Tag: Superman

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Superman, Doctor Strange, New Mutants, Black Hammer

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Superman gets the discount spotlight from DC; Doctor Strange and New Mutants Sales return and Dark Horse offers up Black Hammer.

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 quick word before getting into this week’s sales. No, you’re not imagining things: The Marvel sales DID run towards the end of March. The current Doctor Strange sale added a handful of items that were missing from the last one, though. We have no clue what’s up with that. If you happened to look at the sales page Tuesday morning, you would have seen the Dark Horse Valentine’s Day Sale return, but that got swapped out for Black Hammer. We’re used to seeing the pricing take a couple days to get fixed, but this week was definitely odder than most.

Super-Sale

The DC Superman Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 5/1.

An All-Superman, all-the-time sale. Now, DC’s digital depth doesn’t really go as deep as Marvel, despite having been around longer, so it’s a little smaller than the Marvel Legacy sales. Everything before the John Byrne/Man of Steel era is a little spotty… but you know what? Byrne’s run ushered in a pretty entertaining period.

The slightly better buy for the early portion of that Byrne-initiated period is the larger Man of Steel collections. This is the post-Crisis relaunch spearheaded by John Byrne, but also with Marv Wolfman, Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern and Dan Jurgen showing up early on. Solid runs and we’re particularly fond of Ordway’s work.

After Byrne left, but still firmly in what we’d consider this period of Superman, there’s a good run by George Perez with Roger Stern and Kerry Gammill collected in The Adventures of Superman by George Perez.

Man of Steel   Adventures of Superman

Some more random recommendations? Sure.

One of the more unusual Superman titles from the Pre-Crisis era is Superman: Phantom Zone by Steve Gerber, Gene Colan and Tony DeZuniga. Yes, it’s about the Phantom Zone and Zod… but it veers into horror territory and gets pretty wild and metaphysical. We’d have loved to see more Superman from this team, but ’twas not to be. This also includes the (much later) wrap up story from DC Comics Presents by Gerber and Rick Veitch.

Emperor Joker was something that got some serious word of mouth in 2000, when it took over the Superman titles for a couple months. It’s a Jeph Loeb / Joe Kelly / J. M. DeMatties / Mark Schultz / Ed McGuinness / Doug Mahnke / Mike Miller / Kano tale of the Joker gaining the power to reshape the world in his image and reigning as Emperor. And no, it’s not an Elseworlds tale. A highlight of the early 00’s for Superman.

And for something more recent that was completely overlooked, there’s Batman/Superman: The Archive of Worlds.  This is a fun-forward romp by Gene Yang and Ivan Reis that has Superman and Batman hopping parallel world with classic cinema themes… to put it in a way to avoid spoilers. Silver age themes with modern sensibilities.

Superman: Phantom Zone   Superman: Emperor Joker   Batman / Superman: The Archive of Worlds

And let’s give a shout out to a couple of our favorite Jimmy Olsen collections (both of them?) that happen to be collected here:

Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby is one of the “Forth World” titles, but it’s also effectively Kirby’s Superman book. What do we get here? The debut of the Cadmus Project and the DNAliens, the return of the Guardian and the Newsboy Legion, Intergang… and a clone saga that predates Spidey’s first encounter with the Jackyl. Very fun stuff.

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen? is the more recent Jimmy Olsen 12-parter by Matt Fraction and Steve Leiber. We’ve raved about this one before and we’ll doing it again: this is one of the funniest comics of modern times. Jimmy Olsen wakes up in Gorilla City hungover and married… to an intergalactic jewel thief and that’s far from the strangest part of story (nor is the alien cat that pukes up buckets of blood over everyone). Somebody, lots of somebodies, are trying to kill him. Jimmy’s on the run, trying to stay one step ahead of the killers, maintain his career and figure out who’s behind this. It’s a homage to the 50’s/60’s series and it’s transformations. There’s an actual mystery underneath the humor and it goes out of its way to explore some of the odder corners of the DC Universe. A bit of a masterpiece in our opinion. We’re eager for a proper sequel.

Jimmy Olsen by Jack Kirby   Jimmy Olsen

The Doctor Is In – Redux

The  Marvel Doctor Strange Sale runs through Monday, 3/28.

And it’s most of the Doctor Strange material that’s been collected in book form… and a couple more titles than when this run a few weeks back (see: The Peter Gillis Strange Tales, for instance.)

So first, as is our custom, we’ll walk you through the various series over the years… this is a little more complicated because the early Epic/Masterwork volumes aren’t on the same page. (We’ll let you you pick out the mini’s yourself, since those aren’t as convoluted.)

  • Strange Tales – This is a cluttered series page, but its the original Lee/Ditko run, so let’s break it down to Masterworks 1 and Masterworks 2 or Epic Edition 1
  • Doctor Strange ’68-’69 – the Masterworks listings are here and include the early Marvel Premiere run. The ’68 run is perhaps most notable for some amazing Gene Colan art, but the scripts don’t always live up to the art.
  • Doctor Strange ’74-’87 – The Masterworks here catch the end of the Marvel Premiere run and the Epics pick up with the back half of ’68 run. (Yes, it’s a confusing way to look at things.)
  • Strange Tales ’87-’88 – The rest of the Peter B. Gillis run from Strange Tales with art by Chris Warner, Kevin Nowlan, Terry Shoemaker and Richard Case.
  • Doctor Strange ’88-’96 – Probably best known for the Roy & Dann Thomas run with Butch Guice and Geoff Isherwood as notable artists.
  • Doctor Strange ’15-’18 – Initially Jason Aaron/Chris Bachalo with Donny Cates tagging in towards the end. (The omnibuses here are the better buy)
  • Doctor Strange ’18-’19 – The Mark Waid / Jesus Saiz / Barry Kitson era with Strange in space.
  • Doctor Strange, Surgeon Supreme (’19) – the very much under-rated and too short Mark Waid / Kev Walker run. Walker knocks it out of the park here.
  • Death of Doctor Strange – Jed MacKay and Lee Garbett kill off Stephen Strange. For real. (OK, at least it lasted for a bit and served a plot point.) A clever series that delivers its titular promise in unexpected ways.

Strange isn’t included, so somebody considers it a Clea title, perhaps?

What’s good?  This is where we get into Masterworks vs. Epics… because the Masterworks are a LOT more complete right now, particularly through the 70s.  The original Lee/Ditko run is great and you can get that in the first Epic Collection. Things pick up again when Englehart and Brunner show up towards the end of the Marvel Premiere run and the whole ’74-’87 run is solid, though we have a particular soft spot for the Roger Stern / Marshall Rogers / Paul Smith material towards the end.  Yes, Doctor Strange had A list creators most of the time.  That’s your core.

