Tag: Marvel

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Captain America; Storm; Superman; 007; Critical Role; EC

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel celebrates the holiday with Captain America. Storm also gets a discount. Superman returns. Plus Dark Tower, James Bond, Critical Role and the EC Archives.

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):

Super Soldier Sale

Captain America: Secret Empire  Captain America Heroes Return  Captain America

The Marvel Captain America Sale runs through Monday, 7/14.

Seems like an appropriate call for the holiday.

First, a couple unusual things you might notice while browsing the sale.

  1. There is a single Masterworks Edition on sale. Stranger, it’s a pre-order. Hey, gift horse rules apply to this: Captain America Vol. 17 Masterworks – J.M. DeMatteis / Mike Zeck; It includes a notable Deathlok adventure and also the Christopher Priest / Mark Bright Falcon limited series.
  2. Captain America Epic Collection: The Swine – Jack Kirby is also a discounted pre-order, though it should be available by the time you see this newsletter. This wraps up Kirby’s 70s run.

There’s a lot of material to cover here, so we’ll go with the usual format and start by breaking out the major series involved:

So… do you think Captain America gets relaunched enough? The current JMS relaunch isn’t even in the sale… and it takes things on more of an urban fantasy spin than you’re likely expecting, too.

Some recommendations? Absolutely.  And no Masterworks on sale this time. (Masterworks seem to be on sale less often in ’24 for whatever reason.)

For Silver/Bronze Age adventures,  “Captain America Lives Again“ catches the bulk of the early Lee/Kirby run. Jump ahead to “Hero or Hoax,” which you’re getting for the final arc, which begins the superlative Steve Englehart/Sal Buscema era. “The Secret Empire” is the bulk of the Englehart/Buscema run. “The Man Who Sold The United States” wraps up Englehart/Buscema and includes Madbomb, the beginning of Jack Kirby’s return run that is way more timely than it should be in the age of social media outrage.

Jump ahead to “By Dawn’s Early Light,” which you’re looking at for the all too brief Roger Stern / John Byrne run.  The highlight of the J.M. DeMatties / Mike Zeck run is their wrap up with the Red Skull in “Sturm und Drang.”

“The Captain“ is the sequence from the Mark Gruenwald run where Steve Rogers loses the shield and his Captain America identity for a time. That’s the famous one. You might consider backing up a volume for “Justice is Served,” which introduces the Super-Patriot and leads into the more famous sequence a bit.

Once you get past around the middle of the Gruenwald run, your best of the best is anything written by Mark Waid or Ed Brubaker, and know that Brubaker’s first run is basically one long and epic story – and be sure to get Reborn or you’re missing a piece.

Hurricane Ororo

Black Panther: The Bride  Uncanny X-Men  Uncanny X-Men

The Marvel Storm Sale runs through Monday 7/7.

This is _mostly_ flavors of X-Men with a bit of solo material, but let’s point out the unusual feature. After all these months of Masterworks disappearing, this sale has Uncanny X-Men Masterworks on sale through V. 12 (scroll down past the original series to find the new team and the sale prices.)

A Smattering of… Superman?

Superman: The Golden Age  Superman: Up in the Sky  Superman Smashes The Klan

The DC Summer of Superman 2025 Sale runs through Tuesday 7/22.

Are DC sales back? Let’s wait three weeks and find out. This could just be the publishing unit getting told by the film unit to show some corporate synergy and we see some warning flags here. To whit, not everything listed in the sale is actual bargain.

We’ve documented DC’s pricing quirks before, but it’s probably time for a quick summary: $5.99 for a collected edition or $0.99 for a single issue is a sale price. $9.99 for a collected edition is not a sale price, that’s the price their collected editions drop to after a few months. $11.99 and up – often something that’s hardcover in print and DC is insisting on pretending that the stiffness of the cover is something that’s relevant in digital, but still basing the pre-discounted price on cover format.

Fortunately, we’re seeing a lot more $5.99 and under than anything else, but do pay attention to the prices. (We’re not listing the otherwise excellent All-Star Superman because of pricing shenanigans. It’s actually worth the money, but we try not to encourage what we consider questionable ethical practices for SUPERMAN of all things.)

Here are the base links:

And a bit of space for the supporting cast of the upcoming film:

What’s good?

One of the somewhat rare ’80s reprints that we’ve enjoyed is Superman: The Phantom Zone by Steve Gerber and Gene Colan. This is a very odd, horror-flavored Superman tale as he confronts something unnatural that’s been living in the Phantom Zone… but you weren’t expecting Gerber & Colan to give you the ’50s TV version, were you?

Emperor Joker is a 2000 storyline from Jeph Loeb / Ed McGuinness / Joe Kelly / Doug Mahnke that finds the Joker acquiring godlike powers and remaking the world in his image. Not an Elseworlds, but entertainingly over the top.

