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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Hulk, Fantastic Four, Venom

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel drops a fistful of sales (including Hulk, Fantastic Four and Venom). Plus, Avatar the Last Airbender.

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):

Hulk Is Cheapest There Is

Planet Hulk  Immortal Hulk  Incredible Hulk The Marvel Hulk Sale runs through Monday, 5/25. And what we have here is basically a Hulk Legacy sale. Let’s run down the various titles.
  • Incredible Hulk (1962 – 1999) The original run and then the long running series that picked up a few years later. (For some reason, the Epic Collections have a separate listing.)
  • Tales to Astonish (1964-68) In between the two Hulk solo runs above, Hulk was splitting Tales to Astonish with Ant-Man/Giant Man and then Namor. A lot of the foundational work was really in this run, with Stan Lee/Steve Ditko responsible for a lot of it. Included for the sake of completeness, for you shall find no discounts here
  • Incredible Hulk (1999-2007) – Best known for the Bruce Jones / Lee Weeks/ Mike Deodato run towards the beginning and the Greg Pak / multi-artist “Planet Hulk” and “World War Hulk” epics at the end… though World War Hulk is at this different link.
  • Hulk (2008-13) This is the Red Hulk run (and the title changes to that after awhile). It starts out with the better known Jeph Loeb/Ed Mc Guiness run and then Jeff Parker takes over with Gabriel Hardman, Dave Eaglesham and Patrick Zircher in the artist rotation.
  • Incredible Hulk by Jason Aaron (2011-12) – Lots of artists rotating through here, Marc Silvestri, Steve Dillon and Carlos Pacheco among them
  • Indestructible Hulk (2012 – 14) – Mark Waid’s the writer with an artist rotation including Leinil Francis Yu, Matteo Scalera and Walt Simonson draws the Thor team-up.
  • Hulk by Waid and Duggan (2014-15) – That would be Mark Waid and Gerry Duggan with Duggan doing the bulk of the run. Mark Bagley is the main artist here.
  • Immortal Hulk (2018-21) – Al Ewing’s masterpiece as the Hulk slides over towards horror and find a green door that leads to Hell.
  • Hulk (2021-23) – The Donny Cates / Ryan Ottley run
  • The Incredible Hulk (2023 -25) – Phillip Kennedy Johnson / Nic Klein
For the main series, you can’t go wrong with the Peter David years (now complete in Epic format) and the Bill Mantlo era seems to have gained fans over the years.
The sequence from Planet Hulk to World War Hulk is highly enjoyable.
Let’s be real – Immortal Hulk is a masterpiece. Highly recommended with an approach almost like Gerber’s Man-Thing or Moore’s Swamp Thing.
We’re really enjoying the current run, too. (OK, there was a relaunch. As far as we’re concerned it’s the same book with different numbering and a title tweak.) It’s a return to horror, like the Immortal Hulk run, but it feels a bit more like the Bruce Jones run. Banner is on the run, but this time the conspiracy pursuing him is supernatural in nature. Nic Klein is doing ridiculously good work on this title, too.
Also included in this sale: the original Defenders series (which could use more Gerber discounts than are provided).

Four Play

Fantastic Four - The Coming of Galactus    Fantastic Four by Waid   Fantastic Four by Hickman Marvel’s Fantastic Four Sale runs through Monday, 5/25. Marvel would like to remind you this was a film. First let’s break down the various FF titles/volumes on sale:
  • Fantastic Four ’61-’96 – The original run (In a truly bizarre turn, the Epic Collections are tied to the original series and all the Masterworks are floating in the system untethered to ANY series.)
  • Fantastic Four ’98-’12 – Heroes Return era through Hickman
  • Fantastic Four ’12-’14 – The Matt Fraction / Mark Bagley era
  • Fantastic Four ’14-’15 – The James Robinson/Leonard Kirk run
  • Fantastic Four: Fate of the Four (Marvel Two-in-One) ’17-’18 – Chip Zdarsky / Jim Cheung; Zdarsky’s MTIO run has been rebranded as FF… which is probably fair – not in this sale, but included for the sake of completeness
  • Fantastic Four ’18-’22 – The Dan Slott run with a rotating cast of artists
  • Fantastic Four ’22-’25 – Ryan North / Iban Coello / Carlos Gomez
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 into the Byrne run and then skip ahead to Englehart. 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 7 volumes of Masterworks on sale (V. 21-27) or you can hop on to Fantastic Four Visionaires: John Byrne. These comics really ought to be in an Epic Collections, and that’s started, 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?) Move ahead a bit and Walt Simonson had a stint that may be a little more notable for being an early appearance of the Time Variance Authority (which actually debuted in his Thor run). This is most easily grabbed across Epic Collections V.20 and V.21. 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. Dwayne McDuffie and Paul Pelletier jumped in for an arc with Black Panther and Storm briefly joining the team. 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. But that’s not all we have in a fairly expansive sale:

Ultimate Fantastic Four

The original Ultimate Fantastic Four had Brian Bendis, Warren Ellis, Mark Millar and Mike Carey (yes, The Girl With All the Gifts M.R. Carey) tagging off on writer duties. The artist rotation includes Adam Kubert, Stuart Immonen, Jae Lee, Greg Land, Pasqual Ferry, Mark Brooks and Tyler Kirkham.  And a bit of trivia for you: Marvel Zombies?  It’s an Ultimate Fantastic Four spin-off.  Check out V.3 of the omnibuses. That’s where it all begins.

Doctor Doom

A little bit from the arch foe:

Silver Surfer

Skull the Slayer

That’s right. Skull the Slayer.

No, Not Bane’s Juice

Venom by Remender   Venom by Cates   Venom

The Marvel Venom Sale runs through Monday, 5/25. This is a fairly scattered sale, with multiple formats and a lot of random early miniseries floating around. Browse for a better accounting of the listings. For the early stuff, the better values are the somewhat scattered Epic Collections. The early (mostly) Spider-Man appearances can be found in Venom Epic Collection: Symbiosis. That’s largely the David Michelinie / Todd McFarlane / Erik Larsen material.  That’s followed by Venom Epic Collection: Lethal Protector which has a few more villainous appearances and the original Lethal Protector mini. And then Venom Epic Collection: Carnage Unleashed continues the 90s appearances. Eventually Venom gets his own series:
  • Venom  (2003-4) – The Daniel Way era
  • Venom  (2011-3) – Rick Remender/Tony Moore, then Cullen Bunn/Declan Shalvey
  • Venom (2016-8) – Mike Costa / Tradd Moore / Mark Bagley
  • Venom (2018-21) – Donny Cates / Ryan Stegman
  • Venom (2021-24) – Al Ewing / Ram V / Bryan Hitch
  • Venom War (2024) – Al Ewing / Iban Coello
  • All-New Venom(’04-’05) – Al Ewing / Carlos Gomez
Let’s talk about the last 12 years or so. The ’11-’13 series is more interesting than you might think. That’s when Flash Thompson has the symbiote and uses it (among other things) to replace the legs his lost in the war. There are some interesting pathos floating around, particularly in the Remender/Moore run. The Cates/Stegman run is probably the most famous right now. That’s where Venom gets Cosmic and leads into the King In Black Event. The Ewing / V / Hitch run, is an evolution and big leap forward from the groundwork laid by Cates. Al Ewing drives the Cosmic elements, which are the most interesting part. Eddie Brock is dead. But he isn’t. He’s separated from his body and he’s bouncing around in time as his son becomes Venom in the present. It’s a much, much stranger take on Venom than most others and really dives into the King in Black mythos and timeline, eventually culminating in Venom War. Ewing’s basically picked up the ball and ran with it, creating his own saga.

Carnage

Yes, the other symbiote Bobbsey Twin is also included in the sale (at least part of the catalog) This is an odd set compared with something like Fantastic Four, since Carnage has been a guest villain or mini-series dweller for part of the time, so here’s the highlights and short tour. For early Carnage, your best best is probably Carnage Epic Collection: Born in Blood. That gets you the first Carnage tale from Amazing Spider-Man _and_ the Maximum Carnage arc. For more of those early villain and mini-series appearances, there are two more Epic Collections with their own series page. Carnage then relaunched in ’22 by Ram V and Francesco Manna. This one weaves in and out of serial killer thriller / fantasy (with a trip to Asgard) / and capes. The next series of Carnage follows that up with the team of Torunn GrØnbekk & Pere Perez. Also in the mix:

52 Pick Up

Gambit: The Complete Collection  Gambit Classic  Mr. and Mrs. X The Marvel Gambit sale runs through Monday, 5/25. Lots and lots of misc. X-titles in the one. In terms of Gambit (and his Mrs.), you’re looking at: If you’d rather have some X-Men books, there’s plenty to browse, though these two spots might float near the top of the list:

Seeing Ghosts

Spider-Gwen  Spider-Gwen: Gwenverse  Spider-Gwen The Ghost-Spider The Marvel Ghost Spider Sale runs through Monday, 5/25. Ah, the always amusing struggle to balance a character’s movie name with their comics name. Yes, this is really a Spider-Gwen sale.

Not A Big Red Cheese?

