Tag: Marvel

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

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Marvel Celebrates Prime Day Early?

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

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

Here’s the Marvel Page in question.

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

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

Omnibuses

Starting at $11.99

Epic Collections

Starting at $5.99

Masterworks

Starting at $5.99

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

Unannounced Sales

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

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

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

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

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

Also on sale:

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Batman; Marvel Omnibuses and Epic Collections; Groo

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has a Batman sale. Marvel adds some random Omnibuses and Epic Collections to the discount pile. Plus, Groo.

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):

Holy Mixed Bag Batman!

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns  Batman: Knightfall  Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin

The Lego Batman Sale runs through Monday, 6/1.

It’s a DC sale, so you might expect it to be a corporate synergy event. And it would appear you’re right as the Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight video game launches.

Not all of these prices are great. We would also hasten to remind you that DC typical drops the recent digital collections to $9.99 after a few months… or to mimic the stylings of Frank Gorshin: “Riddle me this: when is a sale, not a sale?” We’re also not fond of some of the prices on the Tales of the Batman volumes, but will concede some of those $9.99 prices could be the best we’re getting (as we curse the phenomenon of HC pricing for digital). The rest of them… well, judge for yourself.

That being said, here are a few things where we were OK with the prices:

Epics and Omnibi and Marvel, Oh My!

Invincible Iron Man Omnibus  Rom: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus  Power Man and Iron Fist

Marvel has an unnamed sale with no dates attached to it. We’re double-not-sure how long it’s going to last, but there are a few worthwhile things we would draw your attention to:

What’s good?

Invincible Iron Man Omnibus V. 2 will get you the bulk of the Archie Goodwin run, which is where Iron Man really takes off, as far as we’re concerned.

Rom is not always on sale and these licensed books sometimes disappear, so if it’s your jam, consider getting it while available at a better price.

The full run isn’t discounted, but Miracleman Vol. 1: A Dream Of Flying is the beginning of a classic run.

There’s a bit more to the sale than the above, should you care to browse.

Unannounced Sales

Groo Meets Tarzan Groo These Savage Shores

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

Yes, it’s still going strong, AND it’s on sale: Groo by Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier. Also included:

Dark Horse is still having a sale on their Mark Millar line of comics, AKA Millarworld, including:

For our money, Starlight is way under appreciated. The Hollywood elevator pitch would be along the lines of “Flash Gordon’s retirement isn’t going well.”

Also on sale:

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

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

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn a commission.) In case you’re having troubles with the new UIX (a LOT of people have been):

Hulk Is Cheapest There Is

Planet Hulk  Immortal Hulk  Incredible Hulk The Marvel Hulk Sale runs through Monday, 5/25. And what we have here is basically a Hulk Legacy sale. Let’s run down the various titles.
  • Incredible Hulk (1962 – 1999) The original run and then the long running series that picked up a few years later. (For some reason, the Epic Collections have a separate listing.)
  • Tales to Astonish (1964-68) In between the two Hulk solo runs above, Hulk was splitting Tales to Astonish with Ant-Man/Giant Man and then Namor. A lot of the foundational work was really in this run, with Stan Lee/Steve Ditko responsible for a lot of it. Included for the sake of completeness, for you shall find no discounts here
  • Incredible Hulk (1999-2007) – Best known for the Bruce Jones / Lee Weeks/ Mike Deodato run towards the beginning and the Greg Pak / multi-artist “Planet Hulk” and “World War Hulk” epics at the end… though World War Hulk is at this different link.
  • Hulk (2008-13) This is the Red Hulk run (and the title changes to that after awhile). It starts out with the better known Jeph Loeb/Ed Mc Guiness run and then Jeff Parker takes over with Gabriel Hardman, Dave Eaglesham and Patrick Zircher in the artist rotation.
  • Incredible Hulk by Jason Aaron (2011-12) – Lots of artists rotating through here, Marc Silvestri, Steve Dillon and Carlos Pacheco among them
  • Indestructible Hulk (2012 – 14) – Mark Waid’s the writer with an artist rotation including Leinil Francis Yu, Matteo Scalera and Walt Simonson draws the Thor team-up.
  • Hulk by Waid and Duggan (2014-15) – That would be Mark Waid and Gerry Duggan with Duggan doing the bulk of the run. Mark Bagley is the main artist here.
  • Immortal Hulk (2018-21) – Al Ewing’s masterpiece as the Hulk slides over towards horror and find a green door that leads to Hell.
  • Hulk (2021-23) – The Donny Cates / Ryan Ottley run
  • The Incredible Hulk (2023 -25) – Phillip Kennedy Johnson / Nic Klein
For the main series, you can’t go wrong with the Peter David years (now complete in Epic format) and the Bill Mantlo era seems to have gained fans over the years.
The sequence from Planet Hulk to World War Hulk is highly enjoyable.
Let’s be real – Immortal Hulk is a masterpiece. Highly recommended with an approach almost like Gerber’s Man-Thing or Moore’s Swamp Thing.
We’re really enjoying the current run, too. (OK, there was a relaunch. As far as we’re concerned it’s the same book with different numbering and a title tweak.) It’s a return to horror, like the Immortal Hulk run, but it feels a bit more like the Bruce Jones run. Banner is on the run, but this time the conspiracy pursuing him is supernatural in nature. Nic Klein is doing ridiculously good work on this title, too.
Also included in this sale: the original Defenders series (which could use more Gerber discounts than are provided).

