by Paul O’Brien
A busy month, as SIEGE wraps up, and the Heroic Age books begin, including the debut issues of both AVENGERS and SECRET AVENGERS. The “World War Hulks” crossover begins, “Second Coming” continues in the X-books, and the new ASTONISHING miniseries ship their first issues.
Once again, Marvel had the largest share of the North American direct market, beating DC by 46% to 35% in terms of units, and 41% to 31% in dollars.
For the benefit of any new readers, bear in mind the following disclaimers. These are estimates of orders placed by stores in the North American direct market. They don’t include sales on newsstands, or to other countries (such as the UK). And most of this material will be repackaged in collected editions or made available online, so there will be further sales in other formats. On the other hand, we don’t know whether the retailers managed to sell everything they ordered. With books that have been around a while, the retailers presumably have a fairly good idea of how many copies they can sell; with new launches, there’s a bit more guesswork involved.
With that out of the way, let’s get to the numbers. Thanks as always to MIlton Griepp and Icv2 for permission to use these figures.
1. AVENGERS 05/10 Avengers #1 - 163,867
The Avengers line gets a reshuffle to tie in with Marvel’s new “Heroic Age” direction. While you could certainly make a case for doing it differently, for the purposes of comparing with earlier years, I’m taking the line that NEW AVENGERS has been renumbered from issue #1; AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE has been relaunched as AVENGERS ACADEMY; and AVENGERS and SECRET AVENGERS are simply new titles, replacing DARK AVENGERS and MIGHTY AVENGERS.
As we’ve come to expect with major launches, the issue has a horde of variant covers. In addition to the regular John Romita Jr cover, there’s a 1:15 “Heroic Age” cover by Greg Land, a 1:25 Marko Djurdjevic cover, a 1:75 Captain America cover (recycling the art from the “I Am An Avenger” promotional adverts, and we’ll be seeing those for months to come on the Avengers titles), a gatefold variant of that last cover, a John Romita Sr cover, a blank cover, and something called a “Premiere” cover. So eight covers in total, three of them with incentives.
Even so, 164K is a good number. It’s significantly more than SIEGE #1, for example. But perhaps a better comparison is the launch of DARK AVENGERS in January 2009, which had seven covers, higher incentive ratios, and estimated sales of 118,579. This is clearly a step up from that. So far, so good.
2. 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 --- 05/10 Siege #4 of 4 - 113,752 (+0.6%)
The sales for the first issue of SIEGE may not have been spectacular, but the series has remained remarkably steady since then.
This final issue sees a small uptick in sales, which is unusual. (The increase is trivial, but the point is that you’d normally expect sales to go down over the life of a miniseries.) One factor will be the range of variants – issue #3 had five covers, including 1:25, 1:100 and 1:200 incentives. Issue #4 also has five, but the incentive ratios were 1:25, 1:100, 1:175 and 1:250. Presumably that was just enough to cancel out the usual drop.
4. SECRET AVENGERS 05/10 Secret Avengers #1 - 106,750
That’s a very good start for what’s presumably the Avengers’ C-title, behind AVENGERS and NEW AVENGERS. This one has a mere four covers, with incentives of 1:15, 1:25 and 1:75. The Avengers titles had been tailing off a bit over the last year, but this relaunch may well have reinvigorated them. The acid test, of course, is how well the sales hold up beyond the first couple of months.
10. UNCANNY X-MEN
05/05 Uncanny X-Men #459 - 83,547
05/06 Uncanny X-Men #473 - 79,335
05/07 Uncanny X-Men #486 - 81,965
05/08 Uncanny X-Men #498 - 82,090
=====
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 - 78,999 (+16.2%)
05/10 Uncanny X-Men #524 - 77,056 ( -2.5%)
6 mnth (+10.8%)
1 year ( +2.6%)
2 year ( -6.1%)
3 year ( -6.0%)
4 year ( -2.9%)
5 year ( -7.8%)
This is the second month of the “Second Coming” crossover, running through UNCANNY, X-MEN LEGACY, NEW MUTANTS and X-FORCE. And the signs are good. Across the board, the April issues are picking up reorders. Here, issue #523 sold a further 4,909 in May, bringing the total to almost 79,000.
That means that initial sales are actually up for the second month of this crossover. There are also variant covers on these books, but those are consistent from month to month, so they shouldn’t make a difference.
Admittedly, UNCANNY was selling in these quantities roughly a year ago without the benefit of crossovers. Similar points could be made about most of the other titles. (NEW MUTANTS is a special case, because its sales lag so far behind the other books, and it’s only a year old.) Nonetheless, the reorder activity shows some interest in this story – and if it hadn’t been for those re-orders, UNCANNY would be showing a sales increase for the fourth month in a row.
X-MEN: SECOND COMING #1, which carried the first chapter of the crossover and came out in March, also picks up reorders of 6,990, bringing the total to 73,003.
11. NEW AVENGERS
05/05 ---
05/06 New Avengers #19 - 123,318
05/07 New Avengers #30 - 126,425
05/08 New Avengers #41 - 109,185
=====
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%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Finale - 76,918 ( +2.0%)
6 mnth ( +3.4%)
1 year (-18.5%)
2 year (-30.0%)
3 year (-39.2%)
4 year (-37.6%)
5 year ( --- )
Basically issue #65, and the retailers have ordered it accordingly. It’s an epilogue, wrapping up some of the outstanding plot threads. Needless to say, we can expect a significant jump next month when the title relaunches from issue #1. (And while I’m generally sceptical about the current value of that particular marketing device, NEW AVENGERS should be an exception – partly because it really has closed the book on a multi-year storyline, and partly because of the sheer volume of promotion.)
13. DARK AVENGERS
05/09 ---
06/09 Dark Avengers #5 - 95,746 ( -4.0%)
06/09 Dark Avengers #6 - 93,634 ( -2.2%)
07/09 Dark Avengers #7 - 94,189 ( +0.6%)
08/09 Dark Avengers #8 - 94,191 ( +0.0%)
09/09 Dark Avengers #9 - 79,729 (-15.4%)
10/09 Dark Avengers #10 - 75,618 ( -5.2%)
11/09 Dark Avengers #11 - 72,225 ( -4.5%)
12/09 Dark Avengers #12 - 69,799 ( -3.4%)
01/10 Dark Avengers #13 - 76,002 ( +8.9%)
02/10 Dark Avengers #14 - 76,639 ( +0.8%)
03/10 Dark Avengers #15 - 72,254 ( -5.7%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Dark Avengers #16 - 71,509 ( -1.0%)
6 mnth ( -1.0%)
1 year ( --- )
The final issue, delayed because it has to tie in with the end of SIEGE. DARK AVENGERS has been losing readers over the course of the year, but still wraps up its run with eminently acceptable sales.
