by Jason Enright
Welcome to the month of Spider-Man, the best-selling comic in over a decade. But with this one book breaking 500k, how is this the rest of the Marvel line doing? The last few months we’ve seen a lot of soft relaunches and some genuine new #1s, but while the new books like Ms. Marvel and Moon Knight are doing well, a lot of the new relaunches are floundering. Let’s break down a few overall statistics.
80 books shipped this month
5 X-books (7 including X-Factor and X-Force)
7 Avengers books
9 new #1s for ongoing series
10 double shipped books
2 books over 100k (both Spider-man)
0 books between 75k and 100k
12 books between 50k and 75k
35 books between 25k and 50k
31 books between 1k and 25k
So as you can see although Marvel has a few breakout hits, most of its books sell under 50k, and it has almost as many under 25k books as it does over 25k. The average Marvel book sells 38k if you include Amazing Spider-man #1, but if you treat that as an anomaly and remove it, then the Average book sells 32k.
As you can see Marvel has quite a few books below 25k that they probably need to think about cancelling. To this end, I’ve added in the analysis below my thoughts on which books Marvel, might be considering cancelling, and per a reader request, I’m calling this the deathwatch list.
So read on below to get the in-depth analysis of what is going with Marvel’s sales, and what I think they might be able to do about it. As always leave your comments and thoughts below. Am I way off? Do you agree with my thoughts and predictions? Sound off in the comments below.
Thanks as always to ICV2.com and Milton Griepp for their permission to use these figures.
1,2. SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN 04/04 Am Spi #506 – 83,156 04/09 Am Spi #590 - 66,410 04/11 Am Spi #658 - 61,687 04/12 Am Spi #683 - 59,153 --- 04/13 Superior #7 - 87,945 ( +2.5%) 04/13 Superior #8 - 85,671 ( -2.6%) 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%)[10,168] 04/14 Amazing v3 #1- 532,586 ( 293.1%) --- 6 mnth ( 536.5%) 1 year ( 505.6%) 2 year ( 800.0%) 3 year ( 763.4%) 5 year ( 702.0%) 10 year ( 540.5%)
So wow! 532,586 copies shipped to stores. This makes Amazing Spider-Man #1 the best-selling comic since around 1999. Now there have been some reports that Marvel pumped these numbers up a bit by sending stores extra copies and obviously they did a lot of incentive variants and some incentive price lowering, but still this is a great achievement even if it a little inflated. Plus Superior #31 which also came out this month saw a nice sales increase. Now, we’ll want to watch for two things next month: One, how high are reorders on Amazing, basically did stores sell out of what they ordered or are all those copies sitting on their shelves still? Two, how high are orders on Amazing 2 going to be? Do stores think that people coming back in for Amazing #1 will come back for #2? I expect the order to be between 100 and 150k, but we’ll have to wait and see. All told though, this is a very nice return for Peter Parker, welcome back Pete!
7, 45. INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK 04/04 Incred Hulk v3 #71 - 46,839 04/09 Hulk #11 - 82,719 04/11 Incred Hulks #627 - 30,788 04/12 Incred Hulk v4 #7 - 42,135 --- 04/13 Indestructible #6 - 55,470 ( +0.9%) 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%) --- 6 Mnth ( -0.9%) 1 Year ( -26.8%) 2 Year ( -4.0%) 3 Year ( 31.8%) 5 Year ( -50.9%) 10 Year ( -13.3%)
So here is another soft relaunch, like we discussed last month. Indestructible Hulk by Mark Waid ended last month with issue 20, Hulk #1 by Mark Waid comes out this month, and sees a nice bump of 40k issues, but then issue 2 drops very close to where the series was before the relaunch. Sure, this relaunch will increase their Hulk sales for 5 to 6 months, but is all this frivolous relaunching hurting consumer confidence? Does a Marvel #1 mean anything anymore? It worked for Spider-man but doesn’t seem to be working for Hulk.
8. Original Sin #0 04/14 Original Sin #0 - 73,024
I have to imagine that Marvel wanted a better launch number for their big summer event than 70k, but I’ll hold further judgement till we see what sales were on Original Sin #1 since this was really just a set-up issue to reintroduce readers to the Watcher, and wasn’t really integral to the plot of Original Sin.
14, 17. ALL-NEW X-MEN --- 04/13 All-New X-Men #10 - 84,760 ( +3.8%) 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%) --- 6 mnth ( -28.9%) 1 year ( -30.5%)
So issue #25 was a double-sized anniversary issue with a ton of great artists involved and 2 variant covers, and only saw a slight increase in sales. Then issue #26 sees a drop of about 5k for the new story arc. Has this time-traveling X-men story started to lose its luster? Or is it just finding its level among the other X books?
16. DEADPOOL 04/09 Deadpool v3 #9 - 48,479 04/11 Deadpool v3 #35 - 28,517 04/12 Deadpool v3 #53 - 29,334 --- 04/13 Deadpool v4 #7 - 57,016 ( -0.1%) 04/13 Deadpool v4 #8 - 52,851 ( -7.3%) 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%) --- 6 mnth ( 31.7%) 1 year ( 8.8%) 2 year ( 111.0%) 3 year ( 117.5%) 5 year ( 28.0%)
So Deadpool was already a very strong stable book in the 40k range, but this oversized wedding issue jumps up 60k. Deadpool is the book to beat for stable and pretty high sales.
18. Inhuman #1 04/14 Inhuman #1 - 58,309
This is a pretty decent debut, but if it has the 40% drop that is typical for issue 2s from Marvel, then it will be in the 35k territory and if it doesn’t stabilize quickly, it won’t be lasting long. This is one to watch, but some people have said that the Inhumans could be a replacement for the X-Men, and these numbers seem to suggest that will not be the case.
19, 29. Deadpool vs. Carnage #1 04/14 Dpool vs. Carn #1 – 57,275 04/14 Dpool vs. Carn #2 – 49,374 (-13.8%)
Nice debut for this miniseries. Deadpool is hugely popular right now, and pitting him against a fan-favorite villain seems like a good way to print money for Marvel.
22. UNCANNY X-MEN 04/04 Uncanny X-Men #442 – 86,980 04/09 Uncanny X-Men #508 – 76,436 04/11 Uncanny X-Men #535 - 56,795 04/12 Uncanny X-Men v2 #10 - 56,906 --- 04/13 Uncanny X-Men v3 #4 - 80,047 ( -6.7%) 04/13 Uncanny X-Men v3 #5 - 78,919 ( -1.4%) 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%) --- 6 mnth ( -26.4%) 1 year ( -30.8%) 2 year ( -3.0%) 3 year ( -2.5%) 5 year ( -27.6%) 10 year ( -36.4%)
So Cyclops and his team see a drop off after their .NOW issue but are still above where they were before it, so it seems like the .NOW did its job and helped reignite a little interest in this series. I predict that before the end of the year the next x event book will result in a shake-up of the teams and retitling/relaunching of the core x-books with new titles and line-ups. That should happen around fall/early winter. Look for all this to start with the upcoming Last Will and Testament of Charles Xavier book, which will lead into the next x-event.
23. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 04/09 Guardians v2 #11 - 27,105 --- 04/13 Guardians v3 #2 - 88,184 ( -59.5%) 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%) --- 6 mnth ( -21.4%) 1 year ( -38.8%) 5 year ( 99.1%)
So Guardians sees a slight drop for the newest issue, but with the upcoming movie and all the spinoffs (Rocket Raccoon and Groot one-shots, A new Starlord solo series), expect to see the demand for this series grow a bit in the next couple months as the Guardians take Venom to explore the symbiote homeworld.
