Best comiXology Sales: Weekend of June 12, 2020
By Zack Quaintance — This week’s comiXology sales are here…and it’s Hickman week. At least, that’s a big part of it. All of visionary superhero/sci-fi writer Jonathan Hickman’s comics through Marvel are on sale now, including Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and some of his early X-Men stuff. But that’s not all there is available at enabling prices this week.
Check out our picks for the best comiXology sales for the weekend of June 12, 2020 below…
Best comiXology Sales: Weekend of June 12, 2020
*PICK OF THE WEEK*
Avengers by Jonathan Hickman
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artists: Various
Publisher: Marvel Comics
The greatest heroes in comics, together as one unbeatable team! The Avengers “go large,” expanding their roster and sphere of influence to a global and even interplanetary levels. Who will respond to Captain America’s call? The Avengers’ first missions take them to Mars, and then far across the galaxy as Captain Universe races to decipher the secret origin of the universe itself! Then, the Avengers must deal with the White Event as strangely familiar new heroes are born! The team faces the World Breaker and discovers the imminent threat to the Avengers World, Omega Flight encounters a Garden Origin site, Shang-Chi battles an ancient enemy, and the High Evolutionary stakes his claim in the Savage Land! Jonathan Hickman takes Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to the next level with big threats, big ideas and big idealism!
Why It’s Cool: Everyone is high on writer Jonathan Hickman’s ongoing X-Men revival epic right now, but before he did that, he did similarly epic story with the Avengers franchise…and now you can get THE ENTIRE THING via comixology Sales for about $45. All of Hickman’s Marvel stuff is interconnected, but you can read this Avengers story start to finish pretty well intact, without taking in other Hickman runs, such as the Fantastic Four, which we’ll get to in a second here…
Price: Individual volumes range in price from about $2.50 on the low end to $7 on the high end, or you can get it all for $45.83, which is a crazy bargain for this many excellent Hickman comics.
Buy It Here: Avengers Vol. 1, Avengers Vol. 2, Avengers Vol. 3; Avengers: Time Runs Out Collection; Infinity; New Avengers Vol. 1, and New Avengers Vol. 2.
Angels & Magpies: A Love & Rockets Book
Writer/Artist: Jaime Hernandez
Publisher: Fantagraphics
The sublime, the superpowered, and the senior citizen converge in Angels and Magpies, which collects the Gods and Science: Return of the Ti-Girls and Love Bunglers storylines from the Love and Rockets: New Stories series, as well as Hernandez’s 2006 serial for the New York Times. In the latter, Maggie pays a visit to Queen Rena, who is living out her twilight days on an island after a lifetime as a wrestler and an adventuress. In the Ti-Girls segment, superheroics get a screwball spin when Angel of Tarzana and Maggie square off against Dark Penny Century. In the "Love Bunglers," held as perhaps Hernandez’s greatest masterpiece in his thirty-five-year career, and one of the great graphic novels of all time (it was hailed by Slate and Publishers Weekly as one of the best stories of the year), the past and present converge as Maggie and Ray’s reunion is threatened by long-buried family secrets.
Why It’s Cool: There is nothing better in comics that Love and Rockets, nothing. And within those comics, I particularly enjoy the anthology compilations that have made these long-running, nearly real-time stories so accessible. And this week the latest collection from Jaime Hernandez — Angels & Magpies — is on-sale online for $6.99…which is more than 200 pages of the best stories in comics for less than the price of two new issues of Spider-Ham. I can’t recommend that enough.
Price: $6.99
Buy It Here: Click here!
Batman: A Death in the Family
Writer: Jim Starlin, George Perez, and Marv Woflman
Artist: Jim Aparo and Tom Grummett
Publisher: DC Comics
Batman readers were allowed to vote on the outcome of the story and they decided that Robin should die! As the second person to assume the role of Batman's sidekick, Jason Todd had a completely different personality than the original Robin. Rash and prone to ignore Batman's instructions, Jason was always quick to act without regard to consequences. In this fatal instance, Robin ignores his mentor's warnings when he attempts to take on the Joker by himself and pays the ultimate price. Driven by anger with Superman by his side, Batman seeks his vengeance as he looks to end the Joker's threat forever.
