a LOT to look at with this sale. 1300+ items, so if you like the DC cannon, it’s probably worthwhile to carve some time out to browse this before the weekend passes.

New Gods by Jack Kirby   Ex Machina   JLA

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Batman and The Joker, Black Panther, Venom, World War Hulk and Eight Billion Genies

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC cuts prices on Batman, The Joker and the 90s, Marvel discounts Black Panther, Venom and World War Hulk, and Image goes a little more recent with their sale.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Bat-Sale

DC’s Batman and The Joker Recent Hits Sale runs through Monday, 11/7

What does recent mean? On the Collected Edition side of things, it means Tom King’s Batman run through James Tynion, IV’s run  (you can save a little on King’s run with the Deluxe Editions, which are double volumes.), plus the Joker War Saga collection. If you prefer the single issues ($1.79 each), you can get most of the way through the Josh Williamson era.

Speaking of single issues, there two title a bit more current:

For this era, we have a soft spot for the Tom King / Mikel Janin War of Jokes and Riddles.

Batman   Joker War Saga   Batman: The War of Jokes and Riddles

Children of the 90s

The DC 90s Rewind Sale runs through Monday, 11/28.

Here’s a 90s book that had a bit of a following, but has perhaps faded from the fan consciousness a bit: Gotham By Gaslight. Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola but a Victorian era Batman on the trial of Jack the Ripper and then “Master of the Future,” the sequel, does a Jules Verne / Master of the World riff with Eduardo Barreto tagging in for Mignola.

While the prices bounce around a little, $2.99 volumes of the original run of Hellblazer are always a good deal.

The Flash by Mark Waid can certainly be characterized as a quintessential 90s DC run. The first 4 omnibus-sized volumes are $5.99. (Volume 2 being the one with the famous “Return of Barry Allen” storyline.) If your memory is hazy, Greg Larocque is the initial art on the run with Mike Wieringo starting in Volume 3.

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight   Hellblazer   Flash by Mark Waid

Wakanda Month

The Marvel Monthly Black Panther Sale runs through Monday, 11/28.

As much as we love the Don McGregor / Billy Graham, we’d say wait and see if there’s a better Masterworks sale as the holidays hit. Unless you’re burning to see the original run (and it’s good).

The first big Black Panther revival is the  Christopher Priest run. (Which cycled through a ton of artists.) Originally a Marvel Knights book, it’s actually an expansion on the old Jungle Action run with a few new characters added and it’s very, very good.

The next big run is the Reginald Hudlin era. (Again, lots of artists here, starting out with John Romita, Jr.) Time was, this run was probably best known for T’Challa marrying Storm, but now it’s probably better known for introducing Shuri into the mythos.

Then comes the Ta-Nehisi Coates era, which starts out with Brian Stelfreeze and Chris Sprouse on art. We would be remiss if we didn’t point out the first two volumes here are a cheap $2.99

Black Panther by Priest   Black Panther by Reginald Hudlin   Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates

This Means War

Marvel’s World War Hulk Sale runs through Monday, 11/7.

Yes, this is absolutely a highlight of the Hulk cannon (along with Planet Hulk that proceeded it). And what you need is the Greg Pak / John Romita, Jr. collection.

Take on the side series as interest dictates, they’re optional.

World War Hulk

You Were Expecting… Johnny Cash?

The Marvel Venom: King in Black Sale runs through Monday, 11/7.

The Event the sale is named after is sort of the finale to the Donny Cates/Ryan Stegman/Iban Coello run on the book. We like the middle portion where The Maker (aka Ultimate Universe Reed Richards) is scheming.

The current series is an Al Ewing/Ram V/Bryan Hitch collaboration which bounces between cosmic horror and more grounded incidents on Earth.

And for something more different than you might expect, we were surprised how enjoyable the old Rick Remender / Tony Moore / Tom Fowler run with Flash Thompson becoming the symbiote’s host.

Venom by Cates   Venom   Venom by Remender

No, Not That Kind of Hit

The Image Recent Hits Sale runs through Sunday, 11/20.

