January 2013 sales estimates

**USERNAME TAKEN** · 02-12-2013, 11:33 PM

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomi...3/2013-01.html

Note: Before any firm conclusion is drawn, it must be noted that these are just sales estimates and not actual figures. Actual sales figures aren't released to the public.

Superior Spider-man is only the second Marvel NOW title to maintain it's second issues sales above 100k copies. It must be noted that most Marvel NOW titles have second issues orders cut by exactly half from the first issues. Unlike the new 52, Marvel didn't extend much incentive for their re-launch beyond the variant covers for the first issues which clearly inflated sales. DC (wisely I might add) had variant cover ratios for all their top titles (1:50, 1:100, 1:200) for the first 12-14 months of the new 52 and made virtually all their titles returnable if orders were made up to a certain level. This IMO actually made it easier for retailers to find their sales levels as well as give titles that might not otherwise be successful like Swamp Thing and Animal Man excellent chances to survive.

Marvel don't have any breakout hits like Batman or Justice League but they do have a good number of solid sellers just below the 100k range (that being said, I'm not sure Dark Avengers, Captain Marvel and Gambit have too much gas left in them). DCs presence in the top 20 is greatly boosted by Death of Family (which rocketed up the sales of Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Red Hood and the Outlaws and Teen Titans).

Uncanny Avengers is now in the 90k range, the book will probably settle in the 80-90k range. Avengers is also settling in the 80-90k range which is significantly higher than the previous volume which was selling around 50-60k monthly.

All New X-men sales actually went up from #5-#6. This title actually bucks the trend of standard attrition (probably because of the good word of mouth surrounding the book). It seems the title will settle in the 70-80k range which is substantially higher than the previous Uncanny X-men volume that was doing around 50-60k copies.

Captain America and Indestructible Hulk seem to be settling in the 50-60k range which is substantially higher than what they were doing previously (they were both in the 30k range before). Deadpool, Iron Man and Thor seem to be settling in the 40k-50k range which is still much higher than the low 30k sales they were all doing before (Deadpool especially seems to have found a new audience as the book was only doing around 20k before the re-launch). The only Marvel NOW book that has completely lost its audience is X-men Legacy which has slumped right back down into the 30k range. I suspect that book (which is excellent IMO) is too weird for the general public.

All in all, the re-launch has been a success but only time will tell how much of these sales these titles will retain. On the digital side, All New X-men, Avengers, Uncanny Avengers, New Avengers and Superior Spider-man have generally dominated the comixology popularity charts (apart from Batman and Justice League though) but since we don't have sales figures, we can't really say how much has been lost or gained over there.

Anyways, there's still some big launches to come with Wolverine, Uncanny X-men (which launches today), Guardians of the Galaxy (which is actually getting launch parties

), Nova and X-men still to come. Not to mention the Age of Ultron which begins next month and Infinity later in the year. The next few months will be interesting.

**Dog** · 02-13-2013, 05:24 AM

It might be too early, after just a few months in, to think that any of these titles have "found their level" yet. Barring event tie-ins, books like Iron Man and Thor seemed to suffer minor attrition for ages, slowly bringing them down. In the past, only a few things like X-Men and Spider-Man seem to really "level out" and not continue a downward creep.

I hope things will be different now (or NOW!), but I don't think the data is there to support it quite yet.

**BrotherUnitNo_4** · 02-13-2013, 07:14 AM

At least second/third issue drops decreased percentage wise. One more month should give a better idea of how close books are to leveling off. Captain America and Hulk are showing strong gains though, and they're both on their third month.

**USERNAME TAKEN** · 02-13-2013, 07:25 AM

Originally Posted by Dog

It might be too early, after just a few months in, to think that any of these titles have "found their level" yet. Barring event tie-ins, books like Iron Man and Thor seemed to suffer minor attrition for ages, slowly bringing them down. In the past, only a few things like X-Men and Spider-Man seem to really "level out" and not continue a downward creep.

I hope things will be different now (or NOW!), but I don't think the data is there to support it quite yet.

True.

It will take a few months to actually gauge if the titles have found their level. However, some titles have experienced strong re-orders (Avengers 2 got about 5k in re-orders), that suggests that initial orders for the book might have been a bit off.

That being said, the bleed off for some of the titles from issues 3-4 has slowed down, hence my "guestimates".

**USERNAME TAKEN** · 02-13-2013, 07:26 AM

Originally Posted by BrotherUnitNo_4

At least second/third issue drops decreased percentage wise. One more month should give a better idea of how close books are to leveling off. Captain America and Hulk are showing strong gains though, and they're both on their third month.

Exactly.

All New X-men actually increased in sales.

Considering how rapidly Marvel shipped out the books (which didn't actually give retailers a chance to adjust their orders), it's possible that we could see that in other books (I doubt it but it's certainly possible).

**PupsOfWar** · 02-13-2013, 09:12 AM

man I have no idea why Justice League seems so much more immune to normal attrition than every other mainline team title on the market

**BrotherUnitNo_4** · 02-13-2013, 09:45 AM

Originally Posted by PupsOfWar

man I have no idea why Justice League seems so much more immune to normal attrition than every other mainline team title on the market

The Johns RDF?

**Paladin King** · 02-13-2013, 10:49 AM

It appears that Captain Marvel may have stabilized, staying in the 19K range. Unfortunate that it couldn't have plateaued above 20K.

Definitely true about the sales bump for All-New X-Men between issues, which is interesting.

It's probably just the charity issue aspect, but it's nice to see Hawkeye get a big bump in sales.

**BrotherUnitNo_4** · 02-13-2013, 03:30 PM

Originally Posted by Paladin King

It appears that Captain Marvel may have stabilized, staying in the 19K range. Unfortunate that it couldn't have plateaued above 20K.

Marvel really took a huge risk going with Soy on this book, and I fear it's one that just didn't pay off in the long run. Had it been someone like McGuinness, readers would at least have been willing to overlook the writing deficiencies, whatever they may be, for the art. Loeb got a pretty healthy run out of his Red Hulk story, and people were complaining about that from the first arc.