by Xavier Lancel
Welcome to a new analysis of the Marvel sales. Reminder: I’m French, that’s why I’m talking funny. Please address your complaints to my “come on, that Valerian movie wasn’t that bad” country. For any information about the French magazine on US comics I’m editing, please send me a message using my e-mail adress from any of my own commentaries
Another month and another nail on the coffin that Marvel is building for itself. Variant covers are responsible month after month for a bigger and bigger portion of Marvel’s profit on floppies, as another race of customers, called readers, are becoming extinct. But who really cares about those weird people who actually open the floppies and READ what’s inside?! What weird behavior!
Marvel probably asked themselves “What could we do to piss off our variant cover customers?” Hm, let’s see. Why not feature a variant program that will attract attention but, at the same time, will reveal with no doubt that, frankly, they do not care about them? That’s tricky. Who’s one of the biggest stars ever, with a connection to the 90’s, where Marvel is taking all its fantastic marketing strategies from–because it was such a fantastic area, right? Jim Lee of course! Now, the trick is to have variant covers done by Jim Lee but actually using art material already owned by Marvel. Why not use something that will blatantly say “Hey, we can put anything on a cover connected to a trend of someone famous, you will buy it, no matter what?”. So let’s use art made for a set of X-Men trading cards in the beginning of the 90’s by Jim Lee, enlarge it, and use it as 29 variant covers on titles with no relation to the X-Men!
Art not originally done for a cover, enlarged, certainly people will understand we are making fun of them, right? Hm, to be sure, let’s change some of the backgrounds on those cards and instead let’s put some hideous Photoshop backgrounds, you know, ones with sunsets, clouds, the ones your old aunt uses every time she wants to post pictures of you as a child on Facebook, to make you look even cuter!
“With such an ambitious variant program, we are ready for success!” If I were Jim Lee, I wouldn’t be that thrilled that my old art from 28 years ago would be enlarge to be used as a cover, which it wasn’t conceived for. That’s the latest bright idea from the House of Dumb Ideas. The result is a spike in sales, and that’s all that matter for Marvel so let’s congratulate them on such a clever move. The future? Who cares! Go and do your thing, you know, opening the floppy and reading or whatever you call it!”
Reminder: those sales are estimates, sales to comics shops located in North America. American comics do get sold somewhere else in their original floppy edition. Keep also in mind that just because a copy is sold to a doesn’t mean it’s sold to a customer. This would be way too easy. Digital sales are not taken into account.
Many thanks to Milton Griepp and ICv2.com for the permission to use their figures. Also thanks to the Comics Zone shop in Lyon (my city in France!) for its help.
2- ASTONISHING X-MEN ($5) 07/17 Astonishing X-Men #1 - 122,287
Two members with guns, one with sharp claws, another with a sword, and one with sharp wings. If it’s not the 90’s, that’s a nice recreation of that area! Adding a third X-Men core series will probably mix the simple message the Blue and Gold series were trying to send. We will soon be back where we started, with lots of X-Men team books and nothing to differentiate one from the other.
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6- SECRET EMPIRE LTD 04/17 Secret Empire #0 - 168,751 05/17 Secret Empire # 1 - 157,517 (- 6.7%) 05/17 Secret Empire # 2 - 100,983 (-35.9%) 05/17 Secret Empire # 3 - 91,611 (- 9.3%) 06/17 Secret Empire # 4 - 91,621 (+ 0.0%) 06/17 Secret Empire # 5 - 87,675 (- 4.3%) 07/17 Secret Empire # 6 - 85,887 (- 2.0%) 07/17 Secret Empire # 7 - 81,365 (- 5.3%)
This is sprobably the new sales level for this kind of thing. 100K will from now on be very difficult to crack outside of fake #1 sales numbers.
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7- STAR WARS 01/15 Star Wars #1 - 1,070,137 02/15 Star Wars #2 - 212,089 (-80.0%) 03/15 Star Wars #3 - 175,579 (-17.2%) 04/15 Star Wars #4 - 203,817 (+16.1%) 05/15 Star Wars #5 - 146,850 (-27.9%) 06/15 Star Wars #6 - 152,652 (+ 4.0%) 07/15 Star Wars #7 - 160,000 (+ 1.0%) 08/15 Star Wars #8 - 151,221 (- 5.5%) 09/15 Star Wars #9 - 135,817 (-10.2%) 10/15 Star Wars#10 - 134,613 (- 0.9%) 11/15 Star Wars#11 - 126,780 (- 5.8%) 11/15 Star Wars#12 - 123,133 (- 2.9%) 12/15 Star Wars#13 - 139,918 (+13.6%) (Vader Down) 01/16 Star Wars#14 - 118,471 (- 15.3%) 01/16 Star Wars#15 - 107,858 (- 9.0%) 02/16 Star Wars#16- 110,407 (+ 2.4%) 03/16 Star Wars#17- 107,058 (- 3.0%) 04/16 Star Wars#18- 98,880 (- 7.6%) 05/16 Star Wars#19- 95,156 (- 3.8%) 06/16 Star Wars#20- 96,047 (+ 0.9%) 07/16 Star Wars#21- 90,863 (- 5.4%) 08/16 Star Wars#22- 85,126 (- 6.3%) 09/16 Star Wars#23- 82,570 (- 3.0%) 10/16 Star Wars#24- 78,160 (- 5.3%) 11/16 Star Wars#25- 75,234 (- 3.7%) 12/16 Star Wars#26- 104,563 (+39.0%) 01/17 Star Wars#27- 72,331 (- 30.8%) 02/17 Star Wars#28- 74,002 (+ 2.3%) 03/17 Star Wars#29 - 72,017 (- 2.7%) 04/17 Star Wars#30- 70,175 (- 2.6%) 05/17 Star Wars#31- 70,907 (+ 1.0%) (SC) 06/17 Star Wars#32- 70,184 (- 1.0%) (SC) 07/17 Star Wars#33- 74,969 (+ 6.8%) Since issue #2: -64.7% STAR WARS TPB VOL.1: 42,008 STAR WARS TPB VOL.2: 11,678 STAR WARS TPB VOL.3: 6,689 STAR WARS TPB VOL.4: 4,907
STAR WARS TPB VOL.5: 4,569
Steadiness of the floppy, supported by two variant covers. If none of the TPB appear this month in the top 300, the new volume has sales very close to the previous volume, which is an excellent level.
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8- 31- DEADPOOL KILLS MARVEL UNIVERSE AGAIN LTD 07/17 Deadpool Kills MU Again Ltd #1 - 74,006 07/17 Deadpool Kills MU Again Ltd #2 - 42,326
This has been the most successful Marvel Deadpool mini-series ever, selling every month in trade paperback, for the last 4 years. So you can’t blame Marvel for going back to it. And already, those floppy numbers for a Deadpool mini are better than usual.
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10- SPIDER-MEN 2 LTD 07/17 Spider-Men 2 Ltd #1 - 67,362
Because it’s already not complicated enough, let’s ask ourselves who the second Miles Morales (the one born in the new old Marvel Universe) really is. We only need a Miles Morales clone and this will be it!
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12- DARTH VADER 02/15 Darth Vader #1 - 304,373 02/15 Darth Vader #2 - 125,466 (-58.8%) …... 08/16 Darth Vader#24- 75,401 (- 2.6%) 09/16 --- 10/16 Darth Vader#25- 111,381 (+47.7%) …..... 06/17 Darth Vader #1 - 118,644 ($5) 06/17 Darth Vader #2 - 66,416 (-44.0%) 07/17 Darth Vader #3 - 59,522 (-10.4%) DARTH VADER TPB VOL.1: 41,991 [+689] DARTH VADER TPB VOL.2: 20,620 [+343] DARTH VADER TPB VOL.3: 12,677 DARTH VADER TPB VOL.4: 10,437
Those relaunch numbers are very disappointing. It would have been better to not stop the previous volume. We are way below issue #24 of it. TPB sales are still monstrous so don’t expect this one to be cancelled no matter what.
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13- DARTH MAUL LTD 02/17 Darth Maul # 1 of 5 - 105,177 03/17 Darth Maul # 2 of 5 - 60,415 (-42.6%) 04/17 Darth Maul # 3 of 5 - 54,949 (- 9.0%) 05/17 --- 06/17 Darth Maul # 4 of 5 - 58,240 (+6.0%) 07/17 Darth Maul # 5 of 5 - 57,805 (- 0.7%)
”Darth” is the new magic adjective!
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14- AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 04/14 Amazing v3 #1 - 532,586 ( 293.1%) 05/14 Amazing v3 #2 - 123,945 ( -76.7%) ... 04/15 Amazing v3 #17 - 99,964 ( +8.3%) 05/15 Amazing v3 #18 - 88,338 (-11.6%) ... 10/15 Amazing Spider-Man #1 - 265,073 10/15 Amazing Spider-Man #2 - 111,322 (-58.0%) 11/15 Amazing Spider-Man #3 - 93,848 (-15.7%) 12/15 Amazing Spider-Man #4 - 82,066 (-22.6%) 12/15 Amazing Spider-Man #5 - 79,122 (- 3.6%) 01/16 Amazing Spider-Man #6 - 76,517 (- 3.3%) 02/16 Amazing Spider-Man #7 - 75,357 (- 1.5%) 02/16 Amazing Spider-Man #8 - 71,599 (- 5.0%) 03/16 Amazing Spider-Man #9 - 88,164 (+23.1%) 04/16 Amazing Spider-Man#10 - 73,643 (- 16.5%) 04/16 Amazing Spider-Man#11 - 67,446 (- 8.4%) 05/16 Amazing Spider-Man#12 - 74,963 (+11.1%) 06/16 Amazing Spider-Man#13 - 65,519 (-12.6%) 06/16 Amazing Spider-Man#14 - 65,646 (+ 0.2%) 07/16 Amazing Spider-Man#15 - 93,582 (+42.6%) 08/16 Amazing Spider-Man#16 - 185,342 (+98.1%) 08/16 Amazing Spider-Man#17 - 74,869 (-59.6%) 09/16 Amazing Spider-Man#18 - 71,159 (- 5.0%) 10/16 Amazing Spider-Man#19 - 73,215 (+ 2.9%) 10/16 Amazing Spider-Man#20 - 67,530 (- 7.8%) (CC) 11/16 Amazing Spider-Man#21 - 63,052 (- 6.4%) (CC) 12/16 Amazing Spider-Man#22 - 63,359 (+ 0.5%) (CC) 01/17 Amazing Spider-Man#23 - 73,773 (+16.4%) (CC) 02/17 Amazing Spider-Man#24- 61,953 (-16.0%) (CC) 03/17 Amazing Spider-Man#25- 113,934 (+83.9%) ($10!) 04/17 Amazing Spider-Man#26- 62,515 (-54.9%) 05/17 Amazing Spider-Man#27- 51,404 (-17.8%) 06/17 Amazing Spider-Man#28- 50.925 (+ 0.9%) 06/17 Amazing Spider-Man#29- 59,464 (+16.8%) (SE) 07/17 Amazing Spider-Man#30- 56,560 (- 4.9%) (SE) Since #2: -49.2%
With a Jim Lee Bishop variant cover because….well those variant covers customers would pay for anything! Even with the current Marvel sales crisis, Amazing manages to still sell at very good levels, even if it’s not Batman’s. But, currently, that’s as close to it as Marvel can do.
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17- 246- PETER PARKER SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN 06/17 PP Spectacular Spider-Man #1 - 231,566 [+6,946] 07/17 PP Spectacular Spider-Man #2 - 54,247 (-76.6%)
That was quick. Amazing will remain the main Spider-Man title. There is a Jim Lee variant, it’s issue #2, so my guess is it will fall very quickly below 40K. That’s probably not what Marvel was expecting. Issue #1 has reorder activity, which is kind of frightening seeing that there are almost 5 times more #1 in US shops than #2. Guess which comics will fill the $1 dollar bins in the following weeks?
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20- 28- X-MEN GOLD 04/17 X-Men Gold #1 - 124,200 04/17 X-Men Gold #2 - 62,283 (-49.9%) 05/17 X-Men Gold #3 - 57,553 (- 7.6%) 05/17 X-Men Gold #4 - 52,710 (- 8.4%) 06/17 X-Men Gold #5 - 54,720 (+ 3.8%) 06/17 X-Men Gold #6 - 48,569 (-11.2%) 07/17 X-Men Gold #7 - 53,462 (+10.0%)(SE) 07/17 X-Men Gold #8 - 46,615 (-12.8%) Since issue #2: -25.2%
I’m not sure I would have kept this Adrian Syaf cover with this character who put a bullet throught Shadowcat’s skull…
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24- 33- EDGE OF VENOMVERSE 06/17 Edge of Venomverse # 1 - 98,052 07/17 Edge of Venomverse # 2 - 50,128 (-48.9%) 07/17 Edge of Venomverse # 3 - 42,167 (-15.9%)
It gets difficult. Ready? That’s Gwenpool turn to be venomized. So a character, whom is already a combination of two existing characters, becomes the combination of three. It perfectly captures the spirit at Marvel right now: just don’t ever stop, do your thing until the end, until everybody becomes sick of it! Who can blame them, it sells, right?