15. X-MEN LEGACY
05/05 X-Men #170 - 81,048
05/06 X-Men #186 - 79,536
05/07 X-Men #199 - 75,996
05/08 X-Men Legacy #212 - 74,033
=====
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 - 65,302 (+35.4%)
05/10 X-Men Legacy #236 - 64,850 ( -0.7%)
6 mnth (+27.7%)
1 year (+20.1%)
2 year (-12.4%)
3 year (-14.7%)
4 year (-18.5%)
5 year (-20.0%)
16. X-FORCE
05/08 X-Force #4 - 80,175
=====
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 - 67,512 (+35.3%)
05/10 X-Force #27 - 62,509 ( -7.4%)
6 mnth (+15.8%)
1 year ( +7.1%)
2 year (-22.0%)
Two more “Second Coming” titles. LEGACY picks up orders of 4,653 on issue #235, while X-FORCE adds 5,312 to the orders on issue #26. The latter title is heading for a relaunch after the crossover.
19. THOR
05/08 Thor #9 - 87,101
=====
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%)
05/10 Thor #610 - 61,779 ( -4.3%)
6 mnth (+15.3%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year (-29.1%)
This issue has a 1:15 “Heroic Age” variant, but then there was a 1:15 variant on the April issue as well. It’s not officially a SIEGE crossover, but it was solicited (correctly) as an epilogue, which probably explains why it’s held on to much of the crossover increase.
20. SENTRY: FALLEN SUN 05/10 Fallen Sun - 60,883
The funeral of the Sentry, and another SIEGE epilogue. Not a bad number at all – it’s about 10,000 short of parent title DARK AVENGERS, without the benefit of a variant cover.
21,22,23. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
05/05 Amazing Spider-Man #520 - 76,143
05/06 Amazing Spider-Man #532 - 95,544
05/07 Amazing Spider-Man #540 - 119,662
05/08 Amazing Spider-Man #560 - 74,012
=====
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%)
05/10 Amazing Spider-Man #630 - 57,969 ( +8.2%)
05/10 Amazing Spider-Man #631 - 57,239 ( -1.3%)
05/10 Amazing Spider-Man #632 - 56,723 ( -0.9%)
6 mnth (-12.1%)
1 year ( -2.8%)
2 year (-23.4%)
3 year (-52.6%)
4 year (-40.6%)
5 year (-25.5%)
Variant covers on all three issues this month, which presumably explains why sales remain in the upper 50K range. The next couple of months should be interesting, as they’ll feature the “Grim Hunt” storyline, which has had months of build, followed by Joe Quesada’s “O.M.I.T.” arc picking at the wedding scab.
24. ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN/WOLVERINE 05/10 Spider-Man/Wolverine #1 of 5 - 56,518 25. ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS 05/10 Xenogenesis #1 of 5 - 55,428
The “Astonishing” books are being promoted as self-contained, accessible minis featuring major Marvel characters without getting hung up on continuity. The fact that they’ve placed so close together is interesting, given that they have different creative teams, different characters (except for Wolverine, who’s in both) and no story connection. Presumably retailers do indeed see some value in the “Astonishing” brand.
XENOGENESIS is basically a continuation of Warren Ellis’s ASTONISHING X-MEN run – except that the previous arc isn’t finished yet, having become mired in yet more delays. In effect, if not in form, Marvel are now shipping that series out of sequence.
Both issues have foilogram variants, and both will be getting “Director’s Cut” editions in September.
26. INVINCIBLE IRON MAN
05/05 ---
05/06 Iron Man #8 - 38,860
05/07 Iron Man #17 - 63,328
05/08 Invincible Iron Man #1 - 105,864
=====
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%)
05/10 Invincible Iron Man #26 - 53,625 (-27.2%)
6 mnth (-13.0%)
1 year ( +4.5%)
2 year (-49.3%)
3 year (-15.3%)
4 year (+38.0%)
5 year ( --- )
Dropping back to more familiar sales levels now that the movie release (and its accompanying variant covers) is behind us.
27. ULTIMATE COMICS NEW ULTIMATES
05/05 Ultimates 2 #6 - 102,026
05/06 ---
05/07 Ultimates 2 #13 - 105,745
05/08 ---
05/09 ---
=====
03/10 New Ultimates #1 of 5 - 71,279
04/10 ---
05/10 New Ultimates #2 of 5 - 53,323 (-25.2%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year ( --- )
2 year ( --- )
3 year (-49.6%)
4 year ( --- )
5 year (-47.7%)
28. 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 of 6 - 64,811 (+21.3%)
05/10 U.C. Avengers 2 #2 of 6 - 52,939 (-18.3%)
6 mnth (-10.3%)
More worrying signs for the Ultimate imprint. ULTIMATES 3 wrapped up with sales at 86,851 in September 2008, so the new title has opened lower and dropped further. In fairness, the first issue had two variant covers, so the underlying drop will be more modest than it looks.
Similarly, ULTIMATE AVENGERS 2 had two variant covers for its first issue, which makes the second issue drop relatively modest. But any benefit from the renumbering has more or less worn off already.
31. HULK
05/08 ---
=====
05/09 Hulk #12 - 73,105 (-11.6%)
06/09 ---
07/09 ---
08/09 Hulk #13 - 71,369 ( -2.4%)
08/09 Hulk #14 - 77,455 ( +8.5%)
09/09 Hulk #15 - 58,667 (-24.3%)
10/09 Hulk #16 - 56,811 ( -3.2%)
11/09 Hulk #17 - 52,653 ( -7.3%)
12/09 Hulk #18 - 53,222 ( +1.1%)
01/10 Hulk #19 - 56,738 ( +6.6%)
02/10 Hulk #20 - 51,962 ( -8.4%)
03/10 Hulk #21 - 50,785 ( -2.3%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Hulk #22 - 49,618 ( -2.3%)
6 mnth ( -5.8%)
1 year (-32.1%)
2 year ( --- )
Beginning the “World War Hulks” crossover, although since “Fall of the Hulks” has only just finished in the previous issue, there’s not much difference to be seen. The solicitations indicate new creative teams and new directions for the Hulk titles in September.
32. 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 - 49,591 (+35.4%)
05/10 New Mutants #13 - 49,583 ( -0.0%)
6 mnth (+48.8%)
1 year (-18.7%)
The fourth “Second Coming” title picks up a whopping 6,807 in re-orders, which tends to support my speculation last month that retailers had under-ordered it. Mind you, it still remains 28,000 short of UNCANNY X-MEN, which means that a full third of UNCANNY’s readers aren’t buying the whole crossover, even though it’s an old-school “part 6 of 14” serial. Strange, that.
34. INCREDIBLE HULK
05/05 Incredible Hulk #81 - 43,822
05/06 Incredible Hulk #95 - 46,571
05/07 Incredible Hulk #106 - 110,192
05/08 ---
=====
07/09 Incredible Hulk #600 - 92,343
08/09 Incredible Hulk #601 - 64,120 (-30.6%)
09/09 Incredible Hulk #602 - 51,582 (-19.6%)
10/09 Incredible Hulk #603 - 49,126 ( -4.8%)
11/09 Incredible Hulk #604 - 40,652 (-17.2%)
12/09 Incredible Hulk #605 - 43,964 ( +8.1%)
01/10 Incredible Hulk #606 - 48,197 ( +9.6%)
02/10 Incredible Hulk #607 - 45,870 ( -4.8%)
03/10 Incredible Hulk #608 - 47,148 ( +2.8%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Incredible Hulk #609 - 46,670 ( -1.0%)
6 mnth (+14.8%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year ( --- )
3 year (-57.6%)
4 year ( +0.2%)
5 year ( +6.5%)
See comments above for HULK, basically.
