Tag: X-Factor

Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Fantastic Four (all of it); Moon Knight; 90’s X-Men; Devil’s Reign; Cyberpunk 2077

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, practically the entire Fantastic Four catalog is on sale. Plus, Marvel offers discounts on Moon Knight, Devil’s Reign and the world of the 90s X-Men. And, in what seems to be another unannounced sale, Dark Horse presents Cyberpunk 2077.

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):

Four Play

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus    Fantastic Four by Waid   Fantastic Four by Hickman

Marvel’s Fantastic Four Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

So, first let’s break down the various FF titles/volumes on sale

Yes, Fantastic Four has been relaunched less than other Marvel titles.  As to what’s good, the gold standard has always been the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run. (And yes, we do think you can draw a straight line from Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown at DC to Fantastic Four.) We’d say they start to hit their stride a few issues before Galactus shows up – V.3 of the Epic Collections (“The Coming of Galactus“) or V.4/5 of the Masterworks editions and you can ride a very fun train from there to the end of Lee/Kirby.

And at this point, we should talk about the “pick your poison” of Epic vs. Masterworks.  The Masterworks are built out straight into the Byrne era. We think the $6.99 Epic Collections are the best value here, though some of the newer ones are priced higher. The discounted Epics are now a little past the Lee/Kirby era, but stop with #146 and then pick up again after Byrne’s run. Pick the format that works for you and has the issues you’re looking for.

Speaking of Byrne’s run, that’s the next highpoint that everyone agrees on.  How to read Byrne? Well, there are 5 volumes of Masterworks on sale (V. 21-25; note: V. 25 is here and not linked in with the rest of the series) or you can hop on to Fantastic Four Visionaires: John Byrne. You’d need to cut over to the Visionaries run at V. 6 to pick up where the discounted Masterworks leave off.  These comics really ought to be in an Epic Collection, but Marvel doesn’t seem in any hurry to roll the Visionaires up into a more economical package. (Or should we say, economical when it’s on sale?)

Fast forward a bit to the Heroes Reborn era and there is a LOT to love about the Mark Waid / Mike Wieringo run. They brought back the “explorer” vibe from Lee/Kirby era that isn’t always there and upped the sense of wonder. You’d want the four Ultimate Collection volumes that start here. The “regular” collections don’t go all the way to the end.

And then, of course, there’s the the Hickman era. A long storyline that laid the groundwork for his Avengers run and you can certainly argue that his Secret Wars endcap to that is a Fantastic Four / Doctor Doom story. The omnibus editions we highlighted above include his FF spin-off comic that frequently crossed over with Fantastic Four, much like the Avengers titles flowed together. That packaging will be a better experience.

The Light of the Silvery Moon

Moon Knight  Moon Knight Epic Collection   Moon Knight

The Marvel Moon Knight Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

The original Moon Knight run is mostly in Epic Collections, but it’s in two separate links because… well, we shouldn’t be surprised by this, should we?  The first link has two volumes that are not closely related. Bad Moon Rising is the Werewolf by Night appearances through the backups in Hulk Magazine and the first issues of 1980 solo series. The other volume in that link… we’re not as big on. That was later volumes.

You can go here for the rest of the 1980 Moon Knight series, which was the most famous version for quite some time. If you came into the character through the TV series, know that the original Moon Knight was a lot closer to Batman and The Shadow. Oh, sure the werewolf showed up, but most of the mystical things around Konshu were kept in the background and a lot more mysterious. The multiple identities were originally more like the cover identities adopted by the Shadow (and the original series editor, Denny O’Neil, adapted The Shadow for DC.) This is where Moon Knight got popular.

If you came in through the TV show, there really isn’t a comic that quite matches that version of the character, but the series did draw on the Jeff Lemire / Greg Smallwood Moon Knight series in which Moon Knight has a run-in with the Egyptian gods and his personalities run amok. It’s also a good run.

We also have been enjoying the current Jed MacKay/Alessandro Cappuccio Moon Knight series. This one takes up the unenviable task of rationalizing the various incarnations over the years (and there have been a lot of different takes on the character). Mr. Knight is in therapy for his multiple personality issues. He’s running the Midnight Mission and conduct himself as Konshu’s ambassador… after a fashion, although he’s not really happy with Konshu. And there are vampires. Lots of vampires.

