Marvel Month-to-month sales: January 2007 — CORRECTED

by PAUL O’BRIEN

[Editor’s note: Due to some errors on the ICv2 figures, erroneous information on variant covers for both WOLVERINE: ORIGINS and NEWUNIVERSAL #2 was included in the original post. Please make note of the corrected copy below.]

CIVIL WAR continued to loom over Marvel’s output in January, in more ways than one. Not only did the publisher continue to produce CIVIL WAR tie-ins, but thanks to the delays on the core title, they’re still not in a position to launch any of those shiny new titles. As a result, there’s not much in the way of new product this month.

The big projects are CIVIL WAR: THE RETURN, the relaunch of THUNDERBOLTS, and the new creative team of Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi on WOLVERINE. After that, it’s a big drop down to the new miniseries – SILENT WAR, HYPERION VS NIGHTHAWK and IRON MAN: HYPERVELOCITY.

Oh yes – and there’s something very odd at number 276. But we’ll come back to that.

As usual, Marvel took first place for the month in terms of market share. But the margin over DC was particularly wide – 45% to 34% in unit share, and 40% to 31% in dollar share.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

Before we start, it’s perhaps worth repeating the health warning for these figures, since I haven’t spelt it out in a while. These are estimates based on Diamond’s published chart for North American direct market sales. The numbers are probably fairly accurate as an estimate of the chart sales, since ICV2 and CBGxtra both estimate the sales independently, and tend to be very, very close together. But the chart doesn’t include any sales outside the direct market, and it doesn’t include sales to the UK. That’s a big chunk of readers – ICV2 estimate that most books do somewhere between 3% and 20% extra in Europe. But there’s no way of getting at the sales data for them, so we just have to live with the figures we have.

On the other hand, you should also bear in mind that these numbers only reflect sales to the retailer. There’s no way of knowing how many copies were actually sold to paying customers. But obviously, if a book is getting heavy re-orders then it’s probably been selling out. And if it’s crashing down the charts, that’s a pretty good indication that previous issues have been piling up unsold.

1. CIVIL WAR
05/06 #1 of 7 – 360,172
06/06 #2 of 7 – 339,527 ( -5.7%)
07/06 #3 of 7 – 335,655 ( -1.1%)
08/06 —
09/06 #4 of 7 – 287,079 (-14.5%)
10/06 —
11/06 #5 of 7 – 279,518 ( -2.6%)
12/06 —
01/07 #6 of 7 – 259,264 ( -7.2%)
6 mnth (-22.8%)

The monolithic CIVIL WAR continues to tower over the rest of the industry, outselling its nearest rival by more than two to one. Whatever else you say about the book, it’s a huge success. The re-orders continue to rack up, albeit more modestly – 3,204 copies of issue #3, 3,523 of issue #4, and 3,190 of issue #5.

2. CIVIL WAR: THE RETURN
01/07 The Return – 125,713

In an otherwise quiet month, this one-shot becomes Marvel’s most commercially notable project. It features the return of the original Captain Marvel, and it trails an ongoing series.

The problem is, the book has been almost universally panned, by both critics and message boards. Personally, I think some of the criticism thrown at the book has been excessively harsh – after all, I slogged through the inane Chuck Austen stories about disintegrator communion wafers, which were in a whole different league of awful. THE RETURN, in comparison, is just a bit limp.

But there’s no denying that the reaction to the book has been overwhelmingly negative, and that it spectacularly failed to deliver on the hype. This is not good news for the proposed CAPTAIN MARVEL series. The point of THE RETURN was presumably to build a buzz for that book. After this issue, the only buzzing is from the flies. Ironically, this may be a rare example of a comic where Marvel would have been better off in the long run if fewer people had bought it.

3. WOLVERINE
01/02 #172 – 71,574
01/03 #185 – 62,218
01/04 #10 – 71,374
01/05 #24 – 79,831
=====
01/06 #38 – 73,815 ( -0.0%)
02/06 #39 – 75,285 ( +2.0%)
03/06 #40 – 77,627 ( +3.1%)
04/06 #41 – 70,965 ( -8.6%)
05/06 #42 – 112,209 (+58.1%)
06/06 #43 – 116,540 ( +3.9%)
07/06 #44 – 111,478 ( -4.3%)
08/06 #45 – 110,662 ( -0.7%)
09/06 #46 – 107,865 ( -2.5%)
10/06 #47 – 106,201 ( -1.5%)
11/06 #48 – 99,991 ( -5.8%)
12/06 #49 – 78,807 (-21.2%)
01/07 #50 – 115,621 (+46.7%)
6 mnth ( +3.7%)
1 year (+56.6%)
2 year (+44.8%)
3 year (+62.0%)

Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi arrive, amid much fanfare. There’s a variant cover on this book, and it’s got a nice round number to boot. It ends up selling about as well as the CIVIL WAR crossover issues. The 46.7% climb is a bit misleading; issue #49 was a fill-in Christmas story. But this is a very healthy start.

4. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
01/02 #39 – 90,788
01/03 #49 – 90,032
01/04 #503 – 87,341
01/05 #516 – 79,842
=====
01/06 #528 – 97,807 ( -8.8%)
02/06 #529 – 132,329 (+35.3%)
03/06 #530 – 101,226 (-23.5%)
04/06 #531 – 96,213 ( -5.0%)
05/06 #532 – 119,083 (+23.8%)
06/06 #533 – 137,926 (+15.8%)
07/06 #534 – 125,553 ( -9.0%)
08/06 —-
09/06 #535 – 122,968 ( -2.1%)
10/06 —-
11/06 #536 – 121,003 ( -1.6%)
12/06 —
01/07 #537 – 114,802 ( -5.1%)
6 mnth ( -8.6%)
1 year (+17.4%)
2 year (+43.8%)
3 year (+31.4%)

The much-delayed CIVIL WAR tie-in arc is definitely dropping back a bit, but it’s still considerably above the book’s normal range. Given the lacklustre performance of the other Spider-Man books, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when the tie-in ends.

5. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN
01/02 #17 – 79,203
01/03 #34 – 93,789
01/04 #52 – 95,854
01/05 #71 – 83,987
=====
01/06 #89 – 71,935 ( -3.1%)
02/06 #90 – 71,470 ( -0.6%)
03/06 #91 – 74,028 ( +3.6%)
03/06 #92 – 72,269 ( -2.4%)
04/06 #93 – 72,831 ( +0.8%)
05/06 #94 – 74,051 ( +1.7%)
05/06 #95 – 73,564 ( -0.7%)
06/06 #96 – 73,472 ( -0.1%)
07/06 #97 – 76,612 ( +4.3%)
08/06 #98 – 77,304 ( +0.9%)
08/06 #99 – 76,075 ( -1.6%)
09/06 #100 – 119,194 (+56.7%)
10/06 #101 – 78,963 (-33.8%)
11/06 #102 – 77,121 ( -2.3%)
12/06 #103 – 76,251 ( -1.1%)
01/07 #104 – 108,082 (+41.7%)
6 mnth (+41.1%)
1 year (+50.2%)
2 year (+28.7%)
3 year (+12.8%)

The final issue of the Ultimate Clone Saga. There’s a variant cover on this, with a 1-in-50 ratio, which probably accounts for most of the jump.

7. CIVIL WAR: FRONT LINE
06/06 #1 of 11 – 145,271
06/06 #2 of 11 – 132,858 ( -8.5%)
07/06 #3 of 11 – 128,164 ( -3.5%)
07/06 #4 of 11 – 111,868 (-12.7%)
08/06 #5 of 11 – 111,435 ( -0.4%)
09/06 #6 of 11 – 108,436 ( -2.7%)
10/06 #7 of 11 – 106,588 ( -1.7%)
11/06 #8 of 11 – 100,869 ( -5.4%)
12/06 #9 of 11 – 97,948 ( -2.9%)
01/07 #10 of 11 – 99,795 ( +1.9%)
6 mnth (-10.8%)

A minor increase for the debut of Penance.