35. DARK WOLVERINE
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%)
05/10 Dark Wolverine #86 - 46,315 ( -2.6%)
6 mnth (-11.6%)
1 year (-49.3%)
This is the second month of a crossover with WOLVERINE: ORIGINS. There’s a “Heroic Age” variant cover (but there was one on the previous issue too). The book is relaunching in September as DAKEN: DARK WOLVERINE, while WOLVERINE: WEAPON X is relaunching as just plain WOLVERINE. Reflecting the reality, I’ve moved the sales for prior years over to WEAPON X, which is the real continuation of Wolverine’s solo title.
S.H.I.E.L.D. 04/10 S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 - 44,543 05/10 ---
This is on a bimonthly schedule, but issue #1 picks up healthy reorders of 6,513 – included above, as always.
41. DEADPOOL
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%)
05/10 Deadpool #23 - 42,761 ( -0.7%)
6 mnth ( -8.6%)
1 year (-23.8%)
Hovering at a steady level over the last few months. There’s a variant cover on this issue, but the same applied last month.
43. X-FACTOR
05/06 X-Factor #7 - 44,315
05/07 X-Factor #19 - 37,898
05/08 X-Factor #31 - 48,231
=====
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 - 40,534 (+40.1%)
05/10 X-Factor #205 - 41,745 ( +3.0%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year (+32.3%)
2 year (-13.4%)
3 year (+10.2%)
4 year ( -5.8%)
X-FACTOR isn’t part of “Second Coming” proper, but its tie-in arc is still generating remarkable sales increases. Issue #204 picks up reorders of 3,961.
45. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL 05/10 Annual #37 - 41,388
Only about 16K behind the parent title – not bad at all for an annual, and particularly not for a story billed as taking place during the Silver Age.
46. SIEGE: EMBEDDED 01/10 Siege: Embedded #1 of 4 - 55,482 02/10 Siege: Embedded #2 of 4 - 46,003 (-17.1%) 03/10 Siege: Embedded #3 of 4 - 43,455 ( -5.5%) 04/10 --- 05/10 Siege: Embedded #4 of 4 - 40,054 ( -7.8%)
A pretty solid performance for SIEGE’s B-miniseries.
47. ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN
05/05 Ult. Spider-Man #77 - 81,034
05/06 Ult. Spider-Man #95 - 73,564
05/07 Ult. Spider-Man #109 - 72,478
05/08 Ult. Spider-Man #122 - 55,759
=====
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%)
05/10 U.C. Spider-Man #10 - 39,690 ( -0.7%)
6 mnth ( -19.2%)
1 year ( -20.8%)
2 year ( -28.8%)
3 year ( -45.2%)
4 year ( -46.0%)
5 year ( -51.0%)
Seems to be levelling out, at least, but sales remain substantially down following the relaunch.
48. WOLVERINE ONE-SHOTS 05/09 --- 06/09 Revolver - 21,425 ( -8.0%) 07/09 --- 08/09 --- 09/09 --- 10/09 --- 11/09 --- 12/09 Under the Boardwalk - 19,271 ( -10.4%) 01/10 Wendigo - 17,476 ( -9.3%) 02/10 Savage - 18,396 ( +5.3%) 03/10 Mr X - 17,947 ( -2.4%) 04/10 --- 05/10 Wolverine #900 - 38,990 (+117.3%)
Interesting. This is basically a Wolverine anthology. Initially I assumed that the joke of publishing DEADPOOL #900 must have gone over someone’s head. But as it turns out, this $5 book has sold far better than the usual Wolverine one-shot – comfortably better, in fact, than either of Wolverine’s regular titles. That’s unexpected.
49. FANTASTIC FOUR
05/05 Fantastic Four #527 - 67,433
05/06 ---
05/07 Fantastic Four #546 - 72,182
05/08 Fantastic Four #557 - 62,736
=====
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%)
05/10 Fantastic Four #579 - 38,415 ( +1.3%)
6 mnth ( -2.6%)
1 year (-17.7%)
2 year (-38.8%)
3 year (-46.8%)
4 year ( --- )
5 year (-43.0%)
Variant cover, but the same applied last month. This may be settling down.
50. AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE
05/07 Initiative #2 - 103,189
05/08 Initiative #13 - 56,818
=====
05/09 Initiative #24 - 42,510 ( -5.8%)
06/09 Initiative #25 - 40,101 ( -5.7%)
07/09 Initiative #26 - 38,215 ( -4.7%)
08/09 Initiative #27 - 39,014 ( +2.1%)
09/09 Initiative #28 - 33,855 (-13.2%)
10/09 Initiative #29 - 31,412 ( -7.2%)
11/09 Initiative #30 - 28,688 ( -8.7%)
12/09 Initiative #31 - 32,291 (+12.6%)
01/10 Initiative #32 - 36,127 (+11.9%)
02/10 Initiative #33 - 39,968 (+10.6%)
03/10 Initiative #34 - 38,616 ( -3.4%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Initiative #35 - 38,158 ( -1.2%)
6 mnth (+33.0%)
1 year (-10.2%)
2 year (-32.8%)
3 year (-63.0%)
Final issue, with AVENGERS ACADEMY replacing it in June. It’s also a SIEGE tie-in, and continues to benefit from that.
52. WOLVERINE: ORIGINS
05/06 Origins #2 - 131,522
05/07 Origins #14 - 68,953
05/08 Origins #25 - 52,907
=====
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%)
05/10 Origins #48 - 35,999 ( -0.2%)
6 mnth ( -5.0%)
1 year (-20.8%)
2 year (-32.0%)
3 year (-47.8%)
4 year (-72.6%)
The second month of the crossover with DARK WOLVERINE, which doesn’t seem to be having a huge impact – sales continue to hover around the level they’ve had all year. The book ends with issue #50, having completed its multi-year story.
53. X-MEN: BLIND SCIENCE 05/10 Blind Science - 35,483
A Second Coming tie-in one-shot, featuring the X-Club. Considering the sales levels we’ve seen on recent X-Men spin-offs like the PIXIE miniseries (see below), this looks like another sign of the popularity of the crossover.
57. AGE OF HEROES 05/10 Age of Heroes #1 of 4 - 33,573
An anthology title catching up on miscellaneous Marvel characters in the post-Dark Reign universe. Considering that this features stories about characters from two recently-cancelled titles (Dr Voodoo and MI-13), it’s a very solid number.
58. X-MEN: HELLBOUND 05/10 Hellbound #1 of 3 - 33,345
Another “Second Coming” tie-in miniseries, and again, it’s doing much better than your typical X-Men spin-off these days.