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26- 35-X-MEN BLUE 04/17 X-Men Blue # 1 - 119,565 04/17 X-Men Blue # 2 - 54,074 (-54.8%) 05/17 X-Men Blue # 3 - 48,354 (-10.6%) 05/17 X-Men Blue # 4 - 44,576 (- 7.8%) 06/17 X-Men Blue # 5 - 50,374 (+13.0%) 06/17 X-Men Blue # 6 - 43,337 (-14.0%) 07/17 X-Men Blue # 7 - 48,481 (+11.9%)(SE) 07/17 X-Men Blue # 8 - 46,615 (- 3.8%) (SE) Since issue #2: -13.8%
Issue #7 has the Jim Lee variant cover. Issue #8 has none. So far, those X-Men relaunchs are a success.
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27- OLD MAN LOGAN 05/15 Old Man Logan Ltd #1 - 122,702 ... 10/15 Old Man Logan Ltd #5 - 62,716 (- 9.3%) 11/15 --- 12/15 --- 01/16 Old Man Logan #1 - 104,362 02/16 Old Man Logan #2 - 63,932 (-38.7%) 03/16 Old Man Logan #3 - 58,855 (- 7.9%) 04/16 Old Man Logan #4 - 59,174 (+ 0.5%) 04/16 Old Man Logan #5 - 58,870 (- 0.5%) 05/16 Old Man Logan #6 - 52,761 (-10.4%) 06/16 Old Man Logan #7 - 51,926 (- 1.6%) 07/16 Old Man Logan #8 - 55,311 (+ 6.5%) 07/16 Old Man Logan #9 - 49,804 (-10.0%) 08/16 Old Man Logan #10 - 52,175 (+ 4.8%) 09/16 Old Man Logan #11 - 47,248 (- 9.4%) 10/16 Old Man Logan #12 - 45,384 (- 3.5%) 11/16 Old Man Logan #13 - 43,609 (- 3.9%) 11/16 Old Man Logan #14 - 42,574 (- 2.4%) 12/16 Old Man Logan #15 - 42,216 (- 0.8%) 01/17 Old Man Logan #16 - 45,807 (+ 8.5%) 02/17 Old Man Logan #17- 38,851 (- 15.2%) 02/17 Old Man Logan #18- 38,679 (- 0.4%) 03/17 Old Man Logan #19- 47,428 (+22.6%) 03/17 Old Man Logan #20- 38,151 (-19.6%) 04/17 Old Man Logan #21- 44,806 (+17.4%) 04/17 Old Man Logan #22- 44,026 (- 1.7%) 05/17 Old Man Logan #23- 46,260 (+ 5.1%) 05/17 Old Man Logan #24- 44,170 (- 4.5%) 06/17 Old Man Logan #25- 59,216 (+34.1%) 07/17 Old Man Logan #26- 47,252 (- 20.2%) Since issue #2: -26.1% OLD MAN LOGAN VOL.1 : 11,723 [+391} OLD MAN LOGAN VOL.2 : 7,575 OLD MAN LOGAN VOL.3: 5,626 OLD MAN LOGAN VOL.4 : 3,451
With a Jim Lee variant. An amazing success, managing to sell noticeably more copies of its first tpb every month.
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44- 62-DEADPOOL 11/12 Deadpool #2 - 76,445 ... 03/14 Deadpool #25 - 48,775 (+ 18.6%)(Now) ... 10/14 Deadpool #36 - 46,600 (+ 7.0%)(Axis) ... 03/15 Deadpool #44 - 39,716 (- 11.5%) 04/15 Deadpool #45 - 96.897 (+144.0%) 11/15 Deadpool #1 - 268,392 11/15 Deadpool #2 - 92,008 (-65.7%) 12/15 Deadpool #3 - 72,357 (-21.4%) 12/15 Deadpool #4 - 63,149 (-22.7%) 01/16 Deadpool #5 - 59,645 (- 5.5%) 01/16 Deadpool #6 - 59.006 (- 1.1%) 02/16 Deadpool #7 - 88,264 (+49.6%) 03/16 Deadpool #8 - 72,706 (-17.6%) 04/16 Deadpool #9 - 57,798 (-20.5%) 04/16 Deadpool #10- 64,509 (+11.6%) 05/16 Deadpool #11- 62,900 (- 2.5%) 05/16 Deadpool #12- 57,805 (- 8.1%) 06/16 Deadpool #13- 78,536 (+35.9%) 06/16 Deadpool #14- 63,334 (-19.4%) (CV2) 07/16 Deadpool #15- 67,822 (+ 7.1%) (CV2) 08/16 Deadpool #16- 55,577 (-18.1%) (CV2) 08/16 Deadpool #17- 57,681 (+ 3.8%) (CV2) 09/16 Deadpool #18- 59,027 (+ 2.3%) (CV2) 09/16 Deadpool #19- 47,948 (- 18.8%) 10/16 Deadpool #20- 46,109 (- 3.8%) 10/16 Deadpool #21- 51,351 (+11.4%) 11/16 Deadpool #22- 38,630 (-24.8%) 12/16 Deadpool #23- 39.183 (+ 1.4%) 01/17 Deadpool #24- 40,064 (+ 2.2%) 01/17 Deadpool #25- 42,476 (+6.0%) 02/17 Deadpool #26- 38,560 (- 9.2%) 02/17 Deadpool #27- 32,836 (-14.8%) 03/17 Deadpool #28- 47,026 (+43.2%) 04/17 Deadpool #29- 36,482 (-22.4%) 05/17 Deadpool #30- 36,022 (- 1.3%) 05/17 Deadpool #31- 34,546 (- 4.1%) (SE) 06/17 Deadpool #32- 41.755 (+20.9%) (SE) 07/17 Deadpool #33- 40,092 (- 4.0%) (SE) 07/17 Deadpool #34- 32,282 (-19.5%) (SE) Since issue#2 : - 54.6%
Issue #33 as a Jim Lee variant cover (I was thinking at first it was a Rob Liefeld variant!). Issue #34 is back to reality, with the lowest level for the series by far!
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39- WEAPON X 04/17 Weapon X # 1 - 68,874 04/17 Weapon X # 2 - 42,471 (-38.3%) 05/17 Weapon X # 3 - 37,409 (-11.9%) 06/17 Weapon X # 4 - 35,417 (- 5.3%) 07/17 Weapon X # 5 - 39,307 (+11.0%) (WMD) 07/17 Weapon X # 6 - 35,607 (- 9.4%) (WMD) Since issue #2: -16.2%
This could encourage Marvel to go into stupid trends like, after Venomizing every character, Wolverining them. Issue #5 has the Jim Lee variant.
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41- MIGHTY THOR 12/12 Thor v5 #1 - 110,443 ... 02/14 Thor #19.Now– 42.034 ( 10.1%) ... 09/14 Thor v5 #25 – 53,047 ( 38.4%) 10/14 Thor v6 #1 – 150,862 ( 184.4%) 11/14 Thor v6 #2 – 89,131 ( -40.9%) 12/14 Thor v6 #3 – 72,563 ( -18.6%) 01/15 Thor v6 #4 - 69,497 ( -4.2%) 02/15 Thor v6 #5 - 69,513 ( +0.0%) 03/15 Thor v6 #6 - 70,569 ( +1.5%) 04/15 Thor v6 #7 - 71,372 ( +1.1%) 05/15 Thor v6 #8 - 86,222 (+20.1%) ... 11/15 Mighty Thor #1 - 112,053 12/15 Mighty Thor #2 - 70,331 (-37.2%) 01/16 Mighty Thor #3 - 60,345 (-14.2%) 02/16 Mighty Thor #4 - 56,568 (- 6.3%) 03/16 Mighty Thor #5 - 54,568 (- 3.5%) 04/16 Mighty Thor #6 - 52,538 (- 3.7%) 05/16 Mighty Thor #7 - 47,425 (- 9.7%) 06/16 Mighty Thor #8 - 51,300 (+ 8.2%) 07/16 Mighty Thor #9 - 48,712 (- 5.0%) 08/16 Mighty Thor #10- 45,929 (- 5.7%) 09/16 Mighty Thor #11- 46,434 (+ 1.1%) 10/16 Mighty Thor #12- 40,326 (-13.2%) 11/16 Mighty Thor #13- 39,274 (- 2.6%) 12/16 Mighty Thor #14- 37,624 (- 4.2%) 01/17 Mighty Thor #15- 47,038 (+25.0%) 02/17 Mighty Thor #16- 40,175 (-14.6%) 03/17 Mighty Thor #17- 36,106 (-10.1%) 04/17 Mighty Thor #18- 37,505 (+ 3.9%) 05/17 Mighty Thor #19- 35,499 (- 5.3%) 06/17 Mighty Thor #20- 42,643 (+20.1%) 07/17 Mighty Thor #21- 39,123 (- 8.3%) Since issue #2: -44.4%
Still higher than usual thanks to a Jim Lee variant cover.
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42- 45-STAR WARS DOCTOR APHRA 12/16 SW Dr Aphra #1 - 99,067 12/16 SW Dr Aphra #2 - 61,417 (-38.0%) 01/17 SW Dr Aphra #3 - 48,592 (-20.9%) 02/17 SW Dr Aphra #4 - 43,475 (-10.5%) 03/17 SW Dr Aphra #5 - 42,465 (- 2.3%) 04/17 SW Dr Aphra #6 - 40,458 (- 4.7%) 05/17 SW Dr Aphra #7 - 43,763 (+ 8.2%) (SC) 06/17 SW Dr Aphra #8 - 50,216 (+14.7%) (SC) 07/17 SW Dr Aphra #9 - 38,209 (-23.9%) 07/17 SW Dr Aphra #10 - 37,481 (- 1.9%) Since issue #2: -18.2% SW DR APHRA TPB VOL.1 : 4,464 [+449]
Stabilizing and, more important, selling almost 500 copies of TPB Vol.1 in the second month of its release.
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44- CAPTAIN AMERICA STEVE ROGERS 05/16 Cap America SR #1 -140,222 06/16 Cap America SR #2 - 74,884 (-46.6%) 07/16 Cap America SR #3 - 65,455 (-12.6%) 08/16 Cap America SR #4 - 49,559 (-24.3%) (CV2) 09/16 Cap America SR #5 - 50,536 (+ 2.0%) (CV2) 10/16 Cap America SR #6 - 49,111 (- 2.8%) (CV2) 11/16 Cap America SR #7 - 48,505 (- 1.2%) 12/16 Cap America SR #8 - 38,610 (-20.4%) 01/17 Cap America SR #9 - 42,637 (+10.4%) 01/17 Cap America SR#10- 40,051 (- 6.1%) 02/17 Cap America SR#11- 36,610 (- 8.6%) 02/17 Cap America SR#12- 32,567 (-11.0%) 03/17 Cap America SR#13- 39,454 (+21.1%) 03/17 Cap America SR#14- 31,592 (- 19.9%) 04/17 Cap America SR#15- 34,863 (+10.4%) 04/17 Cap America SR#16- 37,366 (+ 7.1%) 05/17 Cap America SR#17- 35,867 (- 4.0%) (SE) 06/17 Cap America SR#18- 39,164 (+ 9.2%) (SE) 07/17 Cap America SR#19- 37,897 (- 3.2%) (SE) Since issue#2 : -49.4%
The fact that it managed to stick into the upper 30K makes it one of the most successful Marvel title, no less!
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48- DEFENDERS ($5) 06/17 Defenders #1 - 64,253 06/17 Defenders #2 - 46,158 (-28.2%) 07/17 Defenders #3 - 35,763 (-22.5%)
The Defenders brand has gone from being associated with strange, weird menaces and magic to street gang stuff and physical heroes. A lesson in how to deprive a team name from any meaning.
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55- VENOM 11/15 Venom Spaceknight #1 - 59,151 12/15 Venom Spaceknight #2 - 32,210 (-45.5%) 01/16 Venom Spaceknight #3 - 25,770 (-20.0%) 02/16 Venom Spaceknight #4 - 21,545 (-16.4%) 03/16 Venom Spaceknight #5 - 18,807 (-12.7%) 04/16 Venom Spaceknight #6 - 17,894 (- 4.9%) 05/16 Venom spaceknight #7 - 17,370 (- 3.0%) 06/16 Venom Spaceknight #8 - 16,658 (- 4.1%) 06/16 Venom Spaceknight #9 - 16,006 (- 3.9%) 07/16 Venom Spaceknight #10 - 15,650 (- 2.2%) 08/16 Venom Spaceknight #11 - 17,548 (+12.1%) (CV2) 09/16 Venom Spaceknight #12 - 16,193 (- 7.7%) (CV2) 10/16 Venom Spaceknight #13 - 14,577 (-10.0%) 11/16 Venom # 1 - 90,138 12/16 Venom # 2 - 38,043 (-57.9%) 01/17 Venom # 3 - 55,255 (+45.2%) 02/17 Venom # 4 - 38,337 (-30.6%) 03/17 Venom # 5 - 32,088 (-16.3%) 04/17 Venom # 6 - 62,747 (+95.5%) 05/17 Venom #150 –141,757 (+125.9%) 06/17 Venom #151 - 49.704 (- 64.9%) 07/17 Venom #152 - 34,687 (- 30.2%) Since issue #2: -8.2%
There is a Jim Lee variant so expect it to fall over 30K soon. Back to reality.
