siege#3.jpgby Paul O’Brien

Crossover season continues! SIEGE #4 slipped into May, but that didn’t stop a bunch of tie-in books from shipping, including the final issues of several Avengers titles before the line gets revamped. HULK and INCREDIBLE HULK didn’t ship either, but there’s still some WORLD WAR HULK books on this list. And the X-books kick off their major crossover, “Second Coming.”

April also saw the release of the Iron Man movie, complete with the launch of a second monthly Iron Man title. And we’ve got the first issues of new DEADPOOL CORPS, S.H.I.E.L.D. and BLACK WIDOW, as well as a bunch of miniseries.

As usual, Marvel had the largest share of the direct market, beating DC by 45% to 33% in units, and 39% to 30% in dollars.

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

Normally I’d start with Marvel’s top selling book of the month. First, though, SIEGE itself. Issue #4, originally scheduled for 21 April, slipped into May. But issue #3 did scrape the bottom end of the charts, making number 293 with re-orders of 3,073. That brings its totals to…

SIEGE
01/10  Siege #1 of 4 - 120,888
02/10  Siege #2 of 4 - 118,283  (-2.2%)
03/10  Siege #3 of 4 - 113,071  (-4.4%)
04/10  ---

Once again, it’s worth noting that, although the first issue sales were on the low side, subsequent issues have held up relatively well – though SIEGE remains some way distant of previous event books. Of course, it can fairly be pointed out that sales are down across the board from a couple of years ago, so that SIEGE would have been bucking the trends if it had matched its predecessors in sales.

5.  NEW AVENGERS
04/05  New Avengers #5  - 162,412
04/06  New Avengers #18 - 121,550
04/07  New Avengers #29 - 125,378 
04/08  New Avengers #40 - 110,470 
=====
04/09  New Avengers #52 -  93,975  ( -1.4%)
05/09  New Avengers #53 -  94,367  ( +0.4%)
06/09  New Avengers #54 -  93,878  ( -0.5%)
07/09  New Avengers #55 -  84,745  ( -9.7%)
08/09  New Avengers #56 -  89,996  ( +6.2%)
09/09  New Avengers #57 -  85,598  ( -4.9%)
10/09  New Avengers #58 -  76,656  (-10.4%)
11/09  New Avengers #59 -  74,379  ( -3.0%)
12/09  New Avengers #60 -  72,790  ( -2.1%)
01/10  New Avengers #61 -  78,202  ( +7.4%)
02/10  New Avengers #62 -  76,405  ( -2.3%)
03/10  New Avengers #63 -  76,145  ( -0.3%)
04/10  New Avengers #64 -  75,430  ( -0.9%)
                           6 mnth  ( -1.6%)
                           1 year  (-19.7%)
                           2 year  (-31.7%)
                           3 year  (-39.8%)
                           4 year  (-37.9%)
                           5 year  (-53.6%)

With SIEGE itself running late, Marvel’s biggest selling title for April is one of its tie-ins. This is technically the final issue of NEW AVENGERS, though it actually continues into May’s NEW AVENGERS: FINALE one-shot, and the series is set for a relaunch in June.

6.  UNCANNY X-MEN
04/05  Uncanny X-Men #458 -  85,299
04/06  Uncanny X-Men #472 -  79,157
04/07  Uncanny X-Men #485 -  81,764 
04/08  Uncanny X-Men #497 -  93,369
=====
04/09  Uncanny X-Men #508 -  76,442  ( -1.9%)
04/09  Uncanny X-Men #509 -  69,185  ( -9.5%)
05/09  Uncanny X-Men #510 -  75,139  ( +8.6%)
06/09  Uncanny X-Men #511 -  71,148  ( -5.3%)
06/09  Uncanny X-Men #512 -  76,283  ( +7.2%)
07/09  Uncanny X-Men #513 -  87,582  (+14.8%)
08/09  Uncanny X-Men #514 -  90,316  ( +3.1%)
09/09  Uncanny X-Men #515 -  73,585  (-18.5%)
10/09  Uncanny X-Men #516 -  73,916  ( +0.4%)
11/09  Uncanny X-Men #517 -  69,557  ( -5.9%)
12/09  Uncanny X-Men #518 -  68,572  ( -1.4%)
12/09  Uncanny X-Men #519 -  67,043  ( -2.2%)
01/10  Uncanny X-Men #520 -  65,758  ( -1.9%)
02/10  Uncanny X-Men #521 -  67,049  ( +2.0%)
03/10  Uncanny X-Men #522 -  67,996  ( +1.4%)
04/10  Uncanny X-Men #523 -  74,090  ( +9.0%)
                             6 mnth  ( +0.2%)
                             1 year  ( -3.0%)
                             2 year  (-20.6%)
                             3 year  ( -9.4%)
                             4 year  ( -6.4%)
                             5 year  (-13.1%)

For the X-books, April begins the three-month “Second Coming” crossover. The core titles are UNCANNY X-MEN, X-MEN LEGACY, X-FORCE and NEW MUTANTS, with some other tie-ins on the fringes (most notably an arc in X-FACTOR).

UNCANNY usually has a variant cover. This issue has two – one by David Finch, and one “Iron Man by Design” variant, which is the April theme. To be honest, that would normally be enough to account for the 9% sales increase in itself.

As already discussed in relation to SIEGE, sales are down across the board over the last couple of years, so comparisons with earlier years have to be seen with that in mind. With that caveat in mind, though, “Second Coming” is the third part of a trilogy which started with “Messiah Complex” in late 2007. UNCANNY X-MEN #492, which began that crossover, posted a 20% sales increase for an estimated 102,511 copies. So this crossover does seem to be having less effect on sales than its predecessors.

That said, it’s been fairly common of late for the top-selling titles to see relatively little gain from a crossover. We’ve seen it with the Avengers books during SIEGE, for example, and the pattern may be repeating here.

7.  INVINCIBLE IRON MAN
04/05  Iron Man #3             - 51,390
04/06  Iron Man #7             - 49,404
04/07  Iron Man #16            - 59,470
04/08  Iron Man #28            - 35,754
=====
04/09  Invincible Iron Man #12 - 51,774  (  -0.7%)
05/09  Invincible Iron Man #13 - 51,311  (  -0.9%)
06/09  Invincible Iron Man #14 - 53,229  (  +3.7%)
07/09  Invincible Iron Man #15 - 50,554  (  -5.0%)
08/09  Invincible Iron Man #16 - 53,782  (  +6.4%)
09/09  Invincible Iron Man #17 - 47,182  ( -12.3%)
09/09  Invincible Iron Man #18 - 48,039  (  +1.8%)
10/09  Invincible Iron Man #19 - 47,178  (  -1.8%)
11/09  Invincible Iron Man #20 - 61,667  ( +30.7%)
12/09  Invincible Iron Man #21 - 49,986  ( -18.9%)
01/10  Invincible Iron Man #22 - 49,130  (  -1.7%)
02/10  Invincible Iron Man #23 - 50,027  (  +1.8%)
03/10  Invincible Iron Man #24 - 49,239  (  -1.6%)
04/10  Invincible Iron Man #25 - 73,694  ( +49.7%)
                                 6 mnth  ( +56.2%)
                                 1 year  ( +42.9%)
                                 2 year  (+106.1%)
                                 3 year  ( +23.9%)
                                 4 year  ( +49.2%)
                                 5 year  ( +44.0%)

There’s a huge spike for this issue, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it’s an anniversary issue (though a relatively minor one). Secondly, April saw the release of the second Iron man movie. Thirdly, this is a double-sized book. Fourthly, there’s a slew of variant covers on this thing – 50/50 covers by regular artist Salvador Larroca, a foilogram variant by Ryan Meinerding, a movie variant, and an “Iron Man by Design” variant. And fifthly, though I doubt it’s much of a factor, the issue unveils a new armour design.

Even with all those factors in its favour, the sales jump is enormous. I’d say the major factor is the movie, combined with a successful effort to push this issue as a viable tie-in product.

9,20. ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS
08/09  U.C. Avengers #1   - 99,701
09/09  U.C. Avengers #2   - 68,597  (-31.2%)
10/09  U.C. Avengers #3   - 62,716  ( -8.6%)
11/09  U.C. Avengers #4   - 59,023  ( -5.9%)
12/09  ---
01/10  ---
02/10  ---
03/10  U.C. Avengers #5   - 58,098  ( -1.6%)
04/10  U.C. Avengers #6   - 53,438  ( -8.0%)
04/10  U.C. Avengers 2 #1 - 64,811  (+21.3%)
                            6 mnth  ( +3.3%)

The relaunch of the Ultimate imprint hasn’t been a resounding success so far. Whether or not in response to that, Marvel have tinkered with the format of ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS, which will now be a series of minis rather than an ongoing title. So we have two issues this month – the delayed ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS #6, and the first issue of ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS 2.

This device has shown diminishing returns on books like DARK TOWER and ANITA BLAKE. What tends to happen is that the first issue shows a spike, but the overall trend remains downwards. Perhaps it will be different with a major superhero title.

This issue does show a significant spike. But then it also has two variant covers, which would have boosted numbers anyway. We should see over the next few months whether the renumbering has a lasting effect on sales.

10. THOR
04/05  ---
04/06  ---
04/07  ---
04/08  Thor #8   - 91,981
=====
04/09  Thor #601 - 82,742  (-14.5%)
05/09  ---
06/09  Thor #602 - 69,568  (-15.3%)
07/09  ---
08/09  ---
09/09  Thor #603 - 65,265  ( -6.2%)
10/09  ---
11/09  Finale    - 53,566  (-17.9%)
12/09  Thor #604 - 61,608  (+15.0%)
12/09  Thor #605 - 55,242  (-10.3%)
01/10  Thor #606 - 55,353  ( +0.2%)
02/10  Thor #607 - 66,973  (+21.0%)
03/10  Thor #608 - 62,012  ( -7.4%)
04/10  Thor #609 - 64,522  ( +4.0%)
                   6 mnth  (  --- )
                   1 year  (-22.0%)
                   2 year  (-29.9%)
                   3 year  (  --- )
                   4 year  (  --- )
                   5 year  (  --- )

The third part of THOR’s SIEGE tie-in arc. This issue also has a variant cover, hence the variation from last month.

12. X-FORCE
04/08  X-Force #3  - 85,750
=====
04/09  X-Force #14 - 62,674  (+21.0%)
05/09  X-Force #15 - 58,340  ( -6.9%)
06/09  X-Force #16 - 58,818  ( +0.8%)
07/09  X-Force #17 - 61,104  ( +3.9%)
08/09  X-Force #18 - 56,421  ( -7.7%)
09/09  X-Force #19 - 49,817  (-11.7%)
10/09  X-Force #20 - 48,921  ( -1.8%)
11/09  X-Force #21 - 53,967  (+10.3%)
12/09  X-Force #22 - 51,859  ( -3.9%)
01/10  X-Force #23 - 50,848  ( -1.9%)
02/10  X-Force #24 - 49,790  ( -2.1%)
03/10  X-Force #25 - 49,910  ( +0.2%)
04/10  X-Force #26 - 62,200  (+24.6%)
                     6 mnth  (+27.1%)
                     1 year  ( -0.8%)
                     2 year  (-27.5%)

Part of the “Second Coming” tie-in, and this does indeed show a significant sales increase – comparable, in fact, to the spike this time last year for the “Messiah War” crossover.

But again, there’s a slight caveat here. First of all, X-FORCE is coming straight off another crossover, “Necrosha-X”, which only finished in March. And second, this issue has three variant covers, compared with only one variant last month – so of course sales are up.

