by Jason Enright
This month Marvel took the top 3 spots with Original Sin and 2 issues of Spider-Man. Let’s look at the book breakdown below:
74 books shipped this month
10 double-shipped books
7 Avengers team books (8 if you include the all-ages Avengers book)
5 X-men team books (7 if you include X-factor and X-Force)
3 books over 100k
1 book between 75k and 100k
7 books between 50k and 75k
37 books between 25k and 50k
26 books between 0 and 25k
So with a few cancellations, the number of Avengers and X-books drop slightly. Perhaps this is more manageable, we’ll see. When we look at the sales bands we see that Marvel is still pretty light at the top with 11 books over 50k, has a healthy middle with 37 books between 25k and 50k and then 26 books below 25k which are starting to creep towards the danger zone.
Let’s get into the individual book numbers below and see what trends they can reveal for us — and scroll down to the bottom of the article for my final thoughts and some questions for discussion.
Thanks as always to ICV2.com and Milton Griepp for their permission to use these figures.
—
1,6. Original Sin #0 05/06 Civil War #1 - 260,706 (-43.6%) 04/08 Secret Inv. #1 – 250,213 (-41.2%) 01/10 Siege #1 - 108,484 ( 35.5%) 04/11 Fear Itself #1 - 128,595 ( 14.3%) 03/12 Av vs. X-Men #1 – 203,181 (-28.0%) 03/13 Age of Ultron #1- 174,952 (-16.0%) - 04/14 Original Sin #0 - 73,024 [6,166] 05/14 Original Sin #1 - 147,045 (101.4%) 05/14 Original Sin #2 - 92,643 (-37.0%)
Original Sin is Marvel’s big new event and it debuted at 147k and then dropped down to 92k. But is that good for a major event book? For fun I pulled the numbers for #1 issues of the last several big event books from Marvel to see how Original Sin stacks up.
05/06 Civil War #1 - 260,706 (-43.6%) 04/08 Secret Inv. #1 – 250,213 (-41.2%) 01/10 Siege #1 - 108,484 ( 35.5%) 04/11 Fear Itself #1 - 128,595 ( 14.3%) 03/12 Av vs. X-Men #1 – 203,181 (-28.0%) 03/13 Age of Ultron #1- 174,952 (-16.0%) 05/14 Original Sin #1 - 147,045
As you can see out of these 7 books it ranks 5th. I did better than Siege and Fear Itself, but worse than Age of Ultron, AVX, Secret invasion or Civil War. Two other interesting trends to note is that events have become more frequent and sell worse. I cherry picked these events because they fell around the same time of year as Original Sin and were Avengers-focused, but the last few years have been very event heavy and sales have been dropping overall on these events. They are still the best-selling books of their month generally but Marvel has yet to recapture the excitement and sales of Civil War.
2,3. Amazing SPIDER-MAN 05/04 Am Spi #506 – 81,905 05/09 Am Spi #590 - 71,837 05/11 Am Spi #658 - 55,883 05/12 Am Spi #686 - 58,337 --- 05/13 Superior #9 - 93,656 ( +9.3%) 05/13 Superior #10 - 85,346 ( -8.9%) 06/13 Superior #11 - 84,219 ( -1.3%) 06/13 Superior #12 - 82,338 ( -2.2%) 07/13 Superior #13 - 81,678 ( -0.8%) 07/13 Superior #14 - 80,839 ( -1.0%) 08/13 Superior #15 - 78,636 ( -2.7%) 08/13 Superior #16 - 78,087 ( -0.7%) 09/13 Superior #17 - 89,118 ( +14.1%) 09/13 Superior #18 - 80,178 ( -10.0%) 10/13 Superior #19 - 83,671 ( +4.4%) 10/13 Superior #20 - 85,309 ( +2.0%) 11/13 Superior #21 - 74,940 ( -12.2%) 11/13 Superior #22 - 81,250 ( +8.4%) 12/13 Superior #23 - 77,105 ( -5.1%) 12/13 Superior #24 - 76,131 ( -1.3%) 01/14 Superior #25 - 77,311 ( 1.5%) 01/14 Superior #26 - 72,591 ( -6.1%) 02/14 Supr #27.Now - 86,405 ( 19.0%) 02/14 Superior #28 - 75,477 ( -12.6%) 03/14 Superior #29 - 76,568 ( 1.4%) 03/14 Superior #30 - 75,431 ( -1.5%) 04/14 Superior #31 – 135,484 ( 79.6%)[13,234] 04/14 Amazing v3 #1- 532,586 ( 293.1%)[13,240] 05/14 Amazingv3#1.1- 116,555 ( -78.1%) 05/14 Amazing v3 #2- 123,945 ( 6.3%) --- 6 mnth ( 52.5%) 1 year ( 45.2%) 2 year ( 112.0%) 3 year ( 121.8%) 5 year ( 72.5%) 10 year ( 51.3%)
So after its huge debut, Amazing Spider-Man drops into the 120k range. This gives it a nice lead over where Superior Spider-Man was in the 70k area and it should continue its trend of being Marvel’s flagship non-event book nicely. We’ll see if Spidey and Mr. Slott can hold their own against Batman and Mr. Snyder in the months to come but for now this is the top book.
16. ALL-NEW X-MEN --- 05/13 All-New X-Men #11 - 80,582 ( -4.9%) 06/13 All-New X-Men #12 - 82,178 ( +2.0%) 06/13 All-New X-Men #13 - 77,656 ( -5.5%) 07/13 All-New X-Men #14 - 74,848 ( -3.6%) 08/13 All-New X-Men #15 - 73,035 ( -2.4%) 09/13 All-New X-Men #16 - 84,218 (+15.3%) 10/13 All-New X-Men #17 - 82,843 ( -1.6%) 11/13 All-New X-Men #18 - 82,365 ( -0.6%) 11/13 All-New X-Men #19 - 71,044 (-13.7%) 12/13 All-New X-Men #20 - 68,189 ( -4.0%) 01/14 All-New X-Men #21 - 62,876 ( -7.8%) 01/14 All-New #22.NOW - 76,565 (+21.8%) 02/14 All-New X-Men #23 - 64,625 (-15.6%) 03/14 All-New X-Men #24 - 63,739 ( -1.4%) 04/14 All-New X-Men #25 - 63,827 ( 0.1%) 04/14 All-New X-Men #26 - 58,918 ( -7.7%) 05/14 All-New X-Men #27 - 62,269 ( 5.7%) --- 6 mnth ( -28.9%) 1 year ( -30.5%)
All-New X-Men gets a nice boost as they enter into a story arc that sees the return of the villains from Battle of the Atom. Looks like this book will comfortably live in the 60k range for a while and maintain its status at the best-selling X-Men book.
18,20. AVENGERS 05/04 Avengers v3 #83 – 55,254 05/12 Avengers v4 #24 - 68,086 --- 05/13 Avengers v5 #11 - 70,687 ( -10.4%) 05/13 Avengers v5 #12 - 74,978 ( +6.1%) 06/13 Avengers v5 #13 - 68,624 ( -8.5%) 06/13 Avengers v5 #14 - 74,846 ( +9.1%) 07/13 Avengers v5 #15 - 68,472 ( -8.5%) 07/13 Avengers v5 #16 - 72,842 ( +6.4%) 08/13 Avengers v5 #17 - 68,962 ( -5.3%) 08/13 Avengers v5 #18 - 74,697 ( +8.3%) 09/13 Avengers v5 #19 - 92,489 ( +23.8%) 09/13 Avengers v5 #20 - 74,388 ( -19.6%) 10/13 Avengers v5 #21 - 71,751 ( -3.5%) 10/13 Avengers v5 #22 - 70,735 ( -1.4%) 11/13 Avengers v5 #23 - 66,501 ( -6.0%) 12/13 Avengers#24.NOW - 127,466 ( +91.7%) 01/14 Avengers v5 #25 - 65,591 ( -48.5%) 02/14 Avengers v5 #26 – 59,775 ( -8.9%) 03/14 Avengers v5 #27 - 53,966 ( -9.7%) 04/14 Avengers v5 #28 - 52,808 ( -2.1%) 05/14 Avengers v5 #29 - 58,661 ( 11.1%) 05/14 Avengers v5 #30 - 57,099 ( -2.7%) --- 6 mnth ( -2.7%) 1 year ( -14.1%) 2 year ( -23.8%) 3 year ( -16.1%) 5 year ( --- ) 10 year ( 3.3%)
Two issues of Avengers this month and both are Original Sin tie-ins which help boost the sales by 5k issues. These boosts help it keep the crown for top Avengers book this month.
23. UNCANNY X-MEN 05/04 Uncanny X-Men #444 – 112,076 05/09 Uncanny X-Men #510 – 75,139 05/11 Uncanny X-Men #537 - 53,716 05/12 Uncanny X-Men v2 #12 - 69,265 --- 05/13 Uncanny X-Men v3 #6 - 73,621 ( -6.7%) 06/13 Uncanny X-Men v3 #7 - 73,719 ( +0.1%) 07/13 Uncanny X-Men v3 #8 - 70,274 ( -4.7%) 07/13 Uncanny X-Men v3 #9 - 67,338 ( -4.2%) 08/13 Uncanny X-Men v3 #10 - 70,903 ( +5.3%) 08/13 Uncanny X-Men v3 #11 - 65,700 ( -7.3%) 09/13 Uncanny X-Men v3 #12 - 76,790 ( +16.9%) 10/13 Uncanny X-Men v3 #13 - 75,202 ( -2.1%) 11/13 Uncanny X-Men v3 #14 - 65,655 ( -12.7%) 12/13 Uncanny #15.INH - 62,692 ( -4.5%) 01/14 Uncanny X-Men v3 #16 - 58,676 ( -6.4%) 02/14 Uncanny X-Men v3 #17 – 56,163 ( -4.3%) 03/14 Uncanny X-Men v3 #18 - 54,902 ( -2.2%) 03/14 U X-Men #19.NOW - 64,514 ( 17.5%) 04/14 Uncanny X-Men v3 #20 - 55,359 ( -14.2%) 05/14 Uncanny X-Men v3 #21 - 54,747 ( -1.1%) --- 6 mnth ( -16.6%) 1 year ( -25.6%) 2 year ( -21.0%) 3 year ( 1.9%) 5 year ( -27.1%) 10 year ( -51.2%)
With a little bit of a drop since last month, Uncanny couldn’t hold onto the boost it got from the .NOW issue but it is staying pretty stable around 54k for now. Uncanny’s connection to the upcoming Last Will & Testament of Xavier story arc should help it garner some more sales.
25. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 05/09 Guardians v2 #11 - 27,130 --- 05/13 --- 06/13 Guardians v3 #3 - 75,633 ( -14.2%) 06/13 Guardians v3 #4 - 71,575 ( -5.4%) 07/13 Guardians v3 #5 - 110,372 ( +54.2%) 08/13 --- 09/13 Guardians v3 #6 - 69,030 ( -37.5%) 10/13 Guardians v3 #7 - 68,647 ( -0.6%) 10/13 Guardians v3 #8 - 63,494 ( -7.5%) 11/13 --- 12/13 Guardians v3 #9 - 57,665 ( -9.2%) 12/13 Guardians v3 #10 - 53,527 ( -7.2%) 01/14 Guardian #11.NOW - 61,111 ( 14.7%) 02/14 Guardians v3 #12 - 55,454 ( -9.3%) 03/14 Guardians v3 #13 - 56,764 ( 2.4%) 04/14 Guardians v3 #14 - 53,976 ( -4.9%) 05/14 Guardians v3 #15 - 54,332 ( 0.7%) --- 5 year ( 100.3%)
GotG sees a little boost in sales putting it back over 54k. Last month was the Anniversary issue, and this month starts a new story arc with Captain Marvel guest starring. Couple these features with the excitement for the upcoming movie and it looks like the next few months will be pretty good for the Guardians.