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56- ALL NEW WOLVERINE 01/14 Wolverine v5 #13- 31,164 ( -3.4%) 02/14 Wolverine v6 #1 - 88,923 (185.3%) 02/14 Wolverine v6 #2 - 47,339 (-46.8%) ... 08/14 Wolverine v6 #12 - 50,570 ( 2.8%) 09/14 Death of Wolv #1 – 261,975 09/14 Death of Wolv #2 - 129,999 (-50.4%) 10/14 Death of Wolv #3 – 141,567 ( 8.9%) 10/14 Death of Wolv #4 - 165,582 ( 17.0%) 11/15 AN Wolverine #1 - 119,786 11/15 AN Wolverine #2 - 55,634 (-53.6%) 12/15 AN Wolverine #3 - 50,990 (- 8.3%) 01/16 AN Wolverine #4 - 49,978 (- 2.0%) 02/16 AN Wolverine #5 - 43,149 (-13.7%) 03/16 AN Wolverine #6 - 44,668 (+ 3.5%) 04/16 AN Wolverine #7 - 38,168 (-14.6%) 05/16 AN Wolverine #8 - 38,242 (+ 0.2%) 06/16 AN Wolverine #9 - 43,545 (+13.9%) (CV2) 07/16 AN Wolverine #10- 38,579 (-11.4%) (CV2) 08/16 AN Wolverine #11- 40,312 (+ 4.5%) (CV2) 09/16 AN Wolverine #12- 35,481 (-12.0%) (CV2) 10/16 AN Wolverine #13- 38,297 (+ 7.9%) 11/16 AN Wolverine #14- 35,437 (- 7.5%) 12/16 AN Wolverine #15- 31,796 (-10.2%) 01/17 AN Wolverine #16- 35,128 (+10.5%) 02/17 AN Wolverine #17- 29,255 (-16.7%) 03/17 AN Wolverine #18- 46,731 (+59.7%) 04/17 AN Wolverine #19- 57,526 (+23.1%) 05/17 AN Wolverine #20- 36,573 (-36.4%) 06/17 AN Wolverine #21- 38,500 (+ 5.2%) 07/17 AN Wolverine #22- 34,610 (-10.1%) Since issue #2 : -37.8%
Will it manage to stay above 30K whithout the benefit of the Jim Lee variant?
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58- AVENGERS 11/16 Avengers # 1 - 81,885 12/16 Avengers # 2 - 64,289 (-21.5%) 01/17 Avengers #3 - 44,321 (-31.1%) 01/17 Avengers #1.MU - 30,421 (-31.4%) 02/17 Avengers #4 - 37,383 (+22.9%) 03/17 Avengers #5 - 39,204 (+ 4.9%) 04/17 Avengers #6 - 31,461 (- 19.7%) 05/17 Avengers #7 - 30,681 (- 2.5%) 06/17 Avengers #8 - 45,386 (+47.9%) 07/17 Avengers #9 - 34,385 (- 24.2%)(SE) Since issue#2: -46.5%
Anything is good as long as it is called a variant cover. This enlargement of a Jim Lee card, put on a quickly made photoshop background, would never have been accepted as a standard cover. What makes it acceptable as a variant cover? The fact that people would pay anything because it’s labelled as a variant, with the Jim Lee name attached to it? Don’t come crying when the market will crush down ever more harshly, Marvel!
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59- STAR WARS POE DAMERON 04/16- SW Poe Dameron #1 - 175,322 05/16 SW Poe Dameron #2 - 68,922 (-60.7%) 06/16 SW Poe Dameron #3 - 60,889 (-11.7%) 07/16 SW Poe Dameron #4 - 57,712 (- 5.2%) 08/16 SW Poe Dameron #5 - 52,281 (- 9.4%) 09/16 SW Poe Dameron #6 - 50,275 (- 3.8%) 10/16 SW Poe Dameron #7 - 47,878 (- 4.7%) 11/16 SW Poe Dameron #8 - 43,034 (- 10.1%) 12/16 SW Poe Dameron #9 - 38,839 (- 9.7%) 01/17 SW Poe Dameron #10 - 40,091 (+3.2%) 02/17 SW Poe Dameron #11 - 40,235 (+0.4%) 03/17 SW Poe Dameron #12 - 38,696 (- 3.8%) 04/17 SW Poe Dameron #13 - 36,994 (- 4.4%) 05/17 SW Poe Dameron #14 - 37,050 (+ 0.2%) 05/17 SW Poe Dameron #15 - 32,658 (-11.9%) 06/17 SW Poe Dameron #16 - 34,826 (+ 6.6%) 07/17 SW Poe Dameron #17 - 34,250 (- 1.7%) Since issue #2: -50.3% POE DAMERON TPB VOL.1: 4,621 POE DAMERON TPB VOL.2: 3,085
Settled as a sales level almost every MU ongoing series would kill to be.
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60- SPIDER-MAN 02/16 Spider-Man #1 - 99,951 03/16 Spider-Man #2 - 60,627 (-39.3%) 04/16 Spider-Man #3 - 59,789 (- 1.4%) 05/16 Spider-Man #4 - 49,167 (-17.8%) 06/16 Spider-Man #5 - 47,025 (- 4.4%) 07/16 Spider-Man #6 - 52,731 (+12.1%) (CV2) 08/16 Spider-Man #7 - 47,678 (- 9.6%) (CV2) 09/16 Spider-Man #8 - 44,745 (- 6.2%) (CV2) 10/16 --- 11/16 Spider-Man #9 - 39,701 (-11.3%) 12/16 Spider-Man #10 - 40,006 (+0.8%) 12/16 Spider-Man #11 - 35,865 (-10.4%) 01/17 Spider-Man #12 - 47,517 (+32.5%) 02/17 Spider-Man #13 - 34,195 (-28.0%) 03/17 Spider-Man #14- 33,403 (- 2.3%) 04/17 Spider-Man #15- 34,103 (+ 2.1%) 05/17 Spider-Man #16- 30,775 (- 9.8%) 06/17 Spider-Man #17- 29,428 (- 4.4%) 07/17 Spider-Man #18- 33,374 (+13.4%) Since issue #2: -44.5%
Probably the only secondary Spider-Man who doesn’t have to worry about his title longevity.
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61- DOCTOR STRANGE 10/15 Doctor Strange #1 – 145,456 11/15 Doctor Strange #2 - 65,091 (-55.3%) 12/15 Doctor Strange #3 - 57,135 (-12.2%) 01/16 Doctor Strange #4 - 52,388 (- 8.3%) 02/16 Doctor Strange #5 - 43,796 (-16.4%) 03/16 Doctor Strange #6 - 52,440 (+19.7%) 04/16 Doctor Strange #7 - 49,590 (- 5.6%) 05/16 Doctor Strange #8 - 49,427 (- 0.3%) 06/16 Doctor Strange #9 - 46,306 (- 6.3%) 07/16 --- 08/16 Doctor Strange #10 - 50,083 (+ 8.2%) 09/16 Doctor Strange #11 - 53,718 (+ 7.3%) 10/16 Doctor Strange #12 - 72,990 (+35.9%) 10/16 Doctor Strange #13 - 41,290 (-43.4%) 11/16 Doctor Strange #14 - 39,390 (- 4.6%) 12/16 Doctor Strange #15 - 39.549 (+ 0.4%) 01/17 Doctor Strange #16 - 41,426 (+ 4.8%) 02/17 Doctor Strange #17 - 37,686 (- 9.0%) 02/17 Doctor Strange #1.MU ($5) - 27,212 (-27.8%) 03/17 Doctor Strange #18 - 41,801 (+53.6%) 04/17 Doctor Strange #19 - 33,246 (- 20.5%) 05/17 Doctor Strange #21 - 32,142 (- 3.3%) (SE) 06/17 Doctor Strange #20 - 31.497 (- 2.0%) ($5) 06/17 Doctor Strange #22 - 35,982 (+14.2%) (SE) 07/17 Doctor Strange #23 - 32,745 (- 9.0%) (SE) Since issue #2 : -49.7% DOCTOR STRANGE TPB VOL.1: 4,468 DOCTOR STRANGE TPB VOL.2: 2,345
Despite the Secret Empire tag and the Jim Lee variant cover, we are pretty close to the lowest level so far for this title. It will probably fall over the 30K next time.
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64- SPIDER-MAN DEADPOOL 01/16 Spider-Man Deadpool #1 - 180,891 02/16 Spider-Man Deadpool #2 - 80,512 (- 55.3%) 03/16 Spider-Man Deadpool #3 - 73,238 (- 9.0%) 04/16 Spider-Man Deadpool #4 - 64,931 (-11.3%) 05/16 Spider-Man Deadpool #5 - 63,821 (- 1.7%) 06/16 Spider-Man Deadpool #6 - 64,630 (+ 1.3%) 07/16 Spider-Man Deadpool #7 - 62,060 (- 4.0%) 08/16 Spider-Man Deadpool #8 - 69,519 (+12.0%) 09/16 Spider-Man Deadpool #9 - 65,502 (- 5.8%) 10/16 Spider-Man Deadpool #10 - 52,468 (-19.9%) 11/16 Spider-Man Deadpool #11 - 51,278 (- 2.3%) 12/16 Spider-Man Deadpool #12 - 43,937 (-14.3%) 01/17 Spider-Man Deadpool #13 - 46,934 (+ 6.8%) 01/17 Spider-Man Deadpool #1.MU ($5) – 45,566 (-2.9%) 02/17 Spider-Man Deadpool #14 - 38,307 (-15.9%) 03/17 Spider-Man Deadpool #15 - 50,691 (+32.3%) 04/17 Spider-Man Deadpool #16 - 40,484 (-20.1%) 05/17 Spider-Man Deadpool #17 - 34,613 (-14.5%) 06/17 Spider-Man Deadpool #18 - 33,616 (- 2.9%) 07/17 Spider-Man Deadpool #19 - 32,090 (- 4.5%) Since issue #2: -60.1% SPIDERMAN DEADPOOL TOP VOL.1: 15,460 [+683] SPIDERMAN DEADPOOL TOP VOL.2: 4,784 [+442]
If the attrition is more than noticeable, paperbacks sales are still in heaven.
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66- UNCANNY AVENGERS 03/14 U Avengers #18.NOW - 63,516 ( 19.4%) ... 10/14 Uncanny Avengers #25 – 53,263 ( 7.7%) 10/14 Aven & X-Men Axis #1 – 138,966 (180.9%) ... 12/14 Aven & X-Men Axis #9 – 69,518 ( 0.1%) 01/15 Uncanny Avengers v2 #1 – 74,849 02/15 Uncanny Avengers v2 #2 – 51,339 (-31.4%) --- 04/15 Uncanny Avengers v2 #3 – 50,595 (-1.4%) 05/15 Uncanny Avengers v2 #4 – 46,682 (-7.7%) 06/15 Uncanny Avengers v2 #5 – 43,417 (-7.0%) 10/15 Uncanny Avengers #1 - 105,234 11/15 Uncanny Avengers #2 - 55,008 (-47.3%) 12/15 Uncanny Avengers #3 - 53,216 (- 3.3%) 01/16 Uncanny Avengers #4 - 47,172 (-11.4%) 02/16 Uncanny Avengers #5 - 43,618 (- 7.5%) 03/16 Uncanny Avengers #6 - 41,567 (- 4.7%) 03/16 Uncanny Avengers #7 - 47,135 (+13.4%) (Stand Off) 04/16 Uncanny Avengers #8 - 45,659 (- 3.1%) (Stand Off) 05/16 Uncanny Avengers #9 - 40,025 (-12.3%) 06/16 Uncanny Avengers #10- 38,614 (- 3.5%) 07/16 Uncanny Avengers #11- 45,452 (+17.7%) 08/16 Uncanny Avengers #12- 39,337 (-13.5%) 08/16 Uncanny Avengers #13- 37,908 (- 3.6%) (CV2) 09/16 Uncanny Avengers #14- 34,996 (- 7.7%) (CV2) 10/16 Uncanny Avengers #15- 38,058 (+ 8.7%) 11/16 Uncanny Avengers #16- 32,854 (-13.7%) (CV2) 12/16 Uncanny Avengers #17- 31,025 (- 5.6%) 12/16 Uncanny Avengers #18- 30,062 (- 3.1%) 01/17 Uncanny Avengers #19- 33,957 (+13.0%) 02/17 Uncanny Avengers #20- 31,089 (- 8.5%) 03/17 Uncanny Avengers #21- 27,622 (- 11.2%) 04/17 Uncanny Avengers #22- 27,438 (- 0.7%) 05/17 Uncanny Avengers #23- 26,915 (- 1.9%) 06/17 Uncanny Avengers #24- 27,294 (+ 1.4%) (SE) 07/17 Uncanny Avengers #25- 31,648 (+16.0%) (SE) ($5) Since issue #2 : - 50.4%
My grandma once send to me the same sunset background used on the Rogue Jim Lee variant cover, as a reminder that I should never let her use Photoshop ever to enhance our family pictures.
