Tag: Miles Morales

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Miles Morales – Spider-Man; DC’s Top 100; House of M; Groo; The Crow; Nova

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC drops a Top 100 sale. Marvel offers discounts on Miles Morales, Nova and House of M. Dark Horse cuts prices on Groo, along with several unannounced offerings.

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):

So Much For Top 10

Kingdom Come  Superman  Watchmen

The  DC Top 100 Sale runs through Monday, 9/9.

Top 100 what? We have no idea what the criterion would be, here. It’s a mix of recent and evergreen titles. Not a bad mix, either. A few things standing out:

Miles To Go Before I Sleep

  Miles Morales: Spider-Man  Miles Morales

The Marvel Miles Morales: Spider-Man Sale runs through Monday, 9/16.

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.

For the first Brian Bendis/David Marquez/Sara Pichelli run, you’re probably best off with the Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection set.

Then jump to the  Spider-Man for the ’16 Bendis/Pichelli/Nico Leaon run. (Yes, constant relaunching and it’s confusing to follow.)

Before we’re done with Bendis, there’s the very good Spider-Men series of mini-series where the “traditional” Peter Parker crosses paths with Miles. Get them both in one volume with Spider-Men: Worlds Collide by Bendis & Pichelli.

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

And then, Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Cody Ziglar and Federico Vicentini. 

No More Mutants

House of M  X-Men: Reload  X-Men: The Day After

Marvel’s House of M and Decimation Sale runs through Monday, 9/9.

This would be the Event Miniseries where Wanda snaps and rewrites reality… forming the basis for the WandaVision TV series.  Brian Bendis and Olivier Coipel are your creators. This is the sort of Event where we recommend getting the main series and then dipping your toe into the supporting collections in the sale at your own discretion.  A good chunk of the Marvel line shifted their storylines to participate in the Event, buy how relevant they were to the main storyline varied widely and a lot of it would firmly be considered side stories. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not always presented as such.

The “Decimation” part of the sale refers to the aftermath in the X-Men line after Wanda proclaims “no more mutants” and decimates the population. X-Men: Reload By Chris Claremont Vol. 2: House Of M by Claremont/ Chris Bachalo / Billy Tan covers House of M and Decimation in Uncanny X-Men. X-Men: Decimation – The Day After by Peter Milligan / Salvador Larocca / Roger Cruz covers Decimation in X-Men.

Corpsman
Nova Classic  Nova by Abnett & Lanning

The Marvel Nova Sale runs through Monday, 9/9.

Let’s run down the contents here:

  • Nova (1976-78) – The original Marv Wolfman/John Buscema/Sal Buscema/Carmine Infantino run
  • Nova (2007-10) – The Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning/Paul Pelletier/Kev Walker/Andrea di Vito era – the Complete Collection is the better deal.
  • Nova (2013-15) – Gerry Duggan / Paco Medina was probably the longest tenured creative team of this volume.
  • Nova: Resurrection (2015) – Jeff Loveness / Ramon Perez
  • Nova: The Human Rocket (2015-16) – Sean Ryan / Cory Smith / John Timms

What’s good here?  We’d go with the original run or the DnA run (complete with a space station carved out of a Celestial’s head – yes, the concept predates Avengers Mountain).

Theft

Criminal  Gideon Falls  Stray Bullets

The Image Summer Crime Sale runs through Sunday, 9/15.

Crime? Maybe crime, horror and science fiction? The sale’s title might be a bit reductive.

What we’d put at the top of it:

  • Criminal – Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips; While this was their second series (after the lesser known Sleeper), their mid-00s revival of crime comics locked in Brubaker & Phillips as a long term team… and Image would soon lure them away from Marvel
  • Fell – Warren Ellis / Ben Templesmith; A creepy, surrealist detective feature and we seem to recall the plots often resembling actual “News of the Weird” newspaper columns.
  • Gideon Falls – Jeff Lemire / Andrea Sorrentino; A wild SF/horror/time travel tale of a mysterious barn that appears and disappears, always leaving a trail of bodies
  • Stray Bullets – David Lapham; This was Criminal, long before Criminal came to be. Along with AKA Goldfish and Jinx by Bendis, this was the main crime comic of the late ’90s.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

X-Men Ultimate Spider-Man

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

Pre-Order for Next Week

Robbin’

Robyn Hood  Robyn Hood  Robyn Hood

The Zenescope Character Spotlight Sale – Robyn Hood Sale  runs through Sunday, 9/22.

This sale is in three flavors with three links:

Looks like the Omnibus is cheaper than the collected editions and the collected editions are cheaper than the single issues, but you can double check that on individual collections. 99-cent single issues make that easy.

And yes, those really are Chuck Dixon and Howard Mackie on runs towards the bottom of the listings.

