In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel drops a DEEP Cosmic Sale with a side of the original Human Torch. Plus, Resident Alien and Trashed.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

• The new releases page is here.  
• The “Comics Deals” page is here.
• The Kindle Deals comics page is here.

Cosmic Slop

The Marvel Cosmic Sale runs through Monday, 11/30.

This is, after a fashion, a convergence of smaller sales as we follow the thread of cosmic tales and characters through Marvel. The threads weave in and out, but for the sake of easy processing, let’s look at them this way:

The Marvel World of Jim Starlin
   

Jim Starlin defined “cosmic” for Marvel in the 70s and then returned in the late 80s to revive it (and his signature villain, Thanos) in the run-up to The Infinity Gauntlet, after which things kinda blew up.

First comes Captain Marvel. Starlin didn’t create Captain Marvel (or Mar-Vell, if you prefer) but that’s where the character hit its peak. And Thanos first showed up. You can conveniently get the Starlin run in Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin: The Complete Collection and we would suggest you not sleep on the under-rated Steve Englehart/Al Milgrom run that followed it.

Warlock by Jim Starlin: The Complete Collection is available on the cheap. It’s highly recommended and a foundational work for a lot of what is to come.

Let’s look at the Starlin/Thanos Industrial Complex while we’re here:

Thanos has become a saga, at least with the Starlin-driven material.

Avengers Vs. Thanos is a meaty ~470 page collection of the original ’70s appearances that were centered in Captain Marvel and Warlock.  You could make an argument that this is where “cosmic” Marvel was born. (It’s one of a handful of candidates.) Recommended.

And then Thanos was mostly on the shelf for ~13 years until Jim Starlin started writing Silver Surfer (with Ron Lim drawing… oh yes, those two would do some collaborating). Thanos got VERY involved in things, starting with The Return of Thanos and continuing with Thanos Quest and Silver Surfer: The Infinity Gauntlet. And yes, the first two volumes absolutely set up the famous The Infinity Gauntlet miniseries (with art by George Perez and Ron Lim).  And both of those are recommended, too.

There were two more Infinity sequels:

• The Infinity War
• The Infinity Crusade

And a ton of supporting material.  “Infinity” and Adam Warlock were practically a sub-imprint for a couple years.

Starlin did more Thanos follow-ups over the years, culminating in a couple graphic novel trilogies (of which only the final volume appears to be discounted – it’s always something):

• Infinity Revelation
• Infinity Relativity
• Infinity Finale

and

• The Infinity Siblings
• The Infinity Conflict
• The Infinity Ending

Silver Surfer

• Silver Surfer (’68-’70) – The classic original run by Stan Lee / John Buscema / Jack Kirby
• Silver Surfer (’87-’98) – The first 50 issues (Englehart/Rogers and Starlin/Lim) are some of the best Marvels of the era
• Silver Surfer: Parable ’88 – Stan Lee / Moebius; also contains The Enslavers by Lee & Keith Pollard
• Silver Surfer: Requiem – J. Michael Straczynski / Esad Ribic
• 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.

Original Guardians of the Galaxy

   

No, not like the movies or spinning out of Annihilation (we’ll get to that in a bit), this was a super team in the future that occasionally returned to our present. They weren’t created by Steve Gerber, but he built them up in Defenders and then Marvel Presents before moving on.

• Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers – First volume is the original appearance through their Marvel Presents solo run; Second volume is 70s guest star appearances, particularly in Avengers.
• Guardians of the Galaxy (’90-’95) – Best known for the very fun Jim Valentino run (i.e. the first 3 volumes here)
• Guardians of the Galaxy 3000 – Dan Abnett / Gerardo Sandoval

Honestly, this is our preferred GoG. The originals are solid. The Valentino run is a trip (and seems like it must’ve been an influence on Bendis when he rebooted Legion of Super-Heroes). Very different from what came later, though.

Nova

   

High school student Richard Rider becomes a centurion of the Nova Corps and tries to figure out his powers in the initial run. By the time DnA get ahold of the character, he’s a veteran and the road to Annihilation has begun.

• 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).

Annihilation

Annihilation was a crossover Event for Marvel’s fledging “cosmic” line in which Annihilus mounted a deadly invasion from the Negative Zone. It struck a nerve.

Annihilation is the first series of mini-series.

Annihilation: Conquest is the sequel as Ultron and the Phalanx make their move.  This leads into the formation of the new Guardians of the Galaxy.

Annihilation: Scourge is 2019 entry in the series.