Four Play

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus    Fantastic Four by Waid   Fantastic Four by Hickman Marvel’s Fantastic Four Sale runs through Monday, 5/25. Marvel would like to remind you this was a film. First let’s break down the various FF titles/volumes on sale:
  • Fantastic Four ’61-’96 – The original run (In a truly bizarre turn, the Epic Collections are tied to the original series and all the Masterworks are floating in the system untethered to ANY series.)
  • Fantastic Four ’98-’12 – Heroes Return era through Hickman
  • Fantastic Four ’12-’14 – The Matt Fraction / Mark Bagley era
  • Fantastic Four ’14-’15 – The James Robinson/Leonard Kirk run
  • Fantastic Four: Fate of the Four (Marvel Two-in-One) ’17-’18 – Chip Zdarsky / Jim Cheung; Zdarsky’s MTIO run has been rebranded as FF… which is probably fair – not in this sale, but included for the sake of completeness
  • Fantastic Four ’18-’22 – The Dan Slott run with a rotating cast of artists
  • Fantastic Four ’22-’25 – Ryan North / Iban Coello / Carlos Gomez
Yes, Fantastic Four has been relaunched less than other Marvel titles.  As to what’s good, the gold standard has always been the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run. (And yes, we do think you can draw a straight line from Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown at DC to Fantastic Four.) We’d say they start to hit their stride a few issues before Galactus shows up – V.3 of the Epic Collections (“The Coming of Galactus“) or V.4/5 of the Masterworks editions and you can ride a very fun train from there to the end of Lee/Kirby. And at this point, we should talk about the “pick your poison” of Epic vs. Masterworks.  The Masterworks are built out straight into the Byrne era. We think the $6.99 Epic Collections are the best value here, though some of the newer ones are priced higher. The discounted Epics are now into the Byrne run and then skip ahead to Englehart. Pick the format that works for you and has the issues you’re looking for. Speaking of Byrne’s run, that’s the next highpoint that everyone agrees on.  How to read Byrne? Well, there are 7 volumes of Masterworks on sale (V. 21-27) or you can hop on to Fantastic Four Visionaires: John Byrne. These comics really ought to be in an Epic Collections, and that’s started, but Marvel doesn’t seem in any hurry to roll the Visionaires up into a more economical package. (Or should we say, economical when it’s on sale?) Move ahead a bit and Walt Simonson had a stint that may be a little more notable for being an early appearance of the Time Variance Authority (which actually debuted in his Thor run). This is most easily grabbed across Epic Collections V.20 and V.21. Fast forward a bit to the Heroes Reborn era and there is a LOT to love about the Mark Waid / Mike Wieringo run. They brought back the “explorer” vibe from Lee/Kirby era that isn’t always there and upped the sense of wonder. You’d want the four Ultimate Collection volumes that start here. The “regular” collections don’t go all the way to the end. Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier jumped in for an arc with Black Panther and Storm briefly joining the team. And then, of course, there’s the the Hickman era. A long storyline that laid the groundwork for his Avengers run and you can certainly argue that his Secret Wars endcap to that is a Fantastic Four / Doctor Doom story. The omnibus editions we highlighted above include his FF spin-off comic that frequently crossed over with Fantastic Four, much like the Avengers titles flowed together. That packaging will be a better experience. But that’s not all we have in a fairly expansive sale:

Ultimate Fantastic Four

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

Doctor Doom

A little bit from the arch foe:

Silver Surfer

Skull the Slayer

That’s right. Skull the Slayer.

No, Not Bane’s Juice

Venom by Remender   Venom by Cates   Venom

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

Carnage

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

52 Pick Up

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

Seeing Ghosts

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

Not A Big Red Cheese?

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

Unannounced Sales

Avatar: The Last Airbender Star Wars A Vader Family Sithmas

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Deadpool, Wolverine, Miles Morales and more

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s Marvel week and we’ve got discounts on Deadpool, Wolverine, Miles Morales, Alien, Captain Marvel (all the Marvel ones) and even the Eternals. Plus, Critical Role and they fixed the missing discount on One Piece.

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):

$20 on the Clone
Deadpool Classics Deadpool by Posehn and Duggan Deadpool by Joe Kelly

The Marvel Deadpool Sale runs through Monday, 4/27.

Deadpool is… oddly collected. There have been a lot of titles and lot of relaunches. Most of these (except Cable/Deadpool and the Daniel Way era) are absorbed into the Deadpool Classics line of collected editions.  Some, but not all, of the series, have omnibus editions and those are the cheaper way to collect those runs… which means, if you’re a completist and you’re cheap, you’re going to want to be wanting to fill in the Classics volumes around the omnibuses.  And Deadpool Classics V. 1 collects the various miniseries that kicked things off.  In a sense, the easiest way (but perhaps not cheapest – and certainly not the most current) to keep things chronological is to follow the Classics line.