Possible Oni Sales

OK… you might remember this drill from the distant past. Oni’s had two sales listed for a couple of days. They don’t look like sale prices to us. Maybe that gets fixed at some point, but that’s what we’re seeing at the moment.

Unannounced Sales

The Crow  Groo  Barbaric

Over at Dark Horse, everyone’s favorite stupid barbarian is on sale. Yes, that’s right… it’s Groo by Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier!

And taking a wider view:

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Black Panther; Miles Morales; Suicide Squad; Justice League; Dark Horse Horror

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, now with *official* links and listings, Marvel discounts Black Panther and Miles Morales. DC drops prices on Suicide Squad and Justice League comics. Plus, an unlisted Dark Horse Horror 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):

And behold, the deal page updated about a day later than normal…

T’Challa Forever

Black Panther Masterworks  Black Panther by Priest  Black Panther

The Marvel Black Panther Sale runs through Monday, 2/26.

  • The Don McGregor era (AKA, pre-Priest), where Don McGregor was primary author… with a notable Kirby interlude. The best way to navigate the multiple editions is:
  • The Chrisopher Priest era  – with art by Mark Texiera, M.D. Bright and Sal Velluto (among others)
  • The Reggie Hudlin era (yes, “House Party” / “Boomerang” Hudlin) – with art by John Romita, Jr., Scot Eaton and Denys Cowan (among others)
    • Separate from the regular series is the excellent Flags of Our Fathers by Hudlin and Denys Cowan, which features a WWII era tale of Captain America “visiting” Wakanda and meeting T’Challa’s grandfather, the Black Panther of that period.
  • The Ta-Nehisi Coates era (yes, from The Atlantic) – while the volumes are numbered consecutively, it’s split into two listing
    • Part one – with art by Brian Stelfreeze and Chris Sprouse (among others)
    • Part two – with art by Daniel Acuna and Kev Walker (among others)
  • The John Ridley era (Yes, Oscar-winner Ridley from 12 Years a Slave) – with art by Juann Cabal and German Peralta
  • The Eve Ewing era – We think V. 1 is discounted slightly?

That first McGregor / Graham run really is the foundational work for everything that comes and should be read first. As a major bonus, it’s great work and ahead of its time.

Priest’s extended run lives up to it’s reputation for excellence, so that’s your second must-read for exploring the Panther.

We like Hudlin’s run, too. For something a little off the beaten path, Range Wars is something you get for the titular arc that’s the last two issues of the collection. John Ridley and German Peralta offer a particularly savage satire of colonialism.

There’s a bit more to sale, but the above is the core.

The Once and Future Ultimate Spidey

  Miles Morales: Spider-Man  Miles Morales

The Marvel Miles Morales Sale runs through Monday, 2/26.

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.

For the first Brian Bendis/David Marquez/Sara Pichelli run, you’re probably best off with the Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection set.

Then jump to the Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Vol. 2 collection for the ’16 Bendis/Pichelli/Nico Leaon run. (Do not ask us why the first omnibus isn’t on sale…)

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

The current series (only V.1 is discounted and we didn’t see it on the sale page) is Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Cody Ziglar and Federico Vicentini. 

Something About a Video Game

Justice League of America  Suicide Squad  Suicide Squad Bad Blood

The DC Suicide Squad and Justice League Sale runs though Monday, 2/12.

When it comes to Suicide Squad, we have a strong preference for the original run where the undercurrent of humor was more the bailiwick of Captain Boomerang. Now, that said… who doesn’t like a Tom Taylor / Bruno Redondo take on… anything?

And a Justice League Sale

Under the radar?  The Christopher Priest / Pete Woods arc from ~3 years back. It’s just good comics without silly crossovers.

Justice was a maxi-series from Jim Kreuger / Doug Braithwaite / Alex Ross with a certain “Legion of Doom” vibe to it.

The Nail is Alan Davis with an A+ Elseworlds take on a Justice League on a world where Superman did not emerge as the first hero.

Plenty of side series and ancillary material to be browsed in this one.

Dark Horse

Baltimore Omnibus 1  Hellsing  The Seeds

Dark Horse sales continue to be unannounced on Amazon – no clue why. The usual warning applies that we’re not entirely sure how long there are running. There appears to be a horror sale going on… and Dark Horse has lots of horror titles, so if you go poking around, there’s plenty of stuff to be seen. Some highlights we’ve noticed:

Yes, Mike Mignola and Cullen Bunn dominate here, don’t they?

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s Halloween Sale; Venom; Miles Morales: Spider-Man; She-Hulk

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC launches its Halloween sale. Marvel drops a discount on Venom, Miles Morales and She-Hulk.

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’s Halloween Sale

The DC Horror and Mystery Sale runs through Monday, 10/30.

