Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Supergirl, Superman, Lobo, Department of Truth, Plants Vs. Zombies

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC brings back the Supergirl (and Superman and Lobo) sale. Plus, Department of Truth 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):

Discounts of Steel

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow  Superman Love and Mercy  Lobo

The DC Summer of Supergirl Sale runs through Monday, 8/10.

If you’re thinking “didn’t they have this sale in June?” your memory is correct. But hey, we’re not arguing with some of the $4.99 prices they’ve got mixed into the sale.

Supergirl

Something about a film…

First, the one that seems most directly related to the film: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King & Bilquis Evely.

Superman

Lobo

Something about that same film.

  • Lobo (’90) Alan Grant / Keith Giffen / Simon Bisley

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

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

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

Lobo by Giffen/Grant/Bisley is really good stuff… as long as you have a dark sense of humor and aren’t easily offended.

Unannounced Sales

Plants vs. Zombies  The Department of Truth Complete Conspiracy Deluxe Edition Vol. 1 The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

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

Dark Horse has just dropped a Plants Vs. Zombies sale by Paul Tobin / Ron Chan.  Also available in omnibus form.

Dark Horse is still having a sale on some of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy-adjacent titles:

Some of the Stranger Things / Dungeons & Dragons crossovers are still on sale:

Also on sale

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

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC Shows Up For Prime Day w/ Supergirl

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC drops a Supergirl sale on Prime Day.

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):

Is DC finally taking part in Prime Day, or is it merely a coincidence and their Supergirl tie-in sale was going to drop on a Tuesday, regardless? If we had to bet, we’d go with the latter… and yet, here we are.

Discounts of Steel

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow  Superman Love and Mercy  Lobo

The DC Summer of Supergirl Sale runs through Monday, 7/6.

Yes, DC’s having another corporate synergy sale as the movie release is imminent. And if you look at the content, it’s as much a Superman sale as a Supergirl sale. “House of El” and all. The sale prices are a little more “normal” than some of the previous sales, so we’ll take that as a positive.

Let’s break it down:

Supergirl

Something about a film…

First, the one that seems most directly related to the film: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King & Bilquis Evely.

Superman

Lobo

Something about that same film.

  • Lobo (’90) Alan Grant / Keith Giffen / Simon Bisley

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

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

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

Lobo by Giffen/Grant/Bisley is really good stuff… as long as you have a dark sense of humor and aren’t easily offended.

Marvel

Invincible Iron Man Omnibus  Rom: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus  Wolverine Omnibus

Marvel seems to be standing pat with the “early” Prime Day Sale they released at the beginning of the month. It’s a holiday-level with plenty of Omnibuses and Epic Collections. We looked at it more closely here.

Unannounced Sales

  Superman The Ultimate Guide Cat's Eye Omnibus Volume 2

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

Also on sale:

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

We’ll be back at the end of the week for the usual wrap up when the dust has cleared.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Superman, Resident Alien, EC Archives

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC shows their face with a Superman sale. Plus, Resident Alien and the EC Archives.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

Superman Returns… To Having Discounts

Superman Love and Mercy  Superman: Phantom Zone  Lobo

The DC Superman Day Sale runs through Monday, 4/28. This is a little different than DC’s last (Vertigo) sale, which generated a few complaints. This is by no means what we used to seeing, but it’s a step in the right direction. Lots of $4.99 books. The number of books in a run that are _properly_ discounted is all over the place (more so for Action, kind of like Detective was super spotty during the last Batman sale and you’re not sure if the person setting the discounts is totally aware which title came first). That said, there’s a whole lot more on sale this time and not just the first volume in a series. And yes, feel free to ignore the things that are only discounted ~20%.

Superman

Supergirl

Something about a film…

Lobo

Something about that same film.

  • Lobo (’90) Alan Grant / Keith Giffen / Simon Bisley

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

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

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

While the discount could be higher, Lobo by Giffen/Grant/Bisley is really good stuff… as long as you have a dark sense of humor and aren’t easily offended.

Unannounced Sales

 

  Tales From the Crypt  Resident Alien  Let Me in Your Window

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

Dark Horse has their EC Archives on sale. Tales From the Crypt, Weird Science, Two-Fisted Tales and that whole family of famous 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 and if your point of reference is the TV show, the comic is a little more mystery-oriented. It’s available in

Critical Role from Dark Horse is still 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.) Also on sale:

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

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Still on Sale

 

Comixology (at Amazon) Sale: A Week of Unannounced Discounts

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, it’s a week of unannounced discounts.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Housekeeping: The Marvel “holiday” sale is over, but their normal 8-sale spread for the month is still active and annotated here. The DH sales seem to be sticking around, so we’ll leave them up as this seems to be largely a week where the new sales are unlisted.

Unannounced Sales

Brandon Sanderson's Dark One  Elric  Lio's Astonishing Tales

As always, we really don’t know how long these discounts 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. We also trust you’re heard of Brandon Sanderson and Octavia Butler.

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Venom, Young Avengers, The Superman Sale Returns

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel has discounts on Venom and Young Avengers while DC’s Superman sale returns.

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):

No, Not Bane’s Juice

Venom by Remender   Venom by Cates   Venom

The Marvel Venom Sale runs through Monday, 8/18.

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

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, 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.

Did Anybody Card These Heroes?