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69- 88-DAREDEVIL 02/14 Daredevil v3 #36 – 31,494 ( -1.8%) 03/14 Daredevil v4 #1 - 76,006 (141.3%) 04/14 Daredevil v4 #2 - 42,811 (-11.7%) ... 09/15 Daredevil v4 #18 - 29,945 (+ 0.1%) --- --- 12/15 Daredevil #1 - 84,500 12/15 Daredevil #2 - 49,758 (-41.1%) 01/16 Daredevil #3 - 45,885 (- 7.8%) 02/16 Daredevil #4 - 43,741 ( - 4.7%) 03/16 Daredevil #5 - 44,868 (+ 2.6%) 04/16 Daredevil #6 - 48,745 (+ 8.6%) 05/16 Daredevil #7 - 43,704 (-10.3%) 06/16 Daredevil #8 - 41,172 (- 5.8%) 07/16 Daredevil #9 - 43,009 (+ 4.4%) 08/16 Daredevil #10- 40,775 (- 5.2%) 09/16 Daredevil #11- 39,135 (- 4.0%) 10/16 Daredevil #12- 34,297 (-12.4%) 11/16 Daredevil #13- 33,910 (- 1.1%) 12/16 Daredevil #14- 30,781 (- 9.2%) 01/17 Daredevil #15- 36,014 (+17.0%) 01/17 Daredevil #16- 33,152 (- 7.9%) 02/17 Daredevil #17- 31,794 (- 4.1%) 03/17 Daredevil #18- 28,050 (-11.8%) 04/17 Daredevil #19- 28,867 (+ 2.9%) 05/17 Daredevil #20- 27,163 (- 5.9%) 06/17 Daredevil #21- 31.622 (+16.4%) 06/17 Daredevil #22- 26,199 (-17.1%) 07/17 Daredevil #23- 30,757(+17.4%) 07/17 Daredevil #24- 25,519 (-17.0%) Since issue #2 : - 48.7%
Try to guess which issue has the Jim Lee variant.
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71- INVINCIBLE IRON MAN 03/14 Ir. Man #23.NOW - 43,912 ( 51.3%) ... 06/14 Iron Man v6 #28 - 28,027 ( -0.9%) ... 06/15 Sup. Iron Man #9 – 33,989 ( +6.2%) ... 10/15 Invincible Iron Man #1 - 279,514 10/15 Invincible Iron Man #2 - 66,664 (-76.2%) 11/15 Invincible Iron Man #3 - 59,069 (-11.4%) 12/15 Invincible Iron Man #4 - 57,639 (- 2.4%) 01/16 Invincible Iron Man #5 - 49,225 (-14.6%) 02/16 Invincible Iron Man #6 - 63,234 (+28.5%) (War Machines) 03/16 Invincible Iron Man #7 - 57,972 (War Machines) 04/16 Invincible Iron Man #8 - 46,520 (War Machines) 05/16 Invincible Iron Man #9 - 49,334 (+6.0%) (CV2) 06/16 Invincible Iron Man #10- 49,141 (- 0.4%) (CV2) 07/16 Invincible Iron Man #11- 49,439 (+0.6%) (CV2) 08/16 Invincible Iron Man #12- 50,571 (+2.3%) (CV2) 09/16 Invincible Iron Man #13- 48,394 (- 4.3%) (CV2) 10/16 Invincible Iron Man #14- 43,888 (- 9.3%) (CV2) 11/16 Invincible Iron Man # 1- 97,713 12/16 Invincible Iron Man # 2- 81,271 (-16.8%) 01/17 Invincible Iron Man # 3- 44,184 (-45.7%) 02/17 Invincible Iron Man #4- 36,600 (-17.2%) 03/17 Invincible Iron Man #5- 38,746 (+ 5.9%) 04/17 Invincible Iron Man #6- 31,561 (-18.5%) 05/17 Invincible Iron Man #7- 28,266 (-10.4%) 06/17 Invincible Iron Man #8- 33,428 (+18.3%) 07/17 Invincible Iron Man #9- 30,128 (- 9.9%) Since issue#2: -62.9%
There is a Jim Lee variant so don’t be surprised if it fall quickly to 25K.
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72- CABLE 05/17 Cable # 1 – 60,845 06/17 Cable # 2 – 31,557 (-48.1%) 07/17 Cable # 3 – 30,000 (- 4.9%)
The Jim Lee variant is trying to lure you into thinking that’s a sucess.
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73- BLACK PANTHER 04/16- Black Panther #1 - 286,755 05/16 Black Panther #2 - 102,366 (-64.3%) 06/16 Black Panther #3 - 75,037 (-26.7%) 07/16 Black Panther #4 - 72,302 (- 3.6%) 08/16 Black Panther #5 - 83,756 (+15.8%) 09/16 Black Panther #6 - 58,746 (- 29.9%) 10/16 Black Panther #7 - 60,857 (+ 3.6%) 11/16 Black Panther #8 - 43,451 (- 28.6%) 12/16 Black Panther #9 - 39,123 (- 10.0%) 01/17 Black Panther #10 - 38,741 (- 1.0%) 02/17 Black Panther #11 - 35,492 (- 8.4%) 03/17 Black Panther #12 - 37,612 (+ 6.0%) 04/17 Black Panther #13 - 30,509 (-18.9%) 05/17 Black Panther #14 - 27,287 (-10.6%) 06/17 Black Panther #15 - 25,466 (- 6.7%) 07/17 Black Panther #16 - 29,593 (+16.2%) Since issue #2: -71.1%
Double dose of variant programs with both a Jim Lee and a Jack Kirby anniversary variant. It’s at the same time one of the best and worst launches at Marvel. Best because Marvel had the opportunity to really make the Black Panther character shine and reach a large audience. Worst because Marvel ruined it pretty quickly with its usual cash grab.
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75- 95-GUARDIANS OF GALAXY 03/13 Guardians of Galaxy #1- 211,312 … 04/15 Guardians v3 #26 - 54,124 (-12.4%) 05/15 Guardians v3 #27 - 49,308 (- 8.9%) 07/15 Guardians of Knowhere Ltd #1 - 81,902 ... 09/15 Guardians of Knowhere Ltd #4 - 39,523 (-22.4%) 10/15 Guardians of Galaxy #1 - 118,342 11/15 Guardians of Galaxy #2 - 51,690 (-56.3%) ... 01/17 Guardians of Galaxy #16- 32,890 (-48.1%) 02/17 Guardians of Galaxy #17- 31,093 (- 5.5%) 03/17 Guardians of Galaxy #18- 27,094 (-12.9%) 04/17 Guardians of Galaxy #19- 30,028 (+55.4%) 05/17 Guardians of Galaxy # 1 - 82,439 05/17 Guardians of Galaxy # 2 – 51,830 (-37.1%) 06/17 Guardians of Galaxy # 3 - 49.907 (- 3.7%) 06/17 Guardians of Galaxy # 4 - 47,385 (- 5.0%) 07/17 Guardians of Galaxy # 5 - 28,488 (- 39.9%) 07/17 Guardians of Galaxy # 6 - 23,277 (- 18.3%) Since issue #2: -55.1%
We can safely say that this relaunch is an absolute disaster, saleswise. < p>
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76- THANOS 11/16 Thanos # 1 - 54,768 12/16 Thanos # 2 - 35,187 (-35.8%) 01/17 Thanos # 3 - 36,643 (+ 4.1%) 02/17 Thanos # 4 - 32,032 (-12.6%) 03/17 Thanos # 5 - 34,901 (+ 9.0%) 04/17 Thanos # 6 - 27,840 (-20.2%) 05/17 Thanos # 7 - 25,790 (- 7.4%) 06/17 Thanos # 8 - 25,661 (- 0.5%) 07/17 Thanos # 9 - 28,154 (+ 9.7%) Since issue #2: -20.0%
With a Jim Lee variant of course. This one could actually manage to stay around if it could survive Mike Deodato’s departure.
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78- 153- TRUE BELIEVERS ($1) 06/17 Amazing Spider-Man #1 – 18,201 06/17 PP Spectacular Spider-Man #1 – 9,422 06/17 Miles Morales Spider-Man #1 – 7,193 07/17 Amazing Fantasy starring spider-man – 27,457 07/17 Spider-Man #1 – 13,305 07/17 Brand New Day – 6,818
The fact that anybody would be ready to pay even $1 to (re)read Brand New Day is a miracle.
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79- CHAMPIONS 10/16 Champions #1 - 334,937 11/16 Champions #2 - 49,733 (-85.2%) 12/16 Champions #3 - 47,481 (- 4.5%) 01/17 Champions #4 - 34,969 (-26.4%) 02/17 Champions #5 - 31,344 (-10.4%) 02/17 Champions #1.MU ($5) - 20,999 (-33.0%) 03/17 Champions # 6 - 33,220 (+58.2%) 04/17 Champions # 7 - 27,734 (-16.5%) 05/17 Champions # 8 - 24,602 (-11.3%) 06/17 Champions # 9 - 27,444 (+11.6%) 07/17 Champions #10- 27,366 (- 0.3%) (SE) Since issue #2: - 44.8% CHAMPIONS TPB VOL.1 : 5,035
Steady thanks to the Secret Empire tag + the Jim Lee variant cover.
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82- SPIDER-MAN MASTER PLAN LTD 07/17 Spider-Man Master Plan Ltd #1 - 26,804
This $4 40 page comics is supposed to have both a new stand alone story of Spider-Man and a reprint of Amazing Spider-Man #2. So either the solicitation text is wrong, or the new story is 10 page long. 26K is a very good number, taking that into account.
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84- JEAN GREY 05/17 Jean Grey # 1 – 70,702 05/17 Jean Grey # 2 - 29,349 (-58.5%) 06/17 Jean Grey # 3 - 23,140 (-22.2%) 07/17 Jean Grey # 4 - 26,638 (+15.1%) Since issue #2: -9.2%
Even whithout the benefit of the Jim Lee variant, seems to behave slightly better than Iceman. June Brigman and Roy Richardson provided a second variant.
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87- PUNISHER 05/16 Punisher #1 - 110,726 06/16 Punisher #2 - 47,524 (-57.1%) 07/16 Punisher #3 - 46,534 (- 2.1%) 08/16 Punisher #4 - 44,154 (- 5.1%) 09/16 Punisher #5 - 38,052 (-13.8%) 10/16 Punisher #6 - 35,344 (- 7.1%) 11/16 --- 12/16 Punisher #7 - 33,589 (- 5.0%) 01/17 Punisher #8 - 32,937 (- 1.9%) 02/17 Punisher #9 - 27,448 (-16.7%) 03/17 Punisher #10 - 28,433 (+ 3.6%) 04/17 Punisher #11 - 23,863 (- 16.1%) 05/17 Punisher #12 - 23,269 (- 2.5%) 06/17 Punisher #13 - 33,287 (+43.1%) 07/17 Punisher #14 - 25,916 (-22.1%) Since issue #2 : -45.5% PUNISHER TPB VOL.1: 2,934
PUNISHER TPB VOL.2: 1,880
With a Jim Lee variant. TPB sales are now below 2K. That’s not encouraging.
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89-- INFAMOUS IRON MAN 03/16 International Iron Man #1 - 70,824 04/16 International Iron Man #2 - 40,459 (-42.9%) 05/16 International Iron Man #3 - 35,282 (-12.8%) 06/16 International Iron Man #4 - 28,998 (-17.8%) 07/16 International iron Man #5 - 27,697 (- 4.5%) 08/16 International Iron Man #6 - 28,337 (+ 2.3%) 09/16 International Iron Man #7 - 25,496 (-10.0%) (CV2) 10/16 Infamous Iron Man #1 - 73,735 11/16 Infamous Iron Man #2 - 40,225 (-45.4%) 12/16 Infamous Iron Man #3 - 40,546 (+ 0.8%) 01/17 Infamous Iron Man #4 - 36,373 (-10.3%) 02/17 Infamous Iron Man #5 - 29,685 (-18.4%) 03/17 Infamous Iron Man #6 - 28,319 (- 4.6%) 04/17 Infamous Iron Man #7 - 27,032 (- 4.6%) 05/17 Infamous Iron Man #8 - 26,330 (- 2.6%) 06/17 Infamous Iron Man #9 – 25,954 (- 1.4%) 07/17 Infamous Iron Man #10 –25,045 (- 3.5%) Since issue #2: -37.7% INFAMOUS IRON MAN TPB VOL.1 : 2,444
Probably not at the sales level expected but losing less than 5% per month whithout any artifice is almost a performance nowdays at Marvel!
