Chiffres de vente des séries Marvel

2. SIEGE
01/10 Siege #1 of 4 - 120,888
02/10 Siege #2 of 4 - 115,210 (-4.7%)
03/10 Siege #3 of 4 - 113,071 (-1.9%)Curiouser and curiouser. SIEGE launched with first issue sales that were widely considered disappointing for a major event book. But last month, sales held steady. That’s extremely unusual, and led me to theorise that perhaps Diamond had knocked some of the orders off issue #1 because of a limited returnability offer.

This month, issue #1 picks up another 12,402 sales thanks to the belated release of the Director’s Cut edition, while issue #2 picks up 6,781 in reorders. Those numbers are added in above. Even with those reorders, the third-issue drop is tiny. Without them, it’s actually a climb.

One possible factor is that SIEGE #3 has a Deadpool variant cover, on top of all the variants used in the previous month. Another possibility, though, is that retailers were simply too conservative in ordering issue #1 and we’re seeing a belated correction.

6. NEW AVENGERS
03/05 New Avengers #4 - 155,113
03/06 New Avengers #17 - 121,098
03/07 New Avengers #28 - 119,514
03/08 New Avengers #39 - 103,046
=====
03/09 New Avengers #51 - 95,340 (-10.8%)
04/09 New Avengers #52 - 93,975 ( -1.4%)
05/09 New Avengers #53 - 94,367 ( +0.4%)
06/09 New Avengers #54 - 93,878 ( -0.5%)
07/09 New Avengers #55 - 84,745 ( -9.7%)
08/09 New Avengers #56 - 89,996 ( +6.2%)
09/09 New Avengers #57 - 85,598 ( -4.9%)
10/09 New Avengers #58 - 76,656 (-10.4%)
11/09 New Avengers #59 - 74,379 ( -3.0%)
12/09 New Avengers #60 - 72,790 ( -2.1%)
01/10 New Avengers #61 - 78,202 ( +7.4%)
02/10 New Avengers #62 - 76,405 ( -2.3%)
03/10 New Avengers #63 - 76,145 ( -0.3%)
6 mnth (-11.0%)
1 year (-20.1%)
2 year (-26.1%)
3 year (-36.3%)
4 year (-37.1%)
5 year (-50.9%)

7. DARK AVENGERS
03/09 Dark Avengers #3 - 101,978 ( -0.3%)
04/09 Dark Avengers #4 - 99,694 ( -2.2%)
05/09 ---
06/09 Dark Avengers #5 - 95,746 ( -4.0%)
06/09 Dark Avengers #6 - 93,634 ( -2.2%)
07/09 Dark Avengers #7 - 94,189 ( +0.6%)
08/09 Dark Avengers #8 - 94,191 ( +0.0%)
09/09 Dark Avengers #9 - 79,729 (-15.4%)
10/09 Dark Avengers #10 - 75,618 ( -5.2%)
11/09 Dark Avengers #11 - 72,225 ( -4.5%)
12/09 Dark Avengers #12 - 69,799 ( -3.4%)
01/10 Dark Avengers #13 - 76,002 ( +8.9%)
02/10 Dark Avengers #14 - 76,639 ( +0.8%)
03/10 Dark Avengers #15 - 72,254 ( -5.7%)
6 mnth ( -9.4%)
1 year (-29.1%)Both books are continuing SIEGE crossover arcs which began in January. Both are seeing some gains from the event, but nothing to cancel out the drops earlier the year. In itself, this isn’t particularly unusual; we’ve seen in the past that the Avengers titles seem to see the least benefit from major crossovers, presumably because most crossover readers are buying them already.

Both books end after the crossover; NEW AVENGERS is being relaunched from issue #1, while DARK AVENGERS is replaced by a new Avengers title.

8. ULTIMATE COMICS NEW ULTIMATES
03/05 Ultimates 2 #4 - 105,255
03/06 Ultimates 2 #10 - 94,900
03/07 ---
03/08 ---
03/09 ---
=====
03/10 U.C. New Ultimates #1 - 71,279
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year ( --- )
2 year ( --- )
3 year ( --- )
4 year (-24.9%)
5 year (-32.3%)The relaunch of the Ultimate imprint has not been conspicuously successful thus far, and the return of ULTIMATES continues the pattern. Yes, it’s a top ten book – but it’s way below the levels we’ve previously associated with the title.

The last series, ULTIMATES 3, ended in September 2008 with sales at 86,851. The new book comes in over 15K below that figure. That’s with the benefit of a relaunch and two variant covers, so we can probably expect a hefty drop in April. It’s not looking good, frankly.

And yes, this book really is officially called ULTIMATE COMICS NEW ULTIMATES. How bad must the other suggestions have been?

While we’re on the subject, we may as well mention…

ULTIMATE COMICS X
02/10 Ultimate Comics X #1 - 64,113
03/10 ---…which didn’t come out in March, but which did manage to rack up 4,954 in re-orders to chart at number 272. Those sales are included above.

9. UNCANNY X-MEN
03/05 Uncanny X-Men #457 - 86,365
03/06 Uncanny X-Men #471 - 78,286
03/07 Uncanny X-Men #484 - 82,043
03/08 Uncanny X-Men #496 - 89,054
=====
03/09 Uncanny X-Men #507 - 77,957 ( +8.8%)
04/09 Uncanny X-Men #508 - 76,442 ( -1.9%)
04/09 Uncanny X-Men #509 - 69,185 ( -9.5%)
05/09 Uncanny X-Men #510 - 75,139 ( +8.6%)
06/09 Uncanny X-Men #511 - 71,148 ( -5.3%)
06/09 Uncanny X-Men #512 - 76,283 ( +7.2%)
07/09 Uncanny X-Men #513 - 87,582 (+14.8%)
08/09 Uncanny X-Men #514 - 90,316 ( +3.1%)
09/09 Uncanny X-Men #515 - 73,585 (-18.5%)
10/09 Uncanny X-Men #516 - 73,916 ( +0.4%)
11/09 Uncanny X-Men #517 - 69,557 ( -5.9%)
12/09 Uncanny X-Men #518 - 68,572 ( -1.4%)
12/09 Uncanny X-Men #519 - 67,043 ( -2.2%)
01/10 Uncanny X-Men #520 - 65,758 ( -1.9%)
02/10 Uncanny X-Men #521 - 67,049 ( +2.0%)
03/10 Uncanny X-Men #522 - 67,996 ( +1.4%)
6 mnth ( -7.6%)
1 year (-12.8%)
2 year (-23.6%)
3 year (-17.1%)
4 year (-13.1%)
5 year (-21.3%)This is an extra-size issue with the return of Kitty Pryde. It’s also got a 1:25 variant cover by Mark Brooks, a slightly higher incentive than last month’s 1:15 Deadpool variant. All that probably combines to explain the slight increase. Next month sees the start of the “Second Coming” crossover, which is likely to boost sales further – although since UNCANNY is already the top-selling book and the continuity lynchpin of the X-books, it’ll probably see less benefit than the other participants.

10,14,18,19,21. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
03/05 Amazing Spider-Man #518 - 77,025
03/06 Amazing Spider-Man #530 - 89,874
03/07 Amazing Spider-Man #539 - 137,730
03/08 Amazing Spider-Man #554 - 81,072
=====
03/09 Amazing Spider-Man #588 - 61,334 ( +2.0%)
03/09 Amazing Spider-Man #589 - 58,832 ( -4.1%)
04/09 Amazing Spider-Man #590 - 66,415 (+12.9%)
04/09 Amazing Spider-Man #591 - 60,508 ( -8.9%)
04/09 Amazing Spider-Man #592 - 65,940 ( +9.0%)
05/09 Amazing Spider-Man #593 - 58,363 (-11.5%)
05/09 Amazing Spider-Man #594 - 58,464 ( +0.2%)
05/09 Amazing Spider-Man #595 - 71,837 (+22.9%)
06/09 Amazing Spider-Man #596 - 63,525 (-11.6%)
06/09 Amazing Spider-Man #597 - 61,646 ( -3.0%)
06/09 Amazing Spider-Man #598 - 61,585 ( -0.0%)
07/09 Amazing Spider-Man #599 - 72,412 (+17.6%)
07/09 Amazing Spider-Man #600 - 116,857 (+61.4%)
08/09 Amazing Spider-Man #601 - 74,279 (-36.4%)
08/09 Amazing Spider-Man #602 - 71,532 ( -3.7%)
08/09 Amazing Spider-Man #603 - 71,051 ( -0.7%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #604 - 63,435 (-10.7%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #605 - 62,831 ( -1.0%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #606 - 70,177 (+11.7%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #607 - 62,570 (-10.8%)
10/09 Amazing Spider-Man #608 - 72,035 (+15.1%)
10/09 Amazing Spider-Man #609 - 61,176 (-15.1%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #610 - 61,170 ( -0.0%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #611 - 64,514 ( +5.5%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #612 - 68,459 ( +6.1%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #613 - 64,499 ( -5.8%)
12/09 Amazing Spider-Man #614 - 59,696 ( -7.4%)
12/09 Amazing Spider-Man #615 - 63,738 ( +6.8%)
12/09 Amazing Spider-Man #616 - 58,856 ( -7.7%)
01/10 Amazing Spider-Man #617 - 76,730 (+30.4%)
01/10 Amazing Spider-Man #618 - 61,969 (-19.2%)
01/10 Amazing Spider-Man #619 - 56,837 ( -8.3%)
02/10 Amazing Spider-Man #620 - 59,860 ( +5.3%)
02/10 Amazing Spider-Man #621 - 55,350 ( -7.5%)
02/10 Amazing Spider-Man #622 - 53,929 ( -2.6%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #623 - 66,064 (+22.5%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #624 - 60,213 ( -8.9%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #625 - 54,179 (-10.0%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #626 - 53,868 ( -0.6%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #627 - 54,206 ( +0.6%)
6 mnth (-13.4%)
1 year (-11.6%)
2 year (-33.1%)
3 year (-60.6%)
4 year (-39.7%)
5 year (-29.6%)Yes, Marvel solicited five issues of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN for March. Issue #623 has two variant covers, hence the bounce; issue #624 has one. The others are just regular old issues, so it seems that AMAZING is now hovering at around the 53-54K mark in the absence of gimmicks.

11. X-MEN: SECOND COMING
03/10 Second Coming #1 of 2 - 66,013The first chapter of the spring X-Men crossover, which will run between UNCANNY X-MEN, X-MEN LEGACY, NEW MUTANTS and X-FORCE. Sales basically match UNCANNY, the top seller of the bunch.

12. THOR
03/05 ---
03/06 ---
03/07 ---
03/08 ---
=====
03/09 ---
04/09 Thor #601 - 82,742 (-14.5%)
05/09 ---
06/09 Thor #602 - 69,568 (-15.3%)
07/09 ---
08/09 ---
09/09 Thor #603 - 65,265 ( -6.2%)
10/09 ---
11/09 Finale - 53,566 (-17.9%)
12/09 Thor #604 - 61,608 (+15.0%)
12/09 Thor #605 - 55,242 (-10.3%)
01/10 Thor #606 - 55,353 ( +0.2%)
02/10 Thor #607 - 66,973 (+21.0%)
03/10 Thor #608 - 62,012 ( -7.4%)
6 mnth ( -5.0%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year ( --- )
3 year ( --- )
4 year ( --- )
5 year ( --- )The second month of a SIEGE tie-in arc. And yes, this really is the first time THOR has shipped in March since 2004.

15. ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS
08/09 U.C. Avengers #1 - 99,701
09/09 U.C. Avengers #2 - 68,597 (-31.2%)
10/09 U.C. Avengers #3 - 62,716 ( -8.6%)
11/09 U.C. Avengers #4 - 59,023 ( -5.9%)
12/09 ---
01/10 ---
02/10 ---
03/10 U.C. Avengers #5 - 58,098 ( -1.6%)
6 mnth (-15.3%)Marvel have retroactively decided to make this a series of minis, so issue #7 is now going to be ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS 2 #1. This format doesn’t seem to do wonders for the Stephen King books any more, but we’ll see how it turns out on a superhero title.

On the bright side, sales hold up well for the this issue despite the lengthy delay.

16. CAPTAIN AMERICA
03/05 Captain America #4 - 46,654
03/06 Captain America #16 - 44,717
03/07 Captain America #25 - 290,514
03/08 Captain America #36 - 81,378
=====
03/09 Captain America #48 - 62,108 ( -1.2%)
04/09 Captain America #49 - 63,874 ( +2.8%)
05/09 Captain America #50 - 72,708 ( +13.8%)
06/09 Captain America #600 - 123,152 ( +69.4%)
07/09 Captain America #601 - 87,844 ( -28.7%)
07/09 Reborn #1 of 6 - 197,565 (+124.9%)
08/09 Reborn #2 of 6 - 125,366 ( -36.5%)
09/09 Reborn #3 of 6 - 108,331 ( -13.6%)
10/09 ---
11/09 Reborn #4 of 6 - 96,571 ( -10.9%)
12/09 Reborn #5 of 6 - 91,790 ( -5.0%)
01/10 Reborn #6 of 6 - 84,844 ( -7.6%)
01/10 Captain America #602 - 63,948 ( -24.6%)
02/10 Captain America #603 - 63,568 ( -0.6%)
03/10 Captain America #604 - 56,962 ( -10.4%)
6 mnth ( -47.4%)
1 year ( -8.3%)
2 year ( -30.0%)
3 year ( -80.4%)
4 year ( +27.4%)
5 year ( +22.1%)Returning to business-as-usual-numbers, but the book is still substantially up from four or five years ago. It’s worth noting that this issue doesn’t have a variant cover, while issue #603 did, so the month-to-month drop is exaggerated.

22. NEMESIS [Icon]
03/10 Nemesis #1 of 4 - 53,732The new creator-owned series from Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. KICK-ASS #1 sold around 48K in its first month, February 2008, so this is noticeably up.

23,27. MIGHTY AVENGERS
03/07 Mighty Avengers #1 - 156,400
03/08 Mighty Avengers #11 - 82,253
=====
03/09 Mighty Avengers #23 - 71,333 ( -2.1%)
04/09 Mighty Avengers #24 - 68,231 ( -4.3%)
05/09 ---
06/09 Mighty Avengers #25 - 65,010 ( -4.7%)
06/09 Mighty Avengers #26 - 63,178 ( -2.8%)
07/09 Mighty Avengers #27 - 64,680 ( +2.4%)
08/09 Mighty Avengers #28 - 61,323 ( -5.2%)
09/09 Mighty Avengers #29 - 54,476 (-11.2%)
10/09 Mighty Avengers #30 - 52,708 ( -3.2%)
11/09 Mighty Avengers #31 - 49,480 ( -6.1%)
12/09 Mighty Avengers #32 - 48,662 ( -1.7%)
01/10 Mighty Avengers #33 - 46,899 ( -3.6%)
02/10 ---
03/10 Mighty Avengers #34 - 49,855 ( +6.3%)
03/10 Mighty Avengers #35 - 51,085 ( +2.5%)
6 mnth ( -6.2%)
1 year (-28.4%)
2 year (-37.9%)
3 year (-67.3%)Part two of a SIEGE tie-in, delivering modest but hardly spectacular sales gains. The series ends with the next issue.

24. HULK
03/09 ---
04/09 Hulk #11 - 82,726 ( +7.1%)
05/09 Hulk #12 - 73,105 (-11.6%)
06/09 ---
07/09 ---
08/09 Hulk #13 - 71,369 ( -2.4%)
08/09 Hulk #14 - 77,455 ( +8.5%)
09/09 Hulk #15 - 58,667 (-24.3%)
10/09 Hulk #16 - 56,811 ( -3.2%)
11/09 Hulk #17 - 52,653 ( -7.3%)
12/09 Hulk #18 - 53,222 ( +1.1%)
01/10 Hulk #19 - 56,738 ( +6.6%)
02/10 Hulk #20 - 51,962 ( -8.4%)
03/10 Hulk #21 - 50,785 ( -2.3%)
6 mnth (-13.4%)
1 year ( --- )Continuing the “Fall of the Hulks” crossover. The benefit seems to be wearing off.

26. X-FORCE
03/08 X-Force #2 - 81,714
=====
03/09 X-Force #13 - 51,797 ( +0.7%)
04/09 X-Force #14 - 62,674 (+21.0%)
05/09 X-Force #15 - 58,340 ( -6.9%)
06/09 X-Force #16 - 58,818 ( +0.8%)
07/09 X-Force #17 - 61,104 ( +3.9%)
08/09 X-Force #18 - 56,421 ( -7.7%)
09/09 X-Force #19 - 49,817 (-11.7%)
10/09 X-Force #20 - 48,921 ( -1.8%)
11/09 X-Force #21 - 53,967 (+10.3%)
12/09 X-Force #22 - 51,859 ( -3.9%)
01/10 X-Force #23 - 50,848 ( -1.9%)
02/10 X-Force #24 - 49,790 ( -2.1%)
03/10 X-Force #25 - 49,910 ( +0.2%)
6 mnth ( +0.2%)
1 year ( -3.6%)
2 year (-38.9%)This is the final part of the “Necrosha-X” crossover, though it’s more of an X-FORCE storyline with a couple of other books doing their own thing on the periphery. The effect has basically been to keep sales hovering around the 50K mark instead of dropping further. Next month begins the “Second Coming” tie-in, which is bound to boost sales, after which the series is being rebooted in the autumn as NEW X-FORCE.

29. DARK WOLVERINE
03/05 Wolverine #26 - 105,984
03/06 Wolverine #40 - 75,557
03/07 Wolverine #52 - 95,276
03/08 Wolverine #63 - 64,475
=====
03/09 Wolverine #71 - 91,229 ( -7.8%)
04/09 ---
05/09 Wolverine #72 - 91,333 ( +0.1%)
05/09 Wolverine #73 - 83,324 ( -8.8%)
06/09 Wolverine #74 - 66,186 (-20.6%)
06/09 Dark Wolverine #75 - 80,780 (+22.0%)
07/09 Dark Wolverine #76 - 74,017 ( -8.4%)
08/09 Dark Wolverine #77 - 68,593 ( -7.3%)
09/09 Dark Wolverine #78 - 60,702 (-11.5%)
10/09 Dark Wolverine #79 - 60,076 ( -1.0%)
11/09 Dark Wolverine #80 - 52,394 (-12.8%)
12/09 Dark Wolverine #81 - 48,102 ( -8.2%)
01/10 Dark Wolverine #82 - 54,838 (+14.0%)
02/10 Dark Wolverine #83 - 53,958 ( -1.6%)
03/10 Dark Wolverine #84 - 49,469 ( -8.3%)
6 mnth (-18.5%)
1 year (-45.8%)
2 year (-23.3%)
3 year (-48.1%)
4 year (-34.5%)
5 year (-53.3%)Once again, this issue continues a SIEGE crossover arc, and the benefit seems to have worn off already. After the crossover, the book is being relaunched as DAKEN: DARK WOLVERINE, while the (unjustly) floundering WOLVERINE: WEAPON X title is being relaunched as just plain WOLVERINE. For the moment, this title is behaving similarly to INCREDIBLE HERCULES in the same circumstances – it’s inherited a more popular character’s audience, and it’s losing it steadily over time.

33. INVINCIBLE IRON MAN
03/05 ---
03/06 Iron Man #6 - 40,264
03/07 ---
03/08 Iron Man #27 - 36,011
=====
03/09 Invincible Iron Man #11 - 52,165 ( -7.5%)
04/09 Invincible Iron Man #12 - 51,774 ( -0.7%)
05/09 Invincible Iron Man #13 - 51,311 ( -0.9%)
06/09 Invincible Iron Man #14 - 53,229 ( +3.7%)
07/09 Invincible Iron Man #15 - 50,554 ( -5.0%)
08/09 Invincible Iron Man #16 - 53,782 ( +6.4%)
09/09 Invincible Iron Man #17 - 47,182 (-12.3%)
09/09 Invincible Iron Man #18 - 48,039 ( +1.8%)
10/09 Invincible Iron Man #19 - 47,178 ( -1.8%)
11/09 Invincible Iron Man #20 - 61,667 (+30.7%)
12/09 Invincible Iron Man #21 - 49,986 (-18.9%)
01/10 Invincible Iron Man #22 - 49,130 ( -1.7%)
02/10 Invincible Iron Man #23 - 50,027 ( +1.8%)
03/10 Invincible Iron Man #24 - 49,239 ( -1.6%)
6 mnth ( +2.5%)
1 year ( -5.6%)
2 year (+36.7%)
3 year ( --- )
4 year (+22.3%)
5 year ( --- )Incredibly steady sales. Last month’s slight blip is presumably attributable to its Deadpool variant, which means that Iron Man is clinging rigidly to the 49K mark.

31. X-MEN LEGACY
03/05 X-Men #168 - 83,979
03/06 X-Men #184 - 78,000
03/07 X-Men #197 - 75,184
03/08 X-Men Legacy #209 - 82,243
=====
03/09 X-Men Legacy #222 - 55,606 ( -1.6%)
04/09 X-Men Legacy #223 - 71,935 (+29.4%)
05/09 X-Men Legacy #224 - 54,008 (-24.9%)
06/09 X-Men Legacy #225 - 58,374 ( +8.1%)
07/09 X-Men Legacy #226 - 59,298 ( +1.6%)
08/09 X-Men Legacy #227 - 63,316 ( +6.8%)
09/09 ---
10/09 X-Men Legacy #228 - 52,855 (-16.5%)
11/09 X-Men Legacy #229 - 50,789 ( -3.9%)
12/09 X-Men Legacy #230 - 49,776 ( -2.0%)
12/09 X-Men Legacy #231 - 50,929 ( +2.3%)
01/10 X-Men Legacy #232 - 49,200 ( -3.4%)
02/10 X-Men Legacy #233 - 51,344 ( +4.4%)
03/10 X-Men Legacy #234 - 48,217 ( -6.1%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year (-13.3%)
2 year (-41.4%)
3 year (-35.9%)
4 year (-38.2%)
5 year (-42.6%)This is a transition issue between the “Necrosha-X” and “Second Coming” crossovers, so the drop is not unexpected.

32. INCREDIBLE HULK
03/05 Incredible Hulk #79 - 43,508
03/06 Incredible Hulk #93 - 43,691
03/07 Incredible Hulk #104 - 47,823
03/08 ---
03/09 ---
=====
07/09 Incredible Hulk #600 - 92,343
08/09 Incredible Hulk #601 - 64,120 (-30.6%)
09/09 Incredible Hulk #602 - 51,582 (-19.6%)
10/09 Incredible Hulk #603 - 49,126 ( -4.8%)
11/09 Incredible Hulk #604 - 40,652 (-17.2%)
12/09 Incredible Hulk #605 - 43,964 ( +8.1%)
01/10 Incredible Hulk #606 - 48,197 ( +9.6%)
02/10 Incredible Hulk #607 - 45,870 ( -4.8%)
03/10 Incredible Hulk #608 - 47,148 ( +2.8%)
6 mnth ( -8.6%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year ( --- )
3 year ( -1.4%)
4 year ( +7.9%)
5 year ( +8.4%)Continuing the “Fall of the Hulks” crossover, and this book does seem to be getting some lasting benefit from the event. The increase from last month is presumably due to the Frank Cho variant cover.

35. SIEGE: EMBEDDED
01/10 Siege: Embedded #1 of 4 - 55,482
02/10 Siege: Embedded #2 of 4 - 46,003 (-17.1%)
03/10 Siege: Embedded #3 of 4 - 43,455 ( -5.5%)Standard miniseries behaviour.

37. DEADPOOL
03/09 Deadpool #8 - 53,109 (+20.5%)
04/09 Deadpool #9 - 54,556 ( +2.7%)
05/09 Deadpool #10 - 56,123 ( +2.9%)
06/09 Deadpool #11 - 55,343 ( -1.4%)
07/09 Deadpool #12 - 58,807 ( +6.3%)
08/09 Deadpool #13 - 55,442 ( -5.7%)
08/09 Deadpool #14 - 50,263 ( -9.3%)
09/09 Deadpool #15 - 50,479 ( +0.4%)
10/09 Deadpool #16 - 46,288 ( -8.3%)
11/09 Deadpool #17 - 46,765 ( +1.0%)
12/09 Deadpool #18 - 45,914 ( -1.8%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Deadpool #19 - 44,580 ( -2.9%)
02/10 Deadpool #20 - 43,347 ( -2.8%)
03/10 Deadpool #21 - 42,062 ( -3.0%)
6 mnth (-16.7%)
1 year (-20.8%)Drifting slowly down, but still with very healthy sales.

38. ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN
03/05 Ult. Spider-Man #73 - 84,943
03/06 Ult. Spider-Man #92 - 72,269
03/07 Ult. Spider-Man #106 - 73,832
03/08 Ult. Spider-Man #120 - 57,728
=====
03/09 ---
04/09 ---
05/09 Ult. Spider-Man #132 - 50,144 ( +1.2%)
06/09 Ult. Spider-Man #133 - 57,364 ( +14.4%)06/09 USM: Requiem #1 of 2 - 44,988 ( -21.6%)
07/09 USM: Requiem #2 of 2 - 41,374 ( -8.0%)
08/09 U.C. Spider-Man #1 - 86,008 (+107.9%)
09/09 U.C. Spider-Man #2 - 57,477 ( -33.2%)
10/09 U.C. Spider-Man #3 - 52,813 ( -8.1%)
11/09 U.C. Spider-Man #4 - 49,106 ( -7.0%)
12/09 U.C. Spider-Man #5 - 45,849 ( -6.6%)
01/10 U.C. Spider-Man #6 - 43,622 ( -4.9%)
02/10 U.C. Spider-Man #7 - 42,176 ( -3.3%)
03/10 U.C. Spider-Man #8 - 40,967 ( -2.9%)
6 mnth ( -28.7%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year ( -29.0%)
3 year ( -44.5%)
4 year ( -43.3%)
5 year ( -51.2%)Another recent relaunch from the Ultimate imprint which isn’t looking altogether healthy.

40. AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE
03/08 Initiative #10 - 54,422
=====
03/09 ---
04/09 Initiative #23 - 45,146 ( -3.8%)
05/09 Initiative #24 - 42,510 ( -5.8%)
06/09 Initiative #25 - 40,101 ( -5.7%)
07/09 Initiative #26 - 38,215 ( -4.7%)
08/09 Initiative #27 - 39,014 ( +2.1%)
09/09 Initiative #28 - 33,855 (-13.2%)
10/09 Initiative #29 - 31,412 ( -7.2%)
11/09 Initiative #30 - 28,688 ( -8.7%)
12/09 Initiative #31 - 32,291 (+12.6%)
01/10 Initiative #32 - 36,127 (+11.9%)
02/10 Initiative #33 - 39,968 (+10.6%)
03/10 Initiative #34 - 38,616 ( -3.4%)
6 mnth (+14.1%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year (-29.0%)Continuing a SIEGE crossover arc. The series ends with issue #35, to be relaunched as AVENGERS ACADEMY.

41. FALL OF THE HULKS: RED HULK
01/10 Red Hulk #1 of 4 - 42,482
02/10 Red Hulk #2 of 4 - 39,259 (-7.6%)
03/10 Red Hulk #3 of 4 - 38,535 (-1.8%)About 10-12K behind the parent titles, which isn’t too bad.

46,54. WOLVERINE: ORIGINS
03/07 Origins #12 - 74,750
03/08 Origins #23 - 49,633
=====
03/09 Origins #34 - 45,579 ( +1.4%)
04/09 Origins #35 - 44,976 ( -1.3%)
05/09 Origins #36 - 45,451 ( +1.1%)
06/09 Origins #37 - 44,930 ( -1.1%)
07/09 Origins #38 - 47,211 ( +5.1%)
08/09 Origins #39 - 44,968 ( -4.8%)
09/09 Origins #40 - 42,724 ( -5.0%)
10/09 Origins #41 - 39,453 ( -7.7%)
11/09 Origins #42 - 37,903 ( -3.9%)
12/09 Origins #43 - 36,528 ( -3.6%)
01/10 Origins #44 - 35,154 ( -3.8%)
02/10 ---
03/10 Origins #45 - 37,055 ( +5.4%)
03/10 Origins #46 - 34,004 ( -8.2%)
6 mnth (-20.4%)
1 year (-25.4%)
2 year (-31.5%)
3 year (-54.5%)Cancelled with issue #50, when it reaches the end of its multi-year storyline. The numbers are drifting down, but they’ll still be perfectly acceptable by the end of the run.

47,62,63,66,72. PRELUDE TO DEADPOOL CORPS
03/10 Prelude #1 of 5 - 37,011
03/10 Prelude #2 of 5 - 32,024 (-13.5%)
03/10 Prelude #3 of 5 - 31,065 ( -3.0%)
03/10 Prelude #4 of 5 - 30,254 ( -2.6%)
03/10 Prelude #5 of 5 - 29,037 ( -4.0%)A five issue weekly miniseries, leading into next month’s new team book starring, um, five Deadpools. It’s effectively replacing DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH on the schedules, although in typical fashion Marvel are allowing them to overlap for a couple of months. Issue #1 has the benefit of a variant cover. Since D:MWAM sells in the 30K range, Marvel will presumably be expecting a jump upwards for next month’s launch.

49. NEW MUTANTS
05/09 New Mutants #1 - 60,972
06/09 New Mutants #2 - 43,230 (-29.1%)
07/09 New Mutants #3 - 42,961 ( -0.6%)
08/09 New Mutants #4 - 38,558 (-10.2%)
09/09 New Mutants #5 - 31,502 (-18.3%)
10/09 New Mutants #6 - 34,967 (+11.0%)
11/09 New Mutants #7 - 33,328 ( -4.7%)
12/09 New Mutants #8 - 32,240 ( -3.3%)
01/10 New Mutants #9 - 30,572 ( -5.2%)
02/10 New Mutants #10 - 30,807 ( +0.8%)
03/10 New Mutants #11 - 36,629 (+18.9%)
6 mnth (+16.3%)This is a one-off SIEGE tie-in issue, hence the bounce. Next month begins a “Second Coming” tie-in arc, so it might well rise further.

51. FANTASTIC FOUR
03/05 Fantastic Four #524 - 46,660
03/06 Fantastic Four #536 - 57,945
03/07 Fantastic Four #544 - 73,880
03/08 Fantastic Four #555 - 67,416
=====
03/09 Fantastic Four #565 - 48,378 ( -2.3%)
04/09 ---
05/09 Fantastic Four #566 - 46,653 ( -3.6%)
06/09 Fantastic Four #567 - 46,225 ( -0.9%)
07/09 Fantastic Four #568 - 45,828 ( -0.9%)
07/09 Fantastic Four #569 - 44,710 ( -2.4%)
08/09 Fantastic Four #570 - 62,401 (+39.6%)
09/09 Fantastic Four #571 - 47,468 (-23.4%)
10/09 Fantastic Four #572 - 41,939 (-11.6%)
11/09 Fantastic Four #573 - 39,433 ( -6.0%)
12/09 Fantastic Four #574 - 38,431 ( -2.5%)
01/10 Fantastic Four #575 - 41,284 ( +7.4%)
02/10 Fantastic Four #576 - 37,526 ( -9.1%)
03/10 Fantastic Four #577 - 35,791 ( -4.6%)
6 mnth (-24.6%)
1 year (-26.0%)
2 year (-46.9%)
3 year (-51.6%)
4 year (-38.2%)
5 year (-23.3%)Still drifting downwards under the new creative team. These aren’t very good numbers by the standards of recent years. But then the book doesn’t have big name creators working on it any more, so up to a point, that’s to be expected.

52. THUNDERBOLTS
03/05 New Thunderbolts #6 - 29,103
03/06 Thunderbolts #100 - 26,798
03/07 Thunderbolts #112 - 61,395
03/08 Thunderbolts #119 - 40,173
=====
03/09 Thunderbolts #130 - 52,264 (+15.1%)
04/09 Thunderbolts #131 - 49,155 ( -5.9%)
05/09 Thunderbolts #132 - 43,911 (-10.7%)
06/09 Thunderbolts #133 - 39,479 (-10.1%)
07/09 Thunderbolts #134 - 40,885 ( +3.6%)
08/09 ---
09/09 Thunderbolts #135 - 39,961 ( -2.3%)
09/09 Thunderbolts #136 - 34,031 (-14.8%)
10/09 Thunderbolts #137 - 32,409 ( -4.8%)
11/09 Thunderbolts #138 - 31,238 ( -3.6%)
12/09 Thunderbolts #139 - 29,957 ( -4.1%)
01/10 Thunderbolts #140 - 28,644 ( -4.4%)
02/10 Thunderbolts #141 - 33,948 (+18.5%)
03/10 Thunderbolts #142 - 34,132 ( +0.5%)
6 mnth ( +0.3%)
1 year (-34.7%)
2 year (-15.0%)
3 year (-44.4%)
4 year (+27.4%)
5 year (+17.3%)Continuing the SIEGE tie-in arc, which is delivering modest gains, but still only takes the title back to where it was six months ago. The book gets a new direction with issue #144.

56. DARK X-MEN
11/09 Dark X-Men #1 of 5 - 50,167
12/09 Dark X-Men #2 of 5 - 42,207 (-15.9%)
01/10 Dark X-Men #3 of 5 - 37,873 (-10.3%)
02/10 Dark X-Men #4 of 5 - 35,007 ( -7.6%)
03/10 Dark X-Men #5 of 5 - 33,742 ( -3.6%)Not bad at all, considering the general burnout that seems to afflict many Dark Reign and X-Men side projects.

57. DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH
07/09 Merc With A Mouth #1 - 59,628
08/09 Merc With A Mouth #2 - 51,147 (-14.2%)
09/09 Merc With A Mouth #3 - 43,855 (-14.3%)
10/09 Merc With A Mouth #4 - 40,154 ( -8.4%)
11/09 Merc With A Mouth #5 - 37,781 ( -5.9%)
12/09 Merc With A Mouth #6 - 37,051 ( -1.9%)
01/10 Merc With A Mouth #7 - 40,568 ( +9.5%)
02/10 Merc With A Mouth #8 - 34,281 (-15.5%)
03/10 Merc With A Mouth #9 - 33,405 ( -2.6%)
6 mnth (-23.8%)Cancelled with issue #13, effectively to be replaced by DEADPOOL CORPS. Sales remain on a downhill trend.

59. FALL OF THE HULKS: THE SAVAGE SHE-HULKS
03/10 Savage She-Hulks #1 of 3 - 33,290Another peripheral “Fall of the Hulks” miniseries, coming in quite some way behind the RED HULK mini. This also has the benefit of a Women of Marvel variant cover.

65. DOOMWAR
03/05 Black Panther #2 - 47,533
03/06 Black Panther #14 - 28,809
03/07 Black Panther #26 - 48,717
03/08 Black Panther #35 - 21,332
=====
03/09 Black Panther #2 - 33,755 ( -36.3%)
04/09 Black Panther #3 - 33,356 ( -1.2%)
05/09 Black Panther #4 - 30,984 ( -7.1%)
06/09 Black Panther #5 - 29,762 ( -3.9%)
07/09 Black Panther #6 - 29,727 ( -0.1%)
08/09 Black Panther #7 - 27,619 ( -7.1%)
09/09 Black Panther #8 - 23,020 ( -16.7%)
10/09 Black Panther #9 - 20,346 ( -11.6%)
11/09 Black Panther #10 - 19,147 ( -5.9%)
12/09 Black Panther #11 - 17,989 ( -6.0%)
01/10 Black Panther #12 - 17,881 ( -1.0%)
02/10 Doomwar #1 of 6 - 43,241 (+141.8%)
03/10 Doomwar #2 of 6 - 30,555 ( -29.3%)
6 mnth ( +32.7%)
1 year ( -9.5%)
2 year ( +43.2%)
3 year ( -37.3%)
4 year ( +6.1%)
5 year ( -35.7%)The DOOMWAR miniseries is unquestionably delivering significantly better sales than the regular BLACK PANTHER book – though again, we’re still only at the level that the regular title was achieving shortly after its launch a year ago.

67. CABLE
02/09 Cable #11 - 31,817 ( -4.5%)
03/09 Cable #12 - 32,407 ( +1.9%)
04/09 Cable #13 - 47,638 (+47.0%)
05/09 Cable #14 - 52,245 ( +9.7%)
06/09 Cable #15 - 49,912 ( -4.5%)
07/09 Cable #16 - 39,646 (-20.6%)
08/09 Cable #17 - 39,424 ( -0.6%)
09/09 Cable #18 - 33,958 (-13.9%)
10/09 Cable #19 - 31,009 ( -8.7%)
11/09 Cable #20 - 29,245 ( -5.7%)
12/09 Cable #21 - 29,094 ( -0.5%)
01/10 Cable #22 - 28,414 ( -2.3%)
02/10 Cable #23 - 28,890 ( +1.7%)
03/10 Cable #24 - 30,132 ( +4.3%)
6 mnth (-11.3%)
1 year ( -5.3%)Billed as a “Second Coming” prelude, which probably accounts for the rise. This is effectively the last issue of the series; issue #25, billed as DEADPOOL & CABLE #25, is a flashback story that officially ends the series.

69. WOLVERINE: WEAPON X
04/09 Weapon X #1 - 97,896
05/09 Weapon X #2 - 59,192 (-39.5%)
06/09 Weapon X #3 - 51,076 (-13.7%)
07/09 ---
08/09 Weapon X #4 - 49,284 ( -3.5%)
09/09 Weapon X #5 - 40,975 (-16.9%)
10/09 Weapon X #6 - 38,446 ( -6.2%)
11/09 Weapon X #7 - 36,108 ( -6.1%)
12/09 Weapon X #8 - 33,470 ( -7.3%)
01/10 Weapon X #9 - 31,678 ( -5.4%)
02/10 Weapon X #10 - 30,132 ( -4.9%)
03/10 Weapon X #11 - 29,799 ( -1.1%)
6 mnth (-27.3%)Still sliding, though at least it seems to be levelling out. The book is being relaunched in the autumn as just plain WOLVERINE, as Marvel seem to have recognised that something’s gone badly wrong here.

71. NATION X
12/09 Nation X #1 of 4 - 41,796
01/10 Nation X #2 of 4 - 33,596 (-19.6%)
02/10 Nation X #3 of 4 - 30,670 ( -8.7%)
03/10 Nation X #4 of 4 - 29,224 ( -4.7%)Roughly similar numbers to the previous X-anthology, MANIFEST DESTINY, from late 2008.

73. X-FACTOR
03/06 X-Factor #5 - 46,490
03/07 X-Factor #17 - 38,067
03/08 X-Factor #29 - 54,832
=====
03/09 X-Factor #41 - 31,888 ( -0.2%)
04/09 X-Factor #42 - 32,000 ( +0.4%)
05/09 X-Factor #43 - 31,543 ( -1.4%)
06/09 X-Factor #44 - 31,552 ( +0.0%)
06/09 X-Factor #45 - 31,109 ( -1.4%)
07/09 X-Factor #46 - 31,213 ( +0.3%)
08/09 X-Factor #47 - 33,052 ( +5.9%)
09/09 X-Factor #48 - 30,305 ( -8.3%)
09/09 X-Factor #49 - 29,934 ( -1.2%)
10/09 X-Factor #50 - 30,138 ( +0.7%)
11/09 ---
12/09 X-Factor #200 - 36,577 (+21.4%)
01/10 X-Factor #201 - 29,732 (-18.7%)
02/10 X-Factor #202 - 30,981 ( +4.2%)
03/10 X-Factor #203 - 28,924 ( -6.6%)
6 mnth ( -4.6%)
1 year ( -9.3%)
2 year (-47.2%)
3 year (-24.0%)
4 year (-37.8%)Back to normal sales after a renumbering stunt and a variant cover. Next issue begins a “Second Coming” tie-in arc, which is bound to boost sales.

74. SECRET WARRIORS
03/09 Secret Warriors #2 - 48,086 (-23.4%)
04/09 Secret Warriors #3 - 50,126 ( +4.2%)
05/09 Secret Warriors #4 - 42,781 (-14.7%)
06/09 Secret Warriors #5 - 40,849 ( -4.5%)
07/09 Secret Warriors #6 - 41,749 ( +2.2%)
08/09 Secret Warriors #7 - 38,990 ( -6.6%)
09/09 Secret Warriors #8 - 33,893 (-13.1%)
10/09 Secret Warriors #9 - 36,385 ( +7.4%)
11/09 Secret Warriors #10 - 31,567 (-13.2%)
12/09 Secret Warriors #11 - 30,748 ( -2.6%)
01/10 Secret Warriors #12 - 29,894 ( -2.8%)
02/10 Secret Warriors #13 - 30,843 ( +3.2%)
03/10 Secret Warriors #14 - 28,580 ( -7.3%)
6 mnth (-15.7%)
1 year (-40.6%)No variant cover this month, so the month-to-month drop is misleading. Overall, while sales are still dropping, the decline is now fairly slow. SECRET WARRIORS is a finite series which is apparently schedueld to finish its story somewhere around issue #28 – from the look of it, it should be more than comfortable for that sort of run.

75. DEADPOOL TEAM-UP
10/09 Deadpool #900 - 51,337
11/09 Deadpool Team-Up #899 - 39,584 (-22.9%)
12/09 Deadpool Team-Up #898 - 36,308 ( -8.3%)
01/10 Deadpool Team-Up #897 - 32,671 (-10.0%)
02/10 Deadpool Team-Up #896 - 30,119 ( -7.8%)
03/10 Deadpool Team-Up #895 - 28,573 ( -5.1%)Drops of 5% a month on issue #6 are usually a bad sign.