Highlights of the rest:

  • Moon Knight ’89-’94 – Most of this is only collected in omnibus form for some reason for the longest running volume. This is largely the Terry Kavanaugh years with Gary Kwapisz and James Fry on art. Possibly more interesting, it also includes a Bruce Jones/Denys Cowan special and a Doug Moench/Art Nichols team-up with Shang Chi.
  • Moon Knight ’10-12 – Brian Bendis / Alex Maleev; Controversial to say the least, this one really leans into Moon Knight’s multiple personality disorder and breaks the character if you prefer the original concept. On the other hand, it’s surprisingly witty and funny. One of the oddest takes on the character.
  • Moon Knight  ’14-’15- Most notable for the style-forward Warren Ellis/Declan Shalvey reworking (introducing the business suit)

Deviltry

Devil's Reign   Devil's Reign X-Men

The Marvel Devil’s Reign Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

Devil’s Reign is effectively a section of the excellent Chip Zdarsky/Marco Checchetto Daredevil run where The Kingpin, in his capacity as Mayor of NYC, declares war on superheroes and organizes his own version of the Thunderbolts to hunt them down. This main mini-series in the main thing you’re looking for, here.

That said, in term of tie-ins, Devil’s Rain: X-Men by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto has a little more, by way of echoes moving forward, than you might expect. It establishes the ongoing relationship between Emma Frost and the Kingpin, which does crop up again further down the line in both the Daredevil and X-Men worlds. Plus, Phil Noto.

Hot Tub Mutant Machine

Wolverine   X-Factor Epic Collection   Generation X

The Marvel 90s X-Men Sale runs through Monday, 1/29.

We know what you’re thinking and, yes, this is about the time the X-world got a lot more complicated and Event-heavy.  And this is a pretty eclectic set. What do we recall as the winners from this period?

For X-Men (proper) we’d start with Mutant Genesis, which has the last bit of Chris Claremont’s original run as Jim Lee started to steer the boat a bit more.

For a lot of people, ’90s X-Men is about Onslaught. If you’re in that camp, there’s The Road to Onslaught  and the actual Onslaught Event.

Open things up a little wider and X-Factor pops to the top of the list. The selection of Epic Collections includes the Lousie & Walt Simonson run *and* the delightfully off-kilter first Peter David run (featuring Joe Quesada and Larry Stroman on art duties).

The Larry Hama Wolverine run is also on sale in Epic Collections. A fairly long run, too, and one of the most popular titles of the 90s. Marc Silvestri and Adam Kubert figure prominently on the artist lineup.

Now, a lot of people associate Scott Lobdell with 90s X-Men. If you want to read Lobdell’s best mutant work, that’s Generation X. It’s sort of a new New Mutants, since that title had morphed into X-Force, and we don’t think it’s even close. Chris Bachalo is the originating artist and sets the tone nicely.

There’s a bit more here for you to browse.

A Hugo Winner in an Unannounced Sale

Cyberpunk 2077   Cyberpunk 2077 Big City Dreams

Looks like there’s an unannounced sale on Dark Horse’s Cyberpunk 2077. A video game adaptation with an interesting award to its credit.

The first three collections can be found here.

After which, the property went to the album format Dark Horse sometimes uses for titles with a higher bookstore profile, which are listed with the single issues:

Big City Dreams was the 2023 Hugo Award winner for Best Graphic Story or Comic. And there you have it.

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Image Returns; Blue Beetle; X-Factor; Venom; Watchmen

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Image returns to the deals page! Plus, DC gives Blue Beetle the discount treatment and Marvel slashes prices on X-Factor and Venom.

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):

Image Returns!

The Image Comics Discovery Sale runs through Thursday, 8/31.

Now there’s a publisher we haven’t seen in roughly 6 months. What we have here is a little on the peculiar side. First volumes in a series from the letter M through the beginning of S, or at least that’s what’s showing up as we type this.  We looked and Killadelphia V.1 didn’t seem to be discounted yet, so we’re not sure if there will be an A-L sale at a later date or thing will start showing up in a week or two.  But hey, it’s been awhile since Image was around.

