Tag: James Tynion IV

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Another 8 Marvel Sales, Plus Resident Alien and James Tynion IV

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, there are another 8 Marvel sales (besides the holiday sale). Plus, Resident Alien and Mr. Tynion.

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 back on the usual schedule after needing three installments to process that fairly odd “Marvel Holiday Sale” that expires on Monday. Here are the links for that:

That Would Be Suuuuuuuper

Captain America  The Winter Soldier: The Bitter March  Black Widow

The Marvel Super Soldier Sale runs through Monday, 12/29.

Kind of a liberal definition of “super soldier,” relative to Cap, but who are we to question a discount?

It also seems to be mostly avoiding Epic Collections and Masterworks for the original Captain America run.

Captain America highlights

  • Selections from the original run that are discounted:
  • Captain America ’98-’02 – The second Mark Waid / Ron Garney run with some Andy Kubert and Lee Weeks art, too. Smaller volumes here, plus the underrated Dan Jurgens run that followed.
  • Captain America ’04-’11 – The main Winter Soldier/Death of Captain America Ed Brubaker run with Steve Epting, Michael Lark, Mike Perkins and Butch Guice in the artistic rotation. Note: you can pick up chunks of it cheaper in these omnibuses (and the third one includes Reborn… but, of course, is not discounted)
  • Captain America: Reborn – The actual end to the “Death of Captain America” sequence by Ed Brubaker, Bryan Hitch and Butch Guice
  • Captain America ’11-’12 – Brubaker sticks around for a relaunch, post-Death/Reborn
  • Captain America ‘18-’21 – The Ta-Nehisi Coates run with art by Leinil Francis Yu, Adam Kubert, Jason Masters and Leonard Kirk. Save a couple bucks with the 2 omnibuses.
  • Captain America ’23-’25 – J. Michael Straczynski / Jesus Saiz

What’s good here? Since the Englehart material isn’t discounted, Stern/Byrne, Gruenwald, the Waid runs and the Brubaker years are the highlights.

The Winter Soldier

For solo series, the first choice is Winter Soldier by Ed Brubaker, which is Brubaker and Butch Guice in a spin-off.

Also of possible interest:

Black Widow

Let’s walk through the highlights.

There are two Black Widow Epic Collections that collect what were largely guest or co-starring spots (with a couple notable exceptions) through the early 80s.

Black Widow: Marvel Team-Up takes place mostly between those two Epic Collections, strangely enough. It’s primarily Spidey team-ups, including a 4-part Spidey / Black Widow / Nick Fury / Master of Kung Fu serial by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema.

Marvel Knights Black Widow by Grayson & Rucka: The Complete Collection – the end of the 90s saw Yelana enter the Widow’s world. It’s a trilogy of mini-series from Devin Grayson / Greg Rucka / J.G Jones / Scott Hampton / Igor Kordey,

Flash forward to 2004 and the highlight of a series of miniseries was a pair written by Richard K. Morgan with an art rotation of Bill Sienkiewicz, Sean Phillips and Goran Parlov. Conveniently collected in a single volume. (We hold this sequence in high regard.)

A decade later, the team of Mark Waid & Chris Samnee (a known quantity) did their own Black Widow run. Predictably, another highlight. (Also conveniently collected in a single volume.)

Shortly after that, the Eisner winning Black Widow run of Kelly Thompson and Elena Casagrande kicked off. Yes, we enjoyed this run, too… and were kind of thinking there might be a follow up, but we haven’t seen one yet. One of these days?

West Side Story

Avengers West Coast  Avengers West Coast  Vision and the Scarlet Witch

The Marvel West Coast Avengers Sale runs through Monday, 12/29.

Let’s start with the main one:

We’re partial to the original Englehart / Milgrim West Cost Avengers. There’s a case to be made for the Byrne run, but that one is a lightning rod for strong opinions. Roy & Dann Thomas follow and that run includes a big Ultron story.

The rest of the sale is a mix of the following:

Which is to say: two revivals, some Roger Stern era Avengers that ties in, Denny O’Neil’s excellent final Iron Man arc and the Vision & The Scarlet Witch series that co-launched with West Coast Avengers.

A Mister of Ill Portent

Sins of Sinister  Uncanny X-Men  Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 16

The Marvel Mister Sinister Sale runs through Monday, 12/29.

A villain sale.