24. Iron Fist: Living Weapon 04/09 Iron Fist #2 - 28,443 04/12 Iron Fist #25 - 22,307 --- 02/14 Iron Fist LW #1 - 53,613 ( --- ) --- 2 year ( 88.6%) 10 year (140.3%)
Pretty strong debut for Iron Fist and the reviews for this book have been pretty good. As always I like to wait to see how issue 2 does, if it has a 40% drop then this book will quickly be falling into the low 30k to high 20k territory and will only be a few months off from being in trouble. If it only has a 30% drop, then it more likely to stabilize in the 30k range and survive. I’ll also be watching for re-order activity.
25. AVENGERS 04/04 Avengers v3 #80 – 54,990 04/11 Avengers v4 #11 - 63,441 04/12 Avengers v4 #24 - 65,644 --- 04/13 Avengers v5 #9 - 77,780 ( -5.9%) 04/13 Avengers v5 #10 - 78,905 ( +1.4%) 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%) --- 6 mnth ( -26.4%) 1 year ( -32.1%) 2 year ( -20.0%) 3 year ( -16.8%) 5 year ( --- ) 10 year ( -4.0%)
Avengers keeps shedding readers. Hopefully, the upcoming Original Sin tie-ins will bring some new readers in as these numbers are pretty low compared to the historic sales for Avengers which fall in the high 50k to low 60k range. I’d say that it is time for a team shake-up and soft relaunch, but I don’t feel like Hickman’s story is anywhere near completion and I feel like we’re more likely to get a relaunch after next summer’s event, not after original sin.
26. UNCANNY AVENGERS --- 04/13 Uncanny Avengers #6 - 80,863 ( -4.2%) 04/13 Uncanny Avengers #7 - 77,027 ( -4.7%) 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%) --- 6 mnth ( -13.6%) 1 year ( -35.2%)
#3-5 – variant
#12 – 2 variants
#14 – variant
#18.NOW – 4 variants
#19 – variant
Uncanny Avengers doesn’t hold onto any of its new readers from the .NOW sales increase last month. This book doesn’t seem like it is getting any Original Sin tie-ins, but maybe the start of a new story arc in August will help boost its sales.
28. Nightcrawler #1 04/14 Nightcrawler #1 – 49,426
Just like with Iron Fist, I’ll be watching the issue 2 sales drop and the re-orders. I predict issue 2 to drop around 35-40% into the low 30k or high 20k range, and then continue to drop from there. Sadly, I don’t think Nightcrawler can support a solo series for very long on his own, which stinks because I really like the little elf.
30, 40. DAREDEVIL 04/04 Daredevil v2 #59 – 54,401 04/09 Daredevil v2 #118- 44,978 04/12 Daredevil v3 #11 - 46,111 --- 04/13 Daredevil v3 #25 - 39,678 ( +6.6%) 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%) 04/14 Daredevil #1.50 - 48,462 (-36.2%) 04/14 Daredevil v4 #2 - 42,811 (-11.7%) --- 6 Mnth ( 22.5%) 1 Year ( 7.9%) 2 Year ( -7.0%) 3 Year ( --- ) 5 Year ( -4.8%) 10 Year ( -21.3%)
So Daredevil and Mr. Waid saw a night increase for their new #1, and even those they saw a 40% dropp issue 1 to issue 2, they are still 10k above where they were before the soft relaunch. I’ll be watching to see how quickly they can stabilize, can Daredevil hold onto these new readers or will it be slipping back down to its pre-relaunch numbers? I predict it will return to those low 30k numbers, but that it might drift down there slowly over 8 issues or so.
31. ORIGIN II 09/01 Origin #1 of 6 - 135,561 10/01 Origin #2 of 6 - 131,582 10/01 Origin #3 of 6 - 128,978 12/01 Origin #4 of 6 - 168,460 01/02 Origin #5 of 6 - 178,231 02/02 Origin #6 of 6 - 179,251 --- 12/13 Origin II #1 of 5 - 131,724 01/14 Origin II #2 of 5 - 64,631 (-50.9%) 02/14 Origin II #3 of 5 - 53,640 (-17.0%) 03/14 Origin II #4 of 5 - 50,210 ( -6.4%) 04/14 Origin II #5 of 5 - 48,117 ( -4.2%)
Obviously, this didn’t find quite the readership of the original, but did pretty well and stayed pretty stable, and actually outsold all the other Wolverine books this month, which shows that there is quite some Logan fatigue going on with those stories.
32. Elektra 04/04 Elektra #35 - 20,314 04/09 Dark Reign: Elektra #25 - 29,890 --- 02/14 Elektra #1 - 47,676 ( --- ) --- 5 year ( 59.5%) 10 year (134.7%)
Like all the new #1s, we have to watch the issue 2 sales and the re-order activity, but I have seen quite a bit of buzz for this online, discussing the beautiful art. I think we might see issue 2 and 3 lose sales, (because those were ordered by stores before issue 1 came out), but then watch issue 4, to see if there is an increase from positive word of mouth. I think this book could become kind of a sleeper hit.
34. NEW AVENGERS 04/09 New Avengers v1 #52 - 93,967 04/11 New Avengers v2 #11 - 61,778 04/12 New Avengers v2 #24 - 64,533 --- 04/13 New Avengers v3 #5 - 63,423 ( -2.7%) 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 ( 0.0%) 04/14 New Avengers v3 #17 - 45,885 ( -5.8%) --- 6 mnth ( -27.4%) 1 year ( -27.7%) 2 year ( -29.0%) 3 year ( -25.7%) 5 year ( -51.2%)
Another Avengers book that is unable to hold onto the sales increase from the .NOW issue surprising no one. This series won’t crossover with Original Sin, but they are going to go up against a faux Justice League, so maybe that gimmick can help its falling sales. MAYBE.
35. Uncanny Avengers ANNUAL --- 02/14 Unc Avengers Annual #1 – 45,488
No surprise here, the annual comes in a little under the main series which is typical for annuals.
37. AMAZING X-MEN 04/12 Astonishing X-Men #40 - 31,291 --- 04/13 Astonishing X-Men #61 - 27,090 ( -2.1%) 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%) 6 mnth ( 114.5%) 1 year ( 66.5%) 2 year ( 44.0%)
This book’s drop seem to be stabilizing a bit, but This and all the x-series below it beg the question of how many x-books do we need before they start cannibalizing each other? What really makes Amazing X-Men that unique or different from the other X-men team books or the additional X-Force and X-Factor books? Maybe when they shake-up and relaunch the x titles next they’ll slim down the line to a core 3 or 4 books.
42. X-MEN 04/11 X-Men v3 #10 - 51,179 04/12 X-Men v3 #27 - 36,843 --- 04/13 --- 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%) --- 6 mnth ( -41.6%) 2 year ( 14.0%) 3 year ( -17.8%)
The 4th X-Men book continues to lose sales, although the drops seem to be getting smaller. As I said in the above commentary, do we need so many X-books or are they hurting each other’s sales with a crowded and confusing market. This is a fun book about X-men going on adventures, but I often hear customers questioning whether this or other books like Amazing X-men or Avenegrs World really count? The feeling is these books don’t have a big impact on overall continuity, so fans can skip them. Again this is why I think Marvel needs to pare down to two or three x-books and two or three Avengers books that all matter.
43. ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN 04/04 Spider-Man v1 #56 – 91,590 04/11 Spider-Man v2 #157- 50,896 04/12 Spider-Man v3 #9 - 43,724 --- 04/13 Spider-Man v3 #22 - 34,918 ( -1.0%) 05/13 Spider-Man v3 #23 - 35,581 ( +1.9%) 06/13 Spider-Man v3 #24 - 34,011 ( -4.4%) 07/13 Spider-Man v3 #25 - 33,271 ( -2.2%) 08/13 Spider-Man v3 #26 - 32,932 ( -1.0%) 09/13 Spider-Man v3 #27 - 32,200 ( -2.2%) 10/13 Spider-Man v3 #28 - 31,462 ( -2.3%) 11/13 Cataclysm #1 of 3 - 36,541 (+16.1%) 12/13 Cataclysm #2 of 3 - 30,293 (-17.1%) 01/14 Cataclysm #3 of 3 - 27,650 ( -8.7%) 02/14 --- 03/14 --- 04/14 Spider-Man #200 - 41,608 ( 50.5%) --- 6 mnth ( 31.5%) 1 year ( 19.2%) 2 year ( -5.0%) 3 year ( 18.2%) 10 year ( -54.6%)
This final issue before the Miles Morales relaunch next month sees a nice sales bump, but in general, the Ultimate line is not doing very well. More on that further down the list.
44. MOON KNIGHT 04/09 Moon Knight v3 #29 - 22,687 04/12 Moon Knight v4 #12 - 21,185 --- 02/14 Moon Knight v5 #1 - 58,022 ( --- ) [7,266] 02/14 Moon Knight v5 #1 - 40,885 ( -29.5%) --- 2 year ( 93.0%) 10 year ( 80.2%)
So Moon Knight only dropped 29.5% staying above 40k and issue 1 saw quite a few re-orders (7,266 copies), this is pretty good for a new series. Strong re-orders plus a small issue 2 drop bodes well for Moon Knight and the online chatter is very positive, so this book will probably do pretty well and stabilize in the mid 30k range.
47. SILVER SURFER 04/04 Silver Surfer v5 #8 - 25,544 04/11 Silver Surfer v6 #3 - 22,540 --- 02/14 Silver Surfer v7 #1 - 64,919 ( --- ) 02/14 Silver Surfer v7 #2 - 39,132 (-39.7%) --- 3 year ( 73.6%) 10 year ( 53.2%)
Silver Surfer #2 drops almost 40% and there were no re-orders reported this month, so this book doesn’t seem to be as successful as Moon Knight. Perhaps it will stabilize above 30k, but it does not seem likely.
49. THOR: GOD OF THUNDER 04/04 Thor v2 #77 - 30,820 04/09 Thor #601 – 79,620 04/11 Thor v4 #1 - 82,071 04/12 Thor v4 #13 - 34,840 --- 04/13 Thor v5 #7 - 51,526 ( +2.1%) 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%) 6 mnth ( -17.3%) 1 year ( -26.1%) 2 year ( 9.0%) 3 year ( -53.6%) 5 year ( -52.2%) 10 year ( 23.5%)
Thor sees a little bit of an increase and seems to be stabilizing out around 37k – 38k. That is a pretty decent sales level, if it can stay there.
52, 53. WOLVERINE 04/04 Wolverine v3 #12 – 71,064 04/11 Wolverine v4 #8 - 47,010 04/12 Wolverine #304 - 37,836 --- 04/13 Wolverine v5 #2 - 57,165 ( -51.4%) 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%) --- 6 mnth ( 8.4%) 1 year ( -34.3%) 2 year ( -1.0%) 3 year ( -20.1%) 10 year ( -47.1%)
Wolverine drops 3k since last month, the upcoming death of Wolverine story arc should significantly boost the sales of this struggling book, which is just barely above where it was before its soft relaunch.
55. Ms. Marvel 02/14 Ms. Marvel #1 - 50,286 ( --- ) [5,374] 03/14 Ms. Marvel #2 - 38,357 (-23.7%) [3,440] 04/14 Ms. Marvel #3 - 37,140 ( -3.2%)
So Ms. Marvel is a huge success for Marvel, not only was the issue 2 sales drop very small, but the issue 3 sales drop was only around 1000 copies, and there were strong re-orders on issue 1 and 2. I would not be surprised if issue 4 and 5 see a sales increase. Perhaps, there is a benefit to introducing exciting new diverse and well-realized characters to your aging roster.
56. KICK-ASS 3 [Icon] 06/13 Kick-Ass 3 #1 of 8 - 78,035 07/13 --- 08/13 Kick-Ass 3 #2 of 8 - 50,102 (-35.8%) 09/13 Kick-Ass 3 #3 of 8 - 44,540 (-11.1%) 10/13 Kick-Ass 3 #4 of 8 - 40,412 ( -9.3%) 11/13 Kick-Ass 3 #5 of 8 - 38,639 ( -4.4%) 02/14 Kick-Ass 3 #6 of 8 – 39,534 ( 2.3%) 03/14 --- 04/14 Kick-Ass 3 #7 of 8 – 38,818 ( -6.9%) 05/14 Kick-Ass 3 #8 of 8 --- 6 Mnth ( -8.9%)
Kick-Ass is pretty stable around 38k and should end on a strong note.
57. WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN 04/12 Wolverine/X-Men #7 - 53,757 --- 04/13 Wolv & X-Men #27AU - 47,055 (+12.1%) 04/13 Wolverine/X-Men #28 - 42,718 ( -9.2%) 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%) --- 6 Mnth ( -36.6%) 1 Year ( 14.8%) 2 Year ( -32.0%)
Wow, so the previous volume ended at 35k, 3 issues in and the relaunch is selling 36k. So what was the point of the relaunch? I actually wonder with Wolverine dying and by my prediction the X books relaunchign soon, will there be a Wolverine and the X-men book, this time next year, or will it a be casualty of the new status quo after the next x-event?
58. Magneto --- 03/14 Magneto #1 – 55,337 [3,763] 04/14 Magneto #2 – 35,772 (-35.4%)
Decent re-orders and a not-so-terrible issue 2 sales drop mean Magneto’s future is looking good. Let’s hope it can stabilize soon and maybe even stay above 30k.
60. FANTASTIC FOUR 04/04 Fantastic Four #512 – 52,956 04/12 Fantastic Four #605 - 42,372 --- 04/13 Fantastic Four v5 #6 - 41,291 ( -4.8%) 04/13 Fantastic Four v5 #7 - 39,314 ( -4.8%) 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%) --- 6 mnth ( 10.7%) 1 year ( -15.4%) 2 year ( -18.0%) 10 year ( -34.0%)
No re-order activity and sales continue to drop. Fantastic Four will probably drop to its previous sales low of 28k within a few months, but maybe its upcoming Original Sin tie-ins will boost sales. I doubt it will make much of a difference though.
61. CAPTAIN AMERICA 04/04 Captain America v4 #25 - 38,586 04/09 Captain America v5 #49 – 63,869 04/11 Captain America #617- 45,400 04/12 Captain America v6 #10 - 41,474 --- 04/13 Captain America v7 #6 - 47,802 ( -2.8%) 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%) --- 6 Mnth ( -11.0%) 1 Year ( -28.0%) 2 Year ( -17.0%) 3 Year ( -24.2%) 5 Year ( -46.1%) 10 Year ( -10.8%)
Captain America sees a bit of a sales boost. Perhaps increased interest because of the movie? Or maybe this series is just stabilizing around 33k, which is a little on the low side historically compared to the Brubaker days.