Another personal favorite that wasn’t in the previous sale, Doctor Strange: The Oath by a pre-Saga Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin.

Something under the radar?  The final Waid/Walker run is also a lot more under the radar than it should be.

    Doctor Strange in Strange Tales   Doctor Strange   Doctor Strange - The Oath

Mutations – Redux

The Marvel New Mutants Sale runs through Monday, 4/24

Let’s break this one down by the series highlights first:

  • New Mutants (’83 – ’91) – The original run
  • New Mutants (’09 – ’11) – Zeb Wells / Diogenes Neves; DnA / Leandro Fernandez & David Lopez
  • New Mutants (’03 – ’04) – Nunzio DeFilippis / Christina Weir / Keron Grant / Khary Randolph
  • New Mutants: Dead Souls (’18) – Matthew Rosenberg / Adam Gorham
  • New Mutants (’19-’22) – The HoX/PoX (Hickman) era with rotating creators

What’s the best run of New Mutants? That’s a question that runs to personal preference more than most series. We’d say, #18-31 is the core with Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz that stands above the rest. Demon Bear. The introduction of Warlock. A good Legion arc. And it’s conveniently packaged in an Epic Collection. It’s still an interesting run after Sienkiewicz moves on, but he’s so good at setting mood and tone.

Another thing we’d throw out as particularly interesting is specifically the Jonathan Hickman installments of the most recent series. These are also conveniently collected in a single volume… and his issues didn’t always run sequentially.

Past that, this is one where you browse and see if something strikes your fancy.

New Mutants: The Demon Bear Saga   New Mutants

Hammered

The  Dark Horse 2023 Black Hammer Sale runs through Monday, 5/1.

This would be — we think it’s OK to call it a superhero universe at this point — the indie superhero saga by Jeff Lemire, Dean Ormston and friends. There are a couple branches to how this saga unfurls.

The main Black Hammer series is here and that’s where you should start the journey. But, as with many long running titles, there are a few different editions to it and this is what we think the cheapest (if messy to sort) way to read the series is.

There are currently 7 volumes under the main series + a collection of specials + 2 volumes of “Visions” with guest creators playing in the Black Hammer standbox.

So what you want to do to cheap out is go to the omnibus page first.

Black Hammer Omnibus V.1 is basically the same thing as the first Library edition. That gets you the first two “regular” volumes (issues 1-13) + the Annual.

Black Hammer Library Edition V. 2 gets you the equivalent of “regular” volumes 3 &4 (“Age of Doom”) plus the Streets of Spiral material not in the Ominbus.

Then you can pick up again with V.5 of the regular editions.

Then you’ve got the World of Black Hammer collections, which are solo tales about the various heroes and villains like Barbalien and Sherlock Frankenstein.

And finally, there’s Black Hammer / Justice League: Hammer of Justice, the Lemire / Michael Walsh team up between… well, that’s in the title, isn’t it? This one offers savings in the single issue format.

Black Hammer Omnibus   Sherlock Frankenstein   Black Hammer / Justice League

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: James Gunn’s DC Comics Picks; Falcon and the Winter Soldier; Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC has some of James Gunn’s picks discounted, plus Marvel cuts prices on Falcon & The Winter Soldier and Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur.  Film & Television tie-in week?  Could be!

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):

Kinda Like a TV Sale

The Marvel Falcon and the Winter Soldier Sale runs through Monday, 2/13.

This sale has lot of comics we’ve enjoyed over the years.  The Englehart/Sal Buscema run is an utter classic. Ed Brubaker’s work with Michael Lark, Steve Epting and Butch Guice across Captain America and the Winter Soldier spin-off are also high up there.  But let’s take the road less travelled for the recommendations, since you really ought to know about the above.

Captain America: Symbol of Truth, Vol.1: Homeland by Tochi Onyebuchi and R.B. Silva is something we really enjoyed in the single issues and we think this is the first time the collected edition has been discounted. (6 issues for the price of 1.) This is Sam Wilson as Captain America with the new Falcon at his side. An attempt to stop the smuggling of super soldier serum leads Sam to a human trafficking ring, then to Latveria and then smack dap into the middle of Wakandan immigration policy. An action-forward with brains behind it story that deserves a higher profile.

Captain America & The Falcon by Christoper Priest: The Complete Collection is an under-rated run by Priest with Bart Sears, Joe Bennett and Andrea DiVito. It’s a Priest comic, so if you’re familiar with him, you’re familiar with the style. The overarching plot concerns a rogue element in the military that’s used the Super-Soldier Serum to create an “Anti-Cap”… and, of course, MODOK turns up in the middle of it.

And finally, our standing recommendation for Madbomb, Jack Kirby’s epic about an attempt to overthrow the government using bombs that cause people to lose their minds. Over the top action as only Kirby can do it.

Captain America: Symbol of Truth   Captain America & the Falcon by Christopher Priest   Captain America & the Falcon: Madbomb

Yes, Definitely a TV Sale Kind of Week

The Marvel Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur Sale runs though Monday, 2/13.

This is a lower volume sale than others and simple to handle:

These larger page count editions of the Amy Reeder / Brandon Montclare / Natacha Bustos main series are the better buy.

Moon Girl: Endangered Species is a collection of team-up issues outside the main title.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur   Moon Girl: Endangered Species

We Did Find Evidence of Film Involvement…

The  DC Epic eBooks Sale runs through Monday, 2/13.

A word of caution here (and this is getting to be a regular thing): this sale did not have the final sale prices listed when it first appeared. New pricing has slowly been rolling out over the week, but as we type this, not all the prices have changed. (Example: we do not think $34.99 is the intended sale price for this otherwise fine Batman collection — and maybe it won’t be by the time you’re reading this?)

But, some of the sale pricing has gone through and there is some interesting material in that grouping.

You may recall that James Gunn tweeted out that All-Star Superman is something you might want to read to get a flavor for the direction he wants to move in. This Grant Morrison / Frank Quitely collection is an excellent distillation of all that is good about the Silver Age incarnation of Superman. Pretty much a timeless take, and a good one for Gunn to be focusing on, truth be told. On sale for $5.99.

If you’re looking for a value buy, Legion of Superheroes: The Great Darkness Saga is a good one. This is a 400 page chunk of the iconic Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen Legion run, with a bit of Paul Levitz/Pat Broderick to start it out. That gets you a few issues leading into the actual Great Darkness storyline where Darkseid appears and takes over, plus the immediate aftermath. Highly recommended.