Young Avengers  Young Avengers  Avengers: The Children's Crusade

The Marvel Young Avengers Sale runs through Monday, 8/18.

We can sum this sale up succinctly. You’re looking at three volumes:

The creator names are even in the title(s)!

Seriously, though: the Heinberg/Cheung original series was a buzz book that seem to come out of nowhere when it dropped. Hulking and Wiccan have gone on to get pretty fully integrated into the Marvel Universe.

A couple notable spin-offs also in the sale:

  • Hawkeye (’16-’18) – Kelly Thompson / Leonardo Romero; Note: this is the Kate Bishop Hawkeye
  • Empyre – Al Ewing / Dan Slott / Valerio Schitti; Wiccan and Hulkling are right at the center of this Event

Superman Returns?

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

The DC Summer of Superman 2025 Sale runs through Sunday 8/31.

“Wait,” you’re asking yourself, “didn’t this sale run last month?” It did! Mostly. This isn’t an exact clone of last month and as we’re eyeballing it, it appears to us that some of the pricing has improved. To the tune of some scattered $2.99 volumes.

Here are the base links:

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

What’s good?

We’re huge fans of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? – a masterpiece of humor and a good mystery, too.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This storyline is collected across three volumes:

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

“Normal” Unannounced Sales

Daredevil: Fall From Grace  Dramacon  Over My Dead Body

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

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

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Still on Sale

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

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

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Super Soldier Sale

Captain America: Secret Empire  Captain America Heroes Return  Captain America

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

Seems like an appropriate call for the holiday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hurricane Ororo

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

The Marvel Storm Sale runs through Monday 7/7.

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

A Smattering of… Superman?

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

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

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

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

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

Here are the base links:

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

What’s good?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This storyline is collected across three volumes:

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

Unannounced Sales

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

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

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

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

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

Plus:

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

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Avengers, Ultimate Universe, Superior Spider-Man, Superman, Elfquest

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel has the Avengers, Superior Spider-Man and the Ultimate Universe in individual sales, and then a 700 item sale that’s a bit more random. DC has a Superman sale… sort of. Plus, Elfquest and Murder on the Orient Express.

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 is Back… Sort Of

Superman: Red Son  Superman: Warworld Rising  Superman

The DC Superman Day 2025 Sale runs through Monday, 4/28.

These are not the DC prices we’ve been seeing since December. This is more in line with the apparent new pricing system we discussed last week (in fact, we’re pretty sure at least some of these prices were in place last week). Newer volumes are mostly around $8.99. Older volumes are lower.

Things at favorable price points:

The (mostly Action Comics-based) Superman: Warworld saga by Phillip Kennedy Johnson / Daniel Sampere / Riccardo Federici from a few years back:

We enjoyed that arc, which is quite a bit darker than Superman normally goes.

  • Superman: Ending Battle – Geoff Johns / Joe Casey / Joe Kelly / Mike Schultz / Pasqual Ferry; The Manchester Black saga
  • Superman: Braniac – Geoff Johns / Gary Frank; The ’08 reset of Brainiac and Kandor
  • Superman: Red Son – Mark Millar / Dave Johnson / Killian Plunkett; An Elseworlds that posits “What If baby Kal-El’s rocket landed in the Soviet Union?”

The current series is here, but note the price. Pay attention to all the prices here, actually.

And a note on that All-Star Superman listing: $17.99? Just say no. That’s ridiculous. First off, it’s a great example of the fallacy of basing digital discounts off a hardcover print list price. Second off, we suspect this is part of a pricing experiment and they want to see how many people are paying ZERO attention when something appears in a sale listing. One might wonder how they would describe their customers if this is something they want to test?

If you really have a (J’onn) jones for All-Star Superman, get the $8.83 version. (Yes, that’s a weird price, but that’s what it shows up as for us.) Or get the “Compact” edition in print for $9.29. We’ve got your Truth, Justice and the Cheap Way right here.

Avengers Assemble

Avengers Assemble

The Marvel Avengers Sale runs through Monday, 4/28

And this as pretty much everything except the Masterworks editions. (Hey, don’t look at us… we think that’s a strange omission, too.)

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 Outwhich 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… but it is in Doctor Doom sale, this week only. (Stranger and stranger.)

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.

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.

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

Ultimate… Ultimate?

Ultimates Ultimate Fantastic Four Ultimate Comics - The Ultimates

The  Marvel Ultimate Universe Sale runs through Monday 4/21.

Yes, it’s the greater original Ultimate Universe… just without Spidey and X-Men.

There a bit more to the sale, but that’s the bulk of the highlights. What’s good? The Millar/Hitch Ultimates are hugely influential (especially to the film world). Ultimate FF absolutely has it’s moments. Not everybody realizes that the Marvel Zombies debuted in V. 3 (omnibus version) and are not played for laughs.  Now, we don’t often issue “avoid” warnings around here, but there are a couple things here that we’ll advise against. The Orson Scott Card Ultimate Iron Man? Don’t bother. It’s awful. Ultimatum? Nope! That very nearly killed the line. There are MUCH better things to read in this imprint than those two.

Superiority Complex

Superior Spider-Man Superior Spider-Man Companion Superior Spider-Man

The Marvel Superior Spider-Man Sale runs through Monday, 4/21.

Yes, that would be the run when Doctor Octopus took over Peter Parker’s body. One of the greatest moments of “wait… this is actually good” in recent history. (Everyone we knew winced at the high concept, but the execution was on the money!)