9. WOLVERINE: ORIGINS
04/06 #1 – 182,672
05/06 #2 – 131,522 (-28.0%)
06/06 #3 – 116,058 (-11.8%)
07/06 #4 – 110,830 ( -4.5%)
08/06 #5 – 120,448 ( +8.7%)
09/06 #6 – 101,013 (-16.1%)
10/06 #7 – 103,273 ( +2.2%)
11/06 #8 – 91,585 (-11.3%)
12/06 #9 – 84,733 ( -7.5%)
01/07 #10 – 97,881 (+15.5%)
6 mnth (-11.6%)

Last month, no variant cover. This month, variant cover. With a 1-in-100 ratio. So don’t get too excited about the sales jump.
Contrary to my initial comments, there’s been a variant cover on every issue of this series so far. This month, there was a 1-in-100 ratio cover, which is likely to account for some of this sales jump. The issue was also solicited as featuring the first appearance of Wolverine’s son (which it does) and the death of a beloved Marvel character (which it doesn’t appear to, apparently due to a last-minute reprieve for the character in question). Both of those could plausibly be contributing factors as well.

14,21. PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL
11/06 #1 – 102,727
12/06 —
01/07 #2 – 87,970 (-14.4%)
01/07 #3 – 70,143 (-20.3%)

Two more CIVIL WAR tie-ins, with a variant cover on issue #2. The gimmickry makes it hard to read too much into these figures. It’s holding up better than HEROES FOR HIRE, the other book to launch in the middle of CIVIL WAR, but that’s not really saying a great deal. The big test comes when the crossover ends and this book has to stand on its own feet, since there’s little doubt that the sales will drop heavily at first.

16. FANTASTIC FOUR
01/02 #51 – 47,714
01/03 #65 – 49,133
01/04 #509 – 50,260
01/05 #522 – 46,335
=====
01/05 —
02/06 #534 – 44,573 ( -4.7%)
02/06 #535 – 43,124 ( -3.3%)
03/06 #536 – 79,680 (+84.8%)
04/06 #537 – 79,576 ( -0.1%)
05/06 —
06/06 #538 – 92,624 (+16.4%)
07/06 —
08/06 #539 – 89,676 ( -3.2%)
09/06 —-
10/06 #540 – 88,933 ( -0.8%)
11/06 —-
12/06 #541 – 84,895 ( -4.5%)
01/07 #542 – 84,338 ( -0.7%)
6 mnth ( -6.0%)
1 year (+89.2%)
2 year (+82.0%)
3 year (+67.8%)

Another CIVIL WAR crossover, and still holding up nicely.

17. UNCANNY X-MEN
01/02 #402 – 101,145
01/03 #417 – 83,921
01/04 #437 – 89,897
01/05 #454 – 87,447
=====
01/06 #468 – 79,808 ( -1.8%)
02/06 #469 – 79,039 ( -1.0%)
03/06 #470 – 79,389 ( +0.4%)
03/06 #471 – 78,286 ( -1.4%)
04/06 #472 – 79,157 ( +1.1%)
05/06 #473 – 79,335 ( +0.2%)
06/06 #474 – 78,140 ( -1.5%)
07/06 #475 – 106,037 (+35.7%)
07/06 #476 – 92,154 (-13.1%)
08/06 #477 – 89,225 ( -3.2%)
09/06 #478 – 89,850 ( +0.7%)
10/06 #479 – 89,052 ( -0.9%)
11/06 #480 – 88,584 ( -0.5%)
12/06 #481 – 85,995 ( -2.9%)
01/07 #482 – 83,860 ( -2.5%)
6 mnth ( -9.0%)
1 year ( +5.1%)
2 year ( -4.1%)
3 year ( -6.7%)

Starting to shed readers over the last couple of months, after a steady performance in the early issues of Ed Brubaker’s run. Still comfortably ahead of the inherited numbers, though.

18. MOON KNIGHT
04/06 #1 – 114,533
05/06 #2 – 77,552 (-32.3%)
06/06 #3 – 72,206 ( -6.9%)
07/06 —
08/06 #4 – 67,802 ( -6.1%)
09/06 #5 – 64,736 ( -4.5%)
10/06 —
11/06 #6 – 74,017 (+14.3%)
12/06 —
01/07 #7 – 76,921 ( +3.9%)
6 mnth (+13.4%)

Last issue had a variant cover; this one is a CIVIL WAR tie-in. Or rather, it’s a “Casualties of War” book – a term which Marvel seem to be using to hint vaguely at some sort of CIVIL WAR tie-in without actually saying so. Generally speaking, the crossover elements are minor and remote. In fairness, MOON KNIGHT #7 is one of the more defensible crossovers, since at least it does feature characters talking about the Superhuman Registration Act for a bit. If anyone can tell me what on earth GHOST RIDER #8 had to do with CIVIL WAR, I’d love to know. Soliciting “crossover” issues quite this tenuous strikes me as a bad idea in the medium and long term, but sales are up this month, and that’s probably good enough for Marvel.

19. X-MEN
01/02 #122 – 109,246
01/03 #136 – 93,453
01/04 #152 – 118,099
01/05 #166 – 85,934
=====
01/06 #181 – 74,094 ( -1.9%)
02/06 #182 – 78,653 ( +6.2%)
02/06 #183 – 79,477 ( +1.0%)
03/06 #184 – 79,480 ( +0.0%)
04/06 #185 – 78,815 ( -0.8%)
05/06 #186 – 79,536 ( +0.9%)
06/06 #187 – 77,918 ( -2.0%)
07/06 #188 – 95,487 (+22.5%)
07/06 #189 – 85,157 (-10.8%)
08/06 #190 – 83,436 ( -2.0%)
09/06 #191 – 82,048 ( -1.7%)
10/06 #192 – 81,816 ( -0.3%)
11/06 #193 – 80,102 ( -2.1%)
12/06 #194 – 78,114 ( -2.5%)
01/07 #195 – 76,900 ( -1.6%)
6 mnth ( -9.7%)
1 year ( +3.8%)
2 year (-10.5%)
3 year (-34.9%)

Back where it was under the previous creative team. This book is clearly in decline, but Marvel have a big X-Men crossover lined up for later in the year which should bring some attention back to these books.

22. ULTIMATE X-MEN
01/02 #14 – 97,690
01/03 #27 – 84,594
01/04 #41 – 99,532
01/05 #55 – 87,447
=====
01/06 #66 – 73,720 ( -0.7%)
02/06 #67 – 72,700 ( -1.4%)
03/06 #68 – 72,765 ( +0.1%)
04/06 #69 – 73,188 ( +0.6%)
05/06 #70 – 72,235 ( -1.3%)
06/06 #71 – 71,314 ( -1.3%)
07/06 #72 – 70,593 ( -1.0%)
08/06 #73 – 70,153 ( -0.6%)
09/06 #74 – 68,874 ( -1.8%)
10/06 #75 – 73,837 ( +7.2%)
11/06 #76 – 69,054 ( -6.5%)
12/06 #77 – 67,338 ( -2.5%)
01/07 #78 – 66,409 ( -1.4%)
6 mnth ( -5.9%)
1 year ( -9.9%)
2 year (-24.1%)
3 year (-33.3%)

Definitely in decline, and now the lowest selling of the monthly X-Men titles. The bloom is off the rose for the Ultimate imprint.