Interestingly, it remains 15,000 adrift of UNCANNY X-MEN. I’ve always found that fascinating. Who are these people who want to buy every fourth chapter of “Second Coming”? If they’re such completists that they’re buying issues of UNCANNY containing a story they apparently don’t want to read, why aren’t they completist enough to buy the other parts of the story? Mystifies me…

14. X-MEN LEGACY
04/05  X-Men #169        -  82,793
04/06  X-Men #185        -  78,815
04/07  X-Men #198        -  74,841 
04/08  X-Men Legacy #210 -  77,441
=====
04/09  X-Men Legacy #223 -  71,935  (+29.4%)
05/09  X-Men Legacy #224 -  54,008  (-24.9%)
06/09  X-Men Legacy #225 -  58,374  ( +8.1%)
07/09  X-Men Legacy #226 -  59,298  ( +1.6%)
08/09  X-Men Legacy #227 -  63,316  ( +6.8%)
09/09  ---
10/09  X-Men Legacy #228 -  52,855  (-16.5%)
11/09  X-Men Legacy #229 -  50,789  ( -3.9%)
12/09  X-Men Legacy #230 -  49,776  ( -2.0%)
12/09  X-Men Legacy #231 -  50,929  ( +2.3%)
01/10  X-Men Legacy #232 -  49,200  ( -3.4%)
02/10  X-Men Legacy #233 -  51,344  ( +4.4%)
03/10  X-Men Legacy #234 -  48,217  ( -6.1%)
04/10  X-Men Legacy #235 -  60,649  (+25.8%)
                            6 mnth  (+14.7%)
                            1 year  (-15.7%)
                            2 year  (-21.7%)
                            3 year  (-19.0%)
                            4 year  (-23.0%)
                            5 year  (-26.7%)

More “Second Coming”, and again, there’s a substantial spike here. For those of you keeping track, issues #231-233 were a “Necrosha” tie-in arc, the March issue was just a plain old regular story, and this is the start of another crossover arc. As with the other participating titles, there’s a David Finch variant cover, as well as an “Iron Man by Design” variant.

The jump for last April’s issue was due to a bunch of variant covers, but a better comparison may be issue #227, a “Utopia” tie-in which also featured a “70th frame” variant. This month’s issue comes in slightly behind that.

16. CAPTAIN AMERICA
04/05  Captain America #5   -  46,010
04/06  Captain America #17  -  45,541
04/07  ---
04/08  Captain America #37  -  80,635
=====
04/09  Captain America #49  -  63,874  (  +2.8%)
05/09  Captain America #50  -  72,708  ( +13.8%)
06/09  Captain America #600 - 123,152  ( +69.4%)
07/09  Captain America #601 -  87,844  ( -28.7%)
07/09  Reborn #1 of 6       - 197,565  (+124.9%)
08/09  Reborn #2 of 6       - 125,366  ( -36.5%)
09/09  Reborn #3 of 6       - 108,331  ( -13.6%)
10/09  ---
11/09  Reborn #4 of 6       -  96,571  ( -10.9%)
12/09  Reborn #5 of 6       -  91,790  (  -5.0%)
01/10  Reborn #6 of 6       -  84,844  (  -7.6%)
01/10  Captain America #602 -  63,948  ( -24.6%)
02/10  Captain America #603 -  63,568  (  -0.6%)
03/10  Captain America #604 -  56,962  ( -10.4%)
04/10  Captain America #605 -  59,051  (  +3.7%)
                               6 mnth  (   --- )
                               1 year  (  -7.6%)
                               2 year  ( -26.8%)
                               3 year  (   --- )
                               4 year  ( +29.7%)
                               5 year  ( +28.3%)

The small increase is likely due to the Iron Man By Design variant. (There was no variant in March, though there was in February.)

17,19. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
04/05  Amazing Spider-Man #519 -  78,535
04/06  Amazing Spider-Man #531 -  86,884
04/07  ---
04/08  Amazing Spider-Man #557 -  77,057
=====
04/09  Amazing Spider-Man #590 -  66,415  (+12.9%)
04/09  Amazing Spider-Man #591 -  60,508  ( -8.9%)
04/09  Amazing Spider-Man #592 -  65,940  ( +9.0%)
05/09  Amazing Spider-Man #593 -  58,363  (-11.5%)
05/09  Amazing Spider-Man #594 -  58,464  ( +0.2%)
05/09  Amazing Spider-Man #595 -  71,837  (+22.9%)
06/09  Amazing Spider-Man #596 -  63,525  (-11.6%)
06/09  Amazing Spider-Man #597 -  61,646  ( -3.0%)
06/09  Amazing Spider-Man #598 -  61,585  ( -0.0%)
07/09  Amazing Spider-Man #599 -  72,412  (+17.6%)
07/09  Amazing Spider-Man #600 - 116,857  (+61.4%)
08/09  Amazing Spider-Man #601 -  74,279  (-36.4%)
08/09  Amazing Spider-Man #602 -  71,532  ( -3.7%)
08/09  Amazing Spider-Man #603 -  71,051  ( -0.7%)
09/09  Amazing Spider-Man #604 -  63,435  (-10.7%)
09/09  Amazing Spider-Man #605 -  62,831  ( -1.0%)
09/09  Amazing Spider-Man #606 -  70,177  (+11.7%)
09/09  Amazing Spider-Man #607 -  62,570  (-10.8%)
10/09  Amazing Spider-Man #608 -  72,035  (+15.1%)
10/09  Amazing Spider-Man #609 -  61,176  (-15.1%)
11/09  Amazing Spider-Man #610 -  61,170  ( -0.0%)
11/09  Amazing Spider-Man #611 -  64,514  ( +5.5%)
11/09  Amazing Spider-Man #612 -  68,459  ( +6.1%)
11/09  Amazing Spider-Man #613 -  64,499  ( -5.8%)
12/09  Amazing Spider-Man #614 -  59,696  ( -7.4%)
12/09  Amazing Spider-Man #615 -  63,738  ( +6.8%)
12/09  Amazing Spider-Man #616 -  58,856  ( -7.7%)
01/10  Amazing Spider-Man #617 -  76,730  (+30.4%)
01/10  Amazing Spider-Man #618 -  61,969  (-19.2%)
01/10  Amazing Spider-Man #619 -  56,837  ( -8.3%)
02/10  Amazing Spider-Man #620 -  59,860  ( +5.3%)
02/10  Amazing Spider-Man #621 -  55,350  ( -7.5%)
02/10  Amazing Spider-Man #622 -  53,929  ( -2.6%)
03/10  Amazing Spider-Man #623 -  66,064  (+22.5%)
03/10  Amazing Spider-Man #624 -  60,213  ( -8.9%)
03/10  Amazing Spider-Man #625 -  54,179  (-10.0%)
03/10  Amazing Spider-Man #626 -  53,868  ( -0.6%)
03/10  Amazing Spider-Man #627 -  54,206  ( +0.6%)
04/10  Amazing Spider-Man #628 -  57,797  ( +6.6%)
04/10  Amazing Spider-Man #629 -  53,560  ( -7.3%)
                                  6 mnth  (-12.4%)
                                  1 year  (-11.5%)
                                  2 year  (-30.5%)
                                  3 year  (  --- )
                                  4 year  (-38.4%)
                                  5 year  (-31.8%)

Note for nitpickers: The year-on-year comparison is based on the lowest of the three April 2009 issues, because it’s the most representative – the others had variant covers.

Issue #630 slipped into the first week of May, so there’s just two issues this month. Issue #628 has an Iron Man by Design variant; issue #629 is just a regular issue. Sales have been hovering around this range for the last couple of months.

18,21,24,28,29. SIEGE: FALLEN
04/10  Captain America - 59,051
04/10  Spider-Man      - 51,840
04/10  Loki            - 48,072
04/10  Secret Warriors - 44,153
04/10  Young Avengers  - 43,886

A bunch of SIEGE tie-ins which were initially solicited with the dreaded “Classified”, not even announcing the creators (other than cover artist Marko Djurdjevic). More information was revealed later, but it’s probably safe to say that these sales are largely a reflection of the popularity of the characters – with the caveat that the LOKI one-shot was obviously more likely to be central to the plot, and should presumably have benefitted from that.

22. MIGHTY AVENGERS
04/07  Mighty Avengers #2  - 124,209
04/08  Mighty Avengers #12 -  97,239
=====
04/09  Mighty Avengers #24 -  68,231  ( -4.3%)
05/09  ---
06/09  Mighty Avengers #25 -  65,010  ( -4.7%)
06/09  Mighty Avengers #26 -  63,178  ( -2.8%)
07/09  Mighty Avengers #27 -  64,680  ( +2.4%)
08/09  Mighty Avengers #28 -  61,323  ( -5.2%)
09/09  Mighty Avengers #29 -  54,476  (-11.2%)
10/09  Mighty Avengers #30 -  52,708  ( -3.2%)
11/09  Mighty Avengers #31 -  49,480  ( -6.1%)
12/09  Mighty Avengers #32 -  48,662  ( -1.7%)
01/10  Mighty Avengers #33 -  46,899  ( -3.6%)
02/10  ---
03/10  Mighty Avengers #34 -  49,855  ( +6.3%)
03/10  Mighty Avengers #35 -  51,085  ( +2.5%)
04/10  Mighty Avengers #36 -  50,252  ( -1.6%)
                              6 mnth  ( -4.7%)
                              1 year  (-26.4%)
                              2 year  (-48.3%)
                              3 year  (-59.5%)

Final issue. This isn’t really being relaunched so much as replaced on the schedule by a different Avengers title.

For those of you who might be interested, for the purposes of these columns, I’m planning to treat NEW AVENGERS as continuing into NEW AVENGERS; and AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE as continuing into AVENGERS ACADEMY. As for DARK AVENGERS and MIGHTY AVENGERS, while they’re being replaced on the schedule by SECRET AVENGERS and just-plain-AVENGERS, I don’t think the links are close enough to justify treating them as the same title. (Neither of the new titles, for example, can sensibly be described as a continuation of DARK AVENGERS.)

23. IRON MAN: LEGACY
04/10  Iron Man: Legacy #1 - 48,956

This is a new ongoing Iron Man series with stories set in past continuity. The name is presumably inspired by Mike Carey’s X-MEN LEGACY, though that book isn’t actually set in the past, it’s just packed solid with flashbacks. This book seems to be more of an UNTOLD TALES OF IRON MAN.

The first issue has 50/50 covers plus a Ryan Meinerding variant, plus a movie variant. Take all that together with the movie release, and the first issue sales will have been helped substantially.

25. ULTIMATE COMICS X
02/10  Ultimate Comics X #1 - 64,113
03/10  ---
04/10  Ultimate Comics X #2 - 47,996  (-25.2%)

Issue #1 had multiple variant covers, so the second issue drop here is actually quite modest. Not bad at all.

26. DARK WOLVERINE
04/05  Wolverine #27      - 101,228
04/06  Wolverine #41      -  70,965
04/07  Wolverine #53      -  98,441
04/08  Wolverine #64      -  64,871
=====
04/09  ---
05/09  Wolverine #72      -  91,333  ( +0.1%)
05/09  Wolverine #73      -  83,324  ( -8.8%)
06/09  Wolverine #74      -  66,186  (-20.6%)
06/09  Dark Wolverine #75 -  80,780  (+22.0%)
07/09  Dark Wolverine #76 -  74,017  ( -8.4%)
08/09  Dark Wolverine #77 -  68,593  ( -7.3%)
09/09  Dark Wolverine #78 -  60,702  (-11.5%)
10/09  Dark Wolverine #79 -  60,076  ( -1.0%)
11/09  Dark Wolverine #80 -  52,394  (-12.8%)
12/09  Dark Wolverine #81 -  48,102  ( -8.2%)
01/10  Dark Wolverine #82 -  54,838  (+14.0%)
02/10  Dark Wolverine #83 -  53,958  ( -1.6%)
03/10  Dark Wolverine #84 -  49,469  ( -8.3%)
04/10  Dark Wolverine #85 -  47,527  ( -3.9%)
                             6 mnth  (-20.9%)
                             1 year  (  --- )
                             2 year  (-26.7%)
                             3 year  (-51.7%)
                             4 year  (-33.0%)
                             5 year  (-53.0%)

Pay attention, now, because this is complicated. Issues #82-84 were SIEGE tie-ins. Issue #85, on the other hand, is part one of “The Reckoning”, which is a crossover with the lower-selling WOLVERINE: ORIGINS. Some sales drop is therefore to be expected. As against that, this issue also has a variant cover (unlike March), which ought to send sales back up. Take all these factors into account and… well, who knows, really?