A few things of note:

Public Domain by Chip Zdarksy. We read this recently and it’s quite good. That’s not a shock, since it won an Eisner. This is a fairly savage parody of corporations and film companies taking over comics as the artist of a classic superhero discovers he really owns the character and his dysfunctional sons try to figure out what to do about it. Zdarsky expertly walks a tightrope with characters that clearly aren’t Stan & Jack, but you can’t help but think of Stan & Jack. Excellent satire of the business.

And as long as we’re talking about Zdarsky, the first first volume of his crime comic Newburn is also on sale. Jacob Phillips draws this tale of a PI with very naughty clients.

Manifest Destiny Chris Dingess and Matthew Roberts is the tale of the real mission of the Lewis & Clark expedition. Oh, sure they were mapping the Louisiana Purchase, but they were also clearing the way of dangerous monsters that might prey on pioneers. They’re also… but that would be a spoiler. This recently wrapped up and it’s a very solid story. Vol. 1 is fairly light-hearted, though the tone gets considerably darker a few volumes into it.

Public Domain   Newburn   Manifest Destiny

Nocterra by Scott Snyder and Tony Daniel is a post-apocalyptic adventure/horror book about a world where the sun went down and stayed down with monsters inhabiting the darkness and they’re contagious. (Which is to say, Daniel has ample opportunities to cut loose.)

Nita Hawes’ Nightmare Blog by Rodney Barnes / Jason Shawn Alexander / Szymon Kudranski / Patric Reynolds is a companion piece to Killadelphia (which you’re already reading, right?), featuring a professor with a ghostly brother getting drawn into supernatural mysteries… oh, and Anansi keeps popping up.

And for your under the radar classic, Matt Wagner’s Mage: The Hero Discovered. This is the first installment of the Arthurian legend as urban fantasy series from the 80s. Wagner took a looooong break from it after Comico blew up, focusing more on Grendel, but this book is really where Wagner first made his name.

Nocterra   Nita Hawes' Nightmare Blog   mage

The Mutant Variable

The Marvel X-Factor Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 8/21.

This one’s a little different from most of the Legacy sales in that it’s mainly a Peter David X-Factor sale. Let’s walk through that.

Of the original X-Factor run, you’ll find that only the X-Factor Visionaries by Peter David volumes are on sale (near the bottom of the page).

When people think of Peter David and X-Factor, the run they’re most likely thinking of is the 2005-13 run that starts out with Madrox (The Multiple Man) opening a detective agency. Yes, this is the run where Layla Miller knows stuff. (If you know, you know.) There are also two X-Factor by Peter David: The Complete Collection volumes that are listed separately. (Who knows why?) Vol. 1 is the original Madrox mini-series and X-Factor 1-12. Vol. 2 collects #13-24, 28-32 and two specials.

There was also a ’14-’15 X-Factor relaunch by David and Giuseppe Camuncoli. This sale is all about the Peter David runs!

Out from under the shadow of Mr. David, there are two other notable titles in the sale.

Back in 2010, X-Factor Forever saw Louise Simonson returning to the situation as she left it on the book (prior to Peter David taking over) along with Dan Panosian.

And then, in the aftermath of House of X / Powers of X, Leah Williams and David Baldeon relaunched X-Factor as the mutants who investigate the circumstances of death and missing persons for Krakoa.

X-Factor by Peter David   X-Factor by Peter David   X-Factor

Symbiosis

The Marvel Venomverse Sale runs through Monday, 8/21.

This isn’t a sale on the main Venom titles, more the around the periphery of that world. What might be interesting? We have thoughts.

Of this lot, the one we’re the most familiar with is the Venom run by Rick Remender/Tony Moore and then Cullen Bunn/Declan Shalvey. We wish the earlier Remender volumes had bigger discounts on them, too. This is the time period where Flash Thompson is the symbiote’s host. It helps him with his war injuries and he attempts to be a hero.

If you like to roll old school, there’s Venom: Lethal Protector by David Michelinie / Mark Bagley / Ron Lim. Dating back to 1993, this was Venom’s first solo title (OK, Spidey shows up a little, but you know what we mean). Venom in San Francisco… it just might have had some influence on the film version (which didn’t have Spidey).

And for something odd and under the radar? How about Toxin: The Devil You Know? Why? For the unusual team of Peter Milligan and Darick Robertson working on a fringe Venom character.