  • X-Men: Cyclops & Phoenix – Past & Future – Scott Lobdell / Peter Milligan / Tom DeFalco / Gene Ha / John Paul Leon / Kyle Hotz; Contains the tale of Sinister’s origin
  • Uncanny X-Men Masterworks Vol. 16 – Chris Claremont /  Louise Simonson / Marc Silvestri / Walt Simonson / Arthur Adams / Rick Leonard; This volume has Sinister stepping out of the shadows for the Inferno event.
  • Uncanny X-Men by Kieron Gillen: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 – Kieron Gillen / Carlos Pacheco / Terry Dodson; Gillen starts doubling down on Sinister and his clones
  • Hellions by Zeb Wells – Zeb Wells / Stephen Segovia; A dark and sometimes hilarious piece of the Krakoa age where Sinister forms his own team of mutants
  • Sins Of Sinister – Kieron Gillen / Al Ewing / Simon Spurrier / Lucas Werneck / Paco Medina / Patch Zircher / Alessandro Vitti; Sinister’s scheme goes awry and he’s caught in an out of (his) control timeline in this superior X-Event

Plenty of mutant books to browse in the link.

We Skipped the TV Version

Inhumans.  Black Bolt   The Origin of the Inhumans

The  Marvel Inhumans Sale runs through Monday, 12/29.

Yeah, sign us up for the “The Inhumans shouldn’t replace the X-Men” party. And yes, Ms. Marvel should have been a mutant the entire time. Notarize it.

With Inhumans comics there is one volume that stands far above the rest: Inhumans by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee, which was part of the old Marvel Knights imprint when it came out as a 12 issue maxi-series. That’s your gold standard.

For the #2 spot, perhaps the Black Bolt series by Saladin Ahmend and Christian Ward. It’s quite good and the first six issues? Extra special.

There’s nothing wrong with going back to the beginning. Inhumans: The Origin of the Inhumans is a collection of the early Stan Lee & Jack Kirby appearances from Fantastic Four and Thor. It’s also a thick 425 pages.

For something under the radar? Inhumans: Once and Future Kings by Priest and Phil Noto. Inhuman politics from the younger days of Black Bolt and Maximus… plus, Lockjaw comics.

There’s plenty more to browse, but outside of the above, we’ve tended to prefer the Inhumans with the FF.

That Was Cold

Iceman  Iceman  Iceman

The Marvel Iceman Sale runs through Monday,  12/29.

There actually have been some Iceman solo books:

Plenty of assorted X-Men volumes to check out on the sale page.

Fist of Fun

Iron Fist  Power Man and Iron Fist  Immortal Iron Fist

The Marvel Iron Fist Sale runs through Monday, 12/29.

Iron Fist originally had a short-ish run (by the standards of the day) and you can get the entire solo series (Marvel Premiere and Iron Fist) in an Epic Collection. The run is most associated with the team it finished with: an early pairing of Chris Claremont and John Byrne. You may have heard of them. Claremont/Byrne is reliable and you know what you’re getting for the back half of that.

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

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

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

Making Out

Ultimate Invasion  The UltimatesVenom

The  Marvel The Maker Sale runs through Monday, 12/29.

This would be the former Reed Richards of the original Ultimate universe, gone bad and adopting the identity of “The Maker.” The Maker Faire will never be the same. (IFYKYK)

The current arc starts with Ultimate Invasion by Jonathan Hickman & Bryan Hitch.

It then spills into the current Ultimate Universe:

Of slightly older vintage, but possible interest:

Hi, Dad

Star Wars: The Rise Of Kylo Ren  Star Wars: Legacy Of Vader - The Reign of Kylo

The Marvel Kylo Ren Sale runs through Monday, 12/29.

Unannounced Sales

Resident Alien  Let This One Be a Devil  American Born Chinese

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

Dark Horse seems to be having a sale on their James Tynion IV titles:

Resident Alien is a comic by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhose about a stranded alien posing as a doctor and solving murders. It got a little more famous when a TV adaptation hit and a lot more famous when the TV show moved over to Netflix. (And will now be moving over to the USA cable network.) We read the first omnibus a few months back and if your point of reference is the TV show, the comic is a little more mystery-oriented. It’s available in

Also on sale:

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

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Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: Old Man Logan; Ms. Marvel; V For Vendetta; Early Bendis and a LOT of Image Comics

Highlight of this week’s Comixology Sales include Marvel dropping prices on Old Man Logan and Ms. Marvel, DC having an “essential” sale (why yes, that includes Batman) and a ton of Image gets the discount treatment.