Incidentally, while DARK WOLVERINE seems to be locked on crossover mode at the moment – after this arc, it goes on to a crossover with FRANKEN-CASTLE – “The Reckoning” is one of those rare stories which probably should be a crossover for creative reasons. It’s the conclusion of the Romulus storyline from WOLVERINE: ORIGINS, a story which actually is important for both Wolverine and Daken, and therefore has a fair claim to appear in both their titles.

30. DEADPOOL
04/09  Deadpool #9  - 54,556  ( +2.7%)
05/09  Deadpool #10 - 56,123  ( +2.9%)
06/09  Deadpool #11 - 55,343  ( -1.4%)
07/09  Deadpool #12 - 58,807  ( +6.3%)
08/09  Deadpool #13 - 55,442  ( -5.7%)
08/09  Deadpool #14 - 50,263  ( -9.3%)
09/09  Deadpool #15 - 50,479  ( +0.4%)
10/09  Deadpool #16 - 46,288  ( -8.3%)
11/09  Deadpool #17 - 46,765  ( +1.0%)
12/09  Deadpool #18 - 45,914  ( -1.8%)
01/10  ---
02/10  Deadpool #19 - 44,580  ( -2.9%)
02/10  Deadpool #20 - 43,347  ( -2.8%)
03/10  Deadpool #21 - 42,062  ( -3.0%)
04/10  Deadpool #22 - 43,061  ( +2.4%)
                      6 mnth  ( -7.0%)
                      1 year  (-21.1%)

There’s an “Iron Man by Design” variant on this issue, explaining the slight increase. The underlying trend is likely to be unchanged.

NEMESIS [Icon]
03/10  Nemesis #1 of 4 - 62,031
04/10  ---

The second issue was solicited for 7 April, but didn’t come out. Nonetheless, issue #1 picks up hefty reorders of 8,299. As usual, they’re included in the numbers above.

31. NEW MUTANTS
05/09  New Mutants #1  - 60,972
06/09  New Mutants #2  - 43,230  (-29.1%)
07/09  New Mutants #3  - 42,961  ( -0.6%)
08/09  New Mutants #4  - 38,558  (-10.2%)
09/09  New Mutants #5  - 31,502  (-18.3%)
10/09  New Mutants #6  - 34,967  (+11.0%)
11/09  New Mutants #7  - 33,328  ( -4.7%)
12/09  New Mutants #8  - 32,240  ( -3.3%)
01/10  New Mutants #9  - 30,572  ( -5.2%)
02/10  New Mutants #10 - 30,807  ( +0.8%)
03/10  New Mutants #11 - 36,629  (+18.9%)
04/10  New Mutants #12 - 42,784  (+16.8%)
                         6 mnth  (+22.4%)

NEW MUTANTS is the fourth core title in “Second Coming”, and so it was always going to see a big sales increase. That increase is slightly obscured by the fact that the March issue was a peripheral SIEGE tie-in, with a sales boost of its own. The better comparison is with issues #9-10, and the jump is plainly huge.

That said, it remains some 20,000 below LEGACY and X-FORCE, and 32,000 below UNCANNY. Now, in recent years, Marvel have tended to structure their crossovers so that each title tells its own separate story, with the core events covered in a single miniseries. It’s worth pointing out that “Second Coming” isn’t like that – it’s an old school crossover where a single story is serialised through four different titles. So on these figures, almost half the people who bought UNCANNY X-MEN aren’t getting the whole story. That seems incredible, and I can’t help feeling that this must have been slightly underordered.

34. WORLD WAR HULKS
04/10  World War Hulks #1 - 41,398

An anthology one-shot following on from the “Fall of the Hulk” crossover.

35. ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN
04/05  Ult. Spider-Man #75  -  83,940
04/06  Ult. Spider-Man #93  -  72,831
04/07  Ult. Spider-Man #108 -  72,713
04/08  Ult. Spider-Man #121 -  56,633
=====
04/09  ---
05/09  Ult. Spider-Man #132 -  50,144  (  +1.2%)
06/09  Ult. Spider-Man #133 -  57,364  ( +14.4%)
06/09  USM: Requiem #1 of 2 -  44,988  ( -21.6%)
07/09  USM: Requiem #2 of 2 -  41,374  (  -8.0%)
08/09  U.C. Spider-Man #1   -  86,008  (+107.9%)
09/09  U.C. Spider-Man #2   -  57,477  ( -33.2%)
10/09  U.C. Spider-Man #3   -  52,813  (  -8.1%)
11/09  U.C. Spider-Man #4   -  49,106  (  -7.0%)
12/09  U.C. Spider-Man #5   -  45,849  (  -6.6%)
01/10  U.C. Spider-Man #6   -  43,622  (  -4.9%)
02/10  U.C. Spider-Man #7   -  42,176  (  -3.3%)
03/10  U.C. Spider-Man #8   -  40,967  (  -2.9%)
04/10  U.C. Spider-Man #9   -  39,955  (  -2.5%)
                               6 mnth  ( -24.3%)
                               1 year  (   --- )
                               2 year  ( -29.4%)
                               3 year  ( -45.1%)
                               4 year  ( -45.1%)
                               5 year  ( -52.4%)

This has settled into a steady decline.

36. DEADPOOL CORPS
03/10  Prelude #1 of 5   - 37,011
03/10  Prelude #2 of 5   - 32,024  (-13.5%)
03/10  Prelude #3 of 5   - 31,065  ( -3.0%)
03/10  Prelude #4 of 5   - 30,254  ( -2.6%)
03/10  Prelude #5 of 5   - 29,037  ( -4.0%)
04/10  Deadpool Corps #1 - 39,466  (+35.9%)

The first issue of a new series, following last month’s five-issue weekly mini. Effectively this is replacing DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH, though there are a few issues of overlap. It’s an okay start, though D:MWAM managed almost 60K with its debut issue a year ago. There’s a variant cover by Rob Liefeld (officially the “second printing”, continuing the gimmick of using Deadpool to parody variant covers).

37. CABLE
04/08  Cable #2             - 59,877
=====
04/09  Cable #13            - 47,638  (+47.0%)
05/09  Cable #14            - 52,245  ( +9.7%)
06/09  Cable #15            - 49,912  ( -4.5%)
07/09  Cable #16            - 39,646  (-20.6%)
08/09  Cable #17            - 39,424  ( -0.6%)
09/09  Cable #18            - 33,958  (-13.9%)
10/09  Cable #19            - 31,009  ( -8.7%)
11/09  Cable #20            - 29,245  ( -5.7%)
12/09  Cable #21            - 29,094  ( -0.5%)
01/10  Cable #22            - 28,414  ( -2.3%)
02/10  Cable #23            - 28,890  ( +1.7%)
03/10  Cable #24            - 30,132  ( +4.3%)
04/10  Deadpool & Cable #25 - 38,242  (+26.9%)
                              6 mnth  (+23.3%)
                              1 year  (-19.7%)
                              2 year  (-36.1%)

Cancelled. Actually, this series effectively ended with issue #24 – this is a one-shot prequel tacked onto the end as something of a joke. It’s also a sort of epilogue to CABLE & DEADPOOL, which mutated into a Deadpool team-up book rather than getting a proper ending. It’s got a Rob Liefeld variant cover.

38. S.H.I.E.L.D.
04/10  S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 - 38,030

A new Jonathan Hickman series reimagining S.H.I.E.L.D. as the latest incarnation of something closer to the Illuminati. It’s the sort of book which is traditionally a tough sale for Marvel, so the first issue sales are quite decent, albeit boosted by a variant cover and a black-and-white variant of the issue itself.

39. FANTASTIC FOUR
04/05  Fantastic Four #525 - 45,561
04/06  Fantastic Four #537 - 62,940
04/07  Fantastic Four #545 - 74,700
04/08  Fantastic Four #556 - 65,013 
=====
04/09  ---
05/09  Fantastic Four #566 - 46,653  ( -3.6%)
06/09  Fantastic Four #567 - 46,225  ( -0.9%)
07/09  Fantastic Four #568 - 45,828  ( -0.9%)
07/09  Fantastic Four #569 - 44,710  ( -2.4%)
08/09  Fantastic Four #570 - 62,401  (+39.6%)
09/09  Fantastic Four #571 - 47,468  (-23.4%)
10/09  Fantastic Four #572 - 41,939  (-11.6%)
11/09  Fantastic Four #573 - 39,433  ( -6.0%)
12/09  Fantastic Four #574 - 38,431  ( -2.5%)
01/10  Fantastic Four #575 - 41,284  ( +7.4%)
02/10  Fantastic Four #576 - 37,526  ( -9.1%)
03/10  Fantastic Four #577 - 35,791  ( -4.6%)
04/10  Fantastic Four #578 - 37,940  ( +6.0%)
                             6 mnth  ( -9.5%)
                             1 year  (  --- )
                             2 year  (-41.6%)
                             3 year  (-49.2%)
                             4 year  (-39.7%)
                             5 year  (-16.7%)

Another “Iron Man by Design” variant.

40,51. HULKED OUT HEROES
04/10  Hulked Out Heroes #1 of 2 - 37,665
04/10  Hulked Out Heroes #2 of 2 - 35,065  (-6.9%)

The book originally solicited as “H.O.H.”, though including the cover art kind of gave the game away. Issue #1 has a variant cover by Ed McGuinness, so the second issue drop is remarkably small.

42. DAREDEVIL
04/05  Daredevil #72  - 48,803
04/06  Daredevil #84  - 47,123
04/07  Daredevil #96  - 46,198 
04/08  ---
=====
04/09  Daredevil #118 - 44,982  ( +9.6%)
05/09  ---
06/09  Daredevil #119 - 41,403  ( -8.0%)
07/09  ---
08/09  Daredevil #500 - 73,486  (+77.5%)
09/09  ---
10/09  Daredevil #501 - 45,181  (-38.5%)
11/09  Daredevil #502 - 40,354  (-10.7%)
12/09  Daredevil #503 - 38,680  ( -4.1%)
01/10  Daredevil #504 - 37,135  ( -4.0%)
02/10  Daredevil #505 - 38,693  ( +4.2%)
03/10  ---
04/10  Daredevil #506 - 37,467  ( -3.2%)
                        6 mnth  (-17.1%)
                        1 year  (-16.7%)
                        2 year  (  --- )
                        3 year  (-19.3%)
                        4 year  (-20.5%)
                        5 year  (-23.2%)

This has an “Iron Man by Design” variant, but then the previous issue had a Deadpool variant cover. The drop probably reflects the book’s underlying trend.

44. FALL OF THE HULKS: RED HULK
01/10  Red Hulk #1 of 4 - 42,482
02/10  Red Hulk #2 of 4 - 39,259  (-7.6%)
03/10  Red Hulk #3 of 4 - 38,535  (-1.8%)
04/10  Red Hulk #4 of 4 - 36,917  (-4.2%)

A crossover tie-in mini which has held up pretty well over its run.