Captain Marvel by Jim Starlin Captain Marvel Captain Marvel The Captain Marvel Sale runs through Monday, 5/25. It’s back and now it has the Masterworks. First off, the original Kree Captain Mar-Vell as Captain Marvel: Is Starlin’s Mar-Vell, the best Mar-Vell? We’d say so. You can also look at the  Captain Marvel Masterworks series, but the other one we’d put at the top of the list is V.4 with the Steve Englehart / Al Milgrom run. Carol Danvers as Ms./Captain Marvel: OK… brace yourselves… this one has a ton of relaunches: We think that’s the overly complicated chronology, anyway. For recommendations, we’re not really experts on this set of books, but we’re inclined to say go with the recent Thompson run. Kelly Sue DeConnick has a very dedicated fanbase, so maybe browse the sample pages there and see if that catches your fancy, too? Then there’s Mar-Vell’s son Genis: This one is a Peter David joint, through and through. We did read the ’22 version last year and enjoyed it. It has a little more going on than you might think at first.

Unannounced Sales

Avatar: The Last Airbender Star Wars A Vader Family Sithmas

As always, it isn’t clear when the unannounced sales will end. Dark Horse is having a sale on their Avatar: The Last Airbender line of comics Also on sale, The Legend of Korra Dark Horse still has discounts on their Star Wars line of comics: Also on sale: And have a look at the $5 and under page.

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Still on Sale

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Comixology (at Amazon) Sales: Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Alpha Flight, Calvin and Hobbes, Opus

In this week’s Comixology (at Amazon) sales, Marvel drops six sales (one of which you might have trouble seeing in the US), plus… Opus.

Where did the New Releases and Sale pages go?

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

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

Housekeeping: Your eyes do not deceive you. There are plenty of $2.99 single volumes scattered amongst the Marvel offerings this month. Most of Jed MacKay’s Doctor Strange, for example. Enjoy.

Surfin’ Bird

Silver Surfer by Lee/Kirby  Silver Surfer - Englehart  Silver Surfer

The  Marvel Silver Surfer Sale runs through Monday, 2/23.

So… we’re seeing last month’s X-Force sale for this link in the US (minus most of the discounts). Perhaps the link will be fixed by the time you click on it, but since we know what’s REALLY on sale, we’re going to drop the highlights below and save you the headache. And perhaps we’ll follow up if the link gets fixed.

For the most part, the solo adventures of the Silver Surfer fall into three periods:

First, the classic original series by Stan Lee and (mostly) John Buscema. This ran from ’68-’70 and is a minor legend for a reason. 

There wasn’t much solo Surfer for the better part of 17 years because the Surfer was considered to be Stan’s character in a similar way to how Sandman is Neil Gaiman’s. That changed in ’87 when Silver Surfer relaunched under the team of Steve Englehart & Marshall Rogers. (Yes, the Batman pairing.) Predictably, it was excellent. The next team was Jim Starlin and Ron Lim, another great run. Starlin used this run to bring back Thanos (mostly unused since he finished his Warlock run) and set up the Infinity Gauntlet.  We think very highly of the first 50 or so issues of this run. The first four Epic Collections will take you through #50 (that would be through Thanos Quest).

Then next major addition to the cannon was the Dan Slott / Michael Allred Silver Surfer in 2014. It is confusing listed in two places. The first three volumes here and the final two volumes here.

For something that ends up being off the radar because of it’s short length, there’s always Parable, which is Stan Lee teaming up with Metal Hurlant (Heavy Metal) legend Moebius for an adventure.

And if you’re interested in cherry picking the Surfer’s original appearances in Fantastic Four, the very definition of classic, there’s an Epic Collection that does just that.

The Doctor Will See You Now

Doctor Strange in Strange Tales  Doctor Strange by Englehart  The Death of Doctor Strange

The  Marvel Doctor Strange Sale runs through Monday, 2/3.

And it’s most of the Doctor Strange material that’s been collected in book form. 

  • Strange Tales – A bit further down that cluttered page, you’ll find the original Lee/Ditko run in Masterworks and Epics
  • Doctor Strange ’68-’69 – This is there the Epics and Masterworks start containing different titles, so pay attention if you’re mixing formats. (Some next level Gene Colan art in this run, btw.)
  • Doctor Strange ’74-’87 – The Epics pick up with the tale end of the ’68 series, catch the Marvel Premiere issues (enter: Englehart & Brunner) and then into the regular series, then you’ll need “regular” collections for the Stern/Smith run.
  • 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. Not in the sale, but included for completeness
  • 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 and the Sorcerers Supreme ’16-’17 – Robbie Thompson / Javier Rodriguez
  • 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.
  • Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise – Tradd Moore
  • Jed McKay’s saga, which needs to be read in order
    • The Death of Doctor Strange – Jed MacKay / Lee Garbett; No, really… he actually dies and it’s clever
    • Strange – Jed MacKay / Marcelo Ferreira; With Stephen dead, Clea assumes the mantle of Sorceress Supreme… and she’s feeling a little tetchy
    • Doctor Strange (’23-’24) – Jed MacKay / Pasqual Ferry; How can a dead man not be dead? The answer is complicated…

What’s good?  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.