The primary Superior Spider-Man series by Dan Slott and Ryan Stegman is best packaged in the 2-volume Complete collection, that also includes the “Dying Wish” arc that sets up the run.

Superior Spider-Man Companion gets you the first 12 issues of Superior Spider-Man Team-Up and some tie-in issues.

Superior Spider-Man (’18-’19) is the Christos Gage / Mike Hawthorne revival that returns Otto Octavious to his Spidey persona.

And for something a little different? The absolutely hilarious Superior Foes of Spider-Man by Nick Spencer & Steve Lieber. Boomerang tries to organize a gang of Spidey’s b-list foes and make a big score. Things… do not go as intended. Think an even more absurd Dortmunder novel with super villains and you won’t be far off.

A New Sale Page?

Fall of the House of X  G.O.D.S.  Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees

Amazon Book Sale: Limited time savings of up to 75% on select titles” – unknown duration.

Don’t expect 75% off too many things here. Some of the discounts are decidedly slight… and yes, there are some odd price points.

Of particular interest:

Interesting, but the discount is slight… then again, you don’t see IDW discounted much, these days:

If you like single issues there are a ton of Ablaze titles, including their own take on Conan which have enjoyed from time to time.

Hidden *Marvel* Sales

Darth Vader  Miracleman Wolverine

You might miss the “Marvel Up To 60% Off Sale” because it looks like an ad.

A quick and dirty list of things we found in it. Yes, some of this feels like the May the Fourth Be With You sale is early. No clue how long it lasts, but it appears to have 702 items in it, so perhaps worth a browse over the weekend. Also, Miracleman gets a discount less often than other titles…

Unannounced Sales

Elfquest  Money Shot  Murder on the Orient Express

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Fantastic Four  Ultimate Black Panther  Deadpool Team-Up

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.

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Dropping Next Week

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Daredevil; Wonder Woman; It’s Jeff; Superman; Black Widow; Grendel; Green Hornet

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel has discounts on Daredevil, Jeff the Landshark, the Women of Marvel and some recent hits. DC also has some recent titles like Wonder Woman, Flash and Superman. Dynamite cuts prices on The Green Hornet. Dark Horse has a Grendel 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):

Current Events

The Flash  Superman  Wonder Woman

The DC Epic eBooks 2025 Sale runs through Monday, 3/17.

We know what you’re thinking: “wasn’t Epic a Marvel imprint and one of Marvel’s reprint formats?” And you’re right, but here we are! A lot of more recent volumes in this sale… including several that we think are getting their first discounting (or at least having been discounted until recently):

Of this set, we’d draw particular attention to Tom King and Daniel Sampere on Wonder Woman. It’s a dark and political tale about misinformation and there is a sequence in Vol. 2 juxtaposing imagery of a ’50s housewife with the villain quoting scripture that is quite possibly the absolute darkest thing DC has done in-continuity. (Black Label, maybe not.) A series to watch. Oh, and the sequence at the end is an Absolute Power tie-in that could have been labelled better.

Some slightly older things of interest:

The whole sale is worth a browse with a few more $1.99/$2.99 titles hiding in plain sight.

Hornhead

Daredevil  Daredevil Epic Collection  Daredevil by Zdarsky

The Marvel Daredevil Sale runs through Monday, 3/31.

Let’s break this down by series. Like X-Men, Daredevil has had fewer relaunches than some titles.

  • Daredevil ’64-’98 – The original run.
  • Daredevil ’98-11 – The Marvel Knights relaunch. Kevin Smith / Brian Bendis / Ed Brubaker
    • For the Bendis and Brubaker runs, you want the Omnibus section and scroll down for their respective “Ultimate Collections”
  • Daredevil ’11-15 – This was really two volumes with an arbitrary relaunch in the middle, but the excellent run by Mark Waid / Chris Samnee / Paolo Rivera / Javier Rodriguez is a better buy in this 5 volume set that collects both volumes and treats it like the single run it was.
  • Daredevil ’15-’18 – The Charles Soule era with Ron Garney as the main artist.
  • Daredevil ’19-’21 – Chip Zdarsky’s breakout title as a writer. Marco Checcetto is the primary artist.
  • Daredevil: Woman Without Fear ’22 – Zdarsky / Rafael de Latorre; Sort of a bridge title during the Devil’s Reign event, but part of the ongoing plot. Note: this is included in the final DD omnibus for the ’19-’21 run.
  • Daredevil ’22-’23 – Also known as Daredevil & Elektra. The final act to the Zdarsky/Checcetto era; This doesn’t look like it’s actually on sale, which would be silly — it’s the ending to the story.
  • Daredevil23-present – Saladin Ahmed / Aaron Kuder; Picking up after the Zdarsky finale is effectively a “born again” scenario… bit more literally than with Miller.

What’s good here? Honestly, with the exception of the “Shadowlands” Event at the end of the Marvel Knights run, DD has been consistently good to great since Frank Miller showed up. You don’t hear us saying that about every title! We will say that Gene Colan’s return to DD (with Joe Kelly writing) seems to be under the radar these days.  But starting with Miller, just pick a run (Miller / O’Neil / Nocenti / Chichester / Kessel / Kelly / Smith / Bendis / Brubaker / Waid / Soule / Zdarsky / Ahmed) and dig in. Also, you should probably count Bendis and Brubaker as one long run, which is worth it.