29. DEADPOOL 05/09 Deadpool v3 #10 - 51,113 05/11 Deadpool v3 #37 - 28,002 05/12 Deadpool v3 #55 - 29,022 --- 05/13 Deadpool v4 #9 - 51,296 ( -2.9%) 05/13 Deadpool v4 #10 - 50,461 ( -1.6%) 06/13 Deadpool v4 #11 - 54,110 ( +7.2%) 06/13 Deadpool v4 #12 - 48,315 ( -10.7%) 07/13 Deadpool v4 #13 - 47,006 ( -2.7%) 08/13 Deadpool v4 #14 - 45,870 ( -2.4%) 08/13 Deadpool v4 #15 - 46,169 ( +0.7%) 09/13 Deadpool v4 #16 - 45,675 ( -1.1%) 09/13 Deadpool v4 #17 - 45,348 ( -0.7%) 10/13 Deadpool v4 #18 - 47,096 ( +3.9%) 11/13 Deadpool v4 #19 - 44,184 ( -6.2%) 12/13 Deadpool v4 #20 - 43,653 ( -1.2%) 12/13 Deadpool v4 #21 - 43,066 ( -1.3%) 01/14 Deadpool v4 #22 - 41,765 ( -3.0%) 02/14 Deadpool v4 #23 - 41,204 ( -1.3%) 02/14 Deadpool v4 #24 - 41,130 ( -0.2%) 03/14 D'pool #25.NOW - 48,775 ( 18.6%) 03/14 Deadpool v4 #26 - 44,141 ( -9.5%) 04/14 Deadpool v4 #27 - 62,037 ( 40.5%)[1,992] 05/14 Deadpool v4 #28 - 45,858 ( -26.1%) 05/14 Deadpool v4 #29 - 52,403 ( 14.3%) --- 6 mnth ( 18.6%) 1 year ( 3.8%) 2 year ( 81.0%) 3 year ( 87.1%) 5 year ( 2.5%)
So a few years ago if you told me that the top books at Marvel would be Spider-man, X-men, Avengers and DEADPOOL, I would have thought you were crazy! The first 3 are obvious but Deadpool?!? Marvel has done a great job building up this brand and Deadpool is everywhere nowadays. This book is a huge success story and this month sees a nice increase as well as decent reorders for the wedding issue.
30. UNCANNY AVENGERS --- 05/13 Uncanny Avengers #8 - 75,655 ( -1.8%) 05/13 Uncanny Av. #8AU - 72,514 ( -4.2%) 06/13 Uncanny Avengers #9 - 71,842 ( -0.9%) 07/13 Uncanny Avengers #10 - 68,768 ( -4.3%) 08/13 Uncanny Avengers #11 - 65,447 ( -4.8%) 09/13 Uncanny Avengers #12 - 73,357 (+12.1%) 10/13 Uncanny Avengers #13 - 60,597 (-17.4%) 11/13 Uncanny Avengers #14 - 60,750 ( +0.3%) 12/13 Uncanny Avengers #15 - 57,035 ( -6.1%) 01/14 Uncanny Avengers #16 - 54,670 ( -4.1%) 02/14 Uncanny Avengers #17 – 53,181 ( -2.7%) 03/14 U Avengers #18.NOW - 63,516 ( 19.4%) 04/14 Uncanny Avengers #19 – 52,381 (-17.5%) 05/14 Uncanny Avengers #20 – 51,886 ( -0.9%) --- 6 mnth ( -14.6%) 1 year ( -31.2%)
Uncanny Avengers sees a slight drop this month and manages to stay above the 50k line. Hopefully, this means this book is leveling out. With it playing into the fall’s AXIS event, it should see a nice boost this September.
33. THANOS ANNUAL --- 05/14 Thanos Annual #1 – 47,599
Pretty good numbers for the Thanos Annual shows that Marvel’s uber villain can still move books.
34. CYCLOPS #1 --- 05/14 Cyclops #1 – 47,468
Decent numbers for the Cyclops solo series that puts it in good territory around where Nightcrawler and Magneto launched. Again with #1s, it is always hard to tell until we see how big the issue 2 and 3 drops are. Hopefully, this can stay above 30k.
35. Deadpool vs. Carnage #1 04/14 Dpool vs. Carn #1 – 57,275 [4,497] 04/14 Dpool vs. Carn #2 – 49,374 (-13.8%)[2,757] 05/14 Dpool vs. Carn #3 – 46,688 ( -5.4%)
This miniseries sees a bit of a drop, but still is doing pretty well. Marvel really seems to know how to capitalize on Deadpool’s popularity, let’s just hope they don’t release too many books.
36. MILES ULT SPIDER-MAN 05/04 Ult. Spider-Man v1 #56 – 89,820 05/09 Ult. Spider-Man v1 #132– 50,144 05/11 Ult. Spider-Man v2 #157- 47,941 05/12 Ult. Spider-Man v3 #9 - 42,356 --- 05/13 Ult. Spider-Man v3 #23 - 35,581 ( +1.9%) 06/13 Ult. Spider-Man v3 #24 - 34,011 ( -4.4%) 07/13 Ult. Spider-Man v3 #25 - 33,271 ( -2.2%) 08/13 Ult. Spider-Man v3 #26 - 32,932 ( -1.0%) 09/13 Ult. Spider-Man v3 #27 - 32,200 ( -2.2%) 10/13 Ult. Spider-Man v3 #28 - 31,462 ( -2.3%) 11/13 Cataclysm USM #1 of 3 - 36,541 (+16.1%) 12/13 Cataclysm USM #2 of 3 - 30,293 (-17.1%) 01/14 Cataclysm USM #3 of 3 - 27,650 ( -8.7%) 02/14 --- 03/14 --- 04/14 Ult. Spider-Man #200 - 41,608 ( 50.5%) 05/14 M.M. Ult Spider-Man #1 - 45,864 ( 10.2%) --- 6 mnth ( 25.5%) 1 year ( 28.9%) 2 year ( 8.0%) 3 year ( -4.3%) 10 year ( -8.5%)
This is a decent debut and actually was a really good book, but I can’t help but feel that the writing is on the wall for the Ultimate Universe. This is one to watch to see how quickly it drops down to the 30k range.
40. NEW AVENGERS 05/09 New Avengers v1 #52 - 94,367 05/11 New Avengers v2 #11 - 60,328 05/12 New Avengers v2 #24 - 64,326 --- 05/13 New Avengers v3 #6 - 59,362 ( -6.4%) 06/13 New Avengers v3 #7 - 60,138 ( +1.3%) 07/13 New Avengers v3 #8 - 58,044 ( -3.5%) 08/13 New Avengers v3 #9 - 60,534 ( +4.3%) 09/13 New Avengers v3 #10 - 60,682 ( +0.2%) 10/13 New Avengers v3 #11 - 63,231 ( +4.2%) 11/13 New Avengers v3 #12 - 58,807 ( -7.0%) 12/13 N Avengers #13.INH - 56,624 ( -3.7%) 01/14 --- 02/14 New Avengers v3 #14 - 50,668 ( -10.5%) 03/14 New Avengers v3 #15 - 47,178 ( -6.9%) 03/14 N Avengers #16.NOW - 48,731 ( 3.2%) 04/14 New Avengers v3 #17 - 45,885 ( -5.8%) 05/14 New Avengers v3 #18 - 43,668 ( -4.8%) --- 6 mnth ( -25.7%) 1 year ( -26.4%) 2 year ( -32.0%) 3 year ( -27.6%) 5 year ( -53.7%)
So New Avengers seems to steadily lose 5% every month. Now, the hope would be to start seeing these drops get smaller eventually and maybe even see it level out. That doesn’t seem to be the case so far. There is an upcoming storyline that sees the book jump 8 months into the future so maybe that will help raise its numbers?
41. MOON KNIGHT 05/09 Moon Knight v3 #30- 19,693 05/11 Moon Knight v4 #1 - 49,018 --- 03/14 Moon Knight v5 #1 - 58,022 ( --- ) [7,266] 04/14 Moon Knight v5 #2 - 40,885 (-29.5%) [3,621] 05/14 Moon Knight v5 #3 - 42,607 ( 4.2%) --- 3 year (-13.1%) 5 year (116.4%)
So Moon Knight continues to impress with great reorder numbers coming in and issue 2 seeing a sales bump. However, it has now been announced that the current creative team of Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey will be leaving after the first arc is finished. We’ll have to see if this negatively affects sales numbers but the replacement team of Brian Wood and Greg Smallwood seems pretty strong too, so hopefully this book can maintain its popularity through the transition.
43. AMAZING X-MEN 05/04 Astonishing X-Men #1 - 209,289 05/11 Astonishing X-Men #38 - 37,580 05/12 Astonishing X-Men #50 - 57,931 --- 05/13 Astonishing X-Men #62 - 24,121 ( -11.0%) 06/13 Astonishing X-Men #63 - 23,326 ( -3.3%) 07/13 Astonishing X-Men #64 - 22,649 ( -2.9%) 08/13 Astonishing X-Men #65 - 22,010 ( -2.8%) 08/13 Astonishing X-Men #66 - 21,757 ( -1.1%) 09/13 Astonishing X-Men #67 - 21,044 ( -3.3%) 10/13 Astonishing X-Men #68 - 21,023 ( -0.0%) 11/13 Amazing X-Men v2 #1 - 112,337 (+434.4%) 12/13 Amazing X-Men v2 #2 - 60,870 ( -45.8%) 01/14 Amazing X-Men v2 #3 - 51,431 ( -15.5%) 02/14 Amazing X-Men v2 #4 - 48,161 ( -6.4%) 03/14 Amazing X-Men v2 #5 - 46,242 ( -4.0%) 04/14 Amazing X-Men v2 #6 - 45,095 ( -2.5%) 05/14 Amazing X-Men v2 #7 - 42,512 ( -5.7%) --- 6 mnth ( -62.2%) 1 year ( 76.2%) 2 year ( -27.0%) 3 year ( 13.1%) 10 year ( -79.7%)
Amazing X-Men continues to lose sales numbers, but next month Craig Kyle and Chris Yost will be taking over the book and will hopefully help drive more interest in the book.
45. Inhuman #1 04/14 Inhuman #1 - 58,309 05/14 Inhuman #2 - 41,810 ( -28.3%)
There’s always a big drop from issue 1 to issue 2, and a drop under 30% is promising, so this book only dropping 28% could be very good, but we’ll have to wait till we see more data in future months to know for sure.
46. Deadpool Annual #1 05/14 Deadpool Annual #1 - 41,271
Another Deadpool book brings down some good numbers.
49. X-MEN 05/04 X-Men v2 #157 - 107,134 05/11 X-Men v3 #11 - 46,519 05/12 X-Men v3 #29 - 35,483 --- 05/13 X-Men v4 #1 - 183,297 (+464.2%) 06/13 X-Men v4 #2 - 73,542 ( -59.9%) 07/13 X-Men v4 #3 - 65,270 ( -11.2%) 08/13 X-Men v4 #4 - 64,010 ( -1.9%) 09/13 X-Men v4 #5 - 73,357 ( +14.6%) 10/13 X-Men v4 #6 - 71,990 ( -1.9%) 11/13 X-Men v4 #7 - 56,968 ( -20.9%) 12/13 X-Men v4 #8 - 53,201 ( -6.6%) 01/14 X-Men v4 #9 - 49,412 ( -7.1%) 02/14 X-M #10.Now - 52,486 ( 6.2%) 02/14 X-Men v4 #11 - 47,498 ( -9.5%) 03/14 X-Men v4 #12 - 44,135 ( -7.1%) 04/14 X-Men v4 #13 - 42,065 ( -4.7%) 05/14 X-Men v4 #14 - 39,499 ( -6.1%) --- 6 mnth ( -30.7%) 1 year ( -77.8%) 2 year ( 11.0%) 3 year ( -15.1%) 10 year ( -63.1%)
After that nice .NOW boost in February, this book has been steadily dropping again, around 5% per month and one year in, it is selling a quarter of the numbers of books it sold on debut. Issue 18 sees a new creative team come on board, so we might see a boost.
50. DAREDEVIL 05/04 Daredevil v2 #60 – 53,986 05/11 DD Reborn #4 - 26,179 05/12 Daredevil v3 #13 - 39,056 --- 05/13 Daredevil v3 #26 - 39,788 ( +0.3%) 06/13 Daredevil v3 #27 - 35,834 ( -9.9%) 07/13 Daredevil v3 #28 - 35,364 ( -1.3%) 07/13 Daredevil v3 #29 - 34,915 ( -1.3%) 08/13 Daredevil v3 #30 - 35,240 ( +0.9%) 09/13 Daredevil v3 #31 - 36,666 ( +4.0%) 10/13 Daredevil v3 #32 - 34,957 ( -4.7%) 11/13 Daredevil v3 #33 - 32,966 ( -5.7%) 12/13 Daredevil v3 #34 - 32,331 ( -1.9%) 01/14 Daredevil v3 #35 - 32,067 ( -0.8%) 02/14 Daredevil v3 #36 – 31,494 ( -1.8%) 03/14 Daredevil v4 #1 - 76,006 (141.3%)[1,948] 04/14 Daredevil #1.50 - 48,462 (-36.2%) 04/14 Daredevil v4 #2 - 42,811 (-11.7%) 05/14 Daredevil v4 #3 - 39,316 (-8.2%) --- 6 Mnth ( 19.3%) 1 Year ( -1.2%) 2 Year ( 1.0%) 3 Year ( 50.2%) 5 Year ( --- ) 10 Year ( -27.2%)
Daredevil’s drops are getting smaller and I expect it will end up pretty close to where it was before the soft relaunch in a few months.