24. THUNDERBOLTS
01/02 #60 – 29,912
01/05 #4 – 31,725
=====
01/06 #17 – 23,417 ( -6.7%)
02/06 #18 – 23,735 ( +1.4%)
03/06 #100 – 26,798 ( +12.9%)
04/06 #101 – 24,170 ( -9.8%)
05/06 #102 – 23,741 ( -1.8%)
06/06 #103 – 60,823 (+156.2%)
07/06 #104 – 63,850 ( +5.0%)
08/06 #105 – 61,467 ( -3.7%)
09/06 #106 – 31,527 ( -48.7%)
10/06 #107 – 29,624 ( -6.0%)
11/06 #108 – 27,890 ( -5.9%)
12/06 #109 – 27,300 ( -2.1%)
01/07 #110 – 64,966 (+138.0%)
6 mnth ( +1.7%)
1 year (+177.4%)
2 year (+104.8%)

A huge jump for the relaunched THUNDERBOLTS, although a variant cover will be playing some part. In fact, it’s only slightly ahead of the sales for the CIVIL WAR crossover issues six months ago, but this relaunch is likely to deliver a more sustained increase in sales. Whatever you think of the new direction, it’s turned THUNDERBOLTS into a much more high profile book.

25. ETERNALS
06/06 #1 of 7 – 110,269
07/06 #2 of 7 – 79,086 (-28.3%)
08/06 #3 of 7 – 73,997 ( -6.4%)
09/06 #4 of 7 – 66,556 (-10.1%)
10/06 —
11/06 #5 of 7 – 66,356 ( -0.3%)
12/06 —
01/07 #6 of 7 – 62,342 ( -6.0%)
6 mnth (-21.2%)

Doing well for an Eternals miniseries, but it’s no MARVEL 1602.

28. BLACK PANTHER
01/06 #12 – 27,933 ( -4.7%)
02/06 #13 – 26,054 ( -6.7%)
03/06 #14 – 28,809 ( +10.6%)
04/06 #15 – 28,361 ( -1.6%)
05/06 #16 – 28,091 ( -1.0%)
06/06 #17 – 27,993 ( -0.3%)
07/06 #18 – 69,912 (+149.7%)
08/06 #19 – 28,372 ( -59.4%)
09/06 #20 – 26,585 ( -6.3%)
10/06 #21 – 34,257 ( +28.9%)
11/06 #22 – 47,556 ( +38.8%)
12/06 #23 – 54,762 ( +15.2%)
01/07 #24 – 57,709 ( +5.4%)
6 mnth ( -17.5%)
1 year (+106.6%)

Continuing to gain sales as the CIVIL WAR crossover issues continue. After this, the book is tying directly to FANTASTIC FOUR for a while, so it won’t have to rely on its core audience for a while yet. This seems like a major change of direction for an idiosyncratic title that used to be notable for its total disregard for wider continuity, but it’s certainly delivering the numbers.

29. SPIDER-MAN: REIGN
12/06 #1 of 4 – 46,827
01/07 #2 of 4 – 56,788 (+21.3%)

There’s a variant cover, but even so, it’s very unusual to see a sales increase for the second issue of a miniseries. SPIDER-MAN: REIGN has been widely mocked in the blogosphere, but it’s actually performing very well in the charts.

30. ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR
01/04 #2 – 126,693
01/05 #15 – 74,501
=====
01/06 —
02/06 #27 – 67,922 ( -2.5%)
03/06 #28 – 67,480 ( -0.7%)
04/06 #29 – 67,554 ( +0.1%)
05/06 #30 – 103,837 (+53.7%)
06/06 —
07/06 #31 – 84,460 (-18.7%)
08/06 #32 – 80,730 ( -4.4%)
08/06 #33 – 65,191 (-19.2%)
09/06 #34 – 63,447 ( -2.7%)
10/06 #35 – 61,270 ( -3.4%)
11/06 #36 – 57,779 ( -5.7%)
12/06 #37 – 55,047 ( -4.7%)
01/07 #38 – 52,859 ( -4.0%)
6 mnth (-37.4%)
1 year (-22.2%)
2 year (-29.0%)
3 year (-58.3%)

Issues #30-32 had artificial sales boosts and you can leave them aside. But this book has still shed over 12,000 readers since August, and that’s not good news.

33. DAREDEVIL
01/02 #29 – 48,012
01/03 #42 – 62,770
01/04 #56 – 56,351
01/05 #69 – 48,727
=====
01/06 #81 – 44,252 ( +2.2%)
02/06 #82 – 53,058 (+19.9%)
03/06 #83 – 46,804 (-11.8%)
04/06 #84 – 47,123 ( +0.7%)
05/06 #85 – 47,899 ( +1.6%)
06/06 #86 – 48,280 ( +0.8%)
07/06 #87 – 51,989 ( +7.7%)
08/06 #88 – 50,554 ( -2.8%)
09/06 #89 – 55,481 ( +9.7%)
10/06 #90 – 50,500 ( -9.0%)
11/06 #91 – 49,335 ( -2.3%)
12/06 #92 – 48,035 ( -2.6%)
01/07 #93 – 47,124 ( -1.9%)
6 mnth ( -9.4%)
1 year ( +6.5%)
2 year ( -3.3%)
3 year (-16.4%)

Slight decline, but still comfortably in the book’s normal range.

34. SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN
01/05 #10 – 61,831
=====
01/06 #22 – 74,923 ( -2.4%)
02/06 #23 – 59,051 (-21.2%)
03/06 #24 – 53,910 ( -8.7%)
04/06 #25 – 51,992 ( -3.6%)
05/06 #26 – 52,496 ( +1.0%)
06/06 #27 – 50,721 ( -3.4%)
07/06 #28 – 58,532 (+15.4%)
08/06 #29 – 55,420 ( -5.3%)
09/06 #30 – 54,467 ( -1.7%)
10/06 #31 – 51,587 ( -5.3%)
11/06 #32 – 50,222 ( -2.6%)
12/06 #33 – 48,443 ( -3.5%)
01/07 #34 – 47,008 ( -3.0%)
6 mnth (-19.7%)
1 year (-37.3%)
2 year (-24.0%)

Another book which is visibly losing readers, despite the unmasking stunt. The Spider-Man books are floundering – compare the sales for January 2006, when the title was in the middle of the “Other” crossover. And look how far it’s fallen, despite what ought to be one of the biggest Spider-Man storylines ever.

35. INCREDIBLE HULK
01/02 #36 – 36,422
01/03 #49 – 48,089
01/04 #65 – 49,049
01/05 #77 – 47,180
=====
01/06 #91 – 35,980 ( -2.6%)
02/06 #92 – 53,661 (+49.1%)
03/06 #93 – 47,437 (-11.6%)
04/06 #94 – 47,966 ( +1.1%)
05/06 #95 – 49,089 ( +2.3%)
06/06 —
07/06 #96 – 49,209 ( +0.2%)
08/06 #97 – 48,893 ( -0.6%)
09/06 #98 – 52,987 ( +8.4%)
10/06 #99 – 47,878 ( -9.6%)
11/06 #100 – 84,169 (+75.8%)
12/06 #101 – 47,927 (-43.1%)
01/07 #102 – 46,965 ( -2.0%)
6 mnth ( -4.6%)
1 year (+30.5%)
2 year ( -0.5%)
3 year ( -4.2%)

Holding up in its usual range.

36. NEWUNIVERSAL
12/06 #1 – 43,163
01/07 #2 – 44,783 (+3.8%)

Another series with a variant on its second issue, and a small climb as a result. Marvel tried this idea back in the nineties (“the 2 for 2 program”), but it usually just slowed the second-issue drop dramatically. Second issue climbs were unusual, so this seems to be a promising sign.
Contrary to my initial comments, the figure for issue #2 doesn’t include the variant cover (which didn’t ship until February). That makes this an extremely rare example of a book legitimately gaining sales for its second issue – something that can only be viewed as a very good sign.

37. SILENT WAR
01/07 #1 (of 6) – 44,079

A sequel to SON OF M, or at least a series that picks up on the stray plot threads from that book. Considering that it’s basically an Inhumans miniseries, this is a strong start.