59. THUNDERBOLTS
05/05 New Thunderbolts #8 - 27,769
05/06 Thunderbolts #102 - 23,741
05/07 Thunderbolts #114 - 66,309
05/08 Thunderbolts #120 - 38,330
=====
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%)
05/10 Thunderbolts #144 - 33,276 ( -6.7%)
6 mnth ( +6.5%)
1 year (-24.2%)
2 year (-13.2%)
3 year (-49.8%)
4 year (+40.2%)
5 year (+19.8%)
Hmm. This is the first issue of the new direction, complete with a Heroic Age variant cover. Granted, the last three issues were SIEGE tie-ins, and the April issue had a variant of its own, but I have to admit I was expecting a bigger increase.
63. MARVELS PROJECT 08/09 Marvels Project #1 of 8 - 89,062 09/09 Marvels Project #2 of 8 - 47,744 (-46.4%) 10/09 Marvels Project #3 of 8 - 39,313 (-17.7%) 11/09 --- 12/09 Marvels Project #4 of 8 - 34,775 (-11.5%) 01/10 Marvels Project #5 of 8 - 31,644 ( -9.0%) 02/10 Marvels Project #6 of 8 - 30,108 ( -4.9%) 03/10 Marvels Project #7 of 8 - 28,129 ( -6.6%) 04/10 --- 05/10 Marvels Project #8 of 8 - 31,345 (+11.4%)
This issue has two variant covers, which presumably explains the unusual sales increase on the last issue of a mini.
66. 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%)
05/10 Merc With A Mouth #11 - 30,677 ( -9.2%)
6 mnth (-18.8%)
Cancelled with issue #13, with DEADPOOL CORPS effectively replacing it on the schedule. Except DEADPOOL CORPS is already below this pointÉ
67. WOLVERINE: WEAPON X
05/05 Wolverine #28 - 80,961
05/06 Wolverine #42 - 93,558
05/07 Wolverine #54 - 96,082
05/08 Wolverine #65 - 62,451
=====
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%)
05/10 Weapon X #13 - 29,773 ( -0.9%)
6 mnth (-17.5%)
1 year (-49.7%)
2 year (-52.3%)
3 year (-69.0%)
4 year (-68.2%)
5 year (-63.2%)
Relaunching in September as just plain WOLVERINE. As I’ve said before, Marvel’s big idea was presumably to turn WOLVERINE into a Daken title, and launch this book as the new regular Wolverine title. But it hasn’t worked, with sales rapidly crashing to levels we haven’t seen on the lead Wolverine title in years. Some people blame the price point. Me, I think the bigger factor is that there was very little appetite for a third monthly Wolverine book, which is how WEAPON X was initially promoted. (And incidentally, the experience of this book makes me very intrigued to see what happens with the upcoming X-MEN #1.)
So the relaunch in September has a lot of work to do, if it’s going to reverse the damage. Which might be why it’s shipping with five variant coversÉ
68. THANOS IMPERATIVE 05/10 Ignition - 29,716
The prologue to a mini starting next month. It replaces GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and NOVA, both of which had dropped to 21K towards the end of their runs, so it’s a decent number.
69. SECRET WARRIORS
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%)
05/10 Secret Warriors #16 - 29,340 ( -1.1%)
6 mnth ( -7.1%)
1 year (-31.4%)
Variant cover, but that’s not unusual. Sales seem to have steadied over the last five months or so.
70. IRON MAN LEGACY 04/10 Iron Man Legacy #1 - 48,956 05/10 Iron Man Legacy #2 - 29,175 (-40.4%)
A huge second issue drop, but then the launch issue had the benefit of four covers plus the publicity of the IRON MAN 2 movie release – and we saw what a huge spike that created for INVINCIBLE IRON MAN. So it was always going to be a sharp fall.
72. DOOMWAR
05/05 Black Panther #4 - 40,804
05/06 Black Panther #16 - 28,091
05/07 Black Panther #27 - 52,552
05/08 Black Panther #36 - 20,841
=====
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%)
05/10 Doomwar #4 of 6 - 28,307 ( +1.6%)
6 mnth ( +47.8%)
1 year ( -8.6%)
2 year ( +35.8%)
3 year ( -46.1%)
4 year ( +0.8%)
5 year ( -30.6%)
Marvel haven’t solicited anything beyond the end of this miniseries, so it looks like this may be it for BLACK PANTHER. Which is slightly surprising, because sales have increased substantially with this miniseries – admittedly with the help of a horde of guest stars, but that’s not usually a big deal in sales terms any more. The slight increase this month is probably due to the Heroic Age variant cover, though.
73. 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%) 05/10 Deadpool Corps #2 - 28,236 (-28.5%)
Already below the sales of DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH, which isn’t encouraging. The first issue had a variant cover, and this one doesn’t, so the second issue drop isn’t as steep as it looks.
74. 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%) 05/10 Savage She-Hulks #3 of 3 - 27,809 ( +1.4%)
Another slight increase which is probably attributable to a Heroic Age variant cover – there was no variant on issue #2.
75. 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%) 05/10 Enemy #4 of 4 - 27,612 ( -4.2%)
Fairly steady after the initial drop.
76. 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%)
05/10 Deadpool Team-Up #893 - 26,578 ( -7.8%)
6 mnth (-32.9%)
This has a variant cover (as did the previous issue), so the underlying sales still seem to be dropping.
79. DARK TOWER: GUNSLINGER - JOURNEY BEGINS
05/07 Gunslinger Born #4 of 7 - 131,753
05/08 Long Road Home #3 of 5 - 87,631
=====
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%)
05/10 Gunslinger #1 of 5 - 26,275 ( +1.5%)
6 mnth (-19.2%)
1 year (-39.7%)
2 year (-69.7%)
3 year (-80.1%)
A very token sales bump for the first issue of a new arc.
86. BLACK WIDOW 04/10 Black Widow #1 - 32,807 05/10 Black Widow #2 - 23,384 (-28.7%)
Issue #1 had four covers, issue #2 has three, so the second issue drop will be slightly exaggerated.
87. MARVEL ZOMBIES 5 04/10 Marvel Zombies 5 #1 of 5 - 26,318 04/10 Marvel Zombies 5 #2 of 5 - 26,319 ( -1.8%) 05/10 Marvel Zombies 5 #3 of 5 - 22,894 (-13.0%)
The magic of variant covers brings us a delayed second issue drop – which is actually quite a modest one.
88. ATLAS
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%)
05/10 Atlas #1 - 22,756 (+52.7%)
6 mnth ( -9.8%)
1 year (-10.3%)
AGENTS OF ATLAS relaunches as just plain ATLAS. Unfortunately, sales pick up more or less at the level that the previous title had reached by issue #6, and that’s with the benefit of two variant covers. But as I’ve pointed out over the last few months, arbitrary renumbering no longer seem to be a very effective way of boosting sales.