New Guardians of the Galaxy (The DnA cast or movie version if you must)

   

• Guardians of the Galaxy by Abnett & Lanning – written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning / art by Brad Walker, Paul Pelletier and others. This is where the “movie” team in the current timeline was formed. Also known as the “Annihilation” team.
• Guardians of the Galaxy by Brian Michael Bendis – Bendis and so. many. artists.
• All-New Guardians of the Galaxy (’17-’18) – Gerry Duggan / Aaron Kuder
• Guardians of the Galaxy by Donny Cates (’19) – Donny Cates/Geoff Shaw
• Guardians of the Galaxy by Al Ewing (’20- ’21) – Al Ewing / Juan Cabal
• Guardians of the Galaxy (’23-’24) – Collin Kelly/Jackson Lanzing/Kev Walker

We LOVED the final Ewing/Cabal series, which ends with “The Final Annihilation.” And if you liked Nova and the Annihilation Events, the DnA run is the continuation of that format. The ’23 version of GoG is indisputably the Kev Walker show.

Miscellaneous

   

• Black Bolt – Saladin Ahmed / Christian Ward; An Eisner winner and the prison sequence really is jaw dropping
• Imperial – Jonathan Hickman / Jed MacKay / Marco Checchetto / Iban Coello; Hickman’s recent foray into Cosmic
• Phoenix – Stephanie Phillips / Alessandro Miracolo; The Cosmic X-book from the last relauch. With Thanos…
• Quasar – Mark Gruenwald / Paul Ryan; Late 80s/early 90s Cosmic

Flame On

   

The Marvel Human Torch Sale runs through Monday 11/30.

And by Human Torch, they really mean Jim Hammond, the original (android) Human Torch.

Let’s break this up into eras:

Actual Golden Age

• Marvel Mystery Comics
• Human Torch
• All-Winners Comics – The last two issues feature the All-Winners Squad, which is sort of the original version of The Invaders

The Invaders in the ’40s

• The Invaders (’75-’79)
• The Marvels Project – Ed Brubaker / Steve Epting
• Marvels: The Remastered Edition – Kurt Busiek / Alex Ross; Yes, it opens with the Torch

“Present Day”

• Avengers Epic Collection: Behold… The Vision – Roy Thomas / John Buscema / Gene Colan / Sal Buscema / Barry Windsor-Smith; The Invaders (and the Torch) debut in a time travel sequence… and we’d count The Vision, too
• Avengers West Coast: Vision Quest – John Byrne; Byrne revives Jim Hammond for the modern continuity
• Avengers/Invaders (’08-’09) by Jim Krueger / Alex Ross / Steve Sadowski
• Invaders Now! (’10-’11) – Christos N. Gage / Alex Ross / Caio Reiss
• Always An Invader (’19) – Chip Zdarsky / Carlos Magno / Butch Guice
• Namor The Sub-Mariner: Conquered Shores (’22-’23) – Christopher Cantwell / Pasqual Ferry

What’s good? We think highly of the first ~20 – 25 issues of the original Invaders.  Always An Invader is fantastic and is Chip Zdarsky right before he broke out at Marvel. Namor The Sub-Mariner: Conquered Shores is an excellent oddity as a sort of a Namor version of Old Man Logan.

Bamf!

The Marvel Nightcrawler Sale runs through Monday, 11/30.

First, some slightly more Nightcrawler-specific items:

• Excalibur (’88-’98) – Pay special attention to anything w/Alan Davis
  • Epic Collections
• Legion Of X by Si Spurrier – Simon Spurrier / Jan Bazaldua
• Nightcrawler (’04-’05) – Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa / Darick Robertson
• Nightcrawler (’14-’15) – Chris Claremont / Todd Nauck
• Uncanny Spider-Man: Fall Of X – Simon Spurrier / Lee Garbett
• Way Of X by Si Spurrier Vol. 1 – Simon Spurrier / Bob Quinn

Plus a whole bunch of X-titles, notably including Uncanny X-Men (’63-’11) and the X-Men Epic Collections.

Demon Bear!

   

The Marvel Dani Moonstar Sale runs through Monday, 11/30.

Dani Moonstar, sometimes known as Mirage. She’s an illusion-casting mutant and also a Valkyrie. The bulk of her adventures are with The New Mutants. Here’s the highlights:

• New Mutants (’83 – ’91)
• X-Force (’91-’02) – mostly towards the end
• New Mutants (’09 – ’11)
  • But get the Abnett / Lanning material here
• Magik Vol. 2: Shadows of Resistance – Ashley Allen / Jesus Hervas / German Peralta

Best bets? Two volumes of New Mutants: The Demon Bear Saga and Asgardian Wars. Demon Bear might be the best New Mutants arc and the Chris Claremont / Bill Sienkiewicz collaboration is special. Asgardian Wars contains a memorable X-Men crossover drawn by Art Adams from when the Valkyrie thread begins.