And then going back to Gunn’s recommendations, it just so happens the first four volumes of the Alan Moore / Stephen Bissette / John Totleben / Stan Woch Saga of the Swamp Thing $3.99 each. Another all-time classic classic run!

Bonus: we have noticed an unadvertised sale. Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age, Vol. 1 collects the equally iconic original Swamp Thing run by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson for $6.99. Just so you know…

All-Star Superman   Legion of Super Heroes The Great Darkness Saga   Swamp Thing

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC has *a new* $1.99 Graphic Novel Sale

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC offers up a new slate of $1.99/$2.99 collected editions. We could get used to this.

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):

Isn’t this interesting? DC has another week of much better than usual discounts, so they get a solo post today and we’ll be back for the rest of the week at the usual time.

The question you might be asking yourself: “Will DC have even better discounts next week or did they wisely decide to unleash the good prices while everyone else was waiting for the week of the 20th?”

We won’t have an answer to that until next week, but we’re awfully curious.

The Hit Parade

The DC’s Greatest Hits Sale runs through Monday, 12/19.

There’s a little bit of everything here and a few items, like Far Sector and the George Perez Wonder Woman run, hanging on from previous recent sales.

First a piece of real good advice. This sale is monster to get to the end of. We lost track of how many times we had to click for more books. It you want to examine something, right click it and open it in a new window so you don’t lose your place and have to manually reload everything from the top!

So let’s break this into highlights by price points. Here’s what caught our eye in terms of story and pricing:

$2.99 “Deluxe” Editions

These are great values – they generally contain the equivalent or 2 “regular” collected editions (10-12 issue worth), so you’re paying an effective $1.50 per collected edition. That’s about as cheap as it gets with DC!

  • 100 Bullets – Brian Azzarello / Eduardo Risso
  • Batman: Shadow of the Bat – Alan Grant/Norm Breyfogle/Tim Sale/Bret Blevins
  • DMZ – Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli
  • Fables – Bill Willingham / Mark Buckingham
  • The Flash by Geoff Johns – with Scott Kollins as the lead artist; scroll to the bottom of the page for this, but a couple Flash by Mark Waid volumes are also $2.99
  • JLA – Initially by Grant Morrison and Howard Porter
  • New Gods – Jack Kirby’s classic saga + the ’84 wrap-up from the reprints + The Hunger Dogs OGN

$1.99 Collected Editions

  • Batman (’16-current) – All but the end of the Tom King run, then $2.99
  • Detective Comics (’16-current) – The James Tynion IV & Peter J. Tomasi runs are mostly $1.99, and then $2.99
  • Ex-Machina – Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris; “Deluxe” double volumes – usually 10 issues worth – cheap!
  • Green Arrow (’88-’98) – Best known as the Mike Grell era with Ed Hannigan, Dan Jurgens and Rick Hoberg illustrating the Grell run
  • Green Lantern: Sector 2814 (’60-’86) – at the bottom of the page, the Len Wein/Dave Gibbons run into the Steve Englehard/Joe Staton run
  • Green Lantern (’05-’11) – The Geoff Johns run, a GL highlight
  • The Nice House on the Lake – James Tynion IV / Alvaro Martinez Bueno
  • Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil – by Jeff Smith
  • Superman: Emperor Joker – Joe Kelly/Jeph Loeb/Doug Mahnke/Ed McGuinness
  • Superman: Phantom Zone – Steve Gerber / Gene Colan / Rick Veitch
  • Superman: The Man of Steel  – The John Byrne era, also with Marv Wolfman, Jerry Ordway, Ron Frenz and some Roger Stern
  • Superman Vs. Mongul – Len Wein/Jim Starlin are behind the early DC Comics Presents appearances of Mongul, plus the classic Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons “For the Man Who Has Everything”
  • Y- The Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra; this version is actually the “Deluxe” double volumes for $1.99, so extra cheap!

A little pricier at $4.99, but of potential interest this week, First Issue Special is what Tom King’s Danger Street is based on. This is sort of the ’70s version of Showcase. The only “hit” to come out of it was Mike Grell’s Warlord, which one was of DC’s best sellers into the early 80s. The Martin Pasko/Walt Simonson Doctor Fate issue is a classic. Kirby’s Manhunter and Atlas issues are also worth your time. A mixed bag, but an interesting mixed bag.

What’s the pick of the litter? When all the prices are this good, it really depends on your tastes.  If you emphasize page count vs. price, New Gods might just get the crown. ~420 pages of great comics whose influence is hard to overstate for a mere $2.99. For the uninitiated, this is Jack Kirby’s epic of superhero-esque gods on the planets of New Genesis and Apokolips. Orion is the lead hero, Darkseid is the big bad and Mister Miracle was actually a companion book, not the main title. This is where Darkseid comes from.

Ex-Machina is pre-Saga Brian K. Vaughan and post-Starman Tony Harris telling the tale of the mayor of NYC and his unsuccessful efforts to stay retired from superheroing. A more adult take on superheroes set against a backdrop of politics long before the Kingpin or Luke Cage was mayor. $1.99/volume for the double volumes? Yes, please.

For “traditional” DC capes hijinx, we’ll give the JLA run a slight nod over Flash. As JLA moves forward, the page counts get a little higher than Flash. Particularly the Waid/Hitch volume. The Flash also doesn’t wear a cape, so there’s that, too. And for bonus points, the first volume of JLA is $1.99. Cheap. Really, both of those are fine, iconic runs. Pun intended.

There’s a LOT to look at with this sale. 1300+ items, so if you like the DC cannon, it’s probably worthwhile to carve some time out to browse this before the weekend passes.

New Gods by Jack Kirby   Ex Machina   JLA

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC Breaks Out $1.99 Collected Editions / $0.99 Single Issues

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC opens up with some grown up discounts: $1.99 collected edition and $0.99 single issues rule the day.

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):

DC’s Stealth Holiday Sale

The DC Recent Hits Sale runs through Monday, 12/12.

$1.99 recent collected editions? Yes, this got our attention and we’re popping in mid-week to point this out to you. We applaud DC for bringing the cheap this week.

First, let’s just run through a list of some of the $1.99 collections that made us raise an eyebrow. This is NOT a complete list of the selections and not all of the material is that recent… just most of it.

There’s a lot of quality there. Quality on the cheap! Much of this we’ve spoken of before.  We especially like those Hellblazer books (both versions listed) and The Human Target. This run of The Human Target is an out of continuity Black Label book where Chance is investigating his own poisoning and the suspects are the Bwa Ha Ha era Justice League International. It manages to be hardboiled AND Bwa Ha Ha on alternating pages, which is not easy to pull off!

And if you’ve never encountered Kirby’s  OMAC, it’s something of a science fiction social satire. One of the more unusual things Kirby did.