78. MARVELS PROJECT
08/09 Marvels Project #1 of 8 - 89,062
09/09 Marvels Project #2 of 8 - 47,744 (-46.4%)
10/09 Marvels Project #3 of 8 - 39,313 (-17.7%)
11/09 ---
12/09 Marvels Project #4 of 8 - 34,775 (-11.5%)
01/10 Marvels Project #5 of 8 - 31,644 ( -9.0%)
02/10 Marvels Project #6 of 8 - 30,108 ( -4.9%)
03/10 Marvels Project #7 of 8 - 28,129 ( -6.6%)Still shedding readers, but then the Golden Age has always been a niche subject.

79. X-MEN: HOPE
03/10 Hope - 27,818This is a reprint of the back-up strips from PSYLOCKE #1, DARK X-MEN #1, X-MEN LEGACY #230 and X-FORCE #22, which were basically intended to introduce the character of Hope Summers to people who weren’t reading CABLE. Nothing of any great significance transpires therein.

However, the original solicitation didn’t mention that this was a reprint book – in fact, it billed the content as “four thrilling, untold tales.” While readers who already owned the stories would probably have recognised them from the plot description, others may well have been given the impression that this was original material.

Marvel subsequently altered the solicitation to make clear that it was a reprint book, and one would like to think that the original omission was an oversight. Still, 28K for a reprint of some unimportant back-up strips is awfully high, and you have to wonder whether confusion played a part in that. After all, this book outsold PSYLOCKE #1.

80,128. WOMEN OF MARVEL ONE-SHOTS
03/10 X-23 - 27,328
03/10 She-Hulk - 15,583The first in a torrent of one-shots starring female characters, as part of Women of Marvel Year. The SHE-HULK book is actually a celebration of the character’s 30th anniversary. It contains two original stories and what seems to be a randomly chosen John Byrne reprint. (As in, it’s not a complete story.)

84. SPIDER-WOMAN
09/09 Spider-Woman #1 - 50,344
10/09 Spider-Woman #2 - 37,255 (-26.0%)
11/09 Spider-Woman #3 - 32,437 (-12.9%)
12/09 Spider-Woman #4 - 29,755 ( -8.3%)
01/10 Spider-Woman #5 - 27,716 ( -6.9%)
02/10 Spider-Woman #6 - 26,134 ( -5.7%)
03/10 Spider-Woman #7 - 25,437 ( -2.7%)
6 mnth (-49.5%)Cancelled.

86. HULK: LET BATTLE BEGIN
03/10 Let Battle Begin - 25,237As near as I can see, this is just a random Hulk one-shot priced at $4. I say “as near as I can see” because MARVEL PREVIEWS had this listed under “Fall of the Hulks”, so one might assume it was somehow connected. But it doesn’t seem to be.

90. INCREDIBLE HERCULES
03/08 Hercules #115 - 49,336
=====
03/09 Hercules #127 - 31,890 ( +2.9%)
04/09 Hercules #128 - 33,739 ( +5.8%)
05/09 Hercules #129 - 28,995 (-14.1%)
06/09 Hercules #130 - 27,872 ( -3.9%)
07/09 Hercules #131 - 29,188 ( +4.7%)
08/09 Hercules #132 - 32,680 (+12.0%)
08/09 Hercules #133 - 27,491 (-15.9%)
09/09 Hercules #134 - 25,380 ( -7.7%)
09/09 Hercules #135 - 26,344 ( +3.8%)
10/09 Hercules #136 - 26,447 ( -0.4%)
10/09 Hercules #137 - 23,463 (-11.3%)
11/09 Hercules #138 - 25,116 ( +7.0%)
12/09 Hercules #139 - 23,591 ( -6.1%)
01/10 Hercules #140 - 23,244 ( -1.5%)
02/10 Hercules #141 - 24,539 ( +5.6%)
03/10 Fall o/Avenger #1 of 2 - 23,036 ( -6.1%)
6 mnth (-12.6%)
1 year (-27.8%)
2 year (-53.3%)It seems a reasonable assumption that this is a transitional series along the way to a HERCULES relaunch in a few months time. That’s certainly how it’s been ordered – numbers remain virtually unchanged.

91. PUNISHERMAX [Max]
03/05 Punisher #18 - 38,348
03/06 Punisher #31 - 34,505
03/07 Punisher #45 - 33,245
03/08 Punisher #55 - 31,276

=====
03/09 Frank Castle #68 - 22,255 ( -0.0%)
04/09 Frank Castle #69 - 21,843 ( -1.9%)
05/09 Frank Castle #70 - 21,864 ( +0.1%)
06/09 Frank Castle #71 - 21,319 ( -2.5%)
07/09 Frank Castle #72 - 21,049 ( -1.3%)
08/09 Frank Castle #73 - 20,375 ( -3.2%)
09/09 Frank Castle #74 - 20,259 ( -0.6%)
10/09 Frank Castle #75 - 22,210 ( +9.6%)
11/09 PunisherMax #1 - 29,119 (+31.1%)
12/09 PunisherMax #2 - 23,110 (-20.4%)
01/10 PunisherMax #3 - 22,887 ( -1.0%)
02/10 PunisherMax #4 - 22,472 ( -1.8%)
03/10 PunisherMax #5 - 22,435 ( -0.2%)
6 mnth (+10.7%)
1 year ( +0.8%)
2 year (-28.3%)
3 year (-32.5%)
4 year (-35.0%)
5 year (-41.5%)Levelling out very quickly. Sales are slightly up from the previous run, but I suspect that’s more to do with the creative team than the renumbering.

92. THE STAND
03/09 Nightmares #1 of 5 - 47,473 ( +1.7%)
04/09 Nightmares #2 of 5 - 38,909 (-18.0%)
05/09 Nightmares #3 of 5 - 36,364 ( -6.5%)
06/09 ---
07/09 Nightmares #4 of 5 - 34,292 ( -5.7%)
08/09 Nightmares #5 of 5 - 31,506 ( -8.1%)
09/09 ---
10/09 Soul Survivors #1 of 5 - 27,725 (-12.0%)
11/09 Soul Survivors #2 of 5 - 25,600 ( -7.7%)
12/09 Soul Survivors #3 of 5 - 24,308 ( -5.0%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Soul Survivors #4 of 5 - 22,804 ( -6.2%)
03/10 Soul Survivors #5 of 5 - 22,294 ( -2.2%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year (-53.0%)Continuing to shed readers, but you’d figure that the direct market isn’t the only target for Stephen King adaptations, and that the collected editions ought to be more important.

93. PUNISHER
03/07 War Journal #5 - 50,190
03/08 War Journal #17 - 31,227
=====
03/09 Punisher #3 - 37,570 ( -8.2%)
04/09 Punisher #4 - 36,995 ( -1.5%)
05/09 Punisher #5 - 35,621 ( -3.7%)
06/09 Punisher #6 - 32,982 ( -7.4%)
07/09 Punisher #7 - 31,227 ( -5.3%)
08/09 Punisher #8 - 33,057 ( +5.9%)
09/09 Punisher #9 - 28,424 (-14.1%)
10/09 Punisher #10 - 27,167 ( -4.4%)
11/09 Punisher #11 - 24,900 ( -8.3%)
12/09 Punisher #12 - 24,985 ( +0.3%)
01/10 Punisher #13 - 23,734 ( -5.0%)
02/10 Punisher #14 - 23,455 ( -1.8%)
03/10 Punisher #15 - 22,285 ( -5.0%)
6 mnth (-21.6%)
1 year (-40.7%)
2 year (-28.6%)
3 year (-55.6%)The, um, radical new direction for the character so far doesn’t seem to have much impact on sales one way or the other.

95. OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
03/05 Age of Apocalypse - 37,056
03/06 A to Z #3 of 12 - 21,681
03/07 ---
03/08 Atlas #2 of 2 - 10,893
03/09 ---
=====
02/10 A to Z Update #1 of 5 - 5,406
03/10 Deadpool Corps - 21,900 (+305.1%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year ( --- )
2 year (+101.0%)
3 year ( --- )
4 year ( +1.0%)
5 year ( -40.9%)Well, that’s interesting. The sales on last month’s A TO Z issue were unexpectedly low, but this month’s themed book sees the HANDBOOK catapult back up the chats. There’s always been a degree of variation with the HANDBOOK depending on the subject matter, but not quite to this extent.

96. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
03/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #11 - 27,415 ( -0.8%)
03/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #12 - 26,764 ( -2.4%)
04/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #13 - 27,107 ( +1.3%)
05/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #14 - 27,130 ( +0.1%)
06/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #15 - 26,808 ( -1.2%)
07/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #16 - 26,605 ( -0.8%)
08/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #17 - 27,893 ( +4.8%)
09/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #18 - 24,896 (-10.7%)
10/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #19 - 23,597 ( -5.2%)
11/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #20 - 22,965 ( -2.7%)
12/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #21 - 22,271 ( -3.0%)
01/10 Guardians o/Galaxy #22 - 21,623 ( -3.0%)
02/10 Guardians o/Galaxy #23 - 22,807 ( +5.5%)
03/10 Guardians o/Galaxy #24 - 21,643 ( -5.1%)
6 mnth (-13.1%)
1 year (-21.1%)

97. WEB OF SPIDER-MAN
10/09 Web of Spider-Man #1 - 58,412
11/09 Web of Spider-Man #2 - 32,093 (-45.1%)
12/09 Web of Spider-Man #3 - 29,368 ( -8.5%)
01/10 Web of Spider-Man #4 - 24,424 (-16.8%)
02/10 Web of Spider-Man #5 - 24,296 ( -0.5%)
03/10 Web of Spider-Man #6 - 21,574 (-11.2%)

98. NOVA
03/08 Nova #11 - 28,162
=====
03/09 Nova #23 - 26,413 ( +5.4%)
04/09 Nova #24 - 26,240 ( -0.7%)
05/09 Nova #25 - 26,172 ( -0.3%)
06/09 Nova #26 - 28,107 ( +7.4%)
07/09 Nova #27 - 25,677 ( -8.6%)
08/09 Nova #28 - 27,038 ( +5.3%)
09/09 Nova #29 - 23,924 (-11.5%)
10/09 Nova #30 - 22,845 ( -4.5%)
11/09 Nova #31 - 22,928 ( +0.4%)
12/09 Nova #32 - 22,202 ( -3.2%)
01/10 Nova #33 - 21,841 ( -1.6%)
02/10 Nova #34 - 23,014 ( +5.4%)
03/10 Nova #35 - 21,407 ( -7.0%)
6 mnth (-10.5%)
1 year (-19.0%)
2 year (-24.0%)Two cosmic titles, both ending in April. Sandwiched between them, we have WEB OF SPIDER-MAN, which still shows no sign of levelling out. Is the market really going to support spin-off Spider-Man titles?

100. STEPHEN KING'S N. THE COMIC SERIES
03/10 N #1 of 4 - 21,092This is the printed version of an online comic which came out in late 2008. In that context, the sales are pretty good.

106. X-MEN ORIGINS
03/09 ---
04/09 Wolverine - 34,359 (+49.4%)
05/09 ---
06/09 Gambit - 28,023 (-18.4%)
07/09 ---
08/09 ---
09/09 ---
10/09 ---
11/09 Iceman - 19,004 (-32.2%)
12/09 --
01/10 Cyclops - 19,049 ( +0.2%)
02/10 ---
03/10 Nightcrawler - 19,818 ( +4.0%)A slight increase this month, but that probably reflects the popularity of character. MARVEL PREVIEWS also billed this issue as a “Second Coming” prelude – but at time of writing, the relevance escapes me.

110. VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT
03/07 Moon Knight #8 - 77,390
03/08 Moon Knight #16 - 29,546
=====
03/09 Moon Knight #28 - 20,866 ( -2.6%)
04/09 Moon Knight #29 - 22,689 ( +8.7%)
05/09 Moon Knight #30 - 19,693 (-13.2%)
06/09 ---
07/09 ---
08/09 ---
09/09 Moon Knight #1 - 35,706 (+81.3%)
10/09 Moon Knight #2 - 26,493 (-25.8%)
11/09 Moon Knight #3 - 23,359 (-11.8%)
12/09 Moon Knight #4 - 21,482 ( -8.0%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Moon Knight #5 - 19,733 ( -8.1%)
03/10 Moon Knight #6 - 19,094 ( -3.2%)
6 mnth (-46.5%)
1 year ( -8.5%)
2 year (-35.4%)
3 year (-75.3%)Still dropping, and now below the sales of the previous volume. It’s levelling out a bit, but hardly steady.

111. CLOAK & DAGGER
03/10 One-shot - 18,998More or less a random Cloak & Dagger one-shot, though it does serve the purpose of getting them out of the X-Men. Actually not a bad number considering that the book didn’t get much promotion.

112. PETER PARKER
03/10 Peter Parker #1 - 18,963A reprint book featuring the online Spider-Man comics. Again, not bad for that sort of product.

114. X-FACTOR FOREVER
03/10 X-Factor Forever #1 of 5 - 18,550X-MEN FOREVER spawns a franchise. This comes in about 3,000 ahead of the “parent” title, which is pretty decent.

116. REALM OF KINGS: INHUMANS
11/09 Inhumans #1 of 5 - 24,213
12/09 Inhumans #2 of 5 - 21,242 (-12.3%)
01/10 Inhumans #3 of 5 - 19,872 ( -6.4%)
02/10 Inhumans #4 of 5 - 19,118 ( -3.8%)
03/10 Inhumans #5 of 5 - 18,187 ( -4.9%)

118. WOLVERINE ONE-SHOTS
03/09 ---
04/09 Anniversary - 23,276 (+10.9%)
05/09 ---
06/09 Revolver - 21,425 ( -8.0%)
07/09 ---
08/09 ---
09/09 ---
10/09 ---
11/09 ---
12/09 Under the Boardwalk - 19,271 (-10.4%)
01/10 Wendigo - 17,476 ( -9.3%)
02/10 Savage - 18,396 ( +5.3%)
03/10 Mr X - 17,947 ( -2.4%)

120. REALM OF KINGS: IMPERIAL GUARD
11/09 Imperial Guard #1 of 5 - 23,450
12/09 Imperial Guard #2 of 5 - 20,647 (-12.0%)
01/10 Imperial Guard #3 of 5 - 18,949 ( -8.2%)
02/10 Imperial Guard #4 of 5 - 17,939 ( -5.3%)
03/10 Imperial Guard #5 of 5 - 17,267 ( -3.7%)

121. REALM OF KINGS: SON OF HULK
03/09 Skaar, Son of Hulk #9 - 27,137 ( -5.7%)
04/09 Skaar, Son of Hulk #10 - 27,317 ( +0.7%)
05/09 ---
06/09 Skaar, Son of Hulk #11 - 28,633 ( +4.8%)
06/09 Skaar, Son of Hulk #12 - 35,920 (+25.4%)
07/09 Son of Hulk #13 - 29,195 (-18.7%)
08/09 Son of Hulk #14 - 27,171 ( -6.9%)
09/09 Son of Hulk #15 - 22,722 (-16.4%)
10/09 Son of Hulk #16 - 20,504 ( -9.8%)
11/09 Son of Hulk #17 - 19,097 ( -6.9%)
12/09 ---
01/10 ---
02/10 Son of Hulk #1 of 4 - 24,010 (+25.7%)
03/10 Son of Hulk #2 of 4 - 17,195 (-28.4%)
6 mnth (-24.3%)
1 year (-36.6%)The three REALM OF KINGS minis cluster together. In between them, this month’s WOLVERINE one-shot remains in the 17-19K range which seems to have become their established territory.

122. POWERS [Icon]
03/05 ---
03/06 Powers #17 - 24,139
03/07 ---
03/08 Powers #28 - 19,256
03/09 ---
=====
11/09 Powers #1 - 20,146
12/09 Powers #2 - 17,181 (-14.7%)
01/10 ---
02/10 ---
03/10 Powers #3 - 16,768 ( -2.4%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year ( --- )
2 year (-12.9%)
3 year ( --- )
4 year (-30.5%)
5 year ( --- )Levelling out pretty quickly after its most recent relaunch.

124. AGENTS OF ATLAS
03/09 Agents of Atlas #2 - 26,783 (-22.3%)
04/09 Agents of Atlas #3 - 29,748 (+11.1%)
05/09 Agents of Atlas #4 - 25,377 (-14.7%)
05/09 Agents of Atlas #5 - 25,207 ( -0.7%)
06/09 Agents of Atlas #6 - 22,579 (-10.4%)
07/09 Agents of Atlas #7 - 23,217 ( +2.8%)
07/09 Agents of Atlas #8 - 20,540 (-11.5%)
08/09 Agents of Atlas #9 - 20,828 ( +1.4%)
09/09 Agents of Atlas #10 - 17,877 (-14.2%)
09/09 Agents of Atlas #11 - 17,529 ( -1.9%)
10/09 X-Men vs #1 of 2 - 32,743 (+86.8%)
11/09 X-Men vs #2 of 2 - 25,222 (-23.0%)
12/09 ---
01/10 Avengers vs #1 of 4 - 21,777 (-13.7%)
02/10 Avengers vs #2 of 4 - 17,998 (-17.4%)
03/10 Avengers vs #3 of 4 - 16,482 ( -8.4%)
6 mnth ( -7.8%)
1 year (-38.5%)This miniseries isn’t holding up quite so well as the last one. Nonetheless, a relaunch as just plain ATLAS is around the corner, as Marvel maintains its commendable commitment to this well-reviewed book.

125,127. X-MEN FOREVER
06/09 X-Men Forever #1 - 36,213
06/09 X-Men Forever #2 - 31,767 (-12.3%)
07/09 X-Men Forever #3 - 28,651 ( -9.8%)
07/09 X-Men Forever #4 - 28,645 ( -0.0%)
08/09 X-Men Forever #5 - 27,825 ( -2.9%)
08/09 X-Men Forever #6 - 24,875 (-10.6%)
09/09 X-Men Forever #7 - 24,115 ( -3.1%)
09/09 X-Men Forever #8 - 23,174 ( -3.9%)
10/09 X-Men Forever #9 - 21,926 ( -5.4%)
10/09 X-Men Forever #10 - 22,287 ( +1.6%)
11/09 X-Men Forever #11 - 20,130 ( -9.7%)
11/09 X-Men Forever #12 - 19,541 ( -2.9%)
12/09 X-Men Forever #13 - 18,870 ( -3.4%)
12/09 X-Men Forever #14 - 18,376 ( -2.6%)
01/10 X-Men Forever #15 - 17,665 ( -3.9%)
01/10 X-Men Forever #16 - 17,290 ( -2.1%)
02/10 X-Men Forever #17 - 17,873 ( +3.4%)
02/10 X-Men Forever #18 - 16,464 ( -7.9%)
03/10 X-Men Forever #19 - 16,183 ( -1.7%)
03/10 X-Men Forever #20 - 15,990 ( -1.2%)
6 mnth (-31.0%)Drifting slowly down, but Marvel are happy enough with these numbers to launch spin-offs and give the book a second year.

126. PUNISHER MAX: BUTTERFLY
03/10 Butterfly - 16,164About 6K behind the parent title, which isn’t bad at all for these random one-shots.

131,132,149,166,205. MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS
03/10 Captain America #1 - 15,140
03/10 Thor #1 - 14,554
03/10 Wizard of Oz #1 - 12,032
03/10 Punisher Max #1 - 10,478
03/10 Inv. Iron Man #1 - 8,062These are all $1 reprints, except for INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #1, which was made available as a bundle of 25 with a $10 price tag, for use as a giveaway.

133. CRIMINAL [Icon]
03/07 Criminal #5 - 16,389
03/08 ---
03/09 ---
=====
10/09 Sinners #1 of 5 - 20,580
11/09 Sinners #2 of 5 - 15,628 (-24.1%)
12/09 Sinners #3 of 5 - 14,624 ( -6.4%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Sinners #4 of 5 - 14,569 ( -0.4%)
03/10 Sinners #5 of 5 - 14,292 ( -1.9%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year ( --- )
2 year ( --- )
3 year (-12.8%)Solid. It’s barely budged over the final three issues.

137. TWELVE: SPEARHEAD
03/10 Spearhead - 13,543This is a one-shot spin-off from the TWELVE series, currently on hiatus. That book had settled down to steady sales of 29K, so this is quite some way distant.

138. GIRL COMICS
03/10 Girl Comics #1 of 3 - 13,491Anthology title by female creators. The closest comparison here is the STRANGE TALES miniseries from last year, which featured the long-awaited Peter Bagge “Incorrigible Hulk” strip and launched in September 2009 at 16,266. With that as a benchmark, this is quite a good number.

144. SPIDER-MAN AND THE SECRET WARS
12/09 Secret Wars #1 of 4 - 22,397
01/10 Secret Wars #2 of 4 - 15,353 (-31.5%)
02/10 Secret Wars #3 of 4 - 13,561 (-11.7%)
03/10 Secret Wars #4 of 4 - 12,637 ( -6.8%)A good performance for an all-ages title.

152. TORCH
09/09 Torch #1 of 8 - 26,921
10/09 Torch #2 of 8 - 18,115 (-32.7%)
11/09 Torch #3 of 8 - 15,209 (-16.0%)
12/09 Torch #4 of 8 - 13,782 ( -9.4%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Torch #5 of 8 - 12,211 (-11.4%)
03/10 Torch #6 of 8 - 11,896 ( -2.6%)
6 mnth (-55.8%)Still sliding, as the appeal of second-tier Golden Age characters seems to remain limited.

154. X-MEN: PIXIE STRIKES BACK
02/10 Pixie #1 of 4 - 14,167
03/10 Pixie #2 of 4 - 11,839 (-16.4%)This is very low for an X-related miniseries.

160. S.W.O.R.D.
11/09 S.W.O.R.D. #1 - 21,988
12/09 S.W.O.R.D. #2 - 15,113 (-31.3%)
01/10 S.W.O.R.D. #3 - 13,271 (-12.2%)
02/10 S.W.O.R.D. #4 - 11,778 (-11.3%)
03/10 S.W.O.R.D. #5 - 11,259 ( -4.4%)Axed.

162. SPIDER-MAN NOIR: EYES WITHOUT A FACE
03/09 Spider-Man Noir #4 of 4 - 24,720 ( -3.4%)
=====
12/09 Eyes w/o Face #1 of 4 - 16,447 (-33.5%)
01/10 Eyes w/o Face #2 of 4 - 13,239 (-19.5%)
02/10 Eyes w/o Face #3 of 4 - 11,379 (-14.0%)
03/10 Eyes w/o Face #4 of 4 - 10,756 ( -5.5%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year (-56.5%)

171. MYSTIC HANDS OF DR STRANGE
03/10 Mystic Hands of Dr Strange #1 - 10,148

173. X-MEN NOIR: MARK OF CAIN
03/09 X-Men Noir #4 of 4 - 25,861 ( -4.4%)
=====
12/09 Mark of Cain #1 of 4 - 16,043 (-38.0%)
01/10 Mark of Cain #2 of 4 - 13,399 (-16.5%)
02/10 Mark of Cain #3 of 4 - 10,564 (-21.2%)
03/10 Mark of Cain #4 of 4 - 10,070 ( -4.7%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year (-61.1%)The Noir books are both way down compared to their original runs. In between them, MYSTIC HANDS OF DOCTOR STRANGE is another 70s retro black and white magazine. Bearing in mind that the recent STRANGE miniseries launched at 23K and finished at 14K, the commercial appeal of this format seems to be limited.

175,185. BREAKING INTO COMICS THE MARVEL WAY!
03/10 Breaking Into #1 of 2 - 9,871
03/10 Breaking Into #2 of 2 - 9,129 (-7.5%)Despite the title, this isn’t a how-to book so much as a new-talent anthology. From the look of it, it’s selling mainly to completists. On the plus side, if any of these new artists turns out to be the next Jim Lee, then your copy of BREAKING INTO COMICS THE MARVEL WAY! #2 could be worth a fortune one day.

181. ANITA BLAKE, VAMPIRE HUNTER
03/07 Glty. Pleasures #5 of 12 - 31,136
03/08 Glty. Pleasures #9 of 12 - 26,324
=====
03/09 ---
04/09 Necromancer #1 of 5 - 15,308 ( +8.6%)
05/09 ---
06/09 Necromancer #2 of 5 - 12,907 (-15.7%)
07/09 Necromancer #3 of 5 - 12,143 ( -5.9%)
08/09 Necromancer #4 of 5 - 11,597 ( -4.5%)
09/09 Necromancer #5 of 5 - 11,142 ( -3.9%)
10/09 Executioner #1 of 5 - 11,205 ( +0.6%)
11/09 ---
12/09 Executioner #2 of 5 - 10,454 ( -6.7%)
01/10 Executioner #3 of 5 - 9,958 ( -4.7%)
02/10 Executioner #4 of 5 - 9,626 ( -3.3%)
03/10 Executioner #5 of 5 - 9,454 ( -1.8%)
6 mnth (-15.1%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year (-64.1%)
3 year (-69.6%)Levelling out a bit by the end of this series, but that happened at the end of NECROMANCER as well.

182. DEATHLOK
11/09 Deathlok #1 of 7 - 20,855
12/09 Deathlok #2 of 7 - 14,059 (-32.6%)
01/10 Deathlok #3 of 7 - 11,670 (-17.0%)
02/10 Deathlok #4 of 7 - 10,185 (-12.7%)
03/10 Deathlok #5 of 7 - 9,387 ( -7.8%)With two issues still to go, this is going to be low by the end. The drops are relatively steep for a miniseries, too.

190. MARVEL BOY: THE URANIAN
01/10 Uranian #1 of 3 - 14,258
02/10 Uranian #2 of 3 - 9,981 (-30.0%)
03/10 Uranian #3 of 3 - 8,817 (-11.7%)Low numbers, but Marvel would never have expected wonders from an AGENTS OF ATLAS spin-off.

192. HALO: BLOOD LINE
12/09 Blood Line #1 of 5 - 10,551
01/10 Blood Line #2 of 5 - 9,172 (-13.1%)
02/10 Blood Line #3 of 5 - 8,793 ( -4.1%)
03/10 Blood Line #4 of 5 - 8,683 ( -1.3%)Video game adaptation, and those reportedly sell most of their copies outside the direct market.

195. PET AVENGERS
05/09 Pet Avengers #1 of 4 - 17,638
06/09 Pet Avengers #2 of 4 - 12,317 (-30.2%)
07/09 Pet Avengers #3 of 4 - 11,739 ( -4.7%)
08/09 Pet Avengers #4 of 4 - 11,340 ( -3.4%)
09/09 ---
10/09 ---
11/09 ---
12/09 ---
01/10 ---
02/10 Tails o/Pet Avengers - 8,214 (-27.6%)
03/10 Unleashed #1 of 4 - 8,554 ( +4.1%)The first PET AVENGERS miniseries ended up at 11K, so starting off at 8,500 isn’t too promising. That said, it depends on who Marvel see as the target audience here – this is an all-ages title, and by those standards it’s still doing quite well.

241. MARVEL SPOTLIGHT
03/06 Finch/Aguirre-Sacasa - 4,146
03/07 Civil War Aftermath - 31,072
03/08 L Hamilton/G Martin - 4,656
=====
03/09 Wolverine - 6,670 (+9.8%)
04/09 ---
05/09 New Mutants - 4,661 (-30.1%)
06/09 Captain America - 6,733 (+44.5%)
07/09 ---
08/09 Summer Events - 5,999 (-10.9%)
09/09 Marvel Zombies - 5,546 ( -7.6%)
10/09 Deadpool - 7,284 (+31.3%)
11/09 ---
12/09 ---
01/10 ---
02/10 ---
03/10 Iron Man 2 - 6,373 (-12.5%)
6 mnth (+14.9%)
1 year ( -4.5%)
2 year (+36.9%)
3 year (-79.5%)
4 year (+53.7%)MARVEL SPOTLIGHT seems to have settled down to a 5-7K range.

259. SUPER HERO SQUAD
09/09 Super Hero Squad #1 of 4 - 6,760
10/09 Super Hero Squad #2 of 4 - 4,496 ( -33.5%)
11/09 Super Hero Squad #3 of 4 - 4,384 ( -2.5%)
12/09 Super Hero Squad #4 of 4 - 4,132 ( -5.7%)
01/10 Super Hero Squad #1 - 9,709 (+135.0%)
02/10 Super Hero Squad #2 - 5,691 ( -41.4%)
03/10 Super Hero Squad #3 - 5,399 ( -5.1%)
6 mnth ( -20.1%)That’s still above most issues of the recent miniseries, so it’s doing fine so far. Again, this is an all-ages book, and it’s based on a TV show, so direct sales shouldn’t be the key issue anyway.

277. WOMEN OF MARVEL: CELEBRATING SEVEN DECADES
03/10 WoM: C7D - 4,656This is a ten dollar magazine featuring reprints and some new features. The economics are completely different for that sort of product, so Marvel will probably be entirely happy with these sales.

287. MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN [All ages]
03/05 M.A. Spider-Man #1 - 14,351
03/06 M.A. Spider-Man #13 - 5,899
03/07 M.A. Spider-Man #25 - 6,408
03/08 M.A. Spider-Man #37 - 5,877
=====
03/09 M.A. Spider-Man #49 - 4,640 ( +0.4%)
04/09 M.A. Spider-Man #50 - 4,780 ( +3.0%)
05/09 M.A. Spider-Man #51 - 4,557 ( -4.7%)
06/09 M.A. Spider-Man #52 - 4,612 ( +1.2%)
07/09 M.A. Spider-Man #53 - 5,710 (+23.8%)
08/09 M.A. Spider-Man #54 - 5,684 ( -0.5%)
09/09 M.A. Spider-Man #55 - 5,668 ( -0.3%)
10/09 M.A. Spider-Man #56 - 4,579 (-19.2%)
11/09 M.A. Spider-Man #57 - 4,501 ( -1.7%)
12/09 M.A. Spider-Man #58 - 4,352 ( -3.3%)
01/10 M.A. Spider-Man #59 - 4,315 ( -0.9%)
02/10 M.A. Spider-Man #60 - 4,212 ( -2.4%)
03/10 M.A. Spider-Man #61 - 4,200 ( -2.8%)
6 mnth (-25.9%)
1 year ( -9.5%)
2 year (-28.5%)
3 year (-34.5%)
4 year (-28.8%)
5 year (-70.7%)Relaunches next month as just plain SPIDER-MAN.

Three Marvel books failed to make the top 300 in March: MARVEL ADVENTURES SUPER HEROES #21, DAFFODIL #3 and KOOKABURRA K #3. All three sold fewer than 3,704 copies, a benchmark none of them would have been expected to reach based on their track record.

6 month comparisons
===================

+32.7% - Doomwar/Black Panther
+16.3% - New Mutants
+14.9% - Marvel Spotlight
+14.1% - Avengers: The Initiative
+10.7% - PunisherMax
+ 2.5% - Iron Man
+ 0.3% - Thunderbolts
+ 0.2% - X-Force
- 4.6% - X-Factor
- 5.0% - Thor
- 6.2% - Mighty Avengers
- 7.6% - Uncanny X-Men
- 7.8% - Agents of Atlas
- 8.6% - Incredible Hulk
- 9.4% - Dark Avengers
-10.5% - Nova
-11.0% - New Avengers
-11.3% - Cable
-12.6% - Hercules
-13.1% - Guardians of the Galaxy
-13.4% - Amazing Spider-Man
-13.4% - Hulk
-15.1% - Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
-15.3% - Ultimate Comics Avengers
-15.7% - Secret Warriors
-16.7% - Deadpool
-18.5% - Dark Wolverine
-20.1% - Super Hero Squad
-20.4% - Wolverine: Origins
-21.6% - Punisher (MU)
-23.8% - Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth
-24.3% - Son of Hulk
-24.6% - Fantastic Four
-25.9% - Marvel Adventures Spider-Man
-27.3% - Wolverine: Weapon X
-28.7% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-31.0% - X-Men Forever
-46.5% - Moon Knight
-47.4% - Captain America
-49.5% - Spider-Woman
-55.8% - Torch

1 year comparisons
==================

+ 0.8% - PunisherMax
- 3.6% - X-Force
- 4.5% - Marvel Spotlight
- 5.3% - Cable
- 5.6% - Iron Man
- 8.3% - Captain America
- 8.5% - Moon Knight
- 9.3% - X-Factor
- 9.5% - Doomwar/Black Panther
- 9.5% - Marvel Adventures Spider-Man
-11.6% - Amazing Spider-Man
-12.8% - Uncanny X-Men
-13.3% - X-Men Legacy
-19.0% - Nova
-20.1% - New Avengers
-20.8% - Deadpool
-21.1% - Guardians of the Galaxy
-25.4% - Wolverine: Origins
-26.0% - Fantastic Four
-27.8% - Hercules
-28.4% - Mighty Avengers
-29.1% - Dark Avengers
-34.7% - Thunderbolts
-36.6% - Son of Hulk
-38.5% - Agents of Atlas
-40.6% - Secret Warriors
-40.7% - Punisher (MU)
-45.8% - Dark Wolverine
-53.0% - Stand
-56.5% - Spider-Man Noir
-61.1% - X-Men Noir

2 year comparisons
==================

+101.0% - Official Handbook
+ 43.2% - Doomwar/Black Panther
+ 36.9% - Marvel Spotlight
+ 36.7% - Iron Man
- 12.9% - Powers
- 15.0% - Thunderbolts
- 23.3% - Dark Wolverine
- 23.6% - Uncanny X-Men
- 24.0% - Nova
- 26.1% - New Avengers
- 28.3% - PunisherMax
- 28.5% - Marvel Adventures Spider-Man
- 28.6% - Punisher (MU)
- 29.0% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 29.0% - Avengers: The Initiative
- 30.0% - Captain America
- 31.5% - Wolverine: Origins
- 33.1% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 35.4% - Moon Knight
- 37.9% - Mighty Avengers
- 38.9% - X-Force
- 41.4% - X-Men Legacy
- 46.9% - Fantastic Four
- 47.2% - X-Factor
- 53.3% - Hercules
- 64.1% - Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter

3 year comparisons
==================

- 1.4% - Incredible Hulk
-12.8% - Criminal
-17.1% - Uncanny X-Men
-24.0% - X-Factor
-32.5% - PunisherMax
-34.5% - Marvel Adventures Spider-Man
-35.9% - X-Men Legacy
-36.3% - New Avengers
-37.3% - Doomwar/Black Panther
-44.4% - Thunderbolts
-44.5% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-48.1% - Dark Wolverine
-51.6% - Fantastic Four
-54.5% - Wolverine: Origins
-55.6% - Punisher
-60.6% - Amazing Spider-Man
-67.3% - Mighty Avengers
-69.6% - Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
-75.3% - Moon Knight
-79.5% - Marvel Spotlight
-80.4% - Captain America

4 year comparisons
==================

+53.7% - Marvel Spotlight
+27.4% - Captain America
+27.4% - Thunderbolts
+22.3% - Iron Man
+ 7.9% - Incredible Hulk
+ 6.1% - Doomwar/Black Panther
+ 1.0% - Official Handbook
-13.1% - Uncanny X-Men
-24.9% - Ultimate Comics New Ultimates
-28.8% - Marvel Adventures Spider-Man
-30.5% - Powers
-34.5% - Dark Wolverine
-35.0% - PunisherMax
-37.1% - New Avengers
-37.8% - X-Factor
-38.2% - X-Men Legacy
-38.2% - Fantastic Four
-39.7% - Amazing Spider-Man
-43.3% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man

5 year comparisons
==================

+22.1% - Captain America
+17.3% - Thunderbolts
+ 8.4% - Incredible Hulk
-21.3% - Uncanny X-Men
-23.3% - Fantastic Four
-29.6% - Amazing Spider-Man
-32.3% - Ultimate Comics New Ultimates
-35.7% - Doomwar/Black Panther
-40.9% - Official Handbook
-41.5% - PunisherMax
-42.6% - X-Men Legacy
-50.9% - New Avengers
-51.2% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-53.3% - Dark Wolverine
-70.7% - Marvel Adventures Spider-Man

Fred le Mallrat a écrit:13-Le golden age ne fait pas vendre : Marvels Project, Twelve, Human Torch..

18-Agent Of Atlas et Uranian ont des ventes catastrophiques. Le relaunch et els minis sur namora ou Gorilla man s annonce comme des desastres annoncés en terme de ventes (je ne parle que chiffres de toute facon)

Fred le Mallrat a écrit:
10-Fantastic Four chute toujours. On va pas echaper a un choc formel(mort, ressurection, nouvelle equipe creative, modif de la line up..).

Hyperion a écrit: Perso j'ai quelques groupes de persos que je suis et que je lis depuis le début.

Mugiwara a écrit:

Fred le Mallrat a écrit:
10-Fantastic Four chute toujours. On va pas echaper a un choc formel(mort, ressurection, nouvelle equipe creative, modif de la line up..).

Ca montre encore l'écart entre ce que veulent les lecteurs qui s'expriment sur le net et ce que veut l'ensemble des lecteurs qui achètent les comics.
Je vois partout des "Y en a marre des gimmicks! Pas besoin de tout chambouler ou de tuer des persos, contentez-vous de faire de bonnes histoires!". C'est ce qu'ils font en ce moment sur FF (il me semble que Hickman a un assez bon succès critique, en tout cas meileurs que ses prédecesseurs) et résultat: les ventes plongent.

Crossover season continues! SIEGE #4 slipped into May, but that didn’t stop a bunch of tie-in books from shipping, including the final issues of several Avengers titles before the line gets revamped. HULK and INCREDIBLE HULK didn’t ship either, but there’s still some WORLD WAR HULK books on this list. And the X-books kick off their major crossover, “Second Coming.”

April also saw the release of the Iron Man movie, complete with the launch of a second monthly Iron Man title. And we’ve got the first issues of new DEADPOOL CORPS, S.H.I.E.L.D. and BLACK WIDOW, as well as a bunch of miniseries.

As usual, Marvel had the largest share of the direct market, beating DC by 45% to 33% in units, and 39% to 30% in dollars.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these cancellations.

Normally I’d start with Marvel’s top selling book of the month. First, though, SIEGE itself. Issue #4, originally scheduled for 21 April, slipped into May. But issue #3 did scrape the bottom end of the charts, making number 293 with re-orders of 3,073. That brings its totals to…

SIEGE
01/10 Siege #1 of 4 - 120,888
02/10 Siege #2 of 4 - 118,283 (-2.2%)
03/10 Siege #3 of 4 - 113,071 (-4.4%)
04/10 ---Once again, it’s worth noting that, although the first issue sales were on the low side, subsequent issues have held up relatively well – though SIEGE remains some way distant of previous event books. Of course, it can fairly be pointed out that sales are down across the board from a couple of years ago, so that SIEGE would have been bucking the trends if it had matched its predecessors in sales.

5. NEW AVENGERS
04/05 New Avengers #5 - 162,412
04/06 New Avengers #18 - 121,550
04/07 New Avengers #29 - 125,378
04/08 New Avengers #40 - 110,470
=====
04/09 New Avengers #52 - 93,975 ( -1.4%)
05/09 New Avengers #53 - 94,367 ( +0.4%)
06/09 New Avengers #54 - 93,878 ( -0.5%)
07/09 New Avengers #55 - 84,745 ( -9.7%)
08/09 New Avengers #56 - 89,996 ( +6.2%)
09/09 New Avengers #57 - 85,598 ( -4.9%)
10/09 New Avengers #58 - 76,656 (-10.4%)
11/09 New Avengers #59 - 74,379 ( -3.0%)
12/09 New Avengers #60 - 72,790 ( -2.1%)
01/10 New Avengers #61 - 78,202 ( +7.4%)
02/10 New Avengers #62 - 76,405 ( -2.3%)
03/10 New Avengers #63 - 76,145 ( -0.3%)
04/10 New Avengers #64 - 75,430 ( -0.9%)
6 mnth ( -1.6%)
1 year (-19.7%)
2 year (-31.7%)
3 year (-39.8%)
4 year (-37.9%)
5 year (-53.6%)With SIEGE itself running late, Marvel’s biggest selling title for April is one of its tie-ins. This is technically the final issue of NEW AVENGERS, though it actually continues into May’s NEW AVENGERS: FINALE one-shot, and the series is set for a relaunch in June.

6. UNCANNY X-MEN
04/05 Uncanny X-Men #458 - 85,299
04/06 Uncanny X-Men #472 - 79,157
04/07 Uncanny X-Men #485 - 81,764
04/08 Uncanny X-Men #497 - 93,369
=====
04/09 Uncanny X-Men #508 - 76,442 ( -1.9%)
04/09 Uncanny X-Men #509 - 69,185 ( -9.5%)
05/09 Uncanny X-Men #510 - 75,139 ( +8.6%)
06/09 Uncanny X-Men #511 - 71,148 ( -5.3%)
06/09 Uncanny X-Men #512 - 76,283 ( +7.2%)
07/09 Uncanny X-Men #513 - 87,582 (+14.8%)
08/09 Uncanny X-Men #514 - 90,316 ( +3.1%)
09/09 Uncanny X-Men #515 - 73,585 (-18.5%)
10/09 Uncanny X-Men #516 - 73,916 ( +0.4%)
11/09 Uncanny X-Men #517 - 69,557 ( -5.9%)
12/09 Uncanny X-Men #518 - 68,572 ( -1.4%)
12/09 Uncanny X-Men #519 - 67,043 ( -2.2%)
01/10 Uncanny X-Men #520 - 65,758 ( -1.9%)
02/10 Uncanny X-Men #521 - 67,049 ( +2.0%)
03/10 Uncanny X-Men #522 - 67,996 ( +1.4%)
04/10 Uncanny X-Men #523 - 74,090 ( +9.0%)
6 mnth ( +0.2%)
1 year ( -3.0%)
2 year (-20.6%)
3 year ( -9.4%)
4 year ( -6.4%)
5 year (-13.1%)For the X-books, April begins the three-month “Second Coming” crossover. The core titles are UNCANNY X-MEN, X-MEN LEGACY, X-FORCE and NEW MUTANTS, with some other tie-ins on the fringes (most notably an arc in X-FACTOR).