91. PUNISHERMAX [Max]
05/05 Punisher #21 - 37,998
05/06 Punisher #33 - 34,480
05/07 Punisher #47 - 33,892
05/08 Punisher #57 - 30,528
=====
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%)
05/10 PunisherMax #7 - 22,198 ( -0.2%)
6 mnth (-23.8%)
1 year ( +1.5%)
2 year (-27.3%)
3 year (-34.5%)
4 year (-35.6%)
5 year (-41.6%)
Holding steady.
92. ENTER THE HEROIC AGE 05/10 Enter the Heroic Age - 22,139
Trailer stories for five new titles – again, a decent number for that sort of book.
93. AVENGERS: THE ORIGIN 04/10 Origin #1 of 5 - 24,457 05/10 Origin #2 of 5 - 22,108 (-9.6%)
A Heroic Age variant cover will have blunted the second issue drop, but this isn’t at all bad for a story set in the Silver Age.
97. VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT
05/06 Moon Knight #2 - 75,333
05/07 Moon Knight #10 - 56,734
05/08 Moon Knight #18 - 26,626
=====
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%)
05/10 Moon Knight #8 - 20,597 ( -0.6%)
6 mnth (-11.8%)
1 year ( +4.5%)
2 year (-22.6%)
3 year (-63.7%)
4 year (-72.7%)
Heroic Age variant cover. (There was an Iron Man variant last month.) Moon Knight should get some extra publicity from his inclusion in SECRET AVENGERS, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into sales on a solo title.
98. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN PRESENTS AMERICAN SON 05/10 American Son #1 of 4 - 20,375
Well, the JACKPOT mini launched with 18K, so this is an improvement. It does have a variant cover, though.
99. PRINCE OF POWER
05/08 Hercules #117 - 53,008
=====
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%)
05/10 Prince of Power #1 of 4 - 20,373 ( +0.8%)
6 mnth (-18.9%)
1 year (-29.7%)
2 year (-61.6%)
This is an Amadeus Cho miniseries, but it’s effectively HERCULES continuing in the absence of its lead characters. And retailers have more or less ordered it accordingly.
101. X-MEN ORIGINS 05/09 --- 06/09 Gambit - 28,023 (-18.4%) 07/09 --- 08/09 --- 09/09 --- 10/09 --- 11/09 Iceman - 19,004 (-32.2%) 12/09 -- 01/10 Cyclops - 19,049 ( +0.2%) 02/10 --- 03/10 Nightcrawler - 19,818 ( +4.0%) 04/10 --- 05/10 Emma Frost - 20,093 ( +1.4%)
These one-shots now seem to have settled down to the 20K range.
106. 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%)
05/10 Web of Spider-Man #8 - 19,623 ( +4.6%)
6 mnth (-38.9%)
Cancelled with issue #12.
110. DAREDEVIL: CAGE MATCH 05/10 Cage Match - 17,711
A one-shot replacing the regular title this month, and coming in with almost half the sales.
113. SPIDER-GIRL 05/10 Spectacular Spider-Girl #1 of 4 - 17,025
Officially the final Spider-Girl miniseries, although she’s had last-minute reprieves before.
115,116. WOMEN OF MARVEL ONE-SHOTS 03/10 X-23 - 27,328 03/10 She-Hulk - 15,583 03/10 Sif - 18,092 04/10 Firestar - 13,462 05/10 Dazzler - 16,320 05/10 Rescue - 15,711
Two more one-shots, and it looks like these books will typically be placing in the 15K range. Dazzler is in the X-Men (not that she gets much dialogue), so this is also an example of how the Second Coming tie-ins are outperforming the typical X-Men spin-offs.
118. CAPTAIN AMERICA/BLACK PANTHER: FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS 04/10 Flags #1 of 4 - 20,274 05/10 Flags #2 of 4 - 15,480 (-23.6%)
A miniseries set in World War II; not bad for a story that’s out of present day continuity.
119. 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%) 05/10 N #3 of 4 - 15,470 (-10.6%)
Digital comics reprint, and doing quite respectably by that standard. And as a Stephen King project, it should presumably do better than average in book format.
121. OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
05/05 Teams 2005 - 22,564
05/06 A to Z #5 of 12 - 21,331
05/07 Update #2 of 4 - 16,633
05/08 Iron Manual - 18,294
=====
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%)
05/10 Avengers Assemble #1 - 15,113 ( +59.8%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year ( --- )
2 year ( -17.4%)
3 year ( -9.1%)
4 year ( -29.2%)
5 year ( -33.0%)
The usual fluctuation according to subject matter.
122,123. 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%)
05/10 X-Men Forever #23 - 15,045 ( -1.7%)
05/10 X-Men Forever #24 - 14,940 ( -0.7%)
6 mnth (-23.5%)
Slow attrition continues. The book is relaunched in June as X-MEN FOREVER 2, kicking off a second year – and, to be fair, a new storyline. Whether renumbering will have a lasting effect on sales remains to be seen.
124. NEW AVENGERS: LUKE CAGE 04/10 Luke Cage #1 of 3 - 16,836 05/10 Luke Cage #2 of 3 - 14,878 (-11.6%)
Completely falling through the cracks, despite the current popularity of the Avengers franchise.
125. REALM OF KINGS: SON OF HULK
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%)
05/10 Son of Hulk #4 of 4 - 14,312 ( -6.4%)
6 mnth (-25.1%)
1 year ( --- )
And so much for the Son of Hulk – though it looks like he’s being folded back into the cast of INCREDIBLE HULK when the new creative team take over.
127,129. IRON MAN 2: PUBLIC IDENTITY 04/10 Public Identity #1 of 3 - 16,921 05/10 Public Identity #2 of 3 - 14,030 (-17.1%) 05/10 Public Identity #3 of 3 - 13,645 ( -2.7%)
Movie tie-in. The real market for something like this is in the bookstores.
131. ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS 05/10 Origins of Marvel Comics #1 - 13,274
A collection of very short origin recaps. Not quite sure who’s the intended audience for this, at least as a full-price comic – unless it’s generating material for re-use elsewhere.
134. 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%) 05/10 X-Factor Forever #3 of 5 - 12,794 (-12.4%)
Only a couple of thousand behind the parent title.
138. PETER PARKER 03/10 Peter Parker #1 - 18,963 04/10 Peter Parker #2 - 14,647 (-22.8%) 05/10 Peter Parker #3 - 12,514 (-14.6%)
Digital reprints, and not doing too badly.
139. MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ
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%)
05/10 Marvelous Land #6 of 8 - 12,366 ( -4.3%)
6 mnth (-51.2%)
1 year (-21.6%)
Holding up very nicely, and doing far better than usual for a Marvel novel adaptation.
143. SPIDER-MAN: FEVER 04/10 Fever #1 of 3 - 15,111 05/10 Fever #2 of 3 - 11,665 (-22.8%)
The selling point here is really that it’s a showcase for Brendan McCarthy, and that’s perhaps a niche audience.
144. MANY LOVES OF THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 05/10 Many Loves (one-shot) - 11,522
“Three all new tales of Spider-Man’s greatest loves.” One for the completists, I suspect.