We’re not sure why this isn’t being called a Halloween sale. If looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck and it’s October, it’s probably a vampire duck.

That said, this a quality sale with lots of $2.99 collected editions to satisfy your thrifty needs. It’s worth a browse. Since there’s so much good stuff and it’s a two week sale, we’ll go over the highlights of A-Hellblazer this week and hit the back half of the alphabet next week.

Things that caught our eye as interesting:

What’s good here? All of the above.

A bit of recent news you might not have heard of yet. Regular readers will know the high esteem we hold the  Spurrier/Campbell Hellblazer run in. It seems DC has come to their senses (or the collected edition sales finally got high enough to get their attention) and Spurrier & Campbell will get another 8 issues of Hellblazer in ’24. (And the original run for $2.99/$3.99 per volume is a good deal, too.)

We’d highlight Batman: Haunted Knight, which are what really established the Loeb/Sale creative pairing before Long Halloween blew up and raised their collective profile.

If you’ve never tried DCeased, this is a good time of the year to try it. Leave it to Tom Taylor to take a potentially silly high concept like “superheroes vs. zombies,” tie it in with the Anti-Life Equation & Darkseid, then add in enough character work to make it a must-read.

John Constantine, Hellblazer   Batman - Haunted Knight   DCeased

Poison

The Marvel Venom Sale runs through Monday, 10/23.

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-present) – Al Ewing / Ram V / Bryan Hitch

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 current Ewing / V / Hitch run, Ewing is wrapping up and Ram V has moved on from… but it’s something else. 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.

Venom by Remender   Venom by Cates   Venom

Miles To Go Before I Sleep

The Marvel Miles Morales Sale runs through Monday, 10/23

Way too many editions of the same content for this one. Here’s our cheat sheet:

For the first Brian Bendis/David Marquez/Sara Pichelli run, you’re probably best off with the Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection set.

Then jump to the Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Vol. 2 collection for the ’16 Bendis/Pichelli/Nico Leaon run. (Do not ask us why the first omnibus isn’t on sale…)

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

  Miles Morales: Spider-Man   Miles Morales

You Have the Right to Remain Green

The Marvel She-Hulk Sale runs through Monday, 10/23.

Why yes, Jennifer Walters is a lawyer. Let’s first run down the series involved here.

  • The Savage She-Hulk (’80-’82) – mostly by David Anthony Kraft and Mike Vosburg
  • Sensational She-Hulk (’89-’94) – John Byrne, then the unlikely team of Steve Gerber & Bryan Hitch
  • She-Hulk (’04-’05) – Dan Slott / Juan Bobillo
  • She-Hulk (’05 – ’09) – Initially Dan Slott / Juan Bobillo, then Peter David takes over.
  • She-Hulk (’14-’15) – Charles Soule & Javier Pulido in one omnibus
  • She-Hulk (’16-’18) – Mariko Tamaki / Nico Leon
  • She-Hulk (’22-’23) – Rainbow Rowell / Roge Antonio / Luca Maresca

If you’re coming into She-Hulk through the TV show, the legal angle for the character really started getting emphasized with the Dan Slott era and then was followed up on by Charles Soule (who just might be a lawyer in his secret identity). Rainbow Rowell’s also picking up a pretty dedicated following with her current runs.

She-Hulk by Dan Slott   She-Hulk   She-Hulk

Zenescope’s Halloween Sale

Zenescope’s Tales of Terror Halloween Sale runs through Sunday, 11/5.

This is essentially the Zenescope version of Tales from the Crypt and it comes in three formats:

Grimm Tales of Terror   Grimm Tales of Terror   Grimm Tales of Terror Quarterly

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Spider-Verse, Miles Morales, DC Pride, Fear Itself, Usagi Yojimbo, Plants vs. Zombies

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s a Spider-Verse  and Fear Itself Discounts from Marvel. DC has a Pride sale. Dark Horse offers up Usagi Yojimbo and Plants Vs. Zombies.

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 Half-Month Sale

The DC Pride Sale runs through Thursday, 6/15.

No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, a 17-day sale from DC. Been a while since we’ve seen one of those

What’s good?

For this sale, our favorite volume is Batwoman by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III. That would be the full collection of the Detective Comics run. Strong collection and the introduction of Alice. To say more would be spoilers.

The Grant Morrison / (primarily) Richard Case run on Doom Patrol is a classic journey into the offbeat.  Mr. Nobody and The Brotherhood of Dada, Danny the Street, Crazy Jane… strange is the operative word here, in a good way.

You can’t really have a Pride Sale without Wonder Woman, can you? And there’s a LOT of Wonder Woman at the bottom of the sale. You can’t really go wrong with either of the Greg Rucka runs, the second of which (with Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp) can be found in the first two volumes here. And you can’t go wrong with George Perez, either.