67. IRON MAN 04/04 Iron Man v3 #78 - 29,140 04/09 Inv Iron Man #11 - 51,770 04/11 Inv Iron Man #503 - 45,314 04/12 Inv Iron Man #515 - 32,409 --- 04/13 Iron Man v6 #8 - 43,974 ( -0.1%) 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%) --- 6 Mnth ( -13.0%) 1 Year ( -28.9%) 2 Year ( -4.0%) 3 Year ( -31.0%) 5 Year ( -39.6%) 10 Year ( 7.3%)
Iron Man holds onto some of the sales increase from the .NOW issue but 31k is pretty low for Iron Man, if you look at the historic data, the Iron Avenger historically does better but dipped this low in 2012 and in 2004. Hopefully, some of the upcoming storylines will give him a boost. I am starting to wonder if perhaps, the next round of relaunches will include the big three of Iron Man, Cap, and Thor, who all could use sales boosts currently.
68. 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%)
#1 – 7 variants
#2-3 – 1 variant
This book’s sales are really disappointing and continue to drop, but it is still solicited through July with issues 9-10, and by that point I predict the sales will be around 25k, maybe lower. I think this book is the perfect example of too many Avengers books.
70. All New ULTIMATES 04/11 Ult Av vs. New Ult #3 - 43,822 04/12 Ult comics Ultimates #9 - 31,336 - 04/13 Ultimates v5 #23 - 22,778 ( -2.8%) 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%) --- 1 Year ( 33.1%) 2 Year ( -3.0%) 3 Year ( -30.8%)
This is a very poor debut for the newest version of the Ultimates. People have been predicting the death of the Ultimate universe for a while now, but this most recent relaunch really makes me think it might be time to shelve this alternate universe.
71. X-FORCE 04/09 X-Force v3 #14 - 57,303 04/11 X-Force v4 #7 - 54,292 04/12 X-Force v4 #24 - 50,667 --- 04/13 --- 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%) --- 6 mnth ( -9.3%) 2 year ( -42.0%) 3 year ( -45.6%) 5 year ( -48.4%)
Pre-relaunch sales were at 27k, 4 issues into the relaunch sales are at 28k. Not good. In another month or two, it will drop below its pre-relaunch numbers, and probably continue sliding down. Perhaps if it stabilizes above 20k, it will survive cancellation, but for now I have this series on my deathwatch list and am awaiting news of its cancellation.
72. ALL NEW GHOST RIDER 04/09 Ghost Rider v6 #34 - 21,344 --- 03/14 All New Ghost Rider #1 - 50,072 ( --- ) 02/14 All New Ghost Rider #1 - 29,429 (-41.2%) --- 5 year (37.9%)
Big sales drop and no reported re-orders does not bode well for the newest Ghost rider. Of course Ghost Rider has always been one of the lower selling Marvel Knights characters, so if this can secure its audience and stabilize soon, it might be able to survive.
76. PUNISHER 04/04 Punisher v7 #5 – 34,236 04/09 Punisher v8 #4 – 36,992 04/12 Punisher v9 #10 - 32,412 --- 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%) --- 2 year ( -12.0%) 5 year ( -23.1%) 10 year ( -16.9%)
#1 – 4 variant
#2-3 – variant
The good news is that the sales drops are getting smaller, which may mean this book can stabilize out around 25k. Like I said above for Ghost Rider, 20k – 25k is not that bad historically for these kinds of books, so maybe it can survive.
79. CAPTAIN MARVEL 04/09 Ms. Marvel #38 - 27,533 --- 04/13 Captain Marvel v6 #12 - 18,344 ( +3.4%) 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%) --- 1 year ( 52.7%) 5 year ( 1.7%)
Not as bad a drop as it could have been, but still this book is not performing quite like I expected. I had hoped that the relaunch would allow new readers to jump into this series and that maybe new Ms. Marvel readers would be trying this book out as well. That doesn’t seem to be happening. However, I really believe that this series has a strong digital sales presence that we don’t see reported here, but at least with the numbers we get to see, this book doesn’t seem to be holding its own right now.
82. 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%)
Loki is stabilizing out nicely with issue 3. Looks like this series could live comfortably around 25k.
83. She-Hulk 04/04 She-Hulk v1 #2 - 30,781 04/09 Sav She-Hulk #1 - 23,218 --- 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%) --- 5 Year ( 18.0%) 10 Year (-11.0%)
She-Hulk #1 had some nice re-orders and issue 3 actually sees a sales increase. That is pretty good news for the Jennifer Walters, Esq. Looks like this book is finding its audience and hopefuly stabilizing out.
84. 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%)
Sales drops are slowing and stabilizing out. Looks like these new Avengers solo books will probably live around 25k to 27k, which is pretty good.
87. ALL-NEW X-FACTOR 04/09 X-Factor #40 - 31,997 04/11 X-Factor #218 - 24,826 04/12 X-Factor #234 - 23,821 --- 04/13 X-Factor #254 - 20,579 ( -1.2%) 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%) --- 1 Year ( 26.5%) 2 Year ( 9.0%) 3 Year ( 4.8%) 5 Year ( -18.7%)
The sales drops slow down a little bit this month again, which could mean this book is going stabilize out and find its level around 25k, which would put it 5k above its low point before the relaunch.
93. SECRET AVENGERS 04/11 Secret Avengers #12 - 50,641 04/12 Secret Avengers #24 - 19,394 --- 04/13 Secret Avengers v2 #3 - 38,676 ( -16.7%) 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%) --- 6 Mnth ( -15.1%) 1 Year ( -36.1%) 2 Year ( 27.0%) 3 Year ( -51.2%)
2 issues into the latest Secret Avengers relaunch and things aren’t looking good. The relaunch itself didn’t boost sales very much and now they’ve lost much of that boost already. The future of this series doesn’t seem very positive
95. MIGHTY AVENGERS 04/09 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%) --- 6 Mnth ( -56.4%) 5 Year ( -65.0%)
Mighty Avengers continues to lose steam and is headed towards the 20k mark, but maybe its upcoming Original Sin tie-in can help it stay afloat, if not then expect this to be canceled once it falls below 20k.
96, 111, 119, 121, 125. What If Age of Ultron 04/14 What If AoU #1 - 23,846 04/14 What If AoU #2 - 22,062 ( -7.5%) 04/14 What If AoU #3 – 20,913 ( -5.2%) 04/14 What If AoU #4 – 20,465 ( -2.1%) 04/14 What If AoU #5 – 19,687 ( -3.8%)
This didn’t sell very well, but I guess as a means to squeeze a little more money out of the Age of Ultron concept, it has done its job.
97, 113. AVENGERS UNDERCOVER 04/11 Avengers Academy #12 - 23,578 04/12 Avengers Academy #28 - 22,333 --- 04/13 Avengers Arena #7 - 29,784 ( -5.8%) 04/13 Avengers Arena #8 - 27,900 ( -6.3%) 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%) --- 6 mnth ( -1.6%) 1 year ( -26.7%) 2 year ( -2.0%) 3 year ( -7.4%)
Only 3 issues in and this book already very close to the lowest point Arena hit, I’d be surprised if this book survives past issue 12
100. Ultimate FF 04/04 Ultimte FF #5 - 102,564 --- 04/14 Ultimate FF v2 #1 - 23,316 ( --- ) --- 10 year ( -77.3%)
A very poor debut for the new Ultimate FF, even by the already low Ultimate standards, and I have to ask does the Ultimate universe serve a purpose anymore? Should it be cancelled?