52. HULK 05/04 Incred Hulk v3 #72 - 45,364 05/09 Hulk #12 - 73,105 05/11 Incred Hulks #627 – 28,882 05/12 Incred Hulk v4 #8 - 42,067 --- 05/13 Indestructible #7 - 49,956 ( -9.9%) 05/13 Indestructible #8 - 48,866 ( -2.2%) 06/13 Indestructible #9 - 49,427 ( +1.1%) 07/13 Indestructible #10 - 45,531 ( -7.9%) 07/13 Indestructible #11 - 45,241 ( -0.6%) 08/13 Indestructible #12 - 43,673 ( -3.5%) 09/13 Indestructible #13 - 41,805 ( -4.3%) 10/13 Indestructible #14 - 40,963 ( -2.0%) 11/13 Indestructible #15 - 37,025 ( -9.6%) 11/13 Indestructible #16 - 35,871 ( -3.1%) 12/13 Hulk #17.INH - 35,679 ( -0.5%) 01/14 Hulk #18.INH - 33,056 ( -7.4%) 02/14 Indestructible #19 - 31,192 ( -5.6%) 03/14 Indestructible #20 - 30,042 ( -3.7%) 04/14 Hulk v3 #1 - 73,551 ( 144.8%) 04/14 Hulk v3 #2 - 40,590 ( -44.8%) 05/14 Hulk v3 #3 - 37,639 ( -7.3%) --- 6 Mnth ( 1.7%) 1 Year ( -24.7%) 2 Year ( -11.0%) 3 Year ( 30.6%) 5 Year ( -48.5%) 10 Year ( -17.0%)
Waid’s other book Hulk is following a very similar course as Daredevil and is on its way to matching up with its pre-relaunch sales numbers.
53. THOR: GOD OF THUNDER 05/04 Thor v2 #77 - 30,547 05/11 Thor v4 #2 - 50,473 05/12 Thor v4 #14 - 32,550 --- 05/13 Thor v5 #8 - 48,622 ( -5.6%) 06/13 Thor v5 #9 - 49,125 ( +1.0%) 07/13 Thor v5 #10 - 46,204 ( -5.9%) 08/13 Thor v5 #11 - 45,397 ( -1.7%) 08/13 Thor v5 #12 - 44,865 ( -1.2%) 09/13 Thor v5 #13 - 48,007 ( +7.0%) 10/13 Thor v5 #14 - 46,008 ( -4.2%) 11/13 Thor v5 #15 - 41,259 (-10.3%) 12/13 Thor v5 #16 - 39,597 ( -4.0%) 01/14 Thor v5 #17 - 38,913 ( -1.7%) 01/14 Thor v5 #18 - 38,190 ( -1.9%) 02/14 Thor #19.Now– 42,034 ( 10.1%) 03/14 Thor v5 #20 – 37,895 ( -9.8%) 04/14 Thor v5 #21 – 38,055 ( 0.4%) 05/14 Thor v5 #22 – 36,945 ( -2.9%) --- 6 mnth ( -10.5%) 1 year ( -24.0%) 2 year ( 14.0%) 3 year ( -26.8%) 10 year ( 20.9%)
Small decrease this month, hopefully, this series will level out around 30,000.
55, 58. WOLVERINE 05/04 Wolverine v3 #15 – 68,695 05/09 Wolverine v3 #72 - 87,075 05/11 Wolverine v4 #8 - 44,635 05/12 Wolverine #304 - 34,873 --- 05/13 Wolverine v5 #3 - 49,629 ( -13.2%) 06/13 Wolverine v5 #4 - 46,784 ( -5.7%) 06/13 Wolverine v5 #5 - 43,694 ( -6.6%) 07/13 Wolverine v5 #6 - 40,593 ( -7.1%) 07/13 Wolverine v5 #7 - 38,605 ( -4.9%) 08/13 Wolverine v5 #8 - 39,830 ( -3.2%) 09/13 Wolverine v5 #9 - 35,920 ( -9.8%) 10/13 Wolverine v5 #10 - 34,651 ( -3.5%) 11/13 Wolverine v5 #11 - 35,394 ( +2.1%) 12/13 Wolverine v5 #12 - 32,274 ( -8.8%) 01/14 Wolverine v5 #13 - 31,164 ( -3.4%) 02/14 Wolverine v6 #1 - 88,923 ( 185.3%) 02/14 Wolverine v6 #2 - 47,339 ( -46.8%) 03/14 Wolverine v6 #3 - 40,735 ( -14.0%) 04/14 Wolverine v6 #4 - 37,732 ( -7.4%) 04/14 Wolverine v6 #5 - 37,563 ( -0.4%) 05/14 Wolverine v6 #6 - 35,571 ( -5.3%) 05/14 Wolverine v6 #7 - 35,039 ( -1.5%) --- 6 mnth ( -1.0%) 1 year ( -29.4%) 2 year ( 0.0%) 3 year ( -21.5%) 5 year ( -59.8%) 10 year ( -49.0%)
Wolverine continues to drop this month, but I’m sure the Death of Wolverine gimmick book will help boost sales in a few months.
56, 67. Magneto --- 03/14 Magneto #1 – 55,337 04/14 Magneto #2 – 35,772 (-35.4%)[2,297] 05/14 Magneto #3 – 35,504 ( -0.7%) 05/14 Magneto #4 – 33,070 ( -6.9%)
Some decent re-orders on issue #1, and the drops on issues 3 and 4 aren’t too big. This series will also tie-in to AXIS in a few months which should renew interest. All that said this should be a solid 30k book for a bit.
57. Nightcrawler 04/14 Nightcrawler #1 – 49,426 05/14 Nightcrawler #2 – 35,356 (-28.5%)
A drop from issue 1 to 2 under 30% is good and puts this in line with Magneto above.
59. Ms. Marvel 02/14 Ms. Marvel #1 - 50,286 ( --- ) [8,221] 03/14 Ms. Marvel #2 - 38,357 (-23.7%) [3,440] 04/14 Ms. Marvel #3 - 37,140 ( -3.2%) 05/14 Ms. Marvel #4 - 34,839 ( -6.2%)
Strong re-order activity for is 1 and 2 for two months in a row plus the drops aren’t that big. A nice solid 30k book here for a brand new Marvel character.
63. Iron Fist: Living Weapon 05/04 Iron Fist #3 - 24,960 05/09 Iron Fist #26 - 21,864 --- 04/14 Iron Fist LW #1 - 53,613 ( --- )[2,350] 05/14 Iron Fist LW #2 - 33,643 ( -37.2) --- 5 year (53.9%) 10 year (34.8%)
Some nice re-order activity on issue 1 but that large drop from issue 1 to 2 is worrisome. Hopefully it will stabilize out.
64. WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN 05/12 Wolverine/X-Men #11 - 64,936 --- 05/13 Wolverine/X-Men #29 - 40,451 ( -5.3%) 05/13 Wolverine/X-Men #30 - 40,019 ( -1.1%) 06/13 Wolverine/X-Men #31 - 41,661 ( +4.1%) 06/13 Wolverine/X-Men #32 - 39,790 ( -4.5%) 07/13 Wolverine/X-Men #33 - 42,269 ( +6.2%) 08/13 Wolverine/X-Men #34 - 38,473 ( -9.0%) 08/13 Wolverine/X-Men #35 - 38,046 ( -1.1%) 09/13 Wolverine/X-Men #36 - 59,684 (+56.9%) 10/13 Wolverine/X-Men #37 - 57,434 ( -3.8%) 11/13 Wolverine/X-Men #38 - 39,098 (-31.9%) 12/13 Wolverine/X-Men #39 - 39,063 ( -0.1%) 01/14 Wolverine/X-Men #40 - 36,855 ( -5.7%) 02/14 Wolverine/X-Men #41 – 35,800 ( -2.9%) 02/14 Wolverine/X-Men #42 – 35,392 ( -1.1%) 03/14 Wolver/X-Men v2 #1 - 54,675 ( 54.5%) 03/14 Wolver/X-Men v2 #2 - 40,386 (-26.1%) 04/14 Wolver/X-Men v2 #3 - 36,407 ( -9.9%) 05/14 Wolver/X-Men v2 #4 - 33,521 ( -7.9%) --- 6 Mnth ( -14.3%) 1 Year ( 16.2%) 2 Year ( -48.0%)
So issue 4 of the new relaunch is already below where the book was pre-relaunch. So this relaunch garnered Marvel only 3 months of increased sales. It will be interesting to see if this series changes it title or sees a big shakeup due to the Death of Wolverine.
65, 66. FANTASTIC FOUR 05/04 Fantastic Four #513 – 50,912 05/09 Fantastic Four #566 – 46,653 05/12 Fantastic Four #606 - 39,914 --- 05/13 Fantastic Four v5 #8 - 37,309 ( -5.1%) 06/13 Fantastic Four v5 #9 - 37,071 ( -0.6%) 07/13 Fantastic Four v5 #10 - 34,018 ( -8.2%) 08/13 Fantastic Four v5 #11 - 32,665 ( -4.0%) 09/13 Fantastic Four v5 #12 - 31,426 ( -3.8%) 10/13 Fantastic Four v5 #13 - 31,561 ( +0.4%) 11/13 Fantastic Four v5 #14 - 28,679 ( -9.1%) 12/13 Fantastic Four v5 #15 - 27,610 ( -3.7%) 01/14 Fantastic Four v5 #16 - 28,045 ( 1.6%) 02/14 Fantastic Four v6 #1 - 65,775 ( 134.5%) 03/14 Fantastic Four v6 #2 - 37,569 ( -42.9%) 04/14 Fantastic Four v6 #3 - 34,930 ( -7.0%) 05/14 Fantastic Four v6 #4 - 33,263 ( -4.8%) 05/14 Fantastic Four v6 #5 - 33,336 ( 0.2%) --- 6 mnth ( 16.2%) 1 year ( -10.6%) 2 year ( -16.0%) 5 year ( -28.5%) 10 year ( -34.5%)
Fantastic Four double ships month and issue 5 actually got more orders than 4. This could be a sign of the book stabilizing, which could be good as it is getting pretty close to its pre-relaunch numbers already.
73. CAPTAIN AMERICA 05/04 Captain America v4 #25 - 37,540 05/09 Captain America v5 #49 – 66,928 05/11 Captain America #617- 44,748 05/12 Captain America v6 #10 - 38,800 --- 05/13 Captain America v7 #7 - 44,024 ( -7.9%) 06/13 Captain America v7 #8 - 43,791 ( -0.5%) 07/13 Captain America v7 #9 - 40,796 ( -6.8%) 08/13 Captain America v7 #10 - 39,356 ( -3.5%) 09/13 Captain America v7 #11 - 38,521 ( -2.1%) 10/13 Captain America v7 #12 - 38,684 ( +0.4%) 11/13 Captain America v7 #13 - 36,147 ( -6.6%) 12/13 Captain America v7 #14 - 34,532 ( -4.5%) 01/14 Captain America v7 #15 - 33,433 ( -3.2%) 02/14 Capt AmericaV7 #16.Now – 36,534 ( 9.3%) 02/14 Captain America v7 #17 – 33,312 ( -8.8%) 03/14 Captain America v7 #18 – 33,642 ( 1.0%) 04/14 Captain America v7 #19 – 34,420 ( 2.3%) 05/14 Captain America v7 #20 – 30,341 ( -9.3%) --- 6 Mnth ( -16.1%) 1 Year ( -31.1%) 2 Year ( -22.0%) 3 Year ( -32.2%) 5 Year ( -54.7%) 10 Year ( -19.2%)
After issue 19 and 20 saw small increases, issue 20 sees a big drop erasing those gains. Hopefully, a connection to AXIS this fall will help boost this book’s numbers.