Source Material

 

The Marvel Echo Sale runs through Monday 11/30.

Definitely a case of the hero having a higher profile in the streaming world than in the comics world. Let’s do a quick rundown:

• Echo: The Saga Of Maya Lopez – David Mack / Joe Quesada / Jimmy Palmiotti / Rob Haynes / Dave Ross; Collects the first two major arcs from Knights-era Daredevil
• Daredevil & Echo – Taboo / B. Earl / Phil Noto

You can pick up some Avengers / New Avengers material but the above is the spotlight for the character.

Does Whatever a Saturday Morning Cartoon Can

   

The Marvel Spider-Woman Sale runs through Monday,  11/30.

• Spider-Woman (’78-’83) – Marv Wolfman / Mark Gruenwald / Michael Fleisher / Chris Claremont / Carmine Infantino / Steve Leialoha
• Spider-Woman: Origin ’07 – Brian Bendis / Brian Reed / Luna Brothers
• Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D. ’09-’10 – Brian Bendis / Alex Maleev
• Spider-Woman ’14-’15 –Dennis Hopeless / Greg Land / Javier Rodriguez
• Spider-Woman ’15-’17 – Dennis Hopeless / Javier Rodriguez / Veronica Fish
• Spider-Woman ’20-’22 – Karla Pacheco / Pere Perez
• Spider-Woman: Gang War – Steve Foxe / Carola Borelli

That’s the core set of Spider-Woman solo books. There’s a lot of volumes where she makes a guest appearance, particularly across the Avengers line of titles. One thing that might be of interest is Wolverine Epic Collection: Madripoor Nights by Chris Claremont / Peter David /  John Buscema / Gene Colan, where Spider-Woman appears towards the end of his early solo run.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, that first Spider-Woman run is deeply strange.

They’re Not Kidding

   

The Marvel Red Wolf Sale – runs through Monday 11/30.

If your initial reaction was “wait… I didn’t know the original run was collected,” you win a prize. It’s not and therefore not part of the sale. Here’s what we have:

• Marvel Westerns – ’06 anthology
• Marvel 1872 by Gerry Duggan / Roy Thomas / Alan Cowsill / Nik Virella / John Buscema / Jim Cheung; The Secret Wars tie-in, plus some reprints
• Red Wolf: Man Out Of Time – Nathan Edmondson / Dalibor Talajic; spinning off from Marvel 1872
• Occupy Avengers – David F. Walker / Carlos Pacheco / Gabriel Hernandez Walta
• Werewolf By Night: New Wolf Rising –  Taboo / Scot Eaton

Unannounced Sales

  

As always, with no formal announcement, we can’t be positive how long these will last.

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 and if your point of reference is the TV show, the comic is a little more mystery-oriented. It’s available in

• “Regular” Collected Editions
• Omnibuses

Dark Horse is also still discounting Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba and True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys by Gerard Way / Becky Cloonan.

Also on sale

• Aristotle: A Graphic Biography – Tassos Apostolidis
• The Art of Living: Reflections on Mindfulness and the Overexamined Life – Grant Snider
• The Bomb: Oppenheimer and the Weapon that Changed the World – Didier Alcante
• Drafted: An Illustrated Memoir of a Veteran’s Service During the War in Vietnam – Rick Parker
• Encyclopedia of Early Earth: A Novel – Isabel Greenberg
• The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For – Alison Bechdel
• Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith – Grace Ellis / Hannah Templer
• Hypercapitalism: The Modern Economy, Its Values, and How to Change Them – Larry Gonick / Tim Kasser
• I Hope This Helps: Comics and Cures for 21st Century Panic – Tommy Siegel
• The Labyrinth: An Existential Odyssey with Jean-Paul Sartre – Ben Argon
• Let Me in Your Window (Horror Stories by Adam Ellis) – Adam Ellis
• Lies My Teacher Told Me – James W. Loewen / Nate Powell
• Newburn Vol. 1  – Chip Zdarsky / Jacob Phillips
• Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Schlitzie the Pinhead – Bill Griffith
• Redcoat Vol. 1 – Geoff Johns / Bryan Hitch / Andrew Currie / Brad Anderson
• RX – Rachel Lindsay
• Snug: A Collection of Comics about Dating Your Best Friend – Catana Chetwynd
• The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America – David Hajdu
• Trashed: A Graphic Novel – Derf Backderf
• Why Grizzly Bears Should Wear Underpants (The Oatmeal Book 4) – Matthew Inman
• World Citizen Comics – Lots of folks, including one by… Dan Rather?

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

Still on Sale

• The Kodansha Scary Season Sale runs through Monday, 11/9