By Todd Allen
Here’s the drill: Diamond has released the top 100 titles and relative rankings for the monthly comics for February 2012. Since Walking Dead is usually a fairly consistently selling title, I’m going to plug last month’s Walking Dead numbers (both Comichron and ICV2 had January’s Walking Dead estimated at 31,596) into Diamond’s rankings. That should get us relatively close to the formal estimates that should be out soon. If Walking Dead had a good month, the numbers should be higher. If Walking Dead had a bad month, the numbers will be lower. History suggests this will be within +/- 5%, if not +/- 1%, praise to Great Kirkman.
1
|
105.38
|
JUSTICE LEAGUE #6
|
$3.99
|
DC
|
132,179
|
2
|
100
|
BATMAN #6
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
125,431
|
3
|
75.19
|
ACTION COMICS #6
|
$3.99
|
DC
|
94,311
|
4
|
73.5
|
DETECTIVE COMICS #6
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
92,192
|
5
|
73.24
|
GREEN LANTERN #6
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
91,865
|
6
|
60.05
|
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #6
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
75,321
|
7
|
54.21
|
SUPERMAN #6
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
67,996
|
8
|
52.98
|
FLASH #6
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
66,453
|
9
|
49.39
|
AQUAMAN #6
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
61,950
|
10
|
49.12
|
BATMAN AND ROBIN #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
61,612
|
11
|
46.58
|
UNCANNY X-MEN #6
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
58,426
|
12
|
46.08
|
UNCANNY X-MEN #7
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
57,798
|
13
|
43.43
|
WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #5
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
54,475
|
14
|
43.08
|
WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #6
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
54,036
|
15
|
42.18
|
WONDER WOMAN #6
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
52,907
|
16
|
42.12
|
NEW AVENGERS #21
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
52,831
|
17
|
41.83
|
AVENGERS X-SANCTION #3
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
52,468
|
18
|
41.35
|
TEEN TITANS #6
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
51,866
|
19
|
41.01
|
AVENGERS #22
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
51,439
|
20
|
40.92
|
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #679
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
51,326
|
21
|
40.65
|
AVENGERS #23
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
50,988
|
22
|
40.38
|
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #680
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
50,649
|
23
|
39.88
|
NEW AVENGERS #22
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
50,022
|
24
|
39.65
|
WINTER SOLDIER #1
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
49,733
|
25
|
39.43
|
UNCANNY X-FORCE #21
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
49,457
|
26
|
39.41
|
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #679.1
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
49,432
|
27
|
39.17
|
GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS #6
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
49,131
|
28
|
38.66
|
UNCANNY X-FORCE #22
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
48,492
|
29
|
38.32
|
BATWOMAN #6
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
48,065
|
30
|
37.24
|
BATGIRL #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
46,710
|
31
|
37.16
|
NIGHTWING #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
46,610
|
32
|
35.85
|
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
44,967
|
33
|
35.51
|
AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #4
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
44,540
|
34
|
35.24
|
ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #7
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
44,202
|
35
|
33.85
|
CAPTAIN AMERICA #8
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
42,458
|
36
|
33.29
|
INCREDIBLE HULK #5
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
41,756
|
37
|
33.02
|
FANTASTIC FOUR #603
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
41,417
|
38
|
32.1
|
SWAMP THING #6
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
40,263
|
39
|
32.04
|
WINTER SOLDIER #2
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
40,188
|
40
|
31.59
|
FF #15
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
39,624
|
41
|
30.62
|
SECRET AVENGERS #22
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
38,407
|
42
|
30.44
|
RED LANTERNS #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
38,181
|
43
|
29.94
|
WOLVERINE #301
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
37,554
|
44
|
29.5
|
DAREDEVIL #9
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
37,002
|
45
|
29.04
|
CATWOMAN #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
36,425
|
46
|
28.91
|
SECRET AVENGERS #23
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
36,262
|
47
|
28.73
|
X-MEN #24
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
36,036
|
48
|
28.4
|
X-MEN #25
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
35,622
|
49
|
28.38
|
X-MEN LEGACY #262
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
35,597
|
50
|
28.33
|
DEADPOOL #50
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
35,535
|
51
|
27.95
|
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
35,058
|
52
|
27.3
|
MIGHTY THOR #11
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
34,243
|
53
|
27.13
|
SUPERGIRL #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
34,029
|
54
|
26.98
|
ANIMAL MAN #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
33,841
|
55
|
26.88
|
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
33,716
|
56
|