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90-AMAZING SPIDER-MAN RENEW YOUR VOWS 11/16 ASM Renew your vows # 1 - 96,111 12/16 ASM Renew your vows # 2 - 43,128 (-55.1%) 01/17 ASM Renew your vows # 3 - 41,167 (- 4.5%) 02/17 ASM Renew your vows # 4 - 31,750 (-22.9%) 03/17 ASM Renew your vows # 5 - 37,508 (+18.1%) 04/17 ASM Renew your vows # 6 - 29,131 (-22.3%) 05/17 ASM Renew your vows # 7 - 25,770 (-11.5%) 06/17 ASM Renew your vows # 8 – 29,699 (+15.2%) 07/17 ASM Renew your vows # 9 – 25,387 (- 14.5%) Since issue #2: -41.1%
No variant at all. Those are not amazing numbers but if it manage to stay above 20K, this will be a small victory as Marvel doesn’t have that many other properties they can launch with such results.
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93- STAR WARS ROGUE ONE ADAPTATION LTD 04/17 SW Rogue One Ltd #1 - 64,518 05/17 SW Rogue One Ltd #2 - 31,966 (-50.5%) 06/17 SW Rogue One Ltd #3 - 28,256 (-11.6%) 07/17 SW Rogue One Ltd #4 - 23,826 (-15.7%)
Apparently, people keep forgetting they want to read the rest of the story they already know every details about.
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96- TOTALLY AWESOME HULK 12/15 Totally Awesome Hulk #1 - 74,471 01/16 Totally Awesome Hulk #2 - 39,469 (-47.0%) 02/16 Totally Awesome Hulk #3 - 35,709 ( - 9.5%) 03/16 Totally Awesome Hulk #4 - 35,285 ( - 1.2%) 04/16 Totally Awesome Hulk #5 - 31,165 (- 11.7%) 05/16 Totally Awesome Hulk #6 - 26,775 (- 14.1%) 06/16 Totally Awesome Hulk #7 - 30,808 (+15.1%) (CV2) 07/16 Totally Awesome Hulk #8 - 27,522 (- 9.2%) (CV2) 07/16 Totally Awesome Hulk #9 - 26,936 (- 2.1%) (CV2) 08/16 --- 09/16 Totally Awesome Hulk #10 - 26,193 (- 2.8%) (CV2) 10/16 Totally Awesome Hulk #11 - 26,259 (+ 1.3%) (CV2) 11/16 Totally Awesome Hulk #12 - 22,448 (-14.5%) 12/16 Totally Awesome Hulk #13 - 22,207 (- 1.1%) 01/17 Totally Awesome Hulk #14 - 22,847 (+ 2.9%) 01/17 Totally Awesome Hulk #15 - 23,623 (+ 3.4%) 02/17 Totally Awesome Hulk #16 - 18,136 (-23.2%) 03/17 Totally Awesome Hulk #17 - 23,020 (+26.9%) 03/17 Totally Awesome Hulk #1.MU - 16,040 (-30.3%) ($5) 04/17 Totally Awesome Hulk #18 - 16,009 (- 0.8%) 05/17 Totally Awesome Hulk #19 - 17,742 (+10.8%) 06/17 Totally Awesome Hulk #20 - 23,019 (+29.7%) 07/17 Totally Awesome Hulk #21 - 22,939 (- 0.3%) (WMD) Since issue #2: - 41.9%
Weapon of Mutant Destruction crossover with lots of character with fangs and claws. What a joy!
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99- GENERATION X 05/17 Generation X # 1 – 45,028 05/17 Generation X # 2 – 30,396 (-32.5%) 06/17 Generation X # 3 – 22,220 (-26.9%) 07/17 Generation X # 4 - 22,486 (+ 1.2%) Since issue #2: -26.0%
Would already be below 20K whithout the Jim Lee variant.
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100- IRON FIST 03/17 Iron Fist #1 - 89,652 04/17 Iron Fist #2 - 28,469 (-68.2%) 05/17 Iron Fist #3 - 22,466 (-20.1%) 06/17 Iron Fist #4 - 24,706 (+10.0%) 07/17 Iron Fist #5 - 22,420 (- 9.3%) Issue #2: -21.2%
Seing that there is in fact a Jim Lee variant on this one, when can safely assume that the title has fell way over the 20K barreer.
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102- BEN REILLY SCARLET SIDER 04/17 Ben Reilly scarlet Spider # 1 - 53,240 05/17 Ben Reilly scarlet Spider # 2 - 29,501 (-44.6%) 06/17 Ben Reilly scarlet Spider # 3 - 27,053 (- 8.3%) 06/17 Ben Reilly scarlet Spider # 4 - 23,939 (-11.5%) 07/17 Ben Reilly scarlet Spider # 5 - 22,235 (- 7.1%) Since issue #2: -24.6%
No variant at all. Could it be that there are way too much Spider-Man titles right now? Those results certainly imply that.
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103- JESSICA JONES 10/16 Jessica Jones #1 - 74,291 11/16 Jessica Jones #2 - 36,893 (-50.3%) 12/16 Jessica Jones #3 - 38,601 (+ 4.6%) 01/17 Jessica Jones #4 - 32,252 (-16.4%) 02/17 Jessica Jones #5 - 25,769 (-20.1%) 03/17 Jessica Jones #6 - 27,342 (+ 6.1%) 04/17 Jessica Jones #7 - 23,273 (-14.9%) 05/17 Jessica Jones #8 - 23,043 (- 1.0%) 06/17 Jessica Jones #9 - 22,261 (- 3.4%) 07/17 Jessica Jones #10 - 21,486 (- 3.5%) Since issue #2: -41.8% JESSICA JONES TPB VOL.1 : 3,316
One of the few title trajectory which actually give some hope for the future.
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104-SPIDER-GWEN 02/15 Spider-Gwen #1 - 278,575 03/15 Spider-Gwen #2 - 107,070 (-61.6%) 04/15 spider-Gwen #3 - 102,234 (- 4.5%) 05/15 Spider-Gwen #4 - 86,586 (-15.3%) 06/15 Spider-Gwen #5 - 67,697 (-21.8%) 07/15 --- 08/15 --- 09/15 --- 10/15 Spider-Gwen #1 - 197,103 11/15 Spider-Gwen #2 - 62,209 (-68.4%) 12/15 Spider-Gwen #3 - 54,844 (-11.8%) 01/16 Spider-Gwen #4 - 48,664 (-11.3%) 02/16 Spider-Gwen #5 - 43,796 (-10.0%) 03/16 Spider-Gwen #6 - 46,060 (+ 5.2%) 04/16 Spider-Gwen #7 - 60,900 (+32.2%) (Spider-Women) 05/16 Spider-Gwen #8 - 49,681 (-18.4%) (Spider-Women) 06/16 Spider-Gwen #9 - 41,713 (-17,1%) 07/16 Spider-Gwen #10- 35,136 (-15.8%) 08/16 Spider-Gwen #11- 36,212 (+ 3.1%) 09/16 Spider-Gwen #12- 34,004 (- 6.1%) 10/16 Spider-Gwen #13- 29,346 (-13.7%) 11/16 Spider-Gwen #14- 28,906 (- 1.5%) 12/16 Spider-Gwen #15- 27,898 (- 3.5%) 01/17 Spider-Gwen #16- 34,768 (+24.6%) 02/17 Spider-Gwen #17- 29,255 (-15.9%) 03/17 Spider-Gwen #18- 34,810 (+19.0%) 04/17 --- 05/17 Spider-Gwen #19- 28,546 (- 18.0%) 05/17 Spider-Gwen #20- 24,603 (- 13.8%) 06/17 Spider-Gwen #21- 28,535 (+16.0%) 07/17 Spider-Gwen #22- 21,372 (- 25.1%) Since issue #2 : - 65.6% SPIDER-GWEN VOL.0: 12,022 [+336] SPIDER-GWEN VOL.1: 6,466 SPIDER-GWEN VOL.2: 2,848 SPIDER-GWEN VOL.3: 2,306
No variant at all. Lowest level so far for the series. There is still curiosity for the character, as its first paperback keep selling noticeably.
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137- MS MARVEL 02/14 Ms. Marvel #1 - 50,286 ( --- ) 03/14 Ms. Marvel #2 - 38,357 (-23.7%) ... 02/15 Ms. Marvel #12 – 29,054 ( -2.7%) 03/15 Ms. Marvel #13 – 32,425 (+11.6%) 04/15 Ms. Marvel #14 – 32,058 (- 1.1%) 05/15 Ms. Marvel #15 – 32,185 (+ 0.4%) 06/15 Ms. Marvel #16 – 32,855 (+ 2.1%) 07/15 --- 08/15 Ms. Marvel #17 – 31,567 (- 3.9%) 09/15 Ms. Marvel #18 - 33,761 (+7.0%) 11/15 Ms Marvel #1 - 79,222 12/15 Ms Marvel #2 - 46,610 (-41.2%) 01/16 Ms Marvel #3 - 32,364 (-30.6%) 02/16 Ms Marvel #4 - 30,916 (- 4.5%) 03/16 Ms Marvel #5 - 31,871 ( +3.1%) 04/16 Ms Marvel #6 - 29,863 (- 6.3%) 05/16 Ms Marvel #7 - 29,840 (- 0.1%) 06/16 Ms Marvel #8 - 31,798 (+ 6.6%) (CV2) 07/16 Ms Marvel #9 - 28,313 (-11.0%) (CV2) 08/16 Ms Marvel #10- 29,395 (+ 3.8%) (CV2) 09/16 Ms Marvel #11- 27,278 (- 7.2%) (CV2) 10/16 Ms Marvel #12- 28,348 (+ 3.9%) 11/16 Ms Marvel #13- 23,621 (-16.7%) 12/16 --- 01/17 Ms Marvel #14- 24,006 (+1.6%) 02/17 Ms Marvel #15- 19,870 (-17.2%) 03/17 Ms Marvel #16- 19,172 (- 3.5%) 04/17 Ms Marvel #17- 20,881 (+ 8.9%) 05/17 Ms Marvel #18- 18,271 (-12.5%) 06/17 Ms Marvel #19- 17,907 (- 2.0%) 07/17 Ms Marvel #20- 20,738 (+15.8%) Since issue #2 : -55.5 % VOL.1 : 48,185 [+358] VOL.2 : 18,698 VOL.3 : 11,282 VOL.4 : 6,642 VOL.5 : 5,200 VOL.6: 3,500 HC vol.1 : 1,942 HC vol.2 : 2,653 HC vol.3 : 776
TPB VOL.7 : 2,970
Marvel current problem with Ms Marvel is that, even if tons and tons of people are picking the first paperback, very few of them are faithful to the series in its entirety. Sales of the new TPB volume released have almost becomes standard. So far, the first TPB keeps selling every month. Marvel is probably be afraid to kill the bird if they ever try to cancel the series or to give it a major relaunch and creative change (remember the Hawkeye fiasco?). There is a Jim Lee variant of course.
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110- GWENPOOL 04/16- Gwenpool #1 - 100,852 05/16 Gwenpool #2 - 38,162 (-62.2%) 06/16 Gwenpool #3 - 33,018 (-13.5%) 07/16 Gwenpool #4 - 33,174 (+ 0.5%) 08/16 Gwenpool #5 - 30,232 (- 8.9%) 09/16 Gwenpool #6 - 25,890 (-14.4%) 10/16 Gwenpool #7 - 34,365 (+32.7%) 11/16 Gwenpool #8 - 24,395 (- 29.0%) 12/16 Gwenpool #9 - 20,031 (-17.9%) 01/17 Gwenpool #10 - 21,653 (+ 8.1%) 02/17 Gwenpool #11 - 17,975 (-17.0%) 02/17 Gwenpool #12 - 17,080 (- 5.0%) 03/17 Gwenpool #13- 26,850 (+ 57.2%) 04/17 Gwenpool #14- 17,972 (- 33.1%) 05/17 Gwenpool #15- 15,624 (- 12.1%) 05/17 Gwenpool #16- 15,500 (- 0.8%) 06/17 Gwenpool #17- 22,292 (+43.8%) 07/17 Gwenpool #18- 19,846 (- 11.0%) Since issue #2: -48.0% GWENPOOL VOL.1: 5,677 [+367] GWENPOOL VOL.2: 1,971
Obviously with a Jim Lee variant. First TPB sales are still growing.
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113- HULK 12/16 Hulk #1 - 89,810 01/17 Hulk #2 - 32,585 (-63.7%) 02/17 Hulk #3 - 27,968 (-14.2%) 03/17 Hulk #4 - 30,304 (+ 8.3%) 04/17 Hulk #5 – 22,644 (-25.3%) 05/17 Hulk #6 - 20,482 (- 9.5%) 06/17 Hulk #7 - 25,089 (+22.5%) 07/17 Hulk #8 - 19,143 (- 23.7%) Since issue #2: -41.3%
She-Hulk is welcome in the 10-20K zone.