Batwoman    Doom Patrol   Wonder Woman

Invasion of the Spider-Riffs

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

Gosh, you’d think there was a movie coming out or something…

So, the 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.)

If you’re looking for Miles Morales, Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection is the best place to start (and also a bit of a tongue twister). That’s the original Brian Bendis / Chris Samnee / David Marquez / Sara Pichelli Ultimate Universe material that set the table and we’ve enjoyed this take.

Of course, we all know who the real star of the Spider-Verse is: Spider-Ham!

Spider-Verse   Miles Morales - Spider-Man   Spider-Ham

If You Needed Something To Fear…

The Marvel Fear Itself Sale runs through Monday, 6/5.

Fear Itself was a Marvel crossover Event we always thought should have just been a Thor/Iron Man crossover.

Fear Itself is the main series and on the Thor-centric side as the Asgardian god of fear escapes and marches Midgard towards an apocalypse. Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen are your creators.

The tie-in we liked for this was Invincible Iron Man: Fear Itself from the excellent Matt Fraction / Salvador Larocca Iron Man run. Tony Stark doesn’t think he’s surviving this one, so he joins the dwarves in boozing while making weapons. One of the better “drinking with dwarves” sequences in literature.

Fear Itself   Invincible Iron Man: Fear Itself

Gardening For The Dead

The Dark Horse Plants Vs. Zombies Sale runs through Monday, 6/19.

Yes, this would be the comics adaptation of the Plants vs. Zombies video games by Paul Tobin and several artists (Ron Chan being the most frequent). And these sell better in the bookstore market than you might realize.

The omnibus editions are the best deal.

Plants vs. Zombies

Have Rabbit, Will Travel

The Dark Horse 2023 Usagi Yojimbo Digital Sale runs through Monday, 6/19.

This is Stan Sakai’s long-running (it started in 1984) saga of a samurai/ronin rabbit. It’s got a pretty nice collection of awards, too.

And this is one where there’s a CLEAR winner in format: $6.99 Omnibus Editions that are usually over 600 pages.

Usagi Yojimbo

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Marvel Omnibuses; Miles Morales: Spider-Man; Dark Reign; DC Celebrates Black History Month; Image’s Discounted Romance

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel has a rare sale on their Omnibuses, plus Miles Morales and Dark Reign. DC celebrates Black History Month and Image puts a (discounted) price on romance.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

As we adjust to whatever’s going on behind the scenes at Amazon, the sales did post this week, but they trickled out in an unusual pattern. At least the pricing seemed to be correct when they sales appeared this week. There’s a reason we don’t always rush to post the sale.

Did Somebody Say Omnibus?

The Marvel Omnibus Sale runs through Monday, 2/13.

Well, here’s a sale you don’t see every day. These omnibuses contain _around_ 40 issues each, though it can vary a few hundred pages from volume to volume. Evaluate these as bundles of collected editions, but there are some volumes that caught our eye.

The Captain Britain Omnibus is a very interesting thing. It’s basically all the Captain Britain appearances through when he first starts turning up in the X-Men line, so just before Excalibur kicks off. You’ve got the original UK run, which does have a little bit of early Chris Claremont in it. The Marvel Team-Up appearances (Claremont/Byrne), the David Thorpe/Alan Davis reset and then the two crown jewels: the Alan Moore/Alan Davis run and the Alan Davis solo run in the magazine version of Captain Britain. These last two runs are fantastic and highly influential (although you might be surprised how many things Thorpe initiated). And then a couple X-verse annuals to cap it.  Some really good stuff in here and Marvel’s a little inconsistent about keeping all of this available.

The Incredible Hulk by Peter David Omnibus set is the entire run. Peter David was on that book a LONG time and had a pretty darn good set of artists to team with, including Todd McFarlane, Gary Frank, Dale Keown, Liam Sharp and several others. It’s a little more understandable with such a long run, but we’re under the impression this is the only collection of David’s entire run. The “Visionaries” series doesn’t go all the way and only sections of it are in Epic Collections. So, here’s the entirety of a landmark run in 1000-1100 page chunks.

Another meaty set of books is the Thunderbolts set. V.1 is 1100 pages of Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley. V.2 is another 1100 pages as Fabian Nicieza tags in for Busiek and we don’t think the back half of V.2 is currently collected elsewhere, either.

We know you were thinking it, so we’re going to go ahead and say it out loud: omnibus editions are a lot more convenient to read in digital. Those hardcovers can top 6 pounds.

Captain Britain Omnibus   Incredible Hulk by Peter David   Thunderbolts

Spider-Verse

The Marvel Monthly Sale: Miles Morales: Spider-Man Sale runs through Monday, 2/27

This sale is… kind of a mess to navigate.

For the first Brian Bendis/David Marquez/Sara Pichelli run, you’re probably best off with the Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection set.