46. X-FACTOR
04/06  X-Factor #6   - 45,220
04/07  X-Factor #18  - 37,851
04/08  X-Factor #30  - 51,447
=====
04/09  X-Factor #42  - 32,000  ( +0.4%)
05/09  X-Factor #43  - 31,543  ( -1.4%)
06/09  X-Factor #44  - 31,552  ( +0.0%)
06/09  X-Factor #45  - 31,109  ( -1.4%)
07/09  X-Factor #46  - 31,213  ( +0.3%)
08/09  X-Factor #47  - 33,052  ( +5.9%)
09/09  X-Factor #48  - 30,305  ( -8.3%)
09/09  X-Factor #49  - 29,934  ( -1.2%)
10/09  X-Factor #50  - 30,138  ( +0.7%)
11/09  ---
12/09  X-Factor #200 - 36,577  (+21.4%)
01/10  X-Factor #201 - 29,732  (-18.7%)
02/10  X-Factor #202 - 30,981  ( +4.2%)
03/10  X-Factor #203 - 28,924  ( -6.6%)
04/10  X-Factor #204 - 36,573  (+26.4%)
                       6 mnth  (+21.4%)
                       1 year  (+14.3%)
                       2 year  (-28.9%)
                       3 year  ( -2.7%)
                       4 year  (-19.1%)

This is a “Second Coming: Revelations” book, which basically means it’s a tie-in that doesn’t form part of the core serial. It’s also got an “Iron Man by Design” variant. Naturally, the sales bounce accordingly.

48. WOLVERINE: ORIGINS
04/06  Origins #1  - 150,283
04/07  Origins #13 -  70,963
04/08  Origins #24 -  49,299 
=====
04/09  Origins #35 -  44,976  ( -1.3%)
05/09  Origins #36 -  45,451  ( +1.1%)
06/09  Origins #37 -  44,930  ( -1.1%)
07/09  Origins #38 -  47,211  ( +5.1%)
08/09  Origins #39 -  44,968  ( -4.8%)
09/09  Origins #40 -  42,724  ( -5.0%)
10/09  Origins #41 -  39,453  ( -7.7%)
11/09  Origins #42 -  37,903  ( -3.9%)
12/09  Origins #43 -  36,528  ( -3.6%)
01/10  Origins #44 -  35,154  ( -3.8%)
02/10  ---
03/10  Origins #45 -  37,055  ( +5.4%)
03/10  Origins #46 -  34,004  ( -8.2%)
04/10  Origins #47 -  36,075  ( +6.1%)
                      6 mnth  ( -8.6%)
                      1 year  (-19.8%)
                      2 year  (-26.8%)
                      3 year  (-49.0%)
                      4 year  (-76.0%)

Beginning a two-month crossover with the higher-selling DARK WOLVERINE. There’s also an “Iron Man by Design” variant. I’m slightly surprised the sales didn’t increase by more than this. The series ends in issue #50 following the completion of its multi-year storyline.

50. THUNDERBOLTS
04/05  New Thunderbolts #7 - 28,722
04/06  Thunderbolts #101   - 24,170
04/07  Thunderbolts #113   - 65,092
04/08  ---
=====
04/09  Thunderbolts #131   - 49,155  ( -5.9%)
05/09  Thunderbolts #132   - 43,911  (-10.7%)
06/09  Thunderbolts #133   - 39,479  (-10.1%)
07/09  Thunderbolts #134   - 40,885  ( +3.6%)
08/09  ---
09/09  Thunderbolts #135   - 39,961  ( -2.3%)
09/09  Thunderbolts #136   - 34,031  (-14.8%)
10/09  Thunderbolts #137   - 32,409  ( -4.8%)
11/09  Thunderbolts #138   - 31,238  ( -3.6%)
12/09  Thunderbolts #139   - 29,957  ( -4.1%)
01/10  Thunderbolts #140   - 28,644  ( -4.4%)
02/10  Thunderbolts #141   - 33,948  (+18.5%)
03/10  Thunderbolts #142   - 34,132  ( +0.5%)
04/10  Thunderbolts #143   - 35,656  ( +4.5%)
                             6 mnth  (+10.0%)
                             1 year  (-27.5%)
                             2 year  (  --- )
                             3 year  (-45.2%)
                             4 year  (+47.5%)
                             5 year  (+24.1%)

Continuing a SIEGE tie-in arc, and it’s also got a variant cover by Greg Horn. Since the book was tied closely to “Dark Reign”, this is effectively the final issue of the book’s current format, with a completely new direction starting next month.

51. DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH
07/09  Merc With A Mouth #1  - 59,628
08/09  Merc With A Mouth #2  - 51,147  (-14.2%)
09/09  Merc With A Mouth #3  - 43,855  (-14.3%)
10/09  Merc With A Mouth #4  - 40,154  ( -8.4%)
11/09  Merc With A Mouth #5  - 37,781  ( -5.9%)
12/09  Merc With A Mouth #6  - 37,051  ( -1.9%)
01/10  Merc With A Mouth #7  - 40,568  ( +9.5%)
02/10  Merc With A Mouth #8  - 34,281  (-15.5%)
03/10  Merc With A Mouth #9  - 33,405  ( -2.6%)
04/10  Merc With A Mouth #10 - 33,803  ( +1.2%)
                               6 mnth  (-15.8%)

Another “Iron Man by Design” variant. The book ends with issue #13, effectively replaced by DEADPOOL CORPS.

55. BLACK WIDOW
11/09  Deadly Origin #1 of 4 - 29,352
12/09  Deadly Origin #2 of 4 - 20,925  ( -28.7%)
01/10  Deadly Origin #3 of 4 - 16,644  ( -20.5%)
02/10  Deadly Origin #4 of 4 - 15,724  (  -5.5%)
03/10  ---
04/10  Black Widow #1        - 32,807  (+108.6%)

She’s in the Iron Man movie, and so Marvel have decided to have a shot at launching an ongoing BLACK WIDOW series. She hasn’t had a regular title (as opposed to a miniseries) since 1971, when she briefly co-headlined AMAZING ADVENTURES alongside the Inhumans. To be honest, I struggle to imagine the Black Widow sustaining an ongoing series even in a healthier market, but hey, you never know until you try.

This issue has three variant covers, it ties in with a movie launch, and it was on the front cover of MARVEL PREVIEWS. And with all that, it’s only slightly ahead of the first issue of the DEADLY ORIGIN mini from last winter, which tailed off pretty quickly.

56. CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHO WON'T WIELD THE SHIELD
04/10  Who Won't Wield The Shield - 32,477

Basically a comedy anthology. Given the wholly uninformative solicitation (which basically told you that it was a Deadpool one-shot and not much else), it’s actually quite a good number.

59. WOLVERINE: WEAPON X
05/09  Weapon X #2  - 59,192  (-39.5%)
06/09  Weapon X #3  - 51,076  (-13.7%)
07/09  ---
08/09  Weapon X #4  - 49,284  ( -3.5%)
09/09  Weapon X #5  - 40,975  (-16.9%)
10/09  Weapon X #6  - 38,446  ( -6.2%)
11/09  Weapon X #7  - 36,108  ( -6.1%)
12/09  Weapon X #8  - 33,470  ( -7.3%)
01/10  Weapon X #9  - 31,678  ( -5.4%)
02/10  Weapon X #10 - 30,132  ( -4.9%)
03/10  Weapon X #11 - 29,799  ( -1.1%)
04/10  Weapon X #12 - 30,050  ( +0.8%)
                      6 mnth  (-21.8%)

Stabilising at last. The book is effectively relaunching in September as a new WOLVERINE series.

60. SECRET WARRIORS
04/09  Secret Warriors #3  - 50,126  ( +4.2%)
05/09  Secret Warriors #4  - 42,781  (-14.7%)
06/09  Secret Warriors #5  - 40,849  ( -4.5%)
07/09  Secret Warriors #6  - 41,749  ( +2.2%)
08/09  Secret Warriors #7  - 38,990  ( -6.6%)
09/09  Secret Warriors #8  - 33,893  (-13.1%)
10/09  Secret Warriors #9  - 36,385  ( +7.4%)
11/09  Secret Warriors #10 - 31,567  (-13.2%)
12/09  Secret Warriors #11 - 30,748  ( -2.6%)
01/10  Secret Warriors #12 - 29,894  ( -2.8%)
02/10  Secret Warriors #13 - 30,843  ( +3.2%)
03/10  Secret Warriors #14 - 28,580  ( -7.3%)
04/10  Secret Warriors #15 - 29,669  ( +3.8%)
                             6 mnth  (-18.5%)
                             1 year  (-40.8%)

Another “Iron Man by Design” variant.

67. DEADPOOL TEAM-UP
10/09  Deadpool #900         - 51,337
11/09  Deadpool Team-Up #899 - 39,584  (-22.9%)
12/09  Deadpool Team-Up #898 - 36,308  ( -8.3%)
01/10  Deadpool Team-Up #897 - 32,671  (-10.0%)
02/10  Deadpool Team-Up #896 - 30,119  ( -7.8%)
03/10  Deadpool Team-Up #895 - 28,573  ( -5.1%)
04/10  Deadpool Team-Up #894 - 28,835  ( +0.9%)
                               6 mnth  (-43.8%)

And another.

68. ULTIMATE COMICS ENEMY
01/10  Enemy #1 of 4 - 38,880
02/10  Enemy #2 of 4 - 29,820  (-23.3%)
03/10  ---
04/10  Enemy #3 of 4 - 28,829  ( -3.3%)

Levelling out quickly after the initial drop.

69. DOOMWAR
04/05  Black Panther #3  - 44,925
04/06  Black Panther #15 - 28,361
04/07  ---
04/08  ---
=====
04/09  Black Panther #3  - 33,356  (  -1.2%)
05/09  Black Panther #4  - 30,984  (  -7.1%)
06/09  Black Panther #5  - 29,762  (  -3.9%)
07/09  Black Panther #6  - 29,727  (  -0.1%)
08/09  Black Panther #7  - 27,619  (  -7.1%)
09/09  Black Panther #8  - 23,020  ( -16.7%)
10/09  Black Panther #9  - 20,346  ( -11.6%)
11/09  Black Panther #10 - 19,147  (  -5.9%)
12/09  Black Panther #11 - 17,989  (  -6.0%)
01/10  Black Panther #12 - 17,881  (  -1.0%)
02/10  Doomwar #1 of 6   - 43,241  (+141.8%)
03/10  Doomwar #2 of 6   - 30,555  ( -29.3%)
04/10  Doomwar #3 of 6   - 27,859  (  -8.9%)
                           6 mnth  ( +36.9%)
                           1 year  ( -16.5%)
                           2 year  (   --- )
                           3 year  (   --- )
                           4 year  (  -1.2%)
                           5 year  ( -38.0%)

Still comfortably up from regular BLACK PANTHER numbers. Nonetheless, the series ends in June, and there’s no sign of anything on the solicitations for July, so the end of the road may be approaching.

70. FALL OF THE HULKS: THE SAVAGE SHE-HULKS
03/10  Savage She-Hulks #1 of 3 - 33,290
04/10  Savage She-Hulks #2 of 3 - 27,421  (-17.6%)

Quite a modest drop off, considering the first issue had a variant cover.

75. MARVEL ZOMBIES 5
04/10  Marvel Zombies 5 #1 of 5 - 26,798
04/10  Marvel Zombies 5 #2 of 5 - 26,318  (-1.8%)

Unusually, there’s a variant cover on issue #2, but not issue #1. The MARVEL ZOMBIES RETURN series from last September wound up at 28,770, so we’re picking up slightly below that point.