Hey, when was getting Marvel collected editions in the proper order ever easy?

So let’s run down the main titles (Warning – the discounts are more than a little random in some titles):

  • Deadpool Classics (’93 – as far as they’ve gotten)
  • Deadpool (’97-’02) – Known as the Joe Kelly era (with Priest and Gail Epic Collections expanding the section)
  • Cable and Deadpool (’04-’08) – Fabian Nicieza / Mark Brooks / Patrick Zircher (included for completeness – this isn’t on the discount list)
  • Deadpool ( ’08-’12) – The Daniel Way Era
  • Deadpool Team-Up (’09 – ’11) – all sorts of creators for this Deadpool variant on Marvel Two-In-One (and selectively discounted this time)
  • Deadpool Max (’10-’11) – David Lapham / Kyle Baker  (included for completeness – this isn’t on the discount list)
  • Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe (’12) – Cullen Bunn / Dalibor Talajic
  • Deadpool (’12-15) – The Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan Era
  • Deadpool (’15-’17) – Gerry Duggan and many, many artists
  • Despicable Deadpool (’17-’18) – Duggan/Mike Hawthorne
  • Deadpool (’18-’19) – Skottie Young / Nic Klein
  • King Deadpool (’19-’21) – Kelly Thompson / Chris Bachalo
  • Deadpool (’22-’23) – Alyssa Wong / Martin Coccolo
  • Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII (’24) – Joe Kelly / Adam Kubert
  • Deadpool (’24 – ’25 ) Cody Ziglar / Rogê Antônio

Pick your preferred creator and go to town.

The Once and Future Ultimate Spidey

  Miles Morales: Spider-Man  Miles Morales

The Marvel Miles Morales Sale runs through Monday, 4/27.

Miles, of course, was the second Ultimate Spider-Man, but that world no longer exists and now there’s a new Ultimate Spider-Man and… we wouldn’t want to explain that to somebody walking in off the street.

Start with Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (’11-’13) by Brian Bendis / Sara Pichelli / David Marquez. 

Followed by Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man (’14-’15) by Bendis / Marquez.

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

You know what’s good and not talked about as much? Spider-Men: Worlds Collide -Brian Michael Bendis / Sara Pichelli / Mark Bagley. This collections the two Spider-Men mini-series where Miles and Peter team up.

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

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

Also of interest:

The Spectacular Spider-Men – Greg Weisman and Humberto Ramos bring more Miles / Peter team-ups

And since Miles is a player in the most recent incarnation of the Ultimate Universe:

The Cheapest at What He Does

Wolverine  Predator versus Wolverine  All-New Wolverine    

The Marvel Wolverine Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 12/16.

You ever see Wolverine shell out for expensive beer? He understands cheap.

This is the sale on the “main” Wolverine titles we said would be coming. Let’s start out by listing the various titles involved. (Relaunches? At Marvel? <faints>) The warning from earlier in the week still applies here: the Epic Collections are not on sale this time out and we’re waiting to see if they turn up on sale at a later date.

  • Wolverine (’82) – Chris Claremont / Frank Miller / Paul Smith; The miniseries that kicked off the solo stories and an X-Men 2-parter that’s a sort of follow-up
  • Wolverine (’88-’03) – The original ongoing solo title. Yes, it took six years after the mini… it was a different time
  • Wolverine (’03-’09) – Greg Rucka / Darick Robertson; Mark Millar / John Romita, Jr.; Jason Aaron/Ron Garney… among others
  • Wolverine (’10-’12) – Jason Aaron / Renato Guedes / Ron Garney; “Wolverine Goes to Hell” was not a metaphor
  • Wolverine: Savage Land (’14) – Frank Cho
  • Old Man Logan (’16-’18) – Jeff Lemire / Andrea Sorrentino; While Logan is “dead,” his future dystopian self journeys to the present day. (And it’s actually pretty good, despite the wonky premise.)
  • Return of Wolverine (’18-’19) – Charles Soule / Steve McNiven; “They always come back”
  • Wolverine (’20-’24) – Ben Percy / Adam Kubert; The Krakoan era Logan. The first link is the “omnibus” page, here’s the individual collections page, which are discounted a little further into the series.
  • Predator Vs. Wolverine – Benjamin Percy / Greg Land / Andrea Di Vito / Ken Lashley; Everything you could possibly want in a Predator vs. Wolverine comic — for real
  • Wolverine (’24-present) – Saladin Ahmed / Martin Coccolo
  • Wolverine: Revenge – Jonathan Hickman / Greg Capullo
  • Ultimate Wolverine – Christopher Condon / Alessandro Cappuccio 

So, what’s actually good that’s discounted this time out?

The  original miniseries is generally regarded as a classic.

With the original series, you’re pretty good from the beginning through the end of the Larry Hama run (a bit after #100), though towards the end of that, the X-Events get annoying. We’re particularly fond of the Archie Goodwin / John Byrne arc from #17-23.

Wolverine: Old Man Logan [Marvel Premier Collection]– Mark Millar / Steve McNiven; Pardon the silliness of only a specific print format being discounted in digital, but this is pretty darn influential.