Selective Service

Immortal Hulk  Predator versus Wolverine  Ultimate Spider-Man

Deals on Select Marvel Collections” – no clue how long this one is lasting, but it’s worth checking out.

Things we are currently seeing and can vouch for:

  • The Death of Doctor Strange – Jed MacKay / Lee Garbett; The opening act of MacKay’s excellent run. Yes, Strange really does die
  • Immortal Hulk Vol. 1: Or Is He Both? – Al Ewing / Joe Bennett; One of the best Hulk runs as Al Ewing takes things in an unexpected horror direction
  • Infinity Gauntlet – Jim Starlin / George Perez / Ron Lim; Thanos has collected the Infinity Gems and harnessed them into a gauntlet. Bad things are about to happen
  • Predator Vs. Wolverine – Benjamin Percy / Marco Checchetto / Greg Land / Andrea Di Vito / Ken Lashley; This is exactly what it’s billed as: Wolverine and a Predator having a series of grudge match encounters over the decades… and it’s the best possible version of the setup. If the premise sounds remotely appealing, you should like the execution. We found it a very pleasant surprise
  • Savage Avengers Vol. 1: City Of Sickles – Gerry Duggan / Mike Deodato; The best way to describe this is Conan assembling a Defenders-style non-team of anti-heroes. More fun than than you’re expecting
  • Spider-Man: Kraven’s Last Hunt – J.M. DeMatteis / Mike Zeck; Kraven finally gets the drop on Spidey. One of the darkest Spider-Man tales and the best of the dark ones
  • Star Wars: Darth Vader Vol. 1: Vader – Kieron Gillen / Salvador Larroca; Opening act of a stellar run… and what a way to end the first volume (you’ll see)
  • Ultimate Spider-Man by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 1: Married With Children – Jonathan Hickman / Marco Checchetto; The excellent start to what seems to be Marvel’s most popular ongoing title

Ladies’ Night

Black Widow  Domino  Mystique

The Women of Marvel Sale runs through Monday, 3/10.

This is a deep, 320-item sale and worth some browsing. Do we have some highlights? Absolutely. Particularly where The Black Widow is concerned.

  • Black Widow: Welcome To The Game – Richard K. Morgan / Bill Sienkiewicz / Goran Parlov / Sean Phillips; This collects a pair of good miniseries written by the Altered Carbon author with some enviable artists
  • Black Widow (’16 – ’17) – Mark Waid / Chris Samnee; with that lineup, you already know if you want it or not
  • Black Widow (’20-’22) – Kelly Thompson / Elena Casagrande; All 15 issues of the Eisner-winning series in one volume
  • Captain Marvel (’19 – ’23); Kelly Thompson / Carmen Carnero / Lee Barbett; The Thompson era (which did not have a reboot in the middle!)
  • Domino (’18 – ’19) – Gail Simone / David Baldeon; Oh, look – Gail’s previous stop in the X-verse
  • Hawkeye (’16-’17) – Kelly Thompson / Leonardo Romero; Kate Bishop steps into the spotlight in this “Hawkguy” follow-up
  • Hellcat (’23) – Christopher Cantwell / Alex Lins; A horror / murder mystery as Patsy tries to figure out why her ex- keeps turning up
  • Mystique (’03-’05) – Brian K. Vaughan / Michael Ryan / Jorge Lucas / Manuel Garcia; Yes, that Vaughan guy. Mystique is pressganged into espionage work by Prof. X
  • Spider-Girl (’98-’06) – Tom DeFalco / Pat Olliffe / Ron Frenz; Mayday Parker takes over for her old man
  • X-Terminators – Leah Williams / Carlos Gomez; Hilarious and slightly off-color hijinks and violence occur when Jubilee and Boom-Boom attempt to celebrate Dazzler’s breakup and encounter vampires

Candygram…

West Coast Avengers  King Deadpool  It's Jeff

The Marvel Jeff the Landshark Sale runs through Monday, 3/10.

Jeff has gotten a wee bit more popular after his videogame adventures. To translate these offering into a semblance of order, we’re going to default to what Kelly Thompson says… ’cause she actually knows!

Ergo, the reading list becomes:

  • West Coast Avengers Vol. 2: City Of Evils – Kelly Thompson / Daniele di Nicuolo; Wherein we witness the secret origin of Jeff
  • King Deadpool – Kelly Thompson / Chris Bachalo / Gerardo Sandoval; Gwenpool gives Jeff to Deadpool
  • It’s Jeff – Kelly Thompson / Gurihiru; Collections of the “Infinity Comics” from Marvel Unlimited where Jeff’s popularity started growing
  • Venom War: It’s Jeff – Kelly Thompson / Gurihiru; Jeff crosses over with the Venom War Event

From the Batman Influences File

Green Hornet Omnibus  Green Hornet Year One  Green Hornet

The Dynamite Green Hornet Miss Fury Sale runs through Monday, 3/10.

We welcome Dynamite back to the land of cheap. It’s been awhile. The Green Hornet, technically a Lone Ranger spin-off (although that was established much further into the show), was popular on the radio in the mid-’30s as one of the first wave of superheroes and an influence on the caped crusader. So yes, we’ve read a little Hornet over the years and have some pointers.

