Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Black Adam, Wonder Woman, Black Widow, Champions, The Ultimates and The Walking Dead

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, DC celebrates the Black Adam sale with Teth-Adam and Justice Society comics AND it’s also time for Wonder Woman Day sale. Marvel lets loose with discounts on Black Widow, The Ultimates and The Champions. Dark Horse highlights Berger books and what’s the holiday season without The Walking Dead?

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):

Can You Smell What The Rock Is Reading?

The DC Black Adam & the JSA runs through Monday, 11/14.

Well, at least we’d like to think The Rock was reading some of the source material… Lots of stuff we like here, too.

We’re big fans of the Paul Levitz / Sonny Liew Doctor Fate revival from a few years back. A medical student of Egyptian decent encounters the helmet of Fate as ancient forces start showing up in Brooklyn. One of the best, and best explained, passing on of the mantle/identity examples in recent memory. (Now… where is the long promised Immortal Doctor Fate collection?)

Tim Truman’s Hawkworld is still one of our favorite Hawkman series, although we doubt this one will look much like the movie.

Doctor Fate   Hawkworld

Do like the classic Justice Society lineup?  We do, here at the Tower of Cheap.

Justice Society of America: A Celebration of 75 Years is sort of a “best of”/sampler of the various ages. Golden Age All-Star Comics, JSA/JLA team-ups, an All-Star Squadron issue, an issue of the Strazewski/Parobeck Justice Society of America, etc.  (Which reminds us… Hey DC, where’s that Strazewski/Parobeck collection you’ve been promising us?!?)

Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice has Len Strazewski and a rotating artist group of Rich Burchett, Tom Artis, Mike Parobeck and  Grant Miehm send a ’50s era JSA squad out against Vandal Savage, in the original All-Star Comics format where the heroes split up. Not the later, unreprinted Strazewski/Parobeck series set in the ’90s, this came a little before that.

Infinity, Inc. is a spin-off of All-Star Squadron. It’s the adventures of the children and protégés of the JSA in modern times. Roy and Dann Thomas write it. Jerry Ordway is the initial artist, and if you follow the single issues, you’ll eventually find a young Todd McFarlane, which most people forget. (And he has some pretty wild layouts in those.) They’re not all on sale, but the sale takes you through issue 8 and the end of the Generations Saga

Justice Society of America   Justice Society   Infinity, Inc.

Now what’s more likely to resemble the Black Adam film probably starts with JSA by Geoff Johns. This was originally written by David Goyer (yes, the screenwriter – he did more comics in the early aughts) and James Robinson. Johns turns up in issue #6 and a few years later assumes solo duties.  The Black Adam volume from later in the run, where Black Adam takes over Khandaq and Hawkman doesn’t appreciate it might be where the movie is going.  Only about half the series is in collected editions, however the single issues are $0.99 a pop.  Also seems that the JSA: Classified companion series is also having $0.99 single issues. Go figure.

This series was relaunched (now entering the age of relaunches) as Justice Society of America with Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham.  This is also where Alex Ross returned to the Kingdom Come franchise, although it was poorly promoted at the time.

JSA   Black Adam   Justice Society of America: Thy Kingdom Come

JSA Single Issue Bonanza

The DC Black Adam & the JSA Sale Single Issue Sale also runs through Monday, 11/14.

We noted a few of the single issue sales in the last item and while we were doing that, Amazon dropped a new sale.  Let’s break down the list by series (and know there are some specials, one-shots and minis not in the list):

  • Black Adam – Peter J. Tomasi / Doug Mahnke mini-series
  • Doctor Fate – ’87 – The Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis mini-series
  • Doctor Fate – ’88-’92 – J.M. DeMatties / Shawn McManus, later William Messner-Loebs/Scot Eaton
  • Infinity, Inc. – Roy & Dann Thomas/Jerry Ordway/Todd McFarlane
  • JSA – David Goyer/Geoff Johns/Stephen Sadowski is the primary combination
  • JSA All-Stars – Lilah Sturges/Freddie E. Williams
  • JSA Classified – Creators rotate by arc. Think the Justice Society version of Legends of the Dark Knight
  • JSA: Strange Adventures – Mini-series by Kevin J. Anderson/Barry Kitson/Gary Erskine
  • Hawkman – ’64-’68 – Get your Gardner Fox/Murphy Anderson on!
  • Hawkman – ’86-’87 – The Tony Isabella/Richard Howell run
  • Hawkworld – ’89-’93 – A continuation of the Tim Truman series (see above) by John Ostrander/Tim Truman/Graham Nolan
  • Hawkman – ’93-’96 – Continuation of Hawkworld, first by Ostrander/Jan Duursema, then Messner-Loebs/Steve Lieber
  • Hawkman – ’02-’06 – Initially by James Robinson / Geoff Johns / Rags Morales

What’s good here? We particularly liked the continuation of Hawkworld. This is really an eclectic dealer’s choice kind of selection. Get some Silver Age material. Pick up the Walt Simonson or Steve Englehart JSA Classified issues. You have options.