Superman Smashes the Klan has Gene Yang and Gurihiru revisiting and revising the original Superman radio show arc, “Clan of the Fiery Cross.” It’s on the YA side of Superman, but has picked up a LOT of good reviews.

Superman: Man of Tomorrow is an very witty collection of tales by Robert Venditti and Paul Pelletier that went under most radars because it was originally serialized digitally.

Superman, the current series by Josh Williamson and Jamal Campbell is also on sale and it’s a good one.

And for something under the radar, the Warworld saga from a couple years back is worth a look. Phillip Kennedy Johnson wrote Action Comics for a spell and there was very little discussion on it. We’ve since had it recommended a couple times and just finished reading it. Severely under-rated and we’d go so far as to call the first two volumes great. The set up is there’s a new Mongul running Warworld. Mongul has been subjugating a lost tribe from Krypton and uses them to lure Superman to Warworld (with The Authority in tow). A trap is sprung and Superman has to lead a rebellion.

Now, you might be saying “haven’t we seen this before on Apokolips?  And the answer is, not exactly. Kennedy Johnson takes a full arc to set this up with signs of portent and excels at creating an atmosphere of foreboding leading into the final act. The characterization is strong and there’s an interesting thread about the problem of leading a revolution when the underclass has never known freedom. (And a bit of political skullduggery in the background.) Several artists tag in and out, but the more prominent ones are Daniel Sampere, Riccardo Federici and Will Conrad.

This storyline is collected across three volumes:

The optional fourth volume to the arc, which takes place in the background during Warlord Rising, is Superman and The Authority by Grant Morrison and Mikel Janin. This is where Superman recruits The Authority for his mission to Warworld… and trust us, this series works better in the greater context of the Warworld arc than it does as a standalone.

Unannounced Sales

Tales From the Crypt  James Bond 007: Your Cold Cold Heart  Zombie Survival Guide

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

Critical Role from Dark Horse is currently on sale. That would be the comics based on the campaigns from the popular web series about Dungeons & Dragons campaigns… and this will take a moment to explain.

There’s an omnibus format that’s a little better value and a “regular”  collected edition sale. There are some OGNs/albums filed under the single issue format. (Hey, don’t look at us.)

Dark Horse also has their EC Archives on sale. Tales From the Crypt, Weird Science, Two-Fisted Tales and that whole family of famous titles. Some would say these are a perfect pairing with cable news.

Plus:

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Ghost Rider, Ultron, Skottie Young, The Magic Order

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel slaps a discount on Ghost Rider, Ultron and the Skottie Young catalog. Plus, The Magic Order and Manor Black.

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):

Shouldn’t He Be “In the Sky?”

Ghost Rider  Ghost Rider  Ghost Rider

The Marvel Ghost Rider Sale runs through Monday, 6/30.

That’s right, it’s Craig Ferguson’s favorite superhero.

As a bonus, the absurdity of Cosmic Ghost Rider:

The Other AI

Avengers: Bride of Ultron  Age of Ultron  Avengers: Ultron Forever

The Marvel Ultron Sale runs through Monday, 6/30.

Oh, sure… you’ve got Chat GPT and you’ve got Google Gemini and you’ve got Microsoft Co-Pilot…  but Marvel has Ultron, the AI that Microsoft and Google probably would rather you didn’t have in the front of your mind while thinking about such things. Which probably means it’s a good time for the sale.

Let’s hit some highlights:

The first Ultron arc, which culminates in the debut of The Vision, is a highlight of the original Roy Thomas / John Buscema Avengers run and is actually split across two Epic Collections: Masters of Evil has Ultron debuting near the end and Behold… The Vision finishes off his first arc and contains his second arc several issues later.

The Bride of Ultron is largely by Jim Shooter, with George Perez and John Byrne tagging in and out for most of it. The runup to the titular Ultron tale is the re-introduction of Wonder Man, which plays into the whole Vision/Simon Williams/Ultron triangle of intrigue.

Avengers: West Coast Avengers – Family Ties – Steve Englehart / Al Milgrom / Richard Howell; Ultron returns with some allies for the opening arc of West Coast Avengers.

Avengers: Rage of Ultron – by Rick Remender / Jerome Opena / Pepe Larraz; An OGN that… shall we say, reset the dynamic between Hank Pym and Ultron?

Ultron Forever is primarily by Al Ewing and Alan Davis, with a few older issues included for background. Avengers of various eras are plucked out of the timestream and brought to the future to face down a triumphant Ultron. (If you think this sounds like Ewing’s  Ant-Man sequence, there are similarities.)

The title Marvel would probably like you to purchase here is Age of Ultron, with the core by Brian Bendis, Bryan Hitch, Brandon Peterson and Carlos Pacheco. We’d put this one towards the bottom of the Ultron pile, but that’s just us.

The Young Ones

Oz: The Complete Collection  Rocket Raccoon  Strange Academy

The Marvel Skottie Young Sale runs through Monday, 6/30.