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

Ageism For Mutants?!?

The Old Man Logan Sale runs through Sunday, 7/25. If Jennifer Walters finds out they’re calling Logan that at the office, there might be a discrimination suit!

You’re mostly looking at two flavors here: The original post-apocalyptic Mark Millar / Steve McNiven Old Man Logan. While we’d probably call this a variation on Days of Future Past, in terms of the superheroes in a bleak future, this one really was a trend setter and has inspired a lot of imitators. “Old Man” is not an uncommon way to start a title at Marvel these days.

Then you’ve got the ongoing Old Man Logan series, initially by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino. This one brings the older Logan back in time to the present and, frankly, was better than most people were expecting at the time.

Wolerine: Old Man Logan   Wolverine: Old Man Logan

You Look Mahvellous

The Ms. Marvel Sale runs through Thursday, 7/29.

This would be the Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel, as opposed to Carol Danvers, and we’re firm in thinking you need to start with the original G. Willow Wilson / Adrian Alphona series that caused quite a stir (especially on the Scholastic circuit).

Ms. Marvel

Essential Oils Minus the Oil

The DC Essentials Sales runs through Monday, 7/26.

For something relatively current, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed DCeased, the Tom Taylor / Trevor Hairsine / Stefano Gaudiano vehicle where the Anti-Life Equation gets lose and creates a zombie doomsday scenario. What can we say, as he often does, Taylor takes a pitch that sounds like “Marvel Zombies for DC” and creates something new with depth. (Mind you, Marvel Zombies was also a lot of fun for a few installments.)

Going back a bit further, Multiversity is one of Grant Morrison’s best vehicles for sheer world building fun. This one hops dimensions as we follow a conspiracy across the multiverse. And, being that rare self-contained event, Morrison’s got a murderer’s row of artists for the story, including Frank Quitely, Jim Lee, Chris Sprouse and Doug Mahnke.

And if you want to go back to the 80s, Alan Moore and David Lloyd did a project called V for Vendetta that started as a serial in Warrior magazine and finished up at DC. A very political tale of resistance to tyranny, it’s proven influential and was an early hit that crossed over to the mainstream.

DCeased   Multiversity   V for Vendetta

Image HumbleBrag Sale

The Image Eisner Sale runs though Monday, 8/2.

There’s some pretty strong and recent content here, so we’ll just highlight three things we particularly liked.

The Department of Truth by James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds is the real deal. It’s an X-Files-esque tale of conspiracies theories become real and the power of belief. Tynion’s definitely having a moment right now. Simmonds’s art style is a good fit for the material, too.

The team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have also been having a particularly strong run that’s represented here by two original graphic novels. We’d probably put Pulp slightly ahead, that would be the meditative tale of pulp writer in 1930s reliving his wild younger days with a hail of bullets.  That said, Reckless, the opener for a series about an ex-FBI undercover man turned underground fixer, is pretty darn good, too.

Department of Truth   Pulp  Reckless

Image Throws in the Kitchen Sink

The Image Mega Sale runs through Monday, 8/2. It might not be the entire Image library, but it’s close enough. Plenty to browse, but let’s highlight a few things that might not pop to the top of your mind.

Once upon a time, Bendis was not a big name creator. Yes, that really was quite a while ago, but back when he was an emerging writing, Todd McFarlane tapped him to write the Spawn spin-off Sam and Twitch.  Yes, the oddball detectives investigating dark things. Who was drawing it?  Names you’ll recognize: Angel Medina, Ashley Wood, Alex Maleev.  Yes, Bendis and Maleev go WAY back.

Lewis & Clark – Monster Hunters.  That’s the elevator pitch for Manifest Destiny by Chris Dingess, Matthew Roberts and Tony Akins. Lewis & Clark are sent to map out the Northwest Territory, but also to investigate unsettling supernatural questions and clear out the territory of monsters. It starts out light and fun before descending into madness. Usually under the radar, always enjoyable.

The Black Monday Murders by Jonathan Hickman and Tom Coker is a tale of an occult cartel controlling the world’s financial system and the power struggle an apparent murder sets off in it. One of our favorite things from Hickman and Coker knocks it out of the park with some downright haunting art.  Coker occasionally posts pages from his work on the third act, so we’re hoping it’s not too far away from being scheduled.

