Turtles, Bastards And Sex Crooks: The Best Of Comixology’s Cyber Monday Sale

Catching up on IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics has been one of the most pleasant surprises, and if you're looking to catch up, checking in with the Micro-Series collection is a pretty good way to do it -- especially for four bucks.

One word of warning, though: While the Micros-Series issues are one-shots focusing on each of the turtles (and in the other volumes, on their supporting characters and villains), they're tied in pretty tightly to the continuity of the ongoing series, to the point where they take place between issues of the ongoing. It's really rewarding to go back and forth between them and have all the gaps filled in, but don't be surprised if you're left wanting a whole lot more.

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I'm going to go ahead and assume that you already have the first volume of Kelly Sue DeConnick and Dexter Soy's Captain Marvel, because you're reading ComicsAlliance and that means that you are already a person of impeccable taste. That doesn't mean you should sleep on the other stuff in the Marvel Collections sale, though, and my top pick would be The Oath, one of the most underrated comics of the past decade.

Written by Y - The Last Man's Brian K. Vaughn with art by Marcos Martin, this story is beautiful. I'm a pretty big fan of Vaughn, but Martin's art alone was the selling point for me back when it was coming out, and it did not disappoint. It's full of the same kind of energy that Martin would bring to Spider-Man, and features a romance subplot with one of Marvel's most obscure characters that is absolutely delightful. Oh, and also, it's about Dr. Strange trying to recover Hitler's handgun.

It's pretty great.

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Hey, remember a couple months ago when Gotham was starting up and everyone went back and re-read Gotham Central and remembered how amazing that book was? Well, sit down, Belinda: What if I told you that you could read a new comic from the artist and one of the writers of Gotham Central?It's not a dream! It's reality!

The book is Greg Rucka and Michael Lark's Lazarus, a sci-fi story about a future where the super-rich control everything, even the lives (and deaths) of their protectors. Five bucks gets you in the door for a story that starts with the main character getting shot in the head, and then, as the solicitation says, having a day that goes downhill from there.

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Southern Bastards is the book about small-town Southern living that I have been waiting for all my life, and by that, I mean that it mostly focuses on brutal murders and barbecue.

Jason Aaron and Jason Latour were already two of my favorite creators when this book launched, but they came out of the gate with one of the best first stories I've ever read, and a knockout ending that creeps up on you in a way you wouldn't expect. It's one of the best new comics of the year, and it's up there for five bucks today.

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You know, for mom and dad.

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Most of what's on offer for the current Batman sale is the same stuff from a few months back, so if you're curious for a few recommendations, be sure to check out what we had to say in July. That said, there's one comic you should make sure to grab if you don't already have it: Detective Comics #757: "Hang Time."

Written by Greg Rucka and drawn by Rick Burchett, it's a standalone story with no supervillains, just Batman, a gang of crooks, and a family that gets caught in the crossfire. Rucka referred to it (with all modesty) as a perfect single issue, and he's not wrong -- it's one of those rare comics that you can hand to anyone and show them exactly what a character's about, so if you don't have it, well, here's your chance to snag it for a buck.

(Also, while you're poking around in Detective, make sure you pick up Ed Brubaker's run as writer. It starts here, and it's amazing).

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