74,77. IRON MAN 05/04 Iron Man v3 #81 - 28,219 05/09 Inv Iron Man #13 - 51,311 05/11 Inv Iron Man #504 - 44,791 05/12 Inv Iron Man #517 - 31,536 --- 05/13 Iron Man v6 #9 - 78,006 ( +77.4%) 05/13 Iron Man v6 #10 - 45,424 ( -41.8%) 06/13 Iron Man v6 #11 - 44,409 ( -2.2%) 07/13 Iron Man v6 #12 - 40,405 ( -9.0%) 07/13 Iron Man v6 #13 - 39,534 ( -2.2%) 08/13 Iron Man v6 #14 - 38,137 ( -3.5%) 09/13 Iron Man v6 #15 - 36,346 ( -4.7%) 10/13 Iron Man v6 #16 - 35,924 ( -1.2%) 10/13 Iron Man v6 #17 - 39,047 ( +8.7%) 11/13 Iron Man v6 #18 - 36,135 ( -7.5%) 12/13 Iron Man v6 #19 - 32,537 ( -10.0%) 01/14 Iron Man v6 #20 - 30,533 ( -6.2%) 01/14 Iron #20.INH - 30,512 ( -0.1%) 02/14 Iron Man v6 #21 – 29,546 ( -3.2%) 03/14 Iron Man v6 #22 - 29,017 ( -1.8%) 03/14 Ir. Man #23.NOW - 43,912 ( 51.3%) 04/14 Iron Man v6 #24 - 31,257 ( -28.8%) 05/14 Iron Man v6 #25 - 29,558 ( -5.4%) 05/14 Iron Man v6 #26 - 28,654 ( -5.4%) --- 6 Mnth ( -20.7%) 1 Year ( -63.3%) 2 Year ( -9.0%) 3 Year ( -36.0%) 5 Year ( -44.2%) 10 Year ( 1.5%)
Iron Man’s numbers continue to drop with no bottom in sight and writer Kieron Gillen has announced he’s leaving the book after the upcoming original Sin tie-in. For now there have been no announcements of a new series, but I’d expect them to renumber to #1 with a new team and story direction, which would give this a nice sales boost.
75. AVENGERS WORLD 01/14 Avengers World #1 - 86,727 01/14 Avengers World #2 - 53,693 (-38.1%) 02/14 Avengers World #3 – 39,999 (-25.5%) 03/14 Avengers World #4 – 34,397 (-14.0%) 04/14 Avengers World #5 – 31,110 ( -9.6%) 05/14 Avengers World #6 – 28,969 ( -6.9%)
Avengers World continues to drop and is solicited up through issue 13 at this point. How low can it go?
76. MIGHTY AVENGERS 05/09 Mighty Avengers #24 - 68,225 --- 09/13 Mighty Avengers v2 #1 - 101,921 10/13 Mighty Avengers v2 #2 - 54,862 (-46.2%) 11/13 Mighty Avengers v2 #3 - 42,210 (-23.1%) 12/13 Mighty Avengers v2 #4 - 35,740 (-15.3%) 01/14 Mighty Avengers#5.INH - 30,251 (-15.4%) 02/14 Mighty Avengers v2 #6 - 27,195 (-10.1%) 02/14 Mighty Avengers v2 #7 - 26,512 ( -2.5%) 03/14 Mighty Avengers v2 #8 - 24,933 ( -6.0%) 04/14 Mighty Avengers v2 #9 - 23,903 ( -4.1%) 05/14 Mighty Avengers v2 #10 - 28,711 ( 20.1%) --- 6 Mnth ( -32.0%)
This month’s original sin tie-in gives Mighty Avengers a nice 5000 copy boost. It is currently scheduled through issue 14 in September, but it doesn’t look like its sales are likely to drop again after Original Sin.
80. ALL NEW GHOST RIDER 05/09 Ghost Rider v6 #35 - 20,523 --- 03/14 All New Ghost Rider #1 - 50,072 (---)[2,567] 04/14 All New Ghost Rider #2 - 29,429 (-41.2%) 05/14 All New Ghost Rider #3 - 27,756 ( -5.7%) --- 5 year (44.0%)
Decent re-orders on number 1 and not a terrible drop on #3. Hopefully this book stabilizes above 20k or it could be in trouble.
81. PUNISHER 05/04 Punisher v7 #5 – 48,553 05/09 Punisher v8 #4 – 35,621 05/12 Punisher v9 #11 - 23,303 --- 09/13 Trial #1 of 2 - 22,626 10/13 Trial #2 of 2 - 20,143 (-11.0%) 11/13 --- 12/13 --- 01/14 --- 02/14 Punisher v10 #1 – 54,558 ( --- ) 02/14 Punisher v10 #2 – 31,709 ( -41.9%) 03/14 Punisher v10 #3 – 29,636 ( -5.6%) 04/14 Punisher v10 #4 – 28,435 ( -5.0%) 04/14 Punisher v10 #5 – 27,471 ( -3.4%) --- 2 year ( -43.4%) 5 year ( -22.9%) 10 year ( -16.9%)
#1 – 4 variant
#2-3 – variant
The drops on this book are shrinking and I think I could level out above 20k, which could Mr. Castle stick around for a while.
85. Elektra 05/09 Dark Reign: Elektra #3 - 27,118 --- 04/14 Elektra #1 - 47,676 ( --- ) 05/14 Elektra #2 - 26,612 (-44.2%) --- 5 year ( -1.9%)
That is a very big issue 2 drop which does not bode well for Elektra.
86. X-FORCE 05/09 X-Force v3 #14 - 58,340 05/11 X-Force v4 #7 - 50,676 05/12 X-Force v4 #24 - 50,851 --- 05/13 X-Force v5 #4 - 47,727 ( -7.7%) 05/13 X-Force v5 #5 - 45,674 ( -4.3%) 06/13 X-Force v5 #6 - 42,496 ( -7.0%) 06/13 X-Force v5 #7 - 40,380 ( -5.0%) 07/13 X-Force v5 #8 - 37,781 ( -6.4%) 07/13 X-Force v5 #9 - 36,978 ( -2.1%) 08/13 X-Force v5 #10 - 35,329 ( -4.5%) 09/13 X-Force v5 #11 - 36,186 ( +2.4%) 10/13 X-Force v5 #12 - 32,559 (-10.0%) 10/13 X-Force v5 #13 - 30,567 ( -6.1%) 11/13 X-Force v5 #14 - 28,885 ( -5.5%) 12/13 X-Force v5 #15 - 27,567 ( -4.6%) 01/14 X-Force v5 #16 - 27,701 ( 0.5%) 01/14 X-Force v5 #17 - 27,319 ( -1.4%) 02/14 X-Force v6 #1 - 47,427 ( 73.6%) 03/14 X-Force v6 #2 - 33,079 (-30.3%) 04/14 X-Force v6 #3 - 29,541 (-10.7%) 04/14 X-Force v6 #4 - 28,067 ( -5.0%) 05/14 X-Force v6 #5 - 26,215 ( -6.6%) --- 6 mnth ( -9.2%) 1 year ( -42.6%) 2 year ( -48.0%) 3 year ( -48.3%) 5 year ( -55.1%)
5 issues in and X-Force has dropped below its pre-relaunch numbers and its month to month drops aren’t shrinking which does not bode well for this book.
88. BLACK WIDOW 01/14 Black Widow #1 - 53,879 01/14 Black Widow #2 - 31,260 ( -42.0%) 02/14 Black Widow #3 – 28,127 ( -10.0%) 03/14 Black Widow #4 – 27,378 ( -2.7%) 04/14 Black Widow #5 – 27,055 ( -1.2%) 05/14 Black Widow #6 – 26,136 ( -3.4%)
The drops on this book are pretty small so it could stabilize and stay afloat, but this month’s larger drop is worrisome.
89. CAPTAIN MARVEL 05/09 Ms. Marvel #39 - 27,533 --- 05/13 Enemy Within - 34,205 (+86.5%) 06/13 Captain Marvel v6 #13 - 19,673 (-42.5%) 07/13 Captain Marvel v6 #14 - 19,320 ( -1.8%) 08/13 Captain Marvel v6 #15 - 23,511 (+21.7%) 09/13 Captain Marvel v6 #16 - 22,845 ( -2.8%) 10/13 --- 11/13 Captain Marvel v6 #17 - 18,173 (-20.5%) 12/13 --- 01/14 --- 02/14 --- 03/14 Captain Marvel v7 #1 - 44,248 04/14 Captain Marvel v7 #2 - 28,008 (-36.7%) 05/14 Captain Marvel v7 #3 - 26,057 ( -7.0%) --- 6 Mnth ( 43.4%) 1 year ( -23.8%) 5 year ( 5.3%)
Issue 3 has a very small drop. Like a lot of the new books in this range, this could stabilize into a solid 20-24k book which would be better than where the first series was last year.
90. Loki, Agent of Asgard --- 02/14 Loki #1 - 41,921 ( --- ) 03/14 Loki #2 - 27,968 ( -33.3%) 04/14 Loki #3 - 27,472 ( -1.8%)[2,269] 05/14 Loki #4 - 26,012 ( -7.0%)
Some nice re-order activity on issue 3, but a larger drop this month, lead me to believe that retailers are still finding their numbers on this book and trying to figure just how much demand there is for it. It will be interesting to watch whether it stabilize around 25k or not.
93. She-Hulk 05/04 She-Hulk v1 #3 - 29,648 05/09 Sav She-Hulk #2 - 20,194 05/13 Red She-Hulk #65 – 14,044 --- 02/14 She-Hulk #1 - 41,921 ( --- )[3,270] 03/14 She-Hulk #2 - 26,675 (-36.3%) 04/14 She-Hulk #3 - 27,398 ( 2.7%) 05/14 She-Hulk #4 - 25,543 ( -6.8%) --- 1 Year ( 81.9%) 5 Year ( 26.5%) 10 Year (-13.8%)
Continued re-order activity on #1 and #3 saw a good increase last month, but then #4 drops this month. Like Loki, I think stores are still finding their level for this book. Hopefully, it will stabilize soon.
95, 97. ALL-NEW X-FACTOR 05/09 X-Factor #40 - 31,543 05/11 X-Factor #218 - 24,766 05/12 X-Factor #234 - 24,051 --- 05/13 X-Factor #255 - 20,442 ( -0.7%) 05/13 X-Factor #256 - 20,602 ( +0.8%) 06/13 X-Factor #257 - 20,264 ( -1.6%) 06/13 X-Factor #258 - 20,154 ( -0.5%) 07/13 X-Factor #259 - 20,065 ( -0.4%) 08/13 X-Factor #260 - 19,982 ( -0.4%) 08/13 X-Factor #261 - 19,781 ( -1.0%) 09/13 X-Factor #262 - 20,382 ( +3.0%) 10/13 --- 11/13 --- 12/13 --- 01/14 X-Factor v4 #1 - 45,727 ( 01/14 X-Factor v4 #2 - 32,228 ( -29.5%) 02/14 X-Factor v4 #3 - 29,915 ( -3.2%) 03/14 X-Factor v4 #4 - 27,337 ( -8.6%) 03/14 X-Factor v4 #5 - 26,656 ( -2.5%) 04/14 X-Factor v4 #6 - 26,029 ( -2.4%) 05/14 X-Factor v4 #7 - 24,873 ( -4.4%) 05/14 X-Factor v4 #8 - 24,283 ( -2.4%) --- 1 Year ( 17.9%) 2 Year ( 1.0%) 3 Year ( -2.0%) 5 Year ( -23.0%)
X-Factor continues to drop and they are really milking the double shipments on this book. 8 issues in 5 months and 6 more issues planned in the next 4 months. Marvel is making their money while they can before this book slips into cancellation territory.
98. All NEW ULTIMATES 05/11 Ult Av vs. New Ult #4 - 43,707 05/12 Ult comics Ultimates #9 - 31,344 - 05/13 Ultimates v5 #24 - 21,429 ( -5.9%) 06/13 Ultimates v5 #25 - 21,636 ( +1.0%) 06/13 Ultimates v5 #26 - 20,785 ( -3.9%) 07/13 Ultimates v5 #27 - 20,024 ( -3.7%) 07/13 Ultimates v5 #28 - 19,859 ( -0.8%) 08/13 Ultimates v5 #29 - 19,657 ( -1.0%) 09/13 Ultimates v5 #30 - 19,420 ( -1.2%) 10/13 --- 11/13 Cataclysm #1 of 3 - 28,422 (+46.4%) 12/13 Cataclysm #2 of 3 - 24,819 (-12.7%) 01/14 Cataclysm #3 of 3 - 21,705 (-12.5%) 02/14 --- 03/14 --- 04/14 All-New Ult #1 - 30,308 ( 39.6%) 05/14 All-New Ult #2 - 24,165 (-20.3%) --- 6 Mnth ( -15.0%) 1 Year ( 12.8%) 2 Year ( -23.0%) 3 Year ( -44.7%)
Not a terrible issue 1 to issue 2 drop, but this book started so low already it doesn’t have much room to fall. It is currently scheduled through issue 8 in September and by that time it will likely be below 20k.