101. 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%)
New Warriors continues to drop and doesn’t look like it’ll be surviving for very long.
102. 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%)
Another all-new book that continues to shed sales, but will an upcoming Original Sin tie-in save it? Unlikely, but possible, still I’m putting this on the deathwatch list.
104. Marvel’s GotG Prelude --- 04/14 GotG Prelude #1 - 22,705 ( --- )
A nice little movie prelude book to cash in on the upcoming summer blockbuster.
105. THUNDERBOLTS 04/09 Thunderbolts #131 - 49,151 04/11 Thunderbolts #156 - 25,117 04/12 Thunderbolts #172 - 19,203 --- 04/13 Thunderbolts v2 #8 - 36,979 ( -4.1%) 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%) --- 6 Mnth ( -24.7%) 1 Year ( -40.3%) 2 Year ( 15.0%) 3 Year ( -12.0%) 5 Year ( -55.1%)
At least Thunderbolts is somewhat stable, but I don’t expect it to survive for a whole lot longer if it continues to drop. Consider Thunderbolts officially added it to the deathwatch list.
106. All New Doop --- 04/14 All New Doop #1 - 22,614 ( --- )
Pretty disappointing issue 1 sales, and in this month’s previews this now listed as an (of 5) book, so its cancellation has already been announced.
107. SAVAGE WOLVERINE 04/13 Savage Wolverine #4 - 45,933 ( -8.7%) 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%) --- 6 Mnth ( -38.7%) 1 Year ( -51.3%)
Savage Wolverine continues to shed readers and I predict it will get cancelled around the time Death of Wolverine wraps up.
109. Winter Soldier Bitter March 04/12 Winter Soldier #4 - 33,519 --- 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%) --- 2 Year ( -34.0%)
This series will be ending with issue 5, and I’m interested to if it stays afloat above 20k before it ends.
112. NOVA 03/09 Nova v4 #24 - 26,328 --- 04/13 Nova v5 #3 - 40,548 (-13.2%) 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%) --- 6 Mnth ( -31.9%) 1 Year ( -45.7%) 5 Year ( -16.1%)
Nova continues to drop. Perhaps a soft relaunch is forthcoming or a cancellation, but as of right now it is solicited through issue 19, which is an Original Sin tie-in.
120. SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN TEAM-UP 04/12 Avenging #5 - 47,430 --- 04/13 Avenging #19 - 28,740 ( -9.2%) 05/13 Avenging #20 - 27,609 ( -3.9%) 05/13 Avenging #21 - 27,251 ( -1.3%) 06/13 Avenging #22 - 26,799 ( -1.7%) 07/13 Superior Team-Up #1 - 76,959 (+187.2%) 08/13 Superior Team-Up #2 - 41,155 ( -46.5%) 09/13 Superior Team-Up #3 - 37,363 ( -9.2%) 10/13 Superior Team-Up #4 - 36,296 ( -3.6%) 10/13 Superior Team-Up #5 - 30,424 ( -16.2%) 11/13 Superior Team-Up #6 - 27,189 ( -10.6%) 12/13 Sup. Team-up #7.NOW - 25,514 ( -6.2%) 12/13 Superior Team-Up #8 - 24,296 ( -4.8%) 01/14 Superior Team-Up #9 - 23,071 ( -5.0%) 02/14 Superior Team-Up #10- 22,124 ( -4.1%) 03/14 Superior Team-Up #11- 21,091 ( -4.7%) 04/14 Superior Team-Up #12- 20,525 ( -2.7%) --- 6 Mnth ( -43.5%) 1 Year ( -28.6%) 2 Year ( -57.0%)
There has been no solicitation for Team-up in May, June, or July so I am guessing this book has been cancelled. However, oddly, the Marvel website lists an issue 14 and 15 but no issue 13.
129. Iron Patriot 04/09 War Machine #5 - 34,251 04/11 Iron Man 2.0 #3 - 20,905 --- 03/14 Iron Patriot #1 - 31,773 ( --- ) 04/14 Iron Patriot #2 - 18,495 (-41.8%) --- 3 year ( -11.5%) 5 year ( -46.0%)
This book is already in cancellation territory 2 issues in. Currently, it has been solicited through issue 5, but I wonder if that will be its last issue?
132. SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN 07/13 Superior Foes #1 - 61,413 08/13 Superior Foes #2 - 34,300 (-44.1%) 09/13 Superior Foes #3 - 30,081 (-12.3%) 10/13 Superior Foes #4 - 26,884 (-10.6%) 11/13 Superior Foes #5 - 23,694 (-11.9%) 11/13 Superior Foes #6 - 21,367 ( -9.8%) 12/13 Superior Foes #7 - 20,858 ( -2.4%) 01/14 --- 02/14 Superior Foes #8 – 19,193 ( -8.0%) 03/14 Superior Foes #9 – 18,620 ( -3.0%) 03/14 Superior Foes #10- 18,437 ( -1.0%) 04/14 Superior Foes #11- 18,143 ( -1.6%) --- 6 Mnth ( -32.5%)
Superior Foes is solicited through July with issue 13, so maybe the little series that could will be continuing. Like I’ve said before its sales are low but very stable.
143. GEORGE ROMERO EMPIRE OF THE DEAD: ACT ONE 01/14 Act One #1 of 5 - 24,515 02/14 Act One #2 of 5 – 17,624 ( -28.1%) 03/14 Act One #3 of 5 – 15,720 ( -10.8%) 04/14 Act One #4 of 5 – 14,855 ( -5.5%)
#1-2 – 2 variants
#3-4 – variant
This mini-series is wrapping up soon, but with these sales numbers, I wonder if we’ll ever see an act two?
148, 149. AVENGERS A.I. 07/13 Avengers A.I. #1 - 68,130 08/13 Avengers A.I. #2 - 37,079 (-45.6%) 09/13 Avengers A.I. #3 - 29,776 (-19.7%) 10/13 Avengers A.I. #4 - 25,770 (-13.5%) 10/13 Avengers A.I. #5 - 23,146 (-10.2%) 11/13 Avengers A.I. #6 - 20,037 (-13.4%) 12/13 Avengers A.I. #7 - 19,879 ( -0.8%) 01/14 A.I. #8.NOW - 20,084 ( 1.0%) 02/14 Avengers A.I. #9 – 16,906 (-15.8%) 03/14 Avengers A.I. #10- 15,616 ( -7.6%) 04/14 Avengers A.I. #11- 14,026 (-10.2%) 04/14 Avengers A.I. #12- 13,990 ( -0.3%) --- 6 Mnth ( -45.7%)
Final issue. I wonder if this book could have survived in a less crowded marketplace where it wasn’t the 7th Avengers series.
181. 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%) --- 6 Mnth (-33.8%)
Not looking good for this Dexter miniseries. I wonder if the show being over now has killed interest in this series.
202. POWERS: THE BUREAU [Icon] 04/13 --- 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%)
For an “indie” book, these aren’t bad sales, although I am sure the frequent delays aren’t helping sales at all.
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%)
It does not look like this experiment to create a series based off a Disney theme park attraction is selling very well. I wonder if this will deter them from future Disney/Marvel collaborations.
319. Captain America Winter Soldier Director’s Cut 04/14 CA:WS Director’s Cut #1 – 4,725
This is a reprint/director’s cut of the first issue of Brubaker’s Captain America run and it sells a few copies mostly to hardcore Captain America collectors I bet.