John Constantine, Hellblazer   OMAC   The Human Target

At slightly higher price points, our eyebrow went up for:

That’s a nice set of books. The one we haven’t really mentioned before, largely because the price point is usually on the high side, is Hard Time. One of Gerber’s lessor known and later works, this is an odd one even by Gerber’s standards. A prank goes wrong. Some students die and a teenager is quickly made an example of and sentenced to 50 years hard time. Except the teen has super powers… or perhaps some sort of super entity living in him. Prison drama. Teen hero. Incarceration politics. Yes, it goes to some dark places.

Hard Time   Far Sector   Wonder Woman by George Perez

And then there were the $0.99 single issues.  Like… a lot of them. And a few larger format comics reduced to $1.99.  Note: these are recent issues, so you may need to scroll down a bit to get to where the discounts start.  Here are some highlights, since these are all the way at the bottom of the sale:

This is definitely a sale that’s worth taking some time to scroll through, as annoying at the current Amazon UIX may be. Plenty more on sale than we highlighted and these are the best prices we’ve seen from DC in some time. (And we’re curious if they can actually top this in a couple weeks.)

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Star Wars, Superman, Daredevil, Deadpool and Lone Wolf and Cub

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Superman’s “recent” work; Marvel discounts Star Wars, Daredevil and Deadpool; and Lone Wolf and Cub does some slashing.

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):

Last Sale of Krypton

The DC Superman Recent Hits Sale runs through Monday, 11/14.

The somewhat recent critical darling here is definitely the Gene Luen Yang / Gurihiru Superman Smashes the Klan which is a reinterpretation of an old Superman radio serial. Good comic and definitely YA-appropriate.

The slightly more recent and totally under most radars option is Superman: Man of Tomorrow by Robert Venditti and Paul Pelletier. Solid “classic” Superman tales with a sly sense of humor that quietly lead into a finale. The running gag about Clark Kent’s clothes is very well done, indeed.

And from the “we have no idea how this counts as recent” category, All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely really is a great Superman comic and a love letter to the Silver Age. Very much worth your time if you’ve never partaken of it.

Superman Smashes The Klan   Superman: Man of Tomorrow   All-Star Superman

Not the Holiday Special

The Marvel Star Wars by Aaron and Gillen Sale runs through Monday, 11/14.

That would be Jason Aaron and Kieron Gillen.

The Janson Aaron run is conveniently collected in the Star Wars by Jason Aaron Omnibus. Aaron writes most of it (you’ve got some Kieron Gillen crossover issues in there) and there’s an artist rotation of John Cassaday, Stuart Immonen, Leinil Francis Yu, Mike Deodato, Jr., and Salvator Larroca, among others. And when we say “conveniently,” it also includes crossover issues of Darth Vader, Vader Down, Doctor Aphra, The Screaming Citadel and so forth. Saves a lot of reading order headaches, so thumbs up to that.

There is a convenient Star Wars by Kieron Gillen & Salvador Larroca Omnibus, but it’s not sale. (Booo…) It’ll put you back $40. You can pick up their run as volumes 7-11 of the regular Star Wars collections for $3.99@ and it’s effectively half price compared to the omnibus. (And you’ll note there are a couple Greg Pak/Phil Noto volumes in the sale after the Gillen/Larocca run.)

Star Wars by Jason Aaron   Star Wars

Zdarksky’s Event

The Marvel Daredevil Devil’s Reign Sale runs through Monday, 11/21.

And really, this is a Chip Zdarsky Daredevil sale.

The order you want to follow goes like this:

  • Daredevil by Chip Zdarsky: To Heaven Through Hell is what they’re calling the double volumes of his excellent run. And no, the comics aren’t as pretentious as the name it’s been given. Marco Checchetto is the lead artist for this. The through lines of the series are the competing gang interests in Hell’s Kitchen, the saga of Mayor Fisk and insurgencies by some sinister billionaires.
  • Devil’s Reign is the Event mini-series where Mayor Fisk makes his moves, declares super heroes illegal (in a sort of spin on Civil War’s Superhero Registration Act) leaving Hornhead and the heroes of New York City to resist. Let’s be honest… these are really Daredevil issues with guest stars for the purpose of the series. Zdarsky and Checchetto are still the creative team.
  • Daredevil: The Woman Without Fear by Zdarsky and Rafael de Latorre is the adventures of Elektra during Devil’s Reign. Why it’s called this would be mild spoilers territory, though you can probably guess.

The other spin-off minis are purely optional.

Daredevil   Devil's Reign   Daredevil: The Woman Without Fear

The Merc with the… Discounts?

The Marvel Deadpool Massive Sale runs through Monday 11/14.

And yes, there’s a LOT here. Let’s hit the highlights of the longer running series:

  • Deadpool Classic – Starting at the beginning, it’s something of a catch-all series of collections
  • Cable & Deadpool (’04-’08) – Most associated with Fabian Nicieza and Patrick Zircher
  • Deadpool (’08-’12) – The Daniel Way era
  • Deadpool (’12-’15) – The Brian Posehn/Gerry Duggan era
  • Deadpool (’18-’19) – Skottie Young / Nic Klein

Deadpool by Posehn and Duggan   Deadpool by Joe Kelly   Deadpool & Cable

The Baby Cart Assassin

The Dark Horse Digital Manga 2022 Sale runs through Monday, 11/26.

We highly recommend Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima. The Shogun’s executioner’s family is killed and the executioner framed for treason. He escapes with his infant son and undertakes work as an assassin while biding his time to gain revenge on those who plotted against him.

Lone Wolf and Cub

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Avengers, Deadpool, ~3K DC Titles and Image Crime

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC goes wide and deep with some better prices, Marvel offers up Avengers and Deadpool and Image slashes crime comics.

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):

Before we get to the sales, a message for the folks at Comixology: you really need to get some pagination in this new format. Yes, sorting and alphabetizing books is important and a step in the right direction, but there really needs to be some pagination or bookmarks. A sale like the current DC sale requires a person to click the “See more” button around 90 times to get to the end. If that person wants to read the details on any item before getting to the end, they get thrown back to the beginning of the sale when they click the back button to return.  That’s a pretty awful UIX experience and puts a significant burden on the user who wants to browse something at the end of the alphabet, like Wonder Woman. Fix this.

(We recommend right-clicking and opening a new tab or window if you want to examine an item in one of these monster-sized sales. It will save you some headaches.)

DC Forget To Put the Kitchen Sink On Sale

The DC Ultimate eBook Sale runs through Monday, 10/3.