The Dynamite Hornet stories start out with an adaption of Kevin Smith’s unproduced screenplay by Phil Hester and Jonathan Lau is a legacy tale of Britt Reid, Jr. taking up the mantle of the Hornet. The first omnibus collects the Smith tale and this version runs for awhile after it.

Green Hornet: Year One has Matt Wagner (Grendel / Mage) and Aaron Campbell (Hellblazer) doing a proper ’30s origin story for the Hornet.

The ’13 Green Hornet series by Mark Waid / Daniel Indro / Ronilson Freire is a favorite here at the Tower of Cheap. The Hornet starts buying his own hype and ends up in over his head with an increasingly guilty conscience. The two volumes form one story.

Green Hornet: Reign Of The Demon by David Liss / Kewber Baal is a pulpy adventure as a rival masked crime lord arrives in Chicago.

Unannounced Sales

Grendel  Door to Door by Night  Murder Book

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

The Spectacular Spider-Men  NYX X-Men

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

Dropping This Week

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s $1.99 Mania Pt IV – Mister Miracle to World’s Finest

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, part 4 of our look at DC’s $1.99 Mania – Mister Miracle through World’s Finest in the $1.99 catalog. Plus, a Dark Horse line-wide 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):

Administrative Notes

Ho, ho ho – the holiday sales march on. This is the fourth holiday sale installment. The DC sale is running through 12/30. The Marvel sales are all running through 1/6.

  • Installment one of the holiday columns covered what’s new in this year’s Marvel Epic Collection Sale and the current DC titles in the $1.99 sale
  • Installment two covered 1st Issue Special through Fables of the DC $1.99 sale, Marvel’s Star Wars Omnibus Sale, Best of ’24 Sale and What If? Sale
  • Installment three covered Far Sector through Marshal Law of the DC $1.99 sale.

DC $1.99 Mania Continued (Part IV)

Mister Miracle  New Gods by Jack Kirby  Night Force

The DC Holiday All eBooks Sale runs through 12/30.

We’re still rolling through DC’s very nearly line-wide sale. Not everything from September to the beginning of time is $1.99, but the vast majority of collected editions seem to be. You should probably have your own scroll through it, but we’re looking at it alphabetically and calling out interesting books based on readability, value/larger page count and if it’s infrequently discounted.

  • Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby; Kirby’s Fourth World series about a son of New Genesis who was raised on Apokalypse and became the greatest escape artist across all those worlds
  • Mister Miracle by Steve Englehart and Steve Gerber – Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers and Steve Gerber / Michael Golden / Russ Heath; This book requires a little explanation. This is the late ’70s revival of the series. Englehart & Rogers (of the famous Batman/Detective run) don’t quite gel, but it’s a high floor. Gerber starts exploring the nature of godhood after that and it gets extremely interesting before getting caught in the DC Implosion and cancelled. You need to see Heath inking Golden for yourself. It’s a treat and you’ll end up angry this wonderful experiment was cancelled. Seldom discounted and usually a little overpriced… but not this week
  • Mister Miracle (’17-’19) – Tom King / Mitch Gerads; The Eisner winning series where Scott Free tries to escape death itself
  • The Multiversity Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely / Ivan Reis; A tale that hops across parallel Earths as Morrison goes wild with world-building. 450 pages
  • New Gods by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby; The original tale of Darkseid and Peak Kirby. Highly recommended
  • New Gods by Gerry Conway – Gerry Conway / Don Newton / George Perez; The ’77-’78 revival (and material moved over to Adventure Comics), plus the JLA/JSA/New Gods crossover (w/ Perez) that cemented Darkseid as a DCU big bad, not just off in the Fourth World corner of the room; Another volume that’s usually a little more expensive, even on sale
  • New Gods (’89 – ’91) – Mark Evanier / Paris Cullins / Rick Hoberg
  • New Teen Titans (’80-’88) – Marv Wolfman / George Perez; One of the titles that saved DC in the early ’80s and a classic of the era. Really due for the omnibus treatment, too
  • The Newsboy Legion – Joe Simon & Jack Kirby; One of the Simon & Kirby kid gangs (along with The Boy Commandos), the Newsboy Legion were watched over by a superhero called The Guardian. Kirby would return to them… with some twists… in his ’70s Jimmy Olsen run; Another title usually subject to abnormally high HC pricing
  • Night Force (’82-83) – Marv Wolfman / Gene Colan; The Tomb of Dracula team reunites at DC for a horror book about a mansion that contains a portal through space and time and its mysterious owner. Marv told us this is his favorite of his work and we happily recommend it