148. WEAPON X NOIR 05/10 Weapon X Noir #1 - 11,119
Surely the end of this imprint has to be nigh.
157,239,245,250. MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS 05/10 Marvel Zombies #1 - 10,084 05/10 Alias #1 - 5,497 05/10 1602 #1 - 5,312 05/10 Agents of Atlas #1 - 5,136
More low-price reprints.
158. 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%) 05/10 Pixie #4 of 4 - 9,746 ( -5.2%)
A largely unnoticed X-Men spin-off.
162. ANITA BLAKE, VAMPIRE HUNTER
05/07 ---
05/08 Guilty Pls. #11 of 12 - 20,627
=====
05/09 ---
06/09 Necromancer #2 of 5 - 12,907 (-15.7%)
07/09 Necromancer #3 of 5 - 12,143 ( -5.9%)
08/09 Necromancer #4 of 5 - 11,597 ( -4.5%)
09/09 Necromancer #5 of 5 - 11,142 ( -3.9%)
10/09 Executioner #1 of 5 - 11,205 ( +0.6%)
11/09 ---
12/09 Executioner #2 of 5 - 10,454 ( -6.7%)
01/10 Executioner #3 of 5 - 9,958 ( -4.7%)
02/10 Executioner #4 of 5 - 9,626 ( -3.3%)
03/10 Executioner #5 of 5 - 9,454 ( -1.8%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Circus o/Damned #1 of 5 - 9,484 ( +0.3%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year ( --- )
2 year (-54.0%)
Once again, only a very token increase for the start of the new arc.
163. IRON MAN NOIR 04/10 Iron Man Noir #1 of 4 - 10,904 05/10 Iron Man Noir #2 of 4 - 9,268 (-15.0%)
At least it’s a modest drop for the second issue.
165. GIRL COMICS 03/10 Girl Comics #1 of 3 - 13,491 04/10 --- 05/10 Girl Comics #2 of 3 - 9,263 (-31.3%)
No great surprises here. There’s a limited market for these oddball anthologies.
166. GALACTA: DAUGHTER OF GALACTUS 05/10 Galacta - 9,243
More digital reprints (though I believe there was some original material in there too).
169. HALO: BLOOD LINE 12/09 Blood Line #1 of 5 - 10,551 01/10 Blood Line #2 of 5 - 9,172 (-13.1%) 02/10 Blood Line #3 of 5 - 8,793 ( -4.1%) 03/10 Blood Line #4 of 5 - 8,683 ( -1.3%) 04/10 --- 05/10 Blood Line #5 of 5 - 8,510 ( -2.0%)
Gaming comics are said to do very well outside the direct market, so this number doesn’t particularly matter.
170. 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%)
05/10 Deathlok #7 of 7 - 8,506 ( -4.4%)
6 mnth (-59.2%)
A Marvel Knights miniseries which dropped off the radar fairly quickly.
183. HEROIC AGE PREVIEWS 05/10 Bundle of 25 - 7,787
This month’s obligatory promotional item.
184. SPIDER-MAN [Marvel Adventures]
05/05 M.A. Spider-Man #3 - 9,110
05/06 M.A. Spider-Man #15 - 6,165
05/07 M.A. Spider-Man #27 - 6,818
05/08 M.A. Spider-Man #39 - 5,816
=====
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%)
05/10 Spider-Man #2 - 7,709 ( -21.1%)
6 mnth ( +71.3%)
1 year ( +69.2%)
2 year ( +32.5%)
3 year ( +13.1%)
4 year ( +25.0%)
5 year ( -15.4%)
216. SUPER HEROES [Marvel Adventures]
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 ( ??? )
05/10 Super Heroes #2 - 6,360 (-21.5%)
6 mnth (+92.3%)
1 year (+83.1%)
So far, so good – both titles are still seeing a significant increase from the relaunch.
218. 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%)
05/10 Unleashed #3 of 4 - 6,339 ( -6.3%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year (-64.1%)
Relatively steady this month. If you judge this by the standards of Marvel’s all-ages titles, then it’s doing fine.
223. PHILP K DICK'S ELECTRIC ANT 04/10 Electric Ant #1 of 5 - 8,869 05/10 Electric Ant #2 of 5 - 6,181 (-30.3%)
Issue #1 had a variant cover, which ought to exaggerate the drop. Of course, we’re now deep into the comics whose natural home is the collected edition.
231. HER-OES
04/10 Her-Oes #1 - 7,464
05/10 Her-Oes #2 - 5,871 (-21.3%)
235. THOR AND THE WARRIORS FOUR
04/10 Thor/Warriors Four #1 of 4 - 6,861
05/10 Thor/Warriors Four #2 of 4 - 5,651 (-17.6%)
236. 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%)
05/10 Super Hero Squad #5 - 5,639 ( -3.1%)
6 mnth ( -16.7%)
All ages comics, selling in the established range.
252. OFFICIAL INDEX TO THE MARVEL UNIVERSE
05/09 Index #5 - 4,913 (-10.9%)
06/09 Index #6 - 4,743 ( -3.5%)
07/09 Index #7 - 4,518 ( -4.7%)
08/09 Index #8 - 4,263 ( -5.6%)
09/09 Index #9 - 4,144 ( -2.8%)
10/09 Index #10 - 3,980 ( -4.0%)
11/09 Index #11 - 3,739 ( -6.1%)
12/09 Index #12 - 3,689 ( -1.3%)
01/10 Index #13 - 3,248 (-12.0%)
02/10 Index #14 - 3,161 ( -2.7%)
03/10 ---
04/10 ---
05/10 Avengers #1 - 4,997 (+58.1%)
6 mnth (+33.6%)
1 year ( +1.7%)
As you’d expect, an increase for the start of a new run beginning three different titles (AVENGERS, CAPTAIN AMERICA and IRON MAN).
257. SENSE AND SENSIBILITY 05/10 Sense and Sensibility #1 of 5 - 4,809
Adaptation of the classic novel, again selling in the established range for these things.
266. IRON MAN: EXTREMIS DIRECTOR'S CUT 05/10 Extremis #1 of 6 - 4,440
An odd one, this – a six-issue reprint of the entire “Extremis” storyline that opened Warren Ellis’ run on IRON MAN. The first two issues were both supposed to ship in May, but issue #2 somehow managed to come out late. So at least it recaptures the spirit of reading the original release.
285. TALES OF THE DRAGON GUARD [Soleil] 02/10 Tales of the Dragon Guard #1 - 5,405 03/10 Tales of the Dragon Guard #2 - ?,??? 04/10 --- 05/10 Tales of the Dragon Guard #3 - 3,582
Typical enough for the Soleil books.