We’re just going to let you guess who the subject of this sale is.

Highlights:

Unannounced Sales

The Magic Order  Manor Black  Kill Them All

As always, we see discounts, but we don’t know how long they’ll last.

Additionally, it looks like most of the Iron Man, Black Widow and Old Man Logan material from recent weeks is still on sale. The Under $5 Page has the lower priced volumes. Go back a couple columns for the links to find the Epic Collections.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Old Man Logan; Emma Frost; Groo

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel celebrates the Old Man Logan flavor of Wolverine and Emma Frost. Plus, Groo and Shirley Jackson.

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):

Wolverine… and the Sea?

Wolerine: Old Man Logan   Wolverine: Old Man Logan  Old Man Hawkeye

The Marvel Old Logan and the Wasteland Sale runs through Monday, 6/23.

Yes, the Old Man Logan storyline has spawned a series of miniseries set in “The Wasteland” setting from the original… and that before they brought back the Old Man Logan character after Wolverine’s “death.”

That’s what the real spread is here with the rest of the sale being side attractions you may or may not be into.  The original storyline of a cranky, aged (“Old Man”) version of Wolverine living in a dystopic future came off as a sort of Elseworlds tale and is fairly well regarded as a standalone tale.

It was popular enough that the “Old Man Logan” version of the character was contrived to appear in the present (his past… before the disaster that spawned a dystopia) in the period when Wolverine was supposed to be “dead.” It even lasted 50 issues. We’d say give the Jeff Lemire issues a look if it sounds interesting, particularly the Lemire/Sorrentino issues. This was one of their pre-Image collaborations and it’s much more entertaining than the editorial premise sounds.

Past Logan, there have been a couple other attempts to spin-off new titles in this settings, notably:

A Touch of Frost

Emma Frost  New X-Men  Astonishing X-Men

The Marvel Emma Frost Sale runs through Monday, 6/23.

Yeah, there was an Emma Frost series from Karl Bollers / Randy Green, but the emphasis here is a little more on the X-Men.

The Grant Morrison X-Men run (with an artist rotation including Frank Quitely, Igor Kordey, Phil Jimenez and Marc Silvestri) is probably the centerpiece. The “Ultimate Collections” are here. There’s also an  that appears to be the first Ultimate Collection with a different trade dress, so it looks like you can mix and match if you like?

While the entirety of Astonishing X-Men is on sale, this title is most remembered for the opening arcs by Joss Wheedon / John Cassaday and you can get their full run a little more cheaply in this set of Double Volumes.

Finally, there’s Generation X, which was sort of Scott Lobdell’s take on New Mutants. Most remember it most for the Lobdell/Chris Bachalo team that opened the series.

Unannounced Sales

Groo  Let's Make Ramen  Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery": The Authorized Graphic Adaptation

As always, we see discounts, but we don’t know how long they’ll last.

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Iron Man; Strange Academy; Umbrella Academy; Dark Horse Manga

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, nearly the entire run of Iron Man gets a discount. So does Strange Academy. DC may or may not be having unlisted sales. Plus, Umbrella Academy, Dark Crystal and Dark Horse manga.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Housekeeping: The Mystery of the Missing Masterworks

You will recall it’s been hit and miss whether Marvel Masterworks are included in Marvel sales for… perhaps a bit over a year? We might have a clue.

The Near Mint Condition live stream claims to have some inside information that the (print) Masterworks line is on indefinite hiatus and is asking people who want more to write David Gabriel at Marvel and ask for it.

See for yourself:

Has a phasing out been planned for quite some time and that’s why the digital versions aren’t always in sales? We can’t say for certain, but we’re awfully suspicious. Moreover, the Epic Collections haven’t quite duplicated the depth of the Masterworks. We understand how Marvel likes to reissue new editions in print, but it usually just makes things more confusing in the digital world.

Does Whatever An Iron Can…

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

The Marvel Iron Man Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 6/23

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. Iron Man isn’t as goofy to follow as, say, Spider-Gwen… but there are “quirks.” As is frequently the case (as discussed above), no Masterworks this time out.

  • 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/Sean Chen/Patrick Zircher run lasts from 1-25. We can’t find 15-25 collected? (That entire run should be!)  You can catch 1-14  in cheap omnibus form here.  (No idea why the Mike Grell omnibus isn’t on sale.) 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 version for Busiek.)

  • 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 by Tom Taylor / Yildiray Cinar / Laura Braga
  • 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 / Alex Maleev; Victor Von Doom steps in as Iron Man… hey, dude is familiar with wearing armor
  • 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-’22 – The Christopher Cantwell / Cafu run.
  • Invincible Iron Man ’22-’24 – Gerry Duggan / Juan Frigeri

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. (That’s collected in both Masterworks and Epic formats, but only the Epic is discounted right now..)