UNCANNY usually has a variant cover. This issue has two – one by David Finch, and one “Iron Man by Design” variant, which is the April theme. To be honest, that would normally be enough to account for the 9% sales increase in itself.

As already discussed in relation to SIEGE, sales are down across the board over the last couple of years, so comparisons with earlier years have to be seen with that in mind. With that caveat in mind, though, “Second Coming” is the third part of a trilogy which started with “Messiah Complex” in late 2007. UNCANNY X-MEN #492, which began that crossover, posted a 20% sales increase for an estimated 102,511 copies. So this crossover does seem to be having less effect on sales than its predecessors.

That said, it’s been fairly common of late for the top-selling titles to see relatively little gain from a crossover. We’ve seen it with the Avengers books during SIEGE, for example, and the pattern may be repeating here.

7. INVINCIBLE IRON MAN
04/05 Iron Man #3 - 51,390
04/06 Iron Man #7 - 49,404
04/07 Iron Man #16 - 59,470
04/08 Iron Man #28 - 35,754
=====
04/09 Invincible Iron Man #12 - 51,774 ( -0.7%)
05/09 Invincible Iron Man #13 - 51,311 ( -0.9%)
06/09 Invincible Iron Man #14 - 53,229 ( +3.7%)
07/09 Invincible Iron Man #15 - 50,554 ( -5.0%)
08/09 Invincible Iron Man #16 - 53,782 ( +6.4%)
09/09 Invincible Iron Man #17 - 47,182 ( -12.3%)
09/09 Invincible Iron Man #18 - 48,039 ( +1.8%)
10/09 Invincible Iron Man #19 - 47,178 ( -1.8%)
11/09 Invincible Iron Man #20 - 61,667 ( +30.7%)
12/09 Invincible Iron Man #21 - 49,986 ( -18.9%)
01/10 Invincible Iron Man #22 - 49,130 ( -1.7%)
02/10 Invincible Iron Man #23 - 50,027 ( +1.8%)
03/10 Invincible Iron Man #24 - 49,239 ( -1.6%)
04/10 Invincible Iron Man #25 - 73,694 ( +49.7%)
6 mnth ( +56.2%)
1 year ( +42.9%)
2 year (+106.1%)
3 year ( +23.9%)
4 year ( +49.2%)
5 year ( +44.0%)There’s a huge spike for this issue, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it’s an anniversary issue (though a relatively minor one). Secondly, April saw the release of the second Iron man movie. Thirdly, this is a double-sized book. Fourthly, there’s a slew of variant covers on this thing – 50/50 covers by regular artist Salvador Larroca, a foilogram variant by Ryan Meinerding, a movie variant, and an “Iron Man by Design” variant. And fifthly, though I doubt it’s much of a factor, the issue unveils a new armour design.

Even with all those factors in its favour, the sales jump is enormous. I’d say the major factor is the movie, combined with a successful effort to push this issue as a viable tie-in product.

9,20. ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS
08/09 U.C. Avengers #1 - 99,701
09/09 U.C. Avengers #2 - 68,597 (-31.2%)
10/09 U.C. Avengers #3 - 62,716 ( -8.6%)
11/09 U.C. Avengers #4 - 59,023 ( -5.9%)
12/09 ---
01/10 ---
02/10 ---
03/10 U.C. Avengers #5 - 58,098 ( -1.6%)
04/10 U.C. Avengers #6 - 53,438 ( -8.0%)
04/10 U.C. Avengers 2 #1 - 64,811 (+21.3%)
6 mnth ( +3.3%)The relaunch of the Ultimate imprint hasn’t been a resounding success so far. Whether or not in response to that, Marvel have tinkered with the format of ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS, which will now be a series of minis rather than an ongoing title. So we have two issues this month – the delayed ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS #6, and the first issue of ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS 2.

This device has shown diminishing returns on books like DARK TOWER and ANITA BLAKE. What tends to happen is that the first issue shows a spike, but the overall trend remains downwards. Perhaps it will be different with a major superhero title.

This issue does show a significant spike. But then it also has two variant covers, which would have boosted numbers anyway. We should see over the next few months whether the renumbering has a lasting effect on sales.

10. THOR
04/05 ---
04/06 ---
04/07 ---
04/08 Thor #8 - 91,981
=====
04/09 Thor #601 - 82,742 (-14.5%)
05/09 ---
06/09 Thor #602 - 69,568 (-15.3%)
07/09 ---
08/09 ---
09/09 Thor #603 - 65,265 ( -6.2%)
10/09 ---
11/09 Finale - 53,566 (-17.9%)
12/09 Thor #604 - 61,608 (+15.0%)
12/09 Thor #605 - 55,242 (-10.3%)
01/10 Thor #606 - 55,353 ( +0.2%)
02/10 Thor #607 - 66,973 (+21.0%)
03/10 Thor #608 - 62,012 ( -7.4%)
04/10 Thor #609 - 64,522 ( +4.0%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year (-22.0%)
2 year (-29.9%)
3 year ( --- )
4 year ( --- )
5 year ( --- )The third part of THOR’s SIEGE tie-in arc. This issue also has a variant cover, hence the variation from last month.

12. X-FORCE
04/08 X-Force #3 - 85,750
=====
04/09 X-Force #14 - 62,674 (+21.0%)
05/09 X-Force #15 - 58,340 ( -6.9%)
06/09 X-Force #16 - 58,818 ( +0.8%)
07/09 X-Force #17 - 61,104 ( +3.9%)
08/09 X-Force #18 - 56,421 ( -7.7%)
09/09 X-Force #19 - 49,817 (-11.7%)
10/09 X-Force #20 - 48,921 ( -1.8%)
11/09 X-Force #21 - 53,967 (+10.3%)
12/09 X-Force #22 - 51,859 ( -3.9%)
01/10 X-Force #23 - 50,848 ( -1.9%)
02/10 X-Force #24 - 49,790 ( -2.1%)
03/10 X-Force #25 - 49,910 ( +0.2%)
04/10 X-Force #26 - 62,200 (+24.6%)
6 mnth (+27.1%)
1 year ( -0.8%)
2 year (-27.5%)Part of the “Second Coming” tie-in, and this does indeed show a significant sales increase – comparable, in fact, to the spike this time last year for the “Messiah War” crossover.

But again, there’s a slight caveat here. First of all, X-FORCE is coming straight off another crossover, “Necrosha-X”, which only finished in March. And second, this issue has three variant covers, compared with only one variant last month – so of course sales are up.

Interestingly, it remains 15,000 adrift of UNCANNY X-MEN. I’ve always found that fascinating. Who are these people who want to buy every fourth chapter of “Second Coming”? If they’re such completists that they’re buying issues of UNCANNY containing a story they apparently don’t want to read, why aren’t they completist enough to buy the other parts of the story? Mystifies me…

14. X-MEN LEGACY
04/05 X-Men #169 - 82,793
04/06 X-Men #185 - 78,815
04/07 X-Men #198 - 74,841
04/08 X-Men Legacy #210 - 77,441
=====
04/09 X-Men Legacy #223 - 71,935 (+29.4%)
05/09 X-Men Legacy #224 - 54,008 (-24.9%)
06/09 X-Men Legacy #225 - 58,374 ( +8.1%)
07/09 X-Men Legacy #226 - 59,298 ( +1.6%)
08/09 X-Men Legacy #227 - 63,316 ( +6.8%)
09/09 ---
10/09 X-Men Legacy #228 - 52,855 (-16.5%)
11/09 X-Men Legacy #229 - 50,789 ( -3.9%)
12/09 X-Men Legacy #230 - 49,776 ( -2.0%)
12/09 X-Men Legacy #231 - 50,929 ( +2.3%)
01/10 X-Men Legacy #232 - 49,200 ( -3.4%)
02/10 X-Men Legacy #233 - 51,344 ( +4.4%)
03/10 X-Men Legacy #234 - 48,217 ( -6.1%)
04/10 X-Men Legacy #235 - 60,649 (+25.8%)
6 mnth (+14.7%)
1 year (-15.7%)
2 year (-21.7%)
3 year (-19.0%)
4 year (-23.0%)
5 year (-26.7%)More “Second Coming”, and again, there’s a substantial spike here. For those of you keeping track, issues #231-233 were a “Necrosha” tie-in arc, the March issue was just a plain old regular story, and this is the start of another crossover arc. As with the other participating titles, there’s a David Finch variant cover, as well as an “Iron Man by Design” variant.

The jump for last April’s issue was due to a bunch of variant covers, but a better comparison may be issue #227, a “Utopia” tie-in which also featured a “70th frame” variant. This month’s issue comes in slightly behind that.

16. CAPTAIN AMERICA
04/05 Captain America #5 - 46,010
04/06 Captain America #17 - 45,541
04/07 ---
04/08 Captain America #37 - 80,635
=====
04/09 Captain America #49 - 63,874 ( +2.8%)
05/09 Captain America #50 - 72,708 ( +13.8%)
06/09 Captain America #600 - 123,152 ( +69.4%)
07/09 Captain America #601 - 87,844 ( -28.7%)
07/09 Reborn #1 of 6 - 197,565 (+124.9%)
08/09 Reborn #2 of 6 - 125,366 ( -36.5%)
09/09 Reborn #3 of 6 - 108,331 ( -13.6%)
10/09 ---
11/09 Reborn #4 of 6 - 96,571 ( -10.9%)
12/09 Reborn #5 of 6 - 91,790 ( -5.0%)
01/10 Reborn #6 of 6 - 84,844 ( -7.6%)
01/10 Captain America #602 - 63,948 ( -24.6%)
02/10 Captain America #603 - 63,568 ( -0.6%)
03/10 Captain America #604 - 56,962 ( -10.4%)
04/10 Captain America #605 - 59,051 ( +3.7%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year ( -7.6%)
2 year ( -26.8%)
3 year ( --- )
4 year ( +29.7%)
5 year ( +28.3%)The small increase is likely due to the Iron Man By Design variant. (There was no variant in March, though there was in February.)

17,19. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
04/05 Amazing Spider-Man #519 - 78,535
04/06 Amazing Spider-Man #531 - 86,884
04/07 ---
04/08 Amazing Spider-Man #557 - 77,057
=====
04/09 Amazing Spider-Man #590 - 66,415 (+12.9%)
04/09 Amazing Spider-Man #591 - 60,508 ( -8.9%)
04/09 Amazing Spider-Man #592 - 65,940 ( +9.0%)
05/09 Amazing Spider-Man #593 - 58,363 (-11.5%)
05/09 Amazing Spider-Man #594 - 58,464 ( +0.2%)
05/09 Amazing Spider-Man #595 - 71,837 (+22.9%)
06/09 Amazing Spider-Man #596 - 63,525 (-11.6%)
06/09 Amazing Spider-Man #597 - 61,646 ( -3.0%)
06/09 Amazing Spider-Man #598 - 61,585 ( -0.0%)
07/09 Amazing Spider-Man #599 - 72,412 (+17.6%)
07/09 Amazing Spider-Man #600 - 116,857 (+61.4%)
08/09 Amazing Spider-Man #601 - 74,279 (-36.4%)
08/09 Amazing Spider-Man #602 - 71,532 ( -3.7%)
08/09 Amazing Spider-Man #603 - 71,051 ( -0.7%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #604 - 63,435 (-10.7%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #605 - 62,831 ( -1.0%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #606 - 70,177 (+11.7%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #607 - 62,570 (-10.8%)
10/09 Amazing Spider-Man #608 - 72,035 (+15.1%)
10/09 Amazing Spider-Man #609 - 61,176 (-15.1%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #610 - 61,170 ( -0.0%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #611 - 64,514 ( +5.5%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #612 - 68,459 ( +6.1%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #613 - 64,499 ( -5.8%)
12/09 Amazing Spider-Man #614 - 59,696 ( -7.4%)
12/09 Amazing Spider-Man #615 - 63,738 ( +6.8%)
12/09 Amazing Spider-Man #616 - 58,856 ( -7.7%)
01/10 Amazing Spider-Man #617 - 76,730 (+30.4%)
01/10 Amazing Spider-Man #618 - 61,969 (-19.2%)
01/10 Amazing Spider-Man #619 - 56,837 ( -8.3%)
02/10 Amazing Spider-Man #620 - 59,860 ( +5.3%)
02/10 Amazing Spider-Man #621 - 55,350 ( -7.5%)
02/10 Amazing Spider-Man #622 - 53,929 ( -2.6%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #623 - 66,064 (+22.5%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #624 - 60,213 ( -8.9%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #625 - 54,179 (-10.0%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #626 - 53,868 ( -0.6%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #627 - 54,206 ( +0.6%)
04/10 Amazing Spider-Man #628 - 57,797 ( +6.6%)
04/10 Amazing Spider-Man #629 - 53,560 ( -7.3%)
6 mnth (-12.4%)
1 year (-11.5%)
2 year (-30.5%)
3 year ( --- )
4 year (-38.4%)
5 year (-31.8%)Note for nitpickers: The year-on-year comparison is based on the lowest of the three April 2009 issues, because it’s the most representative – the others had variant covers.

Issue #630 slipped into the first week of May, so there’s just two issues this month. Issue #628 has an Iron Man by Design variant; issue #629 is just a regular issue. Sales have been hovering around this range for the last couple of months.

18,21,24,28,29. SIEGE: FALLEN
04/10 Captain America - 59,051
04/10 Spider-Man - 51,840
04/10 Loki - 48,072
04/10 Secret Warriors - 44,153
04/10 Young Avengers - 43,886A bunch of SIEGE tie-ins which were initially solicited with the dreaded “Classified”, not even announcing the creators (other than cover artist Marko Djurdjevic). More information was revealed later, but it’s probably safe to say that these sales are largely a reflection of the popularity of the characters – with the caveat that the LOKI one-shot was obviously more likely to be central to the plot, and should presumably have benefitted from that.

22. MIGHTY AVENGERS
04/07 Mighty Avengers #2 - 124,209
04/08 Mighty Avengers #12 - 97,239
=====
04/09 Mighty Avengers #24 - 68,231 ( -4.3%)
05/09 ---
06/09 Mighty Avengers #25 - 65,010 ( -4.7%)
06/09 Mighty Avengers #26 - 63,178 ( -2.8%)
07/09 Mighty Avengers #27 - 64,680 ( +2.4%)
08/09 Mighty Avengers #28 - 61,323 ( -5.2%)
09/09 Mighty Avengers #29 - 54,476 (-11.2%)
10/09 Mighty Avengers #30 - 52,708 ( -3.2%)
11/09 Mighty Avengers #31 - 49,480 ( -6.1%)
12/09 Mighty Avengers #32 - 48,662 ( -1.7%)
01/10 Mighty Avengers #33 - 46,899 ( -3.6%)
02/10 ---
03/10 Mighty Avengers #34 - 49,855 ( +6.3%)
03/10 Mighty Avengers #35 - 51,085 ( +2.5%)
04/10 Mighty Avengers #36 - 50,252 ( -1.6%)
6 mnth ( -4.7%)
1 year (-26.4%)
2 year (-48.3%)
3 year (-59.5%)Final issue. This isn’t really being relaunched so much as replaced on the schedule by a different Avengers title.

For those of you who might be interested, for the purposes of these columns, I’m planning to treat NEW AVENGERS as continuing into NEW AVENGERS; and AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE as continuing into AVENGERS ACADEMY. As for DARK AVENGERS and MIGHTY AVENGERS, while they’re being replaced on the schedule by SECRET AVENGERS and just-plain-AVENGERS, I don’t think the links are close enough to justify treating them as the same title. (Neither of the new titles, for example, can sensibly be described as a continuation of DARK AVENGERS.)

23. IRON MAN: LEGACY
04/10 Iron Man: Legacy #1 - 48,956This is a new ongoing Iron Man series with stories set in past continuity. The name is presumably inspired by Mike Carey’s X-MEN LEGACY, though that book isn’t actually set in the past, it’s just packed solid with flashbacks. This book seems to be more of an UNTOLD TALES OF IRON MAN.

The first issue has 50/50 covers plus a Ryan Meinerding variant, plus a movie variant. Take all that together with the movie release, and the first issue sales will have been helped substantially.

25. ULTIMATE COMICS X
02/10 Ultimate Comics X #1 - 64,113
03/10 ---
04/10 Ultimate Comics X #2 - 47,996 (-25.2%)Issue #1 had multiple variant covers, so the second issue drop here is actually quite modest. Not bad at all.

26. DARK WOLVERINE
04/05 Wolverine #27 - 101,228
04/06 Wolverine #41 - 70,965
04/07 Wolverine #53 - 98,441
04/08 Wolverine #64 - 64,871
=====
04/09 ---
05/09 Wolverine #72 - 91,333 ( +0.1%)
05/09 Wolverine #73 - 83,324 ( -8.8%)
06/09 Wolverine #74 - 66,186 (-20.6%)
06/09 Dark Wolverine #75 - 80,780 (+22.0%)
07/09 Dark Wolverine #76 - 74,017 ( -8.4%)
08/09 Dark Wolverine #77 - 68,593 ( -7.3%)
09/09 Dark Wolverine #78 - 60,702 (-11.5%)
10/09 Dark Wolverine #79 - 60,076 ( -1.0%)
11/09 Dark Wolverine #80 - 52,394 (-12.8%)
12/09 Dark Wolverine #81 - 48,102 ( -8.2%)
01/10 Dark Wolverine #82 - 54,838 (+14.0%)
02/10 Dark Wolverine #83 - 53,958 ( -1.6%)
03/10 Dark Wolverine #84 - 49,469 ( -8.3%)
04/10 Dark Wolverine #85 - 47,527 ( -3.9%)
6 mnth (-20.9%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year (-26.7%)
3 year (-51.7%)
4 year (-33.0%)
5 year (-53.0%)Pay attention, now, because this is complicated. Issues #82-84 were SIEGE tie-ins. Issue #85, on the other hand, is part one of “The Reckoning”, which is a crossover with the lower-selling WOLVERINE: ORIGINS. Some sales drop is therefore to be expected. As against that, this issue also has a variant cover (unlike March), which ought to send sales back up. Take all these factors into account and… well, who knows, really?

Incidentally, while DARK WOLVERINE seems to be locked on crossover mode at the moment – after this arc, it goes on to a crossover with FRANKEN-CASTLE – “The Reckoning” is one of those rare stories which probably should be a crossover for creative reasons. It’s the conclusion of the Romulus storyline from WOLVERINE: ORIGINS, a story which actually is important for both Wolverine and Daken, and therefore has a fair claim to appear in both their titles.

30. DEADPOOL
04/09 Deadpool #9 - 54,556 ( +2.7%)
05/09 Deadpool #10 - 56,123 ( +2.9%)
06/09 Deadpool #11 - 55,343 ( -1.4%)
07/09 Deadpool #12 - 58,807 ( +6.3%)
08/09 Deadpool #13 - 55,442 ( -5.7%)
08/09 Deadpool #14 - 50,263 ( -9.3%)
09/09 Deadpool #15 - 50,479 ( +0.4%)
10/09 Deadpool #16 - 46,288 ( -8.3%)
11/09 Deadpool #17 - 46,765 ( +1.0%)
12/09 Deadpool #18 - 45,914 ( -1.8%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Deadpool #19 - 44,580 ( -2.9%)
02/10 Deadpool #20 - 43,347 ( -2.8%)
03/10 Deadpool #21 - 42,062 ( -3.0%)
04/10 Deadpool #22 - 43,061 ( +2.4%)
6 mnth ( -7.0%)
1 year (-21.1%)There’s an “Iron Man by Design” variant on this issue, explaining the slight increase. The underlying trend is likely to be unchanged.

NEMESIS [Icon]
03/10 Nemesis #1 of 4 - 62,031
04/10 ---The second issue was solicited for 7 April, but didn’t come out. Nonetheless, issue #1 picks up hefty reorders of 8,299. As usual, they’re included in the numbers above.

31. NEW MUTANTS
05/09 New Mutants #1 - 60,972
06/09 New Mutants #2 - 43,230 (-29.1%)
07/09 New Mutants #3 - 42,961 ( -0.6%)
08/09 New Mutants #4 - 38,558 (-10.2%)
09/09 New Mutants #5 - 31,502 (-18.3%)
10/09 New Mutants #6 - 34,967 (+11.0%)
11/09 New Mutants #7 - 33,328 ( -4.7%)
12/09 New Mutants #8 - 32,240 ( -3.3%)
01/10 New Mutants #9 - 30,572 ( -5.2%)
02/10 New Mutants #10 - 30,807 ( +0.8%)
03/10 New Mutants #11 - 36,629 (+18.9%)
04/10 New Mutants #12 - 42,784 (+16.8%)
6 mnth (+22.4%)NEW MUTANTS is the fourth core title in “Second Coming”, and so it was always going to see a big sales increase. That increase is slightly obscured by the fact that the March issue was a peripheral SIEGE tie-in, with a sales boost of its own. The better comparison is with issues #9-10, and the jump is plainly huge.

That said, it remains some 20,000 below LEGACY and X-FORCE, and 32,000 below UNCANNY. Now, in recent years, Marvel have tended to structure their crossovers so that each title tells its own separate story, with the core events covered in a single miniseries. It’s worth pointing out that “Second Coming” isn’t like that – it’s an old school crossover where a single story is serialised through four different titles. So on these figures, almost half the people who bought UNCANNY X-MEN aren’t getting the whole story. That seems incredible, and I can’t help feeling that this must have been slightly underordered.

34. WORLD WAR HULKS
04/10 World War Hulks #1 - 41,398An anthology one-shot following on from the “Fall of the Hulk” crossover.

35. ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN
04/05 Ult. Spider-Man #75 - 83,940
04/06 Ult. Spider-Man #93 - 72,831
04/07 Ult. Spider-Man #108 - 72,713
04/08 Ult. Spider-Man #121 - 56,633
=====
04/09 ---
05/09 Ult. Spider-Man #132 - 50,144 ( +1.2%)
06/09 Ult. Spider-Man #133 - 57,364 ( +14.4%)
06/09 USM: Requiem #1 of 2 - 44,988 ( -21.6%)
07/09 USM: Requiem #2 of 2 - 41,374 ( -8.0%)
08/09 U.C. Spider-Man #1 - 86,008 (+107.9%)
09/09 U.C. Spider-Man #2 - 57,477 ( -33.2%)
10/09 U.C. Spider-Man #3 - 52,813 ( -8.1%)
11/09 U.C. Spider-Man #4 - 49,106 ( -7.0%)
12/09 U.C. Spider-Man #5 - 45,849 ( -6.6%)
01/10 U.C. Spider-Man #6 - 43,622 ( -4.9%)
02/10 U.C. Spider-Man #7 - 42,176 ( -3.3%)
03/10 U.C. Spider-Man #8 - 40,967 ( -2.9%)
04/10 U.C. Spider-Man #9 - 39,955 ( -2.5%)
6 mnth ( -24.3%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year ( -29.4%)
3 year ( -45.1%)
4 year ( -45.1%)
5 year ( -52.4%)This has settled into a steady decline.

36. DEADPOOL CORPS
03/10 Prelude #1 of 5 - 37,011
03/10 Prelude #2 of 5 - 32,024 (-13.5%)
03/10 Prelude #3 of 5 - 31,065 ( -3.0%)
03/10 Prelude #4 of 5 - 30,254 ( -2.6%)
03/10 Prelude #5 of 5 - 29,037 ( -4.0%)
04/10 Deadpool Corps #1 - 39,466 (+35.9%)The first issue of a new series, following last month’s five-issue weekly mini. Effectively this is replacing DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH, though there are a few issues of overlap. It’s an okay start, though D:MWAM managed almost 60K with its debut issue a year ago. There’s a variant cover by Rob Liefeld (officially the “second printing”, continuing the gimmick of using Deadpool to parody variant covers).

37. CABLE
04/08 Cable #2 - 59,877
=====
04/09 Cable #13 - 47,638 (+47.0%)
05/09 Cable #14 - 52,245 ( +9.7%)
06/09 Cable #15 - 49,912 ( -4.5%)
07/09 Cable #16 - 39,646 (-20.6%)
08/09 Cable #17 - 39,424 ( -0.6%)
09/09 Cable #18 - 33,958 (-13.9%)
10/09 Cable #19 - 31,009 ( -8.7%)
11/09 Cable #20 - 29,245 ( -5.7%)
12/09 Cable #21 - 29,094 ( -0.5%)
01/10 Cable #22 - 28,414 ( -2.3%)
02/10 Cable #23 - 28,890 ( +1.7%)
03/10 Cable #24 - 30,132 ( +4.3%)
04/10 Deadpool & Cable #25 - 38,242 (+26.9%)
6 mnth (+23.3%)
1 year (-19.7%)
2 year (-36.1%)Cancelled. Actually, this series effectively ended with issue #24 – this is a one-shot prequel tacked onto the end as something of a joke. It’s also a sort of epilogue to CABLE & DEADPOOL, which mutated into a Deadpool team-up book rather than getting a proper ending. It’s got a Rob Liefeld variant cover.

38. S.H.I.E.L.D.
04/10 S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 - 38,030A new Jonathan Hickman series reimagining S.H.I.E.L.D. as the latest incarnation of something closer to the Illuminati. It’s the sort of book which is traditionally a tough sale for Marvel, so the first issue sales are quite decent, albeit boosted by a variant cover and a black-and-white variant of the issue itself.

39. FANTASTIC FOUR
04/05 Fantastic Four #525 - 45,561
04/06 Fantastic Four #537 - 62,940
04/07 Fantastic Four #545 - 74,700
04/08 Fantastic Four #556 - 65,013
=====
04/09 ---
05/09 Fantastic Four #566 - 46,653 ( -3.6%)
06/09 Fantastic Four #567 - 46,225 ( -0.9%)
07/09 Fantastic Four #568 - 45,828 ( -0.9%)
07/09 Fantastic Four #569 - 44,710 ( -2.4%)
08/09 Fantastic Four #570 - 62,401 (+39.6%)
09/09 Fantastic Four #571 - 47,468 (-23.4%)
10/09 Fantastic Four #572 - 41,939 (-11.6%)
11/09 Fantastic Four #573 - 39,433 ( -6.0%)
12/09 Fantastic Four #574 - 38,431 ( -2.5%)
01/10 Fantastic Four #575 - 41,284 ( +7.4%)
02/10 Fantastic Four #576 - 37,526 ( -9.1%)
03/10 Fantastic Four #577 - 35,791 ( -4.6%)
04/10 Fantastic Four #578 - 37,940 ( +6.0%)
6 mnth ( -9.5%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year (-41.6%)
3 year (-49.2%)
4 year (-39.7%)
5 year (-16.7%)Another “Iron Man by Design” variant.

40,51. HULKED OUT HEROES
04/10 Hulked Out Heroes #1 of 2 - 37,665
04/10 Hulked Out Heroes #2 of 2 - 35,065 (-6.9%)The book originally solicited as “H.O.H.”, though including the cover art kind of gave the game away. Issue #1 has a variant cover by Ed McGuinness, so the second issue drop is remarkably small.

42. DAREDEVIL
04/05 Daredevil #72 - 48,803
04/06 Daredevil #84 - 47,123
04/07 Daredevil #96 - 46,198
04/08 ---
=====
04/09 Daredevil #118 - 44,982 ( +9.6%)
05/09 ---
06/09 Daredevil #119 - 41,403 ( -8.0%)
07/09 ---
08/09 Daredevil #500 - 73,486 (+77.5%)
09/09 ---
10/09 Daredevil #501 - 45,181 (-38.5%)
11/09 Daredevil #502 - 40,354 (-10.7%)
12/09 Daredevil #503 - 38,680 ( -4.1%)
01/10 Daredevil #504 - 37,135 ( -4.0%)
02/10 Daredevil #505 - 38,693 ( +4.2%)
03/10 ---
04/10 Daredevil #506 - 37,467 ( -3.2%)
6 mnth (-17.1%)
1 year (-16.7%)
2 year ( --- )
3 year (-19.3%)
4 year (-20.5%)
5 year (-23.2%)This has an “Iron Man by Design” variant, but then the previous issue had a Deadpool variant cover. The drop probably reflects the book’s underlying trend.

44. FALL OF THE HULKS: RED HULK
01/10 Red Hulk #1 of 4 - 42,482
02/10 Red Hulk #2 of 4 - 39,259 (-7.6%)
03/10 Red Hulk #3 of 4 - 38,535 (-1.8%)
04/10 Red Hulk #4 of 4 - 36,917 (-4.2%)A crossover tie-in mini which has held up pretty well over its run.

46. X-FACTOR
04/06 X-Factor #6 - 45,220
04/07 X-Factor #18 - 37,851
04/08 X-Factor #30 - 51,447
=====
04/09 X-Factor #42 - 32,000 ( +0.4%)
05/09 X-Factor #43 - 31,543 ( -1.4%)
06/09 X-Factor #44 - 31,552 ( +0.0%)
06/09 X-Factor #45 - 31,109 ( -1.4%)
07/09 X-Factor #46 - 31,213 ( +0.3%)
08/09 X-Factor #47 - 33,052 ( +5.9%)
09/09 X-Factor #48 - 30,305 ( -8.3%)
09/09 X-Factor #49 - 29,934 ( -1.2%)
10/09 X-Factor #50 - 30,138 ( +0.7%)
11/09 ---
12/09 X-Factor #200 - 36,577 (+21.4%)
01/10 X-Factor #201 - 29,732 (-18.7%)
02/10 X-Factor #202 - 30,981 ( +4.2%)
03/10 X-Factor #203 - 28,924 ( -6.6%)
04/10 X-Factor #204 - 36,573 (+26.4%)
6 mnth (+21.4%)
1 year (+14.3%)
2 year (-28.9%)
3 year ( -2.7%)
4 year (-19.1%)This is a “Second Coming: Revelations” book, which basically means it’s a tie-in that doesn’t form part of the core serial. It’s also got an “Iron Man by Design” variant. Naturally, the sales bounce accordingly.

48. WOLVERINE: ORIGINS
04/06 Origins #1 - 150,283
04/07 Origins #13 - 70,963
04/08 Origins #24 - 49,299
=====
04/09 Origins #35 - 44,976 ( -1.3%)
05/09 Origins #36 - 45,451 ( +1.1%)
06/09 Origins #37 - 44,930 ( -1.1%)
07/09 Origins #38 - 47,211 ( +5.1%)
08/09 Origins #39 - 44,968 ( -4.8%)
09/09 Origins #40 - 42,724 ( -5.0%)
10/09 Origins #41 - 39,453 ( -7.7%)
11/09 Origins #42 - 37,903 ( -3.9%)
12/09 Origins #43 - 36,528 ( -3.6%)
01/10 Origins #44 - 35,154 ( -3.8%)
02/10 ---
03/10 Origins #45 - 37,055 ( +5.4%)
03/10 Origins #46 - 34,004 ( -8.2%)
04/10 Origins #47 - 36,075 ( +6.1%)
6 mnth ( -8.6%)
1 year (-19.8%)
2 year (-26.8%)
3 year (-49.0%)
4 year (-76.0%)Beginning a two-month crossover with the higher-selling DARK WOLVERINE. There’s also an “Iron Man by Design” variant. I’m slightly surprised the sales didn’t increase by more than this. The series ends in issue #50 following the completion of its multi-year storyline.

50. THUNDERBOLTS
04/05 New Thunderbolts #7 - 28,722
04/06 Thunderbolts #101 - 24,170
04/07 Thunderbolts #113 - 65,092
04/08 ---
=====
04/09 Thunderbolts #131 - 49,155 ( -5.9%)
05/09 Thunderbolts #132 - 43,911 (-10.7%)
06/09 Thunderbolts #133 - 39,479 (-10.1%)
07/09 Thunderbolts #134 - 40,885 ( +3.6%)
08/09 ---
09/09 Thunderbolts #135 - 39,961 ( -2.3%)
09/09 Thunderbolts #136 - 34,031 (-14.8%)
10/09 Thunderbolts #137 - 32,409 ( -4.8%)
11/09 Thunderbolts #138 - 31,238 ( -3.6%)
12/09 Thunderbolts #139 - 29,957 ( -4.1%)
01/10 Thunderbolts #140 - 28,644 ( -4.4%)
02/10 Thunderbolts #141 - 33,948 (+18.5%)
03/10 Thunderbolts #142 - 34,132 ( +0.5%)
04/10 Thunderbolts #143 - 35,656 ( +4.5%)
6 mnth (+10.0%)
1 year (-27.5%)
2 year ( --- )
3 year (-45.2%)
4 year (+47.5%)
5 year (+24.1%)Continuing a SIEGE tie-in arc, and it’s also got a variant cover by Greg Horn. Since the book was tied closely to “Dark Reign”, this is effectively the final issue of the book’s current format, with a completely new direction starting next month.

51. DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH
07/09 Merc With A Mouth #1 - 59,628
08/09 Merc With A Mouth #2 - 51,147 (-14.2%)
09/09 Merc With A Mouth #3 - 43,855 (-14.3%)
10/09 Merc With A Mouth #4 - 40,154 ( -8.4%)
11/09 Merc With A Mouth #5 - 37,781 ( -5.9%)
12/09 Merc With A Mouth #6 - 37,051 ( -1.9%)
01/10 Merc With A Mouth #7 - 40,568 ( +9.5%)
02/10 Merc With A Mouth #8 - 34,281 (-15.5%)
03/10 Merc With A Mouth #9 - 33,405 ( -2.6%)
04/10 Merc With A Mouth #10 - 33,803 ( +1.2%)
6 mnth (-15.8%)Another “Iron Man by Design” variant. The book ends with issue #13, effectively replaced by DEADPOOL CORPS.

55. BLACK WIDOW
11/09 Deadly Origin #1 of 4 - 29,352
12/09 Deadly Origin #2 of 4 - 20,925 ( -28.7%)
01/10 Deadly Origin #3 of 4 - 16,644 ( -20.5%)
02/10 Deadly Origin #4 of 4 - 15,724 ( -5.5%)
03/10 ---
04/10 Black Widow #1 - 32,807 (+108.6%)She’s in the Iron Man movie, and so Marvel have decided to have a shot at launching an ongoing BLACK WIDOW series. She hasn’t had a regular title (as opposed to a miniseries) since 1971, when she briefly co-headlined AMAZING ADVENTURES alongside the Inhumans. To be honest, I struggle to imagine the Black Widow sustaining an ongoing series even in a healthier market, but hey, you never know until you try.

This issue has three variant covers, it ties in with a movie launch, and it was on the front cover of MARVEL PREVIEWS. And with all that, it’s only slightly ahead of the first issue of the DEADLY ORIGIN mini from last winter, which tailed off pretty quickly.

56. CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHO WON'T WIELD THE SHIELD
04/10 Who Won't Wield The Shield - 32,477Basically a comedy anthology. Given the wholly uninformative solicitation (which basically told you that it was a Deadpool one-shot and not much else), it’s actually quite a good number.

59. WOLVERINE: WEAPON X
05/09 Weapon X #2 - 59,192 (-39.5%)
06/09 Weapon X #3 - 51,076 (-13.7%)
07/09 ---
08/09 Weapon X #4 - 49,284 ( -3.5%)
09/09 Weapon X #5 - 40,975 (-16.9%)
10/09 Weapon X #6 - 38,446 ( -6.2%)
11/09 Weapon X #7 - 36,108 ( -6.1%)
12/09 Weapon X #8 - 33,470 ( -7.3%)
01/10 Weapon X #9 - 31,678 ( -5.4%)
02/10 Weapon X #10 - 30,132 ( -4.9%)
03/10 Weapon X #11 - 29,799 ( -1.1%)
04/10 Weapon X #12 - 30,050 ( +0.8%)
6 mnth (-21.8%)Stabilising at last. The book is effectively relaunching in September as a new WOLVERINE series.

60. SECRET WARRIORS
04/09 Secret Warriors #3 - 50,126 ( +4.2%)
05/09 Secret Warriors #4 - 42,781 (-14.7%)
06/09 Secret Warriors #5 - 40,849 ( -4.5%)
07/09 Secret Warriors #6 - 41,749 ( +2.2%)
08/09 Secret Warriors #7 - 38,990 ( -6.6%)
09/09 Secret Warriors #8 - 33,893 (-13.1%)
10/09 Secret Warriors #9 - 36,385 ( +7.4%)
11/09 Secret Warriors #10 - 31,567 (-13.2%)
12/09 Secret Warriors #11 - 30,748 ( -2.6%)
01/10 Secret Warriors #12 - 29,894 ( -2.8%)
02/10 Secret Warriors #13 - 30,843 ( +3.2%)
03/10 Secret Warriors #14 - 28,580 ( -7.3%)
04/10 Secret Warriors #15 - 29,669 ( +3.8%)
6 mnth (-18.5%)
1 year (-40.8%)Another “Iron Man by Design” variant.

67. DEADPOOL TEAM-UP
10/09 Deadpool #900 - 51,337
11/09 Deadpool Team-Up #899 - 39,584 (-22.9%)
12/09 Deadpool Team-Up #898 - 36,308 ( -8.3%)
01/10 Deadpool Team-Up #897 - 32,671 (-10.0%)
02/10 Deadpool Team-Up #896 - 30,119 ( -7.8%)
03/10 Deadpool Team-Up #895 - 28,573 ( -5.1%)
04/10 Deadpool Team-Up #894 - 28,835 ( +0.9%)
6 mnth (-43.8%)And another.

68. ULTIMATE COMICS ENEMY
01/10 Enemy #1 of 4 - 38,880
02/10 Enemy #2 of 4 - 29,820 (-23.3%)
03/10 ---
04/10 Enemy #3 of 4 - 28,829 ( -3.3%)Levelling out quickly after the initial drop.

69. DOOMWAR
04/05 Black Panther #3 - 44,925
04/06 Black Panther #15 - 28,361
04/07 ---
04/08 ---
=====
04/09 Black Panther #3 - 33,356 ( -1.2%)
05/09 Black Panther #4 - 30,984 ( -7.1%)
06/09 Black Panther #5 - 29,762 ( -3.9%)
07/09 Black Panther #6 - 29,727 ( -0.1%)
08/09 Black Panther #7 - 27,619 ( -7.1%)
09/09 Black Panther #8 - 23,020 ( -16.7%)
10/09 Black Panther #9 - 20,346 ( -11.6%)
11/09 Black Panther #10 - 19,147 ( -5.9%)
12/09 Black Panther #11 - 17,989 ( -6.0%)
01/10 Black Panther #12 - 17,881 ( -1.0%)
02/10 Doomwar #1 of 6 - 43,241 (+141.8%)
03/10 Doomwar #2 of 6 - 30,555 ( -29.3%)
04/10 Doomwar #3 of 6 - 27,859 ( -8.9%)
6 mnth ( +36.9%)
1 year ( -16.5%)
2 year ( --- )
3 year ( --- )
4 year ( -1.2%)
5 year ( -38.0%)Still comfortably up from regular BLACK PANTHER numbers. Nonetheless, the series ends in June, and there’s no sign of anything on the solicitations for July, so the end of the road may be approaching.

70. FALL OF THE HULKS: THE SAVAGE SHE-HULKS
03/10 Savage She-Hulks #1 of 3 - 33,290
04/10 Savage She-Hulks #2 of 3 - 27,421 (-17.6%)Quite a modest drop off, considering the first issue had a variant cover.

75. MARVEL ZOMBIES 5
04/10 Marvel Zombies 5 #1 of 5 - 26,798
04/10 Marvel Zombies 5 #2 of 5 - 26,318 (-1.8%)Unusually, there’s a variant cover on issue #2, but not issue #1. The MARVEL ZOMBIES RETURN series from last September wound up at 28,770, so we’re picking up slightly below that point.

77. DARK TOWER: BATTLE OF JERICHO HILL
04/07 Gunslinger Born #3 of 7 - 149,168
04/08 Long Road Home #2 of 5 - 103,029
=====
04/09 Sorcerer #1 - 39,210 (-18.5%)
05/09 Fall of Gilead #1 of 6 - 43,580 (+11.1%)
06/09 Fall of Gilead #2 of 6 - 39,978 ( -8.3%)
07/09 Fall of Gilead #3 of 6 - 36,982 ( -7.5%)
08/09 Fall of Gilead #4 of 6 - 35,607 ( -3.7%)
09/09 Fall of Gilead #5 of 6 - 34,522 ( -3.0%)
10/09 ---
11/09 Fall of Gilead #6 of 6 - 32,531 ( -5.8%)
12/09 Jericho Hill #1 of 5 - 30,756 ( -5.5%)
12/09 Jericho Hill #2 of 5 - 28,350 ( -7.8%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Jericho Hill #3 of 5 - 27,215 ( -4.0%)
02/10 Jericho Hill #4 of 5 - 26,336 ( -3.2%)
03/10 ---
04/10 Jericho Hill #5 of 5 - 25,896 ( -1.7%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year (-34.0%)
2 year (-74.9%)
3 year (-82.6%)Still drifting slowly down.

80. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
04/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #13 - 27,107 ( +1.3%)
05/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #14 - 27,130 ( +0.1%)
06/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #15 - 26,808 ( -1.2%)
07/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #16 - 26,605 ( -0.8%)
08/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #17 - 27,893 ( +4.8%)
09/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #18 - 24,896 (-10.7%)
10/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #19 - 23,597 ( -5.2%)
11/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #20 - 22,965 ( -2.7%)
12/09 Guardians o/Galaxy #21 - 22,271 ( -3.0%)
01/10 Guardians o/Galaxy #22 - 21,623 ( -3.0%)
02/10 Guardians o/Galaxy #23 - 22,807 ( +5.5%)
03/10 Guardians o/Galaxy #24 - 21,643 ( -5.1%)
04/10 Guardians o/Galaxy #25 - 24,568 (+13.5%)
6 mnth ( +4.1%)
1 year ( -9.4%)GUARDIANS and NOVA both end this month, though they’re leading into a Thanos miniseries. This issue also has an “Iron man by Design” variant.

83. AVENGERS: THE ORIGIN
04/10 Origin #1 of 5 - 24,457Another re-telling by Joe Casey of an old Silver Age. There’s a fairly narrow audience for these projects in the current market, and these numbers are about what I’d have expected.

84. PUNISHER
04/07 War Journal #6 - 53,498
04/08 War Journal #18 - 29,565
=====
04/09 Punisher #4 - 36,995 ( -1.5%)
05/09 Punisher #5 - 35,621 ( -3.7%)
06/09 Punisher #6 - 32,982 ( -7.4%)
07/09 Punisher #7 - 31,227 ( -5.3%)
08/09 Punisher #8 - 33,057 ( +5.9%)
09/09 Punisher #9 - 28,424 (-14.1%)
10/09 Punisher #10 - 27,167 ( -4.4%)
11/09 Punisher #11 - 24,900 ( -8.3%)
12/09 Punisher #12 - 24,985 ( +0.3%)
01/10 Punisher #13 - 23,734 ( -5.0%)
02/10 Punisher #14 - 23,455 ( -1.8%)
03/10 Punisher #15 - 22,285 ( -5.0%)
04/10 Punisher #16 - 23,047 ( +3.4%)
6 mnth (-15.2%)
1 year (-37.7%)
2 year (-22.0%)
3 year (-56.9%)This is the Marvel Universe version, not the Max book. The issue has an “Iron Man by Design” variant.

86. NOVA
04/07 Nova #1 - 42,917
04/08 Nova #12 - 28,185 ( +0.1%)
=====
04/09 Nova #24 - 26,240 ( -0.7%)
05/09 Nova #25 - 26,172 ( -0.3%)
06/09 Nova #26 - 28,107 ( +7.4%)
07/09 Nova #27 - 25,677 ( -8.6%)
08/09 Nova #28 - 27,038 ( +5.3%)
09/09 Nova #29 - 23,924 (-11.5%)
10/09 Nova #30 - 22,845 ( -4.5%)
11/09 Nova #31 - 22,928 ( +0.4%)
12/09 Nova #32 - 22,202 ( -3.2%)
01/10 Nova #33 - 21,841 ( -1.6%)
02/10 Nova #34 - 23,014 ( +5.4%)
03/10 Nova #35 - 21,407 ( -7.0%)
04/10 Nova #36 - 22,365 ( +4.5%)
6 mnth ( -2.1%)
1 year (-14.8%)
2 year (-20.6%)
3 year (-47.9%)Final issue: see above under GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. As with that book, there’s an “Iron Man by Design” variant cover.

87. PUNISHERMAX [Max]
04/05 Punisher #19 - 38,753
04/06 Punisher #32 - 34,076
04/07 Punisher #46 - 33,427
04/08 Punisher #56 - 30,796
=====
04/09 Frank Castle #69 - 21,843 ( -1.9%)
05/09 Frank Castle #70 - 21,864 ( +0.1%)
06/09 Frank Castle #71 - 21,319 ( -2.5%)
07/09 Frank Castle #72 - 21,049 ( -1.3%)
08/09 Frank Castle #73 - 20,375 ( -3.2%)
09/09 Frank Castle #74 - 20,259 ( -0.6%)
10/09 Frank Castle #75 - 22,210 ( +9.6%)
11/09 PunisherMax #1 - 29,119 (+31.1%)
12/09 PunisherMax #2 - 23,110 (-20.4%)
01/10 PunisherMax #3 - 22,887 ( -1.0%)
02/10 PunisherMax #4 - 22,472 ( -1.8%)
03/10 PunisherMax #5 - 22,435 ( -0.2%)
04/10 PunisherMax #6 - 22,246 ( -0.8%)
6 mnth ( +0.2%)
1 year ( +1.8%)
2 year (-27.8%)
3 year (-33.4%)
4 year (-34.7%)
5 year (-42.6%)Seems to be levelling out slightly ahead of pre-relaunch sales. I’d attribute that more to the strength of the incoming creative team than to the renumbering.

90. VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT
04/06 Moon Knight #1 - 103,670
04/07 Moon Knight #9 - 69,196
04/08 Moon Knight #17 - 27,808
=====
04/09 Moon Knight #29 - 22,689 ( +8.7%)
05/09 Moon Knight #30 - 19,693 (-13.2%)
06/09 ---
07/09 ---
08/09 ---
09/09 Moon Knight #1 - 35,706 (+81.3%)
10/09 Moon Knight #2 - 26,493 (-25.8%)
11/09 Moon Knight #3 - 23,359 (-11.8%)
12/09 Moon Knight #4 - 21,482 ( -8.0%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Moon Knight #5 - 19,733 ( -8.1%)
03/10 Moon Knight #6 - 19,094 ( -3.2%)
04/10 Moon Knight #7 - 20,718 ( +8.5%)
6 mnth (-21.8%)
1 year ( -8.7%)
2 year (-25.5%)
3 year (-70.1%)
4 year (-80.0%)Another “Iron Man by Design” variant. It’ll be interesting to see whether MOON KNIGHT gets any spillover benefit from the character’s inclusion in SECRET DEFENDERS, though to be honest, the history of Ms Marvel and Spider-Woman tends to point against it.

92. CAPTAIN AMERICA / BLACK PANTHER
04/10 Flags of our Fathers #1 of 4 - 20,274A miniseries about the first meeting between Captain America and the Black Panther (well, a previous one) during World War II. Stories set in the past are always a tough sell, and parent title BLACK PANTHER dropped below this point in recent months, so the numbers are pretty good compared to what you could reasonably have expected.

93. INCREDIBLE HERCULES
04/08 Hercules #116 - 44,575
=====
04/09 Hercules #128 - 33,739 ( +5.8%)
05/09 Hercules #129 - 28,995 (-14.1%)
06/09 Hercules #130 - 27,872 ( -3.9%)
07/09 Hercules #131 - 29,188 ( +4.7%)
08/09 Hercules #132 - 32,680 (+12.0%)
08/09 Hercules #133 - 27,491 (-15.9%)
09/09 Hercules #134 - 25,380 ( -7.7%)
09/09 Hercules #135 - 26,344 ( +3.8%)
10/09 Hercules #136 - 26,447 ( -0.4%)
10/09 Hercules #137 - 23,463 (-11.3%)
11/09 Hercules #138 - 25,116 ( +7.0%)
12/09 Hercules #139 - 23,591 ( -6.1%)
01/10 Hercules #140 - 23,244 ( -1.5%)
02/10 Hercules #141 - 24,539 ( +5.6%)
03/10 Fall/Avenger #1 of 2 - 23,036 ( -6.1%)
04/10 Fall/Avenger #2 of 2 - 20,215 (-12.2%)
6 mnth (-13.8%)
1 year (-40.1%)
2 year (-54.6%)Following this, we’ve got a PRINCE OF POWER miniseries starring supporting character Amadeus Cho, all presumably leading to a HERCULES relaunch later in the year.

99. WEB OF SPIDER-MAN
10/09 Web of Spider-Man #1 - 58,412
11/09 Web of Spider-Man #2 - 32,093 (-45.1%)
12/09 Web of Spider-Man #3 - 29,368 ( -8.5%)
01/10 Web of Spider-Man #4 - 24,424 (-16.8%)
02/10 Web of Spider-Man #5 - 24,296 ( -0.5%)
03/10 Web of Spider-Man #6 - 21,574 (-11.2%)
04/10 Web of Spider-Man #7 - 19,533 ( -9.5%)
6 mnth (-66.6%)Mmmm. I remain unconvinced that Spider-Man is capable of supporting spin-off titles at the moment.

103,126. WOMEN OF MARVEL ONE-SHOTS
03/10 X-23 - 27,328
03/10 She-Hulk - 15,583
04/10 Sif - 18,092
04/10 Firestar - 13,462These books seem to be mostly hovering in the teens (X-23, who’s about to get her own series, being an understandable exception). The variation is probably just a reflection of the popularity of the parent book.

106. STEPHEN KING'S N. THE COMIC SERIES
03/10 N #1 of 4 - 21,092
04/10 N #2 of 4 - 17,299 (-18.0%)This is a reprint from Marvel’s online service, and by those standards the sales aren’t too bad at all.

109. IRON MAN 2: PUBLIC IDENTITY
04/10 Public Identity #1 of 3 - 16,921I believe this is the series originally solicited as IRON MAN 1.5, and it’s a story bridging the gap between the two Iron Man movies. I’m slightly surprised that it didn’t do a little better in the month of the movie’s release, but then it’s not really aimed primarily at the direct market readership. (Presumably the idea is to have the collected edition on the shelves when the DVD comes out.)

110. NEW AVENGERS: LUKE CAGE
04/10 Luke Cage #1 of 3 - 16,836Good lord. The days when a top-selling title could guarantee sales for a spin-off mini are clearly long behind us.

Or to be more accurate: as a general rule, there seem to be far fewer completists out there willing to buy all the spin-offs of a major franchise. Marvel have managed to build a family of titles around the Avengers, but they did that by promoting them all as equally important. Books that are clearly labelled as spin-offs – such as this, the lesser Spider-Man titles and X-Men solo minis – are increasingly tailing in miles behind their parent titles.

On the other hand, Marvel might well point out that this is probably going to sell more than a miniseries with an obscure lead character (and that they already publish some of those anyway). In other words, just because they don’t sell like they used to, it doesn’t follow that Marvel could easily replace them on the schedule with something more successful.

111. POWERS [Icon]
11/09 Powers #1 - 20,146
12/09 Powers #2 - 17,181 (-14.7%)
01/10 ---
02/10 ---
03/10 Powers #3 - 16,768 ( -2.4%)
04/10 Powers #4 - 16,463 ( -1.8%)Levelling out quite quickly after the most recent relaunch.

115,116. X-MEN FOREVER
06/09 X-Men Forever #1 - 36,213
06/09 X-Men Forever #2 - 31,767 (-12.3%)
07/09 X-Men Forever #3 - 28,651 ( -9.8%)
07/09 X-Men Forever #4 - 28,645 ( -0.0%)
08/09 X-Men Forever #5 - 27,825 ( -2.9%)
08/09 X-Men Forever #6 - 24,875 (-10.6%)
09/09 X-Men Forever #7 - 24,115 ( -3.1%)
09/09 X-Men Forever #8 - 23,174 ( -3.9%)
10/09 X-Men Forever #9 - 21,926 ( -5.4%)
10/09 X-Men Forever #10 - 22,287 ( +1.6%)
11/09 X-Men Forever #11 - 20,130 ( -9.7%)
11/09 X-Men Forever #12 - 19,541 ( -2.9%)
12/09 X-Men Forever #13 - 18,870 ( -3.4%)
12/09 X-Men Forever #14 - 18,376 ( -2.6%)
01/10 X-Men Forever #15 - 17,665 ( -3.9%)
01/10 X-Men Forever #16 - 17,290 ( -2.1%)
02/10 X-Men Forever #17 - 17,873 ( +3.4%)
02/10 X-Men Forever #18 - 16,464 ( -7.9%)
03/10 X-Men Forever #19 - 16,183 ( -1.7%)
03/10 X-Men Forever #20 - 15,990 ( -1.2%)
04/10 X-Men Forever #21 - 15,530 ( -2.9%)
04/10 X-Men Forever #22 - 15,305 ( -1.4%)
6 mnth (-30.2%)Drifting slowly down, but Marvel evidently have realistic expectations for Claremont’s alternate-reality/nostalgia series, as it’s been renewed for another year. They’re renumbering it from #1 to kick off the second year, and I’ll be interested to see whether that makes any difference beyond the first couple of issues.

117. REALM OF KINGS: SON OF HULK
04/09 Skaar, Son of Hulk #10 - 27,317 ( +0.7%)
05/09 ---
06/09 Skaar, Son of Hulk #11 - 28,633 ( +4.8%)
06/09 Skaar, Son of Hulk #12 - 35,920 (+25.4%)
07/09 Son of Hulk #13 - 29,195 (-18.7%)
08/09 Son of Hulk #14 - 27,171 ( -6.9%)
09/09 Son of Hulk #15 - 22,722 (-16.4%)
10/09 Son of Hulk #16 - 20,504 ( -9.8%)
11/09 Son of Hulk #17 - 19,097 ( -6.9%)
12/09 ---
01/10 ---
02/10 Son of Hulk #1 of 4 - 24,010 (+25.7%)
03/10 Son of Hulk #2 of 4 - 17,195 (-28.4%)
04/10 Son of Hulk #3 of 4 - 15,284 (-11.4%)
6 mnth (-25.5%)
1 year (-44.0%)Some way distant from the other cosmic titles. I doubt we’ll be hearing much more of this.

118. SPIDER-MAN: FEVER
04/10 Fever #1 of 3 - 15,111Despite the title, Brendan McCarthy’s miniseries is really more of a homage to Steve Ditko’s Dr Strange stories. Given that Spider-Man can’t seem to support spin-off titles at the moment, and that McCarthy’s art is something of an acquired taste, the sales are probably about what Marvel were expecting from the book.

120. AGENTS OF ATLAS
04/09 Agents of Atlas #3 - 29,748 (+11.1%)
05/09 Agents of Atlas #4 - 25,377 (-14.7%)
05/09 Agents of Atlas #5 - 25,207 ( -0.7%)
06/09 Agents of Atlas #6 - 22,579 (-10.4%)
07/09 Agents of Atlas #7 - 23,217 ( +2.8%)
07/09 Agents of Atlas #8 - 20,540 (-11.5%)
08/09 Agents of Atlas #9 - 20,828 ( +1.4%)
09/09 Agents of Atlas #10 - 17,877 (-14.2%)
09/09 Agents of Atlas #11 - 17,529 ( -1.9%)
10/09 X-Men vs #1 of 2 - 32,743 (+86.8%)
11/09 X-Men vs #2 of 2 - 25,222 (-23.0%)
12/09 ---
01/10 Avengers vs #1 of 4 - 21,777 (-13.7%)
02/10 Avengers vs #2 of 4 - 17,998 (-17.4%)
03/10 Avengers vs #3 of 4 - 16,482 ( -8.4%)
04/10 Avengers vs #4 of 4 - 14,900 ( -9.6%)
6 mnth (-54.5%)
1 year (-49.9%)Relaunched next month as another ongoing title, this time just called ATLAS. Sales have tailed off quite noticeably over the course of this mini.

121. PETER PARKER
03/10 Peter Parker #1 - 18,963
04/10 Peter Parker #2 - 14,647 (-22.8%)Reprints of the Spider-Man digital comics, so the sales here don’t tell the whole story.

122. X-FACTOR FOREVER
03/10 X-Factor Forever #1 of 5 - 18,550
04/10 X-Factor Forever #2 of 5 - 14,608 (-21.3%)Louise Simonson’s sequel to her 1980s X-FACTOR run is actually doing slightly better than I would have predicted – by which I mean, it’s pretty close to its thematic parent title X-MEN FOREVER.

123. X-MEN FOREVER ANNUAL
04/10 X-Men Forever Annual #1 - 14,281Again, very close to the parent title. There’s a small but solid audience for these books.

131. MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ
04/09 Wizard of Oz #5 of 8 - 16,110 ( -0.3%)
05/09 Wizard of Oz #6 of 8 - 15,774 ( -2.1%)
06/09 Wizard of Oz #7 of 8 - 15,473 ( -1.9%)
07/09 Wizard of Oz #8 of 8 - 15,487 ( +0.1%)
08/09 ---
09/09 ---
10/09 ---
11/09 Marvelous Land #1 of 8 - 25,338 (+63.6%)
12/09 Marvelous Land #2 of 8 - 15,783 (-37.7%)
01/10 Marvelous Land #3 of 8 - 14,216 (-10.0%)
02/10 Marvelous Land #4 of 8 - 13,364 ( -6.0%)
03/10 ---
04/10 Marvelous Land #5 of 8 - 12,922 ( -3.3%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year (-19.8%)Standard miniseries behaviour.

135,145,146,147. MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS
04/10 Wolverine #66 - 12,181
04/10 New Avengers #1 - 10,958
04/10 Civil War #1 - 10,912More budget reprints.

137. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN PRESENTS JACKPOT
01/10 Jackpot #1 of 3 - 18,014 (-11.5%)
02/10 Jackpot #2 of 3 - 13,697 (-24.0%)
03/10 ---
04/10 Jackpot #3 of 3 - 11,830 (-13.6%)Another example of the point that Marvel’s top books can no longer be relied on to support spin-off titles. Despite this, however, even more Spider-Man spin-offs are scheduled for future months. That surprises me, but presumably Marvel are prepared to live with numbers like this.

140. TORCH
09/09 Torch #1 of 8 - 26,921
10/09 Torch #2 of 8 - 18,115 (-32.7%)
11/09 Torch #3 of 8 - 15,209 (-16.0%)
12/09 Torch #4 of 8 - 13,782 ( -9.4%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Torch #5 of 8 - 12,211 (-11.4%)
03/10 Torch #6 of 8 - 11,896 ( -2.6%)
04/10 Torch #7 of 8 - 11,477 ( -3.5%)
6 mnth (-36.6%)Levelling out. Fairly standard miniseries behaviour.

148. IRON MAN NOIR
04/10 Iron Man Noir #1 of 4 - 10,904Hmm. The recent Spider-Man and X-Men NOIR minis launched at around 16K and dropped to 10K. Iron Man is launching at 10K, so this isn’t going to be pretty by the end of the run. Surely we’re approaching the end of the road for this imprint?

153. SPIDER-MAN: ORIGIN OF THE HUNTER
04/10 Origin of the Hunter - 10,580This is a reprint of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #15 and #34 with a new framing sequence. The sales aren’t bad for something like that.

154. SAVAGE AXE OF ARES
04/10 Savage Axe of Ares - 10,492Another of Marvel’s black and white anthology titles. Considering that Ares isn’t a character with a huge personal following, I’d say this was pretty reasonable.

156. X-MEN: PIXIE STRIKES BACK
02/10 Pixie #1 of 4 - 14,167
03/10 Pixie #2 of 4 - 11,839 (-16.4%)
04/10 Pixie #3 of 4 - 10,276 (-13.2%)“Major titles don’t support spin-offs any more”, example umpteen.

161. SPIDER-MAN [Marvel Adventures]
04/05 M.A. Spider-Man #2 - 10,305
04/06 M.A. Spider-Man #14 - 5,970
04/07 M.A. Spider-Man #26 - 6,478
04/08 M.A. Spider-Man #38 - 5,833
=====
04/09 M.A. Spider-Man #50 - 4,780 ( +3.0%)
05/09 M.A. Spider-Man #51 - 4,557 ( -4.7%)
06/09 M.A. Spider-Man #52 - 4,612 ( +1.2%)
07/09 M.A. Spider-Man #53 - 5,710 ( +23.8%)
08/09 M.A. Spider-Man #54 - 5,684 ( -0.5%)
09/09 M.A. Spider-Man #55 - 5,668 ( -0.3%)
10/09 M.A. Spider-Man #56 - 4,579 ( -19.2%)
11/09 M.A. Spider-Man #57 - 4,501 ( -1.7%)
12/09 M.A. Spider-Man #58 - 4,352 ( -3.3%)
01/10 M.A. Spider-Man #59 - 4,315 ( -0.9%)
02/10 M.A. Spider-Man #60 - 4,212 ( -2.4%)
03/10 M.A. Spider-Man #61 - 4,200 ( -2.8%)
04/10 Spider-Man #1 - 9,770 (+132.6%)
6 mnth (+113.4%)
1 year (+104.4%)
2 year ( +67.5%)
3 year ( +50.8%)
4 year ( +63.7%)
5 year ( -5.2%)The relaunch of MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN kicks sales back up to more or less the launch of the previous series in 2005. That’s not a bad result, although we’ll have to wait and see how long the effect lasts.

164. OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
02/10 A to Z Update #1 of 5 - 5,406
03/10 Deadpool Corps - 21,900 (+305.1%)
04/10 Iron Manual Mark 3 #1 - 9,456 ( -56.8%)Iron Man is, apparently, a lot less interesting than Deadpool.

167. DEATHLOK
11/09 Deathlok #1 of 7 - 20,855
12/09 Deathlok #2 of 7 - 14,059 (-32.6%)
01/10 Deathlok #3 of 7 - 11,670 (-17.0%)
02/10 Deathlok #4 of 7 - 10,185 (-12.7%)
03/10 Deathlok #5 of 7 - 9,387 ( -7.8%)
04/10 Deathlok #6 of 7 - 8,895 ( -5.2%)Still losing sales as it nears the end of its run.

168. PHILP K DICK'S ELECTRIC ANT
04/10 Electric Ant #1 of 4 - 8,869Not really a product targeted primarily at the direct market, I suspect.

178. SUPER HEROES [Marvel Adventures]
04/09 M.A. Super Heroes #10 - 3,699 ( -0.5%)
05/09 M.A. Super Heroes #11 - 3,474 ( -6.1%)
06/09 M.A. Super Heroes #12 - 3,508 ( +1.0%)
07/09 M.A. Super Heroes #13 - 4,439 ( +26.5%)
08/09 M.A. Super Heroes #14 - 4,355 ( -1.9%)
09/09 M.A. Super Heroes #15 - 4,268 ( -2.0%)
10/09 M.A. Super Heroes #16 - 3,250 ( -23.9%)
11/09 M.A. Super Heroes #17 - 3,308 ( +1.8%)
12/09 M.A. Super Heroes #18 - ?,??? ( ??? )
01/10 M.A. Super Heroes #19 - 3,103 ( ??? )
02/10 M.A. Super Heroes #20 - 3,008 ( -3.1%)
03/10 M.A. Super Heroes #21 - ?,??? ( ??? )
04/10 Super Heroes #1 - 8,107 ( ??? )
6 mnth (+149.4%)
1 year (+119.2%)MARVEL ADVENTURES SUPERHEROES has been hovering around the bottom end of the top 300 lately, and actually missed the charts last month (selling fewer than 3,704 copies). This issue also has a variant cover by Todd Nauck, so its sales boost from the relaunch might be slightly exaggerated compared to SPIDER-MAN.

190. MARVEL HER-OES
04/10 Marvel Her-Oes #1 - 7,464Female superheroes in high school dramedy. Um. You know, I really can’t get past that awful title. But it’s not a bad number by the standards of Marvel’s all-ages books.

197. THOR AND THE WARRIORS FOUR
04/10 Thor/Warriors Four #1 of 4 - 6,861The Warriors Four being Power Pack – it’s another Gurihiru miniseries. Again, not bad for an all-ages book.

202. PET AVENGERS UNLEASHED
05/09 Pet Avengers #1 of 4 - 17,638
06/09 Pet Avengers #2 of 4 - 12,317 (-30.2%)
07/09 Pet Avengers #3 of 4 - 11,739 ( -4.7%)
08/09 Pet Avengers #4 of 4 - 11,340 ( -3.4%)
09/09 ---
10/09 ---
11/09 ---
12/09 ---
01/10 ---
02/10 Tails o/Pet Avengers - 8,214 (-27.6%)
03/10 Unleashed #1 of 4 - 8,554 ( +4.1%)
04/10 Unleashed #2 of 4 - 6,767 (-20.9%)Some way distant of the sales on the original series, but still not bad if you’re judging it as an all-ages title rather than a regular Marvel Universe book.

217. ENDER'S GAME: LEAGUE WAR
04/10 League War - 6,195About what we’ve come to expect from the novel adaptations.

Number 220 is SPIDER-MAN: GRIM HUNT – KRAVEN SAGA, a promotional item being sold to retailers in bundles of 25. It sold an estimated 6,069 bundles.

223. SUPER HERO SQUAD
09/09 Super Hero Squad #1 of 4 - 6,760
10/09 Super Hero Squad #2 of 4 - 4,496 ( -33.5%)
11/09 Super Hero Squad #3 of 4 - 4,384 ( -2.5%)
12/09 Super Hero Squad #4 of 4 - 4,132 ( -5.7%)
01/10 Super Hero Squad #1 - 9,709 (+135.0%)
02/10 Super Hero Squad #2 - 5,691 ( -41.4%)
03/10 Super Hero Squad #3 - 5,399 ( -5.1%)
04/10 Super Hero Squad #4 - 5,822 ( +7.8%)
6 mnth ( +29.5%)A slight uptick. We’ll see next month whether it’s an anomaly.

255. HUSK [Soleil]
04/10 Husk #1 of 2 - 4,610We’re used to the Soleil books selling in this territory. Bear in mind that it’s a six dollar book.

6 month comparisons
===================

+149.4% - Super Heroes (Marvel Adventures)
+113.4% - Spider-Man (Marvel Adventures)
+ 56.2% - Invincible Iron Man
+ 36.9% - Doomwar/Black Panther
+ 29.5% - Super Hero Squad
+ 27.1% - X-Force
+ 23.3% - Cable
+ 22.4% - New Mutants
+ 21.4% - X-Factor
+ 14.7% - X-Men Legacy
+ 10.0% - Thunderbolts
+ 4.1% - Guardians of the Galaxy
+ 3.3% - Ultimate Comics Avengers
+ 0.2% - Uncanny X-Men
+ 0.2% - PunisherMax
- 1.6% - New Avengers
- 2.1% - Nova
- 4.7% - Mighty Avengers
- 7.0% - Deadpool
- 8.6% - Wolverine Origins
- 9.5% - Fantastic Four
- 12.4% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 13.8% - Hercules
- 15.2% - Punisher
- 15.8% - Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth
- 17.1% - Daredevil
- 18.5% - Secret Warriors
- 20.9% - Dark Wolverine
- 21.8% - Weapon X
- 21.8% - Moon Knight
- 24.3% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 25.5% - Son of Hulk
- 30.2% - X-Men Forever
- 36.6% - Torch
- 43.8% - Deadpool Team-Up
- 54.5% - Agents of Atlas
- 66.6% - Web of Spider-Man

1 year comparisons
==================

+119.2% - Super Heroes (Marvel Adventures)
+104.4% - Spider-Man (Marvel Adventures)
+ 42.9% - Invincible Iron Man
+ 14.3% - X-Factor
+ 1.8% - PunisherMax
- 0.8% - X-Force
- 3.0% - Uncanny X-Men
- 7.6% - Captain America
- 8.7% - Moon Knight
- 9.4% - Guardians of the Galaxy
- 11.5% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 14.8% - Nova
- 15.7% - X-Men Legacy
- 16.5% - Doomwar / Black Panther
- 16.7% - Daredevil
- 19.7% - New Avengers
- 19.7% - Cable
- 19.8% - Wolverine Origins
- 19.8% - Marvelous Land of Oz
- 21.1% - Deadpool
- 22.0% - Thor
- 26.4% - Mighty Avengers
- 27.5% - Thunderbolts
- 34.0% - Dark Tower
- 37.7% - Punisher
- 40.1% - Hercules
- 40.8% - Secret Warriors
- 44.0% - Son of Hulk
- 49.9% - Agents of Atlas

2 year comparisons
==================

+106.1% - Invincible Iron Man
+ 67.5% - Spider-Man (Marvel Adventures)
- 20.6% - Uncanny X-Men
- 20.6% - Nova
- 21.7% - X-Men Legacy
- 22.0% - Punisher
- 25.5% - Moon Knight
- 26.7% - Dark Wolverine / Wolverine
- 26.8% - Captain America
- 26.8% - Wolverine Origins
- 27.5% - X-Force
- 27.8% - PunisherMax
- 28.9% - X-Factor
- 29.4% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 29.9% - Thor
- 30.5% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 31.7% - New Avengers
- 36.1% - Cable
- 41.6% - Fantastic Four
- 48.3% - Mighty Avengers
- 54.6% - Hercules
- 74.9% - Dark Tower

3 year comparisons
==================

+ 50.8% - Spider-Man (Marvel Adventures)
+ 23.9% - Invincible Iron Man
- 2.7% - X-Factor
- 9.4% - Uncanny X-Men
- 19.0% - X-Men Legacy
- 19.3% - Daredevil
- 33.4% - PunisherMax
- 39.8% - New Avengers
- 45.1% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 45.2% - Thunderbolts
- 47.9% - Nova
- 49.0% - Wolverine Origins
- 49.2% - Fantastic Four
- 51.7% - Dark Wolverine / Wolverine
- 56.9% - Punisher
- 59.5% - Mighty Avengers
- 70.1% - Moon Knight
- 82.6% - Dark Tower

4 year comparisons
==================

+ 63.7% - Spider-Man (Marvel Adventures)
+ 49.2% - Invincible Iron Man
+ 47.5% - Thunderbolts
+ 29.7% - Captain America
- 1.2% - Doomwar / Black Panther
- 6.4% - Uncanny X-Men
- 19.1% - X-Factor
- 20.5% - Daredevil
- 23.0% - X-Men Legacy
- 33.0% - Dark Wolverine / Wolverine
- 34.7% - PunisherMax
- 37.9% - New Avengers
- 38.4% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 39.7% - Fantastic Four
- 45.1% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 76.0% - Wolverine Origins
- 80.0% - Moon Knight

5 year comparisons
==================

+ 44.0% - Invincible Iron Man
+ 28.3% - Captain America
+ 24.1% - Thunderbolts
- 5.2% - Spider-Man (Marvel Adventures)
- 13.1% - Uncanny X-Men
- 16.7% - Fantastic Four
- 23.2% - Daredevil
- 26.7% - X-Men Legacy
- 31.8% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 38.0% - Doomwar / Black Panther
- 42.6% - PunisherMax
- 52.4% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 53.0% - Dark Wolverine / Wolverine
- 53.6% - New Avengers

A busy month, as SIEGE wraps up, and the Heroic Age books begin, including the debut issues of both AVENGERS and SECRET AVENGERS. The “World War Hulks” crossover begins, “Second Coming” continues in the X-books, and the new ASTONISHING miniseries ship their first issues.

Once again, Marvel had the largest share of the North American direct market, beating DC by 46% to 35% in terms of units, and 41% to 31% in dollars.

For the benefit of any new readers, bear in mind the following disclaimers. These are estimates of orders placed by stores in the North American direct market. They don’t include sales on newsstands, or to other countries (such as the UK). And most of this material will be repackaged in collected editions or made available online, so there will be further sales in other formats. On the other hand, we don’t know whether the retailers managed to sell everything they ordered. With books that have been around a while, the retailers presumably have a fairly good idea of how many copies they can sell; with new launches, there’s a bit more guesswork involved.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the numbers. Thanks as always to MIlton Griepp and Icv2 for permission to use these figures.

1. AVENGERS
05/10 Avengers #1 - 163,867The Avengers line gets a reshuffle to tie in with Marvel’s new “Heroic Age” direction. While you could certainly make a case for doing it differently, for the purposes of comparing with earlier years, I’m taking the line that NEW AVENGERS has been renumbered from issue #1; AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE has been relaunched as AVENGERS ACADEMY; and AVENGERS and SECRET AVENGERS are simply new titles, replacing DARK AVENGERS and MIGHTY AVENGERS.

As we’ve come to expect with major launches, the issue has a horde of variant covers. In addition to the regular John Romita Jr cover, there’s a 1:15 “Heroic Age” cover by Greg Land, a 1:25 Marko Djurdjevic cover, a 1:75 Captain America cover (recycling the art from the “I Am An Avenger” promotional adverts, and we’ll be seeing those for months to come on the Avengers titles), a gatefold variant of that last cover, a John Romita Sr cover, a blank cover, and something called a “Premiere” cover. So eight covers in total, three of them with incentives.

Even so, 164K is a good number. It’s significantly more than SIEGE #1, for example. But perhaps a better comparison is the launch of DARK AVENGERS in January 2009, which had seven covers, higher incentive ratios, and estimated sales of 118,579. This is clearly a step up from that. So far, so good.

2. SIEGE
01/10 Siege #1 of 4 - 120,888
02/10 Siege #2 of 4 - 118,283 (-2.2%)
03/10 Siege #3 of 4 - 113,071 (-4.4%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Siege #4 of 4 - 113,752 (+0.6%)The sales for the first issue of SIEGE may not have been spectacular, but the series has remained remarkably steady since then.

This final issue sees a small uptick in sales, which is unusual. (The increase is trivial, but the point is that you’d normally expect sales to go down over the life of a miniseries.) One factor will be the range of variants – issue #3 had five covers, including 1:25, 1:100 and 1:200 incentives. Issue #4 also has five, but the incentive ratios were 1:25, 1:100, 1:175 and 1:250. Presumably that was just enough to cancel out the usual drop.

4. SECRET AVENGERS
05/10 Secret Avengers #1 - 106,750That’s a very good start for what’s presumably the Avengers’ C-title, behind AVENGERS and NEW AVENGERS. This one has a mere four covers, with incentives of 1:15, 1:25 and 1:75. The Avengers titles had been tailing off a bit over the last year, but this relaunch may well have reinvigorated them. The acid test, of course, is how well the sales hold up beyond the first couple of months.

10. UNCANNY X-MEN
05/05 Uncanny X-Men #459 - 83,547
05/06 Uncanny X-Men #473 - 79,335
05/07 Uncanny X-Men #486 - 81,965
05/08 Uncanny X-Men #498 - 82,090
=====
05/09 Uncanny X-Men #510 - 75,139 ( +8.6%)
06/09 Uncanny X-Men #511 - 71,148 ( -5.3%)
06/09 Uncanny X-Men #512 - 76,283 ( +7.2%)
07/09 Uncanny X-Men #513 - 87,582 (+14.8%)
08/09 Uncanny X-Men #514 - 90,316 ( +3.1%)
09/09 Uncanny X-Men #515 - 73,585 (-18.5%)
10/09 Uncanny X-Men #516 - 73,916 ( +0.4%)
11/09 Uncanny X-Men #517 - 69,557 ( -5.9%)
12/09 Uncanny X-Men #518 - 68,572 ( -1.4%)
12/09 Uncanny X-Men #519 - 67,043 ( -2.2%)
01/10 Uncanny X-Men #520 - 65,758 ( -1.9%)
02/10 Uncanny X-Men #521 - 67,049 ( +2.0%)
03/10 Uncanny X-Men #522 - 67,996 ( +1.4%)
04/10 Uncanny X-Men #523 - 78,999 (+16.2%)
05/10 Uncanny X-Men #524 - 77,056 ( -2.5%)
6 mnth (+10.8%)
1 year ( +2.6%)
2 year ( -6.1%)
3 year ( -6.0%)
4 year ( -2.9%)
5 year ( -7.8%)This is the second month of the “Second Coming” crossover, running through UNCANNY, X-MEN LEGACY, NEW MUTANTS and X-FORCE. And the signs are good. Across the board, the April issues are picking up reorders. Here, issue #523 sold a further 4,909 in May, bringing the total to almost 79,000.

That means that initial sales are actually up for the second month of this crossover. There are also variant covers on these books, but those are consistent from month to month, so they shouldn’t make a difference.

Admittedly, UNCANNY was selling in these quantities roughly a year ago without the benefit of crossovers. Similar points could be made about most of the other titles. (NEW MUTANTS is a special case, because its sales lag so far behind the other books, and it’s only a year old.) Nonetheless, the reorder activity shows some interest in this story – and if it hadn’t been for those re-orders, UNCANNY would be showing a sales increase for the fourth month in a row.

X-MEN: SECOND COMING #1, which carried the first chapter of the crossover and came out in March, also picks up reorders of 6,990, bringing the total to 73,003.

11. NEW AVENGERS
05/05 ---
05/06 New Avengers #19 - 123,318
05/07 New Avengers #30 - 126,425
05/08 New Avengers #41 - 109,185
=====
05/09 New Avengers #53 - 94,367 ( +0.4%)
06/09 New Avengers #54 - 93,878 ( -0.5%)
07/09 New Avengers #55 - 84,745 ( -9.7%)
08/09 New Avengers #56 - 89,996 ( +6.2%)
09/09 New Avengers #57 - 85,598 ( -4.9%)
10/09 New Avengers #58 - 76,656 (-10.4%)
11/09 New Avengers #59 - 74,379 ( -3.0%)
12/09 New Avengers #60 - 72,790 ( -2.1%)
01/10 New Avengers #61 - 78,202 ( +7.4%)
02/10 New Avengers #62 - 76,405 ( -2.3%)
03/10 New Avengers #63 - 76,145 ( -0.3%)
04/10 New Avengers #64 - 75,430 ( -0.9%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Finale - 76,918 ( +2.0%)
6 mnth ( +3.4%)
1 year (-18.5%)
2 year (-30.0%)
3 year (-39.2%)
4 year (-37.6%)
5 year ( --- )Basically issue #65, and the retailers have ordered it accordingly. It’s an epilogue, wrapping up some of the outstanding plot threads. Needless to say, we can expect a significant jump next month when the title relaunches from issue #1. (And while I’m generally sceptical about the current value of that particular marketing device, NEW AVENGERS should be an exception – partly because it really has closed the book on a multi-year storyline, and partly because of the sheer volume of promotion.)

13. DARK AVENGERS
05/09 ---
06/09 Dark Avengers #5 - 95,746 ( -4.0%)
06/09 Dark Avengers #6 - 93,634 ( -2.2%)
07/09 Dark Avengers #7 - 94,189 ( +0.6%)
08/09 Dark Avengers #8 - 94,191 ( +0.0%)
09/09 Dark Avengers #9 - 79,729 (-15.4%)
10/09 Dark Avengers #10 - 75,618 ( -5.2%)
11/09 Dark Avengers #11 - 72,225 ( -4.5%)
12/09 Dark Avengers #12 - 69,799 ( -3.4%)
01/10 Dark Avengers #13 - 76,002 ( +8.9%)
02/10 Dark Avengers #14 - 76,639 ( +0.8%)
03/10 Dark Avengers #15 - 72,254 ( -5.7%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Dark Avengers #16 - 71,509 ( -1.0%)
6 mnth ( -1.0%)
1 year ( --- )The final issue, delayed because it has to tie in with the end of SIEGE. DARK AVENGERS has been losing readers over the course of the year, but still wraps up its run with eminently acceptable sales.

15. X-MEN LEGACY
05/05 X-Men #170 - 81,048
05/06 X-Men #186 - 79,536
05/07 X-Men #199 - 75,996
05/08 X-Men Legacy #212 - 74,033
=====
05/09 X-Men Legacy #224 - 54,008 (-24.9%)
06/09 X-Men Legacy #225 - 58,374 ( +8.1%)
07/09 X-Men Legacy #226 - 59,298 ( +1.6%)
08/09 X-Men Legacy #227 - 63,316 ( +6.8%)
09/09 ---
10/09 X-Men Legacy #228 - 52,855 (-16.5%)
11/09 X-Men Legacy #229 - 50,789 ( -3.9%)
12/09 X-Men Legacy #230 - 49,776 ( -2.0%)
12/09 X-Men Legacy #231 - 50,929 ( +2.3%)
01/10 X-Men Legacy #232 - 49,200 ( -3.4%)
02/10 X-Men Legacy #233 - 51,344 ( +4.4%)
03/10 X-Men Legacy #234 - 48,217 ( -6.1%)
04/10 X-Men Legacy #235 - 65,302 (+35.4%)
05/10 X-Men Legacy #236 - 64,850 ( -0.7%)
6 mnth (+27.7%)
1 year (+20.1%)
2 year (-12.4%)
3 year (-14.7%)
4 year (-18.5%)
5 year (-20.0%)

16. X-FORCE
05/08 X-Force #4 - 80,175
=====
05/09 X-Force #15 - 58,340 ( -6.9%)
06/09 X-Force #16 - 58,818 ( +0.8%)
07/09 X-Force #17 - 61,104 ( +3.9%)
08/09 X-Force #18 - 56,421 ( -7.7%)
09/09 X-Force #19 - 49,817 (-11.7%)
10/09 X-Force #20 - 48,921 ( -1.8%)
11/09 X-Force #21 - 53,967 (+10.3%)
12/09 X-Force #22 - 51,859 ( -3.9%)
01/10 X-Force #23 - 50,848 ( -1.9%)
02/10 X-Force #24 - 49,790 ( -2.1%)
03/10 X-Force #25 - 49,910 ( +0.2%)
04/10 X-Force #26 - 67,512 (+35.3%)
05/10 X-Force #27 - 62,509 ( -7.4%)
6 mnth (+15.8%)
1 year ( +7.1%)
2 year (-22.0%)Two more “Second Coming” titles. LEGACY picks up orders of 4,653 on issue #235, while X-FORCE adds 5,312 to the orders on issue #26. The latter title is heading for a relaunch after the crossover.