77. DARK TOWER: BATTLE OF JERICHO HILL
04/07  Gunslinger Born #3 of 7 - 149,168
04/08  Long Road Home #2 of 5  - 103,029 
=====
04/09  Sorcerer #1             -  39,210  (-18.5%)
05/09  Fall of Gilead #1 of 6  -  43,580  (+11.1%)
06/09  Fall of Gilead #2 of 6  -  39,978  ( -8.3%)
07/09  Fall of Gilead #3 of 6  -  36,982  ( -7.5%)
08/09  Fall of Gilead #4 of 6  -  35,607  ( -3.7%)
09/09  Fall of Gilead #5 of 6  -  34,522  ( -3.0%)
10/09  ---
11/09  Fall of Gilead #6 of 6  -  32,531  ( -5.8%)
12/09  Jericho Hill #1 of 5    -  30,756  ( -5.5%)
12/09  Jericho Hill #2 of 5    -  28,350  ( -7.8%)
01/10  ---
02/10  Jericho Hill #3 of 5    -  27,215  ( -4.0%)
02/10  Jericho Hill #4 of 5    -  26,336  ( -3.2%)
03/10  ---
04/10  Jericho Hill #5 of 5    -  25,896  ( -1.7%)
                                  6 mnth  (  --- )
                                  1 year  (-34.0%)
                                  2 year  (-74.9%)
                                  3 year  (-82.6%)

Still drifting slowly down.

80. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
04/09  Guardians o/Galaxy #13 - 27,107  ( +1.3%)
05/09  Guardians o/Galaxy #14 - 27,130  ( +0.1%)
06/09  Guardians o/Galaxy #15 - 26,808  ( -1.2%)
07/09  Guardians o/Galaxy #16 - 26,605  ( -0.8%)
08/09  Guardians o/Galaxy #17 - 27,893  ( +4.8%)
09/09  Guardians o/Galaxy #18 - 24,896  (-10.7%)
10/09  Guardians o/Galaxy #19 - 23,597  ( -5.2%)
11/09  Guardians o/Galaxy #20 - 22,965  ( -2.7%)
12/09  Guardians o/Galaxy #21 - 22,271  ( -3.0%)
01/10  Guardians o/Galaxy #22 - 21,623  ( -3.0%)
02/10  Guardians o/Galaxy #23 - 22,807  ( +5.5%)
03/10  Guardians o/Galaxy #24 - 21,643  ( -5.1%)
04/10  Guardians o/Galaxy #25 - 24,568  (+13.5%)
                                6 mnth  ( +4.1%)
                                1 year  ( -9.4%)

GUARDIANS and NOVA both end this month, though they’re leading into a Thanos miniseries. This issue also has an “Iron man by Design” variant.

83. AVENGERS: THE ORIGIN
04/10  Origin #1 of 5 - 24,457

Another re-telling by Joe Casey of an old Silver Age. There’s a fairly narrow audience for these projects in the current market, and these numbers are about what I’d have expected.

84. PUNISHER
04/07  War Journal #6  - 53,498
04/08  War Journal #18 - 29,565
=====
04/09  Punisher #4     - 36,995  ( -1.5%)
05/09  Punisher #5     - 35,621  ( -3.7%)
06/09  Punisher #6     - 32,982  ( -7.4%)
07/09  Punisher #7     - 31,227  ( -5.3%)
08/09  Punisher #8     - 33,057  ( +5.9%)
09/09  Punisher #9     - 28,424  (-14.1%)
10/09  Punisher #10    - 27,167  ( -4.4%)
11/09  Punisher #11    - 24,900  ( -8.3%)
12/09  Punisher #12    - 24,985  ( +0.3%)
01/10  Punisher #13    - 23,734  ( -5.0%)
02/10  Punisher #14    - 23,455  ( -1.8%)
03/10  Punisher #15    - 22,285  ( -5.0%)
04/10  Punisher #16    - 23,047  ( +3.4%)
                         6 mnth  (-15.2%)
                         1 year  (-37.7%)
                         2 year  (-22.0%)
                         3 year  (-56.9%)

This is the Marvel Universe version, not the Max book. The issue has an “Iron Man by Design” variant.

86. NOVA
04/07  Nova #1  - 42,917
04/08  Nova #12 - 28,185  ( +0.1%)
=====
04/09  Nova #24 - 26,240  ( -0.7%)
05/09  Nova #25 - 26,172  ( -0.3%)
06/09  Nova #26 - 28,107  ( +7.4%)
07/09  Nova #27 - 25,677  ( -8.6%)
08/09  Nova #28 - 27,038  ( +5.3%)
09/09  Nova #29 - 23,924  (-11.5%)
10/09  Nova #30 - 22,845  ( -4.5%)
11/09  Nova #31 - 22,928  ( +0.4%)
12/09  Nova #32 - 22,202  ( -3.2%)
01/10  Nova #33 - 21,841  ( -1.6%)
02/10  Nova #34 - 23,014  ( +5.4%)
03/10  Nova #35 - 21,407  ( -7.0%)
04/10  Nova #36 - 22,365  ( +4.5%)
                  6 mnth  ( -2.1%)
                  1 year  (-14.8%)
                  2 year  (-20.6%)
                  3 year  (-47.9%)

Final issue: see above under GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. As with that book, there’s an “Iron Man by Design” variant cover.

87. PUNISHERMAX  [Max]
04/05  Punisher #19     - 38,753
04/06  Punisher #32     - 34,076
04/07  Punisher #46     - 33,427
04/08  Punisher #56     - 30,796
=====
04/09  Frank Castle #69 - 21,843  ( -1.9%)
05/09  Frank Castle #70 - 21,864  ( +0.1%)
06/09  Frank Castle #71 - 21,319  ( -2.5%)
07/09  Frank Castle #72 - 21,049  ( -1.3%)
08/09  Frank Castle #73 - 20,375  ( -3.2%)
09/09  Frank Castle #74 - 20,259  ( -0.6%)
10/09  Frank Castle #75 - 22,210  ( +9.6%)
11/09  PunisherMax #1   - 29,119  (+31.1%)
12/09  PunisherMax #2   - 23,110  (-20.4%)
01/10  PunisherMax #3   - 22,887  ( -1.0%)
02/10  PunisherMax #4   - 22,472  ( -1.8%)
03/10  PunisherMax #5   - 22,435  ( -0.2%)
04/10  PunisherMax #6   - 22,246  ( -0.8%)
                          6 mnth  ( +0.2%)
                          1 year  ( +1.8%)
                          2 year  (-27.8%)
                          3 year  (-33.4%)
                          4 year  (-34.7%)
                          5 year  (-42.6%)

Seems to be levelling out slightly ahead of pre-relaunch sales. I’d attribute that more to the strength of the incoming creative team than to the renumbering.

90. VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT
04/06  Moon Knight #1  - 103,670
04/07  Moon Knight #9  -  69,196
04/08  Moon Knight #17 -  27,808
=====
04/09  Moon Knight #29 -  22,689  ( +8.7%)
05/09  Moon Knight #30 -  19,693  (-13.2%)
06/09  ---
07/09  ---
08/09  ---
09/09  Moon Knight #1  -  35,706  (+81.3%)
10/09  Moon Knight #2  -  26,493  (-25.8%)
11/09  Moon Knight #3  -  23,359  (-11.8%)
12/09  Moon Knight #4  -  21,482  ( -8.0%)
01/10  ---
02/10  Moon Knight #5  -  19,733  ( -8.1%)
03/10  Moon Knight #6  -  19,094  ( -3.2%)
04/10  Moon Knight #7  -  20,718  ( +8.5%)
                          6 mnth  (-21.8%)
                          1 year  ( -8.7%)
                          2 year  (-25.5%)
                          3 year  (-70.1%)
                          4 year  (-80.0%)

Another “Iron Man by Design” variant. It’ll be interesting to see whether MOON KNIGHT gets any spillover benefit from the character’s inclusion in SECRET DEFENDERS, though to be honest, the history of Ms Marvel and Spider-Woman tends to point against it.

92. CAPTAIN AMERICA / BLACK PANTHER
04/10  Flags of our Fathers #1 of 4 - 20,274

A miniseries about the first meeting between Captain America and the Black Panther (well, a previous one) during World War II. Stories set in the past are always a tough sell, and parent title BLACK PANTHER dropped below this point in recent months, so the numbers are pretty good compared to what you could reasonably have expected.

93. INCREDIBLE HERCULES
04/08  Hercules #116        - 44,575 
=====
04/09  Hercules #128        - 33,739  ( +5.8%)
05/09  Hercules #129        - 28,995  (-14.1%)
06/09  Hercules #130        - 27,872  ( -3.9%)
07/09  Hercules #131        - 29,188  ( +4.7%)
08/09  Hercules #132        - 32,680  (+12.0%)
08/09  Hercules #133        - 27,491  (-15.9%)
09/09  Hercules #134        - 25,380  ( -7.7%)
09/09  Hercules #135        - 26,344  ( +3.8%)
10/09  Hercules #136        - 26,447  ( -0.4%)
10/09  Hercules #137        - 23,463  (-11.3%)
11/09  Hercules #138        - 25,116  ( +7.0%)
12/09  Hercules #139        - 23,591  ( -6.1%)
01/10  Hercules #140        - 23,244  ( -1.5%)
02/10  Hercules #141        - 24,539  ( +5.6%)
03/10  Fall/Avenger #1 of 2 - 23,036  ( -6.1%)
04/10  Fall/Avenger #2 of 2 - 20,215  (-12.2%)
                              6 mnth  (-13.8%)
                              1 year  (-40.1%)
                              2 year  (-54.6%)

Following this, we’ve got a PRINCE OF POWER miniseries starring supporting character Amadeus Cho, all presumably leading to a HERCULES relaunch later in the year.

99. WEB OF SPIDER-MAN
10/09  Web of Spider-Man #1 - 58,412
11/09  Web of Spider-Man #2 - 32,093  (-45.1%)
12/09  Web of Spider-Man #3 - 29,368  ( -8.5%)
01/10  Web of Spider-Man #4 - 24,424  (-16.8%)
02/10  Web of Spider-Man #5 - 24,296  ( -0.5%)
03/10  Web of Spider-Man #6 - 21,574  (-11.2%)
04/10  Web of Spider-Man #7 - 19,533  ( -9.5%)
                              6 mnth  (-66.6%)

Mmmm. I remain unconvinced that Spider-Man is capable of supporting spin-off titles at the moment.

103,126. WOMEN OF MARVEL ONE-SHOTS
03/10  X-23     - 27,328
03/10  She-Hulk - 15,583
04/10  Sif      - 18,092
04/10  Firestar - 13,462

These books seem to be mostly hovering in the teens (X-23, who’s about to get her own series, being an understandable exception). The variation is probably just a reflection of the popularity of the parent book.

106. STEPHEN KING'S N. THE COMIC SERIES
03/10  N #1 of 4 - 21,092
04/10  N #2 of 4 - 17,299  (-18.0%)

This is a reprint from Marvel’s online service, and by those standards the sales aren’t too bad at all.

109. IRON MAN 2: PUBLIC IDENTITY
04/10  Public Identity #1 of 3 - 16,921

I believe this is the series originally solicited as IRON MAN 1.5, and it’s a story bridging the gap between the two Iron Man movies. I’m slightly surprised that it didn’t do a little better in the month of the movie’s release, but then it’s not really aimed primarily at the direct market readership. (Presumably the idea is to have the collected edition on the shelves when the DVD comes out.)

110. NEW AVENGERS: LUKE CAGE
04/10  Luke Cage #1 of 3 - 16,836

Good lord. The days when a top-selling title could guarantee sales for a spin-off mini are clearly long behind us.

Or to be more accurate: as a general rule, there seem to be far fewer completists out there willing to buy all the spin-offs of a major franchise. Marvel have managed to build a family of titles around the Avengers, but they did that by promoting them all as equally important. Books that are clearly labelled as spin-offs – such as this, the lesser Spider-Man titles and X-Men solo minis – are increasingly tailing in miles behind their parent titles.

On the other hand, Marvel might well point out that this is probably going to sell more than a miniseries with an obscure lead character (and that they already publish some of those anyway). In other words, just because they don’t sell like they used to, it doesn’t follow that Marvel could easily replace them on the schedule with something more successful.

111. POWERS [Icon]
11/09  Powers #1 - 20,146
12/09  Powers #2 - 17,181  (-14.7%)
01/10  ---
02/10  ---
03/10  Powers #3 - 16,768  ( -2.4%)
04/10  Powers #4 - 16,463  ( -1.8%)

Levelling out quite quickly after the most recent relaunch.