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 (make sure you get a collection that includes #200!!!), 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 1-14 are currently collected.

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 were quite happy with the  Christopher Cantwell/Cafu run. Tony Stark chases Korvac into outer space and meditates on the nature of godhood, good intentions and addictions. Lots of character work and action.

Up the Academy

Avengers Academy  Avengers Arena  Strange Academy

The Marvel Academy Sale runs through Monday, 6/16.

We’re not sure if this is Marvel making a play for the “Dark Academia” literary sub-genre, but we’ve got a few different flavors of young adults in various forms of learning institutions for those with super powers or magical powers. Strange Academy is probably the most “Dark Academia” of the bunch.

  • Avengers Academy – Christos Gage / Mike McKone / Sean Chen; Hank Pym runs an Avengers training program
  • Avengers Arena –  Dennis Hopeless / Christos Gage / Kev Walker / Alessandro Vitti; Arcade sets up Murder World on an island and tries to recreate Lord of the Flies with the Runaways and Avengers Academy
  • New X-Men – Nunzio DeFilippis / Christina Weir / Randy Green / Staz Johnson / Michael Ryan; It’s easier to describe this as the ’04 rebranding of New Mutants
  • Strange Academy (’20-’23) – Skottie Young / Humberto Ramos; Doctor Strange establishes a magical academy (definitely not Hogwarts, should the lawyers be asking) with Doctor Voodoo, Damien Hellstrom and the Scarlet Witch amongst the instructors

The DC Sorta/Kinda Discount Shuffle

Absolute Power  Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones  Starfire

We have noticed a few DC titles popping up with “Best Price in 30 Days” tags on them. They aren’t necessarily on sale.

Example #1: Absolute Power by Mark Waid and Dan Mora. The last big Event. It’s now $9.99, marked as being down from a digital list price of $19.99. A digital list price based on it having been a hardcover release in print, we hasten to add.

Is that really a discount? Maybe not. Here’s the thing: when they stopped having the weekly sales, a lot of the slightly older digital collections dropped to $9.99. (Is the calculus to slightly lower the line-wide price and see if they make more money with that and no sales? We have questions…)

Example #2: Batman: Urban Legends V.6  is also listed at $9.99 with that “Best Price in 30 Days” tag. It does not list what the previous price was. HOWEVER, should one look at the Batman: Urban Legends series page, one would find everything is $9.99. Everything except V.2, which is $6.99. Strangely, V.2 is not showing the “Best Price in 30 Days” tag, so while it looks like it might be the one sporting a discount, but it apparently isn’t.

Real discounts:

And DC may have some of their signature broken prices floating around. Batman by Doug Moench & Kelley Jones Vol. 2 is listed at $19.24 as we type this. To paraphrase Ghostbusters, that price point is as unnatural as dogs and cats living together and it’s not the only book priced like that.

We have a lot more questions than answers when it comes to DC’s current pricing philosophy (and their ability to fill out Amazon pricing forms). Now you know what we know.

Unannounced Sales

Lone Wolf and Cub  Nowhere Men  Umbrella Academy

As always, we have no idea how long these will last:

Speaking of academies, Dark Horse wants a piece of that action and is discounting      Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba.

It also appears Dark Horse is having a manga sale. Some titles we noticed:

Also on sale:

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Doctor Strange; Black Widow; Predator; Nancy; Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, nearly the entire run of the collected Doctor Strange gets a discount, as does the Black Widow and Marvel’s recent work with Predator. Plus, Nancy and Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer.

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 Doctor Will See You Now

Doctor Strange in Strange Tales  Doctor Strange by Englehart  The Death of Doctor Strange

The  Marvel Doctor Strange Sale runs through Monday, 6/9.

And it’s most of the Doctor Strange material that’s been collected in book form. Alas, the Masterworks are not in this sale, though the “primary” 70s/80s series is very nearly all available here.

  • Strange Tales – This is a cluttered series page, but its the original Lee/Ditko run, but it breaks down to  Epic Edition 1.
  • Doctor Strange ’68-’69 – Epic Edition 2 catches the rest of the original Strange Tales and most of the first solo series (Some next level Gene Colan art in the solo run.)
  • Doctor Strange ’74-’87 – The Epics pick up with the tale end of the ’68 series, catch the Marvel Premiere issues (enter: Englehart & Brunner) and then into the regular series, then you’ll need “regular” collections for the Stern/Smith run.
  • Strange Tales ’87-’88 – The rest of the Peter B. Gillis run from Strange Tales with art by Chris Warner, Kevin Nowlan, Terry Shoemaker and Richard Case.
  • Doctor Strange ’88-’96 – Probably best known for the Roy & Dann Thomas run with Butch Guice and Geoff Isherwood as notable artists.
  • Doctor Strange ’15-’18 – Initially Jason Aaron/Chris Bachalo with Donny Cates tagging in towards the end. (The omnibuses here are the better buy)
  • Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme ’16-’17 – Robbie Thompson / Javier Rodriguez
  • Doctor Strange ’18-’19 – The Mark Waid / Jesus Saiz / Barry Kitson era with Strange in space.
  • Doctor Strange, Surgeon Supreme (’19) – the very much under-rated and too short Mark Waid / Kev Walker run. Walker knocks it out of the park here.
  • Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise – Tradd Moore
  • Jed McKay’s saga, which needs to be read in order
    • The Death of Doctor Strange – Jed MacKay / Lee Garbett; No, really… he actually dies and it’s clever
    • Strange – Jed MacKay / Marcelo Ferreira; With Stephen dead, Clea assumes the mantle of Sorceress Supreme… and she’s feeling a little tetchy
    • Doctor Strange (’23-’24) – Jed MacKay / Pasqual Ferry; How can a dead man not be dead? The answer is complicated…