19. THOR
05/08 Thor #9 - 87,101
=====
05/09 ---
06/09 Thor #602 - 69,568 (-15.3%)
07/09 ---
08/09 ---
09/09 Thor #603 - 65,265 ( -6.2%)
10/09 ---
11/09 Finale - 53,566 (-17.9%)
12/09 Thor #604 - 61,608 (+15.0%)
12/09 Thor #605 - 55,242 (-10.3%)
01/10 Thor #606 - 55,353 ( +0.2%)
02/10 Thor #607 - 66,973 (+21.0%)
03/10 Thor #608 - 62,012 ( -7.4%)
04/10 Thor #609 - 64,522 ( +4.0%)
05/10 Thor #610 - 61,779 ( -4.3%)
6 mnth (+15.3%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year (-29.1%)This issue has a 1:15 “Heroic Age” variant, but then there was a 1:15 variant on the April issue as well. It’s not officially a SIEGE crossover, but it was solicited (correctly) as an epilogue, which probably explains why it’s held on to much of the crossover increase.

20. SENTRY: FALLEN SUN
05/10 Fallen Sun - 60,883The funeral of the Sentry, and another SIEGE epilogue. Not a bad number at all – it’s about 10,000 short of parent title DARK AVENGERS, without the benefit of a variant cover.

21,22,23. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
05/05 Amazing Spider-Man #520 - 76,143
05/06 Amazing Spider-Man #532 - 95,544
05/07 Amazing Spider-Man #540 - 119,662
05/08 Amazing Spider-Man #560 - 74,012
=====
05/09 Amazing Spider-Man #593 - 58,363 (-11.5%)
05/09 Amazing Spider-Man #594 - 58,464 ( +0.2%)
05/09 Amazing Spider-Man #595 - 71,837 (+22.9%)
06/09 Amazing Spider-Man #596 - 63,525 (-11.6%)
06/09 Amazing Spider-Man #597 - 61,646 ( -3.0%)
06/09 Amazing Spider-Man #598 - 61,585 ( -0.0%)
07/09 Amazing Spider-Man #599 - 72,412 (+17.6%)
07/09 Amazing Spider-Man #600 - 116,857 (+61.4%)
08/09 Amazing Spider-Man #601 - 74,279 (-36.4%)
08/09 Amazing Spider-Man #602 - 71,532 ( -3.7%)
08/09 Amazing Spider-Man #603 - 71,051 ( -0.7%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #604 - 63,435 (-10.7%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #605 - 62,831 ( -1.0%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #606 - 70,177 (+11.7%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #607 - 62,570 (-10.8%)
10/09 Amazing Spider-Man #608 - 72,035 (+15.1%)
10/09 Amazing Spider-Man #609 - 61,176 (-15.1%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #610 - 61,170 ( -0.0%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #611 - 64,514 ( +5.5%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #612 - 68,459 ( +6.1%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #613 - 64,499 ( -5.8%)
12/09 Amazing Spider-Man #614 - 59,696 ( -7.4%)
12/09 Amazing Spider-Man #615 - 63,738 ( +6.8%)
12/09 Amazing Spider-Man #616 - 58,856 ( -7.7%)
01/10 Amazing Spider-Man #617 - 76,730 (+30.4%)
01/10 Amazing Spider-Man #618 - 61,969 (-19.2%)
01/10 Amazing Spider-Man #619 - 56,837 ( -8.3%)
02/10 Amazing Spider-Man #620 - 59,860 ( +5.3%)
02/10 Amazing Spider-Man #621 - 55,350 ( -7.5%)
02/10 Amazing Spider-Man #622 - 53,929 ( -2.6%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #623 - 66,064 (+22.5%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #624 - 60,213 ( -8.9%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #625 - 54,179 (-10.0%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #626 - 53,868 ( -0.6%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #627 - 54,206 ( +0.6%)
04/10 Amazing Spider-Man #628 - 57,797 ( +6.6%)
04/10 Amazing Spider-Man #629 - 53,560 ( -7.3%)
05/10 Amazing Spider-Man #630 - 57,969 ( +8.2%)
05/10 Amazing Spider-Man #631 - 57,239 ( -1.3%)
05/10 Amazing Spider-Man #632 - 56,723 ( -0.9%)
6 mnth (-12.1%)
1 year ( -2.8%)
2 year (-23.4%)
3 year (-52.6%)
4 year (-40.6%)
5 year (-25.5%)Variant covers on all three issues this month, which presumably explains why sales remain in the upper 50K range. The next couple of months should be interesting, as they’ll feature the “Grim Hunt” storyline, which has had months of build, followed by Joe Quesada’s “O.M.I.T.” arc picking at the wedding scab.

24. ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN/WOLVERINE
05/10 Spider-Man/Wolverine #1 of 5 - 56,518

25. ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS
05/10 Xenogenesis #1 of 5 - 55,428The “Astonishing” books are being promoted as self-contained, accessible minis featuring major Marvel characters without getting hung up on continuity. The fact that they’ve placed so close together is interesting, given that they have different creative teams, different characters (except for Wolverine, who’s in both) and no story connection. Presumably retailers do indeed see some value in the “Astonishing” brand.

XENOGENESIS is basically a continuation of Warren Ellis’s ASTONISHING X-MEN run – except that the previous arc isn’t finished yet, having become mired in yet more delays. In effect, if not in form, Marvel are now shipping that series out of sequence.

Both issues have foilogram variants, and both will be getting “Director’s Cut” editions in September.

26. INVINCIBLE IRON MAN
05/05 ---
05/06 Iron Man #8 - 38,860
05/07 Iron Man #17 - 63,328
05/08 Invincible Iron Man #1 - 105,864
=====
05/09 Invincible Iron Man #13 - 51,311 ( -0.9%)
06/09 Invincible Iron Man #14 - 53,229 ( +3.7%)
07/09 Invincible Iron Man #15 - 50,554 ( -5.0%)
08/09 Invincible Iron Man #16 - 53,782 ( +6.4%)
09/09 Invincible Iron Man #17 - 47,182 (-12.3%)
09/09 Invincible Iron Man #18 - 48,039 ( +1.8%)
10/09 Invincible Iron Man #19 - 47,178 ( -1.8%)
11/09 Invincible Iron Man #20 - 61,667 (+30.7%)
12/09 Invincible Iron Man #21 - 49,986 (-18.9%)
01/10 Invincible Iron Man #22 - 49,130 ( -1.7%)
02/10 Invincible Iron Man #23 - 50,027 ( +1.8%)
03/10 Invincible Iron Man #24 - 49,239 ( -1.6%)
04/10 Invincible Iron Man #25 - 73,694 (+49.7%)
05/10 Invincible Iron Man #26 - 53,625 (-27.2%)
6 mnth (-13.0%)
1 year ( +4.5%)
2 year (-49.3%)
3 year (-15.3%)
4 year (+38.0%)
5 year ( --- )Dropping back to more familiar sales levels now that the movie release (and its accompanying variant covers) is behind us.

27. ULTIMATE COMICS NEW ULTIMATES
05/05 Ultimates 2 #6 - 102,026
05/06 ---
05/07 Ultimates 2 #13 - 105,745
05/08 ---
05/09 ---
=====
03/10 New Ultimates #1 of 5 - 71,279
04/10 ---
05/10 New Ultimates #2 of 5 - 53,323 (-25.2%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year ( --- )
2 year ( --- )
3 year (-49.6%)
4 year ( --- )
5 year (-47.7%)

28. ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS
08/09 U.C. Avengers #1 - 99,701
09/09 U.C. Avengers #2 - 68,597 (-31.2%)
10/09 U.C. Avengers #3 - 62,716 ( -8.6%)
11/09 U.C. Avengers #4 - 59,023 ( -5.9%)
12/09 ---
01/10 ---
02/10 ---
03/10 U.C. Avengers #5 - 58,098 ( -1.6%)
04/10 U.C. Avengers #6 - 53,438 ( -8.0%)
04/10 U.C. Avengers 2 #1 of 6 - 64,811 (+21.3%)
05/10 U.C. Avengers 2 #2 of 6 - 52,939 (-18.3%)
6 mnth (-10.3%)More worrying signs for the Ultimate imprint. ULTIMATES 3 wrapped up with sales at 86,851 in September 2008, so the new title has opened lower and dropped further. In fairness, the first issue had two variant covers, so the underlying drop will be more modest than it looks.

Similarly, ULTIMATE AVENGERS 2 had two variant covers for its first issue, which makes the second issue drop relatively modest. But any benefit from the renumbering has more or less worn off already.

31. HULK
05/08 ---
=====
05/09 Hulk #12 - 73,105 (-11.6%)
06/09 ---
07/09 ---
08/09 Hulk #13 - 71,369 ( -2.4%)
08/09 Hulk #14 - 77,455 ( +8.5%)
09/09 Hulk #15 - 58,667 (-24.3%)
10/09 Hulk #16 - 56,811 ( -3.2%)
11/09 Hulk #17 - 52,653 ( -7.3%)
12/09 Hulk #18 - 53,222 ( +1.1%)
01/10 Hulk #19 - 56,738 ( +6.6%)
02/10 Hulk #20 - 51,962 ( -8.4%)
03/10 Hulk #21 - 50,785 ( -2.3%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Hulk #22 - 49,618 ( -2.3%)
6 mnth ( -5.8%)
1 year (-32.1%)
2 year ( --- )Beginning the “World War Hulks” crossover, although since “Fall of the Hulks” has only just finished in the previous issue, there’s not much difference to be seen. The solicitations indicate new creative teams and new directions for the Hulk titles in September.

32. NEW MUTANTS
05/09 New Mutants #1 - 60,972
06/09 New Mutants #2 - 43,230 (-29.1%)
07/09 New Mutants #3 - 42,961 ( -0.6%)
08/09 New Mutants #4 - 38,558 (-10.2%)
09/09 New Mutants #5 - 31,502 (-18.3%)
10/09 New Mutants #6 - 34,967 (+11.0%)
11/09 New Mutants #7 - 33,328 ( -4.7%)
12/09 New Mutants #8 - 32,240 ( -3.3%)
01/10 New Mutants #9 - 30,572 ( -5.2%)
02/10 New Mutants #10 - 30,807 ( +0.8%)
03/10 New Mutants #11 - 36,629 (+18.9%)
04/10 New Mutants #12 - 49,591 (+35.4%)
05/10 New Mutants #13 - 49,583 ( -0.0%)
6 mnth (+48.8%)
1 year (-18.7%)The fourth “Second Coming” title picks up a whopping 6,807 in re-orders, which tends to support my speculation last month that retailers had under-ordered it. Mind you, it still remains 28,000 short of UNCANNY X-MEN, which means that a full third of UNCANNY’s readers aren’t buying the whole crossover, even though it’s an old-school “part 6 of 14″ serial. Strange, that.

34. INCREDIBLE HULK
05/05 Incredible Hulk #81 - 43,822
05/06 Incredible Hulk #95 - 46,571
05/07 Incredible Hulk #106 - 110,192
05/08 ---
=====
07/09 Incredible Hulk #600 - 92,343
08/09 Incredible Hulk #601 - 64,120 (-30.6%)
09/09 Incredible Hulk #602 - 51,582 (-19.6%)
10/09 Incredible Hulk #603 - 49,126 ( -4.8%)
11/09 Incredible Hulk #604 - 40,652 (-17.2%)
12/09 Incredible Hulk #605 - 43,964 ( +8.1%)
01/10 Incredible Hulk #606 - 48,197 ( +9.6%)
02/10 Incredible Hulk #607 - 45,870 ( -4.8%)
03/10 Incredible Hulk #608 - 47,148 ( +2.8%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Incredible Hulk #609 - 46,670 ( -1.0%)
6 mnth (+14.8%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year ( --- )
3 year (-57.6%)
4 year ( +0.2%)
5 year ( +6.5%)See comments above for HULK, basically.

35. DARK WOLVERINE
05/09 Wolverine #72 - 91,333 ( +0.1%)
05/09 Wolverine #73 - 83,324 ( -8.8%)
06/09 Wolverine #74 - 66,186 (-20.6%)
06/09 Dark Wolverine #75 - 80,780 (+22.0%)
07/09 Dark Wolverine #76 - 74,017 ( -8.4%)
08/09 Dark Wolverine #77 - 68,593 ( -7.3%)
09/09 Dark Wolverine #78 - 60,702 (-11.5%)
10/09 Dark Wolverine #79 - 60,076 ( -1.0%)
11/09 Dark Wolverine #80 - 52,394 (-12.8%)
12/09 Dark Wolverine #81 - 48,102 ( -8.2%)
01/10 Dark Wolverine #82 - 54,838 (+14.0%)
02/10 Dark Wolverine #83 - 53,958 ( -1.6%)
03/10 Dark Wolverine #84 - 49,469 ( -8.3%)
04/10 Dark Wolverine #85 - 47,527 ( -3.9%)
05/10 Dark Wolverine #86 - 46,315 ( -2.6%)
6 mnth (-11.6%)
1 year (-49.3%)This is the second month of a crossover with WOLVERINE: ORIGINS. There’s a “Heroic Age” variant cover (but there was one on the previous issue too). The book is relaunching in September as DAKEN: DARK WOLVERINE, while WOLVERINE: WEAPON X is relaunching as just plain WOLVERINE. Reflecting the reality, I’ve moved the sales for prior years over to WEAPON X, which is the real continuation of Wolverine’s solo title.

S.H.I.E.L.D.
04/10 S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 - 44,543
05/10 ---This is on a bimonthly schedule, but issue #1 picks up healthy reorders of 6,513 – included above, as always.

41. DEADPOOL
05/09 Deadpool #10 - 56,123 ( +2.9%)
06/09 Deadpool #11 - 55,343 ( -1.4%)
07/09 Deadpool #12 - 58,807 ( +6.3%)
08/09 Deadpool #13 - 55,442 ( -5.7%)
08/09 Deadpool #14 - 50,263 ( -9.3%)
09/09 Deadpool #15 - 50,479 ( +0.4%)
10/09 Deadpool #16 - 46,288 ( -8.3%)
11/09 Deadpool #17 - 46,765 ( +1.0%)
12/09 Deadpool #18 - 45,914 ( -1.8%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Deadpool #19 - 44,580 ( -2.9%)
02/10 Deadpool #20 - 43,347 ( -2.8%)
03/10 Deadpool #21 - 42,062 ( -3.0%)
04/10 Deadpool #22 - 43,061 ( +2.4%)
05/10 Deadpool #23 - 42,761 ( -0.7%)
6 mnth ( -8.6%)
1 year (-23.8%)Hovering at a steady level over the last few months. There’s a variant cover on this issue, but the same applied last month.

43. X-FACTOR
05/06 X-Factor #7 - 44,315
05/07 X-Factor #19 - 37,898
05/08 X-Factor #31 - 48,231
=====
05/09 X-Factor #43 - 31,543 ( -1.4%)
06/09 X-Factor #44 - 31,552 ( +0.0%)
06/09 X-Factor #45 - 31,109 ( -1.4%)
07/09 X-Factor #46 - 31,213 ( +0.3%)
08/09 X-Factor #47 - 33,052 ( +5.9%)
09/09 X-Factor #48 - 30,305 ( -8.3%)
09/09 X-Factor #49 - 29,934 ( -1.2%)
10/09 X-Factor #50 - 30,138 ( +0.7%)
11/09 ---
12/09 X-Factor #200 - 36,577 (+21.4%)
01/10 X-Factor #201 - 29,732 (-18.7%)
02/10 X-Factor #202 - 30,981 ( +4.2%)
03/10 X-Factor #203 - 28,924 ( -6.6%)
04/10 X-Factor #204 - 40,534 (+40.1%)
05/10 X-Factor #205 - 41,745 ( +3.0%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year (+32.3%)
2 year (-13.4%)
3 year (+10.2%)
4 year ( -5.8%)X-FACTOR isn’t part of “Second Coming” proper, but its tie-in arc is still generating remarkable sales increases. Issue #204 picks up reorders of 3,961.

45. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL
05/10 Annual #37 - 41,388Only about 16K behind the parent title – not bad at all for an annual, and particularly not for a story billed as taking place during the Silver Age.

46. SIEGE: EMBEDDED
01/10 Siege: Embedded #1 of 4 - 55,482
02/10 Siege: Embedded #2 of 4 - 46,003 (-17.1%)
03/10 Siege: Embedded #3 of 4 - 43,455 ( -5.5%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Siege: Embedded #4 of 4 - 40,054 ( -7.8%)A pretty solid performance for SIEGE’s B-miniseries.

47. ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN
05/05 Ult. Spider-Man #77 - 81,034
05/06 Ult. Spider-Man #95 - 73,564
05/07 Ult. Spider-Man #109 - 72,478
05/08 Ult. Spider-Man #122 - 55,759
=====
05/09 Ult. Spider-Man #132 - 50,144 ( +1.2%)
06/09 Ult. Spider-Man #133 - 57,364 ( +14.4%)
06/09 USM: Requiem #1 of 2 - 44,988 ( -21.6%)
07/09 USM: Requiem #2 of 2 - 41,374 ( -8.0%)
08/09 U.C. Spider-Man #1 - 86,008 (+107.9%)
09/09 U.C. Spider-Man #2 - 57,477 ( -33.2%)
10/09 U.C. Spider-Man #3 - 52,813 ( -8.1%)
11/09 U.C. Spider-Man #4 - 49,106 ( -7.0%)
12/09 U.C. Spider-Man #5 - 45,849 ( -6.6%)
01/10 U.C. Spider-Man #6 - 43,622 ( -4.9%)
02/10 U.C. Spider-Man #7 - 42,176 ( -3.3%)
03/10 U.C. Spider-Man #8 - 40,967 ( -2.9%)
04/10 U.C. Spider-Man #9 - 39,955 ( -2.5%)
05/10 U.C. Spider-Man #10 - 39,690 ( -0.7%)
6 mnth ( -19.2%)
1 year ( -20.8%)
2 year ( -28.8%)
3 year ( -45.2%)
4 year ( -46.0%)
5 year ( -51.0%)Seems to be levelling out, at least, but sales remain substantially down following the relaunch.

48. WOLVERINE ONE-SHOTS
05/09 ---
06/09 Revolver - 21,425 ( -8.0%)
07/09 ---
08/09 ---
09/09 ---
10/09 ---
11/09 ---
12/09 Under the Boardwalk - 19,271 ( -10.4%)
01/10 Wendigo - 17,476 ( -9.3%)
02/10 Savage - 18,396 ( +5.3%)
03/10 Mr X - 17,947 ( -2.4%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Wolverine #900 - 38,990 (+117.3%)Interesting. This is basically a Wolverine anthology. Initially I assumed that the joke of publishing DEADPOOL #900 must have gone over someone’s head. But as it turns out, this $5 book has sold far better than the usual Wolverine one-shot – comfortably better, in fact, than either of Wolverine’s regular titles. That’s unexpected.

49. FANTASTIC FOUR
05/05 Fantastic Four #527 - 67,433
05/06 ---
05/07 Fantastic Four #546 - 72,182
05/08 Fantastic Four #557 - 62,736
=====
05/09 Fantastic Four #566 - 46,653 ( -3.6%)
06/09 Fantastic Four #567 - 46,225 ( -0.9%)
07/09 Fantastic Four #568 - 45,828 ( -0.9%)
07/09 Fantastic Four #569 - 44,710 ( -2.4%)
08/09 Fantastic Four #570 - 62,401 (+39.6%)
09/09 Fantastic Four #571 - 47,468 (-23.4%)
10/09 Fantastic Four #572 - 41,939 (-11.6%)
11/09 Fantastic Four #573 - 39,433 ( -6.0%)
12/09 Fantastic Four #574 - 38,431 ( -2.5%)
01/10 Fantastic Four #575 - 41,284 ( +7.4%)
02/10 Fantastic Four #576 - 37,526 ( -9.1%)
03/10 Fantastic Four #577 - 35,791 ( -4.6%)
04/10 Fantastic Four #578 - 37,940 ( +6.0%)
05/10 Fantastic Four #579 - 38,415 ( +1.3%)
6 mnth ( -2.6%)
1 year (-17.7%)
2 year (-38.8%)
3 year (-46.8%)
4 year ( --- )
5 year (-43.0%)Variant cover, but the same applied last month. This may be settling down.

50. AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE
05/07 Initiative #2 - 103,189
05/08 Initiative #13 - 56,818
=====
05/09 Initiative #24 - 42,510 ( -5.8%)
06/09 Initiative #25 - 40,101 ( -5.7%)
07/09 Initiative #26 - 38,215 ( -4.7%)
08/09 Initiative #27 - 39,014 ( +2.1%)
09/09 Initiative #28 - 33,855 (-13.2%)
10/09 Initiative #29 - 31,412 ( -7.2%)
11/09 Initiative #30 - 28,688 ( -8.7%)
12/09 Initiative #31 - 32,291 (+12.6%)
01/10 Initiative #32 - 36,127 (+11.9%)
02/10 Initiative #33 - 39,968 (+10.6%)
03/10 Initiative #34 - 38,616 ( -3.4%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Initiative #35 - 38,158 ( -1.2%)
6 mnth (+33.0%)
1 year (-10.2%)
2 year (-32.8%)
3 year (-63.0%)Final issue, with AVENGERS ACADEMY replacing it in June. It’s also a SIEGE tie-in, and continues to benefit from that.

52. WOLVERINE: ORIGINS
05/06 Origins #2 - 131,522
05/07 Origins #14 - 68,953
05/08 Origins #25 - 52,907
=====
05/09 Origins #36 - 45,451 ( +1.1%)
06/09 Origins #37 - 44,930 ( -1.1%)
07/09 Origins #38 - 47,211 ( +5.1%)
08/09 Origins #39 - 44,968 ( -4.8%)
09/09 Origins #40 - 42,724 ( -5.0%)
10/09 Origins #41 - 39,453 ( -7.7%)
11/09 Origins #42 - 37,903 ( -3.9%)
12/09 Origins #43 - 36,528 ( -3.6%)
01/10 Origins #44 - 35,154 ( -3.8%)
02/10 ---
03/10 Origins #45 - 37,055 ( +5.4%)
03/10 Origins #46 - 34,004 ( -8.2%)
04/10 Origins #47 - 36,075 ( +6.1%)
05/10 Origins #48 - 35,999 ( -0.2%)
6 mnth ( -5.0%)
1 year (-20.8%)
2 year (-32.0%)
3 year (-47.8%)
4 year (-72.6%)The second month of the crossover with DARK WOLVERINE, which doesn’t seem to be having a huge impact – sales continue to hover around the level they’ve had all year. The book ends with issue #50, having completed its multi-year story.

53. X-MEN: BLIND SCIENCE
05/10 Blind Science - 35,483A Second Coming tie-in one-shot, featuring the X-Club. Considering the sales levels we’ve seen on recent X-Men spin-offs like the PIXIE miniseries (see below), this looks like another sign of the popularity of the crossover.

57. AGE OF HEROES
05/10 Age of Heroes #1 of 4 - 33,573An anthology title catching up on miscellaneous Marvel characters in the post-Dark Reign universe. Considering that this features stories about characters from two recently-cancelled titles (Dr Voodoo and MI-13), it’s a very solid number.

58. X-MEN: HELLBOUND
05/10 Hellbound #1 of 3 - 33,345Another “Second Coming” tie-in miniseries, and again, it’s doing much better than your typical X-Men spin-off these days.

59. THUNDERBOLTS
05/05 New Thunderbolts #8 - 27,769
05/06 Thunderbolts #102 - 23,741
05/07 Thunderbolts #114 - 66,309
05/08 Thunderbolts #120 - 38,330
=====
05/09 Thunderbolts #132 - 43,911 (-10.7%)
06/09 Thunderbolts #133 - 39,479 (-10.1%)
07/09 Thunderbolts #134 - 40,885 ( +3.6%)
08/09 ---
09/09 Thunderbolts #135 - 39,961 ( -2.3%)
09/09 Thunderbolts #136 - 34,031 (-14.8%)
10/09 Thunderbolts #137 - 32,409 ( -4.8%)
11/09 Thunderbolts #138 - 31,238 ( -3.6%)
12/09 Thunderbolts #139 - 29,957 ( -4.1%)
01/10 Thunderbolts #140 - 28,644 ( -4.4%)
02/10 Thunderbolts #141 - 33,948 (+18.5%)
03/10 Thunderbolts #142 - 34,132 ( +0.5%)
04/10 Thunderbolts #143 - 35,656 ( +4.5%)
05/10 Thunderbolts #144 - 33,276 ( -6.7%)
6 mnth ( +6.5%)
1 year (-24.2%)
2 year (-13.2%)
3 year (-49.8%)
4 year (+40.2%)
5 year (+19.8%)Hmm. This is the first issue of the new direction, complete with a Heroic Age variant cover. Granted, the last three issues were SIEGE tie-ins, and the April issue had a variant of its own, but I have to admit I was expecting a bigger increase.

63. MARVELS PROJECT
08/09 Marvels Project #1 of 8 - 89,062
09/09 Marvels Project #2 of 8 - 47,744 (-46.4%)
10/09 Marvels Project #3 of 8 - 39,313 (-17.7%)
11/09 ---
12/09 Marvels Project #4 of 8 - 34,775 (-11.5%)
01/10 Marvels Project #5 of 8 - 31,644 ( -9.0%)
02/10 Marvels Project #6 of 8 - 30,108 ( -4.9%)
03/10 Marvels Project #7 of 8 - 28,129 ( -6.6%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Marvels Project #8 of 8 - 31,345 (+11.4%)This issue has two variant covers, which presumably explains the unusual sales increase on the last issue of a mini.

66. DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH
07/09 Merc With A Mouth #1 - 59,628
08/09 Merc With A Mouth #2 - 51,147 (-14.2%)
09/09 Merc With A Mouth #3 - 43,855 (-14.3%)
10/09 Merc With A Mouth #4 - 40,154 ( -8.4%)
11/09 Merc With A Mouth #5 - 37,781 ( -5.9%)
12/09 Merc With A Mouth #6 - 37,051 ( -1.9%)
01/10 Merc With A Mouth #7 - 40,568 ( +9.5%)
02/10 Merc With A Mouth #8 - 34,281 (-15.5%)
03/10 Merc With A Mouth #9 - 33,405 ( -2.6%)
04/10 Merc With A Mouth #10 - 33,803 ( +1.2%)
05/10 Merc With A Mouth #11 - 30,677 ( -9.2%)
6 mnth (-18.8%)Cancelled with issue #13, with DEADPOOL CORPS effectively replacing it on the schedule. Except DEADPOOL CORPS is already below this pointÉ

67. WOLVERINE: WEAPON X
05/05 Wolverine #28 - 80,961
05/06 Wolverine #42 - 93,558
05/07 Wolverine #54 - 96,082
05/08 Wolverine #65 - 62,451
=====
05/09 Weapon X #2 - 59,192 (-39.5%)
06/09 Weapon X #3 - 51,076 (-13.7%)
07/09 ---
08/09 Weapon X #4 - 49,284 ( -3.5%)
09/09 Weapon X #5 - 40,975 (-16.9%)
10/09 Weapon X #6 - 38,446 ( -6.2%)
11/09 Weapon X #7 - 36,108 ( -6.1%)
12/09 Weapon X #8 - 33,470 ( -7.3%)
01/10 Weapon X #9 - 31,678 ( -5.4%)
02/10 Weapon X #10 - 30,132 ( -4.9%)
03/10 Weapon X #11 - 29,799 ( -1.1%)
04/10 Weapon X #12 - 30,050 ( +0.8%)
05/10 Weapon X #13 - 29,773 ( -0.9%)
6 mnth (-17.5%)
1 year (-49.7%)
2 year (-52.3%)
3 year (-69.0%)
4 year (-68.2%)
5 year (-63.2%)Relaunching in September as just plain WOLVERINE. As I’ve said before, Marvel’s big idea was presumably to turn WOLVERINE into a Daken title, and launch this book as the new regular Wolverine title. But it hasn’t worked, with sales rapidly crashing to levels we haven’t seen on the lead Wolverine title in years. Some people blame the price point. Me, I think the bigger factor is that there was very little appetite for a third monthly Wolverine book, which is how WEAPON X was initially promoted. (And incidentally, the experience of this book makes me very intrigued to see what happens with the upcoming X-MEN #1.)

So the relaunch in September has a lot of work to do, if it’s going to reverse the damage. Which might be why it’s shipping with five variant coversÉ

68. THANOS IMPERATIVE
05/10 Ignition - 29,716The prologue to a mini starting next month. It replaces GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and NOVA, both of which had dropped to 21K towards the end of their runs, so it’s a decent number.

69. SECRET WARRIORS
05/09 Secret Warriors #4 - 42,781 (-14.7%)
06/09 Secret Warriors #5 - 40,849 ( -4.5%)
07/09 Secret Warriors #6 - 41,749 ( +2.2%)
08/09 Secret Warriors #7 - 38,990 ( -6.6%)
09/09 Secret Warriors #8 - 33,893 (-13.1%)
10/09 Secret Warriors #9 - 36,385 ( +7.4%)
11/09 Secret Warriors #10 - 31,567 (-13.2%)
12/09 Secret Warriors #11 - 30,748 ( -2.6%)
01/10 Secret Warriors #12 - 29,894 ( -2.8%)
02/10 Secret Warriors #13 - 30,843 ( +3.2%)
03/10 Secret Warriors #14 - 28,580 ( -7.3%)
04/10 Secret Warriors #15 - 29,669 ( +3.8%)
05/10 Secret Warriors #16 - 29,340 ( -1.1%)
6 mnth ( -7.1%)
1 year (-31.4%)Variant cover, but that’s not unusual. Sales seem to have steadied over the last five months or so.

70. IRON MAN LEGACY
04/10 Iron Man Legacy #1 - 48,956
05/10 Iron Man Legacy #2 - 29,175 (-40.4%)A huge second issue drop, but then the launch issue had the benefit of four covers plus the publicity of the IRON MAN 2 movie release – and we saw what a huge spike that created for INVINCIBLE IRON MAN. So it was always going to be a sharp fall.

72. DOOMWAR
05/05 Black Panther #4 - 40,804
05/06 Black Panther #16 - 28,091
05/07 Black Panther #27 - 52,552
05/08 Black Panther #36 - 20,841
=====
05/09 Black Panther #4 - 30,984 ( -7.1%)
06/09 Black Panther #5 - 29,762 ( -3.9%)
07/09 Black Panther #6 - 29,727 ( -0.1%)
08/09 Black Panther #7 - 27,619 ( -7.1%)
09/09 Black Panther #8 - 23,020 ( -16.7%)
10/09 Black Panther #9 - 20,346 ( -11.6%)
11/09 Black Panther #10 - 19,147 ( -5.9%)
12/09 Black Panther #11 - 17,989 ( -6.0%)
01/10 Black Panther #12 - 17,881 ( -1.0%)
02/10 Doomwar #1 of 6 - 43,241 (+141.8%)
03/10 Doomwar #2 of 6 - 30,555 ( -29.3%)
04/10 Doomwar #3 of 6 - 27,859 ( -8.9%)
05/10 Doomwar #4 of 6 - 28,307 ( +1.6%)
6 mnth ( +47.8%)
1 year ( -8.6%)
2 year ( +35.8%)
3 year ( -46.1%)
4 year ( +0.8%)
5 year ( -30.6%)Marvel haven’t solicited anything beyond the end of this miniseries, so it looks like this may be it for BLACK PANTHER. Which is slightly surprising, because sales have increased substantially with this miniseries – admittedly with the help of a horde of guest stars, but that’s not usually a big deal in sales terms any more. The slight increase this month is probably due to the Heroic Age variant cover, though.

73. DEADPOOL CORPS
03/10 Prelude #1 of 5 - 37,011
03/10 Prelude #2 of 5 - 32,024 (-13.5%)
03/10 Prelude #3 of 5 - 31,065 ( -3.0%)
03/10 Prelude #4 of 5 - 30,254 ( -2.6%)
03/10 Prelude #5 of 5 - 29,037 ( -4.0%)
04/10 Deadpool Corps #1 - 39,466 (+35.9%)
05/10 Deadpool Corps #2 - 28,236 (-28.5%)Already below the sales of DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH, which isn’t encouraging. The first issue had a variant cover, and this one doesn’t, so the second issue drop isn’t as steep as it looks.

74. FALL OF THE HULKS: THE SAVAGE SHE-HULKS
03/10 Savage She-Hulks #1 of 3 - 33,290
04/10 Savage She-Hulks #2 of 3 - 27,421 (-17.6%)
05/10 Savage She-Hulks #3 of 3 - 27,809 ( +1.4%)Another slight increase which is probably attributable to a Heroic Age variant cover – there was no variant on issue #2.

75. ULTIMATE COMICS ENEMY
01/10 Enemy #1 of 4 - 38,880
02/10 Enemy #2 of 4 - 29,820 (-23.3%)
03/10 ---
04/10 Enemy #3 of 4 - 28,829 ( -3.3%)
05/10 Enemy #4 of 4 - 27,612 ( -4.2%)Fairly steady after the initial drop.

76. DEADPOOL TEAM-UP
10/09 Deadpool #900 - 51,337
11/09 Deadpool Team-Up #899 - 39,584 (-22.9%)
12/09 Deadpool Team-Up #898 - 36,308 ( -8.3%)
01/10 Deadpool Team-Up #897 - 32,671 (-10.0%)
02/10 Deadpool Team-Up #896 - 30,119 ( -7.8%)
03/10 Deadpool Team-Up #895 - 28,573 ( -5.1%)
04/10 Deadpool Team-Up #894 - 28,835 ( +0.9%)
05/10 Deadpool Team-Up #893 - 26,578 ( -7.8%)
6 mnth (-32.9%)This has a variant cover (as did the previous issue), so the underlying sales still seem to be dropping.

79. DARK TOWER: GUNSLINGER - JOURNEY BEGINS
05/07 Gunslinger Born #4 of 7 - 131,753
05/08 Long Road Home #3 of 5 - 87,631
=====
05/09 Fall of Gilead #1 of 6 - 43,580 (+11.1%)
06/09 Fall of Gilead #2 of 6 - 39,978 ( -8.3%)
07/09 Fall of Gilead #3 of 6 - 36,982 ( -7.5%)
08/09 Fall of Gilead #4 of 6 - 35,607 ( -3.7%)
09/09 Fall of Gilead #5 of 6 - 34,522 ( -3.0%)
10/09 ---
11/09 Fall of Gilead #6 of 6 - 32,531 ( -5.8%)
12/09 Jericho Hill #1 of 5 - 30,756 ( -5.5%)
12/09 Jericho Hill #2 of 5 - 28,350 ( -7.8%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Jericho Hill #3 of 5 - 27,215 ( -4.0%)
02/10 Jericho Hill #4 of 5 - 26,336 ( -3.2%)
03/10 ---
04/10 Jericho Hill #5 of 5 - 25,896 ( -1.7%)
05/10 Gunslinger #1 of 5 - 26,275 ( +1.5%)
6 mnth (-19.2%)
1 year (-39.7%)
2 year (-69.7%)
3 year (-80.1%)A very token sales bump for the first issue of a new arc.

86. BLACK WIDOW
04/10 Black Widow #1 - 32,807
05/10 Black Widow #2 - 23,384 (-28.7%)Issue #1 had four covers, issue #2 has three, so the second issue drop will be slightly exaggerated.

87. MARVEL ZOMBIES 5
04/10 Marvel Zombies 5 #1 of 5 - 26,318
04/10 Marvel Zombies 5 #2 of 5 - 26,319 ( -1.8%)
05/10 Marvel Zombies 5 #3 of 5 - 22,894 (-13.0%)The magic of variant covers brings us a delayed second issue drop – which is actually quite a modest one.

88. ATLAS
05/09 Agents of Atlas #4 - 25,377 (-14.7%)
05/09 Agents of Atlas #5 - 25,207 ( -0.7%)
06/09 Agents of Atlas #6 - 22,579 (-10.4%)
07/09 Agents of Atlas #7 - 23,217 ( +2.8%)
07/09 Agents of Atlas #8 - 20,540 (-11.5%)
08/09 Agents of Atlas #9 - 20,828 ( +1.4%)
09/09 Agents of Atlas #10 - 17,877 (-14.2%)
09/09 Agents of Atlas #11 - 17,529 ( -1.9%)
10/09 X-Men vs #1 of 2 - 32,743 (+86.8%)
11/09 X-Men vs #2 of 2 - 25,222 (-23.0%)
12/09 ---
01/10 Avengers vs #1 of 4 - 21,777 (-13.7%)
02/10 Avengers vs #2 of 4 - 17,998 (-17.4%)
03/10 Avengers vs #3 of 4 - 16,482 ( -8.4%)
04/10 Avengers vs #4 of 4 - 14,900 ( -9.6%)
05/10 Atlas #1 - 22,756 (+52.7%)
6 mnth ( -9.8%)
1 year (-10.3%)AGENTS OF ATLAS relaunches as just plain ATLAS. Unfortunately, sales pick up more or less at the level that the previous title had reached by issue #6, and that’s with the benefit of two variant covers. But as I’ve pointed out over the last few months, arbitrary renumbering no longer seem to be a very effective way of boosting sales.

91. PUNISHERMAX [Max]
05/05 Punisher #21 - 37,998
05/06 Punisher #33 - 34,480
05/07 Punisher #47 - 33,892
05/08 Punisher #57 - 30,528
=====
05/09 Frank Castle #70 - 21,864 ( +0.1%)
06/09 Frank Castle #71 - 21,319 ( -2.5%)
07/09 Frank Castle #72 - 21,049 ( -1.3%)
08/09 Frank Castle #73 - 20,375 ( -3.2%)
09/09 Frank Castle #74 - 20,259 ( -0.6%)
10/09 Frank Castle #75 - 22,210 ( +9.6%)
11/09 PunisherMax #1 - 29,119 (+31.1%)
12/09 PunisherMax #2 - 23,110 (-20.4%)
01/10 PunisherMax #3 - 22,887 ( -1.0%)
02/10 PunisherMax #4 - 22,472 ( -1.8%)
03/10 PunisherMax #5 - 22,435 ( -0.2%)
04/10 PunisherMax #6 - 22,246 ( -0.8%)
05/10 PunisherMax #7 - 22,198 ( -0.2%)
6 mnth (-23.8%)
1 year ( +1.5%)
2 year (-27.3%)
3 year (-34.5%)
4 year (-35.6%)
5 year (-41.6%)Holding steady.

92. ENTER THE HEROIC AGE
05/10 Enter the Heroic Age - 22,139Trailer stories for five new titles – again, a decent number for that sort of book.

93. AVENGERS: THE ORIGIN
04/10 Origin #1 of 5 - 24,457
05/10 Origin #2 of 5 - 22,108 (-9.6%)A Heroic Age variant cover will have blunted the second issue drop, but this isn’t at all bad for a story set in the Silver Age.

97. VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT
05/06 Moon Knight #2 - 75,333
05/07 Moon Knight #10 - 56,734
05/08 Moon Knight #18 - 26,626
=====
05/09 Moon Knight #30 - 19,693 (-13.2%)
06/09 ---
07/09 ---
08/09 ---
09/09 Moon Knight #1 - 35,706 (+81.3%)
10/09 Moon Knight #2 - 26,493 (-25.8%)
11/09 Moon Knight #3 - 23,359 (-11.8%)
12/09 Moon Knight #4 - 21,482 ( -8.0%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Moon Knight #5 - 19,733 ( -8.1%)
03/10 Moon Knight #6 - 19,094 ( -3.2%)
04/10 Moon Knight #7 - 20,718 ( +8.5%)
05/10 Moon Knight #8 - 20,597 ( -0.6%)
6 mnth (-11.8%)
1 year ( +4.5%)
2 year (-22.6%)
3 year (-63.7%)
4 year (-72.7%)Heroic Age variant cover. (There was an Iron Man variant last month.) Moon Knight should get some extra publicity from his inclusion in SECRET AVENGERS, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into sales on a solo title.

98. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN PRESENTS AMERICAN SON
05/10 American Son #1 of 4 - 20,375Well, the JACKPOT mini launched with 18K, so this is an improvement. It does have a variant cover, though.

99. PRINCE OF POWER
05/08 Hercules #117 - 53,008
=====
05/09 Hercules #129 - 28,995 (-14.1%)
06/09 Hercules #130 - 27,872 ( -3.9%)
07/09 Hercules #131 - 29,188 ( +4.7%)
08/09 Hercules #132 - 32,680 (+12.0%)
08/09 Hercules #133 - 27,491 (-15.9%)
09/09 Hercules #134 - 25,380 ( -7.7%)
09/09 Hercules #135 - 26,344 ( +3.8%)
10/09 Hercules #136 - 26,447 ( -0.4%)
10/09 Hercules #137 - 23,463 (-11.3%)
11/09 Hercules #138 - 25,116 ( +7.0%)
12/09 Hercules #139 - 23,591 ( -6.1%)
01/10 Hercules #140 - 23,244 ( -1.5%)
02/10 Hercules #141 - 24,539 ( +5.6%)
03/10 Fall/Avenger #1 of 2 - 23,036 ( -6.1%)
04/10 Fall/Avenger #2 of 2 - 20,215 (-12.2%)
05/10 Prince of Power #1 of 4 - 20,373 ( +0.8%)
6 mnth (-18.9%)
1 year (-29.7%)
2 year (-61.6%)This is an Amadeus Cho miniseries, but it’s effectively HERCULES continuing in the absence of its lead characters. And retailers have more or less ordered it accordingly.

101. X-MEN ORIGINS
05/09 ---
06/09 Gambit - 28,023 (-18.4%)
07/09 ---
08/09 ---
09/09 ---
10/09 ---
11/09 Iceman - 19,004 (-32.2%)
12/09 --
01/10 Cyclops - 19,049 ( +0.2%)
02/10 ---
03/10 Nightcrawler - 19,818 ( +4.0%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Emma Frost - 20,093 ( +1.4%)These one-shots now seem to have settled down to the 20K range.