115,116. X-MEN FOREVER
06/09  X-Men Forever #1  - 36,213
06/09  X-Men Forever #2  - 31,767  (-12.3%)
07/09  X-Men Forever #3  - 28,651  ( -9.8%)
07/09  X-Men Forever #4  - 28,645  ( -0.0%)
08/09  X-Men Forever #5  - 27,825  ( -2.9%)
08/09  X-Men Forever #6  - 24,875  (-10.6%)
09/09  X-Men Forever #7  - 24,115  ( -3.1%)
09/09  X-Men Forever #8  - 23,174  ( -3.9%)
10/09  X-Men Forever #9  - 21,926  ( -5.4%)
10/09  X-Men Forever #10 - 22,287  ( +1.6%)
11/09  X-Men Forever #11 - 20,130  ( -9.7%)
11/09  X-Men Forever #12 - 19,541  ( -2.9%)
12/09  X-Men Forever #13 - 18,870  ( -3.4%)
12/09  X-Men Forever #14 - 18,376  ( -2.6%)
01/10  X-Men Forever #15 - 17,665  ( -3.9%)
01/10  X-Men Forever #16 - 17,290  ( -2.1%)
02/10  X-Men Forever #17 - 17,873  ( +3.4%)
02/10  X-Men Forever #18 - 16,464  ( -7.9%)
03/10  X-Men Forever #19 - 16,183  ( -1.7%)
03/10  X-Men Forever #20 - 15,990  ( -1.2%)
04/10  X-Men Forever #21 - 15,530  ( -2.9%)
04/10  X-Men Forever #22 - 15,305  ( -1.4%)
                           6 mnth  (-30.2%)

Drifting slowly down, but Marvel evidently have realistic expectations for Claremont’s alternate-reality/nostalgia series, as it’s been renewed for another year. They’re renumbering it from #1 to kick off the second year, and I’ll be interested to see whether that makes any difference beyond the first couple of issues.

117. REALM OF KINGS: SON OF HULK
04/09  Skaar, Son of Hulk #10 - 27,317  ( +0.7%)
05/09  ---
06/09  Skaar, Son of Hulk #11 - 28,633  ( +4.8%)
06/09  Skaar, Son of Hulk #12 - 35,920  (+25.4%)
07/09  Son of Hulk #13        - 29,195  (-18.7%)
08/09  Son of Hulk #14        - 27,171  ( -6.9%)
09/09  Son of Hulk #15        - 22,722  (-16.4%)
10/09  Son of Hulk #16        - 20,504  ( -9.8%)
11/09  Son of Hulk #17        - 19,097  ( -6.9%)
12/09  ---
01/10  ---
02/10  Son of Hulk #1 of 4    - 24,010  (+25.7%)
03/10  Son of Hulk #2 of 4    - 17,195  (-28.4%)
04/10  Son of Hulk #3 of 4    - 15,284  (-11.4%)
                                6 mnth  (-25.5%)
                                1 year  (-44.0%)

Some way distant from the other cosmic titles. I doubt we’ll be hearing much more of this.

118. SPIDER-MAN: FEVER
04/10  Fever #1 of 3 - 15,111

Despite the title, Brendan McCarthy’s miniseries is really more of a homage to Steve Ditko’s Dr Strange stories. Given that Spider-Man can’t seem to support spin-off titles at the moment, and that McCarthy’s art is something of an acquired taste, the sales are probably about what Marvel were expecting from the book.

120. AGENTS OF ATLAS
04/09  Agents of Atlas #3  - 29,748  (+11.1%)
05/09  Agents of Atlas #4  - 25,377  (-14.7%)
05/09  Agents of Atlas #5  - 25,207  ( -0.7%)
06/09  Agents of Atlas #6  - 22,579  (-10.4%)
07/09  Agents of Atlas #7  - 23,217  ( +2.8%)
07/09  Agents of Atlas #8  - 20,540  (-11.5%)
08/09  Agents of Atlas #9  - 20,828  ( +1.4%)
09/09  Agents of Atlas #10 - 17,877  (-14.2%)
09/09  Agents of Atlas #11 - 17,529  ( -1.9%)
10/09  X-Men vs #1 of 2    - 32,743  (+86.8%)
11/09  X-Men vs #2 of 2    - 25,222  (-23.0%)
12/09  ---
01/10  Avengers vs #1 of 4 - 21,777  (-13.7%)
02/10  Avengers vs #2 of 4 - 17,998  (-17.4%)
03/10  Avengers vs #3 of 4 - 16,482  ( -8.4%)
04/10  Avengers vs #4 of 4 - 14,900  ( -9.6%)
                             6 mnth  (-54.5%)
                             1 year  (-49.9%)

Relaunched next month as another ongoing title, this time just called ATLAS. Sales have tailed off quite noticeably over the course of this mini.

121. PETER PARKER
03/10  Peter Parker #1 - 18,963
04/10  Peter Parker #2 - 14,647  (-22.8%)

Reprints of the Spider-Man digital comics, so the sales here don’t tell the whole story.

122. X-FACTOR FOREVER
03/10  X-Factor Forever #1 of 5 - 18,550
04/10  X-Factor Forever #2 of 5 - 14,608  (-21.3%)

Louise Simonson’s sequel to her 1980s X-FACTOR run is actually doing slightly better than I would have predicted – by which I mean, it’s pretty close to its thematic parent title X-MEN FOREVER.

123. X-MEN FOREVER ANNUAL
04/10  X-Men Forever Annual #1 - 14,281

Again, very close to the parent title. There’s a small but solid audience for these books.

131. MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ
04/09  Wizard of Oz #5 of 8   - 16,110  ( -0.3%)
05/09  Wizard of Oz #6 of 8   - 15,774  ( -2.1%)
06/09  Wizard of Oz #7 of 8   - 15,473  ( -1.9%)
07/09  Wizard of Oz #8 of 8   - 15,487  ( +0.1%)
08/09  ---
09/09  ---
10/09  ---
11/09  Marvelous Land #1 of 8 - 25,338  (+63.6%)
12/09  Marvelous Land #2 of 8 - 15,783  (-37.7%)
01/10  Marvelous Land #3 of 8 - 14,216  (-10.0%)
02/10  Marvelous Land #4 of 8 - 13,364  ( -6.0%)
03/10  ---
04/10  Marvelous Land #5 of 8 - 12,922  ( -3.3%)
                                6 mnth  (  --- )
                                1 year  (-19.8%)

Standard miniseries behaviour.

135,145,146,147. MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS
04/10  Wolverine #66   - 12,181
04/10  New Avengers #1 - 10,958
04/10  Civil War #1    - 10,912

More budget reprints.

137. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN PRESENTS JACKPOT
01/10  Jackpot #1 of 3 - 18,014  (-11.5%)
02/10  Jackpot #2 of 3 - 13,697  (-24.0%)
03/10  ---
04/10  Jackpot #3 of 3 - 11,830  (-13.6%)

Another example of the point that Marvel’s top books can no longer be relied on to support spin-off titles. Despite this, however, even more Spider-Man spin-offs are scheduled for future months. That surprises me, but presumably Marvel are prepared to live with numbers like this.

140. TORCH
09/09  Torch #1 of 8 - 26,921
10/09  Torch #2 of 8 - 18,115  (-32.7%)
11/09  Torch #3 of 8 - 15,209  (-16.0%)
12/09  Torch #4 of 8 - 13,782  ( -9.4%)
01/10  ---
02/10  Torch #5 of 8 - 12,211  (-11.4%)
03/10  Torch #6 of 8 - 11,896  ( -2.6%)
04/10  Torch #7 of 8 - 11,477  ( -3.5%)
                       6 mnth  (-36.6%)

Levelling out. Fairly standard miniseries behaviour.

148. IRON MAN NOIR
04/10  Iron Man Noir #1 of 4 - 10,904

Hmm. The recent Spider-Man and X-Men NOIR minis launched at around 16K and dropped to 10K. Iron Man is launching at 10K, so this isn’t going to be pretty by the end of the run. Surely we’re approaching the end of the road for this imprint?

153. SPIDER-MAN: ORIGIN OF THE HUNTER
04/10  Origin of the Hunter - 10,580

This is a reprint of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #15 and #34 with a new framing sequence. The sales aren’t bad for something like that.

154. SAVAGE AXE OF ARES
04/10  Savage Axe of Ares - 10,492

Another of Marvel’s black and white anthology titles. Considering that Ares isn’t a character with a huge personal following, I’d say this was pretty reasonable.

156. X-MEN: PIXIE STRIKES BACK
02/10  Pixie #1 of 4 - 14,167
03/10  Pixie #2 of 4 - 11,839  (-16.4%)
04/10  Pixie #3 of 4 - 10,276  (-13.2%)

“Major titles don’t support spin-offs any more”, example umpteen.

161. SPIDER-MAN  [Marvel Adventures]
04/05  M.A. Spider-Man #2  - 10,305
04/06  M.A. Spider-Man #14 -  5,970
04/07  M.A. Spider-Man #26 -  6,478 
04/08  M.A. Spider-Man #38 -  5,833
=====
04/09  M.A. Spider-Man #50 -  4,780  (  +3.0%)
05/09  M.A. Spider-Man #51 -  4,557  (  -4.7%)
06/09  M.A. Spider-Man #52 -  4,612  (  +1.2%)
07/09  M.A. Spider-Man #53 -  5,710  ( +23.8%)
08/09  M.A. Spider-Man #54 -  5,684  (  -0.5%)
09/09  M.A. Spider-Man #55 -  5,668  (  -0.3%)
10/09  M.A. Spider-Man #56 -  4,579  ( -19.2%)
11/09  M.A. Spider-Man #57 -  4,501  (  -1.7%)
12/09  M.A. Spider-Man #58 -  4,352  (  -3.3%)
01/10  M.A. Spider-Man #59 -  4,315  (  -0.9%)
02/10  M.A. Spider-Man #60 -  4,212  (  -2.4%)
03/10  M.A. Spider-Man #61 -  4,200  (  -2.8%)
04/10  Spider-Man #1       -  9,770  (+132.6%)
                             6 mnth  (+113.4%)
                             1 year  (+104.4%)
                             2 year  ( +67.5%)
                             3 year  ( +50.8%)
                             4 year  ( +63.7%)
                             5 year  (  -5.2%)

The relaunch of MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN kicks sales back up to more or less the launch of the previous series in 2005. That’s not a bad result, although we’ll have to wait and see how long the effect lasts.

164. OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
02/10  A to Z Update #1 of 5 -  5,406
03/10  Deadpool Corps        - 21,900  (+305.1%)
04/10  Iron Manual Mark 3 #1 -  9,456  ( -56.8%)

Iron Man is, apparently, a lot less interesting than Deadpool.

167. DEATHLOK
11/09  Deathlok #1 of 7 - 20,855
12/09  Deathlok #2 of 7 - 14,059  (-32.6%)
01/10  Deathlok #3 of 7 - 11,670  (-17.0%)
02/10  Deathlok #4 of 7 - 10,185  (-12.7%)
03/10  Deathlok #5 of 7 -  9,387  ( -7.8%)
04/10  Deathlok #6 of 7 -  8,895  ( -5.2%)

Still losing sales as it nears the end of its run.

168. PHILP K DICK'S ELECTRIC ANT
04/10  Electric Ant #1 of 4 - 8,869

Not really a product targeted primarily at the direct market, I suspect.