6 month comparisons =================== +92.3% - Super Heroes [Marvel Adventures] +71.3% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures] +48.8% - New Mutants +47.8% - Doomwar / Black Panther +33.6% - Official Marvel Index +33.0% - Avengers: The Initiative +27.7% - X-Men Legacy +15.8% - X-Force +15.3% - Thor +14.8% - Incredible Hulk +10.8% - Uncanny X-Men + 6.5% - Thunderbolts + 3.4% - New Avengers - 2.6% - Fantastic Four - 1.0% - Dark Avengers - 5.0% - Wolverine: Origins - 5.8% - Hulk - 7.1% - Secret Warriors - 8.6% - Deadpool - 9.8% - Atlas -10.3% - Ultimate Comics Avengers -11.6% - Dark Wolverine -11.8% - Moon Knight -12.1% - Amazing Spider-Man -13.0% - Invincible Iron Man -16.7% - Super Hero Squad -17.5% - Wolverine: Weapon X -18.8% - Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth -18.9% - Prince of Power / Hercules -19.2% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man -19.2% - Dark Tower -23.5% - X-Men Forever -23.8% - PunisherMax -25.1% - Son of Hulk -32.9% - Deadpool Team-Up -38.9% - Web of Spider-Man -51.2% - Marvelous Land of Oz -59.2% - Deathlok 1 year comparison ================= +83.1% - Super Heroes [Marvel Adventures] +69.2% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures] +32.3% - X-Factor +20.1% - X-Men Legacy + 7.1% - X-Force + 4.5% - Invincible Iron Man + 4.5% - Moon Knight + 2.6% - Uncanny X-Men + 1.5% - PunisherMax - 2.8% - Amazing Spider-Man - 8.6% - Doomwar / Black Panther -10.2% - Avengers: The Initiative -10.3% - Atlas -17.7% - Fantastic Four -18.5% - New Avengers -18.7% - New Mutants -20.8% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man -20.8% - Wolverine: Origins -21.6% - Marvelous Land of Oz -23.8% - Deadpool -24.2% - Thunderbolts -29.7% - Prince of Power / Hercules -31.4% - Secret Warriors -32.1% - Hulk -39.7% - Dark Tower -49.3% - Dark Wolverine -49.7% - Wolverine: Weapon X -64.1% - Pet Avengers 2 year comparisons ================== +35.8% - Doomwar / Black Panther +32.5% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures] - 6.1% - Uncanny X-Men -12.4% - X-Men Legacy -13.2% - Thunderbolts -13.4% - X-Factor -17.4% - Official Handbook -22.0% - X-Force -22.6% - Moon Knight -23.4% - Amazing Spider-Man -27.3% - PunisherMax -28.8% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man -29.1% - Thor -30.0% - New Avengers -32.0% - Wolverine: Origins -32.8% - Avengers: The Initiative -38.8% - Fantastic Four -49.3% - Invincible Iron Man -52.3% - Wolverine: Weapon X -54.0% - Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter -61.6% - Prince of Power / Hercules -69.7% - Dark Tower 3 year comparisons ================== +13.1% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures] +10.2% - X-Factor - 6.0% - Uncanny X-Men - 9.1% - Official Handbook -14.7% - X-Men Legacy -15.3% - Invincible Iron Man -34.5% - PunisherMax -39.2% - New Avengers -45.2% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man -46.1% - Doomwar / Black Panther -46.8% - Fantastic Four -47.8% - Wolverine: Origins -49.6% - New Ultimates -49.8% - Thunderbolts -52.6% - Amazing Spider-Man -57.6% - Incredible Hulk -63.0% - Avengers: The Initiative -63.7% - Moon Knight -69.0% - Wolverine: Weapon X -80.1% - Dark Tower 4 year comparisons ================== +40.2% - Thunderbolts +38.0% - Invincible Iron Man +25.0% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures] + 0.8% - Doomwar / Black Panther + 0.2% - Incredible Hulk - 2.9% - Uncanny X-Men - 5.8% - X-Factor -18.5% - X-Men Legacy -29.2% - Official Handbook -35.6% - PunisherMax -37.6% - New Avengers -40.6% - Amazing Spider-Man -46.0% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man -68.2% - Wolverine: Weapon X -72.6% - Wolverine: Origins -72.7% - Moon Knight 5 year comparisons ================== +19.8% - Thunderbolts + 6.5% - Incredible Hulk - 7.8% - Uncanny X-Men -15.4% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures] -20.0% - X-Men Legacy -25.5% - Amazing Spider-Man -30.6% - Doomwar / Black Panther -33.0% - Official Handbook -41.6% - PunisherMax -43.0% - Fantastic Four -47.7% - New Ultimates -51.0% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man -63.2% - Weapon X
“AGENTS OF ATLAS relaunches as just plain ATLAS. Unfortunately, sales pick up more or less at the level that the previous title had reached by issue #6, and that’s with the benefit of two variant covers. But as I’ve pointed out over the last few months, arbitrary renumbering no longer seem to be a very effective way of boosting sales.”
ATLAS has been axed as of issue #5. Too bad — I really like the characters and Parker’s writing on the book. Giving credit where it’s due — Marvel certainly appeared to try hard to make this a go.
The Dazzler one-shot was cover-blurbed as a tie-in with Necrosha X, not Second Coming.
I also think the #25 bump for Invincible Iron Man had more to do with the content (tying up a significant storyline, and tying in with Siege) than because of the movie.
The bump in Fraction’s Iron Man is really interesting. I don’t think a movie has had that kind of impact on the comic.
The coupling of the old volume of the Ultimates and New Ultimates was unusual, seeing as how Millar is writing Ultimate Comics Avengers.
I cringed when I saw the numbers on X-Factor. Second Coming was a huge boost for the book. I Hope it can retain some of the numbers. As a side note, I’m jumping on to the New Mutants (was waiting for 2nd Coming to end).
Fantastic Four has been gaining orders! The book has NOT been settling down. Give Hickman his props!
Terrible results for Atlas. Such a great book, but really the renumbering was so abritrary, as the story picked up right where the previous volume left off.
And finally Hercules is buckling under the weight of $3.99. There was extra content for the Fall of an Avenger, but nothing beyond 22 pages for the Prince of Power follow up. Why in the world is an Amodeus Cho 22-page book $3.99?
Thanks again Paul for your excellent work. Best article I read month-to-month.
Great to see the Oz books selling well for what they are. I really hope the numbers can support this creative team adapting the books for a long time to come.
The $3.99 jump has resulted in my cannibalizing my pull list to almost nothing. I’m just buying Punisher comics at this point because I want to support my local comic shop and I have a complete collection, but I don’t know how much longer I’ll do that.
Really hard to justify buying comics for the 3.99 price point when you can just save the money and buy terrific trades and collections of independent and overlooked comics.
I kind of respect Marvel’s determination to try and sell the comic book public good books like Atlas, but the direct market can’t really support very much that isn’t crap it seems. I’m wondering how many months it will take before the #1 book is regularly under six figures.
Once again, Paul, thanks for all your work in doing this!!!
I’m bummed to hear that Atlas is getting the ax AGAIN. :-(
144. MANY LOVES OF THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
05/10 Many Loves (one-shot) – 11,522
“Three all new tales of Spider-Man’s greatest loves.” One for the completists, I suspect.
One vote for “the only decent Spider-title this month” here.