As we were saying, this is a REALLY large sale, around 2700 items – all collected editions. And here’s the thing, items that are a few years old (and a couple more recent releases) are frequently $3.99/volume with some of the “Deluxe” editions – i.e., print HCs that contain two TPBs worth of material – for $5.99.  Good deals and as cheap as we’ve seen some of this in some time.  It’s well worth a browse.

Here’s a list of some things that caught our eye as cheaper than usual and/or not always on sale:

  • Challengers of the Unknown – This is the original Jack Kirby run and if you haven’t read it before, you may be shocked how much it feels like early Fantastic Four. $5.99
  • (Original) Doom Patrol – $5.99 for the first omnibus? Yes, please.
  • Fables – The Bill Willingham/Mark Buckingham fantasy epic in $5.99 double-volumes
  • Far Sector – $5.99 for all 12 issues of the N.K. Jemisen/Jamal Campbell instant classic that introduces a new Green Lantern
  • First Issue Special – Are you confused about the new Tom King / Jorge Fornés Black Label series? It spins out of this ’70s anthology series. A serious weird mix, but with some real gems like Doctor Fate by Martin Pasko & Walt Simonson, a few Jack Kirby one-shots and the debut of Mike Grell’s Warlord feature. $7.99 and it hasn’t been discounted until recently.
  • Gotham Central – $3.99 for double volumes of the Ed Brubaker/Greg Rucka/Michael Lark/Stefano Gaudiano/Kano classic?  That’s crazy cheap for the material.
  • Green Lantern (’60-’86) – There’s a lot here for $3.99 a pop, but here’s a good sequence that’s not always properly discounted V.1 = Len Wein/Dave Gibbons, V.2 = Wein/Gibbons and transitions to Steve Englehart/Joe Staton; V.3 = Englehart/Staton; V.4 of the sequence is inexplicably packaged as Tales of the Green Lantern Corps V.3, but is the next Englehart/Staton volume. The series then changes to Green Lantern Corps, but that volume is $7.99.
  • Green Lantern (’18-’20) – i.e., the Grant Morrison/Liam Sharp run. It’s all one extended story and it’s _all_ on sale now. Season 1 – $3.99. Season 2 – $3.99/$4.99
  • Hardware: The Man in the Machine – $3.99 for the great intro arc by Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan
  • Lois Lane: Enemy of the People – The 12-part Greg Rucka/Mike Perkins serial. – $5.99
  • New Teen Titans (’80-’88) – The original Marv Wolfman/George Perez classic at $3.99/volume
  • Orion – Walt Simonson’s criminally under-rated New Gods series. $5.99/$6.99
  • Rorschach – Tom King and Jorge Fornés do an excellent, if tangential, follow-up to Watchmen with a surprisingly meta meditation on identity and modern mythology.
  • Saga of the Swamp Thing – The Alan Moore era for $3.99/volume.
  • Suicide Squad (87-’92) – The John Ostrander/Luke McDonnell run that defined the concept for $3.99/volume? Ayup!
  • Superman: Phantom Zone – The wonderfully bizarre and creepy Steve Gerber/Gene Colan mini-series that takes more of a horror angle on Superman, plus the DC Comics Presents follow-up. $3.99
  • Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen – Extremely funny take on Jimmy by Matt Fraction and Steve Leiber. HIGHLY recommended.

There’s a ton of stuff here and it’s worth your time to have an extended browse.

Gotham Central   Superman: Phantom Zone   Rorschach

Avengers Disassemble

The Marvel Avengers/Mighty Avengers Sale runs through Monday, 10/3.

This would be the Bendis “New Avengers” era. There are multiple formats in play with this sale, but omnibus seems to be the way to go here:

That said, there a couple things in this sale we prefer from this era: the lesser known Mighty Avengers run by Dan Slott with Koi Pham as the lead artist. It’s not the classic Avengers lineup, but it has more of a classic Avengers feel.

You’ve also got the Ed Brubaker and Rick Remender eras of Secret Avengers. This is the Avengers “covert” ops team, so more of a spy flavor.

The Mighty Avengers by Dan Slott   Secret Avengers

No, Not the Dirty Harry Film

The Marvel Deadpool Vs. the Marvel Universe Sale runs through Monday, 10/3.

Deadpool has always had a lot of fairly short run titles swapping around at any given time, this is a collection of those secondary titles.

The longest running of the set is Deadpool & Cable, Fabian Nicieza and Patrick Zircher being the team most associated with it. Amusingly, the monthly comic was called Cable & Deadpool, but the character popularity has flipped since then.

Deadpool Corps maybe of heightened interest with Rob Liefeld joining writing Victor Gischler for it.

Deadpool & Cable   Deadpool Corps

Crime Time?

The Image Crime Sale runs through Monday, 10/17.

We’d probably call a LOT of these comics more SF/F than Crime, but we always did like a genre-bender.

If you want a straight up crime comic, The Good Asian by Pornsak Pichetshote and Alexandre Tefenkgi should trip your trigger. It lives up to the considerable hype (especially the first half). This is a noir mystery about a Hawaiian detective of Chinese descent, summoned to San Francisco to investigate a disappearance related to his wealthy guardians family… and then things sideways. Conspiracies mingle with politics and racial identity. And it’s well researched, too.

While Criminal was originally published at Icon/Marvel, it’s kind of the old school flagship for crime work at Image, since that’s where Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips started doing crime tales (non-superpowered crime tales, at least, since they’d previously worked together on Sleeper).

Now, if you want something a lot further out there, but still with a criminal element, we’ve always been big fans of Chew. This John Layman / Rob Guillory classic is the right kind of weird. It’s also frequently hilarious. In world recovering from a nasty bird flu, after which poultry is outlawed, FDA agent Tony Chu chases a conspiracy, aided by ability to experience the memories of anything he eats.  Awesomely strange, one might say. (The sequel series, Chu is also top notch.) Oh, yes… there’s also a death-dealing rooster named Poyo.

The rest of the sale is definitely worth a browse. It’s a nice selection, especially if you like Brubaker/Phillips.

The Good Asian   Criminal   Chew

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC’s Summer Sale (Batman and friends); Image Touts the Eisner Nods (Dept. of Truth); Dark Horse Has Everything on Sale (Everything)

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC’s attempting to make summer sizzle, Image is touting its Eisner nods and Dark Horse… has everything on 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):

Interestingly, there are no new Marvel sales this week. Check the Still On Sale section for the links to the Thor / GoG / “July” sales which we also looked at in more detail last week.

For those keeping score at home, and we know a lot of you are, the 4th of July was a Marvel BOGO week last year.  We are long overdue for one and the evidence is starting to point to those having gone away when the Comixology site did.  We continue to hope, but until we see the next one…

And By Sizzle, They Mean the Weather

The DC Summer Sizzle eBook Sale runs through Monday, 7/11.