26.69
|
WOLVERINE AND X-MEN ALPHA AND OMEGA #2
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
33,477
|
57
|
26.36
|
ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES #7
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
33,064
|
58
|
26.31
|
SCARLET SPIDER #2
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
33,001
|
59
|
26.3
|
JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
32,988
|
60
|
26.12
|
DEFENDERS #3
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
32,763
|
61
|
25.82
|
VENOM #13
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
32,386
|
62
|
25.49
|
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #513
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
31,972
|
63
|
25.19
|
WALKING DEAD #94 (MR)
|
$2.99
|
IMA
|
31,596
|
64
|
25.19
|
ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN #7
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
31,596
|
65
|
24.19
|
SUPERBOY #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
30,342
|
66
|
23.99
|
ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN #8
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
30,091
|
67
|
23.74
|
ASTONISHING X-MEN #47
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
29,777
|
68
|
23.26
|
BTVS SEASON 9 FREEFALL #6
|
$2.99
|
DAR
|
29,175
|
69
|
22.46
|
MAGIC THE GATHERING #1
|
$3.99
|
IDW
|
28,172
|
70
|
22.01
|
CARNAGE USA #3
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
27,607
|
71
|
21.6
|
SUICIDE SQUAD #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
27,093
|
72
|
21.42
|
VENOM #13.1
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
26,867
|
73
|
21.37
|
DEADPOOL #51
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
26,805
|
74
|
21.28
|
BIRDS OF PREY #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
26,692
|
75
|
21.14
|
VENOM #13.2
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
26,516
|
76
|
21.12
|
VENOM #13.4
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
26,491
|
77
|
21.09
|
GREEN ARROW #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
26,453
|
78
|
20.99
|
VENOM #13.3
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
26,328
|
79
|
20.7
|
BATMAN BEYOND UNLIMITED #1
|
$3.99
|
DC
|
25,964
|
80
|
20.45
|
CAPTAIN AMERICA AND BUCKY #627
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
25,651
|
81
|
20.3
|
STORMWATCH #6
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
25,462
|
82
|
19.01
|
FEAR ITSELF FEARLESS #9
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
23,844
|
83
|
18.99
|
FEAR ITSELF FEARLESS #8
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
23,819
|
84
|
18.96
|
X-FACTOR #231
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
23,782
|
85
|
18.82
|
X-FACTOR #232
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
23,606
|
86
|
18.57
|
MAGIC THE GATHERING #2
|
$3.99
|
IDW
|
23,292
|
87
|
18.34
|
ALL STAR WESTERN #6 [*]
|
$3.99
|
DC
|
23,004
|
88
|
18.11
|
NEW MUTANTS #37
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
22,716
|
89
|
17.64
|
NEW MUTANTS #38
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
22,126
|
90
|
17.51
|
PUNISHER #8
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
21,963
|
91
|
17.38
|
JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #634
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
21,800
|
92
|
17.33
|
HUNTRESS #5
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
21,737
|
93
|
17.12
|
MOON KNIGHT #10
|
$3.99
|
MAR
|
21,474
|
94
|
17.1
|
AVENGERS ACADEMY #25
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
21,449
|
95
|
16.93
|
HULK #48
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
21,235
|
96
|
16.84
|
AVENGERS ACADEMY #26
|
$2.99
|
MAR
|
21,123
|
97
|
16.45
|
DEMON KNIGHTS #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
20,633
|
98
|
16.41
|
LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #6 [*]
|
$2.99
|
DC
|
20,583
|
99
|
16.01
|
CONAN THE BARBARIAN #1
|
$3.50
|
DAR
|
20,081
|
100
|
15.81
|
FATALE #2 [*] (MR)
|
$3.50
|
IMA
|
19,831
|
If Walking Dead didn’t increase it’s sales over January, it looks like the drops are continuing, but the basic hierarchy remains the same for the top 14, with the exception of Aquaman inching ahead of Batman and Robin. Marvel’s top seller, still Uncanny X-Men would dip below the 60K line. The worst top seller for Marvel in recent memory. Avengers X-Sanction, for a book that’s leading into a big deal supposedly high order cross-over is very tepid in the vicinity of 52K, so I hope the fans get as excited as the retailers are supposed to be.
Debuts include Winter Soldier around 49K (issue two drops to 40K), Magic: The Gathering at 28K, Conan the Barbarian at 20K and Fatale at just under 20K (pre-multiple printings?).
Scarlet Spider takes the customary Marvel issue 1-2 plunge from 53K – 33K. Ouch.
“Real” numbers will be out soon, but that’s what it looks like we’re dealing with.
Sorry, Todd. But going by last month’s numbers, there are a number of things here that look way off. Perhaps we should wait for the http://www.comichron.com/ or http://www.icv2.com/ estimates before taking these at face value.
Walking Dead eventually will get that number one spot.It might not happen soon,but eventually.
respectfully Stam
Im gonna go in the “numbers will be very slightly higher” pond.
Well Done to walking dead then, again :D
Still, plenty one can conclude from this.
Several of the lower tier DC relaunch titles continue to do horribly.
Some marvel titles – including Iron Man, Thor and the two secondary Ultimate books are dropping like gravity has them, and the Wolverine renumbering didn’t have any real lasting effect at all.
Whatever the numbers, we do know that Marvel didn’t crack the top ten for the second month in a row. Almost as amazingly, Wonder Woman outsells the New Avengers, even if only by a few copies. Remember when New Avengers was Marvel’s pacesetter? Crazy.