—
116- 123- SECRET EMPIRE BRAVE NEW MONEY 06/17 SE Brave New World # 1 – 30,858 06/17 SE Brave New World # 2 – 21,814 (-29.3%) 07/17 SE Brave New World # 3 - 18,664 (-14.4%) 07/17 SE Brave New World # 4 - 16,975 (- 9.0%)
Even mini-series connected to a big event barely sell more than 15K. Welcome to the New World, indeed!
—
118- BLACK BOLT 05/17 Black Bolt # 1 – 45,028 06/17 Black Bolt # 2 – 26,435 (-41.3%) 07/17 Black Bolt # 3 - 18,629 (-29.5%)
Amidst all the Marvel catalog, nobody will hear you being cancelled…
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121- CAPTAIN AMERICA SAM WILSON 02/14 Capt AmericaV7 #16.Now – 36,534 ( 9.3%) ... 09/14 Captain America v7 #24 – 33,517 ( 8.4%) 10/14 Captain America v7 #25 – 74,183 ( 121.3%) 11/14 Captain America v8 #1 –120,500 ( 62.4%) 12/14 Captain America v8 #2 – 50,077 ( -58.4%) 01/15 Captain America v8 #3 - 50,045 ( -0.1%) 02/15 Captain America v8 #4 - 41,222 (-17.6%) 03/15 Captain America v8 #5 - 38,871 (- 5.7%) 04/15 Captain America v8 #6 - 38,199 (- 1.7%) ... 10/15 CA S. Wilson #1 - 62,535 10/15 CA S. Wilson #2 - 40,224 (-35.7%) 11/15 CA S. Wilson #3 - 33,984 (-15.5%) 12/15 CA S. Wilson #4 - 29,512 (-13.2%) 01/16 CA S. Wilson #5 - 29,081 (- 1.5%) 02/16 CA S. Wilson #6 - 27,111 (- 6.8%) 03/16 CA S. Wilson #7 - 54,881(+102.4%) 04/16 CA S. Wilson #8 - 31,052 (-43.4%) (Stand Off) 05/16 CA S. Wilson #9 - 27,480 (-11.5%) (Stand Off) 06/16 CA S. Wilson #10 - 31,989 (+16.4%) (CV2) 07/16 CA S. Wilson #11 - 29,145 (- 8.2%) (CV2) 08/16 CA S. Wilson #12 - 30,479 (+ 4.6%) (CV2) 09/16 CA S. Wilson #13 - 28,158 (- 7.6%) (CV2) 10/16 CA S. Wilson #14 - 27,702 (- 1.6%) 11/16 CA S. Wilson #15 - 22,006 (-20.6%) 12/16 CA S. Wilson #16 - 21,229 (- 3.5%) 01/17 CA S. Wilson #17 – 22,852 (+ 7.6%) 01/17 CA S. Wilson #18 – 21,848 (- 4.4%) 02/17 CA S. Wilson #19 - 18,105 (-17.1%) 03/17 CA S. Wilson #20 - 17,496 (- 3.4%) 04/17 CA S. Wilson #21 - 18,650 (+ 6.6%) 05/17 CA S. Wilson #22 - 18,523 (- 0.7%) (SE) 06/17 CA S. Wilson #23 - 18,432 (- 0.5%) (SE) 07/17 CA S. Wilson #24 - 17,818 (- 3.3%) (SE) Since issue #2 : -55.7%
Standart attrition.
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119- ROYALS 04/17 Royals # 1 - 40,941 04/17 Royals # 2 - 28,469 (-30.5%) 05/17 Royals # 3 - 19,650 (-31.0%) 06/17 Royals # 4 - 17,007 (-13.4%) 07/17 Royals # 5 - 18,622 (+ 9.5%) Since issue #2: -34.6%
Jim Lee variant of course. No matter under which name Marvel hides it, not that many people want to read the modern Inhumans adventures.
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126- ULTIMATES 11/15 Ultimates #1 - 61,406 12/15 Ultimates #2 - 37,055 (-39.7%) 01/16 Ultimates #3 - 30,068 (-18.9%) 02/16 Ultimates #4 - 27,177 (- 9.6%) 03/16 Ultimates #5 - 28,627 (+ 5.3%) 04/16 Ultimates #6 - 26,146 (- 8.7%) 05/16 Ultimates #7 - 26,500 (+ 1.4%) 06/16 Ultimates #8 - 30,675 (+15.6%) (CV2) 07/16 Ultimates #9 - 27,588 (-10.1%) (CV2) 08/16 Ultimates #10- 26,848 (- 2.7%) (CV2) 09/16 Ultimates #11- 26,030 (- 3.0%) (CV2) 10/16 Ultimates #12- 23,871 (- 8.3%) (CV2) END 11/16 Ultimates 2 # 1- 34,646 12/16 Ultimates 2 # 2- 23,844 (-31.2%) 01/17 Ultimates 2 #3- 24,369 (+2.2%) 02/17 Ultimates 2 #4- 21,235 (-12.9%) 03/17 Ultimates 2 #5- 17,975 (-15.4%) 04/17 Ultimates 2 #6- 17,350 ( -3.5%) 05/17 Ultimates 2 #7- 18,490 (+ 6.6%) (SE) 06/17 Ultimates 2 #8- 16,801 (- 9.1%) 07/17 Ultimates 2 #9- 16,488 (- 1.9%) Since issue #2: -30.9%
Seem to have stabilized since reaching 16-17K, with only standart attrition kicking in.
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130- ICEMAN 06/17 Iceman # 1 - 34,202 06/17 Iceman # 2 - 22,075 (-35.5%) 07/17 Iceman # 3 - 15,743 (-28.7%)
A sales disaster that everyone saw coming.
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132- MIGHTY CAPTAIN MARVEL 11/13 Captain Marvel v6 #17 - 18,173 (-20.5%) ... 03/14 Captain Marvel v7 #1 - 44,248 04/14 Captain Marvel v7 #2 - 28,008 (-36.7%) ... 05/15 Captain Marvel v7 #15 – 19,740 (-35.4%) ... 06/15 Cap Marvel & Carol Corps Ltd #1 - 47,302 ... 08/15 Cap Marvel & Carol Corps Ltd #4 - 22,106 (- 9.0%) ... 01/16 Captain Marvel #1 - 52,972 02/16 Captain Marvel #2 - 28,962 (-45.4%) 03/16 Captain Marvel #3 - 28,469 ( -1.7%) 04/16 Captain Marvel #4 - 25,156 (-11.6%) 05/16 Captain Marvel #5 - 23,812 (- 5.3%) 06/16 Captain Marvel #6 - 28,213 (+18.5%) (CV2) 07/16 Captain Marvel #7 - 23,895 (-15.3%) (CV2) 08/16 Captain Marvel #8 - 23,024 (- 3.5%) (CV2) 09/16 Captain Marvel #9 - 24,753 (+ 7.5%) (CV2) 10/16 --- 11/16 Captain Marvel #10 - 19,893 (-19.6%) 12/16 Mighty Captain Marvel #0 - 53,263 01/17 Mighty Captain Marvel #1 - 48,519 (-8.9%) 02/17 Mighty Captain Marvel #2 - 24,172 (-50.2%) 03/17 Mighty Captain Marvel #3 - 28,649 (+17.8%) 04/17 Mighty Captain Marvel #4 - 17,893 (-37.5%) 05/17 Mighty Captain Marvel #5 - 17,164 (- 4.1%)(SE) 06/17 Mighty Captain Marvel #6 - 20,870 (+21.6%)(SE) 07/17 Mighty Captain Marvel #7 - 15,672 (-24.9%)(SE) Since issue #2: -67.7% CAPTAIN MARVEL VOL.1 : 2,409 CAPTAIN MARVEL VOL.2: 1,621
Time to call it a day.
—
133- I AM GROOT 05/17 I Am Groot # 1 – 32,260 06/17 I Am Groot # 2 – 23,202 (-28.1%) 07/17 I Am Groot # 3 - 15,333 (-33.9%)
Groot figurines probably sold better than that.
—
139- US AVENGERS 01/17 US Avengers #1 - 110,729 01/17 US Avengers #2 - 29,523 (-73.3%) 02/17 US Avengers #3 - 19,476 (-33.4%) 03/17 US Avengers #4 - 17,073 04/17 US Avengers #5 - 17,880 (+ 4.7%) 05/17 US Avengers #6 - 16,491 (- 7.8%) (SE) 06/17 US Avengers #7 - 15,664 (- 5.0%) (SE) 07/17 US Avengers #8 - 14,821 (- 5.4%) (SE) Since issue #2: -49.8%
With so few people reading those new uncessufull series and tie-in to Secret Empire, Marvel will have to deal with lot of readers unaware of the events happening in it. But, yeah, who cares. Covers! Let’s think about covers!
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157- SPIDER-MAN 2099 07/14 Spider-Man 2099 #1 - 90,690 ( --- ) 08/14 Spider-Man 2099 #2 - 47,512 (-47.6%) 09/14 Spider-Man 2099 #3 - 43,418 ( -8.6%) 10/14 Spider-Man 2099 #4 - 40,755 ( -6.1%) 10/14 Spider-Man 2099 #5 - 40,880 ( 0.3%) 11/14 Spider-Man 2099 #6 - 38,634 ( -5.5%) --- 01/15 Spider-Man 2099 #7 - 38,455 (-0.5%) 01/15 Spider-Man 2099 #8 - 37,484 (-2.5%) 02/15 Spider-Man 2099 #9 - 34,374 (-8.3%) 03/15 Spider-Man 2099 #10 - 33,528 (-2.5%) 04/15 Spider-Man 2099 #11 - 31,665 (-5.6%) 05/15 Spider-Man 2099 #12 - 28,916 (-8.7%) ... 10/15 Spider-Man 2099 #1 - 57,719 10/15 Spider-Man 2099 #2 - 40,701 (-29.5%) 11/15 Spider-Man 2099 #3 - 34,969 (-14.1%) 12/15 Spider-Man 2099 #4 - 32,464 (- 7.2%) 01/16 Spider-Man 2099 #5 - 28,489 (-12.2%) 02/16 Spider-Man 2099 #6 - 26,626 ( - 6.5%) 02/16 Spider-Man 2099 #7 - 26,163 (- 1.7%) 03/16 Spider-Man 2099 #8 - 28,580 ( +9.2%) 04/16 Spider-Man 2099 #9 - 24,081 (-15.7%) 05/16 Spider-Man 2099 #10- 23,040 (- 4.3%) 06/16 Spider-Man 2099 #11- 22,722 (- 1.4%) 07/16 Spider-Man 2099 #12- 22,480 (- 1.1%) 08/16 Spider-Man 2099 #13- 22,793 (+ 1.4%) (CV2) 08/16 Spider-Man 2099 #14- 21,908 (- 3.9%) (CV2) 09/16 Spider-Man 2099 #15- 21,362 (- 2.5%) (CV2) 10/16 Spider-Man 2099 #16- 20,671 (- 3.2%) (CV2) 11/16 Spider-Man 2099 #17- 19,271 (- 6.8%) 12/16 Spider-Man 2099 #18- 18,053 (- 6.3%) 01/17 Spider-Man 2099 #19- 20,262 (+12.2%) 02/17 Spider-Man 2099 #20- 16,690 (- 17.6%) 03/17 Spider-Man 2099 #21- 15,770 (- 5.5%) 04/17 Spider-Man 2099 #22- 15,273 (- 3.2%) 05/17 Spider-Man 2099 #23- 15,187 (- 0.6%) 06/17 Spider-Man 2099 #24- 14,828 (- 2.4%) 07/17 Spider-Man 2099 #25- 14,763 (- 0.4%) ($5) Since issue #2: -63.7%
9 more issues to go before it will outlive the original series.
—
141- DR STRANGE SORCERERS SUPREME 10/16 Dr Strange Sorcerers Supreme #1 - 149,710 11/16 Dr Strange Sorcerers Supreme #2 - 29,349 (-80.4%) 12/16 Dr Strange Sorcerers Supreme #3 - 25,054 (-14.6%) 01/17 Dr Strange Sorcerers Supreme #4 - 26,098 (+ 4.1%) 02/17 Dr Strange Sorcerers Supreme #5 - 19,402 (-25.7%) 03/17 Dr Strange Sorcerers Supreme #6 - 18,094 (- 6.7%) 04/17 Dr Strange Sorcerers Supreme #7 - 16,887 (- 6.7%) 05/17 Dr Strange Sorcerers Supreme #8 - 15,702 (- 7.0%) 06/17 Dr Strange Sorcerers Supreme #9 - 15,129 (- 3.6%) 07/17 Dr Strange Sorcerers Supreme #10- 14,539 (- 3.9%) Since issue#2: -50.5%
Took its sweet time to stabilize. Too late.