The Krakoan era, while it almost merged with X-Force (kind of like the triangle era Superman line), was quite enjoyable.

All-New Wolverine is the Tom Taylor / David Lopez / Juan Cabal / Leonard Kirk run on Laura Kinney as Wolverine while Logan was “dead.” It is delightful.

A Corporate View on Extraterrestrials

Alien: Galaxy of Nightmares  Aliens Epic Collection  Aliens vs. Avengers

The Marvel Alien Sale runs through Monday, 4/27    

Marvel’s been doing Aliens for a few years now and there’s one version we liked a LOT.

The Philip Kennedy Johnson Alien sequence (now conveniently in one volume) with Salvador Larroca, followed by Julius Ohta; is essentially one winding tale of Weyland-Yutani Corporation conspiracies that starts out with hiding a few of those eggs that couldn’t possibly get out of control, moves on to interstellar pioneers and religion, then comes back to the living conditions of rogue androids. Effective slow burn storytelling.

We’ve also heard good things about Aliens vs. Avengers by Jonathan Hickman & Esad Ribic, but haven’t had a chance to read it yet.

Also on the Marvel side:

  • Declan Shalvey’s Alien run
    • V.1 w/ Andrea Broccardo
    • V.2 w/Danny Earls
  • Alien: Paradiso – Steve Foxe / Edgar Salazar / Peter Nguyen

From the original Dark Horse material:

Not A Big Red Cheese?

Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin Captain Marvel Captain Marvel

The Captain Marvel Sale runs through Monday, 9/16.

This one is ALL the Captain Marvels and has a lot of guest appearances, like Avengers collections, on the side. Which means it’s worth a browse. We’re hitting the highlights.

First off, the original Kree Captain Mar-Vell as Captain Marvel:

Is Starlin’s Mar-Vell, the best Mar-Vell? We’d say so.

There are a couple non-Starlin volumes of the  Captain Marvel Masterworks series, but the other one we’d put at the top of the list is V.5 with the Steve Englehart / Al Milgrom run and that’s not discounted as we type this.

Carol Danvers as Ms./Captain Marvel:

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

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

Then there’s Mar-Vell’s son Genis:

This one is a Peter David joint, through and through. We did read the ’22 version last year and enjoyed it. It has a little more going on than you might think at first.

Hope Springs Eternal

Eternals by Jack Kirby  Eternals  

The Marvel Eternals sale runs through Monday, 4/27.

Always return to the mothership with the Eternals: Eternals by Jack Kirby: The Complete Collection. This series originally got a bad rap as something akin to New Gods-lite. We don’t think that’s really accurate. It’s Kirby doing a science fiction-action series while playing with mythological tropes and creating a mythology of his own. (This is where the Celestials start.) It’s also largely staying in it’s own corner of the Marvel universe.

Thor And The Eternals: The Celestials Saga is largely the Roy Thomas / John Buscema / Keith Pollard follow-up to Kirby’s saga, with Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Machio jumping in as writers at the end.

Eternals: The Dreaming Celestial Saga (’85) was a 12-issue maxi-series revisiting the format, initially by Peter B. Gillis / Sal Buscema and then Walt Simonson / Keith Pollard.

Eternals by Gaiman & Romita Jr. (’06) is the (as you might have guessed) Neil Gaiman and John Romita, Jr. trying their hand at the mythos.

It did well enough for Marvel to commission another series in Eternals: To Defy The Apocalypse by Charles Knauf / Daniel Knauf / Fred Van Lente / Daniel Acuna / Eric Nguyen / Pascal Alixe.

Eternals by Kieron Gillen by Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribic was the ’21 comeback series which fed into the A.X.E.: Judgment Day Event

Unannounced Sales

Critical Role  One Piece  Witchcraft: A Graphic History: Stories of wise women, healers and magic

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

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  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 still has a Witcher sale going on:

Also on sale:

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Elfquest, Annihilation, Doonesbury

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Elfquest takes the lead and we look at some more things in that hidden Silver Surfer sale.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

(Disclosure: If you buy something we link to on our site, we may earn a commission.) In case you’re having troubles with the new UIX (a LOT of people have been):

Raiders of the Lost Sale

Silver Surfer - Englehart  Guardians of the Galaxy by Jim Valentino  Marvel Zombies

We wish we were more surprised the Marvel Silver Surfer Sale is still broken. (Perhaps it will have been fixed by the time you see this, but we are growing skeptical.) As we type this, the official link is still showing last month’s X-Force sale… without the discounts. 