Then jump to the Miles Morales: Spider-Man, Vol. 2 collection for the ’16 Bendis/Pichelli/Nico Leaon run. (Do not ask us why the first omnibus isn’t on sale…)

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

  Miles Morales: Spider-Man   Miles Morales

Make It Reign

The Marvel Dark Reign Sale runs through Monday, 2/6.

Dark Reign is a sort of background story that spun through a bunch of the Marvel titles, post-Secret Invasion.  Norman Osborn manages to get himself installed as Director of SHIELD and makes a power play. A lot of it involved declaring the various heroes to be enemies of the state and hunting them down. There wasn’t a mini-series driving this in the usual sense, but there were a ton of mini-series out there. A lot of this ran through the numerous Bendis Avenger titles.

The best thing to come out of Dark Reign was the “World’s Most Wanted” arc in Invincible Iron Man (Book 1 and Book 2) by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca. Fraction and Larroca essentially paused their story for this arc where Norman Osborn is after the knowledge in Tony Stark’s brain – especially all the secret identities. Stark is a fugitive on the run and he’s trying to delete and overwrite his brain, like a hard drive, to keep all the sensitive information out of Osborn’s hands. A superior arc.

Iron Man   Iron Man

You can pop in on the other titles to see where Dark Reign takes them, but Iron Man was a class above.

February

The DC Black History Month Sale runs through Monday, 2/27.

Some picks? Sure. Justice League by Christopher Priest collects the Priest / Pete Woods wherein Batman has a lapse in judgement and a “fan” moves in for the kill.

A lesser known recent title is Michael Cray by Bryan Hill and N. Stephen Harris. This was part of the Wildstorm revival and the titular Cray is an assassin tasked with eliminating some funhouse mirror versions of the Justice League. Well done twisted fun.

And from clear out of left field, here’s something we don’t recall seeing on sale in a while: Steel single issues for $0.99. Yes, the Death of Superman spin-off about John Henry Irons that spawned a Shaq movie. Creators on this include Louise Simonson, David Michelinie, Christopher Priest, Chris Batista, Phil Gosier and Denys Cowan. Yes, that’s an early Priest/Cowan pairing at the end of the series.

Justice League by Priest   Michael Cray   Steel

Romance… Through The Mirror, Darkly…

The Image Romance Sale runs through Monday, 2/27.

Might modern “romance” comics be a little off-kilter? Could be!

A marque Image series popping up here is Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky (Mr. Romance, himself) has a high concept along the lines of “Make love. Stop time. Rob banks.” Why yes, it’s also a comedy. The “normal” collections are a better price than the “Big Hard” collections and that’s an instance of a fancier print edition translating to poor digital pricing, as is frequently the case.

My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips does have a romance in the middle of a tale about nefarious goings-on at a rehab facility. That’s a fair cop.

And a new title that might be of interest here: $0.99 single issues of Love Everlasting by Tom King and Elsa Charretier, featuring a woman caught in a series of bizarre romances bouncing around different time periods.

Sex Criminals   My Heroes Have Always Been Junkies   Love Everlasting

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Captain America, Star Wars, Ultimate Spider-Man (and Miles Morales), Suicide Squad and Road to Perdition

This week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales include the majority of Captain America comics, a whole bunch of Star Wars material, Ultimate Spider-Man (and Miles Morales) and the rest of DC’s Memorial Day Sale.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

Super Soldier Serum

The Marvel Captain America Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 5/30.

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

  • Captain America Comics ’40-’50 – The original Golden Age series
  • Tales of Suspense ’59-’68 – Cap’s Silver Age solo stories were in a title shared with Iron Man
  • Captain America ’68-’96 – The original Silver/Bronze Age solo series.
  • 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 ’02-’04 – The Marvel Knights era
  • 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
  • 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 ’12-’14 is the Rick Remender run with John Romita, Jr, Carlos Pacheco, Pascal Alixe and Nic Klein in the artistic rotation.
  • All-New Captain America ’14-’15 – Sam Wilson picks up the shield by Rick Remender and Stuart Immonen
  • Captain America: Sam Wilson ’15-17 – Nick Spencer with Daniel Acuna as the primary artist. The seeds of “Secret Empire,” which was a long game, start here.Note: There’s a Complete Collection omnibus set of the Sam Wilson material that’s a bit cheaper.
  • Captain America: Steve Rogers ’16-’17 – The main runup to Secret Empire by Nick Spencer with Jesus Saiz and Javier Pina as the primary artists.
  • While not on sale, you can’t talk about the Spencer era without mentioning Secret Empire, the controversial “Hydra Cap” arc that Spencer’s entire run builds towards.
  • Captain America ’17-’18 – AKA Captain America by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee (and Leonardo Romero)
  • Captain America ‘18-’21 – The Ta-Nehisi Coates run with art by Leinil Francis Yu, Adam Kubert, Jason Masters and Leonard Kirk

So… do you think Captain America gets relaunched enough? Don’t worry, they’ll relaunch him again.