38. X-23: TARGET X
12/06 #1 of 6 – 58,125
01/07 #2 of 6 – 44,000 (-24.3%)

Fairly standard second issue drop. Unusually for a spin-off miniseries, it’s outselling parent title NEW X-MEN by a mile. That suggests the parent title may have room for improvement.

39. GHOST RIDER
01/06 #5 of 6 – 56,958 ( -4.6%)
02/06 #6 of 6 – 55,802 ( -2.0%)
03/06 —
04/06 —
05/06 —
06/06 —
07/06 #1 – 98,826 (+77.1%)
08/06 #2 – 61,793 (-37.5%)
09/06 #3 – 54,029 (-12.6%)
10/06 #4 – 50,925 ( -5.7%)
11/06 #5 – 47,929 ( -5.9%)
12/06 #6 – 46,673 ( -2.6%)
01/07 #7 – 43,557 ( -6.7%)
6 mnth (-55.9%)
1 year (-23.5%)

Shedding readers awfully quickly for the seventh issue. There’s still no sign of this book levelling out, although next month’s “Casualties of War” crossover will provide a short-term boost.

40. BLADE
09/06 #1 – 37,394
10/06 #2 – 27,170 ( -27.3%)
11/06 #3 – 23,144 ( -14.8%)
12/06 #4 – 21,043 ( -9.1%)
01/07 #5 – 42,513 (+102.0%)

Another “Casualties of War” book. This time, the justification is that it’s a tie-in to a WOLVERINE storyline which was itself a tie-in to CIVIL WAR. Apparently a second-order crossover is still sufficient to double the sales on this book, but whether it’ll persuade anyone to stick around is another matter.

41. FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN
01/06 #4 – 78,672 ( -3.2%)
02/06 —
03/06 #5 – 59,900 (-23.9%)
03/06 #6 – 58,853 ( -1.7%)
04/06 #7 – 55,381 ( -5.9%)
05/06 #8 – 53,910 ( -2.7%)
06/06 #9 – 50,177 ( -6.9%)
07/06 #10 – 48,902 ( -2.5%)
08/06 #11 – 50,995 ( +4.3%)
09/06 #12 – 48,063 ( -5.7%)
10/06 #13 – 46,293 ( -3.7%)
11/06 #14 – 43,476 ( -6.1%)
12/06 #15 – 42,147 ( -3.1%)
01/07 #16 – 41,832 ( -0.7%)
6 mnth (-14.5%)
1 year (-46.8%)

Another declining Spider-Man title, though it may be levelling out.

44. ULTIMATE VISION
11/06 #0 of 5 – 40,004
12/06 #1 of 5 – 53,069 (+32.7%)
01/07 #2 of 5 – 40,288 (-24.1%)

Perfectly fine second issue drop.

45. X-FACTOR
01/06 —
02/06 #3 – 48,307 ( -8.3%)
03/06 #4 – 48,183 ( -0.3%)
03/06 #5 – 46,490 ( -3.5%)
04/06 #6 – 45,220 ( -2.7%)
05/06 #7 – 44,315 ( -2.0%)
06/06 #8 – 76,150 (+71.8%)
07/06 #9 – 68,799 ( -9.7%)
08/06 #10 – 44,603 (-35.2%)
09/06 #11 – 43,431 ( -2.6%)
10/06 #12 – 42,909 ( -1.2%)
11/06 #13 – 42,844 ( -0.2%)
12/06 #14 – 40,208 ( -6.2%)
01/07 #15 – 38,693 ( -3.8%)
6 mnth (-43.8%)
1 year (-19.9%)

After a period of relative stability, X-FACTOR has started shedding readers over the last couple of months for some mysterious reason.

46. ANNIHILATION
08/06 #1 of 6 – 61,006
09/06 #2 of 6 – 44,537 (-27.0%)
10/06 #3 of 6 – 41,292 ( -7.3%)
11/06 #4 of 6 – 39,645 ( -4.0%)
12/06 #5 of 6 – 38,237 ( -3.6%)
01/07 #6 of 6 – 38,171 ( -0.2%)

Holding up very well in the final few issues. Considering the decidedly D-list cast, this bodes well for the ongoing NOVA series.

47. NEW X-MEN
01/05 #8 – 40,179
=====
01/06 #22 – 42,923 ( -1.3%)
02/06 #23 – 41,463 ( -3.4%)
03/06 #24 – 42,044 ( +1.4%)
04/06 #25 – 40,176 ( -4.4%)
05/06 #26 – 40,073 ( -0.3%)
06/06 #27 – 39,785 ( -0.7%)
07/06 #28 – 39,771 ( -0.0%)
08/06 #29 – 40,303 ( +1.3%)
09/06 #30 – 39,658 ( -1.6%)
10/06 #31 – 39,175 ( -1.2%)
11/06 #32 – 37,919 ( -3.2%)
12/06 #33 – 38,076 ( +0.4%)
01/07 #34 – 37,272 ( -2.1%)
6 mnth ( -6.3%)
1 year (-13.2%)
2 year ( -7.2%)

Still wavering in its normal range. But, as noted above, the spin-off TARGET X is massively outselling it.

51. FANTASTIC FOUR: THE END
11/06 #1 of 6 – 54,213
11/06 #2 of 6 – 38,928 (-28.2%)
12/06 #3 of 6 – 36,744 ( -5.6%)
01/07 #4 of 6 – 34,169 ( -7.0%)

Normal miniseries numbers.

53. SQUADRON SUPREME: HYPERION VS NIGHTHAWK
01/07 #1 of 4 – 33,922

SQUADRON SUPREME itself has shipped all the solicited issues and gone on hiatus. The final issue sold around 42K in November, so this isn’t an encouraging start for the spin-off book.

55. PUNISHER [Max]
01/02 #8 – 54,305
01/03 #21 – 41,607
01/04 #1 – 56,334
01/05 #16 – 39,341
=====
01/06 #29 – 34,708 ( -2.3%)
02/06 #30 – 34,293 ( -1.2%)
03/06 #31 – 34,505 ( +0.6%)
04/06 #32 – 34,076 ( -1.2%)
05/06 #33 – 34,480 ( +1.2%)
06/06 #34 – 34,161 ( -0.9%)
07/06 #35 – 34,116 ( -0.1%)
08/06 #36 – 34,227 ( +0.3%)
09/06 #37 – 34,250 ( +0.1%)
09/06 #38 – 33,839 ( -1.2%)
10/06 #39 – 33,962 ( +0.4%)
11/06 #40 – 33,579 ( -1.1%)
11/06 #41 – 33,164 ( -1.2%)
12/06 #42 – 33,003 ( -0.5%)
01/07 #43 – 33,023 ( +0.0%)
6 mnth ( -3.2%)
1 year ( -4.9%)
2 year (-16.1%)
3 year (-41.4%)

Rock solid.

57. MS MARVEL
03/06 #1 – 73,407
04/06 #2 – 46,204 (-37.1%)
05/06 #3 – 43,048 ( -6.8%)
06/06 #4 – 40,627 ( -5.6%)
07/06 #5 – 38,874 ( -4.3%)
08/06 #6 – 68,330 (+75.8%)
09/06 #7 – 64,973 ( -4.9%)
10/06 #8 – 62,893 ( -3.2%)
11/06 #9 – 37,881 (-39.8%)
12/06 #10 – 34,350 ( -9.3%)
01/07 #11 – 32,298 ( -6.0%)
6 mnth (-16.9%)

Shedding readers far too quickly for comfort at this stage.