106. WEB OF SPIDER-MAN
10/09 Web of Spider-Man #1 - 58,412
11/09 Web of Spider-Man #2 - 32,093 (-45.1%)
12/09 Web of Spider-Man #3 - 29,368 ( -8.5%)
01/10 Web of Spider-Man #4 - 24,424 (-16.8%)
02/10 Web of Spider-Man #5 - 24,296 ( -0.5%)
03/10 Web of Spider-Man #6 - 21,574 (-11.2%)
04/10 Web of Spider-Man #7 - 19,533 ( -9.5%)
05/10 Web of Spider-Man #8 - 19,623 ( +4.6%)
6 mnth (-38.9%)Cancelled with issue #12.

110. DAREDEVIL: CAGE MATCH
05/10 Cage Match - 17,711A one-shot replacing the regular title this month, and coming in with almost half the sales.

113. SPIDER-GIRL
05/10 Spectacular Spider-Girl #1 of 4 - 17,025Officially the final Spider-Girl miniseries, although she’s had last-minute reprieves before.

115,116. WOMEN OF MARVEL ONE-SHOTS
03/10 X-23 - 27,328
03/10 She-Hulk - 15,583
03/10 Sif - 18,092
04/10 Firestar - 13,462
05/10 Dazzler - 16,320
05/10 Rescue - 15,711Two more one-shots, and it looks like these books will typically be placing in the 15K range. Dazzler is in the X-Men (not that she gets much dialogue), so this is also an example of how the Second Coming tie-ins are outperforming the typical X-Men spin-offs.

118. CAPTAIN AMERICA/BLACK PANTHER: FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
04/10 Flags #1 of 4 - 20,274
05/10 Flags #2 of 4 - 15,480 (-23.6%)A miniseries set in World War II; not bad for a story that’s out of present day continuity.

119. STEPHEN KING'S N. THE COMIC SERIES
03/10 N #1 of 4 - 21,092
04/10 N #2 of 4 - 17,299 (-18.0%)
05/10 N #3 of 4 - 15,470 (-10.6%)Digital comics reprint, and doing quite respectably by that standard. And as a Stephen King project, it should presumably do better than average in book format.

121. OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
05/05 Teams 2005 - 22,564
05/06 A to Z #5 of 12 - 21,331
05/07 Update #2 of 4 - 16,633
05/08 Iron Manual - 18,294
=====
02/10 A to Z Update #1 of 5 - 5,406
03/10 Deadpool Corps - 21,900 (+305.1%)
04/10 Iron Manual Mark 3 #1 - 9,456 ( -56.8%)
05/10 Avengers Assemble #1 - 15,113 ( +59.8%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year ( --- )
2 year ( -17.4%)
3 year ( -9.1%)
4 year ( -29.2%)
5 year ( -33.0%)The usual fluctuation according to subject matter.

122,123. X-MEN FOREVER
06/09 X-Men Forever #1 - 36,213
06/09 X-Men Forever #2 - 31,767 (-12.3%)
07/09 X-Men Forever #3 - 28,651 ( -9.8%)
07/09 X-Men Forever #4 - 28,645 ( -0.0%)
08/09 X-Men Forever #5 - 27,825 ( -2.9%)
08/09 X-Men Forever #6 - 24,875 (-10.6%)
09/09 X-Men Forever #7 - 24,115 ( -3.1%)
09/09 X-Men Forever #8 - 23,174 ( -3.9%)
10/09 X-Men Forever #9 - 21,926 ( -5.4%)
10/09 X-Men Forever #10 - 22,287 ( +1.6%)
11/09 X-Men Forever #11 - 20,130 ( -9.7%)
11/09 X-Men Forever #12 - 19,541 ( -2.9%)
12/09 X-Men Forever #13 - 18,870 ( -3.4%)
12/09 X-Men Forever #14 - 18,376 ( -2.6%)
01/10 X-Men Forever #15 - 17,665 ( -3.9%)
01/10 X-Men Forever #16 - 17,290 ( -2.1%)
02/10 X-Men Forever #17 - 17,873 ( +3.4%)
02/10 X-Men Forever #18 - 16,464 ( -7.9%)
03/10 X-Men Forever #19 - 16,183 ( -1.7%)
03/10 X-Men Forever #20 - 15,990 ( -1.2%)
04/10 X-Men Forever #21 - 15,530 ( -2.9%)
04/10 X-Men Forever #22 - 15,305 ( -1.4%)
05/10 X-Men Forever #23 - 15,045 ( -1.7%)
05/10 X-Men Forever #24 - 14,940 ( -0.7%)
6 mnth (-23.5%)Slow attrition continues. The book is relaunched in June as X-MEN FOREVER 2, kicking off a second year – and, to be fair, a new storyline. Whether renumbering will have a lasting effect on sales remains to be seen.

124. NEW AVENGERS: LUKE CAGE
04/10 Luke Cage #1 of 3 - 16,836
05/10 Luke Cage #2 of 3 - 14,878 (-11.6%)Completely falling through the cracks, despite the current popularity of the Avengers franchise.

125. REALM OF KINGS: SON OF HULK
05/09 ---
06/09 Skaar, Son of Hulk #11 - 28,633 ( +4.8%)
06/09 Skaar, Son of Hulk #12 - 35,920 (+25.4%)
07/09 Son of Hulk #13 - 29,195 (-18.7%)
08/09 Son of Hulk #14 - 27,171 ( -6.9%)
09/09 Son of Hulk #15 - 22,722 (-16.4%)
10/09 Son of Hulk #16 - 20,504 ( -9.8%)
11/09 Son of Hulk #17 - 19,097 ( -6.9%)
12/09 ---
01/10 ---
02/10 Son of Hulk #1 of 4 - 24,010 (+25.7%)
03/10 Son of Hulk #2 of 4 - 17,195 (-28.4%)
04/10 Son of Hulk #3 of 4 - 15,284 (-11.4%)
05/10 Son of Hulk #4 of 4 - 14,312 ( -6.4%)
6 mnth (-25.1%)
1 year ( --- )And so much for the Son of Hulk – though it looks like he’s being folded back into the cast of INCREDIBLE HULK when the new creative team take over.

127,129. IRON MAN 2: PUBLIC IDENTITY
04/10 Public Identity #1 of 3 - 16,921
05/10 Public Identity #2 of 3 - 14,030 (-17.1%)
05/10 Public Identity #3 of 3 - 13,645 ( -2.7%)Movie tie-in. The real market for something like this is in the bookstores.

131. ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS
05/10 Origins of Marvel Comics #1 - 13,274A collection of very short origin recaps. Not quite sure who’s the intended audience for this, at least as a full-price comic – unless it’s generating material for re-use elsewhere.

134. X-FACTOR FOREVER
03/10 X-Factor Forever #1 of 5 - 18,550
04/10 X-Factor Forever #2 of 5 - 14,608 (-21.3%)
05/10 X-Factor Forever #3 of 5 - 12,794 (-12.4%)Only a couple of thousand behind the parent title.

138. PETER PARKER
03/10 Peter Parker #1 - 18,963
04/10 Peter Parker #2 - 14,647 (-22.8%)
05/10 Peter Parker #3 - 12,514 (-14.6%)Digital reprints, and not doing too badly.

139. MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ
05/09 Wizard of Oz #6 of 8 - 15,774 ( -2.1%)
06/09 Wizard of Oz #7 of 8 - 15,473 ( -1.9%)
07/09 Wizard of Oz #8 of 8 - 15,487 ( +0.1%)
08/09 ---
09/09 ---
10/09 ---
11/09 Marvelous Land #1 of 8 - 25,338 (+63.6%)
12/09 Marvelous Land #2 of 8 - 15,783 (-37.7%)
01/10 Marvelous Land #3 of 8 - 14,216 (-10.0%)
02/10 Marvelous Land #4 of 8 - 13,364 ( -6.0%)
03/10 ---
04/10 Marvelous Land #5 of 8 - 12,922 ( -3.3%)
05/10 Marvelous Land #6 of 8 - 12,366 ( -4.3%)
6 mnth (-51.2%)
1 year (-21.6%)Holding up very nicely, and doing far better than usual for a Marvel novel adaptation.

143. SPIDER-MAN: FEVER
04/10 Fever #1 of 3 - 15,111
05/10 Fever #2 of 3 - 11,665 (-22.8%)The selling point here is really that it’s a showcase for Brendan McCarthy, and that’s perhaps a niche audience.

144. MANY LOVES OF THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
05/10 Many Loves (one-shot) - 11,522“Three all new tales of Spider-Man’s greatest loves.” One for the completists, I suspect.

148. WEAPON X NOIR
05/10 Weapon X Noir #1 - 11,119Surely the end of this imprint has to be nigh.

157,239,245,250. MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS
05/10 Marvel Zombies #1 - 10,084
05/10 Alias #1 - 5,497
05/10 1602 #1 - 5,312
05/10 Agents of Atlas #1 - 5,136More low-price reprints.

158. X-MEN: PIXIE STRIKES BACK
02/10 Pixie #1 of 4 - 14,167
03/10 Pixie #2 of 4 - 11,839 (-16.4%)
04/10 Pixie #3 of 4 - 10,276 (-13.2%)
05/10 Pixie #4 of 4 - 9,746 ( -5.2%)A largely unnoticed X-Men spin-off.

162. ANITA BLAKE, VAMPIRE HUNTER
05/07 ---
05/08 Guilty Pls. #11 of 12 - 20,627
=====
05/09 ---
06/09 Necromancer #2 of 5 - 12,907 (-15.7%)
07/09 Necromancer #3 of 5 - 12,143 ( -5.9%)
08/09 Necromancer #4 of 5 - 11,597 ( -4.5%)
09/09 Necromancer #5 of 5 - 11,142 ( -3.9%)
10/09 Executioner #1 of 5 - 11,205 ( +0.6%)
11/09 ---
12/09 Executioner #2 of 5 - 10,454 ( -6.7%)
01/10 Executioner #3 of 5 - 9,958 ( -4.7%)
02/10 Executioner #4 of 5 - 9,626 ( -3.3%)
03/10 Executioner #5 of 5 - 9,454 ( -1.8%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Circus o/Damned #1 of 5 - 9,484 ( +0.3%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year ( --- )
2 year (-54.0%)Once again, only a very token increase for the start of the new arc.

163. IRON MAN NOIR
04/10 Iron Man Noir #1 of 4 - 10,904
05/10 Iron Man Noir #2 of 4 - 9,268 (-15.0%)At least it’s a modest drop for the second issue.

165. GIRL COMICS
03/10 Girl Comics #1 of 3 - 13,491
04/10 ---
05/10 Girl Comics #2 of 3 - 9,263 (-31.3%)No great surprises here. There’s a limited market for these oddball anthologies.

166. GALACTA: DAUGHTER OF GALACTUS
05/10 Galacta - 9,243More digital reprints (though I believe there was some original material in there too).

169. HALO: BLOOD LINE
12/09 Blood Line #1 of 5 - 10,551
01/10 Blood Line #2 of 5 - 9,172 (-13.1%)
02/10 Blood Line #3 of 5 - 8,793 ( -4.1%)
03/10 Blood Line #4 of 5 - 8,683 ( -1.3%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Blood Line #5 of 5 - 8,510 ( -2.0%)Gaming comics are said to do very well outside the direct market, so this number doesn’t particularly matter.

170. DEATHLOK
11/09 Deathlok #1 of 7 - 20,855
12/09 Deathlok #2 of 7 - 14,059 (-32.6%)
01/10 Deathlok #3 of 7 - 11,670 (-17.0%)
02/10 Deathlok #4 of 7 - 10,185 (-12.7%)
03/10 Deathlok #5 of 7 - 9,387 ( -7.8%)
04/10 Deathlok #6 of 7 - 8,895 ( -5.2%)
05/10 Deathlok #7 of 7 - 8,506 ( -4.4%)
6 mnth (-59.2%)A Marvel Knights miniseries which dropped off the radar fairly quickly.

183. HEROIC AGE PREVIEWS
05/10 Bundle of 25 - 7,787This month’s obligatory promotional item.

184. SPIDER-MAN [Marvel Adventures]
05/05 M.A. Spider-Man #3 - 9,110
05/06 M.A. Spider-Man #15 - 6,165
05/07 M.A. Spider-Man #27 - 6,818
05/08 M.A. Spider-Man #39 - 5,816
=====
05/09 M.A. Spider-Man #51 - 4,557 ( -4.7%)
06/09 M.A. Spider-Man #52 - 4,612 ( +1.2%)
07/09 M.A. Spider-Man #53 - 5,710 ( +23.8%)
08/09 M.A. Spider-Man #54 - 5,684 ( -0.5%)
09/09 M.A. Spider-Man #55 - 5,668 ( -0.3%)
10/09 M.A. Spider-Man #56 - 4,579 ( -19.2%)
11/09 M.A. Spider-Man #57 - 4,501 ( -1.7%)
12/09 M.A. Spider-Man #58 - 4,352 ( -3.3%)
01/10 M.A. Spider-Man #59 - 4,315 ( -0.9%)
02/10 M.A. Spider-Man #60 - 4,212 ( -2.4%)
03/10 M.A. Spider-Man #61 - 4,200 ( -2.8%)
04/10 Spider-Man #1 - 9,770 (+132.6%)
05/10 Spider-Man #2 - 7,709 ( -21.1%)
6 mnth ( +71.3%)
1 year ( +69.2%)
2 year ( +32.5%)
3 year ( +13.1%)
4 year ( +25.0%)
5 year ( -15.4%)

216. SUPER HEROES [Marvel Adventures]
05/09 M.A. Super Heroes #11 - 3,474 ( -6.1%)
06/09 M.A. Super Heroes #12 - 3,508 ( +1.0%)
07/09 M.A. Super Heroes #13 - 4,439 (+26.5%)
08/09 M.A. Super Heroes #14 - 4,355 ( -1.9%)
09/09 M.A. Super Heroes #15 - 4,268 ( -2.0%)
10/09 M.A. Super Heroes #16 - 3,250 (-23.9%)
11/09 M.A. Super Heroes #17 - 3,308 ( +1.8%)
12/09 M.A. Super Heroes #18 - ?,??? ( ??? )
01/10 M.A. Super Heroes #19 - 3,103 ( ??? )
02/10 M.A. Super Heroes #20 - 3,008 ( -3.1%)
03/10 M.A. Super Heroes #21 - ?,??? ( ??? )
04/10 Super Heroes #1 - 8,107 ( ??? )
05/10 Super Heroes #2 - 6,360 (-21.5%)
6 mnth (+92.3%)
1 year (+83.1%)So far, so good – both titles are still seeing a significant increase from the relaunch.

218. PET AVENGERS UNLEASHED
05/09 Pet Avengers #1 of 4 - 17,638
06/09 Pet Avengers #2 of 4 - 12,317 (-30.2%)
07/09 Pet Avengers #3 of 4 - 11,739 ( -4.7%)
08/09 Pet Avengers #4 of 4 - 11,340 ( -3.4%)
09/09 ---
10/09 ---
11/09 ---
12/09 ---
01/10 ---
02/10 Tails o/Pet Avengers - 8,214 (-27.6%)
03/10 Unleashed #1 of 4 - 8,554 ( +4.1%)
04/10 Unleashed #2 of 4 - 6,767 (-20.9%)
05/10 Unleashed #3 of 4 - 6,339 ( -6.3%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year (-64.1%)Relatively steady this month. If you judge this by the standards of Marvel’s all-ages titles, then it’s doing fine.

223. PHILP K DICK'S ELECTRIC ANT
04/10 Electric Ant #1 of 5 - 8,869
05/10 Electric Ant #2 of 5 - 6,181 (-30.3%)Issue #1 had a variant cover, which ought to exaggerate the drop. Of course, we’re now deep into the comics whose natural home is the collected edition.

231. HER-OES
04/10 Her-Oes #1 - 7,464
05/10 Her-Oes #2 - 5,871 (-21.3%)

235. THOR AND THE WARRIORS FOUR
04/10 Thor/Warriors Four #1 of 4 - 6,861
05/10 Thor/Warriors Four #2 of 4 - 5,651 (-17.6%)

236. SUPER HERO SQUAD
09/09 Super Hero Squad #1 of 4 - 6,760
10/09 Super Hero Squad #2 of 4 - 4,496 ( -33.5%)
11/09 Super Hero Squad #3 of 4 - 4,384 ( -2.5%)
12/09 Super Hero Squad #4 of 4 - 4,132 ( -5.7%)
01/10 Super Hero Squad #1 - 9,709 (+135.0%)
02/10 Super Hero Squad #2 - 5,691 ( -41.4%)
03/10 Super Hero Squad #3 - 5,399 ( -5.1%)
04/10 Super Hero Squad #4 - 5,822 ( +7.8%)
05/10 Super Hero Squad #5 - 5,639 ( -3.1%)
6 mnth ( -16.7%)All ages comics, selling in the established range.

252. OFFICIAL INDEX TO THE MARVEL UNIVERSE
05/09 Index #5 - 4,913 (-10.9%)
06/09 Index #6 - 4,743 ( -3.5%)
07/09 Index #7 - 4,518 ( -4.7%)
08/09 Index #8 - 4,263 ( -5.6%)
09/09 Index #9 - 4,144 ( -2.8%)
10/09 Index #10 - 3,980 ( -4.0%)
11/09 Index #11 - 3,739 ( -6.1%)
12/09 Index #12 - 3,689 ( -1.3%)
01/10 Index #13 - 3,248 (-12.0%)
02/10 Index #14 - 3,161 ( -2.7%)
03/10 ---
04/10 ---
05/10 Avengers #1 - 4,997 (+58.1%)
6 mnth (+33.6%)
1 year ( +1.7%)As you’d expect, an increase for the start of a new run beginning three different titles (AVENGERS, CAPTAIN AMERICA and IRON MAN).

257. SENSE AND SENSIBILITY
05/10 Sense and Sensibility #1 of 5 - 4,809Adaptation of the classic novel, again selling in the established range for these things.

266. IRON MAN: EXTREMIS DIRECTOR'S CUT
05/10 Extremis #1 of 6 - 4,440An odd one, this – a six-issue reprint of the entire “Extremis” storyline that opened Warren Ellis’ run on IRON MAN. The first two issues were both supposed to ship in May, but issue #2 somehow managed to come out late. So at least it recaptures the spirit of reading the original release.

285. TALES OF THE DRAGON GUARD [Soleil]
02/10 Tales of the Dragon Guard #1 - 5,405
03/10 Tales of the Dragon Guard #2 - ?,???
04/10 ---
05/10 Tales of the Dragon Guard #3 - 3,582Typical enough for the Soleil books.

6 month comparisons
===================

+92.3% - Super Heroes [Marvel Adventures]
+71.3% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
+48.8% - New Mutants
+47.8% - Doomwar / Black Panther
+33.6% - Official Marvel Index
+33.0% - Avengers: The Initiative
+27.7% - X-Men Legacy
+15.8% - X-Force
+15.3% - Thor
+14.8% - Incredible Hulk
+10.8% - Uncanny X-Men
+ 6.5% - Thunderbolts
+ 3.4% - New Avengers
- 2.6% - Fantastic Four
- 1.0% - Dark Avengers
- 5.0% - Wolverine: Origins
- 5.8% - Hulk
- 7.1% - Secret Warriors
- 8.6% - Deadpool
- 9.8% - Atlas
-10.3% - Ultimate Comics Avengers
-11.6% - Dark Wolverine
-11.8% - Moon Knight
-12.1% - Amazing Spider-Man
-13.0% - Invincible Iron Man
-16.7% - Super Hero Squad
-17.5% - Wolverine: Weapon X
-18.8% - Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth
-18.9% - Prince of Power / Hercules
-19.2% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-19.2% - Dark Tower
-23.5% - X-Men Forever
-23.8% - PunisherMax
-25.1% - Son of Hulk
-32.9% - Deadpool Team-Up
-38.9% - Web of Spider-Man
-51.2% - Marvelous Land of Oz
-59.2% - Deathlok

1 year comparison
=================

+83.1% - Super Heroes [Marvel Adventures]
+69.2% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
+32.3% - X-Factor
+20.1% - X-Men Legacy
+ 7.1% - X-Force
+ 4.5% - Invincible Iron Man
+ 4.5% - Moon Knight
+ 2.6% - Uncanny X-Men
+ 1.5% - PunisherMax
- 2.8% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 8.6% - Doomwar / Black Panther
-10.2% - Avengers: The Initiative
-10.3% - Atlas
-17.7% - Fantastic Four
-18.5% - New Avengers
-18.7% - New Mutants
-20.8% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-20.8% - Wolverine: Origins
-21.6% - Marvelous Land of Oz
-23.8% - Deadpool
-24.2% - Thunderbolts
-29.7% - Prince of Power / Hercules
-31.4% - Secret Warriors
-32.1% - Hulk
-39.7% - Dark Tower
-49.3% - Dark Wolverine
-49.7% - Wolverine: Weapon X
-64.1% - Pet Avengers

2 year comparisons
==================

+35.8% - Doomwar / Black Panther
+32.5% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
- 6.1% - Uncanny X-Men
-12.4% - X-Men Legacy
-13.2% - Thunderbolts
-13.4% - X-Factor
-17.4% - Official Handbook
-22.0% - X-Force
-22.6% - Moon Knight
-23.4% - Amazing Spider-Man
-27.3% - PunisherMax
-28.8% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-29.1% - Thor
-30.0% - New Avengers
-32.0% - Wolverine: Origins
-32.8% - Avengers: The Initiative
-38.8% - Fantastic Four
-49.3% - Invincible Iron Man
-52.3% - Wolverine: Weapon X
-54.0% - Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
-61.6% - Prince of Power / Hercules
-69.7% - Dark Tower

3 year comparisons
==================

+13.1% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
+10.2% - X-Factor
- 6.0% - Uncanny X-Men
- 9.1% - Official Handbook
-14.7% - X-Men Legacy
-15.3% - Invincible Iron Man
-34.5% - PunisherMax
-39.2% - New Avengers
-45.2% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-46.1% - Doomwar / Black Panther
-46.8% - Fantastic Four
-47.8% - Wolverine: Origins
-49.6% - New Ultimates
-49.8% - Thunderbolts
-52.6% - Amazing Spider-Man
-57.6% - Incredible Hulk
-63.0% - Avengers: The Initiative
-63.7% - Moon Knight
-69.0% - Wolverine: Weapon X
-80.1% - Dark Tower

4 year comparisons
==================

+40.2% - Thunderbolts
+38.0% - Invincible Iron Man
+25.0% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
+ 0.8% - Doomwar / Black Panther
+ 0.2% - Incredible Hulk
- 2.9% - Uncanny X-Men
- 5.8% - X-Factor
-18.5% - X-Men Legacy
-29.2% - Official Handbook
-35.6% - PunisherMax
-37.6% - New Avengers
-40.6% - Amazing Spider-Man
-46.0% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-68.2% - Wolverine: Weapon X
-72.6% - Wolverine: Origins
-72.7% - Moon Knight

5 year comparisons
==================

+19.8% - Thunderbolts
+ 6.5% - Incredible Hulk
- 7.8% - Uncanny X-Men
-15.4% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
-20.0% - X-Men Legacy
-25.5% - Amazing Spider-Man
-30.6% - Doomwar / Black Panther
-33.0% - Official Handbook
-41.6% - PunisherMax
-43.0% - Fantastic Four
-47.7% - New Ultimates
-51.0% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-63.2% - Weapon X

Fred le Mallrat a écrit:1-même avec 8 variants, Avengers 1 est un succes. Au dessus de Siege 1(120 000) ou de Dark Avengers 1(118 000). Voir où ca va se stabiliser. et Si NA 1 avait atteint les 240 000 ex en 2004: la crise est passée par là.

2-Siege aura eu des ventes peu spectaculaires mais remarquablement stable. peu de chute ce qui est quasi jamais vu pour un event.

5-les 2 titres astonishing se suivent au meme rang d ex. les comics shops ont du penser que ca interesserait les memes clients. Perso, je trouve que les chiffres sont decevants pour Marvel.

9- a peine 8 000 ex de plus pour Thanos imperative que pour Nova ou GOG: Marvel va devoir trouver quelque chose d autres que les events a repititions
9-Widow, MoonKnight, Punisher approche de la limite des 20 000 ex
10-La mini Prince of Power commence a juste 20 000... pas pret d avoir une série Cho et si le prochain event ne decolle pas... ca risque de signer le glas des series Hercules.
11 Luke Cage la mini est en dessous de tout... pas pret d avoir une ongoing sur lui.. et Tbolts risque de chuter..

It’s a month of relaunches and new titles, as the “Heroic Age” branding continues. June saw the relaunch of NEW AVENGERS, and debut issues of AVENGERS PRIME, AVENGERS ACADEMY, HAWKEYE & MOCKINGBIRD and YOUNG ALLIES. Elsewhere, the X-books continue the “Second Coming” crossover, Spider-Man begins the long-trailed “Grim Hunt” story, and the Hulk titles are caught up in “World War Hulks”.

As usual, Marvel had the largest share of the direct market, beating DC by 43% to 35% in units, and 38% to 31% in dollars.

Thanks as always to Milton Griepp and ICV2 for permission to use their figures for these calculations.

1. NEW AVENGERS
06/05 New Avengers #6 - 161,575
06/06 New Avengers #20 - 134,278
06/07 New Avengers #31 - 160,911
06/08 New Avengers #42 - 108,495
=====
06/09 New Avengers #54 - 93,878 ( -0.5%)
07/09 New Avengers #55 - 84,745 ( -9.7%)
08/09 New Avengers #56 - 89,996 ( +6.2%)
09/09 New Avengers #57 - 85,598 ( -4.9%)
10/09 New Avengers #58 - 76,656 (-10.4%)
11/09 New Avengers #59 - 74,379 ( -3.0%)
12/09 New Avengers #60 - 72,790 ( -2.1%)
01/10 New Avengers #61 - 78,202 ( +7.4%)
02/10 New Avengers #62 - 76,405 ( -2.3%)
03/10 New Avengers #63 - 76,145 ( -0.3%)
04/10 New Avengers #64 - 75,430 ( -0.9%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Finale - 82,152 ( +8.9%)
06/10 New Avengers #1 - 129,084 (+67.8%)
6 mnth (+57.1%)
1 year (+37.5%)
2 year (+19.0%)
3 year (-19.8%)
4 year ( -3.9%)
5 year (-20.1%)It’s a good month for the Avengers titles, with four of them in the top 10. Over the last few months, I’ve observed several times that the device of relaunching a title from issue #1 doesn’t seem to be all that effective any more – and we’ll see some examples of that later on. But NEW AVENGERS looks to be an exception – perhaps because its relaunch actually did coincide with the end of a multi-year storyline and the beginning of a fresh start for the book. It’s also got three variant covers.

To put this in perspective, the original NEW AVENGERS #1 in December 2004 had estimated orders of 278,797 in its first month. But a straight renumbering in a weaker market was never going to match that, and these are the highest sales for NEW AVENGERS since the first half of 2007.

May’s FINALE one-shot picks up re-orders of 5,234, which are included above. Incidentally, it’s an unusually high-selling month at the bottom end of the chart. In May, it only took 3,069 orders to make the top 300. In June, it was 4,528. Presumably that means that fewer re-orders will have sold well enough to make the chart.

3. AVENGERS
05/10 Avengers #1 - 163,867
06/10 Avengers #2 - 98,788 (-39.7%)The second-issue drop will be magnified by the fact that this issue has far fewer covers – three compared to eight, in fact. Allowing for that, things are looking pretty healthy here.

8. SECRET AVENGERS
05/10 Secret Avengers #1 - 106,750
06/10 Secret Avengers #2 - 77,933 (-27.0%)Down from four covers to three, with slightly scaled back incentives, and so the second issue drop is pretty modest. When even the Avengers’ C-title is making the top ten, the franchise is doing well.

9. UNCANNY X-MEN
06/05 Uncanny X-Men #461 - 91,221
06/06 Uncanny X-Men #474 - 78,140
06/07 Uncanny X-Men #487 - 81,481
06/08 Uncanny X-Men #499 - 81,100
=====
06/09 Uncanny X-Men #511 - 71,148 ( -5.3%)
06/09 Uncanny X-Men #512 - 76,283 ( +7.2%)
07/09 Uncanny X-Men #513 - 87,582 (+14.8%)
08/09 Uncanny X-Men #514 - 90,316 ( +3.1%)
09/09 Uncanny X-Men #515 - 73,585 (-18.5%)
10/09 Uncanny X-Men #516 - 73,916 ( +0.4%)
11/09 Uncanny X-Men #517 - 69,557 ( -5.9%)
12/09 Uncanny X-Men #518 - 68,572 ( -1.4%)
12/09 Uncanny X-Men #519 - 67,043 ( -2.2%)
01/10 Uncanny X-Men #520 - 65,758 ( -1.9%)
02/10 Uncanny X-Men #521 - 67,049 ( +2.0%)
03/10 Uncanny X-Men #522 - 67,996 ( +1.4%)
04/10 Uncanny X-Men #523 - 78,999 (+16.2%)
05/10 Uncanny X-Men #524 - 77,056 ( -2.5%)
06/10 Uncanny X-Men #525 - 76,068 ( -1.3%)
6 mnth (+13.5%)
1 year ( +6.9%)
2 year ( -6.2%)
3 year ( -6.6%)
4 year ( -2.7%)
5 year (-16.6%)Month three of the “Second Coming” crossover, running through UNCANNY X-MEN, X-MEN LEGACY, X-FORCE and NEW MUTANTS. The sales boost remains solid.

10. AVENGERS PRIME
06/10 Avengers Prime #1 of 5 - 69,433A miniseries focussing on Captain America, Iron Man and Thor, and the fourth Avengers title in this month’s top ten. This issue has a 1:25 variant, but that’s pretty modest compared to the other Avengers titles, which makes this a strong showing.

14. X-MEN LEGACY
06/05 X-Men #171 - 80,307
06/06 X-Men #187 - 95,487
06/07 X-Men #200 - 136,672
06/08 X-Men Legacy #213 - 71,893
=====
06/09 X-Men Legacy #225 - 58,374 ( +8.1%)
07/09 X-Men Legacy #226 - 59,298 ( +1.6%)
08/09 X-Men Legacy #227 - 63,316 ( +6.8%)
09/09 ---
10/09 X-Men Legacy #228 - 52,855 (-16.5%)
11/09 X-Men Legacy #229 - 50,789 ( -3.9%)
12/09 X-Men Legacy #230 - 49,776 ( -2.0%)
12/09 X-Men Legacy #231 - 50,929 ( +2.3%)
01/10 X-Men Legacy #232 - 49,200 ( -3.4%)
02/10 X-Men Legacy #233 - 51,344 ( +4.4%)
03/10 X-Men Legacy #234 - 48,217 ( -6.1%)
04/10 X-Men Legacy #235 - 65,302 (+35.4%)
05/10 X-Men Legacy #236 - 69,731 ( +6.8%)
06/10 X-Men Legacy #237 - 65,578 ( -6.0%)
6 mnth (+28.8%)
1 year (+12.3%)
2 year ( -8.8%)
3 year (-52.0%)
4 year (-31.3%)
5 year (-18.3%)Another “Second Coming” tie-in. Issue #236 picks up re-orders of 4,881.

16,17,21. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
06/05 Amazing Spider-Man #521 - 74,117
06/06 Amazing Spider-Man #533 - 112,982
06/07 Amazing Spider-Man #541 - 108,284
06/08 Amazing Spider-Man #563 - 70,792
=====
06/09 Amazing Spider-Man #596 - 63,525 (-11.6%)
06/09 Amazing Spider-Man #597 - 61,646 ( -3.0%)
06/09 Amazing Spider-Man #598 - 61,585 ( -0.0%)
07/09 Amazing Spider-Man #599 - 72,412 (+17.6%)
07/09 Amazing Spider-Man #600 - 116,857 (+61.4%)
08/09 Amazing Spider-Man #601 - 74,279 (-36.4%)
08/09 Amazing Spider-Man #602 - 71,532 ( -3.7%)
08/09 Amazing Spider-Man #603 - 71,051 ( -0.7%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #604 - 63,435 (-10.7%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #605 - 62,831 ( -1.0%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #606 - 70,177 (+11.7%)
09/09 Amazing Spider-Man #607 - 62,570 (-10.8%)
10/09 Amazing Spider-Man #608 - 72,035 (+15.1%)
10/09 Amazing Spider-Man #609 - 61,176 (-15.1%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #610 - 61,170 ( -0.0%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #611 - 64,514 ( +5.5%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #612 - 68,459 ( +6.1%)
11/09 Amazing Spider-Man #613 - 64,499 ( -5.8%)
12/09 Amazing Spider-Man #614 - 59,696 ( -7.4%)
12/09 Amazing Spider-Man #615 - 63,738 ( +6.8%)
12/09 Amazing Spider-Man #616 - 58,856 ( -7.7%)
01/10 Amazing Spider-Man #617 - 76,730 (+30.4%)
01/10 Amazing Spider-Man #618 - 61,969 (-19.2%)
01/10 Amazing Spider-Man #619 - 56,837 ( -8.3%)
02/10 Amazing Spider-Man #620 - 59,860 ( +5.3%)
02/10 Amazing Spider-Man #621 - 55,350 ( -7.5%)
02/10 Amazing Spider-Man #622 - 53,929 ( -2.6%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #623 - 66,064 (+22.5%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #624 - 60,213 ( -8.9%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #625 - 54,179 (-10.0%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #626 - 53,868 ( -0.6%)
03/10 Amazing Spider-Man #627 - 54,206 ( +0.6%)
04/10 Amazing Spider-Man #628 - 57,797 ( +6.6%)
04/10 Amazing Spider-Man #629 - 53,560 ( -7.3%)
05/10 Amazing Spider-Man #630 - 57,969 ( +8.2%)
05/10 Amazing Spider-Man #631 - 57,239 ( -1.3%)
05/10 Amazing Spider-Man #632 - 56,723 ( -0.9%)
06/10 Amazing Spider-Man #633 - 57,670 ( +1.7%)
06/10 Amazing Spider-Man #634 - 61,736 ( +7.1%)
06/10 Amazing Spider-Man #635 - 56,146 ( -9.1%)
6 mnth ( -4.6%)
1 year ( -8.8%)
2 year (-20.7%)
3 year (-48.1%)
4 year (-50.3%)
5 year (-24.2%)Issue #633 is a Heroic Age variant. Issue #634 is the first part of “Grim Hunt”, a storyline which the book has been building to for months. All the “Grim Hunt” issues have a 50-50 variant cover, and issue #634 also has a third cover by Joe Quinones.

Overall, sales continue to hover in the familiar territory. Marvel have announced another format shift for October, moving to a twice-monthly schedule.

18,25. CAPTAIN AMERICA
06/05 Captain America #7 - 47,160
06/06 Captain America #19 - 47,315
06/07 Captain America #27 - 99,108
06/08 Captain America #39 - 79,387
=====
06/09 Captain America #600 - 123,152 ( +69.4%)
07/09 Captain America #601 - 87,844 ( -28.7%)
07/09 Reborn #1 of 6 - 197,565 (+124.9%)
08/09 Reborn #2 of 6 - 125,366 ( -36.5%)
09/09 Reborn #3 of 6 - 108,331 ( -13.6%)
10/09 ---
11/09 Reborn #4 of 6 - 96,571 ( -10.9%)
12/09 Reborn #5 of 6 - 91,790 ( -5.0%)
01/10 Reborn #6 of 6 - 84,844 ( -7.6%)
01/10 Captain America #602 - 63,948 ( -24.6%)
02/10 Captain America #603 - 63,568 ( -0.6%)
03/10 Captain America #604 - 56,962 ( -10.4%)
04/10 Captain America #605 - 59,051 ( +3.7%)
05/10 ---
06/10 Captain America #606 - 57,443 ( -2.7%)
06/10 Captain America #607 - 52,989 ( -7.8%)
6 mnth ( -42.3%)
1 year ( -57.0%)
2 year ( +33.3%)
3 year ( -46.5%)
4 year ( +12.0%)
5 year ( +12.4%)No variant cover this month, hence the steeper than normal drop. It’s taken the better part of four years, but the book seems to be heading back to the sort of sales levels it was experiencing before the death of Steve Rogers.

19. ASTONISHING X-MEN
06/05 ---
06/06 Astonishing X-Men #15 - 119,991
06/07 ---
06/08 ---
=====
06/09 Astonishing X-Men #30 - 64,608 ( -4.7%)
07/09 ---
08/09 ---
09/09 ---
10/09 Astonishing X-Men #31 - 67,064 ( +3.8%)
11/09 Astonishing X-Men #32 - 62,154 ( -7.3%)
12/09 Astonishing X-Men #33 - 57,592 ( -7.3%)
01/10 ---
02/10 ---
03/10 ---
04/10 ---
05/10 ---
06/10 Astonishing X-Men #34 - 57,363 ( -0.4%)
6 mnth ( -0.4%)
1 year (-11.2%)
2 year ( --- )
3 year ( --- )
4 year (-52.2%)
5 year ( --- )More evidence that lengthy delays don’t seem to have an immediate impact on sales.

20. THOR
06/05 ---
06/06 ---
06/07 ---
06/08 ---
=====
06/09 Thor #602 - 69,568 ( -15.3%)
07/09 ---
08/09 ---
09/09 Thor #603 - 65,265 ( -6.2%)
10/09 ---
11/09 Finale - 53,566 ( -17.9%)
12/09 Thor #604 - 61,608 ( +15.0%)
12/09 Thor #605 - 55,242 ( -10.3%)
01/10 Thor #606 - 55,353 ( +0.2%)
02/10 Thor #607 - 66,973 ( +21.0%)
03/10 Thor #608 - 62,012 ( -7.4%)
04/10 Thor #609 - 64,522 ( +4.0%)
05/10 Thor #610 - 61,779 ( -4.3%)
06/10 Thor #611 - 56,443 ( -8.6%)
6 mnth ( +2.2%)
1 year ( -1.9%)
2 year ( --- )
3 year ( --- )
4 year ( --- )
5 year ( --- )Better than it looks. Issue #610 had a variant cover, and issues #607-609 were SIEGE tie-ins, so effectively THOR is just returning to previous levels. Also, this issue was originally supposed to be the first issue for the new creative team of Matt Fraction and Pascual Ferry, before their debut was pushed back to issue #615. You might think that ran the risk of painting these as filler issues, but there’s no sign of that.

23. NEW MUTANTS
06/09 New Mutants #2 - 43,230 (-29.1%)
07/09 New Mutants #3 - 42,961 ( -0.6%)
08/09 New Mutants #4 - 38,558 (-10.2%)
09/09 New Mutants #5 - 31,502 (-18.3%)
10/09 New Mutants #6 - 34,967 (+11.0%)
11/09 New Mutants #7 - 33,328 ( -4.7%)
12/09 New Mutants #8 - 32,240 ( -3.3%)
01/10 New Mutants #9 - 30,572 ( -5.2%)
02/10 New Mutants #10 - 30,807 ( +0.8%)
03/10 New Mutants #11 - 36,629 (+18.9%)
04/10 New Mutants #12 - 49,591 (+35.4%)
05/10 New Mutants #13 - 54,169 ( +9.2%)
06/10 New Mutants #14 - 53,926 ( -0.4%)
6 mnth (+67.3%)
1 year (+24.7%)Another “Second Coming” tie-in. As the lowest-selling of the four core titles, NEW MUTANTS is seeing the biggest gains. Issue #13 picks up re-orders of 4,586.

26. INVINCIBLE IRON MAN
06/05 ---
06/06 Iron Man #9 - 37,650
06/07 Iron Man #19 - 75,096
06/08 Invincible Iron Man #2 - 69,021
=====
06/09 Invincible Iron Man #14 - 53,229 ( +3.7%)
07/09 Invincible Iron Man #15 - 50,554 ( -5.0%)
08/09 Invincible Iron Man #16 - 53,782 ( +6.4%)
09/09 Invincible Iron Man #17 - 47,182 (-12.3%)
09/09 Invincible Iron Man #18 - 48,039 ( +1.8%)
10/09 Invincible Iron Man #19 - 47,178 ( -1.8%)
11/09 Invincible Iron Man #20 - 61,667 (+30.7%)
12/09 Invincible Iron Man #21 - 49,986 (-18.9%)
01/10 Invincible Iron Man #22 - 49,130 ( -1.7%)
02/10 Invincible Iron Man #23 - 50,027 ( +1.8%)
03/10 Invincible Iron Man #24 - 49,239 ( -1.6%)
04/10 Invincible Iron Man #25 - 73,694 (+49.7%)
05/10 Invincible Iron Man #26 - 53,625 (-27.2%)
06/10 Invincible Iron Man #27 - 52,268 ( -2.5%)
6 mnth ( +4.6%)
1 year ( -1.8%)
2 year (-24.3%)
3 year (-30.4%)
4 year (+38.8%)
5 year ( --- )Settling back to its usual level – the sales surge in April does indeed seem to have been a blip coinciding with the movie release. As usual, there’s a variant cover on this one.

27. NEMESIS [Icon]
03/10 Nemesis #1 of 4 - 62,031
04/10 ---
05/10 ---
06/10 Nemesis #2 of 4 - 51,586 (-16.8%)A reassuringly modest second-issue drop.