323. MARVEL UNIVERSE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN 04/13 MUU Spider-Man #13 - 5,004 ( +0.5%) 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%) --- 1 Year ( -9.5%)
The Spider-man kids book continues to sell consistently. I often wonder if Marvel should make a big push to do a kids line with top name creators, but these sales numbers are probably why they don’t.
286. MARVEL UNIVERSE AVENGERS ASSEMBLE 04/13 MU Avengers #13 - 4,911 ( -1.0%) 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%) --- 6 Mnth (-70.0%) 1 Year (-10.9%)
Similar sales to the Spider-Man kids book.
—
6-Month Comparisons --- 536.5% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 114.5% AMAZING X-MEN #6 79.6% HULK #1 61.9% SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #31 38.6% DAREDEVIL #1.50 31.7% DEADPOOL #27 31.5% ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #200 22.5% DAREDEVIL #2 10.7% FANTASTIC FOUR #3 8.9% WOLVERINE #4 8.4% WOLVERINE #5 7.1% AVENGERS UNDERCOVER #2 -0.9% HULK #2 -1.6% AVENGERS UNDERCOVER #3 -8.9% KICK-ASS 3 #7 (MR) -9.3% X-FORCE #3 -11.0% CAPTAIN AMERICA #19 -13.0% IRON MAN #24 -13.6% UNCANNY AVENGERS #19 -13.8% X-FORCE #4 -15.1% SECRET AVENGERS #2 -17.3% THOR GOD OF THUNDER #21 -21.4% GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #14 -22.9% THUNDERBOLTS #24 -23.0% ALL NEW X-MEN #25 -24.7% THUNDERBOLTS #25 -26.4% UNCANNY X-MEN #20 -26.4% AVENGERS #28 -27.4% NEW AVENGERS #17 -28.9% ALL NEW X-MEN #26 -31.9% NOVA #16 -32.5% SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN #11 -33.8% DEXTER DOWN UNDER #3 -36.6% WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #3 -38.7% SAVAGE WOLVERINE #17 -41.6% X-MEN #13 -43.5% SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN TEAM UP #12 -45.6% AVENGERS AI #11 -45.7% AVENGERS AI #12 -56.4% MIGHTY AVENGERS #9 -70.0% Marvel U Avengers Assemble #7
—
1 Year Comparisons --- 505.6% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 66.5% AMAZING X-MEN #6 54.1% SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #31 52.7% CAPTAIN MARVEL #2 33.1% ALL NEW ULTIMATES #1 32.6% HULK #1 26.5% ALL NEW X-FACTOR #6 22.1% DAREDEVIL #1.50 19.2% ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #200 8.8% DEADPOOL #27 7.9% DAREDEVIL #2 -9.5% Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man #25 -10.9% Marvel Universe Avengers Assemble #7 -14.8% WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #3 -15.4% FANTASTIC FOUR #3 -20.3% AVENGERS UNDERCOVER #2 -24.7% ALL NEW X-MEN #25 -26.1% THOR GOD OF THUNDER #21 -26.7% AVENGERS UNDERCOVER #3 -26.8% HULK #2 -27.7% NEW AVENGERS #17 -28.0% CAPTAIN AMERICA #19 -28.6% SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN TEAM UP #12 -28.9% IRON MAN #24 -30.5% ALL NEW X-MEN #26 -30.8% UNCANNY X-MEN #20 -32.1% AVENGERS #28 -34.0% WOLVERINE #4 -34.3% WOLVERINE #5 -35.2% UNCANNY AVENGERS #19 -36.1% SECRET AVENGERS #2 -38.8% GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #14 -38.8% THUNDERBOLTS #24 -40.3% THUNDERBOLTS #25 -45.7% NOVA #16 -51.3% SAVAGE WOLVERINE #17
—
2 Year Comparisons --- 800.4% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 129.0% SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #31 111.5% DEADPOOL #27 93.0% MOON KNIGHT #2 74.6% HULK #1 73.6% SILVER SURFER #2 44.1% AMAZING X-MEN #6 27.5% SECRET AVENGERS #2 17.8% THUNDERBOLTS #24 15.0% THUNDERBOLTS #25 14.2% X-MEN #13 9.3% ALL NEW X-FACTOR #6 9.2% THOR GOD OF THUNDER #21 6.3% AVENGERS UNDERCOVER #2 5.1% DAREDEVIL #1.50 -0.3% WOLVERINE #4 -0.7% WOLVERINE #5 -2.3% AVENGERS UNDERCOVER #3 -2.7% UNCANNY X-MEN #20 -3.3% ALL NEW ULTIMATES #1 -3.6% IRON MAN #24 -3.7% HULK #2 -4.8% ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #200 -7.2% DAREDEVIL #2 -12.3% PUNISHER #4 -17.0% CAPTAIN AMERICA #19 -17.6% FANTASTIC FOUR #3 -19.6% AVENGERS #28 -28.9% NEW AVENGERS #17 -32.3% WOLVERINE AND X-MEN #3 -33.8% WINTER SOLDIER BITTER MARCH #3 -41.7% X-FORCE #3 -44.6% X-FORCE #4 -56.7% SUPERIOR SPIDER TEAM UP #12
—
3 Year Comparisons --- 763.4% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 138.9% HULK #1 119.6% SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #31 117.5% DEADPOOL #27 73.6% SILVER SURFER #2 31.8% HULK #2 4.8% ALL NEW X-FACTOR #6 0.7% AVENGERS UNDERCOVER #2 -2.5% UNCANNY X-MEN #20 -7.4% AVENGERS UNDERCOVER #3 -9.9% THUNDERBOLTS #24 -11.5% IRON PATRIOT #2 -12.0% THUNDERBOLTS #25 -16.8% AVENGERS #28 -17.8% X-MEN #13 -18.2% ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #200 -19.7% WOLVERINE #4 -20.1% WOLVERINE #5 -24.2% CAPTAIN AMERICA #19 -25.7% NEW AVENGERS #17 -30.8% ALL NEW ULTIMATES #1 -31.0% IRON MAN #24 -45.6% X-FORCE #3 -48.3% X-FORCE #4 -51.2% SECRET AVENGERS #2 -53.6% THOR GOD OF THUNDER #21
—
5 Year Comparisons --- 702.0% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 140.3% IRON FIST LIVING WEAPON #1 104.0% SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #31 99.1% GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #14 80.2% MOON KNIGHT #2 59.5% ELEKTRA #1 37.9% ALL NEW GHOST RIDER #2 28.0% DEADPOOL #27 18.0% SHE-HULK #3 7.7% DAREDEVIL #1.50 1.7% CAPTAIN MARVEL #2 -4.8% DAREDEVIL #2 -11.1% HULK #1 -16.1% NOVA #16 -18.7% ALL NEW X-FACTOR #6 -23.1% PUNISHER #4 -27.6% UNCANNY X-MEN #20 -33.5% AMAZING X-MEN #6 -39.6% IRON MAN #24 -46.0% IRON PATRIOT #2 -46.1% CAPTAIN AMERICA #19 -48.4% X-FORCE #3 -50.9% HULK #2 -51.0% X-FORCE #4 -51.2% NEW AVENGERS #17 -52.2% THOR GOD OF THUNDER #21 -54.0% THUNDERBOLTS #24 -55.1% THUNDERBOLTS #25 -65.0% MIGHTY AVENGERS #9
—
10 Year Comparisons --- 540.5% AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1 134.7% ELEKTRA #1 88.6% IRON FIST LIVING WEAPON #1 62.9% SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #31 57.0% HULK #1 53.2% SILVER SURFER #2 23.5% THOR GOD OF THUNDER #21 7.3% IRON MAN #24 -4.0% AVENGERS #28 -10.8% CAPTAIN AMERICA #19 -10.9% DAREDEVIL #1.50 -11.0% SHE-HULK #3 -13.3% HULK #2 -16.9% PUNISHER #4 -21.3% DAREDEVIL #2 -34.0% FANTASTIC FOUR #3 -36.4% UNCANNY X-MEN #20 -46.9% WOLVERINE #4 -47.1% WOLVERINE #5 -54.6% ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #200 -77.3% ULTIMATE FF #1
—
Excellent analysis! Really like all of the comparisons, and the new predictions and deathwatch notes are great.
