Marvel’s dropping several small sales on digital this week, so let’s have a look at what’s out there.
First off, you might have heard there’s a Venom movie coming out? You can’t have the movie premiere without a Venom digital comic sale to go with it, can you? Normally, I’d recommend the Remender/Moore/Fowler Venom series if somebody was looking for a Venom solo series, but Marvel never wants to put that in the Venom sales for some reason. Start with Spider-Man: Birth of Venom, the original appearances as Venom as a villain in Amazing Spider-Man and work your way up from there is my best advice.
Speaking of Spider-Man, it’s been declared “Doc-Ocktober,” which is to say Superior Spider-Man is on sale. That’s when Doctor Octopus died and switched bodies with Peter Parker. Sure, it sounded out there, but it turned out to be one of Dan Slott’s best-received arcs. This consists of the main Superior Spider-Man series, Superior Spider-Man Team-Up and The Arms of the Octopus crossover with Hulk and X-Men.
And finally, some material from the Marvel Max line is on sale. You should have a look at The Punisher Max, particularly V. 1-4 by Garth Ennis and Goran Parlov. This is the grim/serious Ennis run, as opposed to the subversive run with Steve Dillon. Then you’ve got Alias by Bendis and Gaydos, which was the basis for Jessica Jones on Netflix. From the “fun with naming and marketing” file, there’s “Miracleman: Parental Advisory Edition,” which is to say, the Alan Moore run. Miracleman by Gaiman & Buckingham Vol. 1: The Golden Age is what it sounds like and perhaps we’ll see Vol. 2: The Silver Age one of these days. Or you might want to go old school Marvel Epic for Elektra: Assassin.
