There's nothing special to buying digital comics from Amazon, they work the same as a regular Kindle book. Just load the Kindle app and you'll see everything you bought.

As for buying versus Unlimited, seems completely up to you as far as how much you want to read and if you want to keep titles to reread later for longer then you want to keep a subscription.

There's really no reason to not create a Comixology account and make sure you link it to your Amazon account. That way, your Amazon kindle purchases will also show up on Comixology (but not vice versa). Although you might want to verify that the kindle purchase is "Comixology compliant". It looks like almost all their Marvel titles are dual now, but I did almost buy one today before noticing it was kindle only.

In my iOS experience, the Comixology app is much better than the Kindle app for comics, but it might be closer on a Fire.

And if you've never bought digital comics before and are ok with renting, I'd skip the sale and just go with MU. At least try MU for a few days to see how you feel about them, as the sale apparently goes until the sixteenth.

Are there titles on the Amazon sale or on Amazon digital in general that are not on Marvel Unlimited? I just found it odd when I read some post above about someone paying $400+ dollars just on this sale. If you do that a few times and also bit a few other digital titles here and there, you would have already paid for about a 20 year subscription to MU. I get you don't own by renting but you'd essentially have a life time subscription any way so no different than owning, unless MU goes out of business.

Don't try to understand collectors.

But yes, unless you have a collector's "need" to own books, then a casual Marvel fan should probably just do MU.

There are some minor advantages to buying versus MU. One, you can buy recent stuff, while MU is limited to stuff six months old and older. Two, and I haven't completely verified this, but apparently the MU digital versions of some books aren't as nice as Comixology versions. Not sure if that means the scans are different, or if there isn't guided view on as many MU titles, or what exactly.

And as you mentioned, MU and its pricing isn't guaranteed to last forever. Neither is digital ownership exactly, but that's another can of worms.

To add to the crazy, I already subscribe to MU and have been one of the forum's biggest boosters of that service. Spending over $400 is insane and I fully admit that I got sucked up in the frenzy. If you're new to digital comics, I 100% recommend going the MU route to see if they're right for you.

To answer your questions though, yes, there is stuff that is available from Amazon that is not on MU (although they are constantly filling holes). MU also uses old files for a lot of the older material and the collected editions for sale often have better quality restorations. However, the biggest flaw with MU is the inability to create reading orders which makes reading crossover storylines or tie-ins in the proper order a frustrating experience to say the least. Comixology doesn't allow for reading orders either, but having trades vs. individual issues mostly solves that problem. I also don't plan on subscribing to MU forever. In fact, now that I've loaded up, I'm thinking of letting my subscription lapse for a while.

Yeah I'm thinking a couple months break from MCU is probably wise for me as well.

Stuff that's not on MCU is stuff that's usually more adult or creator owned:
punisher Max
Alias
Miracle Man

Maybe this is some push by Marvel to drive their back catalog? I know I'm digging really deep on these deals!

People keep talking about Miracleman, but I'm totally unfamiliar with it.

Look at the bright side: At least these aren't physical purchases that you'd have to pack and move!

I don't even know what TOS and TTA are.

But as far as what the others have said, the ability to read crossover stories are one of the big appeals to reading collections rather than single issues. It's what has kept me somewhat restrained on buying Big Events in this sale, like War of Kings, etc.--I have that in Omnibus form and am not sure how hard it would be to read the separate trades (not even single issues!), and there are so many of them.

Unfamiliar with Miracleman?! It was perhaps the first major work of Alan Moore. Marvelman was the British ~1950s copy of Fawcett's Captain Marvel, which Alan Moore brilliantly modernized decades later. When it was brought to the states by Eclipse Comics they had to change the name to Miracleman. Later Neil Gaiman took over and did a short run after Moore finished his storyline.

It ranks up there with Watchmen and Swamp Thing as his best work (and therefore, the best work in the history of comics period, imho). I'd lend you the first collection via Kindle, but I bought them all before this sale, alas. But just buy them.