We’re going to relist the core Surfer titles on sale and then hit some highlights from the related titles we didn’t get to last week. You can see the sale in other countries, but not in the US… we cannot tell you why. It theoretically runs through 2/23, but with all these glitches…

Related titles:

  • Annihilation – The original sequence is a sprawling saga of the cosmic side of the Marvel universe. Keith Giffen / Dan Abnett / Andy Lanning are your ring leaders with a ton of artists like Mitch Breitweiser / Scott Kolins / Kev Walker / Ariel Olivetti
  • Much of the original Defenders is listed here, just like with the Doctor Strange sale
  • Unsurprisingly, there are several selections of the original Fantastic Four series on sale
  • Guardians Of The Galaxy: The Power Of Starhawk is the original ’70s run by Steve Gerber / Roger Stern / Al Milgrom / John Buscema
  • Selections from the 90s Guardians of the Galaxy. Why is the middle Valentino volume not discounted? We don’t know. The Valentino run is a lot of fun
  • Marvel Zombies: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 – The Ultimate FF lead-in, first mini-series and the Black Panther arc

Unannounced Sales

Elfquest  40: A Doonesbury Retrospective 1990 to 1999 Man, I Hate Cursive: Cartoons for People and Advanced Bears

As usual, we have no idea how long these sales will last. Dark Horse has the world of Elfquest on sale this week, by the legendary Wendy & Richard Pini. The Complete Elfquest is a the best buy here by A LOT, but you can still also get the same material in Elfquest: The Original Quest and Elfquest: The Final Quest. Not included in the Complete series (yet), but also discounted is Elfquest: Stargazer’s Hunt. Also on sale:

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Alpha Flight, Calvin and Hobbes, Opus

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel drops six sales (one of which you might have trouble seeing in the US), plus… Opus.

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: Your eyes do not deceive you. There are plenty of $2.99 single volumes scattered amongst the Marvel offerings this month. Most of Jed MacKay’s Doctor Strange, for example. Enjoy.

Surfin’ Bird

Silver Surfer by Lee/Kirby  Silver Surfer - Englehart  Silver Surfer

The  Marvel Silver Surfer Sale runs through Monday, 2/23.

So… we’re seeing last month’s X-Force sale for this link in the US (minus most of the discounts). Perhaps the link will be fixed by the time you click on it, but since we know what’s REALLY on sale, we’re going to drop the highlights below and save you the headache. And perhaps we’ll follow up if the link gets fixed.

For the most part, the solo adventures of the Silver Surfer fall into three periods:

First, the classic original series by Stan Lee and (mostly) John Buscema. This ran from ’68-’70 and is a minor legend for a reason. 

There wasn’t much solo Surfer for the better part of 17 years because the Surfer was considered to be Stan’s character in a similar way to how Sandman is Neil Gaiman’s. That changed in ’87 when Silver Surfer relaunched under the team of Steve Englehart & Marshall Rogers. (Yes, the Batman pairing.) Predictably, it was excellent. The next team was Jim Starlin and Ron Lim, another great run. Starlin used this run to bring back Thanos (mostly unused since he finished his Warlock run) and set up the Infinity Gauntlet.  We think very highly of the first 50 or so issues of this run. The first four Epic Collections will take you through #50 (that would be through Thanos Quest).

Then next major addition to the cannon was the Dan Slott / Michael Allred Silver Surfer in 2014. It is confusing listed in two places. The first three volumes here and the final two volumes here.

For something that ends up being off the radar because of it’s short length, there’s always Parable, which is Stan Lee teaming up with Metal Hurlant (Heavy Metal) legend Moebius for an adventure.

And if you’re interested in cherry picking the Surfer’s original appearances in Fantastic Four, the very definition of classic, there’s an Epic Collection that does just that.

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, 2/3.

And it’s most of the Doctor Strange material that’s been collected in book form. 

  • Strange Tales – A bit further down that cluttered page, you’ll find the original Lee/Ditko run in Masterworks and Epics
  • Doctor Strange ’68-’69 – This is there the Epics and Masterworks start containing different titles, so pay attention if you’re mixing formats. (Some next level Gene Colan art in this run, btw.)
  • 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. Not in the sale, but included for completeness
  • 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.

That’s the solo pack. There’s also quite a bit of team material available:

We’d draw your attention to two under the radar things from this second list. Clandestine is Alan Davis doing his own thing, which is always a good time. The Al Ewing / Javier Rodriguez Defenders titles are the very definition of trippy, living at the intersection of Sorcery Marvel and Cosmic Marvel. We’re usually in the bag for a Ewing run, but if you discovered Javier Rodriguez on the excellent Absolute Martian Manhunter, this is him getting cosmic a few years earlier when fewer people were paying attention.

The Great White North

Alpha Flight  X-Men: Asgardian Wars

The Marvel Alpha Flight Sale runs through Monday, 2/23.

We know what you’re thinking: “If Spider-Man could team up with the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, why couldn’t Alpha Flight team up with Bob and Doug McKenzie?” The way we heard it, this was proposed, but Guy Caballero nixed it.

The main item of note here is Alpha Flight Classic, 3 volumes that comprise the John Byrne run on the original series and a Bill Mantlo/Mike Mignola issue and Byrne essentially traded Alpha Flight for The Incredible Hulk. (We recall the Mantlo run being better than advertised, but there doesn’t currently seem to be interest in collecting it.)

Of possible related interest is X-Men: Asgardian Wars  by Chris Claremont / Paul Smith / Arthur Adams. X-Men / Alpha Flight is the first half of the book and it’s a fun romp. Plus, Smith and Adams on art? There are a lot worse things to drop $2.99 on.

And for something out of left field, there’s the more recent Gamma Flight, which is an Alpha Flight adjacent spin-off of Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing, Crystal Frazier and Len Medina.