—
142- SECRET WARRIORS 05/17 Secret Warriors # 1 – 31,864 (SE) 05/17 Secret Warriors # 2 - 23,902 (-25.0%) (SE) 06/17 Secret Warriors # 3 - 20,457 (-14.5%) (SE) 07/17 Secret Warriors # 4 - 14,534 (- 29.0%)(SE) Since issue#2: -39.2%
Not every title can accomplish that: having their hardest fall with issue #4.
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144- LUKE CAGE 05/17 Luke Cage # 1 – 34,132 06/17 Luke Cage # 2 – 17,277 (-49.4%) 07/17 Luke Cage # 3 – 14,320 (-17.1%)
Compared to Iron Fist numbers, that’s a massive negative response.
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146- ROCKET 01/16 Rocket Raccoon & Groot #1 - 59,028 02/16 Rocket Raccoon & Groot #2 - 29,180 (-50.6%) 03/16 Rocket Raccoon & Groot #3 - 24,855 (-14.8%) 04/16 Rocket Raccoon & Groot #4 - 24,179 (- 2.7%) 05/16 Rocket Raccoon & Groot #5 - 21,138 (-12.6%) 06/16 Rocket Raccoon & Groot #6 - 20,392 (- 3.5%) 07/16 Rocket Raccoon & Groot #7 - 19,142 (- 6.1%) 08/16 Rocket Raccoon & Groot #8 - 20,646 (+ 7.9%) (CV2) 09/16 Rocket Raccoon & Groot #9 - 17,522 (-15.1%) (CV2) 09/16 Rocket Raccoon & Groot #10- 16,505 (- 5.8%) (CV2) 10/16 --- 11/16 --- 12/16 Rocket Raccoon # 1 - 59,305 01/17 Rocket Raccoon # 2 - 22,113 (-62.7%) 02/17 Rocket Raccoon # 3 – 15,791 (-28.6%) 03/17 Rocket Raccoon # 4 - 14,324 (- 9.3%) 04/17 Rocket Raccoon # 5 – 13,373 (- 6.6%) 05/17 Rocket # 1 – 27,749 06/17 Rocket # 2 – 16,177 (-41.7%) 07/17 Rocket # 3 - 14,126 (-12.7%)
Another usuless relaunch.
—
150- HAWKEYE 03/15 All New Hawkeye #1 - 66,608 04/15 All New Hawkeye #2 - 42,730 (-35.8%) 05/15 All New Hawkeye #3 - 38,087 (-10.9%) 06/15 --- 07/15 All New Hawkeye #4 - 31,661 (-16.9%) 08/15 --- 09/15 All New Hawkeye #5 - 31,141 (- 1.6%) 10/15 --- 11/15 All New Hawkeye #1 - 68,933 12/15 All New Hawkeye #2 - 35,363 (-48.7%) 01/16 All New Hawkeye #3 - 26,913 (-23.9%) 02/16 All New Hawkeye #4 - 24,903 (- 7.5%) 03/16 All New Hawkeye #5 - 24,779 (- 0.5%) 04/16 All New Hawkeye #6 - 21,209 (-14.4%) 05/16 --- 06/16 --- 07/16 --- 08/16 --- 09/16 --- 10/16 --- 11/16 --- 12/16 Hawkeye #1 - 70,884 01/17 Hawkeye #2 - 27,049 (-61.8%) 02/17 Hawkeye #3 - 20,089 (-25.7%) 03/17 Hawkeye #4 - 17,234 (-14.2%) 04/17 Hawkeye #5 - 16,031 (- 7.0%) 05/17 Hawkeye #6 - 15,304 (- 4.5%) 06/17 Hawkeye #7 - 14,474 (- 5.4%) 07/17 Hawkeye #8 - 13,772 (- 4.9%) Since issue#2 : -49.1% VOL.1: 47,268 VOL.2: 25,657 VOL.3: 13,536 VOL.4: 8,814 VOL.5: 4,109 VOL.6: 2,583 VOL.1: 2,210
TPB sales are not responding. Renumbering the TPB volumes didn’t work.
—
151- GUARDIANS OF GALAXY TELLTALE SERIES 07/17 GoG Telltale Series # 1 - 13,467
The prequel to a GoG video game. Launching many products featuring GoG when its main title is in shreds salewise is probably not the best strategy, except if you are only trying to make the most money before dumping it.
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155- BLACK PANTHER CREW 04/17 BP Crew #1 - 35,604 05/17 BP Crew #2 - 18,183 (-48.9%) 06/17 BP Crew #3 - 14,634 (-19.5%) 07/17 BP Crew #4 - 13,050 (-10.8%)
That’s as far as Marvel will go to feature a “Milestone” black team.
—
174- AMERICA 04/17 America # 1 - 43,592 04/17 America # 2 - 23,987 (-45.0%) 05/17 America # 3 - 16,262 (-32.2%) 06/17 America # 4 - 12,624 (-22.4%) 07/17 America # 5 - 11,354 (-10.1%) Since issue #2: -52.7%
Only amazing TPB sales could save it at this point.
—
177- NICK FURY 04/17 Nick Fury #1 - 31,683 05/17 Nick Fury #2 - 16,690 (-47.3%) 06/17 Nick Fury #3 - 12,689 (-24.0%) 07/17 Nick Fury #4 - 10,973 (-13.5%) Since issue #2: -34.3%
If the sales results of Jessica Jones gave me any hope about the future, it is now gone.
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181- ZOMBIES ASSEMBLE LTD ($5) 05/17 Zombies Assemble Ltd #1 – 18,036 06/17 Zombies Assemble Ltd #2 - 11,887 (-34.1%) 06/17 Zombies Assemble Ltd #3 - 10,558 (-11.2%) 07/17 Zombies Assemble Ltd #0 - 10,705 (+ 1.4%)
Hey, let’s propose a prelude to our limited series, but after issue#3. And let’s numbered it #0… Sometimes, it’s a wonder Marvel manage to sell that much copies of their comics, with so confusing strategies.
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182- UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL 01/15 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 - 41,693 02/15 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #2 – 24,621 (-40.9%) 03/15 Unbeateable Squirrel Girl #3 – 26,586 ( +8.0%) 04/15 Unbeateable Squirrel Girl #4 – 20,987 (-21.1%) 05/15 Unbeateable Squirrel Girl #5 – 20,088 (- 4.3%) 06/15 Unbeateable Squirrel Girl #6 – 19,341 (- 3.7%) 07/15 Unbeateable Squirrel Girl #7 – 19,801 (+ 2.4%) 08/15 Unbeateable Squirrel Girl #8 - 19,134 (- 3.4%) 09/15 --- 10/15 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 - 43,155 11/15 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #2 - 23,064 (-46.6%) 12/15 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #3 - 25,350 (+ 9.9%) 01/16 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #4 - 19,923 (-21.4%) 02/16 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #5 - 17,743 (-10.9%) 03/16 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #6 - 20,739 (+16.9%) 04/16 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #7 - 17,869 (-13.8%) 05/16 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #8 - 15,131 (-15.3%) 06/16 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #9 - 14,692 (- 2.9%) 07/16 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #10- 14,590 (- 0.7%) 08/16 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #11- 13,872 (- 4.9%) 09/16 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #12- 14,379 (+ 3.7%) 10/16 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #13- 14,688 (+ 2.1%) 11/16 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #14- 12,933 (-11.9%) 12/16 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #15- 12,556 (- 2.9%) 01/17 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #16- 17,569 (+39.9%) 02/17 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #17- 11,898 (-32.3%) 03/17 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #18- 17,765 (+49.3%) 04/17 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #19- 11,074 (-37.7%) 05/17 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #20- 10,999 (- 0.7%) 06/17 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #21- 10,937 (- 0.5%) 07/17 Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #22- 10,425 (- 4.7%) Since issue #2 : -54.8% TPB VOL.2: 8,884 TPB VOL.3 : 2,928 TPB VOL.4: 2,387 TPB VOL.5: 2,151
That’s the proof that those weird variant cover buyers have no taste. Because, yes, it’s the standard cover and there is in fact no variant on this issue, but have you seen how amazing this Erica Henderson Savage Land painted cover is?!
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191- OCCUPY AVENGERS 11/16 Occupy Avengers # 1 - 38,400 12/16 Occupy Avengers # 2 - 32,974 (-14.1%) 01/17 Occupy Avengers # 3 - 18,499 (-43.9%) 02/17 Occupy Avengers # 4 - 11,965 (-35.7%) 03/17 Occupy Avengers # 5 - 17,413 (+45.5%) 04/17 Occupy Avengers # 6 – 10,296 (-40.8%) 05/17 Occupy Avengers # 7 – 9,624 (- 6.5%) 06/17 Occupy Avengers # 8 - 10,404 (+ 8.1%) (SE) 07/17 Occupy Avengers # 9 - 10,092 (- 3.0%) (SE) Since issue#2: -69.4%
Doesn’t occupy a lot of space on the racks, obviously.
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192-MONSTERS UNLEASHED 01/17 Monsters Unleashed Ltd #1 - 91,154 02/17 Monsters Unleashed Ltd #2 - 51,389 (-43.6%) 02/17 Monsters Unleashed Ltd #3 - 38,205 (-25.7%) 03/17 Monsters Unleashed Ltd #4 - 34,937 (- 8.6%) 03/17 Monsters Unleashed Ltd #5 - 33,205 (- 5.0%) 04/17 Monsters Unleashed #1 - 27,317 05/17 Monsters Unleashed #2 - 15,324 (-43.9%) 06/17 Monsters Unleashed #3 - 12,033 (-21.5%) 07/17 Monsters Unleashed #4 - 10,004 (-16.9%) Since issue #2: -34.7%
As long as Kajumax (at Oni) is still published, I’m OK wth it.
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195- 223-THOR RAGNAROK PRELUDE LTD 07/17 Thor Ragnarok Prelude Ltd # 1 - 9,751 07/17 Thor Ragnarok Prelude Ltd # 2 - 8,037
This is either the cheapest marketing ploy or genius. This is NOT an adaptation of Thor Ragnarok, neither a prelude to it, but a comic adaptation of The Incredible Hulk – the last movie I suppose? Nothing is too good to lure customers to empty their pockets!
—
232- MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR 11/15 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1 - 38,133 12/15 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #2 - 21,715 (-43.1%) 01/16 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #3 - 18,424 (-15.2%) 02/16 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #4 - 14,941 (-18.9%) 03/16 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #5 - 14,771 (- 1.1%) 04/16 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #6 - 12,253 (-17.0%) 05/16 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #7 - 12,879 (+ 5.1%) 06/16 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #8 - 12,721 (- 1.2%) 07/16 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #9 - 10,338 (-18.7%) 08/16 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #10- 11,862 (+14.7%) 09/16 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #11- 9,765 (-17.7%) 10/16 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #12- 9,509 (- 2.6%) 11/16 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #13- 11,113 (+16.9%) 12/16 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #14- 9,370 (-15.7%) 01/17 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #15- 10,966(+17.0%) 02/17 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #16- 8,440 (-23.0%) 02/17 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #17- 8,273 (- 2.0%) 04/17 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #18- 7,966 (- 3.7%) 05/17 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #19- 14,244(+78.8%) 06/17 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #20- 7,731 (-45.7%) 07/17 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #21- 7,586 (- 1.9%) Since issue #2 : -65.1% MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR VOL.1: 4,275 MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR VOL.2: 1,664 MOON GIRL AND DEVIL DINOSAUR VOL.3: 1,576
TPB activity is non-existent, at least in US comic book stores.
—
235- UNSTOPPABLE WASP 01/17 Unstoppable Wasp # 1 - 37,415 02/17 Unstoppable Wasp # 2 - 16,292 (-56.5%) 03/17 Unstoppable Wasp # 3 - 12,324 (-24.4%) 04/17 Unstoppable Wasp # 4 - 9,780 (-20.6%) 05/17 Unstoppable Wasp # 5 - 9,013 (- 7.8%) 06/17 Unstoppable Wasp # 6 - 8,051 (-10.7%) 07/17 Unstoppable Wasp # 7 - 7,431 Since issue #2: -50.6%
A fish drawing a wasp. You should check the result. I’m not being sacarstic.
Thanks for reading until the end! I hope to see you next time. Meanwhile, feel free to comment, express your rage or your love for French sarcasm! I’ll hug everyone, no matter what.
Xavier Lancel, born 1973 in France, living in the beautiful city of Lyon, has been working since 1999 for Scarce, one of the longest running fanzines on US comics (32 years old!). He has been editor of the magazine since 2008. He also runs two blogs, one devoted to Ernie Colon (http://erniecolonunlimited.
Thank you for taking the time to write this up and compile the data.
What a sad, sorry time for the industry. At a time when it should be flourishing from all of the media attention, sales are far, far worse than they were during the crash of the 1990s.
I wouldnt dare to open a new comic store in this day and age.
A least this stuff will be affordable once it hits the discount bins.