59. EXILES
01/02 #8 – 39,382
01/03 #21 – 36,109
01/04 #40 – 37,277
01/05 #58 – 32,129
=====
01/06 #75 – 33,485 ( -1.2%)
01/06 #76 – 32,843 ( -1.9%)
02/06 #77 – 32,998 ( +0.5%)
03/06 #78 – 33,506 ( +1.5%)
04/06 #79 – 34,119 ( +1.8%)
05/06 #80 – 34,039 ( -0.2%)
05/06 #81 – 33,908 ( -0.4%)
06/06 #82 – 33,342 ( -1.7%)
06/06 #83 – 33,143 ( -0.6%)
07/06 #84 – 32,866 ( -0.8%)
08/06 #85 – 33,978 ( +3.4%)
09/06 #86 – 33,080 ( -2.6%)
10/06 #87 – 31,946 ( -3.4%)
11/06 #88 – 30,928 ( -3.2%)
12/06 #89 – 36,880 (+19.2%)
01/07 #90 – 31,595 (-14.3%)
6 mnth ( -3.9%)
1 year ( -5.6%)
2 year ( -1.7%)
3 year (-15.2%)

As expected, last month’s issue #89 picks up a ton of re-orders as the shipping problems are sorted out. Oddly, it sells an extra 16,153 copies, meaning that it ends up as an unusually popular issue. Issue #90, the first issue by Chris Claremont, returns to the book’s usual range.

60. NEW EXCALIBUR
01/06 #3 – 47,196 ( -3.3%)
02/06 #4 – 45,071 ( -4.5%)
03/06 #5 – 43,523 ( -3.4%)
04/06 #6 – 40,687 ( -6.5%)
05/06 #7 – 38,744 ( -4.8%)
06/06 #8 – 37,428 ( -3.4%)
07/06 #9 – 36,466 ( -2.6%)
08/06 #10 – 36,108 ( -1.0%)
09/06 #11 – 34,104 ( -5.6%)
10/06 #12 – 33,082 ( -3.0%)
11/06 #13 – 32,173 ( -2.7%)
12/06 #14 – 31,318 ( -2.7%)
01/07 #15 – 30,827 ( -1.6%)
6 mnth (-15.5%)
1 year (-34.7%)

Still in slow decline as Frank Tieri completes his fill-in run.

62. ANITA BLAKE, VAMPIRE HUNTER [DBPro]
10/06 #1 of 12 – 46,524
11/06 #2 of 12 – 39,450 (-15.2%)
12/06 #3 of 12 – 30,610 (-22.4%)
01/07 #4 of 12 – 30,392 ( -0.7%)

Issue #2 picks up another 3,922 in re-orders. ANITA BLAKE continues to sell remarkably well, especially for a DBPro book.

63. GHOST RIDER FINALE
01/07 Finale – 29,841

This is the notorious lost issue of the 1990s GHOST RIDER series, which was cancelled due to Marvel’s bankruptcy. It’s a surprisingly good number, considering that not many people were reading the book at the time.

67. IRON MAN: HYPERVELOCITY
01/07 #1 of 6 – 28,630

A modest debut for Adam Warren’s Iron Man miniseries. This may not be the ideal time to launch a basically straight take on the character.

69. SHE-HULK
01/05 #11 – 23,235
=====
01/06 #4 – 28,214 ( -4.1%)
02/06 #5 – 27,183 ( -3.7%)
03/06 #6 – 26,631 ( -2.0%)
04/06 —
05/06 #7 – 26,561 ( -0.3%)
05/06 #8 – 58,053 (+118.6%)
06/06 —
07/06 #9 – 29,902 ( -48.5%)
08/06 #10 – 28,555 ( -4.5%)
08/06 #11 – 27,393 ( -4.1%)
09/06 #12 – 26,448 ( -3.4%)
10/06 —
11/06 #13 – 26,267 ( -0.7%)
12/06 #14 – 24,552 ( -6.5%)
01/07 #15 – 27,600 ( +12.4%)
6 mnth ( -7.7%)
1 year ( -2.2%)
2 year ( +18.8%)

A bump for the first issue of “Planet Without A Hulk.”

71. HEROES FOR HIRE
08/06 #1 – 84,006
09/06 #2 – 66,949 (-20.3%)
10/06 #3 – 60,770 ( -9.2%)
11/06 #4 – 38,070 (-37.4%)
12/06 #5 – 31,318 (-17.7%)
01/07 #6 – 27,513 (-12.1%)

Disastrous. Launching in CIVIL WAR is no guarantee of success.

73. CABLE & DEADPOOL
01/05 #11 – 25,844
=====
01/06 #24 – 23,542 ( +1.1%)
02/06 #25 – 22,918 ( -2.7%)
03/06 #26 – 25,584 ( +11.6%)
04/06 #27 – 26,153 ( +2.2%)
05/06 #28 – 25,665 ( -1.9%)
06/06 #29 – 25,368 ( -1.2%)
07/06 #30 – 59,333 (+133.9%)
08/06 #31 – 59,804 ( +0.8%)
09/06 #32 – 60,177 ( +0.6%)
10/06 #33 – 30,741 ( -48.9%)
11/06 #34 – 29,144 ( -5.2%)
12/06 #35 – 27,785 ( -4.7%)
01/07 #36 – 26,803 ( -3.5%)
6 mnth ( -54.8%)
1 year ( +13.9%)
2 year ( +3.7%)

Still in its normal range as the CIVIL WAR boost wears off.

74. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
09/06 #1 of 8 – 39,859
10/06 #2 of 8 – 33,688 (-15.5%)
11/06 #3 of 8 – 30,805 ( -8.6%)
12/06 #4 of 8 – 28,455 ( -7.6%)
01/07 #5 of 8 – 26,607 ( -6.5%)

Perfectly decent numbers for a past-continuity miniseries.

76. ULTIMATE CIVIL WAR SPIDER-HAM
01/07 One-Shot – 26,245

I’d say that’s a pretty good number for a novelty product. It’s arguable that Marvel might have expected more from J Michael Straczynski’s name.

77. DOCTOR STRANGE: OATH
10/06 #1 of 5 – 40,280
11/06 #2 of 5 – 29,824 (-26.0%)
12/06 #3 of 5 – 27,046 ( -9.3%)
01/07 #4 of 5 – 26,179 ( -3.2%)

Levelling out nicely.

80. MS MARVEL SPECIAL
01/07 Special – 25,353

A very curious product, which is pretty much indistinguishable from a normal issue of MS MARVEL. And that begs the question – why not just run it as an issue of MS MARVEL, which sells around 7,000 copies more? It’s hard to see what Marvel thought they were achieving with this format decision.

81. RUNAWAYS
01/04 #10 – 20,108
01/05 —
=====
01/06 #12 – 24,989 ( -1.1%)
02/06 #13 – 24,313 ( -2.7%)
03/06 #14 – 24,536 ( +0.9%)
04/06 #15 – 24,046 ( -2.0%)
05/06 #16 – 23,842 ( -0.8%)
06/06 #17 – 23,654 ( -0.8%)
07/06 #18 – 24,678 ( +4.3%)
08/06 #19 – 25,042 ( +1.5%)
09/06 #20 – 23,561 ( -5.9%)
10/06 #21 – 25,553 ( +8.5%)
11/06 #22 – 25,908 ( +1.4%)
12/06 —
01/07 #23 – 25,346 ( -2.2%)
6 mnth ( +2.7%)
1 year ( +1.4%)
2 year ( — )
3 year (+26.0%)

Selling steadily, and Joss Whedon’s six-issue run is just around the corner.

90. AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL
01/02 #43 – 23,076
01/03 #55 – 23,564
01/04 #69 – 20,384
01/05 #82 – 20,005
=====
01/06 #94 – 17,148 ( +0.5%)
02/06 #95 – 16,778 ( -2.2%)
03/06 #96 – 16,739 ( -0.2%)
04/06 #97 – 17,508 ( +4.6%)
05/06 #98 – 17,738 ( +1.3%)
06/06 #99 – 17,915 ( +1.0%)
07/06 #100 – 22,691 ( +26.7%)
08/06 —-
09/06 —-
10/06 #1 – 47,304 (+108.5%)
11/06 #2 – 28,135 ( -40.5%)
12/06 #3 – 25,645 ( -8.9%)
01/07 #4 – 23,113 ( -9.9%)
6 mnth ( +1.9%)
1 year ( +34.8%)
2 year ( +15.5%)
3 year ( +13.4%)

Still finding its level again. The prospect of the book ending up back where it was before the relaunch within another three or four issues is starting to look like a real possibility.

98. AVENGERS: EARTH’S MIGHTIEST HEROES II
11/06 #1 of 8 – 35,032
11/06 #2 of 8 – 31,871 ( -9.0%)
12/06 #3 of 8 – 27,015 (-15.2%)
12/06 #4 of 8 – 25,622 ( -5.2%)
01/07 #5 of 8 – 22,409 (-12.5%)

Not great numbers, but when you consider that it’s a historical series about the Silver Age, and that the similar FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST FAMILY debuted at 26K before sinking to 16K, it’s actually selling respectably.

100. MYTHOS
01/06 X-Men – 30,364
08/06 Hulk – 20,214 (-33.4%)
01/07 Ghost Rider – 22,163 ( +9.7%)

The occasional series of MYTHOS origin one-shots continues with Ghost Rider, presumably in anticipation of the movie release. I’m a little surprised to see him outselling the Hulk.

102. POWERS [Icon]
01/02 #18 – 26,886
01/03 #28 – 26,109
01/04 #36 – 25,433
01/05 #8 – 29,438
=====
01/06 —
02/06 #16 – 24,924 ( -2.8%)
03/06 #17 – 24,139 ( -3.1%)
04/06 —
05/06 #18 – 23,617 ( -2.2%)
06/06 —
07/06 #19 – 23,156 ( -1.9%)
08/06 —
09/06 —
10/06 #20 – 22,943 ( -0.9%)
11/06 #21 – 22,134 ( -3.5%)
12/06 —
01/07 #22 – 22,018 ( -0.5%)
6 mnth ( -4.9%)
1 year (-11.7%)
2 year (-25.2%)
3 year (-13.4%)

A very solid seller, especially for an Icon book.

104. BULLET POINTS
11/06 #1 of 5 – 33,503
12/06 #2 of 5 – 25,184 (-24.8%)
01/07 #3 of 5 – 21,721 (-13.8%)

A rather steep drop for the third issue.

117,196. MARVEL SPOTLIGHT
01/06 Ellis/Cheung – 6,843 ( -29.9%)
02/06 Whedon/Lark – 5,947 ( -13.1%)
03/06 Finch/Sacasa – 4,146 ( -30.3%)
04/06 Way/Coipel – 3,309 ( -20.2%)
05/06 —
06/06 Millar/McNiven – 7,668 (+131.7%)
06/06 Gaiman/Larroca – 5,449 ( -28.9%)
07/06 Kirkman/Land – 3,963 ( -27.3%)
08/06 Brubaker/Tan – 3,580 ( -9.7%)
09/06 Lee/Kirby – 6,313 ( +76.3%)
10/06 Onslaught Reborn – 4,557 ( -27.8%)
11/06 Bendis/Bagley – 5,869 ( +28.8%)
12/06 —
01/07 Ghost Rider – 7,902 ( +34.6%)
01/07 Dark Tower – 18,922 (+139.5%)
6 mnth (+377.5%)
1 year (+176.5%)

Retailers must have faith in DARK TOWER – nothing else has made anything like this sort of impact on the sales of MARVEL SPOTLIGHT.

125. IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN
10/06 #1 – 29,499
11/06 #2 – 23,191 (-21.4%)
12/06 #3 – 19,580 (-15.6%)
01/07 #4 – 17,864 ( -8.8%)

The lowest selling Marvel Universe ongoing title, and surely not long for this world.

128. OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE
01/05 Women – 20,837
=====
01/06 #1 of 12 – 23,423 (+12.6%)
02/06 #2 of 12 – 21,828 ( -6.8%)
03/06 #3 of 12 – 21,681 ( -0.7%)
04/06 #4 of 12 – 21,531 ( -0.7%)
05/06 #5 of 12 – 21,331 ( -0.9%)
06/06 #6 of 12 – 20,731 ( -2.8%)
07/06 #7 of 12 – 20,124 ( -2.9%)
08/06 #8 of 12 – 19,926 ( -1.0%)
09/06 #9 of 12 – 18,966 ( -4.8%)
10/06 #10 of 12 – 18,767 ( -1.0%)
11/06 #11 of 12 – 18,285 ( -2.6%)
12/06 #12 of 12 – 21,183 (+15.8%)
01/07 Update #1 – 17,182 (-18.9%)
6 mnth (-14.6%)
1 year (-26.7%)
2 year (-17.5%)

Bizarrely, issue #12 of the 2006 series picks up 3,357 re-orders. It seems people really like the letter Z. 2007 sees a mixture of quarterly update issues and themed books, and for the moment we’re back in the normal range.

129. AVENGERS NEXT
11/06 #1 of 5 – 24,521
11/06 #2 of 5 – 20,842 (-15.0%)
12/06 #3 of 5 – 19,496 ( -6.5%)
12/06 #4 of 5 – 18,157 ( -6.9%)
01/07 #5 of 5 – 17,045 ( -6.1%)

Considering that it’s a SPIDER-GIRL spin-off miniseries, and that the parent book used to sell around 17K before its recent relaunch, I’d say these were very good numbers.

130. CRIMINAL [Icon]
10/06 #1 – 25,978
11/06 #2 – 21,115 (-18.7%)
12/06 #3 – 17,702 (-16.2%)
01/07 #4 – 16,827 ( -4.9%)

Levelling out, and doing perfectly well for an Icon book.

And now – low-selling miniseries!

134. WHITE TIGER
11/06 #1 of 6 – 24,663
12/06 #2 of 6 – 19,042 (-22.3%)
01/07 #3 of 6 – 15,986 (-16.0%)

138. WONDER MAN
12/06 #1 of 5 – 22,282
01/07 #2 of 5 – 15,645 (-29.8%)

142. WISDOM [Max]
11/06 #1 of 6 – 20,021
12/06 —
01/07 #2 of 6 – 14,855 (-25.8%)

152. HELLSTORM, SON OF SATAN [Max]
10/06 #1 of 5 – 27,045
11/06 #2 of 5 – 17,398 (-35.7%)
12/06 #3 of 5 – 14,593 (-16.1%)
01/07 #4 of 5 – 13,289 ( -8.9%)

158. AGENTS OF ATLAS
08/06 #1 of 6 – 19,292
09/06 #2 of 6 – 14,416 (-25.3%)
10/06 #3 of 6 – 12,929 (-10.3%)
11/06 #4 of 6 – 12,388 ( -4.2%)
12/06 #5 of 6 – 11,853 ( -4.3%)
01/07 #6 of 6 – 11,803 ( -0.4%)

What can you say about these, really, other than “ouch”? Sales on WONDER MAN and WISDOM are particularly disappointing, since one is by Peter David and the other is an X-book. But the support doesn’t seem to be there.

166. KABUKI [Icon]
01/06 —
02/06 #6 – 11,349 ( -0.6%)
03/06 —
04/06 —
05/06 —
06/06 —
07/06 —
08/06 #7 – 10,798 ( -4.9%)
09/06 —
10/06 —
11/06 —
12/06 —
01/07 #8 – 9,961 ( -7.8%)
6 mnth ( -7.8%)

Off in its own little creator-owned world, and no doubt it’s very happy there.