28,30. ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS
08/09 U.C. Avengers #1 - 99,701
09/09 U.C. Avengers #2 - 68,597 (-31.2%)
10/09 U.C. Avengers #3 - 62,716 ( -8.6%)
11/09 U.C. Avengers #4 - 59,023 ( -5.9%)
12/09 ---
01/10 ---
02/10 ---
03/10 U.C. Avengers #5 - 58,098 ( -1.6%)
04/10 U.C. Avengers #6 - 53,438 ( -8.0%)
04/10 U.C. Avengers 2 #1 of 6 - 64,811 (+21.3%)
05/10 U.C. Avengers 2 #2 of 6 - 52,939 (-18.3%)
06/10 U.C. Avengers 2 #3 of 6 - 50,797 ( -4.0%)
06/10 U.C. Avengers 2 #4 of 6 - 49,606 ( -2.3%)
6 mnth ( --- )Five issues in three months is at least getting the book back on schedule. Taking a fresh issue #1 for the second story arc hasn’t really helped sales, but it’s done no harm either – it looks like the number will level out in the upper 40K range.

29. HULK
06/08 Hulk #4 - 90,600
=====
06/09 ---
07/09 ---
08/09 Hulk #13 - 71,369 ( -2.4%)
08/09 Hulk #14 - 77,455 ( +8.5%)
09/09 Hulk #15 - 58,667 (-24.3%)
10/09 Hulk #16 - 56,811 ( -3.2%)
11/09 Hulk #17 - 52,653 ( -7.3%)
12/09 Hulk #18 - 53,222 ( +1.1%)
01/10 Hulk #19 - 56,738 ( +6.6%)
02/10 Hulk #20 - 51,962 ( -8.4%)
03/10 Hulk #21 - 50,785 ( -2.3%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Hulk #22 - 49,618 ( -2.3%)
06/10 Hulk #23 - 50,724 ( +2.2%)
6 mnth ( -4.7%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year (-44.0%)

31. INCREDIBLE HULK
06/05 Incredible Hulk #82 - 43,248
06/06 ---
06/07 Incredible Hulk #107 - 106,931
06/08 Hulk #4 - 90,600
=====
06/09 ---
07/09 Incredible Hulk #600 - 92,343
08/09 Incredible Hulk #601 - 64,120 (-30.6%)
09/09 Incredible Hulk #602 - 51,582 (-19.6%)
10/09 Incredible Hulk #603 - 49,126 ( -4.8%)
11/09 Incredible Hulk #604 - 40,652 (-17.2%)
12/09 Incredible Hulk #605 - 43,964 ( +8.1%)
01/10 Incredible Hulk #606 - 48,197 ( +9.6%)
02/10 Incredible Hulk #607 - 45,870 ( -4.8%)
03/10 Incredible Hulk #608 - 47,148 ( +2.8%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Incredible Hulk #609 - 46,670 ( -1.0%)
06/10 Incredible Hulk #610 - 46,461 ( -0.4%)
6 mnth ( +5.7%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year (-48.7%)
3 year (-56.6%)
4 year ( --- )
5 year ( +7.4%)The two Hulk titles are both tied up in the “World War Hulks” crossover at the moment. Sales remain steady for both of them.

33. AVENGERS ACADEMY
06/07 Initiative #3 - 92,339
06/08 Initiative #14 - 62,236
=====
06/09 Initiative #25 - 40,101 ( -5.7%)
07/09 Initiative #26 - 38,215 ( -4.7%)
08/09 Initiative #27 - 39,014 ( +2.1%)
09/09 Initiative #28 - 33,855 (-13.2%)
10/09 Initiative #29 - 31,412 ( -7.2%)
11/09 Initiative #30 - 28,688 ( -8.7%)
12/09 Initiative #31 - 32,291 (+12.6%)
01/10 Initiative #32 - 36,127 (+11.9%)
02/10 Initiative #33 - 39,968 (+10.6%)
03/10 Initiative #34 - 38,616 ( -3.4%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Initiative #35 - 38,158 ( -1.2%)
06/10 Avengers Academy #1 - 45,890 (+20.3%)
6 mnth (+42.1%)
1 year (+14.4%)
2 year (-26.3%)
3 year (-50.3%)AVENGERS ACADEMY isn’t a direct relaunch of AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE. But it occupies much the same place in the line, and I’m treating here as a continuation. This issue has two variant covers (plus the “Heroic Age” branding, for whatever that’s worth), so at first glance you might expect to see a bigger increase.

However, INITIATIVE closed with a SIEGE tie-in arc, and picked up sales in a big way in the months leading up to that. It bottomed out at 29K in November 2009. If we take that as a measure of INITIATIVE’s baseline sales, then a 46K debut for the replacement title is quite promising.

34. ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS
05/10 Xenogenesis #1 of 5 - 55,428
06/10 Xenogenesis #2 of 5 - 44,953 (-18.9%)A fairly small drop, bearing in mind that issue #1 had the benefit of a variant cover.

35. ULTIMATE COMICS X
02/10 Ultimate Comics X #1 - 64,113
03/10 ---
04/10 Ultimate Comics X #2 - 47,996 (-25.2%)
05/10 ---
06/10 Ultimate Comics X #3 - 44,568 ( -7.1%)Levelling out, but hardly spectacular numbers.

38. DARK WOLVERINE
06/09 Dark Wolverine #75 - 80,780 (+22.0%)
07/09 Dark Wolverine #76 - 74,017 ( -8.4%)
08/09 Dark Wolverine #77 - 68,593 ( -7.3%)
09/09 Dark Wolverine #78 - 60,702 (-11.5%)
10/09 Dark Wolverine #79 - 60,076 ( -1.0%)
11/09 Dark Wolverine #80 - 52,394 (-12.8%)
12/09 Dark Wolverine #81 - 48,102 ( -8.2%)
01/10 Dark Wolverine #82 - 54,838 (+14.0%)
02/10 Dark Wolverine #83 - 53,958 ( -1.6%)
03/10 Dark Wolverine #84 - 49,469 ( -8.3%)
04/10 Dark Wolverine #85 - 47,527 ( -3.9%)
05/10 Dark Wolverine #86 - 46,315 ( -2.6%)
06/10 Dark Wolverine #87 - 43,087 ( -7.0%)
6 mnth (-10.4%)
1 year (-46.7%)No variant cover this month, so the drop isn’t too bad. The series relaunches in September as DAKEN: DARK WOLVERINE; in the interests of common sense, I’m treating it as a new series that started with DARK WOLVERINE #75, and I’ve moved the sales history from earlier years over to WOLVERINE: WEAPON X.

40. X-FACTOR
06/06 X-Factor #8 - 59,131
06/07 X-Factor #20 - 37,105
06/08 X-Factor #32 - 45,104
=====
06/09 X-Factor #44 - 31,552 ( +0.0%)
06/09 X-Factor #45 - 31,109 ( -1.4%)
07/09 X-Factor #46 - 31,213 ( +0.3%)
08/09 X-Factor #47 - 33,052 ( +5.9%)
09/09 X-Factor #48 - 30,305 ( -8.3%)
09/09 X-Factor #49 - 29,934 ( -1.2%)
10/09 X-Factor #50 - 30,138 ( +0.7%)
11/09 ---
12/09 X-Factor #200 - 36,577 (+21.4%)
01/10 X-Factor #201 - 29,732 (-18.7%)
02/10 X-Factor #202 - 30,981 ( +4.2%)
03/10 X-Factor #203 - 28,924 ( -6.6%)
04/10 X-Factor #204 - 40,534 (+40.1%)
05/10 X-Factor #205 - 41,745 ( +3.0%)
06/10 X-Factor #206 - 40,981 ( -1.8%)
6 mnth (+12.0%)
1 year (+29.9%)
2 year ( -9.1%)
3 year (+10.4%)
4 year (-30.7%)The third month of a “Second Coming” tie-in arc, selling far above the title’s normal level.

41. INVINCIBLE IRON MAN ANNUAL
06/10 Invincible Iron Man Annual #1 - 39,877The first Marvel comic to be released digitally on the same day that it appeared in stores – but it’s difficult to draw any meaningful conclusions from an annual, since it’s pure guesswork what it would have sold normally. It’s 12,000 below the parent title, which isn’t particularly surprising one way or the other.

42. ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN
06/05 Ult. Spider-Man #78 - 79,420
06/06 Ult. Spider-Man #96 - 73,472
06/07 Ult. Spider-Man #110 - 73,646
06/08 Ult. Spider-Man #123 - 57,187
=====
06/09 Ult. Spider-Man #133 - 57,364 ( +14.4%)
06/09 USM: Requiem #1 of 2 - 44,988 ( -21.6%)
07/09 USM: Requiem #2 of 2 - 41,374 ( -8.0%)
08/09 U.C. Spider-Man #1 - 86,008 (+107.9%)
09/09 U.C. Spider-Man #2 - 57,477 ( -33.2%)
10/09 U.C. Spider-Man #3 - 52,813 ( -8.1%)
11/09 U.C. Spider-Man #4 - 49,106 ( -7.0%)
12/09 U.C. Spider-Man #5 - 45,849 ( -6.6%)
01/10 U.C. Spider-Man #6 - 43,622 ( -4.9%)
02/10 U.C. Spider-Man #7 - 42,176 ( -3.3%)
03/10 U.C. Spider-Man #8 - 40,967 ( -2.9%)
04/10 U.C. Spider-Man #9 - 39,955 ( -2.5%)
05/10 U.C. Spider-Man #10 - 39,690 ( -0.7%)
06/10 U.C. Spider-Man #11 - 39,149 ( -1.4%)
6 mnth ( -14.6%)
1 year ( -31.8%)
2 year ( -31.5%)
3 year ( -46.8%)
4 year ( -46.7%)
5 year ( -50.7%)The series seems to have found its level again following last year’s not-desperately-successful relaunch.

44. DEADPOOL
06/09 Deadpool #11 - 55,343 ( -1.4%)
07/09 Deadpool #12 - 58,807 ( +6.3%)
08/09 Deadpool #13 - 55,442 ( -5.7%)
08/09 Deadpool #14 - 50,263 ( -9.3%)
09/09 Deadpool #15 - 50,479 ( +0.4%)
10/09 Deadpool #16 - 46,288 ( -8.3%)
11/09 Deadpool #17 - 46,765 ( +1.0%)
12/09 Deadpool #18 - 45,914 ( -1.8%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Deadpool #19 - 44,580 ( -2.9%)
02/10 Deadpool #20 - 43,347 ( -2.8%)
03/10 Deadpool #21 - 42,062 ( -3.0%)
04/10 Deadpool #22 - 43,061 ( +2.4%)
05/10 Deadpool #23 - 42,761 ( -0.7%)
06/10 Deadpool #24 - 38,663 ( -9.6%)
6 mnth (-15.8%)
1 year (-30.1%)No variant cover this month, so the drop is exaggerated.

45. S.H.I.E.L.D.
04/10 S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 - 44,543
05/10 ---
06/10 S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 - 37,595 (-15.6%)Considering that issue #1 had two variants, and issue #2 only had one, that’s a pretty modest drop. S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t an obviously commercial title, but thus far it’s doing well.

47. FANTASTIC FOUR
06/05 Fantastic Four #528 - 55,937
06/06 Fantastic Four #538 - 78,147
06/07 Fantastic Four #547 - 69,610
06/08 Fantastic Four #558 - 61,003
=====
06/09 Fantastic Four #567 - 46,225 ( -0.9%)
07/09 Fantastic Four #568 - 45,828 ( -0.9%)
07/09 Fantastic Four #569 - 44,710 ( -2.4%)
08/09 Fantastic Four #570 - 62,401 (+39.6%)
09/09 Fantastic Four #571 - 47,468 (-23.4%)
10/09 Fantastic Four #572 - 41,939 (-11.6%)
11/09 Fantastic Four #573 - 39,433 ( -6.0%)
12/09 Fantastic Four #574 - 38,431 ( -2.5%)
01/10 Fantastic Four #575 - 41,284 ( +7.4%)
02/10 Fantastic Four #576 - 37,526 ( -9.1%)
03/10 Fantastic Four #577 - 35,791 ( -4.6%)
04/10 Fantastic Four #578 - 37,940 ( +6.0%)
05/10 Fantastic Four #579 - 38,415 ( +1.3%)
06/10 Fantastic Four #580 - 36,582 ( -4.8%)
6 mnth ( -4.8%)
1 year (-20.9%)
2 year (-40.0%)
3 year (-47.4%)
4 year (-53.2%)
5 year (-34.6%)No variant this month. The closest comparison is issue #577, which actually sold slightly lower, so the base sales seem to be fairly solid.

53. DAREDEVIL
06/05 Daredevil #74 - 48,175
06/06 Daredevil #86 - 48,280
06/07 Daredevil #98 - 46,816
06/08 Daredevil #108 - 39,557
=====
06/09 Daredevil #119 - 41,403 ( -8.0%)
07/09 ---
08/09 Daredevil #500 - 73,486 (+77.5%)
09/09 ---
10/09 Daredevil #501 - 45,181 (-38.5%)
11/09 Daredevil #502 - 40,354 (-10.7%)
12/09 Daredevil #503 - 38,680 ( -4.1%)
01/10 Daredevil #504 - 37,135 ( -4.0%)
02/10 Daredevil #505 - 38,693 ( +4.2%)
03/10 ---
04/10 Daredevil #506 - 37,467 ( -3.2%)
05/10 ---
06/10 Daredevil #507 - 34,744 ( -7.3%)
6 mnth (-10.2%)
1 year (-16.1%)
2 year (-12.2%)
3 year (-25.8%)
4 year (-28.0%)
5 year (-27.9%)No variant this month. The SHADOWLAND crossover – which is basically an expanded DAREDEVIL plotline – begins in July.

54. WOLVERINE: ORIGINS
06/06 Origins #3 - 116,058
06/07 Origins #15 - 65,558
06/08 Origins #26 - 48,059
=====
06/09 Origins #37 - 44,930 ( -1.1%)
07/09 Origins #38 - 47,211 ( +5.1%)
08/09 Origins #39 - 44,968 ( -4.8%)
09/09 Origins #40 - 42,724 ( -5.0%)
10/09 Origins #41 - 39,453 ( -7.7%)
11/09 Origins #42 - 37,903 ( -3.9%)
12/09 Origins #43 - 36,528 ( -3.6%)
01/10 Origins #44 - 35,154 ( -3.8%)
02/10 ---
03/10 Origins #45 - 37,055 ( +5.4%)
03/10 Origins #46 - 34,004 ( -8.2%)
04/10 Origins #47 - 36,075 ( +6.1%)
05/10 Origins #48 - 35,999 ( -0.2%)
06/10 Origins #49 - 34,695 ( -3.6%)
6 mnth ( -5.0%)
1 year (-22.8%)
2 year (-27.8%)
3 year (-47.1%)
4 year (-70.1%)Cancelled next issue, with a new Wolverine B-title set to replace it in the autumn.

56. THANOS IMPERATIVE
05/10 Ignition - 29,716
06/10 Thanos Imperative #1 of 6 - 34,285 (+13.4%)A reassuring increase from the prologue issue.

58. X-MEN: HELLBOUND
05/10 Hellbound #1 of 3 - 33,345
06/10 Hellbound #2 of 3 - 33,691 (+1.0%)Well, that’s unusual. This is a “Second Coming” tie-in miniseries (albeit a fairly peripheral one) – I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that issue #1 picked up reorders that just missed the top 300.

61. THUNDERBOLTS
06/05 New Thunderbolts #9 - 27,300
06/06 Thunderbolts #103 - 48,058
06/07 Thunderbolts #115 - 64,876
06/08 Thunderbolts #121 - 37,693
=====
06/09 Thunderbolts #133 - 39,479 (-10.1%)
07/09 Thunderbolts #134 - 40,885 ( +3.6%)
08/09 ---
09/09 Thunderbolts #135 - 39,961 ( -2.3%)
09/09 Thunderbolts #136 - 34,031 (-14.8%)
10/09 Thunderbolts #137 - 32,409 ( -4.8%)
11/09 Thunderbolts #138 - 31,238 ( -3.6%)
12/09 Thunderbolts #139 - 29,957 ( -4.1%)
01/10 Thunderbolts #140 - 28,644 ( -4.4%)
02/10 Thunderbolts #141 - 33,948 (+18.5%)
03/10 Thunderbolts #142 - 34,132 ( +0.5%)
04/10 Thunderbolts #143 - 35,656 ( +4.5%)
05/10 Thunderbolts #144 - 33,276 ( -6.7%)
06/10 Thunderbolts #145 - 31,999 ( -3.8%)
6 mnth ( +6.8%)
1 year (-18.9%)
2 year (-15.1%)
3 year (-50.7%)
4 year (-33.4%)
5 year (+17.2%)Hmm. The new direction, which began with issue #144, doesn’t seem to have had much impact on sales, one way or the other. There’s a slight increase from six months ago (i.e., just before the SIEGE tie-in issues started), but nothing enormous.

64. DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH
07/09 Merc With A Mouth #1 - 59,628
08/09 Merc With A Mouth #2 - 51,147 (-14.2%)
09/09 Merc With A Mouth #3 - 43,855 (-14.3%)
10/09 Merc With A Mouth #4 - 40,154 ( -8.4%)
11/09 Merc With A Mouth #5 - 37,781 ( -5.9%)
12/09 Merc With A Mouth #6 - 37,051 ( -1.9%)
01/10 Merc With A Mouth #7 - 40,568 ( +9.5%)
02/10 Merc With A Mouth #8 - 34,281 (-15.5%)
03/10 Merc With A Mouth #9 - 33,405 ( -2.6%)
04/10 Merc With A Mouth #10 - 33,803 ( +1.2%)
05/10 Merc With A Mouth #11 - 30,677 ( -9.2%)
06/10 Merc With A Mouth #12 - 30,572 ( -0.3%)
6 mnth (-17.5%)Cancelled with issue #13. Which is starting to look like a rather odd decision, since the book is outselling DEADPOOL CORPS by about 4,000, and DEADPOOL TEAM-UP by 7,000.

65. WOLVERINE: WEAPON X
06/05 Wolverine #29 - 79,951
06/06 Wolverine #43 - 97,807
06/07 ---
06/08 Wolverine #66 - 98,026
=====
06/09 Weapon X #3 - 51,076 (-13.7%)
07/09 ---
08/09 Weapon X #4 - 49,284 ( -3.5%)
09/09 Weapon X #5 - 40,975 (-16.9%)
10/09 Weapon X #6 - 38,446 ( -6.2%)
11/09 Weapon X #7 - 36,108 ( -6.1%)
12/09 Weapon X #8 - 33,470 ( -7.3%)
01/10 Weapon X #9 - 31,678 ( -5.4%)
02/10 Weapon X #10 - 30,132 ( -4.9%)
03/10 Weapon X #11 - 29,799 ( -1.1%)
04/10 Weapon X #12 - 30,050 ( +0.8%)
05/10 Weapon X #13 - 29,773 ( -0.9%)
06/10 Weapon X #14 - 30,035 ( +0.9%)
6 mnth (-10.3%)
1 year (-41.2%)
2 year (-69.4%)
3 year ( --- )
4 year (-69.3%)
5 year (-62.4%)Seems to have bottomed out over the last few months, but Marvel will be hoping for much better when the series relaunches as WOLVERINE in September. It seems to be tacitly conceded that this launch has backfired badly.

67,74. DEADPOOL: WADE WILSON'S WAR
06/10 Wade Wilson's War #1 of 4 - 29,406
06/10 Wade Wilson's War #2 of 4 - 26,466 (-10.0%)More Deadpool! And, well, this mini is outselling two of his monthly titles, so that’s not bad.

72. SECRET WARRIORS
06/09 Secret Warriors #5 - 40,849 ( -4.5%)
07/09 Secret Warriors #6 - 41,749 ( +2.2%)
08/09 Secret Warriors #7 - 38,990 ( -6.6%)
09/09 Secret Warriors #8 - 33,893 (-13.1%)
10/09 Secret Warriors #9 - 36,385 ( +7.4%)
11/09 Secret Warriors #10 - 31,567 (-13.2%)
12/09 Secret Warriors #11 - 30,748 ( -2.6%)
01/10 Secret Warriors #12 - 29,894 ( -2.8%)
02/10 Secret Warriors #13 - 30,843 ( +3.2%)
03/10 Secret Warriors #14 - 28,580 ( -7.3%)
04/10 Secret Warriors #15 - 29,669 ( +3.8%)
05/10 Secret Warriors #16 - 29,340 ( -1.1%)
06/10 Secret Warriors #17 - 28,017 ( -4.5%)
6 mnth ( -8.9%)
1 year (-31.4%)Extremely solid over the last few months, when you bear in mind that issues #15-16 had variant covers.

73. HAWKEYE AND MOCKINGBIRD
06/10 Hawkeye & Mockingbird #1 - 27,552 Two variant covers on this. Not a brilliant start for a new Marvel Universe title, but there’s a bit of leeway here, if it levels out quickly.

75. DEADPOOL CORPS
03/10 Prelude #1 of 5 - 37,011
03/10 Prelude #2 of 5 - 32,024 (-13.5%)
03/10 Prelude #3 of 5 - 31,065 ( -3.0%)
03/10 Prelude #4 of 5 - 30,254 ( -2.6%)
03/10 Prelude #5 of 5 - 29,037 ( -4.0%)
04/10 Deadpool Corps #1 - 39,466 (+35.9%)
05/10 Deadpool Corps #2 - 28,236 (-28.5%)
06/10 Deadpool Corps #3 - 26,251 ( -7.0%)I’d have hoped for a slightly smaller drop by the third issue. More to the point, though, this series is effectively the replacement for DEADPOOL: MERC WITH A MOUTH – which sells 4,000 higher, and is fairly steady. This is looking like it might have been a mistake.

76. DOOMWAR
06/05 Black Panther #5 - 37,401
06/06 Black Panther #17 - 27,993
06/07 Black Panther #28 - 61,808
06/08 Black Panther #37 - 19,989
=====
06/09 Black Panther #5 - 29,762 ( -3.9%)
07/09 Black Panther #6 - 29,727 ( -0.1%)
08/09 Black Panther #7 - 27,619 ( -7.1%)
09/09 Black Panther #8 - 23,020 ( -16.7%)
10/09 Black Panther #9 - 20,346 ( -11.6%)
11/09 Black Panther #10 - 19,147 ( -5.9%)
12/09 Black Panther #11 - 17,989 ( -6.0%)
01/10 Black Panther #12 - 17,881 ( -1.0%)
02/10 Doomwar #1 of 6 - 43,241 (+141.8%)
03/10 Doomwar #2 of 6 - 30,555 ( -29.3%)
04/10 Doomwar #3 of 6 - 27,859 ( -8.9%)
05/10 Doomwar #4 of 6 - 28,307 ( +1.6%)
06/10 Doomwar #5 of 6 - 26,041 ( -8.0%)
6 mnth ( +44.8%)
1 year ( -12.5%)
2 year ( +30.3%)
3 year ( -57.9%)
4 year ( -7.0%)
5 year ( -30.4%)Fairly standard miniseries behaviour. BLACK PANTHER is one of those properties that Marvel just won’t give up on – a new mini, KLAWS OF THE PANTHER, begins in October.

81. AGE OF HEROES
05/10 Age of Heroes #1 of 4 - 33,573
06/10 Age of Heroes #2 of 4 - 25,354 (-24.5%)Issue #1 had a variant cover, so the drop is exaggerated. Not a bad number for a Marvel Universe anthology title.

83. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN PRESENTS BLACK CAT
06/10 Black Cat #1 of 4 - 24,951The Spider-Man minis are heading in the right direction. JACKPOT launched with 18K, AMERICAN SON with 20K, and now BLACK CAT starts at 25K. Okay, yes, this issue has a J Scott Campbell variant cover, but the Black Cat is also a higher profile character, which is bound to play a part.

87. DARK TOWER: GUNSLINGER - JOURNEY BEGINS
06/07 Gunslinger Born #5 of 7 - 132,090
06/08 Long Road Home #4 of 5 - 79,270
=====
06/09 Fall of Gilead #2 of 6 - 39,978 ( -8.3%)
07/09 Fall of Gilead #3 of 6 - 36,982 ( -7.5%)
08/09 Fall of Gilead #4 of 6 - 35,607 ( -3.7%)
09/09 Fall of Gilead #5 of 6 - 34,522 ( -3.0%)
10/09 ---
11/09 Fall of Gilead #6 of 6 - 32,531 ( -5.8%)
12/09 Jericho Hill #1 of 5 - 30,756 ( -5.5%)
12/09 Jericho Hill #2 of 5 - 28,350 ( -7.8%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Jericho Hill #3 of 5 - 27,215 ( -4.0%)
03/10 Jericho Hill #4 of 5
04/10 Jericho Hill #5 of 5 - 25,896 ( -4.8%)
05/10 Gunslinger #1 of 5 - 26,275 ( +1.5%)
06/10 Gunslinger #2 of 5 - 24,024 ( -8.6%)
6 mnth (-15.3%)
1 year (-39.9%)
2 year (-69.7%)
3 year (-81.8%)Monthly sales just keep dropping, but presumably the collected editions are doing better.

89. DEADPOOL TEAM-UP
10/09 Deadpool #900 - 51,337
11/09 Deadpool Team-Up #899 - 39,584 (-22.9%)
12/09 Deadpool Team-Up #898 - 36,308 ( -8.3%)
01/10 Deadpool Team-Up #897 - 32,671 (-10.0%)
02/10 Deadpool Team-Up #896 - 30,119 ( -7.8%)
03/10 Deadpool Team-Up #895 - 28,573 ( -5.1%)
04/10 Deadpool Team-Up #894 - 28,835 ( +0.9%)
05/10 Deadpool Team-Up #893 - 26,578 ( -7.8%)
06/10 Deadpool Team-Up #892 - 23,697 (-10.8%)
6 mnth (-34.7%)The lowest-selling Deadpool title, by a fair margin.

90. IRON MAN LEGACY
04/10 Iron Man Legacy #1 - 48,956
05/10 Iron Man Legacy #2 - 29,175 (-40.4%)
06/10 Iron Man Legacy #3 - 23,340 (-20.0%)Yikes. This doesn’t look too healthy. But then again, LEGACY is a story set in past continuity, which probably had its first issues sales massively inflated by the movie release; it’s possible that we’re seeing a huge initial downward correction and that the book will settle down after that. You never know.

92,105. FRANKEN-CASTLE
06/07 War Journal #8 - 61,376
06/08 War Journal #20 - 27,288
=====
06/09 Punisher #6 - 32,982 ( -7.4%)
07/09 Punisher #7 - 31,227 ( -5.3%)
08/09 Punisher #8 - 33,057 ( +5.9%)
09/09 Punisher #9 - 28,424 (-14.1%)
10/09 Punisher #10 - 27,167 ( -4.4%)
11/09 Punisher #11 - 24,900 ( -8.3%)
12/09 Punisher #12 - 24,985 ( +0.3%)
01/10 Punisher #13 - 23,734 ( -5.0%)
02/10 Punisher #14 - 23,455 ( -1.8%)
03/10 Punisher #15 - 22,285 ( -5.0%)
04/10 Punisher #16 - 23,047 ( +3.4%)
05/10 ---
06/10 Franken-Castle #17 - 22,378 ( -2.9%)
06/10 Franken-Castle #18 - 19,605 (-12.4%)
6 mnth (-21.5%)
1 year (-40.6%)
2 year (-28.2%)
3 year (-68.1%)Yes, PUNISHER is renamed to reflect the fact that he’s now Frankenstein. The storyline actually ends with issue #21, and there’s no solicitation for issue #22 in October. But in the circumstances, I wouldn’t rule out yet another relaunch.

The reprint book FRANKEN-CASTLE: BIRTH OF THE MONSTER had estimated orders of 4,796, charting at number 294.

93. PUNISHERMAX [Max]
06/05 Punisher #22 - 37,811
06/06 Punisher #34 - 34,161
06/07 Punisher #48 - 33,804
06/08 Punisher #58 - 29,802
=====
06/09 Frank Castle #71 - 21,319 ( -2.5%)
07/09 Frank Castle #72 - 21,049 ( -1.3%)
08/09 Frank Castle #73 - 20,375 ( -3.2%)
09/09 Frank Castle #74 - 20,259 ( -0.6%)
10/09 Frank Castle #75 - 22,210 ( +9.6%)
11/09 PunisherMax #1 - 29,119 (+31.1%)
12/09 PunisherMax #2 - 23,110 (-20.4%)
01/10 PunisherMax #3 - 22,887 ( -1.0%)
02/10 PunisherMax #4 - 22,472 ( -1.8%)
03/10 PunisherMax #5 - 22,435 ( -0.2%)
04/10 PunisherMax #6 - 22,246 ( -0.8%)
05/10 PunisherMax #7 - 22,198 ( -0.2%)
06/10 PunisherMax #8 - 22,053 ( -0.7%)
6 mnth ( -4.6%)
1 year ( +3.4%)
2 year (-26.0%)
3 year (-34.8%)
4 year (-35.4%)
5 year (-41.7%)Still slightly up from the book’s previous incarnation, and selling as solidly as ever.

97. YOUNG ALLIES
06/10 Young Allies #1 - 20,858That’s lower than last month’s ATLAS #1. And ATLAS is being cancelled with issue #5. So, it’s not looking too promising.

98. THE STAND
06/09 ---
07/09 Nightmares #4 of 5 - 34,292 ( -5.7%)
08/09 Nightmares #5 of 5 - 31,506 ( -8.1%)10/09 Soul Survivors #1 of 5 - 27,725 (-12.0%)
11/09 Soul Survivors #2 of 5 - 25,600 ( -7.7%)
12/09 Soul Survivors #3 of 5 - 24,308 ( -5.0%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Soul Survivors #4 of 5 - 22,804 ( -6.2%)
03/10 Soul Survivors #5 of 5 - 22,294 ( -2.2%)
04/10 ---
05/10 ---
06/10 Hardcases #1 of 5 - 20,802 ( -6.7%)
6 mnth (-14.4%)
1 year ( --- )The first issue of the new arc doesn’t even get a token increase. Of course, as with DARK TOWER, this series ought to be doing a lot of its business in collections.

100. MARVEL ZOMBIES 5
04/10 Marvel Zombies 5 #1 of 5 - 26,318
04/10 Marvel Zombies 5 #2 of 5 - 26,319 ( -1.8%)
05/10 Marvel Zombies 5 #3 of 5 - 22,894 (-13.0%)
06/10 Marvel Zombies 5 #4 of 5 - 20,141 (-12.0%)This looks to be a case where the usual initial drop has been spread over the course of the series thanks to variant covers.

103. BLACK WIDOW
04/10 Black Widow #1 - 32,807
05/10 Black Widow #2 - 23,384 (-28.7%)
06/10 Black Widow #3 - 19,892 (-14.9%)Well… both the previous issues had variant covers, so the drop is exaggerated. Nonetheless, 20K by issue #3 isn’t too promising.

106. VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT
06/06 Moon Knight #3 - 69,446
06/07 Moon Knight #11 - 58,313
06/08 Moon Knight #19 - 25,820
=====
06/09 ---
07/09 ---
08/09 ---
09/09 Moon Knight #1 - 35,706 (+81.3%)
10/09 Moon Knight #2 - 26,493 (-25.8%)
11/09 Moon Knight #3 - 23,359 (-11.8%)
12/09 Moon Knight #4 - 21,482 ( -8.0%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Moon Knight #5 - 19,733 ( -8.1%)
03/10 Moon Knight #6 - 19,094 ( -3.2%)
04/10 Moon Knight #7 - 20,718 ( +8.5%)
05/10 Moon Knight #8 - 20,597 ( -0.6%)
06/10 Moon Knight #9 - 18,695 ( -9.2%)
6 mnth (-13.0%)
1 year ( --- )
2 year (-27.6%)
3 year (-67.9%)
4 year (-73.1%)Another book with no variant cover this month, so the drop isn’t quite as bad as it looks – and it’s only a couple of hundred below the last variant-free issue in March. The series is going on hiatus to be replaced by a SHADOWLAND tie-in miniseries.

108. AVENGERS: THE ORIGIN
04/10 Origin #1 of 5 - 24,457
05/10 Origin #2 of 5 - 22,108 ( -9.6%)
06/10 Origin #3 of 5 - 18,463 (-16.5%)Not doing too badly for a miniseries set during the Silver Age.

110. WEB OF SPIDER-MAN
10/09 Web of Spider-Man #1 - 58,412
11/09 Web of Spider-Man #2 - 32,093 (-45.1%)
12/09 Web of Spider-Man #3 - 29,368 ( -8.5%)
01/10 Web of Spider-Man #4 - 24,424 (-16.8%)
02/10 Web of Spider-Man #5 - 24,296 ( -0.5%)
03/10 Web of Spider-Man #6 - 21,574 (-11.2%)
04/10 Web of Spider-Man #7 - 19,533 ( -9.5%)
05/10 Web of Spider-Man #8 - 19,623 ( +4.6%)
06/10 Web of Spider-Man #9 - 17,581 (-10.4%)Cancelled with issue #12.

112. PRINCE OF POWER
06/08 Hercules #118 - 52,975
=====
06/09 Hercules #130 - 27,872 ( -3.9%)
07/09 Hercules #131 - 29,188 ( +4.7%)
08/09 Hercules #132 - 32,680 (+12.0%)
08/09 Hercules #133 - 27,491 (-15.9%)
09/09 Hercules #134 - 25,380 ( -7.7%)
09/09 Hercules #135 - 26,344 ( +3.8%)
10/09 Hercules #136 - 26,447 ( -0.4%)
10/09 Hercules #137 - 23,463 (-11.3%)
11/09 Hercules #138 - 25,116 ( +7.0%)
12/09 Hercules #139 - 23,591 ( -6.1%)
01/10 Hercules #140 - 23,244 ( -1.5%)
02/10 Hercules #141 - 24,539 ( +5.6%)
03/10 Fall/Avenger #1 of 2 - 23,036 ( -6.1%)
04/10 Fall/Avenger #2 of 2 - 20,215 (-12.2%)
05/10 Prince of Power #1 of 4 - 20,373 ( +0.8%)
06/10 Prince of Power #2 of 4 - 17,068 (-16.2%)
6 mnth (-27.7%)
1 year (-38.8%)
2 year (-67.8%)Not too bad for the second issue of a miniseries. Following this mini, the next step for Hercules appears to be another mini, CHAOS WAR.

113,145,150,154,168. HERALDS
06/10 Heralds #1 of 5 - 16,476
06/10 Heralds #2 of 5 - 12,832 (-22.1%)
06/10 Heralds #3 of 5 - 12,132 ( -5.5%)
06/10 Heralds #4 of 5 - 11,694 ( -3.6%)
06/10 Heralds #5 of 5 - 10,394 (-11.1%)A weekly miniseries which seems to have gone largely unnoticed.

114. DEATH OF DRACULA
06/10 Death of Dracula - 16,464This is the prologue to “Curse of the Mutants”, the storyline which launches the new X-MEN series in July. X-MEN is being hyped to the hills. Now, you’d expect the prologue to come in some way behind the main title. And the solicitations could perhaps have hammered the book’s significant a bit harder. But even allowing for those factors, this is hardly a ringing endorsement from the retailers.

117. HERCULES: TWILIGHT OF A GOD
06/10 Twilight of a God #1 of 4 - 16,302A sequel to Bob Layton’s 1980s stories about Hercules in the future. Sales are about what I’d expect from that sort of mini.

120. AGENTS OF ATLAS
06/09 Agents of Atlas #6 - 22,579 (-10.4%)
07/09 Agents of Atlas #7 - 23,217 ( +2.8%)
07/09 Agents of Atlas #8 - 20,540 (-11.5%)
08/09 Agents of Atlas #9 - 20,828 ( +1.4%)
09/09 Agents of Atlas #10 - 17,877 (-14.2%)
09/09 Agents of Atlas #11 - 17,529 ( -1.9%)
10/09 X-Men vs #1 of 2 - 32,743 (+86.8%)
11/09 X-Men vs #2 of 2 - 25,222 (-23.0%)
12/09 ---
01/10 Avengers vs #1 of 4 - 21,777 (-13.7%)
02/10 Avengers vs #2 of 4 - 17,998 (-17.4%)
03/10 Avengers vs #3 of 4 - 16,482 ( -8.4%)
04/10 Avengers vs #4 of 4 - 14,900 ( -9.6%)
05/10 Atlas #1 - 22,756 (+52.7%)
06/10 Atlas #2 - 16,130 (-29.1%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year (-28.6%)Cancelled with issue #5.

122,129,130. X-MEN FOREVER
06/09 X-Men Forever #1 - 36,213
06/09 X-Men Forever #2 - 31,767 (-12.3%)
07/09 X-Men Forever #3 - 28,651 ( -9.8%)
07/09 X-Men Forever #4 - 28,645 ( -0.0%)
08/09 X-Men Forever #5 - 27,825 ( -2.9%)
08/09 X-Men Forever #6 - 24,875 (-10.6%)
09/09 X-Men Forever #7 - 24,115 ( -3.1%)
09/09 X-Men Forever #8 - 23,174 ( -3.9%)
10/09 X-Men Forever #9 - 21,926 ( -5.4%)
10/09 X-Men Forever #10 - 22,287 ( +1.6%)
11/09 X-Men Forever #11 - 20,130 ( -9.7%)
11/09 X-Men Forever #12 - 19,541 ( -2.9%)
12/09 X-Men Forever #13 - 18,870 ( -3.4%)
12/09 X-Men Forever #14 - 18,376 ( -2.6%)
01/10 X-Men Forever #15 - 17,665 ( -3.9%)
01/10 X-Men Forever #16 - 17,290 ( -2.1%)
02/10 X-Men Forever #17 - 17,873 ( +3.4%)
02/10 X-Men Forever #18 - 16,464 ( -7.9%)
03/10 X-Men Forever #19 - 16,183 ( -1.7%)
03/10 X-Men Forever #20 - 15,990 ( -1.2%)
04/10 X-Men Forever #21 - 15,530 ( -2.9%)
04/10 X-Men Forever #22 - 15,305 ( -1.4%)
05/10 X-Men Forever #23 - 15,045 ( -1.7%)
05/10 X-Men Forever #24 - 14,940 ( -0.7%)
06/10 Giant-Size #1 - 15,039 ( +0.7%)
06/10 X-Men Forever 2 #1 - 16,094 ( +7.0%)
06/10 X-Men Forever 2 #2 - 14,933 ( -7.2%)
6 mnth (-18.7%)
1 year (-58.8%)Chris Claremont’s alternate-reality X-Men series enters its second year with a renumbering – one which has little discernible effect on sales. Still, it’s undeniably consistent.

124. POWERS [Icon]
11/09 Powers #1 - 20,146
12/09 Powers #2 - 17,181 (-14.7%)
01/10 ---
02/10 ---
03/10 Powers #3 - 16,768 ( -2.4%)
04/10 Powers #4 - 16,463 ( -1.8%)
05/10 ---
06/10 Powers #5 - 16,019 ( -2.7%)
6 mnth ( -6.8%)Looking fairly solid.

126. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN PRESENTS AMERICAN SON
05/10 American Son #1 of 4 - 20,375
06/10 American Son #2 of 4 - 15,450 (-24.2%)Issue #1 had a variant cover, so the drop is exaggerated. It’s still not a great number for a Spider-Man miniseries picking up on a fairly major plot thread.

131. STEPHEN KING'S N. THE COMIC SERIES
03/10 N #1 of 4 - 21,092
04/10 N #2 of 4 - 17,299 (-18.0%)
05/10 N #3 of 4 - 15,470 (-10.6%)
06/10 N #4 of 4 - 14,927 ( -3.5%)These are reprints from Marvel’s digital service, and the series should also do better than average in collected editions. Allowing for all that, these are pretty good numbers.

132. X-CAMPUS
06/10 X-Campus #1 of 4 - 14,867A translated reprint of an Italian series that came out a few years ago, loosely based on the X-Men. Actually, this isn’t a bad number at all, where Euro reprints are concerned.

133. CAPTAIN AMERICA/BLACK PANTHER: FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
04/10 Flags #1 of 4 - 20,274
05/10 Flags #2 of 4 - 15,480 (-23.6%)
06/10 Flags #3 of 4 - 14,264 ( -7.9%)Standard miniseries behaviour.

134. WOMEN OF MARVEL ONE-SHOTS
03/10 X-23 - 27,328
03/10 She-Hulk - 15,583
03/10 Sif - 18,092
04/10 Firestar - 13,462
05/10 Dazzler - 16,320
05/10 Rescue - 15,711
06/10 Namora - 14,079With a couple of exceptions, there’s little variation in the sales of these one-shots – even though the characters come from titles ranging from UNCANNY X-MEN down to ATLAS, with a similarly wide range of sales.

135. SPIDER-GIRL
05/10 Spider-Girl #1 of 4 - 17,025
06/10 Spider-Girl #2 of 4 - 13,775 (-19.1%)With the Spider-Girl name being reassigned to Arana, it looks like this miniseries really is the end for the MC-2 version of the character.

136. IRON MAN: KISS AND KILL
06/10 Kiss and Kill - 13,528Random one-shot, selling in the expected quantities.

140. NEW AVENGERS: LUKE CAGE
04/10 Luke Cage #1 of 3 - 16,836
05/10 Luke Cage #2 of 3 - 14,878 (-11.6%)
06/10 Luke Cage #3 of 3 - 13,187 (-11.4%)Considering the strength of the Avengers franchise at the moment, I really am surprised this didn’t do a bit better.

149. MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ
06/09 Wizard of Oz #7 of 8 - 15,473 ( -1.9%)
07/09 Wizard of Oz #8 of 8 - 15,487 ( +0.1%)
08/09 ---
09/09 ---
10/09 ---
11/09 Marvelous Land #1 of 8 - 25,338 (+63.6%)
12/09 Marvelous Land #2 of 8 - 15,783 (-37.7%)
01/10 Marvelous Land #3 of 8 - 14,216 (-10.0%)
02/10 Marvelous Land #4 of 8 - 13,364 ( -6.0%)
03/10 ---
04/10 Marvelous Land #5 of 8 - 12,922 ( -3.3%)
05/10 Marvelous Land #6 of 8 - 12,366 ( -4.3%)
06/10 Marvelous Land #7 of 8 - 12,200 ( -1.3%)
6 mnth (-22.7%)
1 year (-21.2%)Levelling out nicely as the series goes on.