99. GIANT SIZE SPIDER-MAN --- 05/14 G.S. Spider-man #1 - 23,996 ( --- )
93. SECRET AVENGERS 05/11 Secret Avengers #13 - 51,936 05/12 Secret Avengers #27 - 49,851 --- 05/13 Secret Avengers v2 #4 - 33,428 ( -13.6%) 06/13 Secret Avengers v2 #5 - 31,437 ( -6.0%) 07/13 Secret Avengers v2 #6 - 28,908 ( -8.0%) 08/13 Secret Avengers v2 #7 - 27,222 ( -5.8%) 08/13 Secret Avengers v2 #8 - 26,150 ( -3.9%) 09/13 Secret Avengers v2 #9 - 24,870 ( -4.9%) 10/13 Secret Avengers v2 #10 - 29,134 ( +17.1%) 11/13 Secret Avengers v2 #11 - 25,326 ( -13.1%) 12/13 Secret Avengers v2 #12 - 23,863 ( -5.8%) 12/13 Secret Avengers v2 #13 - 23,172 ( -2.9%) 01/14 Secret Avengers v2 #14 - 21,372 ( -7.8%) 02/14 Secret Avengers v2 #15 – 20,059 ( -6.1%) 02/14 Secret Avengers v2 #16 – 20,022 ( -0.2%) 03/14 Secret Avengers v3 #1 - 34,036 ( 70.0%) 04/14 Secret Avengers v3 #2 - 24,724 ( -27.4%) 04/14 Secret Avengers v3 #3 - 22,860 ( -7.5%) --- 6 Mnth ( -9.7%) 1 Year ( -31.6%) 2 Year ( -54.0%) 3 Year ( -56.0%)
Secret Avengers continues to drop down to pre-relaunch level, but is currently scheduled through issue 8 in Septmeber.
107, 117. MIRACLEMAN 01/14 Miracleman #1 - 52,313 01/14 Miracleman #2 - 36,927 ( -29.4%) 02/14 Miracleman #3 – 25,970 ( -32.6%) 03/14 Miracleman #4 – 23,557 ( -9.3%) 04/14 --- 05/14 Miracleman #5 – 22,399 ( -4.9%) 05/14 Miracleman #6 – 20,598 ( -8.0%)
Miracleman continues to drop but is on the schedule through September.
109. ALL-NEW INVADERS --- 01/14 All-New Invaders #1 - 55,167 02/14 All-New Invaders #2 – 32,293 (-41.5%) 03/14 All-New Invaders #3 – 27,329 (-15.4%) 04/14 All-New Invaders #4 – 22,927 (-16.1%) 05/14 All-New Invaders #5 – 21,843 ( -4.7%)
Scheduled through September but not looking too healthy, at least the drop got smaller this month.
110. THUNDERBOLTS 05/09 Thunderbolts #132 - 40,324 05/11 Thunderbolts #157 - 25,063 05/12 Thunderbolts #174 - 18,792 --- 05/13 Thunderbolts v2 #9 - 32,855 (-11.2%) 06/13 Thunderbolts v2 #10 - 32,682 ( -0.5%) 06/13 Thunderbolts v2 #11 - 30,618 ( -6.3%) 07/13 Thunderbolts v2 #12 - 29,081 ( -5.0%) 07/13 Thunderbolts v2 #13 - 28,528 ( -1.9%) 08/13 Thunderbolts v2 #14 - 30,620 ( +7.3%) 09/13 Thunderbolts v2 #15 - 29,703 ( -3.0%) 10/13 Thunderbolts v2 #16 - 29,334 ( -1.2%) 10/13 Thunderbolts v2 #17 - 28,324 ( -3.4%) 11/13 Thunderbolts v2 #18 - 26,502 ( -6.4%) 12/13 Thunderbolts v2 #19 - 24,959 ( -5.8%) 01/14 Thunderblts #20.NOW - 28,994 ( 16.2%) 01/14 Thunderbolts v2 #21 - 24,293 (-16.2%) 02/14 Thunderbolts v2 #22 – 23,629 ( -2.7%) 03/14 Thunderbolts v2 #23 – 22,701 ( -3.9%) 04/14 Thunderbolts v2 #24 – 22,619 ( -0.4%) 04/14 Thunderbolts v2 #25 – 22,092 ( -2.3%) 05/14 Thunderbolts v2 #26 – 21,771 ( -1.5%) --- 6 Mnth ( -17.9%) 1 Year ( -33.7%) 2 Year ( 16.0%) 3 Year ( -13.1%) 5 Year ( -46.0%)
Continues to drop, but there’s a new writing team next month so maybe that will help?
111. NOVA 03/09 Nova v4 #25 - 26,172 --- 05/13 Nova v5 #4 - 38,151 ( -5.9%) 06/13 Nova v5 #5 - 36,545 ( -4.2%) 07/13 Nova v5 #6 - 34,234 ( -6.3%) 08/13 Nova v5 #7 - 31,937 ( -6.7%) 09/13 Nova v5 #8 - 37,767 (+18.3%) 10/13 Nova v5 #9 - 32,323 (-14.4%) 11/13 Nova v5 #10 - 32,716 ( +1.2%) 12/13 Nova v5 #11 - 27,982 (-14.5%) 01/14 Nova v5 #12 - 25,043 ( -10.5%) 02/14 Nova#13.Now – 26,147 ( 4.4%) 03/14 Nova v5 #14 – 23,459 ( -10.3%) 03/14 Nova v5 #15 – 22,996 ( -2.0%) 04/14 Nova v5 #16 – 22,020 ( -4.2%) 05/14 Nova v5 #17 – 21,652 ( -1.7%) --- 6 Mnth ( -33.8%) 1 Year ( -43.2%) 5 Year ( -17.3%)
Nova continues to drop but is currently still planned through September and will definitely be below 20k by then.
112. SAVAGE WOLVERINE 05/13 Savage Wolverine #5 - 42,328 ( -7.8%) 06/13 Savage Wolverine #6 - 59,410 (+40.4%) 07/13 Savage Wolverine #7 - 40,946 (-31.1%) 08/13 --- 09/13 Savage Wolverine #8 - 38,208 ( -6.7%) 10/13 Savage Wolverine #9 - 36,451 ( -4.6%) 10/13 Savage Wolverine #10 - 33,627 ( -7.7%) 11/13 Savage Wolverine #11 - 30,338 ( -9.8%) 11/13 Savage Wolverine #12 - 29,739 ( -2.0%) 12/13 Savage Wolverine #13 - 27,490 ( -7.6%) 01/14 Savage #14.NOW - 30,370 ( 10.5%) 02/14 Savage Wolverine #15 - 25,190 (-17.1%) 03/14 Savage Wolverine #16 - 24,008 ( -4.7%) 04/14 Savage Wolverine #17 - 22,350 ( -6.9%) 05/14 Savage Wolverine #18 - 21,599 ( -3.4%) 05/14 Savage Wolverine #19 - 21,144 ( -2.1%) --- 6 Mnth ( -28.9%) 1 Year ( -50.0%)
The drops on Savage Wolverine are at least getting smaller and this book is solicited in Septmeber but I suspect it will get shaken up by the Death of Wolverine.
122. WINTER SOLDIER BITTER MARCH 05/13 Winter Solider #18 – 18,210 --- 02/14 W. Soldier BM #1 - 31,137 ( --- ) 03/14 W. Soldier BM #2 - 24,831 (-20.3%) 04/14 W. Soldier BM #3 - 22,203 (-10.6%) 05/14 W. Soldier BM #4 - 19,930 (-10.2%) --- 1 Year ( -10.0%)
Big month to month drops on this mini-series which ends with #5.
123. NEW WARRIORS --- 02/14 New Warriors #1 - 45,765 ( --- ) 03/14 New Warriors #2 - 26,006 (-43.2%) 04/14 New Warriors #3 - 23,105 (-11.2%) 05/14 New Warriors #4 - 19,900 (-13.9%)
New Warriors continues to have big drops but currently it will still be around in September despite no signs of it stabilizing anytime soon.
126. AVENGERS UNDERCOVER 05/11 Avengers Academy #14 - 23,537 05/12 Avengers Academy #30 - 29,213 --- 05/13 Avengers Arena #9 - 26,873 ( -3.7%) 06/13 Avengers Arena #10 - 25,277 ( -5.9%) 06/13 Avengers Arena #11 - 24,487 ( -3.1%) 07/13 Avengers Arena #12 - 23,969 ( -2.1%) 08/13 Avengers Arean #13 - 22,955 ( -4.2%) 08/13 Avengers Arena #14 - 23,204 ( +1.1%) 09/13 Avengers Arena #15 - 22,180 ( -4.4%) 10/13 Avengers Arena #16 - 22,179 ( -0.0%) 11/13 Avengers Arena #17 - 20,744 ( -6.5%) 11/13 Avengers Arena #18 - 20,712 ( -0.2%) 12/13 --- 01/14 --- 02/14 --- 03/14 Avengers Undrcvr #1- 31,936 04/14 Avengers Undrcvr #2- 23,746 (-25.65) 04/14 Avengers Undrcvr #3- 21,830 ( -8.1%) 05/14 Avengers Undrcvr #4- 19,696 ( -9.8%) --- 6 mnth ( -5.1%) 1 year ( -26.7%) 2 year ( -33.0%) 3 year ( -16.3%)
Ending with issue #10 in September.
127. MARVEL’S GOTG PRELUDE --- 04/14 GotG Prelude #1 - 22,705 ( --- ) 05/14 GotG Prelude #2 - 19,588 (-13.7%)
129. DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU --- 05/14 Kung Fu #1 - 19,315 ( --- )
Shang Chi 4-part miniseries debuts with pretty low order numbers.
133. UNITED STATES OF MURDER INC --- 05/14 Murder Inc #1 - 18,474 ( --- )
For a creator-owned book, this is a pretty good debut number. It will be interesting to see if it grows or shrinks over the next couple of months.
141. Ultimate FF --- 04/14 Ultimate FF v2 #1 - 23,316 ( --- ) 05/14 Ultimate FF v2 #2 - 17,059 (-26.8%)
Cancelled with issue 6.
145. All New Doop --- 04/14 All New Doop #1 - 22,614 ( --- ) 05/14 All New Doop #2 - 15,022 (-33.6%)
Doop mini-series ending with #5 and not seeing good order numbers.
146. Iron Patriot 05/09 War Machine #6 - 27,703 05/11 Iron Man 2.0 #5 - 20,320 --- 03/14 Iron Patriot #1 - 31,773 ( --- ) 04/14 Iron Patriot #2 - 18,495 (-41.8%) 05/14 Iron Patriot #3 - 14,840 (-19.8%) --- 3 year ( -27.0%) 5 year ( -46.4%)
Ending with #5 in July.
188. DEXTER 07/13 Dexter #1 of 5 - 20,540 08/13 Dexter #2 of 5 - 17,304 (-15.8%) 09/13 Dexter #3 of 5 - 17,586 ( +1.6%) 10/13 Dexter #4 of 5 - 14,920 (-15.2%) 11/13 Dexter #5 of 5 - 13,439 (-10.0%) 12/13 --- 01/14 --- 02/14 Down Under #1 of 5 – 13,203 ( -1.8%) 03/14 Down Under #2 of 5 – 10,664 (-19.2%) 04/14 Down Under #3 of 5 – 9,875 ( -7.4%) 05/14 Down Under #4 of 5 – 9,329 ( -5.5%) --- 6 Mnth (-30.6%)
Ends next month.
192. POWERS: THE BUREAU [Icon] 05/13 Bureau #4 - 11,441 ( -2.3%) 06/13 Bureau #5 - 11,092 ( -3.1%) 07/13 Bureau #6 - 10,883 ( -1.9%) 08/13 --- 09/13 Bureau #7 - 10,306 ( -5.3%) 10/13 --- 11/13 Bureau #8 - 9,693 ( -5.9%) 12/13 --- 01/14 --- 02/14 --- 03/14 --- 04/14 Bureau #9 - 8,961 ( -7.6%) 05/14 Bureau #10 - 9,002 ( 0.5%) --- 6 Mnth (-7.1%)
A little bump for Powers this month.
248. DISNEY KINGDOMS: SEEKERS OF THE WEIRD 01/14 Seekers #1 of 5 - 24,910 02/14 Seekers #2 of 5 – 9,182 ( -63.1%) 03/14 Seekers #3 of 5 - 7,887 ( -14.1%) 04/14 Seekers #4 of 5 - 6,852 ( -13.1%) 05/14 Seekers #5 of 5 - 7,185 ( 4.9%)
First Disney Marvel book ends with 7k sales, which doesn’t bode well for the upcoming similar books.