Why It’s Cool: One of the draws of superhero comics (for me, at least) is the way that the deadline-driven stories that make up their universes can sometimes come together on the fly, influenced by exterior factors in a way that makes the action on the page feel pre-destined or pre-determined. Contrived sure, but contrived in a way that makes it all inevitable. Chief among these stories is Batman: A Death in the Family, which involves the Joker murdering Robin Jason Todd because DC readers called in and voted for it to happen. It’s a decent Batman story and a fantastic look at the exterior forces that form these worlds, giving it an added metafictional layer.
Price: $5.09
Buy It Here: Click here!
Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Main Artist: Dale Eaglesham
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Solve everything! Inside a room kept secret from even his closest friends and family, Reed Richards had scrawled upon the walls 100 of the biggest and boldest ideas his brain could produce. And, recently, he added a 101st, the most audacious ever: "Solve everything." It would be a mantra that would lead the obsessively intellectual Mr. Fantastic to doing great works on behalf of humanity - and, in typically fantastic fashion, lead him into even greater trouble! For, as the big brain of the Fantastic Four will find out, solving everything carries with it a great cost, and one that is perhaps too much to pay.
Why It’s Cool: The Avengers, for my money, is Hickman’s Marvel magnum opus (so far…this X-Men stuff is turning out pretty great, too), but a lot of the DNA for that run can be found in his earlier work on Fantastic Four…which also leads into Avengers plot-wise, although you don’t need to have read this one to enjoy the latter work. Either way, I highly recommend this run, especially at this price point.
Price: Fantastic Four Complete Collection Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 are $6.79 each; FF by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 are $3.39 each, FF by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 3 is $2.54, and FF by Jonathan HIckman Vol. 4 is $4.24…or you can get it all for $27.14.
Buy It Here: Fantastic Four Complete Collection Vol. 1, and Fantastic Four Complete Collection Vol. 2; FF by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 1, FF by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 2, FF by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 3, and FF by Jonathan Hickman Vol. 4.
Fear Agent Final Edition, Vol. 1 - Vol. 4
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Jerome Opena
Publisher: Image Comics
The critically acclaimed hit series FEAR AGENT returns to Image Comics! The homecoming begins with a new series of master edition trades, each collecting 10 issues of RICK REMENDER, TONY MOORE, and JEROME OPE A's seminal pulp sci-fi classic! Veteran fans and new recruits alike can experience the whiskey-soaked, laser-scorched life of Heath Huston, the galaxy's last Fear Agent. Loaded with never-before-seen scripts, variant covers, designs, and concept art. When down-and-out alien exterminator Heath Huston stumbles upon an extraterrestrial plot to commit genocide against the human species, he must put down the bottle and resume his role as a peacekeeper... the last Fear Agent!
Why It’s Cool: The best way to get a sense of why this series is cool is to read writer Michael Moreci’s piece for our now-concluded Coronavirus Reading List. Moreci writes, “Take it from me, someone who knows a thing or two about sci-fi adventure stories: FEAR AGENT is one of the best stories the comic book medium has produced. It’s fun, it’s smart, and it grabs you by the lapels and demands your interest in a way I wish more comics did. Go get this book, and let it rocket you on a kick-ass journey through both outer space and the human heart.”
Price: Fear Agent Final Edition Vol. 1 - Vol. 3 is $7.19 each, while Fear Agent Final Edition Vol. 4 is $8.99; or you can get the entire thing for $30.56 total.
Buy It Here: Fear Agent Final Edition Vol. 1; Fear Agent Final Edition Vol. 2; Fear Agent Final Edition Vol. 3; and Fear Agent Final Edition Vol. 4.
comiXology Unlimited Pick of the Week
Hobo Mom
Writers/Artists: Max de Radigues & Charles Forsman
Publisher: Fantagraphics
A cross-Atlantic collaboration, Hobo Mom was drawn simultaneously. Both cartoonists’ clean line styles fit together perfectly to tell the story of Tom, who lives a simple life with his pre-teen daughter, Sissy. Her mother, Natasha, who left to hop trains and has become a vagrant, shows up on the doorstep of the family she abandoned years ago. There, Natasha finds an upset husband (who is still deeply in love with her), and a little girl yearning for a mother. Can someone who covets independence settle down?
Why It’s Cool: This book — which sees a team-up between two excellent cartoonists — is a sad and mournful story about being discontent with life, even if the alternative you crave is not only non-conventional but also not quite in your best interest. This is a quick read, but you’ll find yourself thinking about for days, weeks, and months to come.
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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.