Doop was always a mini-series.
Also, someone really needs to proof these before they go up.
OOPS — needless to say a picture of Sex Criminals is not what was supposed to go with this. Fixed.
Looks dire.
Genuinely startled by how low most of these figures are. (But interesting to see that the first Origin scored a big increase over its run.)
So, so, so, so…
From #202 onward all the text is getting cut off.
Enjoy the analysis.
One quest, were there 2 Moon Knight v5 #1s in February?
44. MOON KNIGHT
04/09 Moon Knight v3 #29 – 22,687
04/12 Moon Knight v4 #12 – 21,185
—
02/14 Moon Knight v5 #1 – 58,022 ( — ) [7,266]
02/14 Moon Knight v5 #1 – 40,885 ( -29.5%)
A thought occured to me regarding the 7 X-titles…
Since there were only 100 mutants after House of M, how many of them were in the monthly x-books at the time? Were they any characters missing? Was there ever a listing made of those 100?
I read Nightcrawler #1, and I like how it appears to be a solo book.
And it’s written by Chris Claremont!
Torsten, there were about 300 mutants still around (despite them being called “The 198”) so I’m sure there were spares. :-)
I’m a big X-fan, but even I think there could be fewer books. X-Men/Amazing X-Men/Wolverine and the X-Men all seem to overlap terribly. A smaller number of core books could stand out and make an impression. I generally prefer team books over solo books, but all the new solos do set themselves apart from the core nicely.
Just, if an X-relaunch is coming, I hope Uncanny X-Men remains untouched. It’s excellent as it is.
Somebody really needs to edit these things for punctuation, capitalization, and basic writing.
It also seems a little puzzling that the AVERAGE book sells 32K, but 25K (not THAT much lower) is stated as a “deathwatch” line, and then several books selling around 25K are stated to be doing well or living comfortably at that level.
I find it interesting that, while most people agree that the constant cycle of relaunches is leading to lower sales, the analysis keeps recommending that maybe it’s time for a new relaunch for X-titles, and books like Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. I guess that kind of thinking has become pervasive in the current comics environment. I’d like to see a shrinking of over-extended lines, and am always cool with new creators trying out new visions, but wonder if it’s time to rest the relaunches. Or, if a relaunch is necessary, declaring a 4 month (or longer) moratorium on the title so that when it comes back, it’s a bit of an event in and of itself.
Bleeding Cool have suggested that Marvel may be about to do a line-wide reboot, DC style – without much evidence, but these sales figures make it at least thinkable.
@Jerry Ray, well size of the drop matters. Something like X-Factor dropping 1% each month gives it a lot of breathing room in 20-25k range, but for example Invaders dropping by 15-16% two issues in a row doesn’t give much hope despite them both selling in same 20-25k range.
Its not that book is selling 25k thats alarming, its that it dropped fast to that level and doesn’t show any signs of stabilizing.
The tanking of Hickman’s Avengers makes me sad, not because I think the books are any good – they’re awful.
I’m just sad that they’re awful, because his approach was 180 degrees from Bendis. Bendis had characters sit around and do nothing. Hickman shuffles the deck frequently and infuses purpose to the stories, but they are hollow. There’s no characterization and nobody cares about the New Universe.
Heh, two hours ago I did not even know what the New Universe was!
I don’t think the issue with Inhumans was that people seriously thought they would replace the X-Men (except maybe in the MCU if the new direction took off), but that no one involved could give the audience any concrete reason why they should be reading this instead of/along with X-Men. Seriously, the question came up time and again and, so far as I saw, it was either sidestepped, ignored, or given some vague non-answer. So I saw no reason at all to give it a shot.
Really great analysis. Top-notch. I would say that Amazing Spider-Man #1 is getting a second-print, so it might hold onto sales a little more than we think.
As for some of these launches, it appears a lot of them are being geared towards different crowds of readers, and some of them are trade readers. I’ll be interested to see the numbers in the coming months when Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, She-Hulk, etc come out via TPB. Can they actually follow Image with some of these titles???? They are definitely books where the creators were allowed to go wild.
I’m also wondering if providing Inhuman #1 free with ASM #1 will help the numbers for that title.
Also want to add that titles like Romero’s and the Disney stuff will be collected and sold as evergreen trades, something for the former to bring out around movies and the latter in Disney stores to reach a different reader.
I’m not sure the suggestion of streamlining the Avengers and X-Men brands makes sense. To take the Avengers books – the combined sales of the 7 books are currently in the region of 250,000 and the chances are that a lot of these sales are coming from people buying multiple titles, rather than separate buyers for each title. So, if Marvel were to reduce the number of Avengers branded books to three, they’d probably be looking at units sold across the line dropping by something like at least 100,000. Surely the better bet is to keep the number of books high and drive sales spikes every quarter with a relaunch or two?
I think the Avengers/X-Men low-selling-titles deal is best resolved through double-shipping or weekly shipping. That person who currently buys 4 X-men books a month still buys 4 X-men books a month, but the production is more centralized.
Absolutely, fewer titles but shipped more frequently is the way to go. The success DC is having with the weekly Batman book points the way forward.
@ Mark – Depends on how much the creative teams are being paid.
@Zach indeed, but i can’t imaging saving the cost of creative teams on the lower selling titles would offset the loss of 100,000 unit sales.
In fact, if the lower selling Avengers/X Men titles were an issue Marvel would probably be better off adding .25c to the price and driving down the page rate of the creatives to make a bigger margin, rather than cancelling!
@Zach – I imagine the creative team on the hypothetical weekly would have the same mix of page rates as the same writers doing individual series. You’d still need multiple writers – I didn’t mean to imply you could reduce production THAT much. But you’d probably still get some efficiencies.
“So Ms. Marvel is a huge success for Marvel, not only was the issue 2 sales drop very small, but the issue 3 sales drop was only around 1000 copies,”
How is the title selling in the 38,000 range a ‘huge success?’ A ‘huge success’ would be more in the 75,000+ range, not at ‘My Little Pony’ levels.
“Not as bad a drop as it could have been, but still this book is not performing quite like I expected. I had hoped that the relaunch would allow new readers to jump into this series and that maybe new Ms. Marvel readers would be trying this book out as well. That doesn’t seem to be happening. However, I really believe that this series has a strong digital sales presence that we don’t see reported here”
Looking through Google and Lexus Nexus, I do not see any articles or evidence showing that ‘Captain Marvel’ is doing big numbers in digital sales. The Kamala Khan-Ms. Marvel is, but not Captain Marvel.
Why would you make that assumption? There is no empirical evidence to suggest that Captain Marvel is doing better in digital sales than in brick and mortar sales.
I’m not a fan of Jason’s “accentuate the positive” writing style and wish the uber-cynical and sarcastic Marc Oliver would come back.