What’s good?  The original Lee/Ditko run is great and you can get that in the first Epic Collection. Things pick up again when Englehart and Brunner show up towards the end of the Marvel Premiere run and the whole ’74-’87 run is solid, though we have a particular soft spot for the Roger Stern / Marshall Rogers / Paul Smith material towards the end.  Yes, Doctor Strange had A list creators most of the time.  That’s your core.

The Jed MacKay sequence is very good and Marvel’s best death and rebirth sequence in quite some time, but you really need to start with The Death of Doctor Strange. We seldom give a big thumbs up to this kind of arc, but sometimes the needle gets threaded.

Another personal favorite is Doctor Strange: The Oath by a pre-Saga Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin. They’ve both moved on to bigger things, but a long run by those two would have been a real highlight.

Something under the radar?  The final Waid/Walker run is also a lot more under the radar than it should be.

Apex Predation

Predator versus Wolverine  Predator vs Black Panther  Predator: The Last Hunt

The Marvel Predator Sale runs through Monday, 6/9.

Yes, Marvel has Predator comics. One of them even knocked our socks off:

Predator Vs. Wolverine by Ben Percy / Ken Lashley / Greg Land / Andrea Di Vito is everything the title sounds like… except it’s good. Such a pleasant surprise and excellence of execution counts! Over the decades, a Predator with a grudge periodically returns to stalk Wolverine. Things eventually come to a head. All hunter and prey, all the time. Recommended.

Predator Vs. Black Panther by Ben Percy / Chris Allen / Sean Damien Hill; A Predator visits Wakanda looking for some Vibranium. Body count ensues. This is in our “to read” pile.

And then there’s the Ed Brisson series, for Predators without superheroes:

Beware the Bite

Black Widow - Welcome to the Game  Black Widow by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee  Black Widow

The Marvel Black Widow sale runs through Monday, 6/16.

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?

Unannounced Sales

Gris Grimly's Frankenstein  Star Trek: Year Four - The Enterprise Experiment  A Thief Among the Trees: An Ember in the Ashes

Additionally, it looks like most of the Thor, Hulk, Spider-Man Team-Up and Spidey/Deadpool material from recent weeks is still on sale. The Under $5 Page has the lower priced volumes. Go back a couple columns for the links to find the Epic Collections.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Spider-Girl, Black Hammer, Monstress

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel applies a discount to Spider-Girl’s catalog. Plus, Barbaric, The Black Hammer, Monstress and Terminal Hero.

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):

It’s 8PM, Do You Know Where Your Spider-Daughter Is?

Spider-Girl  Spider-Girl  Spectacular Spider-Girl

The Marvel Spider-Girl Sale runs through Monday, 6/2.

This would be the adventures of MayDay Parker, Peter Parker’s daughter in an alternate timeline. Tom DeFalco and (primarily) Ron Frenz had a roughly 12 year run on the character across the obligatory relaunches, which is a much longer run that most creators manage.

Unannounced Sales

Black Hammer Omnibus  Monstress  Terminal Hero: The Death And Life Of Rory Fletcher

As usual, we’re not 100% sure how long this discounts will stick around.

Dark Horse has the world of Black Hammer on sale this week, which probably needs a walk-through.

This would be — we think it’s OK to call it a superhero universe at this point — the indie superhero saga by Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston and friends. There are a couple branches to how this saga unfurls.

The main Black Hammer series is here and that’s where you should start the journey. But, as with many long running titles, there are a few different editions to it and this is what we think the cheapest (if messy to sort) way to read the series is.

There are currently 7 volumes under the main series + a collection of specials + 2 volumes of “Visions” with guest creators playing in the Black Hammer standbox.

So what you want to do to cheap out is go to the omnibus page first.

The Omnibus and Library Editions are essentially the same thing with a different binding in print. If you stick with the Omnibus version, then you can pick up again with V.5 of the regular editions. Since there are three Library Editions, you’d pick up with V.8 of the regular editions.