There are some collected editions here, but let’s have a look at some current buzz books that are still in single issues only:

Starhenge is Liam Sharp’s Arthurian space fantasy epic. Technically, this is the first act, but 4 of the 6 issues of it are here for $0.99 each. Sharp is really pushing the artistic envelope with this one and it looks more like a European album (with a little extra Sienkiewicz influence) than a run of the mill US comic. The art just feels big. (Amazon’s thumbnail previews don’t do it justice.)

Eight Billion Genies by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne (the team from the highly enjoyable Curse Words) really blew up at launch and we don’t think it was solely because speculators swooned over the media rights auction. In this one, every person on Earth gets their own genie. What could possibly go wrong? It might make one want to hide out in a bar…

Public Domain is Chip Zdarsky’s satire of the business side of comics. And he’s actually illustrating this one. We’ll even give you his description to set the tone properly: “a WILD ALTERNATE WORLD where comic book creators aren’t properly acknowledged or compensated for their creations!! Crazy, I know!!” No sarcasm in this comic… nope, none at all.

  Eight Billion Genies   Public Domain

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Comixology Sales: Spider-Man, Marvel Max / Punisher, She-Hulk, Silver Surfer, DC’s Joshua Williamson, Spawn and DH’s Matt Kindt

This week’s Comixology Sales includes a bunch of Marvel titles as they break out the Marvel Max line for a rare appearance, plus Sabretooth, She-Hulk and the world of Dan Slott. Speaking of creator spotlights, DC shines one on Joshua Williamson, Dark Horse on Matt Kindt and Spawn has always been a Todd McFarlane spotlight.

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

X-Villain

The Marvel Sabretooth sale runs through Sunday, 1/9. (Amazon link)

Victor Creed, the Wolverine villain who Marvel’s never quite turned into a leading man/anti-hero.

You can go back to the beginning in Iron Fist Masterworks V. 2. Yes, Sabretooth is a Chris Claremont/John Byrne creation and started out in Iron Fist’s sphere. (Later teaming with the Constrictor in Power Man and Iron Fist.)

If you think of Sabretooth as an X-Men villain, Mutant Massacre is likely a major touchpoint for you. That would be the Claremont/John Romita, Jr. era, plus crossovers.

If you think of him as a Wolverine villain… well, there’s plenty there, but we’ve also had a soft spot for the lower key Greg Rucka run. Sabretooth shows up at the end of that sequence when Darrick Robertson was on art duties.

Iron Fist   X-Men: Mutant Massacre   Wolverine by Greg Rucka

Spiders and Surfboards and Avengers, oh my

The Marvel Dan Slott Sale runs through Sunday, 1/9.

And yes, Slott has spent a fair amount of time at Marvel, so this sale covers some territory.

His most famous work has probably been Superior Spider-Man with art by Humberto Ramos and Ryan Stegman. This is the saga of when Doc Ock inhabited Peter Parker’s body. The two omnibus editions are the best deal here.

Slott’s most critically acclaimed work might be his Silver Surfer run with Mike Allred. Ah, mid-aught Marvel, OF COURSE there was a relaunch and despite the numbering, the collections are listed with series 1 and series 2. (Oh, Marvel…)

For something a little more off the beaten path, we always enjoyed Slott’s Mighty Avengers run, now conveniently collected in one volume. Back when Bendis was doing his New Avengers run, this was the only thing that felt like a traditional Avengers title for some time.

Superior Spider-Man   Silver Surfer   The Mighty Avengers by Dan Slott

Hulking Out

The Marvel She-Hulk Sale runs through Thursday, 1/13. (Amazon link)

You have a few different directions in the She-Hulk cannon. The ones that seem to get revisited the most are She-Hulk as broad farce, like the Sensational She-Hulk run of John Byrne and lawyer She-Hulk, such as the Charles Soule/Javier Pulido run.

Sensational She-Hulk   She-Hulk

Not For Kids

The  Marvel Max sale runs through Thursday, 1/20. (Amazon link)

Yes, this the Marvel imprint for ages 17+ that’s a little darker, more violent and not on sale quite as often.