First the usual general advice: The Masterworks and Epic Collections tend to be the best buys, but keep an eye on price points. Some of the newer Epic Collections can be $8.99+ and make the Masterworks more appealing.

Some recommendations? Absolutely.  Just the way the collections are currently rolled out, the highlights seem to flow more with the Masterworks than the Epics.

For Silver/Bronze Age adventures,  Captain America Masterworks V. 3 gets you some late Stan Lee/Jack Kirby and the influential Jim Steranko Sequence.  You then jump forward to Masterworks V. 7 for the beginning of the Steve Englehart/Sal Buscema era and stay on through Masterworks V.10, which is the return of Jack Kirby and his entirely too timely “Madbomb” arc. (There’s more Kirby in V.11, but Madbomb is a hard act to follow.) There’s also much to recommend with the Mark Gruenwald era which probably peaked with “The Captain” Epic Collection. In general, earlier Gruenwald is better and the art takes a nose dive before his run is over.

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

Captain America   Captain America   Captain America

Nothing But Star Wars

The Marvel Star Wars Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 5/30.

While not the rock bottom prices of the May the 4th sale, this one does have a wider selection of Star Wars material that isn’t limited to the current Marvel titles.  Some titles that may be of interest:

You get a little more material per volume (and they finished the run) getting the original Marvel Star Wars series with the “A Long Time Ago…” omnibus editions.

A lot of the Epic Collections of the older material have been lumped together under an Epic Collections page, to make finding individual series hard, so refer to that link for the bigger picture, but within that link:

  • Dark Empire – Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy played a BIG part in bringing the Star Wars franchise back to life with their Dark Horse mini-series and it’s sequel. This is the most economical package for the Dark Empire-related titles. It’s a classic.
  • Agent of Empire – John Ostander, Stéphane Roux and Davidé Fabbri did a couple mini-series that effectively answered the question, “what if James Bond worked for The Empire?” Those are the backbone of this collection.
  • Legacy – Far in the Star Wars timeline’s future, the Sith have returned and are stalking the last Skywalker heir. There are three volumes of this fun John Ostrander / Jan Duursema series that might not be cannon anymore, but is better than a lot of things that came after it.

Original Marvel Star Wars   Dark Empire   Agent of Empire

This Time, the Other Peter Isn’t a Clone

The Marvel Ultimate Spider-Man Sale runs through Monday, 5/30.

A Bendis Sale! And Ultimate Spidey might just the the crowning achievement for Brian Bendis in the world of superheroes. (We might like his Daredevil a little more, but Ultimate Spidey and then Miles have had so much impact.)

So let’s break this one down into parts.

  1. The original Ultimate Spider-Man with Mark Bagley, reimaging Peter for a new era. You get a better deal with these larger collections and ignore the omnibus that starts the list.
  2. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, the relaunch with David Lafuente.
  3. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, the Miles Morales version with art by Sara Pichelli, Chris Samnee, David Marquez and Pepe Larraz

Ultimate Spider-Man   Ultimate Comics Spider-Man   Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (Miles Morales)

The Other Memorial Day Sale

The DC Memorial Day eBook Sale Part 2 runs through Monday, 5/30.

It would appear that last week’s confusion was caused by Amazon prematurely post this week’s sale last week, then removing it in the US while leaving it online in the UK.  Stranger and stranger.

But this is essentially the back half of the alphabet on sale and worth a browse. Some highlights?

The rock bottom price pick: Dead Boy Detectives for $3.99. Something of a departure for Vertigo as we generally remember it (although there was a similar “Death” volume and My Faith In Frankie wasn’t necessarily far removed), the multi-award-winning Jill Thompson takes the ghost detective children from Sandman and plops them into a manga-style detective comedy.  Yes, Jill is versatile.

From the “Yes, DC published that” division, do you remember Road to Perdition? Yes, before Tom Hanks was a mob enforcer, this was a comic. As usual, these are cataloged strangely.  Listed under “Return to Perdition,” are the original Road to Perdition  and Road to Perdition: On the Road. Both are written by Max Allan Collins with Richard Piers Rayner illustrating Road to Perdition and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Steve Leiber and Joseph Rubenstein sharing duties for On the Road. The actual Return to Perdition, a sequel set in the 1970s by Collins and his Ms. Tree partner, Terry Beatty is list separately (for $3.99). Go figure…

For the uninitiated, Road to Perdition can be likened to Lone Wolf and Cub setting against the backdrop of the Capone era Chicago mob. A mob enforcer goes on the lam with his son after the boss of the local mob outpost orders a hit on his family.  Excellent material that’s largely ignored these days.