I think the problem with Avengers right now is that there’s a zillion characters and zillion things going on, which detracts from the more interesting ideas and plots. Kind of a similar problem to the manga Berserk, which set up an interesting overall storyline but has spent the past 20 years meandering instead of resolving it.
Also doesn’t help that right now they’re fighting AIM in two separate storylines in Avengers and Avengers World and it’s getting confusing keeping things straight between the titles.
New Avengers just needs to pick up again. The idea that the Illuminati might have to blow up a parallel Earth to save the Marvel Earth and the moral questions behind it is and remains the most interesting idea I’ve seen in mainstream super-hero books in years.
It just sucks that this has been swept aside for months now to focus on the deaths of cannon fodder ersatzs from parallel Earths that have little (or bizarre) characterization and no real importance.
@Nega-Duck – I believe some people see lots of cosplayers portraying a character and surmise that that must be translating into high sales, but I don’t think that’s the case.
What does everyone think of the rumor that Ellis and co. are leaving Moon Knight after #6? (Based on Marvel’s latest solicitations and lack of response to the rumors.)
Captain Marvel’s relaunch is awesome! The art – gorgeous! The writing is witty and great! Everyone give it a try!
Anyone else think Avengers is also being hurt by those horrible logos? None of them say Avengers anymore in any size you can notice from a distance. It’s all those odd shapes and stupid big A’s. Just dumb if you ask me.
Page layout here wise: Everything is also getting “cut off” by the black background starting at #319 for me. I noticed this yesterday on the DC list as well. Maybe it’s just a Firefox thing? I used to use IE all the time. (Don’t hate me. ;)
“So, so, so…”
HA! I hate that shit too, Brian! ‘Valley girl’ has become a common inflection, and we’re just gonna have to get used to it.
I’m gonna make a special trip to your store and spend some money.
Bleeding Cool have suggested that Marvel may be about to do a line-wide reboot, DC style – without much evidence, but these sales figures make it at least thinkable.
——————————————————————————————————
A line-wide Marvel reboot would be an interesting idea–would like to see it. At least Marvel has DC’s relaunch blueprint to look at what worked and didn’t work.
Sine it doesn’t look like they are going to fix it, here are the cut off comments at the end.
For Powers: The Bureau at 202:
“For an “indie” book, these aren’t bad sales, although I am sure the frequent delays aren’t helping sales at all.”
For Disney Kingdoms: Seekers Of The Weird at 248:
“It does not look like this experiment to create a series based off a Disney theme park attraction is selling very well. I wonder if this will deter them from future Disney/Marvel collaborations.”
For Captain America Winter Soldier Director’s Cut at 319:
“This is a reprint/director’s cut of the first issue of Brubaker’s Captain America run and it sells a few copies mostly to hardcore Captain America collectors I bet.”
And finally for Ultimate Spider-Man at 323:
“The Spider-man kids book continues to sell consistently. I often wonder if Marvel should make a big push to do a kids line with top name creators, but these sales numbers are probably why they don’t.”
~Randy
The favoritism for Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel is pretty silly at this point. I’m not making any comment on the quality of those titles — I think they’re obviously above average — but to just look at the raw data, there’s absolutely no reason to consider Ms. Marvel a “huge success”, nor was there reason to suspect that Captain Marvel (which sold HORRIBLY in its previous volume) would suddenly start selling gangbusters.
Ms. Marvel’s sales trajectory is worse than than Avengers World, and yet it’s the latter title that gets all the grief? Ms. Marvel had a TON more promo and doesn’t have to compete with six other titles with the same title (“Avengers”), and yet its third-issue sales are being praised here… even though the third issue of Avengers World sold more. And that series is a punching bag or whatever.
I don’t even know what to say about the myth of Kelly Sue DeConnick’s digital sales numbers. There’s no indication of this whatsoever. It just seems that fans of her comics like to claim this to make themselves feel better. Sorry, but that’s what it seems like. I enjoyed “Pretty Deadly” but I’m not under any illusion about its sales and don’t have to imagine invisible armies of digital readers in order to justify my liking of that title.
I dunno, man… You start out by asking whether or not Amazing Spider-Man #1 sold out or if copies are still sitting on the shelf. Do you really even need to ask this question? It sold over 500,000. How would reorders even matter, percentage-wise? And–scratch that–do you really believe that there could be more than half a million individual readers? You said that the number was artificially inflated “a bit”. Yeah. “A BIT”.
“I’m not a fan of Jason’s “accentuate the positive” writing style and wish the uber-cynical and sarcastic Marc Oliver would come back.”
Did we read the same column? Jason is playing the, “oooh, this will probably get cancelled soon” game, which I find irritating. Someone who has a “deathwatch” for low-selling titles is not accentuating the positive.
If Marvel pulls the same “universe reboot” that DC did, I’ll desert them just like I did DC. I like the rich history involved in comics and it aggravates me no end that DC has flushed it down the toilet not once, but twice now.
Ms Marvel has already found its level 4-5 issues quicker than most new titles. Saying people aren’t factoring in the numbers is plain wrong. The #s are there.
EASY PARDNERS, one little missing tag can be hard to spot!
I think Jason point of view about Ms. Marvel is more easily understood when all factors are taken into consideration: the first two issues already had multiple reprints, the second issue drop is 1/2 the average of any Marvel second issue (and had reprints) and the drop for the third number is 1/4 of the average drop for a third issue. Usually when this happens there always a 5-10% bump for issue four or five so the book will probably end stabilizing around 40k. If you look at the actual numbers of today market is more than most famous characters sell (cap, iron man, thor, wolverine to name a few) and for a totally new character is a very good result. No books from Marvel except for Superio Spider-Man and All-New X-Men used to sell around 70k in the latest years so expecting Ms. Marvel to make this sort of numbers is quite irrealistic.
@ Dan Ahn
Ms. Marvel’s sales trajectory is way better than Avengers World, the latter dropped 38% for issue two, 20% for issue three and 15% for issue four (and is still dropping) while the former just 20% for issue two and 3% for issue three and will probably grow a bit before stabilizing. Obviously the numbers are different but AW is an Avenger book tied to the flagship (same writer, same plotlines) while Ms. Marvel is a new character with no ties with the big franchises (and it probably cheaper to produce).
@ column writer
Rocket Raccoon is an ongoing.
Iron Patriot was also always a mini.
I wonder if (when?) Nightcrawler’s numbers drop if Marvel will let it continue. I’m showing my age but it’s my favorite Marvel book right now.
“Iron Patriot was also always a mini.”
Umm, no.
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/26970.html
“Marvel Comics announced that writer Ales Kot and artist Gerry Brown are collaborating on a new ongoing Iron Patriot Marvel NOW series, which will debut in March.”
“Doop was always a mini-series.”
http://thefanboyseo.com/2014/01/doop-and-iron-fist-gets-their-own-ongoing-for-all-new-marvel-now.html
I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just pointing out what a piss-poor job Marvel did communicating that fact.
http://skottieyoung.com/post/83108633967/how-about-a-little-rocket-raccoon-sneak-peek
“How about a little Rocket Raccoon sneak peek? Ongoing series written and drawn by me, colored by my main man Jean Francois Beaulieu.”
Ongoing. For now.
Where’s the Miracleman numbers?
“Did we read the same column? Jason is playing the, “oooh, this will probably get cancelled soon” game, which I find irritating. Someone who has a “deathwatch” for low-selling titles is not accentuating the positive.”
Plus, Marc-Olivier’s “bad” attitude was reserved for DC. Paul O’Brien handled the Marvel report, and with a generally even hand.
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