323. MARVEL UNIVERSE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN 05/13 MUU Spider-Man #14 - 5,127 ( +2.5%) 06/13 MUU Spider-Man #15 - 5,054 ( -1.4%) 07/13 MUU Spider-Man #16 - ?,??? ( ??? ) 08/13 MUU Spider-Man #17 - 4,999 ( ??? ) 09/13 MUU Spider-Man #18 - ?,??? ( ??? ) 10/13 MUU Spider-Man #19 - ?,??? ( ??? ) 11/13 MUU Spider-Man #20 - 5,163 ( ??? ) 12/13 MUU Spider-Man #21 - ?,??? ( ??? ) 01/14 MUU Spider-Man #22 - ?,??? ( ??? ) 02/14 MUU Spider-Man #23 – 4,761 ( -3.7%) 03/14 MUU Spider-Man #24 – 4,544 ( -4.6%) 04/14 MUU Spider-Man #25 – 4,529 ( -0.3%) 05/14 MUU Spider-Man #25 – 4,759 ( 5.1%) --- 6 Mnth ( -7.8%) 1 Year ( -7.2%)
286. MARVEL UNIVERSE AVENGERS ASSEMBLE 05/13 MU Avengers #14 - ?,??? ( ??? ) 06/13 MU Avengers #15 - 4,744 ( ??? ) 07/13 MU Avengers #16 - ?,??? ( ??? ) 08/13 MU Avengers #17 - ?,??? ( ??? ) 09/13 MU Avengers #18 - ?,??? ( ??? ) 10/13 MUA Assemble #1 - 14,713 ( ??? ) 11/13 MUA Assemble #2 - 6,530 (-55.6%) 12/13 MUA Assemble #3 - 5,548 (-15.0%) 01/14 MUA Assemble #4 - 5,082 ( -8.4%) 02/14 MUA Assemble #5 - 4,686 ( -7.8%) 03/14 MUA Assemble #6 - 4,484 ( -4.3%) 04/14 MUA Assemble #7 - 4,412 ( -1.6%) 05/14 MUA Assemble #8 - 4,467 ( 1.2%) --- 6 Mnth (-31.6%)
—
6-Month Comparisons --- 52.5% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #2 43.5% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1.1 43.4% CAPTAIN MARVEL #3 25.5% M. M. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1 19.3% DAREDEVIL #3 18.6% DEADPOOL #29 (O.S. Tie-In) 16.2% FANTASTIC FOUR #5 16.0% FANTASTIC FOUR #4 3.8% DEADPOOL #28 1.7% HULK #3 0.5% WOLVERINE #6 -1.0% WOLVERINE #7 -5.1% AVENGERS UNDERCOVER #4 -7.1% POWERS BUREAU #10 (MR) -7.8% MARVEL U ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #26 -9.2% X-FORCE #5 -9.7% SECRET AVENGERS #3 -10.5% THOR GOD OF THUNDER #22 -11.8% AVENGERS #29 (O.S. Tie-In) -12.4% ALL NEW X-MEN #27 -14.1% AVENGERS #30 (O.S. Tie-In) -14.3% WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #4 -14.6% UNCANNY AVENGERS #20 -15.0% ALL NEW ULTIMATES #2 -16.1% CAPTAIN AMERICA #20 -16.6% UNCANNY X-MEN #21 -17.9% THUNDERBOLTS #26 -18.2% IRON MAN #25 -20.7% IRON MAN #26 -25.7% NEW AVENGERS #18 -27.4% SAVAGE WOLVERINE #18 -28.9% SAVAGE WOLVERINE #19 -30.6% DEXTER DOWN UNDER #4 -30.7% X-MEN #14 -31.6% MARVEL U AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #8 -32.0% MIGHTY AVENGERS #10 (O.S. Tie-In) -33.8% NOVA #17 -62.2% AMAZING X-MEN #7
—
1 Year Comparisons --- 81.9% SHE-HULK #4 76.2% AMAZING X-MEN #7 45.2% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #2 36.6% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1.1 28.9% M M ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1 20.7% ALL NEW X-FACTOR #7 17.9% ALL NEW X-FACTOR #8 12.8% ALL NEW ULTIMATES #2 10.0% WINTER SOLDIER BITTER MARCH #4 3.8% DEADPOOL #29 (O.S. Tie-In) -1.2% DAREDEVIL #3 -7.2% MARVEL U ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #26 -9.1% DEADPOOL #28 -10.6% FANTASTIC FOUR #5 -10.8% FANTASTIC FOUR #4 -16.2% WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #4 -21.8% AVENGERS #29 (O.S. Tie-In) -22.7% ALL NEW X-MEN #27 -23.8% CAPTAIN MARVEL #3 -23.8% AVENGERS #30 (O.S. Tie-In) -24.0% THOR GOD OF THUNDER #22 -24.7% HULK #3 -25.6% UNCANNY X-MEN #21 -26.4% NEW AVENGERS #18 -26.7% AVENGERS UNDERCOVER #4 -28.3% WOLVERINE #6 -29.4% WOLVERINE #7 -31.1% CAPTAIN AMERICA #20 -31.4% UNCANNY AVENGERS #20 -31.6% SECRET AVENGERS #3 -33.7% THUNDERBOLTS #26 -42.6% X-FORCE #5 -43.2% NOVA #17 -46.1% DEADPOOL VS CARNAGE #2 -48.2% ALL NEW GHOST RIDER #1 -49.0% SAVAGE WOLVERINE #18 -50.0% SAVAGE WOLVERINE #19 -62.1% IRON MAN #25 -63.3% IRON MAN #26 -77.8% X-MEN #14
—
2 Year Comparisons --- 112% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #2 100% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1.1 81% DEADPOOL #29 (O.S. Tie-In) 58% DEADPOOL #28 18% PUNISHER #5 16% THUNDERBOLTS #26 14% THOR GOD OF THUNDER #22 11% X-MEN #14 8% M M ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1 3% ALL NEW X-FACTOR #7 2% WOLVERINE #6 1% ALL NEW X-FACTOR #8 1% DAREDEVIL #3 0% WOLVERINE #7 -6% IRON MAN #25 -9% IRON MAN #26 -11% HULK #3 -13% AVENGERS #29 (O.S. Tie-In) -16% AVENGERS #30 (O.S. Tie-In) -16% FANTASTIC FOUR #5 -17% FANTASTIC FOUR #4 -21% UNCANNY X-MEN #21 -22% CAPTAIN AMERICA #20 -23% ALL NEW ULTIMATES #2 -27% AMAZING X-MEN #7 -32% NEW AVENGERS #18 -33% AVENGERS UNDERCOVER #4 -48% WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #4 -48% X-FORCE #5 -54% SECRET AVENGERS #3
—
3 Year Comparisons --- 121.8% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #2 108.6% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1.1 87.1% DEADPOOL #29 (O.S. Tie-In) 63.8% DEADPOOL #28 50.2% DAREDEVIL #3 30.6% HULK #3 13.1% AMAZING X-MEN #7 1.9% UNCANNY X-MEN #21 0.4% ALL NEW X-FACTOR #7 -2.0% ALL NEW X-FACTOR #8 -4.3% M M ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1 -13.1% MOON KNIGHT #3 -13.1% THUNDERBOLTS #26 -13.8% AVENGERS #29 (O.S. Tie-In) -15.1% X-MEN #14 -16.1% AVENGERS #30 (O.S. Tie-In) -16.3% AVENGERS UNDERCOVER #4 -20.3% WOLVERINE #6 -21.5% WOLVERINE #7 -26.8% THOR GOD OF THUNDER #22 -27.0% IRON PATRIOT #3 -27.6% NEW AVENGERS #18 -32.2% CAPTAIN AMERICA #20 -34.0% IRON MAN #25 -36.0% IRON MAN #26 -44.7% ALL NEW ULTIMATES #2 -48.3% X-FORCE #5 -56.0% SECRET AVENGERS #3
—
5 Year Comparisons --- 116.4% MOON KNIGHT #3 100.3% GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #15 72.5% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #2 62.2% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1.1 53.9% IRON FIST LIVING WEAPON #2 26.5% SHE-HULK #4 5.3% CAPTAIN MARVEL #3 2.5% DEADPOOL #29 (O.S. Tie-In) -1.9% ELEKTRA #2 -8.5% M M ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1 -10.3% DEADPOOL #28 -17.3% NOVA #17 -21.1% ALL NEW X-FACTOR #7 -22.9% PUNISHER #5 -23.0% ALL NEW X-FACTOR #8 -27.1% UNCANNY X-MEN #21 -28.5% FANTASTIC FOUR #5 -28.7% FANTASTIC FOUR #4 -42.4% IRON MAN #25 -44.2% IRON MAN #26 -46.0% THUNDERBOLTS #26 -46.4% IRON PATRIOT #3 -48.5% HULK #3 -53.7% NEW AVENGERS #18 -54.7% CAPTAIN AMERICA #20 -55.1% X-FORCE #5 -59.1% WOLVERINE #6 -59.8% WOLVERINE #7 -78.5% ALL NEW GHOST RIDER #3
—
10 Year Comparisons --- 51.3% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #2 42.3% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1.1 34.8% IRON FIST LIVING WEAPON #2 20.9% THOR GOD OF THUNDER #22 6.2% AVENGERS #29 (O.S. Tie-In) 4.7% IRON MAN #25 3.3% AVENGERS #30 (O.S. Tie-In) 1.5% IRON MAN #26 -13.8% SHE-HULK #4 -17.0% HULK #3 -19.2% CAPTAIN AMERICA #20 -27.2% DAREDEVIL #3 -34.5% FANTASTIC FOUR #5 -34.7% FANTASTIC FOUR #4 -43.4% PUNISHER #5 -48.2% WOLVERINE #6 -48.9% M M ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #1 -49.0% WOLVERINE #7 -51.2% UNCANNY X-MEN #21 -63.1% X-MEN #14 -79.7% AMAZING X-MEN #7
So there are the numbers for this month. A few final thoughts: Marvel launched a lot of new #1s this year, and now we’re starting to see how they will shake out in terms of sales. Seems like most of these new solo character books will sell around 20-30k, with a few standout characters over 30k. This is not bad as it expands Marvel’s middle tier in a comfortable way, and if a book falls too low, there are a variety of other character to explore.
The one problem we keep noticing is with the soft relaunches. Books like Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Hulk and others get relaunched to #1 very shortly after the previous run ends and only get a very temporary sales boost. I worry that this hurts the sales potential of other #1s because it makes #1s less special. Relaunching every so often has become a major part of this business, but when it becomes to frequent it loses any benefit it provides. It has become a gimmick, and can lead to retailers and readers losing faith in future relaunches.
I’ll end this with a few questions for debate in the comments below: • What relaunches recently have gotten your attention? What makes them stand out from others?
• Have all the recent gimmicks (relaunches, tons of variants, momentary death of characters) made you gain or lose interest in those titles? Do you ever use a relaunch as an opportunity to drop a book that you are losing interest in?
Thanks for reading the article and for commenting below. Until next month, Keep Reading Comics!
“Daredevil’s drops are getting smaller and I expect it will end up pretty close to where it was before the soft relaunch in a few months.” – Yeah, this title simply did NOT need a relaunch. Wasted gimmick for a very small (soon to be gone) gain.
Why are people not buying Avengers World? Minus the Avengers exhaustion, the book has the best art of all the Avengers books!
And why are people not buying Thor? The first storyline was a soon to be CLASSIC, the Ron Garney story kinda killed it a bit, but it’s back on track with this current storyline! Such an excellent, and beautifully drawn book!
Iron Fist has been surprisingly enjoyable. I had no positive expectations with the first issue. But it’s really well done so far!
I LOVE Elektra, in general. And I love artsy art. But the art on that book is a touch too cartoony for my tastes. And the writing on the first issue probably scared some people off.
She-Hulk is AWESOME! Though the art in the latest issue is REALLY polarizing.
And why are people not buying Thor?
Speaking for myself it because I’m suffering fatigue from multiple versions of a character in a book ie all new x-men , avengers etc. Which is why I’ve passed on it.
Why is 18k a good number for Murder Inc? If Bendis launched it at Image I’d expect at least double that number.
Hawkeye, Daredevil and Deadpool just went from $3 to $4 books. That leaves Ms. Marvel, Avengers Undercover, and She-Hulk. This helps my wallet a whole bunch; my pull list? Not so much.
Why don’t I buy Thor?
Same reason I don;’t buy any Avengers or X-Men books anymore. Too many books, too many events, too much blah. I don’t do “franchises”.
Most of the comics I buy fall in the lower tier of sales like Moon Knight, Ghost Rider and Iron Fist among others. If not for the upcoming movie, I’m sure Guardians would be down there with them.
@ Rikk – fair enough, but Thor is excellent and is essentially like those other solo titles you mentioned. It hasn’t (to my best recollection) gotten involved in any crossovers since it launched and has a strong authorial voice in Jason Aaron, who has written every issue. My only gripe was, as one of the posters above said, the Ron Garney art on one of the arcs.
I’m a Marvel U subscriber so I’m six months behind these numbers but I have to say…I wish that Marvel would give a push to the FF like they do with Avengers and X-Men-the soft reboots are not helping!