201. MARVEL ADVENTURES AVENGERS [All ages]
05/06 #1 – 13,891
06/06 #2 – 9,359 (-32.7%)
07/06 #3 – 9,006 ( -3.8%)
08/06 #4 – 8,610 ( -4.4%)
09/06 #5 – 7,994 ( -7.2%)
10/06 #6 – 7,879 ( -1.4%)
11/06 #7 – 7,642 ( -3.0%)
12/06 #8 – 7,512 ( -1.7%)
01/07 #9 – 7,315 ( -2.6%)
6 mnth (-18.8%)

The first of the all ages books. As usual, the direct market sales are pretty much meaningless because they’re doing most of their business elsewhere. (Exactly where is a bit of a mystery, because the digests don’t register significant sales in the Bookscan charts that track the major US bookstores. But they’ve got to be selling somewhere.)

202. MAGICIAN: APPRENTICE [DBPro]
10/06 #1-2 of 12 – 1,892
11/06 #3 of 12 – 4,595 (+142.9%)
12/06 #4 of 12 – 7,266 ( +58.1%)
01/07 #5 of 12 – 7,206 ( -0.8%)

The DBPro books seem to have more or less found their level this month. It’s a definite improvement since joining Marvel, though.

217. SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE [All ages]
01/06 #2 – 8,590 (-23.1%)
02/06 #3 – 7,648 (-11.0%)
03/06 #4 – 7,672 ( +0.3%)
04/06 #5 – 7,165 ( -6.6%)
05/06 #6 – 7,069 ( -1.3%)
06/06 #7 – 6,834 ( -3.3%)
07/06 #8 – 6,769 ( -1.0%)
08/06 #9 – 6,719 ( -0.7%)
09/06 #10 – 6,623 ( -1.4%)
10/06 #11 – 6,586 ( -0.6%)
11/06 #12 – 6,520 ( -1.0%)
12/06 #13 – 6,311 ( -3.2%)
01/07 #14 – 6,329 ( +0.3%)
6 mnth ( -6.5%)
1 year (-26.3%)

220. MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN [All ages]
01/06 #11 – 6,107 ( -4.4%)
02/06 #12 – 6,087 ( -0.3%)
03/06 #13 – 5,899 ( -3.1%)
04/06 #14 – 5,970 ( +1.2%)
05/06 #15 – 6,165 ( +3.3%)
06/06 #16 – 6,114 ( -0.8%)
07/06 #17 – 6,133 ( +0.3%)
08/06 #18 – 6,220 ( +1.4%)
09/06 #19 – 6,057 ( -2.6%)
10/06 #20 – 6,131 ( +1.2%)
11/06 #21 – 6,529 ( +6.5%)
12/06 #22 – 6,396 ( -2.0%)
01/07 #23 – 6,271 ( -2.0%)
6 mnth ( +2.3%)
1 year ( +2.7%)

More all ages titles.

222. JACK KIRBY’S GALACTIC BOUNTY HUNTERS [Icon]
07/06 #1 – 13,514
08/06 #2 – 9,301 (-31.2%)
09/06 —
10/06 #3 – 7,716 (-17.0%)
11/06 —
12/06 —
01/07 #4 – 6,010 (-22.1%)
6 mnth (-55.5%)

Surely this can’t be around for much longer.

224. SPIDER-MAN & POWER PACK [All ages]
11/06 #1 of 4 – 7,897
12/06 #2 of 4 – 6,350 (-19.6%)
01/07 #3 of 4 – 5,880 ( -7.4%)

247. RED PROPHET: TALES OF ALVIN MAKER [DBPro]
10/06 #1-2 of 12 – 1,617
11/06 #3 of 12 – < 3,170 ( ?.?%)
12/06 #4 of 12 - 5,034 ( +?.?%)
01/07 #5 of 12 - 4,480 (-11.0%)

248. MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR [All ages]
01/06 #8 - 4,834 ( -4.4%)
02/06 #9 - 4,711 ( -2.5%)
03/06 #10 - 4,663 ( -1.0%)
04/06 #11 - 4,526 ( -2.9%)
05/06 #12 - 4,836 ( +6.8%)
06/06 #13 - 4,752 ( -1.7%)
07/06 #14 - 4,668 ( -1.8%)
08/06 #15 - 4,569 ( -2.1%)
09/06 #16 - 4,687 ( +2.6%)
10/06 #17 - 4,557 ( -2.8%)
11/06 #18 - 4,614 ( +1.3%)
12/06 #19 - 4,533 ( -1.8%)
01/07 #20 - 4,459 ( -1.6%)
6 mnth ( -4.5%)
1 year ( -7.8%)

251. PTOLUS: CITY BY THE SPIRE [DBPro]
10/06 #1 of 6 - 1,873
11/05 #2 of 6 - < 3,170 ( ?.?%)
12/06 #3 of 6 - 5,796 ( +?.?%)
01/07 #4 of 6 - 4,379 (-24.4%)

Assorted DBPro and all ages books. PTOLUS #3 picks up 2,610 in re-orders, which is curious considering that it's a huge proportion of the total direct market sales.

276. DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER BORN
01/07 #1 of 7 - 3,067

Erm... huh.

This seems to be a chart glitch, since DARK TOWER #1 didn't reach the stores until February. These are copies ordered for the midnight launch, but that was on Tuesday 6th. However, they did appear on the shipping list for the preceding week, presumably because that was the last regular shipment. And that was Wednesday 31st January. So those issues have somehow ended up on the January chart, even though they didn't actually reach the stores until the next month.

This can't possibly be the total order for the midnight launch, because there were 150 participating stores, and there's no way they ordered an average of 20 copies each. And no way are ICV2 (and CBGXtra) getting their estimates that far off. It seems more likely that Diamond have just screwed up and allowed some of the midnight sales to leak onto the January chart, when they shouldn't really be there.

Skip months
===========

NEW AVENGERS
01/02 #50 - 56,009
01/03 #63 - 55,447
01/04 ---
01/05 #2 - 153,751
=====
01/06 #15 - 124,143 ( -1.9%)
02/06 #16 - 124,256 ( +0.1%)
03/06 #17 - 122,847 ( -1.1%)
04/06 #18 - 121,550 ( -1.1%)
05/06 #19 - 125,223 ( +3.0%)
06/06 #20 - 125,600 ( +0.3%)
06/06 #21 - 154,911 ( +23.4%)
07/06 #22 - 143,391 ( -7.4%)
08/06 #23 - 155,550 ( +8.5%)
09/06 ---
10/06 #24 - 136,811 ( -12.0%)
11/06 #25 - 136,504 ( -0.2%)
12/06 #26 - 122,670 ( -10.1%)
01/06 ---

Waiting for CIVIL WAR to end.

ASTONISHING X-MEN
01/06 ---
02/06 #13 - 148,244 (+10.1%)
03/06 ---
04/06 #14 - 124,129 (-16.3%)
05/06 ---
06/06 #15 - 119,991 ( -3.3%)
07/06 ---
08/06 #16 - 121,897 ( +1.6%)
09/06 #17 - 124,026 ( +1.7%)
10/06 ---
11/06 #18 - 118,285 ( -4.6%)
12/06 #19 - 124,033 ( +4.9%)
01/07 ---

Running late. Issue #19 picks up 2,733 reorders.

NEW AVENGERS: ILLUMINATI
12/06 #1 of 5 - 106,381
01/07 ---

Late. Issue #1 sells another 2,429.

ULTIMATES
01/02 #1 - 149,289
01/03 ---
01/04 ---
01/05 #2 - 113,379
=====
01/06 ---
02/06 ---
03/06 #10 - 94,900 ( +0.4%)
04/06 ---
05/06 ---
06/06 #11 - 96,751 ( +2.0%)
07/06 ---
08/06 ---
09/06 #12 - 99,538 ( +2.9%)
10/06 ---
11/06 ---
12/06 ---
01/07 ---

Late.