A similar 1K book graphic novel drop to what we’ve been seeing here recently. There’s a smattering of $4.99 titles, but you’re mostly going to find a floor of $5.99 here. Nothing particularly recent on sale here, but with 1000 books, there are always some highlights. Some things that we’ve enjoyed in the past.

Ex Machina originally came out under the Wildstorm banner (will it be rebranded as Black Label or will Vertigo stick around as a legacy label?), Ex Machina is what happens when a world’s first superhero attempts to retire from superheroics and is elected mayor of NYC. Of course… superhero retirements rarely go as planned. Politics against a background of costumes and power… and vice versa, too. It’s a good one and a bit earlier to the “super mayor” party.  Written by a pre-Saga Brian K. Vaughan and drawn by Tony Harris, with a bit of Chris Sprouse and Jon Paul Leon.  It’s a very solid series.

Superman: Red Son is possibly Mark Millar’s best reviewed work.  With art by Dave Johnson and Killian Plunkett (we’re going to go ahead and say – we need more Dave Johnson interior art in life), this is an Elseworlds tale of Kal-El’s rocket landing in the Soviet Union, instead of Kansas, and Superman being raised as Stalin’s weapon.

James Tynion IV recently wrapped up a Batman run, but we honestly preferred his “Batman Family” flavored run from Detective Comics a few years earlier. Eddy Barrows and Alvaro Martinez Beuno are the lead artists and the Tynion run is V. 1-7.

Ex Machina   Superman: Red Son   Detective Comics by Tynion

Awards Season

The Image Eisners Sale runs through Monday, 7/25.

Which is to say, running until Comic-Con. And there are some interesting things here.

We’re fans of Department of Truth, the X-Files-ish horror/conspiracy theory about imagination and beliefs made real by James Tynion IV (that guy again) and  Martin Simmonds. We would like to specifically point out that V.1 is down to $3.99, so the first collection for the price of a single issue.  Also some $0.99 single issues, should you prefer that format… and single issues will be cheaper that $6.99 for 6 issues in a collected edition.

With that in mind, here’s a list of the titles being offered in $0.99 single issues.  Monstress has a $3.99 V. 1, otherwise you need to compare price vs. # of issues in the collection:

Department of Truth

And They Mean Everything.

The Dark Horse Everything 2022 Sale runs through Monday, 7/25.

If it’s not the full catalog, it would seem to be awfully close.

For a lot of folks, Dark Horse starts with Hellboy. (At least in the absence of Aliens and Boris the Bear.) They’re a little pricier than some things, but since they’re basically 4-in-1 volumes, we like the Omnibus editions as a starting point here. And if you browse there is plenty more of the Hellboy universe available. It’s a classic for a reason.

Speaking of classics, there’s also Nexus, Mike Baron’s and (mostly) Steve Rude’s science fiction series with superhero trappings of a man imbued with fusion power by a sinister alien who enlists him as an assassin. Nexus is haunted by dreams of mass murderers and the only way to make them stop is to kill the murders. Also something of a cold war satire around the edges. We’ve gone through the omnibus edition in the last ~3 years and had a good time of it.

Carla Speed McNeil’s Finder has always been one of those “if you know, you know” books. Under the indie radar for a loooooong time, it’s sprawling, world building science fiction series centered around Jaeger, who’s both a sin-eater and a Finder: a sort of tracker/bounty hunter with mysterious abilities related travel, healing and locating things.  You aren’t going to find very many comics with such well-developed alien cultures as Finder, either.  Steve Leiber put us onto this long before Dark Horse acquired the rights and if you can’t trust Steve Leiber, who can you trust?  Those two Finder Library omnibus volumes are over 600 pages each. Bang for your buck!

Bonus cheap: you can find volumes of Groo by Sergio Aragones & Mark Evanier  for as low as $2.99. Not a dumb price for such a dumb barbarian.

If you’re looking for $0.99 single issues, there are a bunch and you can work your way through them starting here.

Honestly, while Amazon makes browsing painful, there’s a lot of worthwhile material here if you have the time to flip through.

Hellboy: The Complete Short Stories   Nexus   Finder

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Shang Chi, Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, Superman, Green Lantern and Elfquest

This week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales include Marvel’s transmedia heroes: Shang Chi and Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), plus the original Kree Captain Marvel. DC highlights include Superman, Green Lantern and Jimmy Olsen, while Dark Horse discounts Elfquest.

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):

(Former) Master of Kung Fu

The Marvel Shang Chi Sale runs through Monday, 6/6.

Shang Chi has a… complicated story at Marvel that involves a lot of “inside Baseball” maneuvering behind the scenes.  There are basically three periods to the character:

Period #1 is what we’ll call the “classic” period, for lack of a better term. Master of Kung Fu started out as a licensing deal for the old Fu Manchu novels.  In original run, Shang is the son of Fu Manchu, who’s rejected his ways and is working with an elderly Sir Dennis Nayland Smith (protagonist of the novels) and British Intelligence against Fu Manchu’s schemes. When Doug Moench settled in as writer, especially with Paul Gulacy, Mike Zeck and/or Gene Day on art duties, it settled into a sort of pulpy espionage comic with touches of fantasy around the edges.  It’s also widely considered one of Marvel’s best works of the ’70s.  The series technically lasted past Doug Moench leaving for DC, but only by a couple issues.  Moench would eventually return for a Marvel Comics Presents serial (alongside a revival of another 70s cult star, Man-Thing) and a special.

There are two Epic Collections of this run, though the second is probably more representative of the series.

Eventually, Marvel decided to revive the character a little more actively, but in the 00’s, they no longer had the Fu Manchu license, so they updated Shang’s costume to more of a track suit (*cough* Bruce Lee *cough*) and just didn’t talk about his father and/or tried to switch his father to The Yellow Claw, a 50s Marvel Fu Manchu knock-off that appeared every once in a while. In this period, Shang was usually popping up in team books, like Secret Avengers.

Then, a bit more recently (and likely influenced by Marvel Studios), Marvel decided maybe it wasn’t such a good thing to have one of their most prominent Asian characters rooted in the most famous Yellow Peril franchise.  So they pulled in heavy hitter Gene Lueng Yang, Dike Ruan and Phillip Tan to relaunch Shang Chi as more of a fantasy adventure hero. An ongoing series followed shortly thereafter.  It’s a pretty big shift between eras. If you’re familiar with the character from the films, this is the version you’re looking for.