The flagship here is probably Punisher. Particularly the first 4 “Complete Collection” volumes that pair Garth Ennis with Leandro Fernandez, Goran Parlov and Doug Braithwaite. This isn’t the comedy of “Welcome Back, Frank.” This is a quite serious and brutal sequence. It’s also a very good one… just not for kids.

Speaking of Welcome Back, Frank, it’s been moved over to Marvel Max. For those who haven’t heard of it, this is an Ennis/Steve Dillon/Jimmy Palmiotti Punisher series that takes a very idiosyncratic direction – Frank is still a very angry, death dealing man… but he’s thrust into the middle of an absurdist farce as he tries to bring down the Gnucci crime family. It’s utterly hilarious and something multiple directors have unsuccessfully tried to translate the screen. Influential and impossible to replicate.

There’s a lot more to the sale, but our off-the-radar pick is Dominic Fortune, Howard Chaykin’s pulp homage that also includes the character’s original appearances.

Punisher Max   Welcome Back Frank   Dominic Fortune

The Flash and Beyond

The DC Spotlight: Joshua Williamson Sale runs through Monday, 1/10. (Amazon link)

This is one of the smallest DC sales we’ve seen – only 20 items.  Williamson’s profile at DC has been raised in recent months and outside of $1.99 Robin single issues, that’s not really reflected in the sale.  What is here is the first six volumes of his popular Flash run where Carmine Di Giandomenico is the headlining artist.

Now, if you want to fly under the radar, there are a couple Vertigo volumes here pairing Williamson with artists we tend to associate with Image… and if you’re a .cheap regular, you know we mention his Image work fairly often.

Frostbite with art by Jason Shawn Alexander concerns a post-apocalyptical wasteland of a future where a plague is freezing people from the inside out.

Deathbed with Riley Rossmo finds a reporter sent to investigate the deathbed confessions of a 90-year old man who was once a famous adventure and who resurfaced after a 20-year disappearance. Could something unnatural be behind all this?  Surely not.

Flash   Frostbite   Deathbed

Capes and Chains

The Image Spawn Sale runs through Thursday 1/20. (Amazon link)

Did you know Spawn has more issues out than Cerebus?  It’s true!

Your best buy here is Spawn Compendium Vol. 1. That’s the first 50 issues and that comes out to roughly $0.48/issue. That’s the original run with Todd McFarlane doing full art, guest writers Alan Moore, Dave Sim, Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison. Early Greg Capullo art and some Tony Daniels , too.

The off-beat book here is Sam and Twitch, where a young Brian Bendis teams with Angel Medina, Alberto Ponticelli, Clayton Crain and Alex Maleev for some quirky horror detective stories about Spawn’s police acquaintances. It’s not always remembered, but it certainly helped launch some careers.

Spawn Compendium   Sam and Twitch

Underwater Minds

The Dark Horse Matt Kindt sale runs through Monday, 1/10.

Kindt’s most celebrated work at Dark Horse is definitely Mind MGMT.  It’s a bit of a genre mashup about conspiracies and psychic espionage. Kindt writes AND draws it.  One man gang, as it were.  The omnibus editions are the best deal here.

If you’re looking for something similar to Mind MGMT, we’d point you towards Dept. H, wherein an investigator is sent to an underwater base to investigate sabotage and there are much stranger things going on than meets the eye.

Mind MGMT   Dept. H

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Comixology Sales: DC’s “Fandome” Sale Brings Back the GOOD Discounts For a Week

DC breaks out the grown-up discounts to Comixology this week, so it’s a special Tuesday edition!

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

Real Discounts Return to DC

The DC Fandome Sale comes in two parts: Part 1  and Part  2 . Strangely, these listings aren’t really alphabetical, so just dive in. Lots of 69% – 75% off prices here.  Higher if you have a Comixology Unlimited membership.

Yes, the usual suspects are in the sale. After all, there are something like 2500 items… but let’s take a stroll for the garden looking for some forgotten items and better values, shall we?

Do you like the Wally West Flash of the 80s and 90s? Have a look at the series page for that run of The Flash.  Specifically, look at the omnibus section. The Mark Waid volumes are good buys and the Geoff John volumes are ~300 pages each for $3.99.  Two excellent runs for the taking.