There are also gaps in a lot of older series. Some stuff I bought this weekend not on MU (or missing chunks of issues) include What If?, Sensational She-Hulk, Defenders, and Thunderbolts. The original Black Panther run in Jungle Action is another run conspicuously absent from MU as well as large chunks of Daredevil (though a bunch were added today). I assume all of these things will get added eventually, assuming the service continues, but there's no way to know when that might be.

Well, there is one, I think - with a separate Comixology account I can pay via Paypal, which I understood is no longer the case once it's connected to the Amazon account. Is that still the case?

You are right that after linking with Amazon you can no longer use Paypal. It pretty much forces 'Amazon Pay.'

Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish.

I'm not very interested in the Big Event where they always say "The Marvel Universe will never be the same again". That stuff was a a novelty when Crisis on Infinite Earth and Secret Wars II came out. Now these evvents are just some stupid stories that try to connect every single character/series into it even though there is no real logical reason why some characters would even be involved in the first place. Ie, the Punisher should not be involved in some intergalactic battle with some near omipotent being, yet it seems he's dragged into so many of these storylines anyway.

I'll mostly want to check out the Noir titles. Old man Logan sound somewhat interesting, and I would like to skim through some pre hero stories from the Tales titles. Most of the newer Marvel stuff doesn't interest me anymore since they pretty much ruined Spider-man wth Brand New Day.

I wih Image had a service like this. I would be much more inclined to pay a montly fee for access to most of their titles but I guess with multiple sub imprints that;s not likely to happen.

I just found out though that I can get a one month subscription to MU using my Regal Cinemas movie Crown Cards. One mont costs 2,000 points, but I have well over 50,000 so that would be worth it for me. I just have to remeber to cancel it before I get charged for the next month.

Sale might be over. Thank God.

Wow, that was gone quick. I never ened up purchasing anything. But since most of what I want is on Marvel Unlimited it may still be cheaper for me to do just that.

I don't know if I'm relieved or disappointed the sale ended before I could purchase the complete Mini-Marvels and Tsum Tsum collections.

Many, but not all, of the collection prices reverted to be 50% off compared to Comixology pricing so still relatively better but not insanely cheap.

Quick?! It was four days of bankruptcy mania!

Good. I just did a final tally and it looks like I picked up 125 books. There were another 5 that I bought but then returned. There are 2 or 3 others I'd return as well after having second thoughts, but Amazon is now making me call customer service in order to do a return.

So what was this great sale i just missed, where digital trade collections going for $1 ?

Basically 80%+ off all marvel/max/icon trades/collections; for example most normally $20 'epic collections' were $4 and $8.99 trades $1.40.

Nooooooooooooooooo

Our spending nightmare is finally over!

I got big runs of FF, Avengers, X-Men, Captain America, Daredevil, and Thor, and was to the point where I was looking at random Epics and Masterworks and saying "Eh, might as well get that too." Plus I blind-bought a number of things (including Miracleman, the Morrison New X-Men, and the Bendis Daredevil), got the first and fifth volumes of Punisher Max because I had #2-4 on digital and #1 on physical, and duplicated some of my physical collection in hopes of dumping some of those.

A few regrets: I got the first three volumes of the Busiek Avengers but forgot to go back for the last two, I got the Jungle Action Epic not realizing that it was nearly the same content as the MW I already had (but hey, I already have both in physical because Black Panther), and I should've gotten a couple more Starlin infinity things. But all in all, it was a whole lot of cheap happy.

With the apparent success of this sale I can't help but wonder... how long until the next surprise 'secret' insane comic discount on Amazon?

Not for a while, I hope.

The fact that Amazon is always so aggressive about Marvel collections makes me think that there's some backstory or arrangement that we don't know about. $4 Epics were great, but the fact that they're usually at $9.99 or thereabouts makes it less of a stretch than if they were always at Comixology prices.

This sale makes me wish I had never bought a Marvel digital book before Thursday. I'm pretty sure that I literally could have done an "add all to cart" button (if they had one), and spent less than I spent previous to this sale.

I still think it was some kind of mistake. Who puts their whole catalog up for 80% off and have no restrictions, even for stuff that was just released? And there were none of the usual Amazon shenanigans with fluctuating prices either.

But hey, bring on the DC sale, I still have a car I can sell.