Then you’ve got the World of Black Hammer collections, which are solo tales about the various heroes and villains like Barbalien and Sherlock Frankenstein.

Also on sale:

Additionally, it looks like most of the Thor, Hulk, Spider-Man Team-Up, Captain Marvel and Thunderbolts material from recent weeks is still on sale. The Under $5 Page has the lower priced volumes. Go back a couple columns for the links to find the Epic Collections.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Spider-Man Team-Up; Scarlet Witch and The Vision; Titan’s MCM London Sale; Monkey Vs. Robot

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Spider-Man teams up with all sorts of people. Marvel drops a discount on the Scarlet Witch and the Vision. Titan has a convention sale. Plus, Elfquest, Monkey Vs. Robot and The Dark Crystal.

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):

Spider-Friends

Marvel Team-Up  Spider-Man / Deadpool  Uncanny Spider-Man

The Marvel Spider-Man Crossovers and Team-Ups Sale runs through Monday, 5/26.

What’s this? A collection of various Spidey team-up titles and a few Events he appeared in.

What’s interesting?

Which Witch?

Vision and the Scarlet Witch   Avengers West Coast  The Vision

The Marvel Scarlet Witch and Vision Sale runs through Monday, 5/26.

Hey, they’re a couple again… at least for this sale.

First: Wanda-centric comics:

The value buy here is Vision & The Scarlet Witch: The Saga of Wanda and Vision. It’s a sort of faux-Epic Edition, clocking in at 467 pages and including the wedding of Wanda and Vision from Giant-Size Avengers #4, the ’82 Bill Mantlo/Rick Leonardi mini-series and the ’85 Steve Englehart/Richard Howell 12-parter.

Avengers West Coast Epic Collection: Vision Quest has Wanda’s original heel-turn in John Byrne’s run that was an influence on the TV show. (It also has the end of the Englehart run and that counts for something, too.) This apparently replaces House of M in this sale for Wanda heel-turns?

The current Steve Orlando / Sarah Pichelli / Lorenzo Tammetta / Jacopo Camagni run got a relaunch (yes, we’re shocked a Marvel book relaunched with minimal to no changes), so it’s listed in two places:

Yes, a relaunch so deeply meaningful, they didn’t bother restarting the numbering for the collected editions. One run, as far as we’re concerned.

Over the Vision side of the aisle, there is a CLASSIC tome you should read if you have any interest in the character:

Vision: The Complete Series – Tom King / Gabriel Hernandez Walta. After his split with Wanda, The Vision moves to the suburbs with a synthezoid wife and two synthezoid kids in tow? What could go wrong? Plenty, as his new world slowly unravels. Probably the best early King book.

Avengers Epic Collection: Behold… The Vision – starts out with the classic two-part debut of The Vision (ending in “Evan an Android Can Cry). This volume is essentially the middle third of the Roy Thomas run. John Buscema / Barry Windsor Smith / Gene Colan / Sal Buscema are. Plenty of Ultron and the debuts of the Squadron Sinister and Invaders towards the end.

Avengers: Absolute Vision – Book One and Book Two – Roger Stern / Al Milgrom / Bob Hall; contain a long arc (that mostly executes in the second volume) where the Vision goes slightly mad and tries to take over the world’s computers.

Con Adjacent

A Call To Cthulhu  Death Sentence: London  Killtopia

The Titan Comics MCM London 2025 Sale runs through Friday, 5/30.

MCM London is a British comic convention. (We’ll let you guess which city it’s in.) No, no Conan in this one, but what we do have is:

Unannounced Sales

As usual, we’re not 100% sure how long this discounts will stick around.

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Hulk; Spider-Verse; Fangs; Nat Turner

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, lots of Hulk. The Spider-Verse and the Venomverse. Plus Fangs, Kyle Baker’s Nat Turner and Grant Morrison’s New X-Men.

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 Housekeeping

Halfway through May and no new DC sales. One “not quite sale” at the end of April. That’s all there’s been since March. All appearances are that DC has changed their digital strategy and do not wish to offer proper discounts. It doesn’t look like the handful of seemingly random items in the Under $5 Page have been updated… not that we were expecting an update. We’d love to be wrong, but this looks like it’s anything but a short term absence. Perhaps in a couple months if they don’t like their monthly totals, otherwise the question will be whether they return for the holidays the way Image does in the early Fall?

Hulk Is Cheapest There Is

Planet Hulk  Immortal Hulk  Incredible Hulk

The Marvel Hulk Sale runs through Monday, 5/26.

And what we have here is basically a Hulk Legacy sale, although this is another of those Marvel sales that omits both the Masterworks and the Epic Collections, which really takes a lot of the first series off the discount table.

Let’s run down the various titles.