Venom   Venom: Lethal Protector   Toxin: The Devil You Know

Feeling Blue

The DC Blue Beetle Sale runs through Monday, 8/28.

That would be the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle and… say, is there a film coming out? What a coincidence.

Jaime first popped up in the Geoff Johns/(mostly) Phil Jimenez Infinite Crisis. Infinite Crisis was a pretty major Event that tweaked the DCU a bit in it’s wake.

The first Jaime Reye Blue Beetle series ran from ’06-’09 with John Rogers & Keith Giffen as the writing brain trust and Cully Hamner and Rafael Albuquerque as the primary artists. (And yes, that’s the John Rogers behind Leverage and The Librarians.)

The next Blue Beetle run was ’11-’13 by Tony Bedard and Ig Guera.

Then for the Rebirth era (’16-18), Keith Giffen returned to Blue Beetle, with his Justice League cohort, J.M. DeMatties  and Scott Kolins as the primary artist.

Infinite Crisis   Blue Beetle   Blue Beetle

A Sale With a Truncated Name?

The DC to the MAX Sale runs through Monday, 8/28.

What’s interesting and at a better price point for DC’s non-themed sale?

For lowest price, $4.99 will get you Harley Quinn, Breaking Glass, the well-regarded graphic novel from Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh.

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is considered by a whole lot of folks to be the top graphic novel of all time. Plot-wise, the murder of a hero leads to a conspiracy unspooling, but this also a character-based tale and it’s scope widens considerably. A classic and a good number of pages at $5.99

Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. Another from the classics pile as Batman pursues a killer whose exploits are tied to holidays on the calendar. It’s also a Harvey Dent story. Not a Two-Face story, per se, but a Two-Face prequel of sorts.

Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass   Watchmen   Batman: The Long Halloween

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: X-Factor, The Hulk vs. The Thing, and Mickey Mouse

Recent additions to the Comixology (at Amazon) sales include – the many incarnations of X-Factor, the ongoing slugfest between The Hulk and The Thing and Disney’s Mickey Mouse across the years… and continents.

Since the dates the sales are getting announced have been shuffled, we’re playing this week a little differently and will be back Friday to talk about the new DC sale and what else pops up during the week.

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):

Mutations

The Marvel X-Factor Legacy Sale runs through Monday, 6/13.

This one can basically be defined as the actual “X-Factor” titles and various crossovers, Events and guest appearances.  Let’s focus on the X-Factor titles.

  • X-Factor ’86-’98 – The first run, and a long one in the days before constant relaunches. The two things highlighted by the collections are Louise & Walt Simonson run and Peter David’s first run with Joe Quesada and Larry Stroman.
  • X-Factor ’05-’13 – commonly referred to as the Peter David era, and yes, he’s written a ton of X-Factor. This is where Madrox the Multiple Man steps in with the detective agency motif.   (You can save a couple bucks on the early volumes with the X-Factor by Peter David: The Complete Collection omnibuses)
  • All-New X-Factor ’14-’15 – I’m sure you’ll be shocked to know X-Factor was relaunched in Marvel’s “All-New” era. Still Peter David.
  • X-Factor ’20-’21 – The House of X / Powers of X era run by Leah Williams and David Baldeon

And then all manner of X-Men family Event/Crossover collections.

Recommendations? It depends on what you’re looking for.  The first two Epic Collections of the original run are more of the traditional X-Men school (and since it’s reuniting the original team, it should be). When Peter David pops up later in that run, things get quirky in a hurry.  It’s not like David is exclusively a humorist, but there’s a lot more humor in his work. His second run is a completely different creature than the how X-Factor began.

X-Factor   X-Factor by Peter David

The Classic Marvel Punch-Up

The Marvel Hulk Vs. Thing Sale runs through Thursday, 6/9.

Oh, yes… this is a reoccurring confrontation that goes back to the EARLY days of Marvel: Ben Grimm facing off with the Hulk. More often than not, this would happen in the pages of Fantastic Four and the various writers would go back to it every so often.

What you’re looking at here depends on whether you’re more of a Hulk person or FF person. After all that first Hulk Epic Collection is duplicating content from the FF Epic Collection and we personally find FF to be the stronger feature at the time.  And actually, that’s probably what we’d recommend here if you were only picking one – Fantastic Four Epic Collection Book 2, which also gives you some early Doctor Doom, Namor and X-Men, in addition The Hulk.