Hawkworld 

Call It a Day

The DC Wonder Woman Day Sale runs through Monday 10/24.  Wonder Woman Day being 10/21, if you were curious.

First let’s break this down by hitting the highlights of the series involved, since this is a really deep sale.

There’s a variety of good material here. Everyone should at least have a look at how entirely bizarre the early Wonder Woman comics are. Those bondage rumors are very real. While Amazon does a strange job of dividing into a different category pages, the George Perez re-imagining is a must-read for the character. We also swear by the Greg Rucka runs. The first, with JG Jones, Drew Johnson and Rags Morales on art, closes out the series that Perez’s run began. He then returned years later for another fantastic run with Nicola Scott and Liam Sharp on art.

Wonder Woman: The Golden Age   Wonder Woman by George Perez   Wonder Woman

Holy Eating Your Mate, Batman!

The Marvel Black Widow Sale runs through Monday, 10/24.

Yes, there’s a bit more Black Widow in print since she started showing up in the movies. We’re genuinely amused Marvel cobbled together an Epic Collection of her guest spots, too. But let’s talk about comics where she’s the lead.

The most recent Black Widow series by Kelly Thompson and Elena Casagrande pulled an Eisner Award and starts out with a very angry and violated Natasha Romanov looking for revenge. (Although ultimately, its a very family-themed run.)

You can pull the Waid/Samnee run on Black Widow in a single volume. This one has Natasha on the run as her past comes looking for her (a common theme in Widow stories). The nice thing about Waid/Samnee books – they’re a known quantity, so you already know if you’re interested.

If you want to go back a little further, we really enjoyed the darker, more espionage-centric pair of mini-series by Richard K. Morgan (yes, the Altered Carbon author) with Bill Sienkiewicz, Goran Parlov and Sean Phillips providing art. They are conveniently collected in the Black Widow: Welcome to the Game book.

Black Widow   Black Widow by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee   Black Widow - Welcome to the Game

Penunltimate

The Marvel Ultimates and the Ultimate Universe Sale runs through Thursday, 10/27.

The Ultimates were The Avengers of the Ultimate Universe. Mark Millar’s and Bryan Hitch’s series sparks a few arguments, but there’s no denying how influential it’s proven to be in everything from the “cinematic comics” movement to the Marvel films.

The other of the four flagship titles that launch the Ultimate Universe was Ultimate Fantastic Four. This title had a few more creators tagging in and out. Brian Bendis, Mark Millar, Mike Carey and Warren Ellis all wrote it at various times. Artists included Adam Kubert, Stuart Immonen and Greg Land.

Ultimates   Ultimate Fantastic Four

Breakfast of Champions

The Marvel Champions Sale runs through Monday, 10/24.

For the original ’70s Champions series by Tony Isabella, Bill Manto, George Tuska, Bob Hall and John Byrne, your best price for the full set is the Marvel Masterworks edition.

The ’16-’18 Mark Waid/Jim Zub/Humberto Ramos/Sean Izaakse/Kevin Libranda Champions run might require a little explanation for optimal cheapness. At the top of that page, get “Because the World Still Needs Heroes” and “Worlds Collide. (These are double volumes and better value.) Then jump to V.4 and V.5 of the regular series at the bottom of the page.

Champions   Champions

Image Zombies

The Image Walking Dead Sale runs through Monday, 10/31.

You had to see this one coming for Halloween, right?

So there’s the headline: $17.99 Walking Dead Compendiums. That’s ~48-50 issues, depending on the volume, for $18 and comes out to $0.35-$37/issue.  Cheap.

Hard to beat that deal. There are some assorted ones shots in the sale, but we’d say the other heighted item of interest might be $0.99 issues of Walking Dead Deluxewhich is the color version of Walking Dead. If you’re curious about that, this is a decent time to sample it.

Walking Dead   Walking Dead Deluxe

Karen’s Books

The Dark Horse Berger Books Sale runs through Monday, 10/31.

Yes, that’s Karen Berger who ran Vertigo (and editing Legion of Super-Heroes before that). She set up shop at Dark Horse after DC shut down Vertigo.  Berger Books is a little more genre-diverse than Vertigo was, but there’s a similar vibe.

Invisible Kingdom by G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward might be the de facto flagship book. This Eisner Award winner finds a religious acolyte and a starship freighter crew on the run after discovering corporate interests conspiring with religious leaders for control and profit.  We wouldn’t have minded a fourth volume.