Orion  Plastic Man  Sandman Mystery Theater

  • OMAC : One Man Army Corps by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby; Kirby’s adventure-satire about a corporate dystopian future has aged well and has more bite than you might expect
  • Orion Walt Simonson; Yes, that’s Walt doing New Gods / the son of Darkseid with an approach not so different to his Thor. Excellent book that never seemed to get a push and fell under the radar. Highly recommended
  • Planetary – Warren Ellis / John Cassaday; The full series in two 400+ page volumes
  • Plastic Man: Rubber Banded – Kyle Baker; Baker’s full 20 issue run is hilarious. We’d say there’s two people to have done Plas that came anywhere near the spirit of Jack Cole. Baker is one of them (Hilary Barta is the other). This one is usually at a bizarre price for a digital book, due to the fancy HC edition. Currently $2.99
  • Preacher – Garth Ennis / Steve Dillon; God has gone missing and Jesse Custer would like to have a word with him. Double volumes
  • Promethea – Alan Moore / J.H. Williams III; A beautifully illustrated fantasy/occult adventure with an extra side of philosophy. Double volumes. Recommended
  • Richard Dragon: Kung Fu Fighter Denny O’Neil / Ric Estrada; The full 70s series at a good price for the completist in your life
  • Robin – In the 90s, there were three miniseries of Tim Drake as Robin that led into the ongoing title, so of course they’re not all listed on the same page
  • Sandman Mystery Theater – Matt Wagner / Steven T. Seagle / Guy Davis; The adventures of Wesley Dodds as the Golden Age Sandman, replete with gas mask and gun, ably assisted by Dian Belmont. This excellent title had a 70 issue run under the old Vertigo label and the first 24 issues are available across two volumes. If you like ’30s pulp detectives, this will be your jam
  • Scalped – Jason Aaron / R. M. Guera; This neo-noir about an undercover FBI agent infiltrating the casino at the reservation he grew up on and thought he’d escaped was Jason Aaron’s breakthrough series. Double volumes
  • Secret Six – Gail Simone’s cult series about a crew of villains that flirt with the straight and narrow. We’d put it at or near the top of her catalog.
    • Secret Six V.1 – Gail Simone / Dale Eaglesham / Brad Walker; Villains United, which this spun off from, and the original mini-series
    • Secret Six V.2-4 – Gail Simone / Nicola Scott / Jim Calafiore; Double volumes of the ongoing series
  • Seven Soldiers of Victory – Grant Morrison / J.H Williams III / Simone Bianchi / Frazier Irving; Morrison crafts a story across a series of mini-series, including Zatanna and his reinvention of Frankenstein
  • Sheriff of Babylon – Tom King / Mitch Gerads; An political thriller as an ex-cop contracted to train Iraq’s new police force looks into the murder of one of his recruits and finds a maze of conflicting agendas and duplicity. The full series in one volume

Superman: Phantom Zone  Jimmy Olsen  World's Finest

  • Superman: Birthright – Mark Waid / Leinil Francis Yu; An expanded origin tale that spends a little more time than most on the period between Smallville and Metropolis.
  • Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby – Jack Kirby; A fourth world entrant, this is effectively Kirby’s Superman book. Also where Project Cadmus and the DNAliens come from. Don’t shun it because it’s ’70s Jimmy Olsen. It’s Kirby doing adventure
  • Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? – Matt Fraction / Steve Lieber; A comedy masterpiece. Jimmy wakes up hung over and freshly married in Gorilla City… and that’s before he has to figure out who’s trying to ice him. Tour de force
  • Superman: Phantom Zone – Steve Gerber / Gene Colan / Rick Veitch; A Superman tale that veers into horror as a Phantom Zone escapee causes Superman to look a little deeper into the Zone’s origins. Also includes the DC Comics Presents sequel.
  • Superman: The Man of Steel – John Byrne / Marv Wolfman / Jerry Ordway; The Byrne era of Superman in 450+ page chunks for $1.99
  • Saga of the Swamp Thing – (initially) Alan Moore / Stephen Bissette / John Totleben, with some Stan Woch and Rick Veitch; This volume starts out not quite two years into the series (see next listing) with Alan Moore’s arrival to spark an absolutely legendary run.
  • Swamp Thing (’72 – ’76) – Len Wein / Bernie Wrightson; The “Bronze Age” collections on this link are three distinct things. V.1 is the original Wein/Wrightson run, which completely lives up to its reputation. V. 2 is the remainder of the original run, with David Michelinie and Nestor Redondo being the longest serving creative team, plus some extra’s like Swamp Thing’s guest star run in Challengers of the Unknown. V.3 is really the pre-Alan Moore issues of Saga of the Swamp Thing from 1982. Martin Pasko writes, artists include Tom Yeates, with Stephen Bissette and John Totleben arriving a couple issue prior to Moore.
  • Transmetropolitan – Warren Ellis / Darick Robertson; The 23rd century adventures of Hunter S. Thompson-esque journalist Spider Jerusalem as he feuds with corrupt presidents.
  • Watchmen – Alan Moore / Dave Gibbons – We assume you don’t need this one explained to you
  • Wonder Woman (Golden Age) – William Moulton Marston & H.G. Peter; It’s hard to understate how wild, over-the-top and bondage-driven these original tales are. It reads differently to an adult audience.
  • Wonder Woman (’87 – ’06) – We’re  big fans of the George Perez and Greg Rucka runs. Walt Simonson & Jerry Ordway, too. This is the post-Crisis reset, and for a lot of people this is where Wonder Woman begins. NOTE – to get the V.5 and V.6 of the Perez run, you need to go to this page. (Hey, don’t look at us, we didn’t put it there.)
  • Wonder Woman (’11-’16) – Brian Azzarello / Cliff Chiang; The first six volumes are the Azarello/Chiang run. Some feel it’s sacrilegious to the character (Azzarello being less than reverent? That’s his brand!), but regardless of that aspect, it’s a highly entertaining adventure as Wonder Woman discovers… let’s call it a possible new origin. A high point of the New 52 initiative.
  • Wonder Woman (’16) – Greg Rucka returns in a refutation of the Azzarello run that’s GREAT. Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp alternate issues (and plot threads). Get in two volumes. Wonder Woman: The Rebirth – Book 1 and Wonder Woman: The Rebirth – Book 2
  • World’s Finest (’22-current) – Mark Waid / Dan Mora; We’re still leaning towards calling the series about the early team-ups of Batman & Superman DC’s best current series.