Master of Kung Fu   Secret Avengers   Shang-Chi

You Look Marvelous

The Marvel Ms. Marvel Sale runs through Monday 6/20.

This would be Ms. Marvel as in Kamala Khan, not the current Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers. Hmm… it’s like there was a TV show coming out or something?  Let’s break this down by volume, since there have been relaunches.

  • Ms. Marvel ’14-15 – The original run with G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona as the primary artist
  • Ms. Marvel ’15-’19 – How silly is this relaunch? The collected edition number doesn’t even reset! It’s still Wilson and Alphona, although the artist rotate a bit as it goes on.
  • Magnificent Ms. Marvel ’91-’21 – Relaunched after Wilson’s departure, this is written by Saladin Ahmed with Minkyu Jung and Joey Vazquez as the lead artists
  • Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit – The most recent mini-series (only single issues are on sale) by Samira Ahmed and Andrés Genolet.

There’s a selection of Champions, where Ms. Marvel was a member, also on sale.

Recommendations? We thought Ms. Marvel was at its best early in the run, before it got too integrated into the Marvel universe, but that’s just us.  Definitely start with Wilson’s run, though.  It made quite the mainstream splash.

Ms. Marvel

Speaking of Marvelous…

The Marvel Captain Mar-Vell Sale runs through Monday, 6/6.

Yes, things have gotten complex enough that Marvel is calling him by his Kree name of Mar-Vell. This would be Marvel’s original Captain Marvel, who’s title Carol Danvers took up in recent years… yet, only one of the two series comprising the bulk of the sale is of the original Marvel.

What we’re looking at:

  • Captain Marvel ’68-’79 – This being the original run most people think of.
  • Captain Marvel ’02-’04 – This being the adventure of the orginal Mar-Vell’s son, Genesis. Written by Peter David with seemingly a different artist for each arc.

Recommendations? If you’re not looking to get the full run of Masterworks for the original run, we’d point you towards two volumes:

  1. Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin: The Complete Collection – Get this in place of Masterworks V. 3. It also contains the Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel and some other material for a slightly high page count.  This is the first Thanos storyline and Starlin’s Captain Marvel is the character’s high point.
  2. Captain Marvel Masterworks V. 4 – This volume is largely forgotten, but a friend made this magically appear in our Comixology account a couple years back and we enjoyed it. Steve Englehart and Al Milgrim pick up where Starlin leaves off and run with it for a bit. The Supreme Intelligence schemes and Ronan accuses. Not quite to the legendary level of Starlin, but these two volumes are effectively the “Best of.”

Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin   Captain Marvel

Crisis On the Road To Utopia

The DC Road To Dark Crisis eBook Sale runs through Monday, 6/13.

These “Road To” titles always make us think the marketing departments are Bob Hope/Bing Crosby fans…

So, while this is supposed to be a Dark Crisis lead-in sale, the 1000-ish comics in it suggest that might be hyperbole.  Or perhaps DC will prove us wrong and the Meg (Princess Diaries) Cabot / Cara McGee Black Canary: Ignite YA OGN is really leading into Dark Crisis?

There’s obvious a LOT on sale, so it’s worth a browse.  Recommendations? Sure.

Superman: Man of Tomorrow, Vol. 1: Hero of Metropolis is a bona fide hidden gem. Completely under most radars as a digital first comic, this is a string of connected “classic” Superman tales as a conspiracy unfolds in the background… with the Parasite, Metallo and a giant ape in the mix. It also has a strong sense of humor with a subplot about how hard it is to stash your clothes when changing into costume. Robert Venditti writes it, Paul Pelletier is the primary artist.  Probably our favorite Superman in at least a couple years. (Plus, $5.99 is one of the lower price points, here.)

While a little more expensive at $8.99 (but at least you’re getting 12 issues, here), Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen by Matt Fraction and Steve Leiber is an instant classic. This is a surprisingly densely plotted screwball adventure that simultaneously calls back to the over-the-top silliness of the Silver Age. As Jimmy Olsen tries to stay alive long enough to solve his own murder, we witness: a drunken marriage in Gorilla City, an ancestral feud between the Luthors and the Olsens, podcast pranks and… look, OF COURSE there’s a giant turtle. A masterpiece.

The first two volumes/season are priced a little lower, but the entirety of the Grant Morrison/Liam Sharp Green Lantern run is now on sale.  Morrison explores a lot of tropes in what starts out as exploring the “space cop” aspect of GL. Sharp varies the art with the themes for a different experience than you typically get with a mainline DC character, too.  This is essentially one extended story told across two “seasons.”

Season One
Season Two (Note: the 80th Anniversary book is NOT part of the story, despite how it’s displayed.)

Superman: Man of Tomorrow   Jimmy Olsen   Green Lantern

Wolf Riders

The Dark Horse Elfquest Sale runs through Monday, 6/13.

This is the classic and pioneering fantasy tale of Elves fleeing when the humans burn down their forest by Wendy and Richard Pini.

The saga, except for the current installment, is collected in very thick omnibus volumes as The Complete Elfquest and 500-600 pages for $5.99 is a good deal!

The current installment is Elfquest: Stargazer’s Hunt, of which the second book isn’t out, but the first is on sale.

Elfquest   Elfquest: Stargazer's Hunt

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: DC Classics w/ New Teen Titans, What If?, Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook, Peanuts

This week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales include DC “Classics,” which includes the Marv Wolfman/George Perez New Teen Titans run, so we’ll have to agree with the sale’s title. Marvel offers up What If? Fantagraphics discounts Peanuts and Dark Horse celebrates Cullen Bunn & Tyler Crook.  We would also remind you that there’s a very cheap Star Wars sale and a Doctor Strange sale that aren’t quite finished yet.

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):

A “Classical” Education

The DC Classics Sale runs through Monday, 5/16

This one is a DEEP dive into the DC backlist. And since the sale prices seem to have normalized, we’re happy to be able to point you to a few title that now have each volume on sale, which wasn’t happening in the last couple months.

Point in case: New Teen Titans by Marv Wolfman and George Perez now has the first 10 volumes (coincidentally, the Perez years) for $4.99 each. Previously several volumes would be at those bizarre prices that appeared to be in error. Well, no more of that.  New Teen Titans was effectively DC’s answer to X-Men in the early 80s (along with the Levitz/Giffen-era LSH, whose reprinting is more convoluted). It’s supposed to be a “classics” sale and this one is more classic than most.

Fast forward a few years and you get the “Man of Steel” era of Superman. Some people call it the John Byrne era, but this time frame also brings Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway into the fold. $4.99 – $5.99 per volume is also good pricing.