And if you’d like some supervillains in your life, the John Ostrander/Luke McDonnell Suicide Squad run is available for $5.99 a pop. This is the run that spun off the films.

Dead Boy Detectives   Road to Perdition   Suicide Squad

 

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Comixology Sales: Spider-Man and the Spider-Verse; X-Men and Phoenix; Wonder Woman and IDW Horror

This week’s Comixology Sales highlights include Spider-Man and X-Men from Marvel, good discounts on Wonder Woman from DC and an IDW horror sale for Halloween.

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

The Spiders From Another Dimension

The Marvel Spider-Verse Sale runs through Sunday, 10/24.

Which is to say, the Spidey family, as built around a couple Events that you go into prelude and post-Event volumes, because… Marvel’s sales department.

The center of the activity here is the titular Spider-Verse omnibus.  Morlun’s up to his old tricks and ALL the Spider-Men across the various dimension must act.  The omnibus contains the Amazing issues and the crossovers, so you’re looking at Dan Slott, Christos Gage (yes, Gage covering deadlines — it’s a thing!), Peter David, “Hopeless” Dennis, Adam Kubert, Olivier Copiel, Mark Brooks and a ton of others.  Roughly 600 pages of Spidey to keep you out of trouble.

And the follow-up to that is Spider-Geddon.  This one has a little smaller scope than Spider-Verse.

Now, if you’re talking the extended Spider-family, Miles Morales is the character we most associate with the phrase “Spider-Verse.” The omnibus editions are the ones on sale here and you can do a lot worse than the Bendis / Marquez /Pichelli run.  Some would say this (particularly Spider-Men, which followed) was top of the final Marvel years for Bendis.

Spider-Verse   Spider-Geddon   

Shot Down in Flames

The Marvel Phoenix Sales runs through Sunday 10/24.

This is a fairly straightforward and small sale. X-Men Epic Collection: The Fate of the Phoenix is a classic of medium.  Accept no substitute and go for the Epic Collection.

X-Men: The Fate of the Phoenix

Sappho Suffered For This Sale, Part 2

The Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary Sale runs through Monday, 10/25.

Last time out, we looked at earlier Wonder Woman titles, this time we’ll take a look at New 52 on.

Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang (with Tony Akins and Goran Sudžuka drawing a few issues) launched the New 52 edition of Wonder Woman. It’s a darker, alternate take on Wonder Woman’s origins. Some would prefer you treat this one like an Elseworlds story. A sacrilegious a take on the mythos as it maybe be, it’s also one of the best comics to come out of the New 52.  That said, when the Azzarello/Chiang era stops with Volume 6, we would advise you to stop there.

For the Rebirth Era of Wonder Woman, we love the first arc(s) where Greg Rucka returns to undo the Azzarello run (no, really) with Liam Sharp and Nicola Scott alternating parallel stories.  Save a couple bucks with the first omnibus editions in the run or get the first 4 regular collections for this.

And for something a little different, do you remember Matt Wagner’s Trinity? Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman get together to thwart a Ra’s al Ghul plot. Save yourself a buck and get the original (prestige format) issues for $0.99 each.

Wonder Woman New 52   Wonder Woman  Trinity

Revenge of the Trick or Treaters

The IDW Horror Sale runs through Thursday, 11/4.

Yes, it’s the most magical time of the year… for the undead.  There’s plenty for your Halloween appetite rite now, er… right now.  Two things that spring to mind are:

From Hell – Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell collaborate on a very dark exploration of the tale of Jack Ripper. It’s a thick volume and has garnered a veritable ton of accolades over the years. The current edition is in color, “with pictorial revisisions for color by Eddie Campbell, as the cover says.” Be aware, in League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Alan Moore does more of a Victorian pastiche.  The tone here is way different.  This is a horror sale.

30 Days of Night is an important book for IDW.  Never mind the movies, this Steve Niles/Ben Templesmith comic was an important early hit that helped put IDW on the map.  The premise is one so obvious, you’ll hate yourself for not thinking of it first. (Those are always the best ones.) Bad Things happen when a group of vampires realize that in rural Alaska, the sun goes down for a whole month at a time.

From Hell   30 Days of Night

Still on Sale

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

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

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

Wakanda Forever

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

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

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

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

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

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

…or you could call it a Spider-Man sale

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

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

Miles Morales - Spider-Man

A couple BIG writing names from other fields

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

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

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

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

American Way   Far Sector   Michael Cray

Ninja Assassin

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

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

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

Elektra Assassin   Daredevil by Frank Miller

Hammered

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

Black Hammer

All kinds of FF on sale

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

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

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

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

The inverse of “well” comics

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

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

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

The Bojeffries Saga   They Called Us Enemy

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Comixology Sales: Miles Morales – Spider-Man, DC in the ’90s, Image SF Titles, The Eternals and More

Current Comixology sales include Miles Morales (Spider-Man) and Jack Kirby’s The Eternals from Marvel, an eclectic selection of 90s comics from DC and Image has a big batch of science fiction on a deep discount.