Unannounced Sales

Hellboy  Martha Washington  Minor Threats

It appears that Dark Horse has most of their collected editions on sale, but not the newest material and not the single issues.  Here’s a link that will *eventually* get you through their catalog in a very laborious way and with the single issues mixed in. (It’s not perfect, but we’re trying.)

Here are some direct links to various series:

Under the radar alert: you don’t hear about this much anymore, but     The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century is a Frank Miller / Dave Gibbons collaboration with a different tone than Miller’s commonly associated these days. It’s a lot closer to Halo Jones than it is to Sin City or the later Dark Knight volumes.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin  Darth Vader  Vengeance of the Moon Knight

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

Dropping Next Week

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Still on Sale

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s First Holiday Sale w/ Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman; Iron Man; X-Men

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has the first holiday sale of the season with their “Trinity” sale of Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman… as low as $1.99/book. Plus, Marvel puts almost the entire Iron Man catalog on sale, as well as some X-Men and Storm titles. Dark Horse chips in with an Erik Powell 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):

DC’s First Holiday Sale Is Here

Batman: The Detective  Superman: The Man of Steel  Wonder Woman

The DC Trinity Sale runs through Monday, 11/11.

This sale is often the first holiday sale. Why are we saying it this year? $1.99 collected editions. The rule of them is if a collected edition is $2.99, go ahead a pull the trigger. $1.99? Yeah, that’s rock bottom for DC in recent years.

As such we’re going to be taking a look here at the vast swatch of $1.99 and $2.99 books. (This is comics.CHEAP, after all.) There are definitely newer books on the sale, but they might be — gasp — $3.99 or $4.99.

Batman

  • All-Star Batman (’16 – ’17) – Scott Snyder / John Romita, Jr. / Jock / Rafael Albuquerque
  • Batman (’40 – ’11) – mixed pricing
  • Batman (’11 – ’16) – Scott Snyder / Greg Capullo; That’s right, you can stick the full Snyder/Capullo run in somebody’s stocking for $1.99@
  • Batman (’16 – present) – Most of the Tom King and James Tynion IV runs are $1.99@
  • Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – Frank Miller
  • Batman: The Detective – Tom Taylor / Andy Kubert; (yes, the first Taylor run for $1.99. Happy holidays.)
  • Batman: The Killing Joke – Alan Moore / Brian Bolland
  • Batman: Three Jokers – Geoff Johns / Jason Fabok
  • Batman: Year One – Frank Miller / David Mazzucchelli
  • Batman/Superman (’13 – ’16) – Greg Pak / Jae Lee
  • Detective Comics (’37 – ’11) – Mixed pricing
  • Detective Comics (’11-’16) – Tony Daniel, then John Layman / Jason Fabok
  • Detective Comics (’16 – present) – James Tynion IV / Eddy Barrows through Mariko Tamaki / Dan Mora (before the price starts inching up)

Superman

Wonder Woman

  • Wonder Woman ’87 – ’06 – Mixed pricing. Perez is one of the definitive runs, though not as cheap. The first Greg Rucka run is cheap, though, and it’s great.
  • Wonder Woman (’11-’16) – You want the first 6 volumes of the Brian Azzarello / Cliff Chiang / Goran Sudzuka run. It’s a divisive take on the character (see: Azzarello, Brian), but it’s a solid yarn. Treat it like an Elseworlds, if you like.
  • Wonder Woman (’16 – ’20) – You want the *excellent* first four volumes by Greg Rucka, Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp

This is one you want to take some time and browse. Some interesting things in these lower price points? Sure.

Trinity by Matt Wagner teams up Batman / Superman / Wonder Woman as Ra’s al Ghul has a plot involving Bizarro, a rogue Amazon and some nukes. Also… it’s Matt Wagner. $2.99

Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia by Greg Rucka and J.G. Jones finds Wonder Woman and Batman having a little trouble agreeing to disagree. $2.99

Batman: Venom Denny O’Neil / Trevor Von Eeden / Russ Braun / Jose Luis Garcia Lopez; About a year before Bane appeared, this was the Legends of the Dark Knight arc that introduced “venom,” the super-steroid that bulked up Bane. (With as good a creative lineup as you could reasonably ask for.) $1.99 – cheap.

Does Whatever An Iron Can…

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

The Marvel Iron Man Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 11/11.

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. ‘Ole Shellhead hasn’t had as many relaunches as some titles, but there is a volume where the collection options are a little… odd. Note: the Masterworks aren’t included in this sale, so you’re looking at Epic Collections and “regular” collections for the classic material.

  • 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 and the Mike Grell run (50-59)  in cheap omnibus form here.  You can catch Joe Quesada’s scripting run (26-32) and the Avengers: Disassembled tie-in late in this run in single volumes here. (But get the omnibus version for Busiek.)