New Teen Titans   Superman: The Man of Steel

In general, the “Silver Age” collections tend to be a slightly larger page count and good bang for your buck.  However, you also might find yourself thinking that DC’s collected editions can be a little spotty and, gosh darn it, sometimes you’d just like to get some $0.99 single issues to fill in those series.  You’re in luck, there are a LOT of $0.99 single issues here, although it’s a royal pain to browse in Amazon sub-par user interface.  Here’s a cheat sheet for some of the single issues on sale:

If Not, Why Not?

The Marvel What If Sale runs through Monday, 5/16.

The interesting thing about What If is how often the modern age of Marvel has gone back to pilfer from it.  What If is where Jane Foster first took up the hammer of Thor. The first place Conan stalked the streets of the present. The first time the Hulk became a barbarian. Apparently, “there’s gold in them there hills!”  The larger collections are slightly more bang for your buck, BTW.

What If

The Fantagraphics Peanuts Sale runs through Monday, 5/16.

Yes, the classic Charles Schultz comic strip with Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Fantagraphics is reprinting it from the beginning. Strangely, there’s no series link on Amazon for this.

The Complete Peanuts

Tag Team?

The Dark Horse Bunn & Crook Sale runs through Monday, 5/23.

That would be Cullen Bunn & Tyler Crook, who’ve done quite a bit at Dark Horse over the years.  Their best known collaboration is probably Harrow County  (the omnibus editions are BY FAR the best buy).

If you’d like something a bit more recent, Parasomnia by Bunn and Andrea Mutti was a February release.  The Unbelievable Teens (part of the Black Hammer universe) by Jeff Lemire and Crook was released on 4/5… and this is as quickly as we’ve seen a collection go on sale!

Harrow County Omnibus 1   Parasomnia   Unbelievable Teens

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Comixology Sales: Daredevil, Hawkeye, DC Annuals and Beasts of Burden

This week’s Comixology Sales include a big Daredevil sale from Marvel (and their Black Friday steals are still going), DC’s annuals through the years and Beasts of Burden.

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

Hornhead

The Marvel Daredevil Legacy Sale runs through Thursday, 12/9. (Amazon link)

Let’s start this with a stern warning: most of the original Daredevil run is available in Epic Editions and those are on sale for $3.99 each through Sunday. The notable exceptions being the Frank Miller era (and the interim Denny O’Neil run that’s mostly out of print).  Do that instead for the older material!

So, in terms of ‘ole hornhead in the Marvel Knights era to present… honestly, it’s mostly been pretty good.

Marvel Knights Daredevil is collected oddly. In the Omnibuses section of the page, you start with Daredevil Marvel Knights Vol.1, which gives you the initial Kevin Smith/Joe Quesada arc and the David Mack arc that introduces Echo.  Then you can switch to the Bendis and Brubaker collections.  The Bendis and Brubaker runs being what most people think of for the Marvel Knight years. (And they’re GOOD.) This is Daredevil as a crime book.

But what about the Bob Gale/Phil Winslade run? That is an EXCELLENT question. And the answer is drop down to the collected editions section for Marvel Knights Daredevil: Unusual Suspects which collects that and some related mini’s.

After Marvel Knights folded up the DD tent, the  Mark Waid era began. Another excellent era, which has its own set of omnibuses to simplify explaining things. (So many new #1s…) This starts out as an attempt to lighten things up a bit, but darkens up pretty quickly.  It’s a return to more of a superhero flavor. Among other things, Daredevil moves back to San Francisco, tangles with Mr. Fear and the Purple Man and eventually deals with the problem of his public identity from the Bendis/Brubaker era.  Waid’s run is also has an embarrassment of riches on the art side: Paolo Rivera, Marcos Martin and Khoi Pham all passed through before Chris Samnee settled in.

After Waid, is the Charles Soule/Ron Garney era. This one is a very pulpy take on Daredevil with the hand, a serial killer who makes “art” and Mayor Fisk.

The current run is by Chip Zdarsky with Marco Checchetto as the lead artist. This run is more focused on character development, politics and use the power. Zdarsky picks up the Mayor Fisk threads from Soule and goes in darker places with them.

There not a bad run in the lot (with the exception of the Shadowland crossover at the end of Marvel Knights). It’s just about what flavor you’re looking for.

Daredevil Marvel Knights   Daredevil by Mark Waid  Daredevil  Daredevil by Zdarsky

Marvel’s Better Deals

Still running through Sunday (12/5) are the best deals Marvel’s had so far in ’21:

Daredevil Epic Collection   Hawkeye

Once A Year

The  DC Annuals Sale runs through Monday, 12/6.  (Amazon link)

This is something of an odd sale. DC has traditionally been less active with annuals than Marvel. They also have a tendency to be part of crossover stories or the finale to a longer storyline. [Warning – beware the Detective / Green Arrow / Question crossover where the Green Arrow Annual isn’t available.]

So here are some ideas of annuals that are a little more self-contained.  99 cents for an extra long issue is not a bad thing, after all.

Superman Annual #11 might be the pinnacle of DC annuals. This is the famous “For the Man Who Has Everything” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, wherein Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin arrive at the Fortress of Solitude for Superman’s birthday party, only to discover Mongul has ambushed the Man of Steel and trapped his mind in a fantasy world.  An excellent tale that’s reprint a few places and has been adapted for TV.

Justice League International Annual 2 finds the Joker entering into a bargain with the Dictator of Bialya. He’ll kill the members of the JLI and Bialya security forces will go through Max Lord’s rolodex and figure out Batman’s secret identity.  What could possibly go wrong?  Written by the usual 80s Justice League team of Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis, drawn by Bill Willingham and Joe Rubenstein.  Yes, Bill Willingham was a sought after penciller earlier in his career.  Check out The Elementals in the back issue bins for his breakthrough writer/artist series.

And for something a little offbeat, there’s DC Comics Presents Annual #3 (Superman & Shazam), wherein Doctor Sivana has stolen the power of the gods from Captain Marvel. Roy Thomas and Joey Cavelieri have the writing chores, but the biggest draw here is Gil Kane strutting his stuff on the Big Red Cheese.

Superman Annual 11   Justice League International Annual 2   DC Comics Presents Annual 3

Paranormal Pets

The Dark Horse Beasts of Burden Sale runs through Monday, 12/6 (Amazon link)

This multi-Eisner Award winning series by Evan Dorkin, Jill Thompson and Benjamin Dewey concerns a group of dogs (and a cat) who confront supernatural threats.  This sale is pretty straightforward, but it might help to know the reading order:

  • Animal Rites
  • Wise Dogs and Eldritch Men
  • Neighborhood Watch

Followed in single issues by Occupied Territory.

Beasts of Burden

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