A bit more tangentially related:

Stabbing Time

  Elektra

The Marvel Elektra Sale runs through Monday, 2/23.

Strangely, this sale excludes Elektra: Assassin.

What are we seeing? The original Miller Daredevil run is available in multiple formats.

  • Elektra (’96 – ’98) – Peter Milligan / Larry Hama / Mike Deodato, Jr.
  • Elektra (’01 – ’04) – Greg Rucka / Chuck Austen (drawing, not writing) / Joe Bennett / Carlo Pagulayan / Carlos Meglia / Greg Horn

Hurricane Ororo

  X-Men: Lifedeath  Uncanny X-Men  Uncanny X-Men

The Marvel Storm Sale runs through Monday 2/23.

We noticed something strange when going through this sale. The original X-Men / Uncanny X-Men (’63-’11) series has come undone in Amazon listings. Only the Epic Collections are still attached to the series. The Masterworks volumes or things like Lifedeath are still in the system, but they’re not attached to the series, effectively just floating out there unmoored in the digital aether. It’s really odd and it applies to things in the Cyclops sale, too.

Here’s Mud in Your Eye

X-Men: Raid On Graymalkin  X-Factor  X-Men: Cyclops & Phoenix - Past & Future

The Marvel Cyclops sale runs through 2/23.

This sale is even less organized than the Storm sale, partially because of the X-men books becoming unstuck from their home series.

A few things to look at:

  • X-Men (current) – Jed MacKay / Ryan Stegman / Netho Diaz
  • X-Factor (’86-’98)
  • X-Men: Cyclops & Phoenix – Past & Future – Scott Lobdell / Peter Milligan / Tom DeFalco / Gene Ha / John Paul Leon / Kyle Hotz

 

Unannounced Sales

OPUS: 25 Years of His Sunday Best Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection

Also on sale:

 The Creepy / Eerie sale appears to be continuing, so let’s revisit that, too. Creepy was the first one and is available in both archive  format and “Creepy Presents” volumes spotlighting individual artists (Alex Toth, Bernie Wrightson, Richard Corben, Steve Ditko). Eerie was the companion series. By halfway through it’s run, it had evolved into something a little different with multi-part stories and characters who returned, the breakout character being The Rook (a time traveler with some western elements baked in). It’s also available in archive format and “Eerie Presents” for collecting individual features (El Cid and Hunter).

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Vertigo vs. Creepy and Eerie

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s the dueling pianos of Vertigo vs. Creepy and Eerie.

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):

A Non-Cliffhanger View of Vertigo

Doom Patrol  Jonah Hex: Shadows West  Sandman Mystery Theater

The  DC Vertigo Sale runs through Tuesday, 2/24.

Now that everyone’s over Wednesday shock of DC actually having a sale, let’s look at the sale’s intent and some countermeasures.

Sales where the first volumes *only* are on sale should be viewed as samplers designed to get the customer to buy the rest of the series (often at full price). There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s pretty common in the greater publishing community, but this is NOT what people are used to from the DC and the grumbling is acute.

So, let’s go through the sale and pick out some good volumes that work as stand-alone books. There really are a chunk of these.

Jonah Hex: Shadows West is something of a value buy. It’s listed at 387 pages, though it’s really 13 issues collecting the complete series of mini-series by master horror novelist Joe R. Lansdale and Tim (Grimjack/Scout) Truman. Hex confronts demons and monsters in a Weird Western / action-horror collection.

Doom Patrol Vol. 1: Crawling From the Wreckage by Grant Morrison & Richard Case is essentially the first arc of Morrison’s run and an issue that pauses before the second arc. Oh, Mister Nobody is up to something, but we wouldn’t call it a cliffhanger, per se.

Sandman Mystery Theater – Matt Wagner / Steven T. Seagle / Guy Davis; We’re not in love with the $9.99 price point, but we do love this series. There are actually two volumes at that price, for which you get 12 issues and roughly 300 pages of comics, so it’s not horrible by that measure. These are the pulpy adventures of Wesley Dodds, the golden age Sandman.

Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book One – Alan Moore / Stephen Bissette / John Totleben; The American Gothic saga hasn’t begun yet, so these are short tales beginning with the legendary “Anatomy Lesson” and ending with an encounter with Etrigan. As classic as it gets.

Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age Vol. 1 – Len Wein / Bernie Wrightson / Nestor Redondo; While not on the Deals page, this one’s price dropped to that $9.99 price point. Sure enough, ~13 issues plus the original short story gives you about 300 pages of comics for $9.99 and the pattern emerges. This is classic, original Swamp Thing run by Wein and Wrightson. It’s very good stuff. While Wrightson stuck with horror, Wein did more superhero work after starting out with Swamp Thing and Phantom Stranger, so not everyone remembers how good he was with the dark and magical tales.

Top 10 – Alan Moore / Gene Ha / Zander Cannon – This is Alan Moore’s delightful excursion into the Hill Street Blues style of police procedural… but with superheroes as the law. Good stuff. America’s Best/Wildstorm is now Vertigo… or maybe Alan Moore is just Vertigo, full stop. At any rate this is another $9.99 / 12 issues offering and it’s good stuff.