“Both issues have foilogram variants…”
Oh god, so it’s come back full circle to this? What’s next, die-cut covers and bullet-hole covers?
I wrote this a year and a half ago, and sadly it’s still relevant: Today we salute you, Mr. 90s Speculation Fad Cover Bringer Back Man.
I’m *really* pulling for Oz. I don’t know if people know this or not, but Shanowar is a Baum scholar. He’s a true intellectual. Also, it’s *really* nice to see Scottie Young working on something that’s worthy of his talents. These Oz adaptations are true treasures that we’re lucky to be getting.
Re: NEW AVENGERS.
“This one has a mere four covers”
I was going to start laughing at that comment. But isn’t it sad that he is right!
Shame about Atlas. I picked up the freebie issue and really enjoyed it. I was hoping it would get an omnibus to bring me up to date! Doesn’t look like that is going to happen now! :(
I think Marvel is really putting themselves into a vicious circle with the way they continue to relaunch titles with the hopes of only short term gains in their sales numbers.
So far as I can tell, they are chasing the same dollars by putting out more and more books each month. It seems to me they are cannibalizing their own existing titles by dumping all of these mini-series and other short terms series on the market. They may still be capturing the same dollars, but they are eating away at the sales of their existing core titles. I can’t imagine this is a popular practice as viewed by some of their bigger name creators. Because money is being spent on these secondary books that Marvel likely produces a little cheaper (lower page rates for the creative talent on those titles), I’m thinking their bigger name talents are seeing their paychecks slowly decreasing.
When it comes to Agents of Atlas Marvel didn’t do me any favors by sticking them in issues that were directly related to an event or in a crossover with the X-Men. I purposely stayed away until just “Atlas”. This is the problem with too many restarts. Either do the series as a series of minis – like Atomic Robo – or just keep it going as an ongoing. But to do both kills momentum.
fwiw, Thunderbolts appears to have been way under-ordered at my store. Issue 144 sold out and I couldn’t get my hands on it until this week (after I had read number 145 already).
I’ve picked up the first Oz story in HC since it deserves to be read that way. Young’s art is just so awesome and a great, great story to share with anyone. Can’t wait for the next HC in September.
Re: Black Panther / DoomWar
In the latest Cup O’Joe at CBR they say there’s a sequel series coming later in the year titled “Klaws Of The Panther” and after that they want to bring the Panthers (both of them) closer into the Marvel Universe (so that’ll be a slot on Secret Avengers then?).
It’s not dead yet.
Like “Meteor” above, the raise in prices and glut of titles has killed my pull-list as well.
I collected the Avengers and related solo titles for 30 years and while I am glad to see them at the forefront of the MU, the amount of books produced under The Avengers banner coupled with ridiculous costs of standard comics, caused me to finally drop them all.
Now, I’m down to the one character that I have a complete run of, Moon Knight. From the looks of his sales, I will soon have nothing that I buy on a monthly basis for the first time in my entire comics reading history.
As I say every month, it’s STAGGERING just how many books Marvel are putting out every month. There seem to be twice as many one shots and limited series each month as there are ongoing series.
For every glimmer of hope I see that the flood might be slowing, there’s news to the contrary.
– They’re going to stop flogging Atlas for a while – but there’s a Gorilla Man limited that just started.
– DoomWar is it for Panther – but they’re launching some other Panther series.
– Deadpool seems to be winding down – but they’re launching a MAX series.
I’d love to see the last of Daken, but he’s keeping his title. I’d love to see the last of that stupid and incomprehensible second “Son of Hulk,” but he’s coming into the regular Hulk series. Marvel’s putting out some decent stuff at the moment, but I’m probably as discontented with their line as I’ve been since the nadir of the 90s.
I doubt very much the bump in Iron Man 25 was because of the resolution of the old story lines and the beginning of new. I’m sure some treating it like a finale and a #1 had a bit to do with it but that’s simply to huge a jump in sales. I’m going with movie influence!
“266. IRON MAN: EXTREMIS DIRECTOR’S CUT
The first two issues were both supposed to ship in May, but issue #2 somehow managed to come out late. So at least it recaptures the spirit of reading the original release.”
Haha.
I think there will be reorders for Thunderbolts 144. My store ran out of 144 and 145. I’ve been hearing a lot about it too, though I can’t decide if I want to buy it or not. I like the art but Jeff Parker’s previous Thunderbolts stories were dull and I still don’t accept the dude that killed Cap being on the team in the Heroic Age. Maybe I’ll get over it and check it out. It’s still $2.99, right?
Dear PeterCSM
Crossbones didn’t kill Captain America. Sharon Carter did.
(But I do understand your point and I agree.)
This might be totally off topic, and SPOILERS follow, so if you’re not up to date on your ASM, stop now.
Now then, I just read over on the Wikipedia that in a recent Spider-Man storyline, the Lizard wound up EATING HIS OWN SON. What kind of whacked up crap is that? I’d totally disowned Spidey a long time ago, but that’s just SICK.
“Now then, I just read over on the Wikipedia that in a recent Spider-Man storyline, the Lizard wound up EATING HIS OWN SON. What kind of whacked up crap is that?”
Just be glad Spider-Man isn’t walking the Earth to reconnect with the normal people.
Marc, didn’t Spider-Man actually do that, as the “clone” on a motorcycle? Or was that Ben Reilly? (I dropped the title long before that mess, and prefer to keep my sanity intact.)
And then there’s the Captain America (van) and Incredible Hulk (vagrant) television shows… and Deadpool Team-Up seems to have him wandering all over creation…
“Just be glad Spider-Man isn’t walking the Earth to reconnect with the normal people.”
Haha. I was rereading All Star Superman and all the things Superman can do with his powers and then the next Supes comic I read he’s walking around because a woman yelled at him for not curing cancer. So.. it’s time for a walk to remember? Superman really is a dopey (and now preachy) hayseed. Or JMS had an idea he was going to force into his Superman run whether it made a lick of sense or not.
@Meteor – “The $3.99 jump has resulted in my cannibalizing my pull list to almost nothing. I’m just buying Punisher comics at this point because I want to support my local comic shop and I have a complete collection, but I don’t know how much longer I’ll do that.”
I made this switch a year or two ago. The recession hit me pretty hard as a young man coming out of college in a time of no jobs, and it simply made sense to buy independent trades when I could.
Honestly, my comic book experiences have been better since I all but gave up on superhero comics. I get far more out of a collection of Scalped than I would out of an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man.
Strangely, Marvel seems to be playing things financially conservatively for this recession. They’re using gimmicks, strange crossover storylines, odd marketing, and high prices to milk their core audience for all it’s worth.
Which is odd, because it’s the exact opposite of what Joe Quesada did at the start of his tenure.
I wonder where the DC sales chart is.
It’s a shame, because these columns are the main reason I check the Beat.
Casey: the DC charts are up, they just don’t have the “Sales Charts” tag on them. You can find ’em here:
https://www.comicsbeat.com/2010/07/16/dc-month-to-month-sales-may-2010/
Jason, THANK YOU! I was waiting for them.