   Sam and Twitch   Manifest Destiny   The Black Monday Murders

Still on Sale

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Comixology Sales: Hulk, Secret Invasion, Spotlight on James Tynion IV, Image Graphic Novels

Highlights of this week’s Comixology Sales include Hulk smashing prices, Secret Invasion, a James Tynion IV spotlight and Image’s OGN line.

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

Hulk Smash Prices

The Marvel Hulk: Incredible Legacy Sale runs through Sunday, 6/20.

Here are the Tower of Cheap, we’re huge fans of the Al Ewing / (mostly) Joe Bennett Immortal Hulk run. It’s a horror-flavored Hulk that takes the multiple personality disorder version of the character to new depths and it really works.  The first 8 collected editions are on sale for $2.99. Highly recommended.

There’s a lot on sale for the original Incredible Hulk series (Comixology lumps the real original series with the second series). Pick your poison between Masterworks editions or Epic Collections (Epic is a better value, but those jump around a little).  If you’re interested in the Peter David run, this is how it works right now.  There’s an Epic Collection that collects the Byrne run and the Al Milgrom run that leads up to PAD’s run. There are 8 volumes of the Peter David “Visionaries” series and then it switches over to Epic Collections for #397 on.  No overlap, they just haven’t converted the Visionaries to Epic Collections yet. (One presumes this will eventually happen, but it is what it is.)  The 3 volumes of Bill Mantlo Hulk are in between Masterworks and Epic, in terms of page count.

Plenty to browse for this one.

Immortal Hulk   Hulk

Not So Secret Now…

The Marvel Secret Invasion Sale runs through Thursday, 6/24.

Secret Invasion is a challenging story to read in collected editions. Parts of it are told in  flashbacks. It jumps from title to title. Marvel hasn’t always been consistent about a recommended reading order, either.  The Secret Invasion mini-series is the spine. If you want the full story, pretty much anything with Avengers in the title, especially written by Bendis, will be key. The Captain Marvel collection is also relevant in ways that are not immediate apparent.

Secret Invasion

And By “Something,” We Mean Monsters…

The BOOM! Creator Spotlight: James Tynion IV sale runs through Thursday, 7/1.

Yes, Tynion seems to be having himself a moment. His BOOM! backlist is on sale here. We can happily recommend Something Is Killing the Children by Tynion and Werther Dell’Edera, an urban fantasy monster hunter tale. It’s getting to be a bit of a bandwagon with the speculators jumping on the print issues, but everyone once in a while, the bandwagon is for a good title.

Something is Killing the Children

So Much For Serialization

The Image Original Graphic Novel Sale runs through Thursday, 7/1.

Yes, Image has been doing more OGNs in recent years and this is well worth a browse. Highlights?  Not a problem.

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are a pretty darn reliable pairing, but Pulp is a high water mark for them. A writer of pulp westerns in ’30s NYC finds himself with declining prospects, a nest of Nazi spies and the ghosts of the past. Oh, it’s a crime thriller, but it’s a very philosophical one where the meditations only serve to enhance the mayhem.

Dracula, Motherf**ker! by Alex de Campi and Erica Henderson is an absolute delight. It’s a 70s exploitation style take on the Dracula mythos. It’s 1974 Los Angeles and Dracula’s brides are out for revenge, following the tropes of that sort of film. Henderson shows us a KILLER new side and it’s a true showcase for her. We just wish there was more of it, the pace accelerates a quick read.  A really fun book for horror fans who crossover with 70s cinema and/or Tarantino.

And for something clear out of left field, Last of the Independents has returned. This Matt Fraction/Kieron Dwyer crime story actually predates Criminal and we were pleasantly surprised that it returned to print (or digital in this case). Keeping in the theme here, this is also a love letter to 70s cinema, but more crime flicks than the exploitation/revenge genres. A bank heist goes terribly wrong and our antiheroes find that someone’s come looking for them. It’s all in the execution.

Pulp   Dracula, Motherf**cker!   Last of the Independents

Another Generic DC Sale

You know how DC keeps running the same sale with the same copious sub-50% discounts?  It’s back. This time they’re calling it the “DC June Start of Summer Sale.” It runs through Monday, 6/28 in Part 1 and Part 2.

There are much better discounts to be found in  DC’s Pride Sale.

Still on Sale

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