Before Southern Bastards and before Thor, Jason Aaron wrote Scalped, with art by R.M. Guéra. It’s a neo-noir about an FBI agent reluctantly returning to the reservation of this youth to investigate organized crime at the casino there. Hit up those omnibus editions at 75% off.

The Flash   Scalped

The Alan Moore / Stephen Bissette / John Totleben / Stan Woch / Rick Veitch Saga of the Swamp Thing run at $3.99 per volume?  That’s a can’t lose proposition.

A couple years back, Robert Venditti and Eddy Barrows had a 12-part Freedom Fighters serial that was SOLID and did not get enough love. It’s the Man in the High Castle premise of their Silver Age revival – the Nazi’s won the war, but Uncle Sam and company are leading the resistance… with a slight complication springing from a Kryptonian escape rocket the Nazi’s found back in the ’30s. At $3.99, that’s 12 issues for the price of one.

Swamp Thing   Freedom Fighters

You’ve heard of The Great Darkness Saga, where Darkseid appears in the future the vex The Legion of Super-Heroes? It’s an absolute classic tale by Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen. This particular volume also has some lead-in stories with Pat Broderick on the art. $3.99 for 414 pages makes this one of the best values on the site!

Legion of Super Heroes The Great Darkness Saga

Lots and lots of material here, so we encourage you to browse on your own. DC has not been having discounts like this very often, so while we hope they keep it up, it’s more likely it’ll be back to 50% off next week.

Still On Sale

 

 

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Comixology Sales – DC Resumes “Real Discounts” (73-77% off across the board)… of course we have suggestions

It’s a Labor Day Miracle! After months of mostly subpar discounts, DC’s got very large selection their graphic novels at 73%-77% off. (Mostly 77%.)  Let’s have a look at what’s on sale, shall we?

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

The DC Labor Day Sale runs through Monday, 9/6 and is in two parts – Part 1 (100 – Bullets to John Constantine, Hellblazer) and Part 2 (John Constantine, Hellblazer to Zero Hour).

We were wondering if we were going to see these kind of discounts again before Black Friday, so it’s a Labor Day surprise and it gets it’s own post.  77% off beats a BOGO, so let’s take a little closer look at the catalog.

100 Bullets by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso.  The classic crime/revenge series about untraceable guns and ammos that eventually turns into a conspiracy thriller.  Take the link, scroll down to the Omnibuses section and you can get the whole thing in 5 volumes for $3.99 a pop. An exceptional value.

100 Bullets

You say you like James Tynion IV’s Batman?  Were you around for his Detective Comics run? Tynion writes V. 1-7.  $2.99/volume.  Similar deals for the Snyder and King Batman runs, too.

Detective Comics by Tynion

Remember when Bendis showed up at DC and you wanted him to write Batman?  Well he did write Batman… for the Walmart editions. The Direct Market version never really took off, but you know what?  Batman: Universe with Nick Derington on the art was a ton of fun and we’d be up for more. Again, a lousy $2.99.

Batman Universe

The DC Universe by Len Wein is a retrospective that might have flown under your radar.  Yes, Wein did more than just create Swamp Thing and Wolverine.  (Although that would be enough for most people.) Of particular note is a section of his *excellent* Phantom Stranger run with Jim Aparo that has never gotten the appropriate respect.  The original Mongul story arc from DC Comics Presents with Jim Starlin is in there, as is the more often reprinted JLA/JSA team-up that reintroduced the Seven Soldiers of Victory.

DC Universe by Len Wein

If you like the Flash, check out the  Ominbuses section of the ’87-09 series.  Here you will find The Flash by Mark Waid, which was then followed by The Flash by Geoff Johns.  Two great runs at good discounts.

The Flash

The 90s JLA series is most famous for the Grant Morrison / Howard Porter run.  While that was a classic run, there’s more that followed… including a Mark Waid/Bryan Hitch run, Chris Claremont and John Byrne reuniting and Kurt Busiek/Ron Garney.

JLA

We’ll be back at our regularly scheduled time at the end of the week to look at the back half of the sale and the rest of the week’s deals, but we thought we’d give you a head start on your browsing to celebrate DC offering decent discounts this week.

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