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

Let’s start things out with a Spider-Man sale.  Specifically a Miles Morales sale.  If you’re looking for Miles in solo spider-adventures, the best value is the Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man Ultimate Collection set.  300+ page volumes for $7.99 – and the first one includes the Spider-Men mini-series, which lives up to the hype. If you want to maximize pages for your dollar, there are a couple things of extra interest here.  The All-New All-Different Avengers Collection which is the Champions precursor by Mark Waid/Adam Kubert/Mahmud Asrar gets you 401 pages for $7.99.  And then Champions: Because The World Still Needs Heroes is the first 12 issues of that title, 305 pages for $4.99.

Miles Morales - Spider-Man All-Different Avengers Champions

DC’s sale of the week is a *strange* one.  The “DC Back in the 90s Sales” has some 90s comics, a few 80s comics (like the Byrne era Superman reprints), only the end of some series.  If you browse the single issues, you’ll see the first issues of some titles are missing.  It’s an odd one.  Browse for a variety of Superman, Batman, Justice League and mid-to-late period Hellblazer.  Here are some of the more off the beaten path choices, since my experience has always been that the best titles of the 90s weren’t always the best sellers.

Starman by James Robinson and (initially) Tony Harris & Wade von Grawbadger was one of DC’s best titles of the mid-to-late 90s.  An early legacy title, this one was heavy on the character development and a sense of history. It’s one of the more glaring absences from DC’s reprint library.  Both collections are on sale, but the rest of the series is available in digital.

Sandman Mystery Theater was the rare early to mid-90s non-horror Vertigo title.  It told the pulp-ish adventures of the original Sandman, Wesley Dodds – you know, the one with the gas mask – against a pre-WWII backdrop.  Written by Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle with Guy Davis being the most regular artist, this is another one where only two collections have been produced, despite a lengthy run and you need to go to digital singles to finish it.  And it’s worth finishing.

Sandman Mystery Theater

The Spectre by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake, and you’re going to a pattern here, also has two collections out and then the rest of the run is available as digital singles.  A surprisingly philosophical horror series by the end, set in the DCU, Jim Corrigan tries to come to grips with his death and existence as the host for a brutally vengeful and extremely powerful spirit.

In the early 90s, Lobo  was the baddest bastich there was.  We will not speak of New 52 Lobo.  The original series of mini-series and specials by Keith Giffen, Alan Grant, Simon Bisley and company, was edgy and filled with off-color humor.  An effective tool for offending the easily offended, as MTV used to say about Monty Python. You want the original, not the revival.

And for something that’s frequently overlooked, have a look at The Atlantis Chronicles in single issues.  (Yes, they rudely kept the first issue at $1.99).  These double-sized issues written by Peter David and wonderfully illustrated by Esteban Maroto are the trident and sorcery story of the rise and fall of Atlantis.  It’s a real achievement that flew under a lot of radars.

 Lobo The Atlantis Chronicles

Running through next Thursday (11/19) is the Image Science Fiction Sale where a number of their SF collections are sale.  Suggestions?  

Descender by Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen (who one an Eisner for his art on the series) is the tale of little boy who happens to be a robot, searching for his family as humanity against the backdrop of an uprising.  Wonderful series.  The collected editions are less expensive than the omnibus editions during the sale.

Paper Girls is a time travel adventure about four twelve year old girls who deliver newspapers and stumble into something far bigger.  It’s by Saga writer Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang.  This is another title where it’s less expensive to get the regular collected editions than the Omnibus editions during the sale.

Starlight by Mark Millar and Goran Parlov is a one-off where a Flash Gordon-type adventurer is pulled out of retirement in his golden years when the planet he saved 40 years earlier runs into trouble.  A breezy space opera with superior art.

 Paper Girls Star Light

Running through Sunday (11/15) is Marvel’s Eternals Sale. Yes, there’s going to be a movie out eventually and it’s also where the Celestials came from.  This is a case where you absolutely want to start at the source: the original Jack Kirby series (save a couple bucks and get the omnibus). If that floated your boat, and it should, move on to the Neil Gaiman/John Romita, Jr. Mini-series.

Eternals by Jack Kirby   

Still on Sale:

Wolverine Legacy Sale through Thursday (11/12)

Wolverine

Star Wars Bounty Hunters and Jedi Sale through Thursday (11/12)

Star Wars

Image Donny Cates Sale through Monday (11/16)

Redneck by Donny Cates

 

 

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