Sales Estimates for February, 2013 - "Justice League of America" Debuts Huge

[CBR News]

DC Comics' "Justice League of America" #1 broke the 300K mark and Marvel's "Uncanny X-Men" relaunch performed strongly as well, "Vibe" didn't shake up the charts and Alan Moore topped the TPB list.


Full article here.

[0bsessions]

I guess people wishing for a swift demise to Superior Spider-Man may be asking a bit much. Hell, even ASM #700 is still moving units. Mighty impressive.

[Flinkman]

lol well at least Marvel didn't have to sink to having OVER FIFTY VARIANT COVERS to have a strong debut for their newest #1...and I thought 20 for Uncanny Avengers was outrageous!

[Rollo Tomassi]

Gambit, Captain Marvel, Red She Hulk, and JiM are not long for this world.

And how did Batwing survive the most recent culling? It's sales are worse than all the books that got cut. LoSH isn't looking too healthy either.

[RobCons]

I've really gotten into the new Judge Dredd series from IDW but it's not looking good. I wonder what their sales estimates were for it.

[the4thpip]

Anybody surprised that Vibe and Katana did not set the charts on fire?
Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

[smokeysabear]

lol well at least Marvel didn't have to sink to having OVER FIFTY VARIANT COVERS to have a strong debut for their newest #1...and I thought 20 for Uncanny Avengers was outrageous!

Yea, but do you really think a lot of people were buying multiple state variants? I'm sure a number of people bought their state's variant and the regular cover, but how many bought multiple state variants? Just seemed to me like DC was offering a lot of variety to pick and choose from in their variants, unlike a Walking Dead 100 or Avengers where there are numerous, but very different covers.

[Hawkingbird13]

Happy to see that Secret Avengers #1 made the top 10, saddened by the low sales figures of Red She-Hulk and Captain Marvel. Those books are so good, but the sales figures just don't reflect that.

[bishop88]

no way gambit makes it past 16 or issue 18 tops captain marvel gets a reprive for teh avengers assemble crossover after that its gone journey into mystery is on life support and no way morbius makes it to issue 10, also ive heard a few whisper that valiant is in a lot of trouble

[0bsessions]

Yea, but do you really think a lot of people were buying multiple state variants? I'm sure a number of people bought their state's variant and the regular cover, but how many bought multiple state variants? Just seemed to me like DC was offering a lot of variety to pick and choose from in their variants, unlike a Walking Dead 100 or Avengers where there are numerous, but very different covers.

Probably, it's the only reasonable way of accounting for such a massive disparity between JLA and everything else. With or without Johns, a team book buoyed primarily by Martian Manhunter isn't going to sell 300K copies without some gimmicks.

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

Gambit, Captain Marvel, Red She Hulk, and JiM are not long for this world.

And how did Batwing survive the most recent culling? It's sales are worse than all the books that got cut. LoSH isn't looking too healthy either.

I think JiM can make at least a year with its current rate of erosion, which has been very slight over the first four issues compared to other books like Red She-Hulk. Heck Age of Apocalypse and X-Treme X-Men made roughly a year, and JIM is looking much more stable than either of those two ever did.

Other points of interest:
-Deadpool looks to be leveling off in the high 50s, having seen strong reorders since its launch and now seeing an increase. The same goes for Thor to the low 50s. If either can maintain their momentum, I'd say they could be considered strong successes for Marvel. Hulk looks like it may find it's level

[shadowmon]

Guess vibe shoould a got 52 variants too

[Ari Gold]

Anybody surprised that Vibe and Katana did not set the charts on fire?
Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

If Geoff Johns or Grant Morrison were writing either, would they have sold significantly better?

[BrotherUnitNo_4]

If Geoff Johns or Grant Morrison were writing either, would they have sold significantly better?

With the right artist? Absolutely, but neither of those books got Johns or Morrison. As such, the writing was pretty much on the wall.

[Paladin King]

Yeesh, those are really, really bad numbers for Vibe and Katana's first issues. I'm not really sure how DC thought those books would succeed, honestly.

As for the JLA numbers, the ridiculous 52 variants make it kind of a write-off. The real test will be what the numbers are like for March.

If Geoff Johns or Grant Morrison were writing either, would they have sold significantly better?

Yes, I'd say so. I'm not sure they'd debut in the top ten or be able to stay in the top 20, but they wouldn't debut near the bottom of the barrel like these books did. After all, Geoff Johns did manage to make Aquaman a top 5 book, iirc, for its first couple of months and even now, issue 17 is at #22 on the sales charts. Granted, there's a pretty giant chasm between Aquaman and Vibe or Katana, so while I wouldn't say a Johns Vibe or Katana would be in the top ten like Aquaman, I'm fairly certain that Johns could at least get the first issue of either of those books in the top 30, maybe even the top 20. But certainly top 30. Same for Morrison.

I mean, look, the final issue of Morrison's creator-owned miniseries for Image, Happy, pulled in at #83, only 3 spots lower than the first issue of Katana. Despite being extremely late. Despite being so late that it was a Christmas comic...released in February. Despite being generally panned by critics. Despite being a miniseries, not a first issue, and a creator-owned Image book. Given this, I imagine a Morrison-penned first issue of a DC property would pull in significantly better numbers than Happy #4.