178. SUPER HEROES  [Marvel Adventures]
04/09  M.A. Super Heroes #10 - 3,699  (  -0.5%)
05/09  M.A. Super Heroes #11 - 3,474  (  -6.1%)
06/09  M.A. Super Heroes #12 - 3,508  (  +1.0%)
07/09  M.A. Super Heroes #13 - 4,439  ( +26.5%)
08/09  M.A. Super Heroes #14 - 4,355  (  -1.9%)
09/09  M.A. Super Heroes #15 - 4,268  (  -2.0%)
10/09  M.A. Super Heroes #16 - 3,250  ( -23.9%)
11/09  M.A. Super Heroes #17 - 3,308  (  +1.8%)
12/09  M.A. Super Heroes #18 - ?,???  (   ??? )
01/10  M.A. Super Heroes #19 - 3,103  (   ??? )
02/10  M.A. Super Heroes #20 - 3,008  (  -3.1%)
03/10  M.A. Super Heroes #21 - ?,???  (   ??? )
04/10  Super Heroes #1       - 8,107  (   ??? )
                              6 mnth  (+149.4%)
                              1 year  (+119.2%)

MARVEL ADVENTURES SUPERHEROES has been hovering around the bottom end of the top 300 lately, and actually missed the charts last month (selling fewer than 3,704 copies). This issue also has a variant cover by Todd Nauck, so its sales boost from the relaunch might be slightly exaggerated compared to SPIDER-MAN.

190. MARVEL HER-OES
04/10  Marvel Her-Oes #1 - 7,464

Female superheroes in high school dramedy. Um. You know, I really can’t get past that awful title. But it’s not a bad number by the standards of Marvel’s all-ages books.

197. THOR AND THE WARRIORS FOUR
04/10  Thor/Warriors Four #1 of 4 - 6,861

The Warriors Four being Power Pack – it’s another Gurihiru miniseries. Again, not bad for an all-ages book.

202. PET AVENGERS UNLEASHED
05/09  Pet Avengers #1 of 4 - 17,638
06/09  Pet Avengers #2 of 4 - 12,317  (-30.2%)
07/09  Pet Avengers #3 of 4 - 11,739  ( -4.7%)
08/09  Pet Avengers #4 of 4 - 11,340  ( -3.4%)
09/09  ---
10/09  ---
11/09  ---
12/09  ---
01/10  ---
02/10  Tails o/Pet Avengers -  8,214  (-27.6%)
03/10  Unleashed #1 of 4    -  8,554  ( +4.1%)
04/10  Unleashed #2 of 4    -  6,767  (-20.9%)

Some way distant of the sales on the original series, but still not bad if you’re judging it as an all-ages title rather than a regular Marvel Universe book.

217. ENDER'S GAME: LEAGUE WAR
04/10  League War - 6,195

About what we’ve come to expect from the novel adaptations.

Number 220 is SPIDER-MAN: GRIM HUNT – KRAVEN SAGA, a promotional item being sold to retailers in bundles of 25. It sold an estimated 6,069 bundles.

223. SUPER HERO SQUAD
09/09  Super Hero Squad #1 of 4 - 6,760
10/09  Super Hero Squad #2 of 4 - 4,496  ( -33.5%)
11/09  Super Hero Squad #3 of 4 - 4,384  (  -2.5%)
12/09  Super Hero Squad #4 of 4 - 4,132  (  -5.7%) 
01/10  Super Hero Squad #1      - 9,709  (+135.0%)
02/10  Super Hero Squad #2      - 5,691  ( -41.4%)
03/10  Super Hero Squad #3      - 5,399  (  -5.1%)
04/10  Super Hero Squad #4      - 5,822  (  +7.8%)
                                 6 mnth  ( +29.5%)

A slight uptick. We’ll see next month whether it’s an anomaly.

255. HUSK [Soleil]
04/10  Husk #1 of 2 - 4,610

We’re used to the Soleil books selling in this territory. Bear in mind that it’s a six dollar book.

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

+149.4% - Super Heroes (Marvel Adventures)
+113.4% - Spider-Man (Marvel Adventures)
+ 56.2% - Invincible Iron Man
+ 36.9% - Doomwar/Black Panther
+ 29.5% - Super Hero Squad
+ 27.1% - X-Force
+ 23.3% - Cable
+ 22.4% - New Mutants
+ 21.4% - X-Factor
+ 14.7% - X-Men Legacy
+ 10.0% - Thunderbolts
+  4.1% - Guardians of the Galaxy
+  3.3% - Ultimate Comics Avengers
+  0.2% - Uncanny X-Men
+  0.2% - PunisherMax
-  1.6% - New Avengers
-  2.1% - Nova
-  4.7% - Mighty Avengers
-  7.0% - Deadpool
-  8.6% - Wolverine Origins
-  9.5% - Fantastic Four
- 12.4% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 13.8% - Hercules
- 15.2% - Punisher
- 15.8% - Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth
- 17.1% - Daredevil
- 18.5% - Secret Warriors
- 20.9% - Dark Wolverine
- 21.8% - Weapon X
- 21.8% - Moon Knight
- 24.3% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 25.5% - Son of Hulk
- 30.2% - X-Men Forever
- 36.6% - Torch
- 43.8% - Deadpool Team-Up
- 54.5% - Agents of Atlas
- 66.6% - Web of Spider-Man


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

+119.2% - Super Heroes (Marvel Adventures)
+104.4% - Spider-Man (Marvel Adventures)
+ 42.9% - Invincible Iron Man
+ 14.3% - X-Factor
+  1.8% - PunisherMax
-  0.8% - X-Force
-  3.0% - Uncanny X-Men
-  7.6% - Captain America
-  8.7% - Moon Knight
-  9.4% - Guardians of the Galaxy
- 11.5% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 14.8% - Nova
- 15.7% - X-Men Legacy
- 16.5% - Doomwar / Black Panther
- 16.7% - Daredevil
- 19.7% - New Avengers
- 19.7% - Cable
- 19.8% - Wolverine Origins
- 19.8% - Marvelous Land of Oz
- 21.1% - Deadpool
- 22.0% - Thor
- 26.4% - Mighty Avengers
- 27.5% - Thunderbolts
- 34.0% - Dark Tower
- 37.7% - Punisher
- 40.1% - Hercules
- 40.8% - Secret Warriors
- 44.0% - Son of Hulk
- 49.9% - Agents of Atlas


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

+106.1% - Invincible Iron Man
+ 67.5% - Spider-Man (Marvel Adventures)
- 20.6% - Uncanny X-Men
- 20.6% - Nova
- 21.7% - X-Men Legacy
- 22.0% - Punisher
- 25.5% - Moon Knight
- 26.7% - Dark Wolverine / Wolverine
- 26.8% - Captain America
- 26.8% - Wolverine Origins
- 27.5% - X-Force
- 27.8% - PunisherMax
- 28.9% - X-Factor
- 29.4% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 29.9% - Thor
- 30.5% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 31.7% - New Avengers
- 36.1% - Cable
- 41.6% - Fantastic Four
- 48.3% - Mighty Avengers
- 54.6% - Hercules
- 74.9% - Dark Tower


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

+ 50.8% - Spider-Man (Marvel Adventures)
+ 23.9% - Invincible Iron Man
-  2.7% - X-Factor
-  9.4% - Uncanny X-Men
- 19.0% - X-Men Legacy
- 19.3% - Daredevil
- 33.4% - PunisherMax
- 39.8% - New Avengers
- 45.1% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 45.2% - Thunderbolts
- 47.9% - Nova
- 49.0% - Wolverine Origins
- 49.2% - Fantastic Four
- 51.7% - Dark Wolverine / Wolverine
- 56.9% - Punisher
- 59.5% - Mighty Avengers
- 70.1% - Moon Knight
- 82.6% - Dark Tower


4 year comparisons
==================

+ 63.7% - Spider-Man (Marvel Adventures)
+ 49.2% - Invincible Iron Man
+ 47.5% - Thunderbolts
+ 29.7% - Captain America
-  1.2% - Doomwar / Black Panther
-  6.4% - Uncanny X-Men
- 19.1% - X-Factor
- 20.5% - Daredevil
- 23.0% - X-Men Legacy
- 33.0% - Dark Wolverine / Wolverine
- 34.7% - PunisherMax
- 37.9% - New Avengers
- 38.4% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 39.7% - Fantastic Four
- 45.1% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 76.0% - Wolverine Origins
- 80.0% - Moon Knight


5 year comparisons
==================

+ 44.0% - Invincible Iron Man
+ 28.3% - Captain America
+ 24.1% - Thunderbolts
-  5.2% - Spider-Man (Marvel Adventures)
- 13.1% - Uncanny X-Men
- 16.7% - Fantastic Four
- 23.2% - Daredevil
- 26.7% - X-Men Legacy
- 31.8% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 38.0% - Doomwar / Black Panther
- 42.6% - PunisherMax
- 52.4% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 53.0% - Dark Wolverine / Wolverine
- 53.6% - New Avengers

1 COMMENT

  1. “Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these cancellations.”

    Ummm… what?

  2. Re: New Mutants and X-Force

    I live in the New York City area and can usually pick up any title pretty easily. If my local shop is out, I’m in the City often enough that I can go to one of the big stores there. The New Mutants book was sold out by Thursday at the three places near my home. The Monday after it was released it was sold out at a mid-size shop in New York City and there were only three copies of a variant cover left at Midtown Comics (which is a big store with two branches.) Granted it’s anecdotal, but I would think you’re right that the second tier X-books were underordered and that there should be re-orders and increases in the coming months.

    I wonder if not having easy access to these early parts of a story makes people get to the store faster or has people give up on a story altogether.

  3. If you look at something like Ultimate Spider-Man and compare #132 to #9 (not comparing #133 as it was the “final issue” — sort of…)

    #9 is bringing in slightly more money on approximately 10K fewer copies.

    So — 9 months into the price increase — is $3.99 hurting things? Can anything be inferred from the chart results about the price increases at this point?

    Or is 9-months out not long enough to say one way or the other? Everything can’t be “standard attrition” as some books (Captain America) seem to be holding on to their readers at the increased price point — or is that an exception because there are more story pages?

    Inquiring minds everywhere want to know…

  4. Interesting analysis, Paul…thanks as always.

    For those of you who might be interested, for the purposes of these columns, I’m planning to treat NEW AVENGERS as continuing into NEW AVENGERS; and AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE as continuing into AVENGERS ACADEMY. As for DARK AVENGERS and MIGHTY AVENGERS, while they’re being replaced on the schedule by SECRET AVENGERS and just-plain-AVENGERS, I don’t think the links are close enough to justify treating them as the same title. (Neither of the new titles, for example, can sensibly be described as a continuation of DARK AVENGERS.)

    That makes perfect sense, but I think there is some value in tracking Mighty Avengers against Just-Plain-Avengers and Dark Avengers against Secret Avengers. Even if the story threads don’t necessarily make one title bleed into the other, it would show the general health of the Heroic Age relaunch pretty accurately, I’d say.

  5. Who are these people who want to buy every fourth chapter of “Second Coming”?

    UXM is the only X-title I buy. I get it to keep abreast of developments in the X-verse and to see how well Fraction’s style matches his material.

    I’d have to be paid to read “Second Coming” in its entirety. Hope’s quasi-supernatural mutant power, the idea of sending her off to “the future” so that she can age instantly, and having the mutants encounter different alternate futures — the combination is unintentional farce. The treatment of alternate futures as separate dimensions, not the products of preceding events, has become repulsive.

    SRS

  6. Second Coming has definitely been under-ordered. I think maybe Utopia didn’t sell quite as well as some recent X-Men crossovers, and combined with the falling sales of the two core X-books, retailers just didn’t increase their orders as much as they would normally for this kind of thing. Every part of the crossover has gone to second, and in one case so far, third printings.

  7. “That makes perfect sense, but I think there is some value in tracking Mighty Avengers against Just-Plain-Avengers and Dark Avengers against Secret Avengers.”

    I’d argue that trying to track any of the new titles after Mighty Avengers or trying to track Secret Avengers after either of these probably won’t quite work.

    I do think that there’d be value in tracking Adjectiveless Avengers after Dark Avengers, as they’re both positioned as Marvel’s flagship books.