  • Incredible Hulk (1962 – 1999) The original run and then the long running series that picked up a few years later.
  • Tales to Astonish (1964-68) In between the two Hulk solo runs above, Hulk was splitting Tales to Astonish with Ant-Man/Giant Man and then Namor. A lot of the foundational work was really in this run, with Stan Lee/Steve Ditko responsible for a lot of it. Included for the sake of completeness, for you shall find no discounts here
  • Incredible Hulk (1999-2007) – Best known for the Bruce Jones / Lee Weeks/ Mike Deodato run towards the beginning and the Greg Pak / multi-artist “Planet Hulk” and “World War Hulk” epics at the end… though World War Hulk is at this different link.
  • Hulk (2008-13) This is the Red Hulk run (and the title changes to that after awhile). It starts out with the better known Jeph Loeb/Ed Mc Guiness run and then Jeff Parker takes over with Gabriel Hardman, Dave Eaglesham and Patrick Zircher in the artist rotation.
  • Incredible Hulk by Jason Aaron (2011-12) – Lots of artists rotating through here, Marc Silvestri, Steve Dillon and Carlos Pacheco among them
  • Indestructible Hulk (2012 – 14) – Mark Waid’s the writer with an artist rotation including Leinil Francis Yu, Matteo Scalera and Walt Simonson draws the Thor team-up.
  • Hulk by Waid and Duggan (2014-15) – That would be Mark Waid and Gerry Duggan with Duggan doing the bulk of the run. Mark Bagley is the main artist here.
  • Immortal Hulk (2018-21) – Al Ewing’s masterpiece as the Hulk slides over towards horror and find a green door that leads to Hell.
  • Hulk (2021-23) – The Donny Cates / Ryan Ottley run
  • The Incredible Hulk (2023 – present) – Phillip Kennedy Johnson / Nic Klein

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

The sequence from Planet Hulk to World War Hulk is highly enjoyable.

Let’s be real – Immortal Hulk is a masterpiece. Highly recommended with an approach almost like Gerber’s Man-Thing or Moore’s Swamp Thing.

We’re really enjoying the current run, too. It’s a return to horror, like the Immortal Hulk run, but it feels a bit more like the Bruce Jones run. Banner is on the run, but this time the conspiracy pursuing him is supernatural in nature. Nic Klein is doing ridiculously good work on this title, too.

Two Verses

Spider-Verse  Spider-Man Vol. 1: End Of The Spider-Verse  Venomverse

The Marvel Spider-Verse/Venom-Verse Sale runs through Monday, 5/19.

Spider-Verse is basically a celebration of the Spider-Man cast expanding with a lot of Spidey-related characters and then throwing in some Spidey-equivalents from different dimensions. Miles Morales being the most important one, important enough to be ported into the main “616” universe when the Ultimate line was shuttered.

Spider-Verse was the original Spider-Man family event in the comics that formalized much of this. You’re best off getting the omnibus edition that has the entire thing and all the crossovers, else it gets complicated figuring out reading order between the various series-specific collections.  There are a ton of creators working on this, as you might expect, but this is effectively a Dan Slott as show-runner affair. (Which means, yes, Christos Gage is not far behind.)

Edge of the Spider-Verse sets up the eventual sequel.

Spider-Man Vol. 1: End Of The Spider-Verse – Dan Slott / Mark Bagley; is the sequel which claims to end everything as Morlun returns.

And much like you can’t get a child a gift and not expect their sibling to demand one, Venom has his own spin on this:

  • Venomverse – Cullen Bunn / Iban Coello; Enter the venomized heroes
  • Death Of The Venomverse – Cullen Bunn / Gerardo Sandoval; The Carnage symbiote travels the multiverse to kill all Venoms
  • Venomverse Reborn – Anthology of various Venoms across the multiverse

Unannounced Sales

New X-Men  Fangs  Nat Turner

As usual, we’re not 100% sure how long this discounts will stick around.

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales – A Pulitzer Prize Winning OGN; Captain Marvel; The Oatmeal

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, we see a deep discount on this year’s Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel… not an everyday occurrence. Plus, Captain Marvel and The Oatmeal.

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 Housekeeping

The topic of DC’s departure from the deals page has been a very pointed topic of conversation in our circles for roughly 6 weeks. Yes, they technically had a Superman sale a couple weeks ago, but it was a decidedly weak offering and we have yet to meet someone familiar with that “sale” who wasn’t irate about the attempt to pass off a $17.99 digital edition of All-Star Superman as a bargain. DC may have created some integrity questions with that stunt.

As we type this, DC has failed to have a formal sale in May and we have not been able to locate any unannounced sales outside of some very random volumes in the $5 & Under section (which may be old listings and/or oversights on DC’s part) and we’ve been seeing those Superman discounts, such as they were, revert back to digital list price. We’re willing to give it one more week before declaring DC has sworn off discounts, but this is now the longest stretch we’ve seen DC abstain and it’s not looking good. They might not want our business.

Not A Big Red Cheese?

Captain Marvel  Captain Marvel  Captain Marvel

The Captain Marvel Sale runs through Monday, 5/12.