The Seeds by Ann Nocenti and David Aja got an awful lot of attention towards the beginning of the year and it’s certainly an interesting one that blends a lot of dispirate elements: climate collapse, aliens, exclusion zones, journalism and conspiracies.  Plus… Aja’s art!

And because Halloween beckons, there’s always Anthony Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts written by Bourdain and Joel Rose with art by Paul Pope, Alberto Ponticelli and Vanesa Del Rey.

Invisible Kingdom   The Seeds x Anthony Bourdain's Hungry Ghosts

 

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Still On Sale

Comixology Sales: Invincible (and The Walking Dead), X-Men, Giant-Size Man-Thing and the DCU

Highlights of the Comixology Sales this week include Robert Kirkman taking a discount victory lap for the debut of the Invincible animated series, X-Men and Steve Gerber’s Man-Thing at Marvel and a DC universe mass sampling event.

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

Foundational X-Men Spin-Offs

The Marvel X-Men Universe Sale runs through Sunday, 3/28.

There’s a lot of X-Men material here, some of which we’ve discussed before, so we’ll look at some ’80s foundational pieces here.

X-Men: Kitty Pride & Wolverine by Chris Claremont and Al Milgrom was a sequel of sort to the Wolverine mini-series and is where Kitty got her martial arts training.

Longshot by Ann Nocenti and Art Adams is the original Longshot/Mojo tale. Nocenti’s having a moment over at Berger Books with The Seeds and… it has been awhile since we’ve seen Art Adams doing extended interior work.

Magick by Chris Clarement with a succession of John Buscema, Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema all finished by Tom Palmer on the art. This was a fairly dark story when it came out: the tale of how Illyana Rasputin was kidnapped to Limbo, taught sorcery by the demon Belasco and emerged as the Magick we know today.

Kitty Pride & Wolverine   Longshot   Magick

Includes Giant-Size Man-Thing (yes, that’s a real comic)

The Marvel Man-Thing Sale runs through Sunday, 3/28… but let’s call this a Steve Gerber sale because his runs on the feature are the prize here.  Gerber being one of the finest writers to grace a comics page.

The original run is collected in Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection.  Yes, these do collect the infamous Giant-Size Man-Thing issues. A third volume isn’t out yet (thus, not on sale) and it even contains the late 80s Marvel Comics Presents serial, so they aren’t kidding about complete.

The Infernal Man-Thing is more recent, a posthumously published tale by Gerber with art by Kevin Nowlan. (!) It’s actually a sequel to “Song-Cry of the Living Dead Man” from the original run (which is included in the book).

Howard the Duck: The Complete Collection is probably Gerber’s signature work. It’s also a Man-Thing spin-off. Here at the Tower of Cheap, we try to avoid non-Gerber Howard the Duck (though we’re quite happy with Destroyer Duck), you need the first two volumes. Past that… it ain’t Gerber.

Man-Thing by Steve Gerber   Infernal Man-Thing   Howard the Duck

 

Across the Multiverse

The DC Explore the Multiverse Sale is split into to parts, A-L and M- Z.  The sale runs through Monday, 4/1.  There’s quite a bit here, so it’s worth and extended browse.  Some of the better material:

Man and Superman (Deluxe Edition) by Marv Wolfman and Claudio Castellini is something of a miracle. It was sitting in a draw at DC for YEARS before someone had the good sense to publish it. There have been several “how Clark Kent came to Metropolis and became Superman.” This is one of, possibly THE best of those.  They’d be well served to make it the jumping off point next time Superman gets reset. Excellent comic and a love letter to the Man of Steel.

Speaking of Superman, you’ve probably heard good things about Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Yuen Yang and Gurihiru. Believe them. This is the top shelf of the Young Adult superhero comics from DC.

If you’d like something rare, Batman Death Mask, the manga by Yoshinori Natsume is one of the few comics DC is discounting over 50%.  60% off is not common for DC these days!

Man and Superman   Superman Smashes The Klan   Batman Death Mask

Everything’s Coming Up Kirkman

The Robert Kirkman Sale Featuring Invincible runs through Tuesday, 5/4.

You might have heard that the Invincible animated series has dropped on Amazon Prime, but this is actually a sale on pretty much all of Kirkman’s Image output.  As always, the “Compendium” omnibus editions are incredible values, particularly Invincible and Walking Dead.  The Astounding Wolf-Man Complete Collection is not quite as good a buy, but you know what?  It still comes out to less than 99-cents per issue and it’s not on sale as often.

Invincible   Walking Dead   Astounding Wolf-Man

 

Still On Sale