The Jed MacKay sequence is very good and Marvel’s best death and rebirth sequence in quite some time, but you really need to start with The Death of Doctor Strange. We seldom give a big thumbs up to this kind of arc, but sometimes the needle gets threaded.

Another personal favorite is Doctor Strange: The Oath by a pre-Saga Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin. They’ve both moved on to bigger things, but a long run by those two would have been a real highlight.

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

That’s the solo pack. There’s also quite a bit of team material available:

We’d draw your attention to two under the radar things from this second list. Clandestine is Alan Davis doing his own thing, which is always a good time. The Al Ewing / Javier Rodriguez Defenders titles are the very definition of trippy, living at the intersection of Sorcery Marvel and Cosmic Marvel. We’re usually in the bag for a Ewing run, but if you discovered Javier Rodriguez on the excellent Absolute Martian Manhunter, this is him getting cosmic a few years earlier when fewer people were paying attention.

The Great White North

Alpha Flight  X-Men: Asgardian Wars

The Marvel Alpha Flight Sale runs through Monday, 2/23.

We know what you’re thinking: “If Spider-Man could team up with the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, why couldn’t Alpha Flight team up with Bob and Doug McKenzie?” The way we heard it, this was proposed, but Guy Caballero nixed it.

The main item of note here is Alpha Flight Classic, 3 volumes that comprise the John Byrne run on the original series and a Bill Mantlo/Mike Mignola issue and Byrne essentially traded Alpha Flight for The Incredible Hulk. (We recall the Mantlo run being better than advertised, but there doesn’t currently seem to be interest in collecting it.)

Of possible related interest is X-Men: Asgardian Wars  by Chris Claremont / Paul Smith / Arthur Adams. X-Men / Alpha Flight is the first half of the book and it’s a fun romp. Plus, Smith and Adams on art? There are a lot worse things to drop $2.99 on.

And for something out of left field, there’s the more recent Gamma Flight, which is an Alpha Flight adjacent spin-off of Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing, Crystal Frazier and Len Medina.

A bit more tangentially related:

Stabbing Time

  Elektra

The Marvel Elektra Sale runs through Monday, 2/23.

Strangely, this sale excludes Elektra: Assassin.

What are we seeing? The original Miller Daredevil run is available in multiple formats.

  • Elektra (’96 – ’98) – Peter Milligan / Larry Hama / Mike Deodato, Jr.
  • Elektra (’01 – ’04) – Greg Rucka / Chuck Austen (drawing, not writing) / Joe Bennett / Carlo Pagulayan / Carlos Meglia / Greg Horn

Hurricane Ororo

  X-Men: Lifedeath  Uncanny X-Men  Uncanny X-Men

The Marvel Storm Sale runs through Monday 2/23.

We noticed something strange when going through this sale. The original X-Men / Uncanny X-Men (’63-’11) series has come undone in Amazon listings. Only the Epic Collections are still attached to the series. The Masterworks volumes or things like Lifedeath are still in the system, but they’re not attached to the series, effectively just floating out there unmoored in the digital aether. It’s really odd and it applies to things in the Cyclops sale, too.

Here’s Mud in Your Eye

X-Men: Raid On Graymalkin  X-Factor  X-Men: Cyclops & Phoenix - Past & Future

The Marvel Cyclops sale runs through 2/23.

This sale is even less organized than the Storm sale, partially because of the X-men books becoming unstuck from their home series.

A few things to look at:

  • X-Men (current) – Jed MacKay / Ryan Stegman / Netho Diaz
  • X-Factor (’86-’98)
  • X-Men: Cyclops & Phoenix – Past & Future – Scott Lobdell / Peter Milligan / Tom DeFalco / Gene Ha / John Paul Leon / Kyle Hotz

 

Unannounced Sales

OPUS: 25 Years of His Sunday Best Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection

Also on sale:

 The Creepy / Eerie sale appears to be continuing, so let’s revisit that, too. Creepy was the first one and is available in both archive  format and “Creepy Presents” volumes spotlighting individual artists (Alex Toth, Bernie Wrightson, Richard Corben, Steve Ditko). Eerie was the companion series. By halfway through it’s run, it had evolved into something a little different with multi-part stories and characters who returned, the breakout character being The Rook (a time traveler with some western elements baked in). It’s also available in archive format and “Eerie Presents” for collecting individual features (El Cid and Hunter).

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

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