  • Iron Man ’04-07 – Best known for launching with the “Extremis” storyline
  • Invincible Iron Man ’08-’12 – The excellent Matt Fraction / Salvador Larroca run. Save some money with the omnibus collecting the first 3 volumes.
  • Iron Man ’12-’14 – The Kieron Gillen run with Greg Land as initial artist
  • Superior Iron Man ’14-’15 – Tom Taylor / Yildiray Cinar
  • Invincible Iron Man ’15-’16 – Brian Bendis and David Marquez/Mike Deodato, Jr. start out with Tony Stark in the armor
  • International Iron Man ’16 – Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev (And yes, we’re in the thick of the relaunches now)
  • Invincible Iron Man ’16-’18 – Brian Bendis and Stefano Caselli with Riri Williams/Ironheart filling Tony Stark’s shoes (yes, parallel substitute Iron Man runs)
  • Tony Stark: Iron Man ’18-’19 – The Dan Slott era with Valerio Schiti as the principle artist in the rotation.
  • Iron Man ’20-’22 – The Christopher Cantwell / Cafu run.
  • Invincible Iron Man ’22-current – Gerry Duggan / Juan Frigeri

If you’re keeping score at home, you’ll have notice Infamous Iron Man are not on sale. Why? We cannot say. Too close to Doom assuming the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme?

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

In our opinion Iron Man starts hitting it’s stride when Archie Goodwin arrives toward the end of the Tales of Suspense run and then is pure gold through issue 28 of the ’68 Iron Man series. Artists for this run include Gene Colan and George Tuska. (That’s collected in both Masterworks and Epic formats, but only the Epic is discounted right now..)

The next “all-star” run is #116-157 of the original Iron Man, that’s the David Michelinie / John Romita, Jr. / Bob Layton run that’s most famous for the “Demon in a Bottle” alcoholism arc, but there’s more to the run than just that arc.  The Denny O’Neil / Luke McDonnell run that follows is solid (make sure you get a collection that includes #200!!!), but Michelinie & Layton return for #215-250 with a few artists, including Mark Bright and Jackson Guice… with Layton even switching to penciller, instead of his usual inking post, for parts of it.  This second run is most famous for “Armor Wars” (originally known as Stark Wars).

When Heroes Return hits, Kurt Busiek and Sean Chen are pop in for the excellent 1998 run, of which only 1-14 are currently collected.

The ’08 – ’12 run by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca is particularly good. You know how modern Marvel titles can get sidetracked by Events. Fraction and Larroca lean into it and produce a lengthy and self-contained arc with Tony Stark on the run and attempting to overwrite his brain to keep everyone’s secrets out of the hands of Norman Osborn. Yes, an honest to goodness great Event tie-in arc. It’s a rare thing.

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

The Calm Before?

X of Swords  X-Men: Red  Resurrection of Magneto

The Marvel Storm Sale runs through Monday, 11/11.

It might be better to break up the highlights as pre-Krakoa and Krakoa era.

Pre-Krakoa

  • X-Men: Magik – Storm & Illyana – Chris Claremont / Brent Anderson / John Buscema; extra dark tale of Illyana’s abduction by demons
  • Storm (’06) – Eric Jerome Dickey / David Yardin; prequel to her marriage to T’Challa
  • Storm (’14-15) – Greg Pak / Victor Ibenez

Krakoa Era

  • Marauders (’19-’22) – Gerry Duggan / Matteo Lolli / Stefano Caselli; Kitty becomes a pirate captain w/ Storm in tow
  • Giant-Size X-Men by Jonathan Hickman (’20) – Jonathan Hickman / Russell Dauterman / Alan Davis
  • X of Swords (’20) – Hickman showrunning the full creative staff
  • X-Men: Red (’22-’23) – Al Ewing / Stefano Caselli; Storm rules Arrako (Mars)
  • Resurrection of Magneto (’24); Al Ewing / Luciano Vecchio; An X-Men: Red end cap of sorts, as it’s time for Magneto to return from the dead

What’s good? We’re partial to the Krakoa era. X of Swords is a satisfying Event – yes, that’s possible, it just doesn’t happen often enough. X-Men: Red was a highlight of the late-stages of Krakoa and Resurrection of Magneto was interesting… although if you’re a regular reader, you’ll know we’re usually in the bag for Al Ewing. (Mmm… ZOMBO!)

Villains of the Atom

X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga Complete Collection  Mystique  X-Men: Age of Apocalypse

The  Marvel X-Men Villains Sale runs through Monday, 11/11.

It’s true. The X-Men have villains and sometimes the villains eventually become friends. And sometimes friends become villains and then become friends.

The best thing here is the utter classic X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga Complete Collection by Chris Claremont & John Byrne. Yes, the comic is definitely better than the film in this case and that edition has some extra issues that are worthwhile.  (For Jean Grey’s initial resurrection, there’s also X-Men: Phoenix Rising)

Best thing under most radars? Mystique, where she’s repurposed as Xavier’s spy. The first Brian K. Vaughan / Jorge Lucas / Michael Ryan omnibus is particularly good.

You have a couple options for the Age of Apocalypse arc. X-Men: The Complete Age of Apocalypse does appear to be slightly more complete.

The sequel is filed under the two volume X-Men Vs. Apocalypse.

Also under the radar: Magneto (’14-’15 ) by Cullen Bunn & Gabriel Hernandez Walta goes to some dark places.

The Marvel “Maybe” Sales

Ms. Marvel  Ghost Rider

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

Unannounced Sales

Big Man Plans  1984  Godzilla: The Half-Century War

Dark Horse has a sale on Eric Powell’s comics:

Also on sale:

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Still on Sale