Mister Sinister Archives

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel contemplates Mister Sinister, DC celebrates teamwork, Image does science fiction and Dark Horse discounts fantasy.

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):

New sales did post this week, so that’s good… but make sure you eyeball the displayed prices to see if it looks like it’s really on sale. A number of things did not pass the eye test, although at least the DC sale got fixed. As we type this, not everything did. Speaking of DC:

Fight and Then Team Up

The DC Super Teams Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

There’s a 2-Omnibus set of 52 that’s a good deal. 52 issues for $20 works out to $0.38/issue, better than you usually see. 52 was a weekly comic co-written by Mark Waid, Greg Rucka, Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns. Keith Giffen did the layouts and then a whole bunch of artists finished those. The story is a set of plot threads telling the aftermath of Infinite Crisis, with arcs for Booster Gold, Black Adam, Elongated Man, Adam Strange, Will Magnus (the Metal Men’s creator) and The Question, among others.

This World’s Finest is the 1990 Prestige/Dark Knight format version from Dave Gibbons and Steve Rude. Not something we’ve heard discussed in awhile, this is an attempt to recapture the Silver Age mojo as Lex Luthor and The Joker team-up to bedevil Superman and Batman. As pretty a comic as you’ll find.

The New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez essentially pulled DC back from the brink at a low point in the company’s sales history. It’s a classic and it’s $4.99 per volume.

It’s a Sin

The Marvel X-Men: Sinister Stories Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

A tie-in to the “Sins of Sinister” Event? Sure enough. And given that’s a Kieron Gillen outing, it seems like Uncanny X-Men by Kieron Gillen: The Complete Collection is probably good background reading, since it establishes Gillen’s take on Mister Sinister.

Also particularly relevant to the current incarnation of Sinster is the recent Hellions series by Zeb Wells and Stephen Segovia. We’re big fans of this one, which has Minster Sinister acting as Professor X for a unit of more… anti-social mutants. Is he using them as pawns in his greater schemes? Absolutely. One warning here, though. The middle volume of this doesn’t have much of a discount and we’re wondering if that’s an error? The omnibus edition is a tad more expensive and also a lot higher priced than you’d expect for a sale. Maybe it gets fixed and maybe it doesn’t. It’s still a highly entertaining run.

And while it’s not the first appearance of Sinister, we think one of the better values in the sale is X-Factor Epic Collection: All-New, All-Different X-Factor, which is the Peter David run. You’ve got a Mister Sinister arc, a Hulk crossover and art by Larry Stroman, Dale Keown… and some lad named Joe Quesada (whatever happened to him?)

We Were Promised A Flying Purple People-Eater?!?

The Image Sci-Fi Sale runs through Tuesday, 1/31.

Fear Agent by Rick Remender, Tony Moore and Jerome Opeña is a pulp science fiction adventure of the hard-drinking final member of the Fear Agents, a force that handled alien threats. Spoiler: one of those alien threats is still active. It’s an old favorite around here.

Farmhand is a science fiction/horror/comedy series from Rob Guillory, who you might remember from Chew. This time out Rob’s doing full writer/artist duties and proving that Layman wasn’t the only pleasantly twisted person behind Chew. In Farmhand, Jedidiah Jenkins has an unusual cash crop – he grows replacement for human organs. Where did these crops come from? That would be telling, but strange things are happening around the farm at to some of the transplant recipients.

Geiger is a Geoff Johns / Gary Frank post-apocalyptical, traversing the wastelands adventure. We got some (darker) Kamandi/Ben Boxer vibes off it. Very much a post-modern take on the DC “Great Disaster” era science fiction tales of the 60s and 70s and in a good way.

No, Not That Kind of “Fantasy”

The Dark Horse Fantasy Sale runs through Monday, 1/30.

This is a VERY expansive sale and worth an extended browse it you have time. We’re going to point out three, somewhat under the radar books, two of which we don’t think have been on sale before.

Air by G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker was originally a Vertigo book that Karen Berger appears to have pulled over to Dark Horse and Berger Books. We would very much like to see a continuation, but… first things first. This is a very unusual genre bender. A little science fiction, a little fantasy, a little thriller. It also takes a little while to start unfolding. What starts as a flight attendant getting pulled into a terrorist conspiracy takes a turn for the weird and lands in a much wider conspiracy involving teleportation, time lost celebrities and an Aztec god. This is not a comic that’s easily reduced to a tagline, but it’s a good one.

Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot is your unabashedly intellectual comic of the week. An excellent work of art and truly unusual. The starting point is a history of Talbot’s hometown of Sunderland, which turns into a study of the influences on Lewis Carroll while writing Alice in Wonderland and then turns… where Talbot feels like going. A unique book!

Aztec Ace by Doug Moench, Dan Day, Michael Hernandez and Ron Harris is a time travel adventure. The most unusual thing about it might just be that Moench had never seen Doctor Who before writing it in the early 80s. This is a very Doctor Who-compatible series. Originally coming out from Eclipse and long out of print, Ace is a time traveler from the 23rd century who’s battling time paradoxes and the mysterious Nine-Crocodiles, who seems to be behind the paradoxes. He’s aided by Bridget Chronopolis, who wanders into his sphere very much like one of The Doctor’s companions would, and the floating head of Sigmund Freud. Not the lowest priced item, but it’s 15 issues + extras, so a better value than you might think at first glance. And a lot easier than trying to track down the single issues. (Just trust us on that, ’cause we did.)