I’m missing the logic on how a comic company’s numbers can continue to underwhelm, month after month… and no one (?) at the top gets canned.
I agree with another fellow commentator here. I don’t understand how Alonso is still EIC. We need some new blood, someone capable of bringing Marvel to its old glory. Stop the variants, stop the remembering. Just give us some great stories.
June Brigman… there’s a name I haven’t seen in a while. Nice to know she’s still around and working.
Suzene: she worked on several convergence titles for DC.
Does it matter who they bring in? Most of the characters are trashed.
I have several conflicting thoughts. One is this is what happens when you spend the past 20 years only trying to sell to an aging customer base with occasional headline grabs. Another is people only really associate Marvel characters with movies and TV.
I wonder if the industry is finally evolving so that most of the money is in webcomics and Kickstarter and other creator owned ventures? Is that too pie in the sky? I dunno.
Evolve or die is a phrase that always comes to my mind looking at these charts. I wonder what an evolved Marvel comic line will look like?
I feel bad for retailers stuck with books they can’t move. They don’t deserve this. Those guys are the lifeblood of the industry. No matter what, I always want to be able to go into a comic shop and look around to find new works.
You are correct: The Valerian movie wasn’t that bad. In fact, it was pretty good.
Re: Alonso – how much does he really control renumbering, variants, #books, pricing, etc? I was always under the impression that was the publisher’s job, not the editor’s. And that editor just controls the content itself. But I could be wrong.
“One is this is what happens when you spend the past 20 years only trying to sell to an aging customer base”
This keeps getting repeated over and over again but as an aging someone who USED to be part of Marvel’s customer base, it’s not accurate. Were aging fanboys clamoring for the the replacement of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Clint Barton, etc? Were aging fanboys the ones demanding a Squirrel Girl title or more Inhumans books than you can shake a stick at? Were aging fanboys really demanding not only an end to the Spider-marriage but the most asinine ending possible?
Heck, hasn’t pretty much any and all recent success at DC been based largely on trying to re-ingratiate themselves with an aging customer base?
Don’t get me wrong, aging fanboys like me are a problematic audience and kissing our butt too much is no path forward for the industry, but I think it’s flatly wrong to place any blame for Marvel’s sales collapse on us. An awful lot of us left Marvel a long time ago. It’s the readers who were supposed to replace us and the things Marvel has done to attract them that appear to be the problem here.
Mike
Mike, well spoken. I too an an aging fanboy. What I see as the problem is as follows:
1) Mediocre to outright crappy storeytelling from avantgard authors that do not know how to
convey a comic book story on the printed page;
2) Muddy to incomprehensible artwork from artists , including many foreign artists which Marvel
hires on the cheap. Alonso even said so by claiming the artwork is not important (or words to that
effect);
3) New replacement characters that are not getting the sales support Marvel thought they would,;
4) Taking the classic characters out of play, and finally add
5) Editorial agendas under which the creative teams have to work, i.e.: continuous events,
crossovers, variant covers, frequent renumberings, and an emphasis on forcing diversity across
the entire line of comics.
Combine all of the above and the result is the current sad, sad state of Marvel Comics.
Wow, it feels like I haven’t read a sales report for a while now. I can’t believe the low numbers on A LOT of these titles. O_o
And this modern era SPIDEY 2099 will forever remain 9 issues from outliving the original, it seems – #25 was the final issue.
The diminishing returns on renumbered series can be seen on many titles. Perhaps the linewide relaunch ends up being more of a jumping off point unfortunately. What Marvel needs right now are stable readership numbers on many key titles. Otherwise, comic readers will continue to become only comic book movie watchers.
Xavier, I just wanted to tell you that you’re doing a great job with this column. Not only is it put together well but you make me laugh out loud multiple times each column. You are really really funny! Keep up the great work.
| ”Darth” is the new magic adjective!
Coming soon from Marvel: Darth Avengers #1
“I wonder if the industry is finally evolving so that most of the money is in webcomics and Kickstarter”
Well, Brad Guigar of “Evil Inc” freely admits on his video blogs that he wasn’t making any money until he started doing erotic comics with his Evil Inc characters and put it behind a Patreon paywall.
And anybody who went to PAX West two weeks ago knows that “PvP” creator Scott Kurtz was complaining to anyone and everyone about how much his revenue streams have dropped as ad blockers become more prevalent.
So I don’t think webcomics/Kickstarter are the way to go at the moment.
As a “Aging Marvel Zombie,” the last two Marvel comics I bought were the “Spider-Man: Complete Alien Costume Saga” omnibus TPBs Marvel put out in 2015. There is very little that appeals to me about current Marvel right now.
I’ll probably pick up Spider-Man again after Slott leaves and the “Black Cat: Kingpin of Crime” idiocy gets retconned out of existance.
“Black Cat: Kingpin of Crime”
Seriously? That’s straight up fan fiction masquerading as professional work.
Mike
“This is probably the new sales level for this kind of thing.”
I doubt it. Secret Empire was a new low watermark for sure, but next years event will probably be lucky to hit 60,000 in its final issues.
“9 more issues to go before it will outlive the original series.”
Err, the original Spidey 2099 lasted 46 issues.
“Only amazing TPB sales could save it at this point.”
No, Marvel will keep America around because they want to virtue signal. I’ve never read the title; I have no opinion on its quality; but it’s being kept around due to its obvious strident political nature.
“have you seen how amazing this Erica Henderson Savage Land painted cover is?!”
How old are you? The Squirrel Girl cover looks like something I saw my classmates do in a junior-high art class. It’s… err… okay? It would be great if this title was actually finding this kind of juvenile audience en masse. Instead it finds a tiny audience full of adults with the aesthetic tastes of children.
Several titles have crashed even harder in August, including X-MEN BLUE which has now dropped well below 40k. Marvel desperately needs LEGACY to stem the bleeding; however, most of their upcoming titles look pretty uninspired.
LL
Note:
I think the same numbers were used for X-Men Gold #8 and X-Men Blue #8 (46,615). I believe Blue is supposed to be 41,411.
Wow i thought i miss read those All New GOG numbers at first. Its 8th issues in (twice a month) and its on 22,000 already!
it should be doing better given past volumes, Duggan is clearly a better fit then bendis,
it launched the same month as the hit movie (although the fact no-one seems to remember the film beyond James Gunn) and the story hasn’t been disrupted by a unnecessary secret empire tie-in arc.
i wonder if corporate synergy killed this one or the price or both
Due to budget problems I had to step away from comics for a while. With all of the relaunches and that sort of thing, I realized there weren’t a lot of titles I missed.
They say the new #1 thing is a shot in the arm for a title, and sales figures don’t lie, but at the same time, it’s a LOT easier to drop a book at #8 than it is to stop reading a comic at #218. It also feels like it was futile getting into series that would be gone by their 14th issues anyway.
With that said… I’m “tuning back in” for Legacy. I also hope they learn from DC’s Rebirth in that, instead of a million different titles, keep to the core. We don’t need 6 different books starring Spider-Women or even two Iron Man titles. Glad Spider-Man is back to Amazing and Peter Parker for Pete, at least… if ASM wants to be biweekly, that’s fine too.
But they’ll probably screw it up like when they overexposed Black Panther and Doctor Strange, much like how overexposure ruined Ghost Rider and Punisher in the 90’s.
“So I don’t think webcomics/Kickstarter are the way to go at the moment.”
And then the Kickstarter for the Complete Girls & Slingshots launches and racks up over $150,000 with 23 days left to go: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ironspike/the-complete-girls-with-slingshots/
“And then the Kickstarter for the Complete Girls & Slingshots”
That webcomic started in 2004 and ran for 11 years. If you have to put in 11 years at a project to make a Kickstarter work, that’s not a great business plan. Heck, it’s not that great if after doing a webcomic for 11 years you STILL need to beg for money.
Mike
Thank you to all for this rush of comments! :)
Luke H: thanks a lot. It takes a lot of time to do this column. Appreciation from its readers is my reward.
Peter Harris & M. Bunge: Black cat kingpin of crime?! And they never advertised that on one of the many many covers of ASM?! Gee.
Dan Anh:
Regarding SE numbers: I’m betting next event will do better than SE. Don’t forget it seems that a noticeable fraction of Marvel fans didn’t purchase it because of the Captain hydra thing.
Regarding the current siderman 2099: 12+25= 37 issues So that’s 9 issues less than 46 (the fake renumbering doesn’t count)
Regarding America: well, nothing says so far that Marvel will keep it around so I don’t where you take your information from. I don’t see the point of Marvel keeping such a tanker in sales -if the tpb sales are also low- just to…make a statement? They have many other titles making a statement about diversity, and so titles have not been the target of hard core fan criticism as much as America.
I have watched 1-2 videos about fans angry at America and frankly, it was only freebashing based on the character sex and origin. Nothing fair at all. It’s perhaps bad, perhaps good, but Marvel will certainly not keep it around for more than 12 issue if the return in sales is atrocious.
Regarding the Squirrel girl cover: the cover looks obviously kinda like a prehistoric painting, that’s an aesthetic statement, connected to the story. It can perhaps look easy but it’s not. just try it, and you’ll see that’s not that easy.
I’m 44 by the way and, one of the big advantage of being 44 is that you completly assume your choices. Squirrel audience is not that tiny when you look at its tpb sales. The fact that the character and its adventures are funny and not grim and gritty doesn(t mean that older people can’t read it. In fact, you’ll find it is way easier to read all-ages books when you are past 40 because most of the time, you have just let go of this “I’m a man and i’m gonna prove it” attitude that let you pass over fantastic pieces of art only because of their intented target.
I frankly don’t care if I’m not the intended target of a comic.
Two good examples are the good old Marvel Adventures line, where many many talented people have been working on for years, putting amazing stories in one shot with amazing art, no crossover thingie or whatever, and completly ignored by fans mainly because it was “aimed” at young readers and out of continuity.
The other perfect current exemple are the My Little Pony comcis at IDW, probably some of the best written comics on the market. So yeah, it figure pony and I suppose that the anime it is from is very childish, and there are many toys aimed at a very young audience (and brownies! :p) but nobody can say that the stories are not very well written, with lots of humor and a king of moral compass that we used to find in… silver age Marvel comics!
Rui: thanks, i will correct that next time.
Craig: yeah, good example. Remember the 90’s when ghost rider and punisher were so hot we were thinking there would always been around from now on?
Yes, the Dr strange and Black panther situation is pretty sad. Dr strange is still doing pretty ok, even good but the Black Panther over vibe turned into a fiasco, sadly.
Thanks, Xavier, for,your hard work.
Whoa. These numbers are dismal. Many comic retailers may fall on this direction from The House of Ideas.
I think the Squirrel Girl cover is meant to be a pulp novel homage actually. It does look a bit strange though paired with Erica Henderson’s art style. The cover of issue 26 is similar. (And looks even wierder in my opinion.)
Squirrel Girl is easily the best comic Marvel has published over the last couple years. It’s a hell of a lot of fun and works for new readers and old(er) readers like me who are steeped in Marvel continuity.
I think what Marvel -and DC, to a lesser extent now – are trying to do is cultivate multiple audiences, a mixture of the fanboy event driven folk, the Image crowd and some all ages type stuff to draw in a new crowd. It doesn’t have to be one hegemonic audience for everything.
Where Marvel are falling flat is that they’re trying too hard to crossover these audiences. Ms. Marvel, for example, works much better without having to deal with the events and the event comics feel weird having to shoehorn in the ‘new generation’ of characters.
My only real issue with Squirrel Girl is the art. The stories were fine, but the art was just not my taste and it’s hard to keep shelling out $4 an issue if you don’t like it.
(And I say this as somebody that loved the Archie-esque art from Hellcat, so it’s not that every book has to be “realistic” to work…)
PreacherCain: “Where Marvel are falling flat is that they’re trying too hard to crossover these audiences. Ms. Marvel, for example, works much better without having to deal with the events and the event comics feel weird having to shoehorn in the ‘new generation’ of characters.”
This pretty much. Marvel was using the same tactics for new readers that they were using for hardcore readers with mega events spanning 70+ books inclusive of tie-ins and crossovers that span ~20 books. Gave up on Marvel floppies because of the expense of events and xovers. A recurring $4-6/mo for a series is tolerable. At $20-50/mo due to events/xovers, you really start questioning the value of reading “live”.
That said, I’m quite hopeful that Marvel is moving away from the event/xover heavy model after seeing SEP17 and OCT17 solicits.
Great comments Xavier! Spot on in most cases. This must be one of those articles Marvel has been harassing Heidi about.
Also, you WERE joking about liking that Savage Land cover weren’t you? ;)
These Jim Lee Variants were the Worst Variants I have seen in a long time. I can’t even wrap my head around how they could have possibly thought it was a good idea to blow up trading card artwork to use for comic book covers, other than hoping for nostalgia to kick in. But they looked terrible, so even if you loved the trading cards back in the day (and I did, at the time), it wasn’t enough to want to pick up these covers. And I totally agree that a lot of the main covers deserve more appreciation.
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