This would be the Carol Danvers sale (as opposed to the Mar-Vell sale).

OK… brace yourselves… this one has a ton of relaunches:

We think that’s the overly complicated chronology, anyway. For recommendations, we’re not really experts on this set of books, but we’re inclined to say go with the Thompson run. Kelly Sue DeConnick has a very dedicated fanbase, so maybe browse the sample pages there and see if that catches your fancy, too?

DC Buried Discounts

Batman: Streets of Gotham  Hitman  Justice League: Last Ride

From the $5 & Under section: we’re not sure if these prices are soon to change or not.

Unannounced Sales

Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir  How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You (The Oatmeal Book 2)

As usual, we’re not 100% sure how long this discounts will stick around.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Phases of the Moon Knight

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

Dropping This Week

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: The May the Fourth Star Wars Sale(s); Thor; Godzilla; Wool

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s May the Fourth with Star Wars getting discounts at both Marvel and Dark Horse. Marvel also slashes prices on nearly the full run of Thor and unannounced sales ranging from Godzilla to Superman: Son of Kal-El.

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):

Nothing But Star Wars

Star Wars  Darth Vader Star Wars: The High Republic

The Marvel Star Wars May the 4th Sale runs through Monday, 5/12.

First, let’s run through the highlights. These are mostly the current Marvel Star Wars titles, not the Dark Horse or original Marvel runs.

Recommendations? For whatever reason, Darth Vader seems to bring out the best in Marvel. Those first two series with Gillen and Soule, especially. Is it a coincidence Lucasfilm hired Charles Soule as a creative consultant?

Your under the radar title is Kanan. A very solid series from one the Star Wars Rebels producers and we no longer have to introduce Pepe Larraz, do we?

Sturm und Hammer?

Thor - The Wrath of Odin  Thor by Walt Simonson  Thor Road to War of the Realms

Marvel’s Thor Sale runs  through Monday, 5/12.

Pretty much the full Thor line, with the caveat that the Marvel Masterworks volumes are not on sale, which is to say, Epic Collections are your friend.

As per our custom, here’s the breakdown by series/volume:

  • Journey Into Mystery ’52-’66 – The earliest Thor stories from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
  • The Mighty Thor ’66-’96 – From Lee & Kirby until the relaunches started
  • The Mighty Thor ’96-’04 – The Heroes return Dan Jurgens era, initially with John Romita, Jr.
  • Thor ’07-’11 – Starts with J. Michael Straczynski & Olivier Coipel, ends with Matt Fraction & Pasqual Ferry. Gillen in the middle.
  • The Mighty Thor ’11-’12 – Fraction gets a relaunch with Coipel, Ferry and early Pepe Larraz
  • The Jason Aaron era ’12-’19 – It’s a LOT easer to look at the omnibuses across all the relaunches here
  • Thor ’20 to ’23 – The Donny Cates run with Nic Klein as the primary artist; Torunn GrØnbekk tags in towards the end while Cates was recovering from his accident (and filled in well, we might add).
  • Immortal Thor (’23 – current) – Al Ewing / Martin Coccolo;

If your point of reference for Thor is the last film, you want the Jason Aaron era. The God Butcher is the first arc. If you go with that set of omnibuses, Jane Foster picks up the hammer in V.2. We don’t think that starting with the first Jane Foster issues (and slimmer volumes) is a great jumping on point. It’s a saga and you’ll get a lot more out of it if you start at the beginning of Aaron’s run.

Past that, we’re all about the Walt Simonson Thor. It’s probably the most influential run since early days and it’s great. You’ll want the Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson set that starts here. (The Thor by Walter Simonson version of the reprints seems to be missing the final volume, or at least the last few issues. *sigh* These things happen.)

We also like to go back to the original Lee/Kirby. Not too early. We’d say stay closer to where it changed from Journey Into Mystery to Thor. The first year of JIM was a little rough. The Wrath of Odin  Epic Collection is a good chunk of prime Lee/Kirby Thor and also features the first time Jane Foster was elevated to godhood, since it turns out to now be foreshadowing.

Something under the radar? Ignore this being marketed as a kid’s comic – Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee had a short run on Thor: The Mighty Avenger that was just a good Thor comic, full stop. And you might expect that from those two.

If you want to move in the opposite direction, Thor: Vikings is a seriously violent Marvel MAX title from Garth Ennis and Glenn Fabry that has Viking zombies invading Manhattan. (No, not Fleet Week. That’s different.)

We also have naught but love for the current Immortal Thor run.

Unannounced Sales

Star Wars: Tales from the Rancor Pit  Barbaric  Wool

First, the Dark Horse Star Wars section sticks around for May the Fourth.

And some more likely suspects:

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Fantastic Four Vs. Galactus  Kid Venom  Phases of the Moon Knight

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

Dropping This Week

Dropping Next Week

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