I agree with some of what others are saying above.
Jason Aaron’s Thor started off with 11 or 12 instant-classic issues… then the Dark Elf storyline was so pedestrian that it almost made me lost interest entirely. Even after 12 great issues, I’m not surprised that people dropped the title. Because those $4 issues add up in a hurry, and if you’ve spent $20-$24 on a storyline that did nothing for you, I can see people heading for the exit doors. That said, the arc that just wrapped up was nearly a return to form. I’m happy I’ve stuck with the title and I think that, in the end, the Dark Elf arc will seem like an abrasion.
I think the situation with Avengers World is somewhat similar in that people who want to read Hickman’s Avengers stuff are already spending like $12 per month. Throwing in another title that comes out three times every two months means that this new title will have a very short leash with fans, especially when it comes apparently that Hickman himself isn’t really writing it. I have to say, though, that Avengers World really IS a good series. I’ve enjoyed the character spotlight issues very much, and the artists involved are no slouches. It’s worth reading and does add significantly to the big tapestry that Hickman and Spencer have been building for over a year now.
Of all the recent #1s, I’m surprised that Elektra isn’t doing better. The art is STUNNING and the character hasn’t had a solo series in quite a while. In contrast to all of the frequent relaunches, I would have thought that this series would have caught people’s attention because it does seem to be something quite new for an established character.
To answer some other questions: Yeah, relaunches provide potential jump-OFF points just as they provide jump-ON points. Either way, it’s a question of what the creative team will be. If my favorite creators are off a book, then I’m probably going to want to leave too. But if a new #1 means a better creative team, then I’ll become interested in a property that I previously didn’t care much about. It’s that simple.
As far as gimmicks go… It depends on what you mean by a gimmick. Some people think Superior Spider-Man was a gimmick. I thought it was the best year and a half of Spider-Man stories I’ve read in a long time. Was relaunching Amazing Spider-Man with a $6 #1 issue a gimmick? I thought the issue and found it substantive and entertaining. I think having a new Daredevil #1 was dubious… but on the other hand, I really DO feel that the premise of the title has changed enough; this feels like a second “act” of Waid’s run, so I’m not upset with it in the least. But relaunching Waid’s Hulk? Yeah, that was totally unnecessary, especially since Waid’s apparently leaving in a few months.
“Why is 18k a good number for Murder Inc? If Bendis launched it at Image I’d expect at least double that number.”
Hi Matt,
Good question. I am basing that comparison off of most indie books. For the most part, indie books debut between 5k and 10k. A really good debut for an indie book is between 10k and 20k. A good Image book can debut higher so i’d maybe up those ranges by 5k. Now sure if you look at Image lately, several big name creators have debuted books higher. Kelly Sue and Fraction have debuted books at 40k and higher. Hickman does quite well there consistently. However, when i made that statement I was looking at sales for Powers and other Bendis creator owned books and instead of comparing them to books like Sex Criminals or Pretty Deadly, which are actually statistical outliers when you look at Image’s regular numbers, I chose to compare it what I believed is a more reasonable range of data. Yes, Bendis is a HUGE name, but there a lot of other factors involved in launching a successful book at Image. As to your statement that if Bendis took that exact same book and debuted it at Image he’d sell twice as many books, neither of us can say for sure if that is true as Bendis didn’t do that nor does it look like he’d go to Image anytime soon. 18k for Murder Inc. is a respectable number in the world of indie comics, where many books debut around 6k to 8k.
For the event series, I wonder if they should be treated as essentially one series that is constantly being relaunched every few months. Really, since FEAR ITSELF, Marvel has run continuous event series with only a few months off between them.
Fear Itself, AVX, Ultron, Infinity, Sin, Axis… It never ends.
Not sure if this is the case for anyone else, but these soft relaunches also make it easier to drop a book… I dropped Captain Marvel after the last run ended, will do the same with Hawkeye and am strongly considering dropping Daredevil before the San Francisco storyline starts (I read Marvel in trades). Then again I’ve lived through like 3 relaunches for Ultimate Spider-Man so it’s not always a jump-off point. Also I’m not sure if I’m the average comics reader since my pull list is dominated mostly by indies and mini-series (they cycle out quickly so room for a new mini opens up relatively fast again). Anyone else using these frequent relaunches as jump-off points though?
“but Marvel has yet to recapture the excitement and sales of Civil War.”
Because there hasn’t been a story since that actually “mattered” in the sense that Status Quos *actually* changed, for a while at least.
* Ugh, man, don’t put “ASM #1.1” in with regular ASM chart; don’t fall for Marvel’s games, those are pretty clearly different projects !
* You should put the “(sin)” into the crossover listings so blips are more clearly understandable as to causation.
IMO
-B
I think that problem with books like Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and Avengers World is that for all intents and purposes they are B-tier books.
Big, universe “changing” stuff doesn’t happen nor spin out of these titles. Instead they have to “react” to big stuff with their tie-ins. For many fans such books “matter” less than key X-Men book, Spider-Man or main Avengers titles. It doesn’t help that many of those characters are featured in team books that “matter” and you can get your Thor fix (as small as it might be) anyway and keep up with the stuff that “matters”.
WOW. (I’m a nice guy, I promise. So I don’t mean any disrespect, but…) hsssh, you are pretty much EXACTLY what, in my thinking, is the problem with comic book readers today. They’re falling for the exact thing the big companies want, and so the big companies continue to produce that same thing (bloated events, which actually are pretty pointless; relaunches, etc.)
There was once a time when the MAIN titles of A-LIST characters, such as Captain America, Thor and Iron Man (I can’t believe people/you consider these b-list books?! They’re just as big as Amazing Spider-man) were where the great stories were. And an occasional event mini helped expand the universe here or there (but wasn’t an every three months things like it is today. Which has become ridiculous.) Real character building is happening in these main titles. The writer (and art) for Thor is amazing. Meanwhile, if you’re only following Avengers and event titles to get your Thor fix, you’re not really getting any character building for Thor, you’re getting a guy running around with a hammer helping stop the next big universe ending baddie, or move the universe storyline from step B to step C (so they’re ready for the NEXT big event mini.) And seriously, when was the last time some “big, universe “changing” stuff actually happened in an event title? It’s all very, very temporary.
Thor is on issue #23 as of this month, with not ONE tie-in storyline. Because Jason Aaron is trying to build up something MORE here than just a character reacting to his universe. That’s how most titles used to be. Honestly, I’m just blown away by your comment. It shows that DC and Marvel have, to a point, completely won with this. They’ve shoved so many pointless event books down our throats that fans now think THOSE are the A-list titles, and the core books are now “b-tier.” Wow. Just wow.
Marvel has been putting out extra franchise books that don’t tie into the meta-plot for quite a while now, like Mighty Avengers (the Dan Slott one), Astonishing X-men, X-men (the Brian Wood one), etc.
It’s like how Spider-man and Superman and Batman headlined like 5-7 titles back in the 90s. So long as people buy them the companies will put them out.
I peek in and out on the Marvel Comics line from time to time, hoping something will grab me, but I’m continually disappointed.
There’s a serious creep among the Marvel books in my opinion, from what I’ve read, of the dreaded low risk steady as she goes, don’t upset the status quo kind of thing. There’s no risk taking, it’s very soft serve stuff right now. Which I attribute to the popularity and success of the movies. I like to think of this as when you’re chewing a piece of gum but continue to chew it despite the flavor being long gone. Eventually you’ve got to spit the gum out, the flavor isn’t coming back.
” “but Marvel has yet to recapture the excitement and sales of Civil War.”
Because there hasn’t been a story since that actually “mattered” in the sense that Status Quos *actually* changed, for a while at least.
* Ugh, man, don’t put “ASM #1.1″ in with regular ASM chart; don’t fall for Marvel’s games, those are pretty clearly different projects !
* You should put the “(sin)” into the crossover listings so blips are more clearly understandable as to causation.
IMO
-B”
Hey Brian! Thanks for reading! I’ll definitely mark which books are Original Sin right in the numbers in future, that was my oversight.
I’m torn on ASM 1.1 . I know it is a radically different series, but I fear confusion, of course the way I did it isn’t that much less confusing. I’ll think about how to best do it for next month.
Regarding your comments on Civil War, I have to agree, I really enjoyed the fallout from that with initiative and the fallout from Secret Invasion with Dark Avengers, other than that and a few X-men miniseries not many events have made a lasting impression on me as a reader or retailer.
As always thanks for your insight, Brian, hope all is well at your store.
~Jason
I prefer the done-in-one series, or the “loner” series.
“I Am An Avenger” (One story won an Eisner?)
“X-Men: Legacy” (great covers!)
She-Hulk, Nightcrawler, Ms. Marvel (and, if I read them more, Hulk, Daredevil, Hawkeye)
Avengers: A.I. had a great storyline with a sentient microverse.
Avengers Academy… WOW.
Secret Avengers v.1.16!
But, yeah, when I read comics in the 80s, I ignored Daredevil and the Avengers titles. They didn’t crossover with Spider-Man, X-Men, or Fantastic Four. They didn’t interest me. (Yes, even the Simonson Thor.)
Marvel has really pushed me away over recent years between higher prices, lower quality paper, endless crossovers events ruining so many runs.
@Sleepy Reader – The low quality of the paper is one reason why I’m switching to trades for more and more Marvel output. Inky fingers plus smudged and fragile covers do not make for the most pleasant reading experience.
I enjoy good stories, regardless of company, event, whatever. Original sin is great thus far.
I too thought the Dark Elf storyline halted a lot of momentum for the Thor series. Glad I’m not the only one. I fell away during that arc.
My superhero habits live primarily off’ve boutique style books: high level of craft, noteworthy or up-and-coming creators, “stories that count” in that they are in many cases the only titles that freight C and D-list characters’ narratives, and most importantly stay away from the crossovers: your Hawkguys, DDs, Lokis, Moon Knights, She-Hulks and Ms. Marvels.
Maybe a token franchise for shameless nostalgia itch scratching like Bendis’ X-Men.
DC doesn’t seem to be as friendly to a buyer/reader like me with the likes of Wonder Woman and Swamp Thing being the only offerings of theirs I partake of.
The rest of my reading is spread across 13 other smaller publishers. I’ve very definitely been trending away from The Big Two in the last few years due to perfectly fine reading experiences being interrupted at some point by some attempt at manipulating the market to keep bottom lines looking swell.
All of you who haven’t been buying what is CLEARLY the best Avengers title in Undercover? I’m watching you. And growling.
*
“Because there hasn’t been a story since that actually “mattered” in the sense that Status Quos *actually* changed, for a while at least.”
AvX mattered in a big way!
For the X-Men, at least. The Avengers just took the sales boosted of usurping storylines that the X-books had been building for years and then went on their merry way. (Not that I’m still bitter.)
*
I think Avengers World’s problem is that it was basically marketed as just like the main Avengers book, but no so important for the overarching story. First to go in a lot of budgets.
*
Hope Loki turns things around quick–it’s a great book. There’s third prints coming of the first two issues, but also a hiatus during the Thor/Loki mini for Original Sins, wonder how that will affect sales on the books’ return.
First, I still wish there was some more careful editing of this column for things like capitalization, punctuation, missing words, and so forth. Just one careful read-through by an attentive editor would improve things immensely.
Second, put me in the camp that’s pretty much sick and tired of the “event cycle,” even when the events (like Original Sin) are reasonably entertaining and don’t seem to be derailing many books too badly. Sadly, the days of just settling in and telling stories instead of publishing filler between events seem to be gone for the “tentpole” franchises. (But there’s some good work coming out in the “second tier” books, like Captain America, Thor, She-Hulk, and such.)
You left Infinity out of the events comparison.
Deadpool 29 was an Original Sin tie-in, I believe, which would explain the bump. Not that the book doesn’t deserve it.
X-Factor double-ships no more frequently than any other Marvel book (barring ASM).
@Nathan Aaron, I probably should have clarified that its not my personal views, but trends that I noticed while reading forums/news/blogs/talking with people. In essence I agree with what you, and few others, have said, but sadly vast majority seems to be more interested in “universe shaping titles”.