Trillium – Probably our favorite Jeff Lemire work. Two people on a journey across time and space to find each other before the universe can end, notable for a particularly effective parallel narrative structure. The single issues were released as flipbooks to heighten that parallel structure.

  • Black Orchid – Early Neil Gaiman although Dave McKean might be stealing the show in this tale of botanical rebirth
  • Cinderella: Fables are Forever – Chris Roberson & Shawn McManus in this Fables-universe tale of Cinderella as a spy (Why is the actual first Cinderella series, From Fabletown With Love, not on sale? You’d need to ask whoever at DC makes this lists.)
  • Daytripper – Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba
  • Flex Mentallo – Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely; A delightfully odd/surreal tale that starts out as parody of the old Charles Atlas ads. And an early Morrison/Quitely pairing. They work well together.
  • Get Jiro – Anthony Bourdain / Joel Rose / Langdon Foss; Yes, that Anthony Bourdain spinning a tale of a sort of gangland war between chefs
  • Global Frequency – Warren Ellis applies a science fiction layer to the Mission: Impossible format (or perhaps ’83 TV show Masquerade, if you want a deep cut) with rotating artists
  • Joe the Barbarian – Grant Morrison / Sean Murphy; This one always reminded us of the film, Jacob’s Ladder. We’re not sure $9.99 for 8 issues is such a great deal, though…
  • Kill Your Boyfriend/Vimanarama Deluxe – Grant Morrison / Philip Bond / Matt Brooker; Collecting a pair shorter Morrison one-offs
  • Orbiter – Warren Ellis / Colleen Doran; An OGN about shenanigans revolving around a missing space shuttle
  • Strange Adventures – The Tom King / Mitch Gerads / Doc Shaner Black label deconstruction of Adam Strange (darker than you’d ever think they’d go), although we’re not wild about the $9.99 price tag
  • Sweet Tooth – Jeff Lemire; As seen on Netflix.
  • The Wake – Scott Snyder / Sean Murphy; Very Bad Things are happening at a secret underwater oil rig… and then things get considerably worse. We would like to point out this is $4.99 for 10 issues in marked contrast to some of the other pricing

Unannounced Sales

Creepy   Eerie

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

Dark Horse is thematically matching DC this week with a Creepy / Eerie sale. Oh, wait… they’re discounting more than just volumes ones, too.

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

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

Also on sale:

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

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Spider-Man, Avengers, Iron Man, X-Force, Rogue

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel continues their recent trend of dropping a bundle of discounts toward the top of the month.

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):

A Spider a Day Keeps Doc Ock Away

Amazing Spider-Man  Amazing Spider-Man  Amazing Spider-Man - Kraven's Last Hunt

Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man Sale runs through Monday, 1/26.

There’s a lot of ground to cover here, so let’s break it down by series.

  • Amazing Spider-Man (1963-98) – The original run before Marvel became quite so obsessed with rebooting titles.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (1998 – 2013) – This run starts out with the controversial J. Michael Straczynski/John Romita, Jr./Mike Deodato, Jr. run, then goes into the excellent Brand New Day era with rotating creative teams and segues into the beginning of the Dan Slott era. (Slott’s written a LOT of Spidey.)
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2014 – 15) – Peter’s back in control and the Slott era continues.
  • Amazing Spider-Man(2015-2018) – It’s a relaunch. (Hey, Spidey’s been relaunched a lot less than Captain Marvel!) This is the end run of the Slott era, culminating in the Red Goblin affair. The “Worldwide Collection” omnibuses are the better buy.
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2018 – 22) – The Nick Spenser era is here, PLUS the 4 volumes of Spider-Man Beyond with Ben Reilly stepping in that take place prior to the next series (and set up portions of it)
  • Amazing Spider-Man (2022 – 25) – The recent Zeb Wells / John Romita, Jr. / Ed McGuinness run. (And then Joe Kelly at the end.)

Recommendations?  Well, first off Amazing Spider-Man doesn’t really have very many BAD periods until the excesses of the Clone Saga (which some would argue are highlights). Oh, some runs are definitely better than others, but there aren’t huge swaths of duds.

You can definitely pick your poison between the $5.99 Masterworks and $6.99 – $8.99 Epic Collections for the original run. The Epics are typically much larger collections for only a buck more, but it depends on which format you started buying and which era you’re interested in. Some stretches are only in Masterworks, some are only in Epic.

Of possible interest, but NOT included in the link for the V.1 of Amazing is the Kraven’s Last Hunt Epic Collection, so we’ll call that one out directly. You get the J.M. DeMatteis/Mike Zeck classic, plus the issues of Amazing around it, plus Spider-Man Vs. Wolverine for about the price of just getting the regular Kraven collection.

And yes, we did enjoy the recently completed Zeb Wells / (mostly) John Romita, Jr. series. It’s a little more somber than we were expecting from Wells, but it largely a good ride. And this is a series that plays the long game resolving subplots. Not everyone agrees with that, but so be it.

Avengers Assemble

Avengers Assemble

The Marvel Avengers Sale runs through Monday, 1/26

And this as pretty much everything.