  8. “I’ve always found that fascinating. Who are these people who want to buy every fourth chapter of “Second Coming”?”

    Some may be people who are continuing to buy the one series they buy in singles and plan to pick up the collection for the crossover as a whole. Of course, the one title I buy in singles is actually the lower-selling New Mutants, so that doesn’t help explain these numbers.

    “That seems incredible, and I can’t help feeling that this must have been slightly underordered.”

    I know that both this issue of New Mutants and May’s have second printings already. Not unusual for crossover issues, but if they sell enough to make the chart next month, maybe we’ll see retailers readjusting.

  9. AwesomeDude says:

    “It certainly seems like the $3.99 price point is keeping people from picking up mini-series.”

    I know that it’s keeping me from picking them up. There are several mini-series I would get if they were $2.99, but pricing them at $3.99 is a big turnoff with collected versions available down the road at better discount prices.

  10. I can also vouch for gross underordering of the lower-tier Second Coming books. I went to three LA area comic shops one week before giving up and ordering online. The next week one title, I believe it was NEW MUTANTS, had sold out at my usual store in less than an hour after opening. The shop’s owners were floored by the demand.

  11. Regarding the gap in crossover issues, I’d say it’s more likely that, while (nearly-) all X-fans are buying Uncanny, only a subset of those are regularly buying the other series. One fan might buy Uncanny, Legacy, and X-Force, while another buys Uncanny, Wolverine, and New Mutants. If all of those titles cross over and neither Reader A nor B buys any books she wouldn’t normally, that gives Uncanny a +1 advantage over all. If Reader A picks up all of his regular books plus Wolverine but not New Mutants, that puts Uncanny +1 over New Mutants but even with Wolverine. Simple example, but played out in various iterations over thousands of readers this could explain the differences.

    I, for one, did not add New Mutants due to the crossover simply because I don’t really like the series–I can fill in the blanks from the missing chapter in the “recap” page next issue.

  12. Personally, I struggled with how to handle “Second Coming”. There was no way I was going to pick up another 8 or 10 comics on titles I don’t usually buy. Initially I was just going to drop Uncanny for those months and pick it back up once the event was over. I ultimately decided to keep up with Uncanny only, and pick up the event in trade if I liked what I saw in the Uncanny issues.

  13. “38. S.H.I.E.L.D.
    04/10 S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 – 38,030”

    I bet we see a solid amount of reorders for this title next month. It just seemed this book generated a bit more buzz than people were expecting, but maybe that was simply in my neck of the woods.

    Synsidar says:
    “UXM is the only X-title I buy. I get it to keep abreast of developments in the X-verse and to see how well Fraction’s style matches his material.”

    Joseph says:
    “Initially I was just going to drop Uncanny for those months and pick it back up once the event was over. I ultimately decided to keep up with Uncanny only, and pick up the event in trade if I liked what I saw in the Uncanny issues.”

    What made you decide to buy it at all during the crossover? Are you core title completionists? Because if the goal is to keep abreast of the current X-Men goings, I personally just use the handy-dandy internet (which is exactly what I’ve been doing since a few issues after Fraction took over).
    I am buying 2nd coming despite not being a regular x-book buyer anymore. It’s almost lost me a couple of times with the terrible Uncanny and New Mutants chapters but always seems to rebound nicely enough with the other books. I bet most other commenters are right about seeing significant reorders on these books next month. I know my local shop under-ordered the first month.

  14. $3.99 (US) is making a huge difference on my ordering practices. I used to be a Spider-Man completist, and ordered every series (when there were 3 monthly books) and also minis, one-shots and Ultimate Spider-Man.

    I cut-off USM at the re-boot when the price increase came in with no page increase. I continue buying Amazing, but can’t justify the minis. Occasionally I’ll pick up a one-shot when there is extra length involved with creators in which I am interested. I’m going to stay with Secret Avengers, purely because of Brubaker on the title. As for the other $3.99 titles with no extra pages – forget it.

  15. Hey, is anyone here reading Electric Ant? I flip through it at the store and it looks interesting, but don’t want to drop $3.99 on it. Is it worth picking up in trade format?

  16. $3.99 is definitely stopping me. I actually just got into Ultimate Spider-Man this summer by borrowing some of a friend’s back issues. I was initially excited about jumping on the UC:SM #1 because a review described it as somewhere between Scott Pilgrim and the Spider-Friends. I even bought a couple issues.

    But for a little more than the price of the three issues I bought, I can get a collection of six that looks nice on my shelf. Sorry pamphlets, you lose.

  17. Re: Invincible Iron Man #25

    There were actually 6 covers offered through Diamond (as well as a separate Motor City Variant not offered through them), I believe that the one that was omitted in the analysis was the cover drawn by Herb Trimpe.

    Re: Second Coming

    Based on the anecdotal evidence from my area of L.A. then my guess is that some retailers absolutely under-ordered on some of those tie-ins. Some have been left with a ton of “event” books that have had lackluster sales and I can easily understand why they would be conservative here, especially if they didn’t notice how closely tied together the main titles are/were.

    That being said, I can also see some people knowingly skipping an important part of a story, but continuing to buy one or two of the titles involved. I’ve done that myself in regards to the current Hulk crossover. I have around 350 consecutive issues of “The Incredible Hulk” and as much as it might not make sense to some people, I do want to continue that run. That being said, I am not happy with the $3.99 price tag on the main “Hulk” book, it’s direction since it’s inception, Jeph Loeb’s stories, and the endless variant covers. So I don’t honestly care that I’m getting just 33% or 25% of the story by only buying “The Incredible Hulk”, Marvel is not convincing me to buy the rest of this crossover.

  18. i tweeked my subscriptions around to add every Xtitle in the SC crossover for the 3mo period. and besides Marvel Previews – i didnt have room/$ for anything else. but the line altering stunt has given me an opportunity to set the mutant subset down. Im keeping the Legacy title though..but gonna surf around the rest of the MU ($2.99 price tag permitting).

    thought about picking up Moon Knight, Vengence of w/ SA, but im gonna wait for trades. couldnt wait to snatch the relaunched Tbolts. gonna check out Young Allies too, and returned to Secret Warriors for their Heroic Age covers alone (Cap!)..wonder which Cap it is//? and having not kept up with DD, im still gonna look into Shadowland.

    nearly argued that SA is the flip side of Dark Avengers..but continuation? nah

  19. So it’s interesting to observe that here in 2010, with the Internet and recap pages, having a storyline cross over with another book probably doesn’t have the sales “umph” it once did.

    Given that I was already ordering all of the books already, I should not that I’ve enjoyed the cross-book consistency of Second Coming. As mentioned, it’s not really obvious which book I’m reading at any given time, it’s very balanced.

  20. Put me down as another who balks at paying $3.99 for minis. I’ve skipped quite a few books since this became the norm for Marvel’s pricing for mini-series. And I’ve been culling the on-goings I read as well.

    Marvel made have increased their profitibility in the short term (as a way of making themselves attractive to Disney, I suppose), but long term this has to hurt them. I’m personally buying fewer books than I have in the past 20 years. I only imagine that others are doing the same (and I may be wrong about this)>

  21. What made you decide to buy it at all during the crossover? Are you core title completionists?

    Reading “Second Coming” is comparable to watching an old made-for-TV disaster movie. The threat is, say, that the Earth’s core is going to explode and cause the planet to disintegrate. That’s not going to happen, obviously, so the interest lies in seeing how wacky the core concept is, how wacky the solution to the main problem is, and viewing potentially interesting character bits.

    I don’t lose anything by missing parts of “Second Coming” because the storyline’s premise is defective. No amount of rewriting could save the storyline, because the primary problem is Hope.

    Another major problem is the alternate futures. Suppose that villains from seven dystopian alternate futures all come back to the same point in time with the objective of ensuring that his future is realized. How do the heroes react? Well, none of them can go in seven different directions at once, or even in two different directions. Nothing that any of the heroes does can guarantee that a specific future will be realized, although he could arguably guarantee that one won’t be realized. Their futures are unknown and always will be.

    An alternate future scenario only works in the sense that it can be avoided by eliminating the thing that produces it, and dealing with more than one scenario at a time causes obvious logic problems.

    SRS

  22. “I know that it’s keeping me from picking them up. There are several mini-series I would get if they were $2.99, but pricing them at $3.99 is a big turnoff with collected versions available down the road at better discount prices.”

    Except that many publishers are now publishing collections of the minis at an equal or higher per-page price point. So now you very well may pay more for that format.

  23. I don’t understand how Marvel determines which books should be 3.99$ or 2.99$ Some of the 3.99$ have more pages others don’t. Some have backup stories (mainly at DC) others don’t. Marvel seems to have more 3.99$ books than DC and in both cases nothing can justify a 1$ (33%!!!) price hike. Price of pulp and printing are lower than now than in 2008 (thanks to the recession)….the bad economy reduces the number of books people would by. Generally speaking, almost everyone I know is buying less titles nowadays….not a good sign for the Direct Market. I hope the big ‘2’ look at the big picture instead of the big and quick buck $$$

  24. It’s been a full month since I stopped buying new comics, and it feels great. I no longer have to deal with the disappointment of having characters come back to life and thereby destroying the emotional impact of previous stories that I had enjoyed. I no longer have to deal with character’s pasts being Mephistoed so that stories that I previously enjoyed apparently didn’t take place (?). I no longer have to spend $3.99 for a comic that will have no true consequence in the Marvel universe because anything can be, and will be, undone. It’s a Brand New Day.

  25. Nova and Guardians are going to be canceled? Crap like Seige and Secret Invasion sells while Abnett and Lanning stuff takes a nose dive? It was Annihilation, Nova, Guardians and Atlas that had me buying Marvel after being completely disgusted with them for two decades. There is no justice…and apparently no taste. I just hope Groot get’s his own series.

  26. I am Groot!

    Glenn Simpson said: “I’ve enjoyed the cross-book consistency of Second Coming. As mentioned, it’s not really obvious which book I’m reading at any given time, it’s very balanced.”

    Haha, I think just the opposite! Though this week’s Uncanny wasn’t bad, I’ve disliked the Uncanny and New Mutants chapters.

    @Synsidar: Thanks!

    I know my local shop ordered WAY too many issues of Secret Avengers #1. They still have about 5 piles of them on the stands. But they didn’t have any Thunderbolts or Avengers Academy books available so I’m not sure to make of their ordering practices other than they cut their orders too severely to compensate for orders too many of S.A.
    Oh and I also resist buying minis with the $3.99 price tag. Figure if I hear they’re good I’ll go back and buy ’em in bulk for cheap later on down the line.

  27. “I’ve always found that fascinating. Who are these people who want to buy every fourth chapter of “Second Coming”? If they’re such completists that they’re buying issues of UNCANNY containing a story they apparently don’t want to read, why aren’t they completist enough to buy the other parts of the story?”

    I have a theory that at least *part* of the phenomenon is people who don’t follow the industry news/solicitations and who only find out about crossovers after the fact. They may have a pull list at a comic shop where their favorite titles like UNCANNY are being pulled by the proprietor, and maybe they pick them up every month and put them in a pile at home, and then every six months or every year they go through that pile and catch up on what’s happened in the book over the course of the last few months, and then they’re all, “Oh, there was a crossover? I seem to be getting only part of the picture here.”

  28. I can agree with not tracking SECRET AVENGERS with DARK AVENGERS. I think it’s the right call to separate them. There’s very little similarity between the two.

    Where I disagree is MIGHTY AVENGERS and AVENGERS. I think they should be tracked since they are the “mainstream” Avengers team. The concept is the same even if the creators aren’t. (Although MIGHTY *was* started by Bendis and written by him for the majority of its run, same as AVENGERS).

    However, if you don’t want to track MIGHTY with AVENGERS, then I would suggest that you at least track AVENGERS with AVENGERS (1998) — the Busiek/Johns/Austen run.