So I really enjoy this column. I think I am in agreement with other people on here about my Marvel habits. I used to be a Marvel Zombie but now I don’t see the point. The first problem for me is pricing. Marvel Comics are ridiculously overpriced. Take Walking Dead, Saga, Chew, Trees, etc and compare that to Avengers World? Hulk? Iron Man? You quickly realize that there is no comparison. Why would I pay $4 for a mediocre Marvel book when there are so much better Image comics out there without the constraints of corporate hegemony? Another problem is I believe the creators can’t create interesting stories. Whether it be editorial mandated plots or for the simple fact that why would any Marvel writer create a new character for a giant corporation and not get any proper money for it? Look at Len Wein, Chris Claremont, Jack Kirby, etc? What is the incentive of creating new ideas and characters when you don’t own them? I think the lack of incentives stifles creativity. Also, the last Marvel Event I bought was Fear Itself. It completely burned me out. What was the point of it? Everything was undone as soon as it was over. I didn’t get AvX. From what I heard Age of Ultron was a laughing stock, and I am done with events. How can you call an event “eventful” if it happens all the time? It loses its specialness, its anticipation, its ability to count. Things don’t breathe anymore as a result.
I really just feel everything is such a gimmick at Marvel and I am tired of being tricked into thinking otherwise. They inflate numbers through reboots, variants, and character deaths. Its like trying to take blood from wood. The entire industry needs to completely change its course. Image is very good at innovation and its why they have all my money. I don’t want to sound like a harbinger of doom but Comics as a paper form is not sustainable. I don’t know. I love the medium and I love comics but I see the way Marvel operates and it completely makes me question why I spend my hard earned money on them. I still get Moon Night, She-Hulk, Ms Marvel, Elektra, X-Factor(…..but gonna drop it after 12, too much double shipping), Iron Fist, & Uncanny Avengers. I feel like these books have a story to tell and as soon as anyone of them are interrupted with tie-ins I drop them. LOL, I hope that helps?
“There was once a time when the MAIN titles of A-LIST characters, such as Captain America, Thor and Iron Man (I can’t believe people/you consider these b-list books?! They’re just as big as Amazing Spider-man) were where the great stories were.”
No, there was never a time like that.
I’m an old school Marvel guy so basically, while I am glad that there are so many books featuring the characters I love, they’re not the same characters to me. I always try out titles when they’re put out but I’ve been dropping alot of Marvel Now recently.
This is purely my opinion but Thor doesn’t feel like a Thor comic to me. It’s a cool book but he reads like a different character to me now. I like Garney’s art but I was one who was turned off during that arc. The books are more about their writer’s nowadays and characterization is only as consistent as the writer wants (Bendis’s X-Men, Hickman’s Avengers). The Cap redesign doesn’t work for me, Hawkeye’s Ultimate/movie look doesn’t work for me, the Illuminati and all the Original Sins “Everything You Knew Is Wrong” doesn’t work for me. I like the Invaders, New Warriors, Daredevil, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. I buy Captain America but I really don’t care for Remender’s take on the character. I liked Moon Knight but the new team coming on doesn’t appeal to me (I don’t care for Wood’s writing on anything other than Conan).
I’m just one guy and those are only my opinions and I understand the appeal for Marvel to be more like the movies (which I enjoy) and I have YEARS of back issues to keep me satisfied. Ultimately, a comic’s value to me is how much I want to go back and re-read it at a later date and the majority of what Marvel publishes doesn’t appeal to me.
“No, there was never a time like that.”
Yes, there indeed was.
“There was once a time when the MAIN titles of A-LIST characters, such as Captain America, Thor and Iron Man… were where the great stories were.”
“No, there was never a time like that.”
Uhm, John Byrne’s Fantastic Four, Walter Simonson’s Thor, John Byrne/Mike Zeck (and Ed Brubaker’s) Captain America, and David Micheline and Bob Layton’s Iron Man runs would ALL like to prove you wrong. Oh wait, they just did. :)
‘DC and Marvel have, to a point, completely won with this. They’ve shoved so many pointless event books down our throats that fans now think THOSE are the A-list titles, and the core books are now “b-tier.”.’
I don’t disagree with the entirety of the comment this is excerpted from, but…
Look at sales of Iron Man over the last few years.
Look at sales of Captain America over the last few years.
Look at sales of Superman over the last few years.
There is no way that the Big Two are “winning” when the comes to those properties as comic book entities. The sales are way low on those characters, falling down the charts like never before. There are few exceptions to this, of course. When DC puts out a big Superman book, it sells. But month in and month out, Superman is not a reliable A-list property. It’s never been this low, relatively speaking, compared to Batman. And Iron Man and Cap have never been this relatively low compared to, say, Spider-Man. It’s embarrassing.
And that’s not even pausing to reflect on how well those characters have done in movies over the last few years.
But with Iron Man in particular, the disparity between the character’s perceived importance across all formats vs. his solo-title’s sales figures — it’s just ridiculously bad. Marvel’s periodical division has not “completely won” with this.
You could even cite the sales figures of Wolverine titles, which have never been lower on the sales characters, for proof that this is not all some kind of conspiracy for Marvel to deliberately sabotage their A- and B-list solo-series, driving them down to C- and D-list levels, in order to sell one singular Marvel Event per month. If all were normal in the world, Marvel would have Wolverine, Iron Man, Cap, and Thor bringing in close to 100,000 readers per month. Instead they’ve got one single event title that can do numbers like that. And, again, this in the midst of these same characters holding down billion-dollar film franchises.
I’ve always thought this, and will continue to, it’s the CREATIVE TEAMS that make or break a title. Sure, Captain America, iron Man, Superman are all floundering at the moment. And yet, Batman is selling gangbusters! Amazing Spiderman is selling rather gangbusters (you’ve got me on that one, though. I’m SO not a fan of that creative team. Enough with the manga art. ;) Usually when you think of an amazing run of a comic, it has more to do with the creative team, than the character. You don’t think of the Fantastic Four, you think of John Byrne’s run on the Fantastic Four. Walter Simonson’s run on Thor, etc. etc. And it’s probably not as important today as it was in the past, but one of the things Batman has going for it (to my knowledge, I don’t actually read the title) is a ridiculously consistent creative team. – Captain America (how many artists so far?) – Superman? I think you have to pull together a really strong creative team, writer AND artist, and you have to retain consistency with the team. Marvel’s titles seem to have a new artist every three issues now. So that’s just something to ponder.
But I was more so suggesting that events used to be a once a year occasion, and now they’re every three months (or more.) Marvel and DC have slowly switched our buying habits, and with that fans think these events carry more weight than the character’s own titles, which didn’t used to be the case. No one at the time thought “Whoa, I gotta pick up Secret Wars (1984 version!) and drop Amazing Spider-man, because SW is where the real universe building is!” But today, that has appeared to have changed.
“Nova continues to drop but is currently still planned through September and will definitely be below 20k by then.”
Ehhh…. I wouldn’t use the word “definitely” about something that hasn’t happened yet. NOVA is doing some ORIGINAL SIN tie-ins, and if it gets the 5K boost that some other books are, it could easily be above 20K in September.
And hey, how about just mentioning which books have been cancelled in their respective entries instead of going to the trouble of pointing out all the low-selling books that are still showing up in the solicitations? I think it’s reasonable to let the reader assume that everything is ongoing unless stated otherwise.
Where’s Silver Surfer?
Sorry. I just realized Silver Surfer didn’t come out in May.
I don’t talk about what Marvel ‘should’ do. Its their company, they can do what they want.
Time was, I was buying 10-15 Marvel titles per month – Every Spider-Man title (when there were 3-4), Astonishing X-Men, Daredevil, events, subsidiary minis to events, Runaways, Punisher, Captain America, Winter Soldier, Fantastic Four etc etc.
I now get Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil, Miracleman and I’m giving US of Murder Inc a try. That’s it.
One of the big difficulties that Marvel has, is that when I contemplate a new title, I think – gee, for 4-5 issues of this, I can get a trade of Ennis’ Hellblazer, or Simonson’s Thor, or Planetary or so on. That’s the competition, not other new titles.
I now get Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil,
“Uhm, John Byrne’s Fantastic Four, Walter Simonson’s Thor, John Byrne/Mike Zeck (and Ed Brubaker’s) Captain America, and David Micheline and Bob Layton’s Iron Man runs would ALL like to prove you wrong.”
If you want to cherry pick from all different eras, then sure. Watch this:
In 1942, the Captain America title was where all the important stuff happened to Cap!
“I don’t talk about what Marvel ‘should’ do. Its their company, they can do what they want.”
That’s good, because they were afraid you might offer their opinion, and then they’d be forced to do what you say. Good thing you refrained.
You know what I miss?
I miss writers that stayed on with a series beyond just one or two story arcs.
I miss when events were actually that – happening maybe in annuals or as an actual explosive situation that didnt repeat each few months, every year.
I miss self-contained singular issues.
I miss issues that sometimes were based solely on the lives of the supporting characters, who were not all super heroes/cyborgs/normal humans who suddenly gained powers like the main characters they supported – I think to Bob and Dave’s first IM run and how they fleshed out supporting characters that actually gave a foundation to Tony Stark’s life – an actual living corporation, and not just a backdrop. How many comics today would reflect on the mundane family problems of a supporting character, with the main character nearly absent in the tale?
I miss ongoing sub-plots or multiple sub-plots that built over time.
I miss an ongoing consistent main character that didnt change in such extreme and jarring ways every 5-6 issues after a new writer steps in and decides to change things in “a new direction”.
I miss reading a comic that actually gave you your money’s worth and took actual time to finish and wasnt just glossy spreads, stretched out character head conversations and Hollywood movie-ish plot movement and drama.
I miss fill-in issues!
Finally, I miss the old Marvel…
Matt & Jason – Re Murder Inc:
18K for Murder Inc is actually a huge leap of faith for retailers. It is double the order of Powers. The problem Bendis has is that he’s great with X-Men and Ult Spider-Man coming out timely. Not so much for his own stuff. Powers history has been sketchy at best. 6+ months between issues. It was a year between the last 2 issues of Takio. 18 months between issues 4 & 5 of Brilliant. We had 3 issues of Scarlet in 2 1/2 years and its been a year since the last one arrived. These projects have been with 3 different artists, so the common factor seems to be the writer. In regard to this type of project, his name doesn’t not carry much weight. So far, the first 3 issues have shipped timely. But don’t blame retailers (or readers) for waiting for the trade on this one. It still may be a year + before we see the end of the story.
The main reason for the big drop between issues 1 and 2 for the Marvel books has more to do with an inflated bump for the #1 than it has to do with any real sales drop. Marvel puts a lot of effort into getting retailers to order extra copies of number ones. There was talk of a big drop for Elektra, but that’s because the promotion to get variants or extra discount on #1 was tied to exceeding a certain issue of Daredevil. I don’t think anyone really saw this as outselling Daredevil, so those retailers that stretched on #1 came right back down on #2. The initial stuff I saw for Axis was you could get incentives if your order of #1 was 200% of Original Sin #2. Looking at the numbers for ANMN launches, it seems to be a 30-40% bump across the board. That’s why they do all of these new #1s. To be able to promote those bumps as successes in the press and to their corporate bosses. There is really no other reason for things like Daredevil #1 and Hulk #1. But overall, I think it is having a negative impact on them. #1s don’t really mean anything anymore and some actual new #1s like Ghost Rider and even Elektra get lost in the mix. Add in the books that have a #1 on the cover even thought it is actually issue #24 and the shelves get even more confusing. And when readers can’t figure out what’s going on they tend to just ignore it and move on to something else.
Skottie, I don’t think I’ve ever seen snarkier comments in the comments section of the Marvel column. Back in the 80’s, there were plenty of events that happened in just “mainline” titles that really drove interest, everything from “Inferno” to the story arc detailing the original Scourge.
“I miss writers that stayed on with a series beyond just one or two story arcs.”
Yeah, if only Bendis were still writing Ultimate Spider-man and two X-Men titles, or Dan Slott was still writing Spider-man, or PAD were still writing X-Factor, or Hickman was writing three Avengers titles into his third year, or . . .
. . . or you quit whining. Just because writers aren’t staying on books you want to read doesn’t mean they’re not staying on books.
“Back in the 80′s, there were plenty of events that happened in just “mainline” titles”
Well, if you say so, anonymous keyboard warrior!
“I miss when events were actually that – happening maybe in annuals”
Yeah, remember Atlantis Attacks and the Evolutionary War? Man, that was some good shit . . . wait, no, it was just shit.
“Skottie” – have to disagree with your rather sophomoric responses. Whining? Nah – giving a point of view that I feel strongly about that doesn’t mean anyone else has to feel that way – yep.
There were some fun crossovers – not all hard core but certainly fun reads – the Avengers/West Coast Avengers “Death” annual crossovers, the “Armor City” crossovers with Avengers and Iron Man annuals, “Terminus Factor”, and a ton of stand alone stories or mini series like the first Contest of Champions or Secret Wars.
As far as Bendis, personally not a fan…too many talking heads that stretched out storylines wayyy too long without actually moving the plots forward – perfect formula to extend stories for those trade compilations, but again, if you love him, no issues there…
Don’t feed the trolls folks.
Comments are closed.