CAPTAIN AMERICA
01/03 #8 - 54,955
01/04 #22 - 41,266
01/05 #2 - 53,306
=====
01/05 ---
02/06 #14 - 44,041 ( -0.2%)
02/06 #15 - 43,350 ( -1.6%)
03/06 #16 - 44,717 ( +3.2%)
04/06 #17 - 45,541 ( +1.8%)
05/06 #18 - 46,740 ( +2.6%)
06/06 #19 - 47,315 ( +1.2%)
07/06 #20 - 47,357 ( +0.1%)
08/06 ---
09/06 #21 - 49,050 ( +3.6%)
09/06 #22 - 86,875 (+77.1%)
10/06 #23 - 81,323 ( -6.4%)
11/06 #24 - 82,348 ( +1.3%)
12/06 ---
01/07 ---

Late, awaiting the end of CIVIL WAR.

IRON MAN
01/02 #50 - 43,097
01/03 #64 - 41,306
01/04 #76 - 30,197
01/05 ---
=====
01/06 #5 - 45,243 ( -6.5%)
02/06 ---
03/06 #6 - 40,264 ( -11.0%)
04/06 #7 - 49,404 ( +22.7%)
05/06 #8 - 38,860 ( -21.3%)
06/06 #9 - 37,650 ( -3.1%)
07/06 #10 - 38,102 ( +1.2%)
08/06 #11 - 37,279 ( -2.2%)
09/06 #12 - 36,278 ( -2.7%)
10/06 ---
11/06 #13 - 76,800 (+111.7%)
12/06 #14 - 73,388 ( -4.4%)
01/07 ---

Late, and waiting for CIVIL WAR.

ULTIMATE POWER
10/06 #1 of 9 - 113,823
11/06 #2 of 9 - 76,654 (-32.7%)
12/06 #3 of 9 - 70,148 ( -8.5%)
01/07 ---

Just late. The Director's Cut edition of issue #1 sells another 11,136 copies.

ONSLAUGHT REBORN
11/06 #1 of 5 - 82,642
12/06 #2 of 5 - 55,111 (-33.3%)
01/07 ---

Late. Issue #2 sells another 2,204 copies.

X-MEN: PHOENIX - WARSONG
09/06 #1 of 5 - 73,503
10/06 #2 of 5 - 54,727 (-25.5%)
11/06 #3 of 5 - 50,222 ( -8.2%)
12/06 #4 of 5 - 46,942 ( -6.5%)
01/07 ---

Late.

IMMORTAL IRON FIST
11/06 #1 - 49,816
12/06 #2 - 33,219 (-33.3%)
01/07 ---

Late. Issue #1 picks up re-orders of 9,120 - although strangely, Marvel aren't making any more copies of issue #2 available, so some 16,000 readers will miss the second part of the story. No doubt this makes perfect sense to someone.

NEXTWAVE: AGENTS OF H.A.T.E.
01/06 #1 - 41,041
02/06 ---
03/06 #2 - 29,911 (-27.1%)
03/06 #3 - 27,126 ( -9.3%)
04/06 #4 - 26,728 ( -1.5%)
05/06 #5 - 30,818 (+15.3%)
06/06 #6 - 24,626 (-20.1%)
07/06 ---
08/06 #7 - 24,245 ( -1.5%)
09/06 #8 - 23,059 ( -4.9%)
10/06 #9 - 22,357 ( -3.0%)
11/06 #10 - 21,644 ( -3.2%)
12/06 #11 - 22,259 ( +2.8%)
01/07 ---

Late, and axed with issue #12.

MARVEL 1602: FANTASTICK FOUR
09/06 #1 of 5 - 31,784
10/06 #2 of 5 - 26,702 (-16.0%)
11/06 #3 of 5 - 23,295 (-12.8%)
12/06 #4 of 5 - 21,389 (
01/07 ---

Late.

6 month comparisons
===================

+377.5% - Marvel Spotlight
+ 41.1% - Ultimate Spider-Man
+ 13.4% - Moon Knight
+ 3.8% - X-Men
+ 3.7% - Wolverine
+ 2.7% - Runaways
+ 2.3% - Marvel Adventures Spider-Man
+ 1.9% - Spider-Girl
+ 1.7% - Thunderbolts
- 3.2% - Punisher
- 3.9% - Exiles
- 4.5% - Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four
- 4.6% - Hulk
- 4.9% - Powers
- 5.9% - Ultimate X-Men
- 6.0% - Fantastic Four
- 6.3% - New X-Men
- 6.5% - Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
- 7.7% - She-Hulk
- 7.8% - Kabuki
- 8.6% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 9.0% - Uncanny X-Men
- 9.4% - Daredevil
- 10.8% - Civil War: Front Line
- 11.6% - Wolverine: Origins
- 14.5% - Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
- 14.6% - Official Handbook
- 15.5% - New Excalibur
- 16.9% - Ms Marvel
- 17.5% - Black Panther
- 18.8% - Marvel Adventures Avengers
- 19.7% - Sensational Spider-Man
- 21.2% - Eternals
- 22.8% - Civil War
- 37.4% - Ultimate Fantastic Four
- 43.8% - X-Factor
- 54.8% - Cable & Deadpool
- 55.5% - Jack Kirby's Galactic Bounty Hunters
- 55.9% - Ghost Rider

1 year comparisons
==================

+177.4% - Thunderbolts
+176.5% - Marvel Spotlight
+106.6% - Black Panther
+ 89.2% - Fantastic Four
+ 56.6% - Wolverine
+ 50.2% - Ultimate Spider-Man
+ 34.8% - Spider-Girl
+ 30.5% - Hulk
+ 17.4% - Amazing Spider-Man
+ 13.9% - Cable & Deadpool
+ 6.5% - Daredevil
+ 5.1% - Uncanny X-Men
+ 3.8% - X-Men
+ 2.7% - Marvel Adventures Spider-Man
+ 1.4% - Runaways
- 2.2% - She-Hulk
- 4.9% - Punisher
- 5.6% - Exiles
- 7.8% - Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four
- 9.9% - Ultimate X-Men
- 11.7% - Powers
- 13.2% - New X-Men
- 19.9% - X-Factor
- 22.2% - Ultimate Fantastic Four
- 23.5% - Ghost Rider
- 26.3% - Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
- 26.7% - Official Handbook
- 34.7% - New Excalibur
- 37.3% - Sensational Spider-Man
- 46.8% - Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man

2 year comparisons
==================

+104.8% - Thunderbolts
+ 82.0% - Fantastic Four
+ 44.8% - Wolverine
+ 43.8% - Amazing Spider-Man
+ 28.7% - Ultimate Spider-Man
+ 18.8% - She-Hulk
+ 15.5% - Spider-Girl
+ 3.7% - Cable & Deadpool
- 0.5% - Hulk
- 1.7% - Exiles
- 3.3% - Daredevil
- 4.1% - Uncanny X-Men
- 7.2% - New X-Men
- 10.5% - X-Men
- 16.1% - Punisher
- 17.5% - Official Handbook
- 24.0% - Sensational Spider-Man
- 24.1% - Ultimate X-Men
- 25.2% - Powers
- 29.0% - Ultimate Fantastic Four

3 year comparisons
==================

+67.8% - Fantastic Four
+62.0% - Wolverine
+31.4% - Amazing Spider-Man
+26.0% - Runaways
+13.4% - Spider-Girl
+12.8% - Ultimate Spider-Man
- 4.2% - Hulk
- 6.7% - Uncanny X-Men
-13.4% - Powers
-15.2% - Exiles
-16.4% - Daredevil
-33.3% - Ultimate X-Men
-34.9% - X-Men
-41.4% - Punisher
-58.3% - Ultimate Fantastic Four