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

The Jonathan Hickman era

Avengers by Jonathan Hickman

The Hickman era is a little complicated, because his Avengers and New Avengers titles run together, so 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 it’s in the “by Hickman” omnibuses.)

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

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 the 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

Avengers

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

Enter Jed MacKay

Avengers

And that brings us to the current Jed MacKay / C.F. Villa Avengers run.

West Coast Avengers

Avengers West Coast

It’s close enough to it’s own franchise, let’s give it a sub-category. (I mean even DC moved to the West Coast. It’s a thing.)

Let’s run down the highlights of the rest of it:

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.

What’s at the top of the list for recommendations?

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 $6.99.  But really, it’s hard to go wrong with the Kree-Skrull War through ~#200, and then pick it up again for Roger Stern, particularly Stern/John Buscema/Tom Palmer. Stick around for Walt Simonson.

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.  Avengers Forever, which runs somewhat in parallel with this run, is a great stand-alone adventure.

We also thought the Dan Slott Mighty Avengers run was a fun slice of “traditional” Avengers in the middle of the Bendis “New Avengers” era.

The real under the radar one here is the Gerry Duggan Savage Avengers run. If you’ve had an itch for some classic Defenders, this (of all things) might scratch it. It’s offbeat, fun and the sequence where Conan humiliates/shames Doctor Doom while having dinner with him has to be experienced to be believed.

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

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 Sale runs through Monday, 1/26

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.” Oddly, this time out, titles with a word other than “Invincible” in front of “Iron Man” are omitted. (Infamous, International, etc.) Intentional or the new digital guy is from a film background and unfamiliar with the catalog? We’re not sure.

  • 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
  • Invincible Iron Man ’15-’16 – Brian Bendis and David Marquez/Mike Deodato, Jr. start out with Tony Stark in the 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)
  • Iron Man ’20-’22 – The Christopher Cantwell / Cafu run.
  • Invincible Iron Man ’22-’24 – Gerry Duggan / Juan Frigeri
  • Iron Man ’24-’25 – Spencer Ackerman / Julius Ohta

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

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

The next “all-star” run is #116-157 of the original Iron Man, that’s the David Michelinie / John Romita, Jr. / Bob Layton run that’s most famous for the “Demon in a Bottle” alcoholism arc, but there’s more to the run than just that arc.  The Denny O’Neil / Luke McDonnell run that follows is solid (make sure you get a collection that includes #200!!!), then 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). If you want a slightly bigger chunk for the same price, try Iron Man Masterworks V. 13. (Their first run goes through Masterworks V. 15.)

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.

You’ve got your choice of Epic or Masterworks here, but the more recent Masterworks can get up to $9.99.

Forced Entry

X-Force X-Force X-Force

The Marvel X-Force Sale runs through Monday, 1/26.

Yes, the mutant black ops team, as originally established by Cable (and morphing out of New Mutants). There absolutely have a been a few incarnations and relaunches over the years. Let’s start out with an overview of that:

  • X-Force ’91-’02 – Originally Rob Liefeld & Fabian Nicieza with Greg Capullo tagging in early on. The first edition, if you will.
    • Counter-X: X-Force – From the period when Warren Ellis was showrunning some of the X-titles, by Ian Edgington & Jorge Lucas
  • Uncanny-Force ’10-’12 – Rick Remender and rotating roster of Raphael Albuquerque, Esad Ribic, Jerome Opena, Billy Tan and Phil Noto
  • Uncanny X-Force ’13-’14 – Sam Humphries / Ron Garney / Dalibor Talajic
  • Deadpool vs. X-Force ’14 – Duane Swierczynski / Pepe Laraz
  • X-Force ’19-’24 – Ben Percy / Joshua Cassara / Robert Gill
  • X-Force ’24-’25 – Geoffrey Thorne / Marcus To

What’s good? Our top pick is the Remender Uncanny-Force. Black ops and a wide ranging, but complete story unit when taken as a whole. We’re also fans of the Ben Percy / Krakoa era X-Force  and recent Geoffrey Thorne / Marcus To X-Force.  If you want something off-beat, start here for the Milligan/Allred run, which is a satire.

You Were Expecting Moulin?

X-Men: Raid On Graymalkin  Mr. and Mrs. X  Rogue

The Marvel Rogue Sale runs through Monday, 1/26.

Quite a lot of random X-titles here, but let’s look at the highlights:

And from the current incarnation:

Unannounced Sales

The Art of Harvey Kurtzman  Money Shot

It seems Dark Horse’s holiday sale is still with us, but we wouldn’t expect it to last very far into next week.

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

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

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

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

Cobwebs

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

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

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

And the $0.99 singles and more conventional collected editions:

Hulk Smash Mistletoe

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

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

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

Some Assembly Required

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

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

Another one WAY overweighted with single issues. Highlights:

Fore!

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

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

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

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

Topmost

The Ultimates  Ultimate Black Panther Ultimate Invasion

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

That’s right. The current Ultimate Universe:

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

Unannounced Sales

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

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

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

Recommendations? Sure.

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

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

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

Also on sale:

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

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

 

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: 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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