Fantastic Four

House of Mouse

The Fantagraphics Disney Masters and Mickey Mouse Sale runs through Wednesday, 6/22.

This is really two sales under one umbrella:

First, it’s a sale on the Floyd Gottfredson Mickey Mouse comic strip. While perhaps not as heralded as Dick Tracy or Terry and the Pirates, Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse was an influential adventure strip and he stayed on it for decades.

Second, it’s a sale on the “Disney Master’s” line, which probably needs a word of explanation. It’s not clear that ALL of these titles are from the international markets, but certainly a number of them are Disney comics produced for the European markets (where Disney is very popular) and are making a US market debut.

Mickey Mouse   Mickey Mouse

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Comixology Sales – Daredevil, X-Factor and a Line-Wide Archie Sale

Highlights from this week’s Comixology sales include Daredevil and X-Factor from Marvel, while Archie offers a line-wide sale that includes some choice horror, crime and superhero titles.

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

Hornhead

The Marvel Daredevil Massive Man Without Fear Sale runs through Sunday, 6/6.

This is a fairly well-named sale, as there’s a ton of stuff here.

Starting out with the original 1964-1998 series there’s a lot to like here. Scroll down to “Collected Editions” and check out the whole thing. We think the Epic Collections are slightly better values than the Masterworks, but pick your poison.  Everybody has their favorite run, but maybe check out the three Epic Collections of the Ann Nocenti / John Romita, Jr. run? Everything from Typhoid Mary to Mephisto, it covers a lot of disparate territory and does it well.

The Daredevil by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee Collection contains a couple different volumes of ‘ole hornhead. Waid is the constant with Marcos Martin and Paola Rivera providing some of the art early in the run. (Yes.  That’s right. Martin, Rivera and Samnee on the same extended run.  It’s a pretty set of books.) It’s one of the high points of the franchise.

You know what? The current Daredevil series is also pretty good.  Chip Zdarsky is the writer with Marco Checchetto as the artistic throughline.  A highlight of this series is a deep dive into the mind and insecurities of Wilson Fisk as he encounters a different class of political and economic clout as mayor of NYC.

Daredevil Epic Collection   Daredevil by Mark Waid   Daredevil by Zdarsky

Not Max Factor…

The  Marvel X-Factor sale runs through Thursday, 6/3.

Let’s start out with the original X-Factor run. That first Epic Collection is as cheap as you usually see those. If you’re interested in Peter David’s first run on the title (a Larry Stroman-centric art run with a bit of Joe Quesada), the cheapest way to get the whole thing is the All-New, All-Different X-Factor Epic Collection and then V. 4 of the Visionaries series.

Peter David is a little more associated with the long-running (21 collected editions worth) X-Factor as a mutant detective agency series.

X-Factor Epic Collection   X-Factor by Peter David

Everything’s Archie

The Archie line-wide sale runs through Thursday, 6/10. It comes in three links: Graphic Novels, Single Issues I and Single Issues II.

Archie has a few things in this sale that might not come to the top of the mind instantly. Like horror and crime comics. Some highlights?

Afterlife with Archie by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Francesco Francavilla. This one is Archie vs. zombies as Riverdale is overrun. Yes, it sounds goofy, but they play the concept straight and it is EXCELLENT.  Get the collected edition for #1-5 and single issues for #6-10.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Occult Edition by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack is the basis for the Netflix series. It’s a 70s horror take on Sabrina and it’s also excellent.

Alas, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has been busy with the various Archie TV series and these two titles have gone by the wayside. We wish they’d return.

For a non-horror title, The Black Hood written by Duane Swierczynski with art by Michael Gaydos and Greg Scott (among others). This isn’t a superhero title, it’s pitch black crime story about a vigilante and addictions. A great crime comic, too.  V. 3 is listed here for some reason.

If you flip through the single issues, particularly the second link, you’ll find things like parts of the Impact line DC ran in the 90s and the ’80s Red Circle attempt at reviving the Archie superheroes. A couple things that are worth a look if you’re of the right mind set – The Black Hood, ’80s edition with art by Gray Morrow and Alex Toth.  The Fox by Mark Waid and Dean Haspiel

Afterlife with Archie   Chilling Adventures of Sabrina   Black Hood

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