Walking Dead rose a little this month based on my own guesses.
You’d be better off trying these calculations with AXM or AA.
Holy crap Demon Knights really skids almost out of the Top 100. Fun while it lasted.
Ken Raining,
You also have to take into account DC’s returnability program. As long as that is going on, DC’s numbers/rankings are going to be greatly inflated. Have we seen numbers where the adjustments have been made for returns yet?
Also, even with that, Marvel’s reclaimed the market share and dollar share. And outside of DC’s best performing titles, everything else is slipping, moving back to their Pre-New 52 range.
But I agree with you, sweeping the Top 10 two months in a row is something for DC to crow about.
Thunderbolts missses the top 100? And is now below 20k? :(
Looks like alot of my titles are sitting between 20-30k. Which is starting to look like the new average…
The Spider-Man sales story of the last 13 years is one of the most amazing in the history of the business. Considering that X-Men didn’t really take off until the very late 70s/early 80s, Spider-Man was probably the best selling character in comics for close to 30 years. By the late 90s, Spider-sales had fallen to their lowest point ever, only to be rebuilt to near the top of the charts by JMS. Sales started to slip by the middle of the 2000s, only to be boosted back up by a couple of years worth of crossovers and marketing stunts. Then they retconned the marriage, sales started to plummet and they’ve just kept crumbling to where Spider-sales are now within spitting distance of their all-time lows.
Mike
^X-Men sales didn’t take off until ’83-’84 with Paul Smith’s run as artist. A lot of people assume that the Byrne issues sold great, but the real upswing didn’t start until Smith took over. (Of course, a large reason for those sales had to do with the perceptible amount of depth that the franchise developed, and the Byrne issues were a part of that.)
I’m not sure why you think that Spider-Man was the best-selling character for three decades. Marvel was just getting started in the ’60s, and even by ’69 Amazing Spider-Man was still only the 7th best-selling title, being outsold by four Superman titles and two Archie titiles. Superman continued to outsell Spidey throughout most of the ’70s (see Comichron.com for this information, btw). And the X-Men outsold Spidey throughout most of the ’80s and ’90s. JMS’s run sold well but was not a best-selling title in comics at the time; it was not really a regular in the top 10.
That’s not to say that Amazing Spidey’s downturn isn’t noteworthy, though. It seems that sales are actually the worst in the title’s history. Just 3-4 years ago it sold an average of 100,000 copies a month. It’s lost half its readers since then. In recent memory the only sales figure that Spidey can be proud of is the gimmick Obama cover.
MBunge,
You say, “Then they retconned the marriage, sales started to plummet and they’ve just kept crumbling to where Spider-sales are now within spitting distance of their all-time lows.”
So are you saying that if they hadn’t retconned the marriage, the Spider-Sales would have stayed at JMS/Civil War Crossover levels while everything else (including Avengers, X-Men, and all the other Marvel titles) suffered sales attrition in a bad economy?
Is it your hypothesis that Spider-Sales alone would have bucked those trends and been the industry leader? Because that doesn’t sound right.
Going by these sales charts, for some time now, Spider-Man has been Marvel’s best selling solo title. If not for this sudden surge of DC’s New 52, it would be one of the best selling titles in an industry where most sales are down.
“I’m not sure why you think that Spider-Man was the best-selling character for three decades.”
Well, to take your examples, while Spider-Man was behind Superman for the 60s and part of the 70s, the Wall-crawler completely crushed the Kryptonian for part of the 70s, and all of the 80s. Spider-Man also dominated the X-Men in the 60s and 70s and the multiple Spider-titles still outsold the single Uncanny X-Men in the 80s. It was only when we started to get multiple mutant books that the X-franchise outstripped Spidey.
Mike
“So are you saying that if they hadn’t retconned the marriage”
What I’m saying is that the numbers are clear. The 6 months immediately following the marriage retcon were the steepest sales decline for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN in the entire decade. Those 6 months were worse than the sales drops of the previous 6 years combined and worse than the sales drops of the next 3 1/2 years combined. In fact, I think that 6 months of lost sales were worse than all of the sales drops of the rest of the decade combined.
True, Spider-sales would likely have declined along with the rest of Marvel, but that’s not what happened. It’s more ike Spider-sales plunged and then the rest of Marvel gradually caught up with the Spider-decline.
Mike
“What I’m saying is that the numbers are clear. The 6 months immediately following the marriage retcon were the steepest sales decline for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN in the entire decade”
No. What is pretty clear is that those 6 months before the marriage retcon were close to two years of tie-ins to Civil War (Marve’s most popular crossover event in the past 15 years, where all the titles that tied into it got their numbers greatly inflated).
If you look at the sales trajectory the Spider-Man titles were on before “The Other”, Road to Civil War, and Civil War, it’s pretty similar to the sales curve of Spider-Man after One More Day.
Spider-Man’s sales declining in the same fashion as other Marvel titles is exactly what happened once you take away the Civil War crossover bump.