152. X-FACTOR FOREVER
03/10 X-Factor Forever #1 of 5 - 18,550
04/10 X-Factor Forever #2 of 5 - 14,608 (-21.3%)
05/10 X-Factor Forever #3 of 5 - 12,794 (-12.4%)
06/10 X-Factor Forever #4 of 5 - 11,937 ( -6.7%)Perfectly normal behaviour for a miniseries.

155. TORCH
09/09 Torch #1 of 8 - 26,921
10/09 Torch #2 of 8 - 18,115 (-32.7%)
11/09 Torch #3 of 8 - 15,209 (-16.0%)
12/09 Torch #4 of 8 - 13,782 ( -9.4%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Torch #5 of 8 - 12,211 (-11.4%)
03/10 Torch #6 of 8 - 11,896 ( -2.6%)
04/10 Torch #7 of 8 - 11,477 ( -3.5%)
05/10 ---
06/10 Torch #8 of 8 - 11,513 ( +0.3%)There’s no apparent reason for the slight uptick on the final issue; conceivably a few people became more interested when they realised the series was leading into an Invaders reunion.

156,220,222,255. MARVEL'S GREATEST COMICS
06/10 Deadpool #1 - 11,379
06/10 Amazing Spider-Man #546 - 6,936
06/10 New X-Men #114 - 6,757
06/10 Daredevil #26 - 5,782This month’s one-dollar reprints.

157. PETER PARKER
03/10 Peter Parker #1 - 18,963
04/10 Peter Parker #2 - 14,647 (-22.8%)
05/10 Peter Parker #3 - 12,514 (-14.6%)
06/10 Peter Parker #4 - 11,335 ( -9.4%)

162. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE 1940S NEWSPAPER STRIP
06/10 1940s Newspaper Strip #1 of 3 - 10,913Reprints from the digital comics service, so the total audience (and revenue stream) ought to be bigger.

170. SPIDER-MAN: FEVER
04/10 Fever #1 of 3 - 15,111
05/10 Fever #2 of 3 - 11,665 (-22.8%)
06/10 Fever #3 of 3 - 10,329 (-11.5%)Basically a Brendan McCarthy vehicle, and that’s something of a niche market.

175. DARKSTAR AND THE WINTER GUARD
06/10 Darkstar/Winter Guard #1 of 3 - 10,101

177. RAWHIDE KID
06/10 Rawhide Kid #1 of 4 - 9,993

181. SPIDER-HAM 25TH ANNIVERSAY SPECIAL
06/10 Spider-Ham - 9,760We’re well into completist territory here.

189. ANITA BLAKE, VAMPIRE HUNTER
06/08 Guilty Pls. #12 of 12 - 19,866
=====
06/09 Necromancer #2 of 5 - 12,907 (-15.7%)
07/09 Necromancer #3 of 5 - 12,143 ( -5.9%)
08/09 Necromancer #4 of 5 - 11,597 ( -4.5%)
09/09 Necromancer #5 of 5 - 11,142 ( -3.9%)
10/09 Executioner #1 of 5 - 11,205 ( +0.6%)
11/09 ---
12/09 Executioner #2 of 5 - 10,454 ( -6.7%)
01/10 Executioner #3 of 5 - 9,958 ( -4.7%)
02/10 Executioner #4 of 5 - 9,626 ( -3.3%)
03/10 Executioner #5 of 5 - 9,454 ( -1.8%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Circus o/Damned #1 of 5 - 9,484 ( +0.3%)
06/10 Circus o/Damned #2 of 5 - 9,060 ( -4.5%)
6 mnth (-13.3%)
1 year (-29.8%)
2 year (-54.4%)Still slowly dropping – but then, ANITA BLAKE was always something of anomaly among Marvel’s novel adaptations, by virtue of selling significant quantities in the direct market. It may simply have come into line with other similar titles.

192. IRON MAN NOIR
04/10 Iron Man Noir #1 of 4 - 10,904
05/10 Iron Man Noir #2 of 4 - 9,268 (-15.0%)
06/10 Iron Man Noir #3 of 4 - 8,913 ( -3.8%)This looks like it might be the end for the “Noir” books, although DEADPOOL PULP sounds like something of a spiritual successor.

195. AVENGERS SPOTLIGHT
06/10 Avengers Spotlight - 8,595 A promotional magazine; this is at the higher end of the range for SPOTLIGHT books.

204,219. DRACULA
06/10 Dracula #1 of 4 - 7,960
06/10 Dracula #2 of 4 - 7,139 (-10.3%)Reprints, so the sales are basically fine.

217. SPIDER-MAN [Marvel Adventures]
06/05 M.A. Spider-Man #4 - 8,878
06/06 M.A. Spider-Man #16 - 6,114
06/07 M.A. Spider-Man #28 - 7,006
06/08 M.A. Spider-Man #40 - 5,954
=====
06/09 M.A. Spider-Man #52 - 4,612 ( +1.2%)
07/09 M.A. Spider-Man #53 - 5,710 ( +23.8%)
08/09 M.A. Spider-Man #54 - 5,684 ( -0.5%)
09/09 M.A. Spider-Man #55 - 5,668 ( -0.3%)
10/09 M.A. Spider-Man #56 - 4,579 ( -19.2%)
11/09 M.A. Spider-Man #57 - 4,501 ( -1.7%)
12/09 M.A. Spider-Man #58 - 4,352 ( -3.3%)
01/10 M.A. Spider-Man #59 - 4,315 ( -0.9%)
02/10 M.A. Spider-Man #60 - 4,212 ( -2.4%)
03/10 M.A. Spider-Man #61 - 4,200 ( -2.8%)
04/10 Spider-Man #1 - 9,770 (+132.6%)
05/10 Spider-Man #2 - 7,709 ( -21.1%)
06/10 Spider-Man #3 - 7,200 ( -6.6%)
6 mnth ( +65.4%)
1 year ( +56.1%)
2 year ( +20.9%)
3 year ( +2.8%)
4 year ( +17.8%)
5 year ( -18.9%)This relaunch looks to have been a success – sales are settling down to a level several thousand ahead of the book’s established range.

233. ORSON SCOTT CARD'S ENDER IN EXILE
06/10 Ender in Exile #1 of 5 - 6,568

236,280. SKY DOLL: SPACE SHIP [Soleil]
06/10 Space Ship #1 of 2 - 6,528
06/10 Space Ship #2 of 2 - 5,133 (-21.4%)

243. PET AVENGERS UNLEASHED
06/09 Pet Avengers #2 of 4 - 12,317 (-30.2%)
07/09 Pet Avengers #3 of 4 - 11,739 ( -4.7%)
08/09 Pet Avengers #4 of 4 - 11,340 ( -3.4%)
09/09 ---
10/09 ---
11/09 ---
12/09 ---
01/10 ---
02/10 Tails o/Pet Avengers - 8,214 (-27.6%)
03/10 Unleashed #1 of 4 - 8,554 ( +4.1%)
04/10 Unleashed #2 of 4 - 6,767 (-20.9%)
05/10 Unleashed #3 of 4 - 6,339 ( -6.3%)
06/10 Unleashed #4 of 4 - 6,166 ( -2.7%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year (-49.9%)

247. SUPER HERO SQUAD
09/09 Super Hero Squad #1 of 4 - 6,760
10/09 Super Hero Squad #2 of 4 - 4,496 ( -33.5%)
11/09 Super Hero Squad #3 of 4 - 4,384 ( -2.5%)
12/09 Super Hero Squad #4 of 4 - 4,132 ( -5.7%)
01/10 Super Hero Squad #1 - 9,709 (+135.0%)
02/10 Super Hero Squad #2 - 5,691 ( -41.4%)
03/10 Super Hero Squad #3 - 5,399 ( -5.1%)
04/10 Super Hero Squad #4 - 5,822 ( +7.8%)
05/10 Super Hero Squad #5 - 5,639 ( -3.1%)
06/10 Super Hero Squad #6 - 6,029 ( +6.9%)
6 mnth ( +45.9%)

261. SUPER HEROES [Marvel Adventures]
06/09 M.A. Super Heroes #12 - 3,508 ( +1.0%)
07/09 M.A. Super Heroes #13 - 4,439 (+26.5%)
08/09 M.A. Super Heroes #14 - 4,355 ( -1.9%)
09/09 M.A. Super Heroes #15 - 4,268 ( -2.0%)
10/09 M.A. Super Heroes #16 - 3,250 (-23.9%)
11/09 M.A. Super Heroes #17 - 3,308 ( +1.8%)
12/09 M.A. Super Heroes #18 - ?,??? ( ??? )
01/10 M.A. Super Heroes #19 - 3,103 ( ??? )
02/10 M.A. Super Heroes #20 - 3,008 ( -3.1%)
03/10 M.A. Super Heroes #21 - ?,??? ( ??? )
04/10 Super Heroes #1 - 8,107 ( ??? )
05/10 Super Heroes #2 - 6,360 (-21.5%)
06/10 Super Heroes #3 - 5,678 (-10.7%)
6 mnth ( ??? )
1 year (+61.9%)And another successful relaunch. The missing numbers, if you’re wondering, are months when the book didn’t make the top 300.

267. OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
02/10 A to Z Update #1 of 5 - 5,406
03/10 Deadpool Corps - 21,900 (+305.1%)
04/10 Iron Manual Mark 3 #1 - 9,456 ( -56.8%)
05/10 Avengers Assemble #1 - 15,113 ( +59.8%)
06/10 A to Z Update #2 of 5 - 5,312 ( -64.9%)There’s a massive gulf between the themed and non-themed issues.

271. PHILP K DICK'S ELECTRIC ANT
04/10 Electric Ant #1 of 5 - 8,869
05/10 Electric Ant #2 of 5 - 6,181 (-30.3%)
06/10 Electric Ant #3 of 5 - 5,238 (-15.3%)Another online reprint.

277. THOR AND THE WARRIORS FOUR
04/10 Thor/Warriors Four #1 of 4 - 6,861
05/10 Thor/Warriors Four #2 of 4 - 5,651 (-17.6%)
06/10 Thor/Warriors Four #3 of 4 - 5,190 ( -8.2%)

284. HER-OES
04/10 Her-Oes #1 - 7,464
05/10 Her-Oes #2 - 5,871 (-21.3%)
06/10 Her-Oes #3 - 5,021 (-14.5%)Both doing fine, by the standards of Marvel’s all ages books. These titles presumably don’t depend on the direct market anyway.

Several titles missed the chart – OFFICIAL INDEX: AVENGERS #2, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY #2, IRON MAN: EXTREMIS DIRECTOR’S CUT #2-4, and the Icon book DREAM LOGIC #1. Bear in mind, this really was an exceptional month, with 4,528 needed to make the charts – the INDEX hasn’t been beating that number since July 2009, but this is the first time it’s failed to chart.

6 month comparisons
===================

+67.3% - New Mutants
+65.4% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
+57.1% - New Avengers
+45.9% - Super Hero Squad
+44.8% - Doomwar [Black Panther]
+42.1% - Avengers Academy [Initiative]
+28.8% - X-Men Legacy
+13.5% - Uncanny X-Men
+12.0% - X-Factor
+ 6.8% - Thunderbolts
+ 5.7% - Incredible Hulk
+ 4.6% - Invincible Iron Man
+ 2.2% - Thor
- 0.4% - Astonishing X-Men
- 4.6% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 4.6% - PunisherMax
- 4.7% - Hulk
- 4.8% - Fantastic Four
- 5.0% - Wolverine Origins
- 6.8% - Powers
- 8.9% - Secret Warriors
-10.2% - Daredevil
-10.3% - Wolverine: Weapon X
-10.4% - Dark Wolverine
-13.0% - Moon Knight
-13.3% - Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
-14.4% - Stand
-14.6% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-15.3% - Dark Tower
-15.8% - Deadpool
-17.5% - Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth
-18.7% - X-Men Forever
-21.5% - Franken-Castle [Punisher]
-22.7% - Marvelous Land of Oz
-27.7% - Prince of Power [Hercules]
-34.7% - Deadpool Team-Up
-42.3% - Captain America

1 year comparisons
==================

+61.9% - Super Heroes [Marvel Adventures]
+56.1% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
+37.5% - New Avengers
+29.9% - X-Factor
+24.7% - New Mutants
+14.4% - Avengers Academy [Initiative]
+12.3% - X-Men Legacy
+ 6.9% - Uncanny X-Men
+ 3.4% - PunisherMax
- 1.8% - Invincible Iron Man
- 1.9% - Thor
- 8.8% - Amazing Spider-Man
-11.2% - Astonishing X-Men
-12.5% - Doomwar [Black Panther]
-16.1% - Daredevil
-18.9% - Thunderbolts
-20.9% - Fantastic Four
-21.2% - Marvelous Land of Oz
-22.8% - Wolverine Origins
-28.6% - Atlas
-29.8% - Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
-30.1% - Deadpool
-31.4% - Secret Warriors
-31.8% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-38.8% - Prince of Power [Hercules]
-39.9% - Dark Tower
-40.6% - Franken-Castle [Punisher]
-41.2% - Wolverine: Weapon X
-46.7% - Dark Wolverine
-49.9% - Pet Avengers
-57.0% - Captain America
-58.8% - X-Men Forever

2 year comparisons
==================

+33.3% - Captain America
+30.3% - Doomwar [Black Panther]
+20.9% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
+19.0% - New Avengers
- 6.2% - Uncanny X-Men
- 8.8% - X-Men Legacy
- 9.1% - X-Factor
-12.2% - Daredevil
-15.1% - Thunderbolts
-20.7% - Amazing Spider-Man
-24.3% - Invincible Iron Man
-26.0% - PunisherMax
-26.3% - Avengers Academy [Initiative]
-27.6% - Moon Knight
-27.8% - Wolverine Origins
-28.2% - Franken-Castle [Punisher]
-31.5% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-40.0% - Fantastic Four
-44.0% - Hulk
-48.7% - Incredible Hulk
-54.4% - Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
-67.8% - Prince of Power [Hercules]
-69.4% - Wolverine: Weapon X [Wolverine]
-69.7% - Dark Tower

3 year comparisons
==================

+10.4% - X-Factor
+ 2.8% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
- 6.6% - Uncanny X-Men
-19.8% - New Avengers
-25.8% - Daredevil
-30.4% - Invincible Iron Man
-34.8% - PunisherMax
-46.5% - Captain America
-46.8% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-47.1% - Wolverine Origins
-47.4% - Fantastic Four
-48.1% - Amazing Spider-Man
-50.3% - Avengers Academy [Initiative]
-50.7% - Thunderbolts
-52.0% - X-Men Legacy
-56.6% - Incredible Hulk
-57.9% - Doomwar [Black Panther]
-68.1% - Franken-Castle [Punisher]
-67.9% - Moon Knight
-81.8% - Dark Tower

4 year comparisons
==================

+38.8% - Iron Man
+17.8% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
+12.0% - Captain America
- 2.7% - Uncanny X-Men
- 3.9% - New Avengers
- 7.0% - Doomwar [Black Panther]
-28.0% - Daredevil
-30.7% - X-Factor
-31.3% - X-Men Legacy
-33.4% - Thunderbolts
-35.4% - PunisherMax
-46.7% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-50.3% - Amazing Spider-Man
-52.2% - Astonishing X-Men
-53.2% - Fantastic Four
-69.3% - Wolverine: Weapon X [Wolverine]
-70.1% - Wolverine Origins
-73.1% - Moon Knight

5 year comparisons
==================

+17.2% - Thunderbolts
+12.4% - Captain America
+ 7.4% - Incredible Hulk
-16.6% - Uncanny X-Men
-18.3% - X-Men Legacy
-18.9% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
-20.1% - New Avengers
-24.2% - Amazing Spider-Man
-27.9% - Daredevil
-30.4% - Doomwar [Black Panther]
-34.6% - Fantastic Four
-41.7% - PunisherMax
-50.7% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
-62.4% - Wolverine: Weapon X [Wolverine]

It’s not a great month for Marvel. In fact, it’s one of those rare months when DC had the largest share of the direct market, beating Marvel by 33% to 32% in dollar terms (though if you prefer the unit share, Marvel lead by 39% to 37%). In part, it’s because DC’s new Batman titles are doing very well – but as we’ll see, it’s also the case that Marvel just don’t have any really big titles out this month.

There are a couple of new ongoing series this month – WOLVERINE: THE BEST THERE IS and HEROES FOR HIRE. Following the Shadowland crossover, DAREDEVIL reinvents itself as BLACK PANTHER. And there’s just one new miniseries – ULTIMATE COMICS DOOM. And that’s it, so far as new books.

Thanks as always to ICV2.com for permission to use these figures.

Now normally, I’d start with Marvel’s top seller of the month. Instead, though, I’m going to draw your attention to KICK-ASS 2. The second issue was solicited for December, but it’s been pushed back to February. Even so, issue #1 charted again at number 242, with estimated sales of 6,503. That brings its total to 71,782.

And, strangely enough, that’s higher than Marvel’s biggest seller of December managed.

8. NEW AVENGERS
12/05 #14 - 124,300
12/06 #26 - 122,670
12/07 #37 - 105,545
12/08 #48 - 93,908
=====
12/09 #60 - 72,790 ( -2.1%)
01/10 #61 - 78,202 ( +7.4%)
02/10 #62 - 76,405 ( -2.3%)
03/10 #63 - 76,145 ( -0.3%)
04/10 #64 - 75,430 ( -0.9%)
04/10 ---
05/10 Finale - 82,152 ( +8.9%)
06/10 #1 - 129,084 (+67.8%)
07/10 #2 - 83,397 (-35.4%)
08/10 #3 - 81,354 ( -2.4%)
09/10 #4 - 77,479 ( -4.7%)
10/10 #5 - 73,409 ( -5.3%)
11/10 #6 - 66,724 ( -9.1%)
12/10 #7 - 67,840 ( +1.7%)
6 mnth (-47.4%)
1 year ( -6.8%)
2 year (-27.8%)
3 year (-35.7%)
4 year (-44.7%)
5 year (-45.4%)In the absence of any big event titles, NEW AVENGERS takes the lead for Marvel – curiously, edging very slightly ahead of AVENGERS. Sales are up very slightly this month, most likely due to the Tron variant cover.

9. AVENGERS
05/10 #1 - 170,682
06/10 #2 - 98,788 (-42.1%)
07/10 #3 - 87,410 (-11.5%)
08/10 #4 - 87,333 ( -0.1%)
09/10 #5 - 82,411 ( -5.6%)
10/10 #6 - 73,258 (-11.1%)
11/10 #7 - 89,758 (+22.5%)
12/10 #8 - 67,056 (-25.3%)
6 mnth (-32.1%)It’s the other way round here. AVENGERS had no variant covers in December (presumably explaining why it dropped behind NEW).

11. WOLVERINE: THE BEST THERE IS
12/10 #1 - 57,348Marvel’s biggest new launch of the month is the new secondary Wolverine title. In effect, this is the replacement for WOLVERINE: ORIGINS, but since that was a book which existed to tell a single multi-year storyline by Daniel Way, the relaunch has some legitimacy to it. The main WOLVERINE title shifted over 100K of its launch title, so this is quite some way behind. (It’s got four variants, compared to five on WOLVERINE’s first issue.) Still, it’s the B-title, and ORIGINS similarly used to be a long way behind the parent title.

13. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
12/05 #527 - 79,261
12/06 ---
12/07 #545 - 124,481
12/08 #581 - 68,905
=====
12/09 #614 - 59,696 ( -7.4%)
12/09 #615 - 63,738 ( +6.8%)
12/09 #616 - 58,856 ( -7.7%)
01/10 #617 - 76,730 (+30.4%)
01/10 #618 - 61,969 (-19.2%)
01/10 #619 - 56,837 ( -8.3%)
02/10 #620 - 59,860 ( +5.3%)
02/10 #621 - 55,350 ( -7.5%)
02/10 #622 - 53,929 ( -2.6%)
03/10 #623 - 66,064 (+22.5%)
03/10 #624 - 60,213 ( -8.9%)
03/10 #625 - 54,179 (-10.0%)
03/10 #626 - 53,868 ( -0.6%)
03/10 #627 - 54,206 ( +0.6%)
04/10 #628 - 57,797 ( +6.6%)
04/10 #629 - 53,560 ( -7.3%)
05/10 #630 - 57,969 ( +8.2%)
05/10 #631 - 57,239 ( -1.3%)
05/10 #632 - 56,723 ( -0.9%)
06/10 #633 - 57,670 ( +1.7%)
06/10 #634 - 61,736 ( +7.1%)
06/10 #635 - 56,146 ( -9.1%)
07/10 #636 - 56,011 ( -0.2%)
07/10 #637 - 56,031 ( +0.0%)
07/10 #638 - 68,271 (+21.8%)
08/10 #639 - 67,086 ( -1.7%)
08/10 #640 - 73,656 ( +9.8%)
09/10 #641 - 68,345 ( -7.2%)
09/10 #642 - 60,115 (-12.0%)
09/10 #643 - 61,855 ( +2.9%)
09/10 #644 - 58,310 ( -5.7%)
10/10 #645 - 56,709 ( -2.7%)
10/10 #646 - 58,125 ( +2.5%)
11/10 #647 - 55,819 ( -4.0%)
11/10 #648 - 77,033 (+38.0%)
11/10 #649 - 52,586 (-31.7%)
12/10 #650 - 55,996 ( +6.5%)
6 mnth ( -0.3%)
1 year ( -6.2%)
2 year (-18.7%)
3 year (-55.0%)
4 year ( --- )
5 year (-29.4%)Just one issue out in December. No variant on this or the previous issue, but the slight sales increase is probably due to the anniversary number.

14. UNCANNY X-MEN
12/05 #467 - 81,282
12/06 #481 - 85,995
12/07 #493 - 102,114
12/08 #505 - 82,271
=====
12/09 #518 - 68,572 ( -1.4%)
12/09 #519 - 67,043 ( -2.2%)
01/10 #520 - 65,758 ( -1.9%)
02/10 #521 - 67,049 ( +2.0%)
03/10 #522 - 67,996 ( +1.4%)
04/10 #523 - 78,999 (+16.2%)
05/10 #524 - 77,056 ( -2.5%)
06/10 #525 - 76,068 ( -1.3%)
07/10 #526 - 66,723 (-12.3%)
08/10 #527 - 69,052 ( +3.5%)
09/10 #528 - 62,415 ( -9.6%)
10/10 #529 - 62,256 ( -0.3%)
11/10 #530 - 58,006 ( -6.8%)
12/10 #531 - 55,770 ( -3.9%)
6 mnth (-26.7%)
1 year (-18.7%)
2 year (-32.2%)
3 year (-45.4%)
4 year (-35.1%)
5 year (-31.4%)No variants for the last couple of month, so there’s a noticeable trend down here.

15. UNCANNY X-FORCE
12/08 #10 - 58,801
=====
12/09 #22 - 51,859 ( -3.9%)
01/10 #23 - 50,848 ( -1.9%)
02/10 #24 - 49,790 ( -2.1%)
03/10 #25 - 49,910 ( +0.2%)
04/10 #26 - 67,512 ( +35.3%)
05/10 #27 - 62,509 ( -7.4%)
06/10 ---
07/10 #28 - 61,680 ( -1.3%)
07/10 #1 of 3 - 41,426 ( -32.8%)
08/10 #2 of 3 - 38,480 ( -7.1%)
09/10 #3 of 3 - 37,283 ( -3.1%)
10/10 #1 - 99,194 (+166.1%)
11/10 #2 - 56,518 ( -43.0%)
12/10 #3 - 55,520 ( -1.8%)
6 mnth ( -10.0%)
1 year ( +7.1%)
2 year ( -5.6%)Levelling out very quickly, with almost no drop from last month. That’s a very promising sign.

17. SECRET AVENGERS
05/10 #1 - 110,681
06/10 #2 - 77,933 (-30.0%)
07/10 #3 - 72,293 ( -7.2%)
08/10 #4 - 74,655 ( +3.3%)
09/10 #5 - 69,546 ( -6.8%)
10/10 #6 - 68,617 ( -1.3%)
11/10 #7 - 59,999 (-12.6%)
12/10 #8 - 54,048 ( -9.9%)
6 mnth (-30.6%)This is the first issue without a variant. They piled them on for issues #1-6, and for some reason the Tron variant on this title came out in November, so it’s tricky to extract the underlying trend here.

19. X-MEN
07/10 #1 - 143,167
08/10 #2 - 71,464 (-50.1%)
09/10 #3 - 66,549 ( -6.9%)
10/10 #4 - 63,772 ( -4.2%)
11/10 #5 - 56,651 (-11.2%)
12/10 #6 - 53,005 ( -6.4%)No variant this month, so the drop is exaggerated. Not too far behind the lead title, actually.

20. WOLVERINE
12/05 #37 - 70,716
12/06 #49 - 78,807
12/07 #60 - 63,194
12/08 #70 - 98,915
=====
12/09 #8 - 33,470 ( -7.3%)
01/10 #9 - 31,678 ( -5.4%)
02/10 #10 - 30,132 ( -4.9%)
03/10 #11 - 29,799 ( -1.1%)
04/10 #12 - 30,050 ( +0.8%)
05/10 #13 - 29,773 ( -0.9%)
06/10 #14 - 30,035 ( +0.9%)
07/10 #15 - 29,555 ( -1.6%)
08/10 #16 - 29,424 ( -0.4%)
09/10 #1 - 104,414 (+254.9%)
10/10 #2 - 63,210 ( -39.5%)
11/10 #3 - 51,600 ( -18.4%)
12/10 #4 - 52,812 ( +2.3%)
6 mnth ( +75.8%)
1 year ( +57.8%)
2 year ( -46.6%)
3 year ( -16.4%)
4 year ( -33.0%)
5 year ( -25.3%)Well, that’s good news. Okay, there’s a Tron variant on this, which explains why sales are up. Nonetheless, after the steep drops on the last two issues (admittedly exacerbating by scaling back the variants), this is a promising indication that the book could be finding its level.

22. NEMESIS [Icon]
03/10 #1 of 4 - 62,031
04/10 ---
05/10 ---
06/10 #2 of 4 - 51,586 (-16.8%)
07/10 ---
08/10 ---
09/10 #3 of 4 - 46,234 (-10.4%)
10/10 ---
11/10 ---
12/10 #4 of 4 - 46,072 ( -0.4%)Mark Millar’s creator-owned books continue to do very well. Most Marvel Universe minis would kill for these sales.

23. THOR
12/05 ---
12/06 ---
12/07 #5 - 101,551
12/08 #12 - 73,784
=====
12/09 #604 - 61,608 (+15.0%)
12/09 #605 - 55,242 (-10.3%)
01/10 #606 - 55,353 ( +0.2%)
02/10 #607 - 66,973 (+21.0%)
03/10 #608 - 62,012 ( -7.4%)
04/10 #609 - 64,522 ( +4.0%)
05/10 #610 - 61,779 ( -4.3%)
06/10 #611 - 56,443 ( -8.6%)
07/10 #612 - 53,373 ( -5.4%)
08/10 #613 - 51,076 ( -4.3%)
09/10 #614 - 53,505 ( +4.8%)
09/10 #615 - 52,896 ( -1.2%)
10/10 #616 - 51,051 ( -3.5%)
11/10 #617 - 49,165 ( -3.7%)
12/10 #618 - 45,142 ( -8.2%)
6 mnth (-20.0%)
1 year (-26.7%)
2 year (-38.8%)
3 year (-55.5%)
4 year ( --- )
5 year ( --- )There were variant covers in October and November, but none in December, so the month-to-month drop will be exaggerated. To tie in with the film, a relaunch is imminent.

As with last month, let’s get the horde of THOR tie-in books, most of them movie related, out of the way now:

61. ULTIMATE COMICS THOR
10/10 #1 of 4 - 49,747
11/10 #2 of 4 - 31,829 (-36.0%)
12/10 #3 of 4 - 28,074 (-11.8%)

96. THOR: FOR ASGARD
09/10 #1 of 6 - 32,236
09/10 #2 of 6 - 28,563 (-11.4%)
10/10 #3 of 6 - 23,724 (-16.9%)
11/10 #4 of 6 - 20,934 (-11.8%)
12/10 #5 of 6 - 19,463 ( -7.0%)

122. IRON MAN/THOR
11/10 #1 of 4 - 21,416
12/10 #2 of 4 - 15,977 (-25.4%)

124. CHAOS WAR: THOR
11/10 #1 of 2 - 19,738
12/10 #2 of 2 - 15,910 (-19.4%)

134. LOKI
10/10 #1 of 4 - 21,095
11/10 ---
12/10 #2 of 4 - 14,672 (-30.4%)

137. THOR: WOLVES OF THE NORTH
12/10 One-shot

149. THOR: FIRST THUNDER
09/10 #1 of 5 - 21,228
10/10 #2 of 5 - 16,126 (-24.0%)
11/10 #3 of 5 - 14,038 (-12.9%)
12/10 #4 of 5 - 12,620 (-10.1%)

157. THUNDERSTRIKE
11/10 #1 of 5 - 15,689
12/10 #2 of 5 - 11,754 (-25.1%)

192. WARRIORS THREE
11/10 #1 of 4 - 14,203
12/10 #2 of 4 - 9,281 (-34.7%)

210. THOR: THE MIGHTY AVENGER
07/10 #1 - 20,076
07/10 #2 - 14,315 (-28.7%)
08/10 #3 - 12,112 (-15.4%)
09/10 #4 - 10,887 (-10.1%)
10/10 #5 - 9,673 (-11.2%)
11/10 #6 - 8,420 (-13.0%)
12/10 #7 - 8,244 ( -2.1%)A couple of points to note. First, IRON MAN/THOR #3, the January issue, somehow managed to ship 4,342 copies in December to chart at number 285. That’s presumably a distribution glitch over the festive period, and as we’ll see, the same thing seems to have happened with GENERATION HOPE #3. And second, THOR: THE MIGHTY AVENGER is cancelled with January’s issue #8.

Those points aside, what can you say, other than to observe that the deluge continues unabated?

24. SHADOWLAND
07/10 #1 of 5 - 59,529
08/10 #2 of 5 - 44,573 (-25.1%)
09/10 #3 of 5 - 47,223 ( +6.0%)
10/10 #4 of 5 - 46,411 ( -1.7%)
11/10 ---
12/10 #5 of 5 - 44,261 ( -4.6%)

68. SHADOWLAND: AFTER THE FALL
12/10 One-shot - 26,435SHADOWLAND may not have been an event on the scale of previous years, but it’s consistently outsold parent title DAREDEVIL (admittedly with the aid of variant covers), so something has been working. AFTER THE FALL, on the other hand, is an epilogue issue which retailers seem to have regarded as a bit of an afterthought.

27. CAPTAIN AMERICA
12/05 #13 - 44,945
12/06 ---
12/07 #33 - 78,279
12/08 #45 - 71,186
=====
12/09 Reborn #5 - 91,790 ( -5.0%)
01/10 Reborn #6 - 84,844 ( -7.6%)
01/10 #602 - 63,948 (-24.6%)
02/10 #603 - 63,568 ( -0.6%)
03/10 #604 - 56,962 (-10.4%)
04/10 #605 - 59,051 ( +3.7%)
05/10 ---
06/10 #606 - 57,443 ( -2.7%)
06/10 #607 - 52,989 ( -7.8%)
07/10 ---
08/10 #608 - 51,362 ( -3.1%)
08/10 #609 - 52,834 ( +2.9%)
09/10 #610 - 47,986 ( -9.2%)
10/10 #611 - 48,788 ( +1.7%)
11/10 #612 - 47,343 ( -3.0%)
12/10 #613 - 42,871 ( -9.4%)
6 mnth (-19.1%)
1 year (-53.3%)
2 year (-39.8%)
3 year (-45.2%)
4 year ( --- )
5 year ( -4.6%)This is another book which had its Tron variant last month (and a vampire variant in the month before), so again, the month-to-month drop is exaggerated.

CAPTAIN AMERICA isn’t quite as overwhelmed by low-selling spin-offs as THOR is, but it’s still got quite a few:

136. CAPTAIN AMERICA: MAN OUT OF TIME
11/10 #1 of 5 - 23,566
12/10 #2 of 5 - 14,582 (-38.1%)

160. CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE KORVAC SAGA
12/10 #1 of 4 - 11,576

166. CAPTAIN AMERICA: PATRIOT
09/10 #1 of 4 - 18,017
09/10 #2 of 4 - 15,950 (-11.5%)
10/10 #3 of 4 - 11,959 (-25.0%)
11/10 ---
12/10 #4 of 4 - 11,195 ( -6.4%)

213. CAPTAIN AMERICA: HAIL HYDRA
12/10 #1 of 5 - 8,124The second issue drop on MAN OUT OF TIME is extremely high, which doesn’t bode well for the Captain America spin-offs yet to come. HAIL HYDRA, in fairness, looks like another glitch at Diamond – the official release date was 5 January 2011, so it shouldn’t be on this chart at all. Chances are the rest of its sales will show up next month.

28. INVINCIBLE IRON MAN
12/05 ---
12/06 #14 - 73,388
12/07 #24 - 38,834
12/08 #8 - 56,708
=====
12/09 #21 - 49,986 (-18.9%)
01/10 #22 - 49,130 ( -1.7%)
02/10 #23 - 50,027 ( +1.8%)
03/10 #24 - 49,239 ( -1.6%)
04/10 #25 - 73,694 (+49.7%)
05/10 #26 - 53,625 (-27.2%)
06/10 #27 - 52,268 ( -2.5%)
07/10 #28 - 48,690 ( -6.8%)
08/10 #29 - 49,012 ( +0.7%)
09/10 #30 - 47,238 ( -3.6%)
10/10 #31 - 45,507 ( -3.7%)
11/10 #32 - 40,978 (-10.0%)
12/10 #33 - 41,890 ( -2.2%)
6 mnth (-19.9%)
1 year (-16.2%)
2 year (-26.1%)
3 year ( +7.9%)
4 year (-42.9%)
5 year ( --- )There’s a Tron variant this month, so the fact that sales are slightly down is a bit surprising, suggesting a bigger underlying drop. The numbering jumps to #500 in January.

29. X-MEN LEGACY
12/05 #165 - 86,633
12/06 #194 - 78,114
12/07 #206 - 97,871
12/08 #219 - 60,587
=====
12/09 #230 - 49,776 ( -2.0%)
12/09 #231 - 50,929 ( +2.3%)
01/10 #232 - 49,200 ( -3.4%)
02/10 #233 - 51,344 ( +4.4%)
03/10 #234 - 48,217 ( -6.1%)
04/10 #235 - 65,302 (+35.4%)
05/10 #236 - 69,731 ( +6.8%)
06/10 #237 - 65,578 ( -6.0%)
07/10 #238 - 53,313 (-18.7%)
08/10 #239 - 53,236 ( -0.1%)
09/10 #240 - 50,984 ( -4.2%)
10/10 #241 - 48,133 ( -5.6%)
11/10 #242 - 43,750 ( -9.1%)
12/10 #243 - 41,797 ( -4.5%)
6 mnth (-36.3%)
1 year (-16.0%)
2 year (-31.0%)
3 year (-57.3%)
4 year (-46.5%)
5 year (-51.8%)LEGACY hasn’t had a variant for the last two months, so the book seems to be legitimately shedding readers here. A 4.5% month-to-month drop for an established title is on the high side.

31,44. DAREDEVIL / BLACK PANTHER
12/05 #68 - 50,491
12/06 #92 - 48,035
12/07 #103 - 43,874
12/08 #114 - 44,351
=====
12/09 #503 - 38,680 ( -4.1%)
01/10 #504 - 37,135 ( -4.0%)
02/10 #505 - 38,693 ( +4.2%)
03/10 ---
04/10 #506 - 37,467 ( -3.2%)
05/10 ---
06/10 #507 - 34,744 ( -7.3%)
07/10 #508 - 41,943 (+20.7%)
08/10 #509 - 41,577 ( -0.9%)
09/10 #510 - 44,728 ( +7.6%)
10/10 #511 - 43,167 ( -3.5%)
11/10 ---
12/10 #512 - 40,317 ( -7.1%)
12/10 #513 - 33,124 (-17.8%)
6 mnth ( -4.7%)
1 year (-40.2%)
2 year (-25.3%)
3 year (-24.5%)
4 year (-31.0%)
5 year (-34.4%)Issue #512 is the last part of the “Shadowland” tie-in, while issue #513 relaunches the series as BLACK PANTHER: THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR. This looks like it could be another soft launch of a new series, with Daredevil returning in a separate title, but for the moment I’ll take it at face value.

Sales drop quite sharply for the first issue of the new direction, despite a variant cover. But then again, the regular DAREDEVIL title was selling in this range prior to the crossover, and recent BLACK PANTHER books have been way down at the bottom end of the chart – so all told, not too bad. Of course, if retailers are treating this as the first issue of a new title then we might see a big drop for the second issue in January.

34. GENERATION HOPE
11/10 #1 - 37,398
12/10 #2 - 38,984 (+4.2%)Well, that’s unusual. Both these issues have two variant covers, so this looks to be a genuine sales increase for the second issue. Last month, I commented that, given the acres of lead-in which this title had received in UNCANNY X-MEN, I would have expected the book to do better; it may well have been under-ordered.

January’s issue #3 also shows up on the chart at number 228, with orders of 7,395 – presumably due to a distribution quirk over Christmas.

35. FANTASTIC FOUR
12/05 #533 - 46,751
12/06 #541 - 84,895
12/07 #552 - 51,320
12/08 #562 - 54,062
=====
12/09 #574 - 38,431 ( -2.5%)
01/10 #575 - 41,284 ( +7.4%)
02/10 #576 - 37,526 ( -9.1%)
03/10 #577 - 35,791 ( -4.6%)
04/10 #578 - 37,940 ( +6.0%)
05/10 #579 - 38,415 ( +1.3%)
06/10 #580 - 36,582 ( -4.8%)
07/10 #581 - 35,505 ( -2.9%)
08/10 #582 - 34,617 ( -2.5%)
09/10 #583 - 42,257 (+22.1%)
10/10 #584 - 41,163 ( -2.6%)
11/10 #585 - 37,740 ( -8.3%)
12/10 #586 - 38,108 ( +1.0%)
6 mnth ( +4.2%)
1 year ( -0.8%)
2 year (-29.5%)
3 year (-25.7%)
4 year (-55.1%)
5 year (-18.5%)This is the fourth chapter of “Three”. No variants on this or the previous issue, so the slight sales increase looks to reflect interest in the story.

39,48. INCREDIBLE HULKS
12/05 #90 - 36,924
12/06 #101 - 47,927
12/07 #112 - 77,119
12/08 #9 - 87,786
=====
12/09 #605 - 43,964 ( +8.1%)
01/10 #606 - 48,197 ( +9.6%)
02/10 #607 - 45,870 ( -4.8%)
03/10 #608 - 47,148 ( +2.8%)
04/10 ---
05/10 #609 - 46,670 ( -1.0%)
06/10 #610 - 46,461 ( -0.4%)
07/10 ---
08/10 #611 - 44,982 ( -3.2%)
09/10 #612 - 42,956 ( -4.5%)
09/10 #613 - 40,063 ( -6.7%)
10/10 #614 - 39,572 ( -1.2%)
10/10 #615 - 36,750 ( -7.1%)
11/10 #616 - 35,296 ( -4.0%)
11/10 #617 - 34,340 ( -2.7%)
12/10 #618 - 34,868 ( -1.5%)
12/10 #619 - 32,657 ( -6.3%)
6 mnth (-29.7%)
1 year (-25.7%)
2 year (-62.8%)
3 year (-57.6%)
4 year (-31.8%)
5 year (-11.6%)

40. HULK
12/08 #9 - 87,786
=====
12/09 #18 - 53,222 ( +1.1%)
01/10 #19 - 56,738 ( +6.6%)
02/10 #20 - 51,962 ( -8.4%)
03/10 #21 - 50,785 ( -2.3%)
04/10 ---
05/10 #22 - 49,618 ( -2.3%)
06/10 #23 - 50,724 ( +2.2%)
07/10 ---
08/10 #24 - 48,903 ( -3.6%)
09/10 #25 - 46,784 ( -4.3%)
10/10 #26 - 42,934 ( -8.2%)
11/10 #27 - 38,691 ( -9.9%)
12/10 #28 - 34,755 (-10.2%)
6 mnth (-31.5%)
1 year (-34.7%)
2 year (-60.4%)The November issue of INCREDIBLE had a Tron variant cover, so the month-to-month drop will be slightly exaggerated. It’s also the second part of a CHAOS WAR tie-in arc, though that doesn’t seem to have much effect on sales – presumably because the book already sells better than CHAOS WAR.

HULK suffers a steep drop, and with no variants in the last two months, it seems to be a genuine case of readers jumping.

41. ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS
12/09 ---
01/10 ---
02/10 ---
03/10 Vol 1 #5 - 58,098 ( -1.6%)
04/10 Vol 1 #6 - 53,438 ( -8.0%)
04/10 Vol 2 #1 - 64,811 (+21.3%)
05/10 Vol 2 #2 - 52,939 (-18.3%)
06/10 Vol 2 #3 - 50,797 ( -4.0%)
06/10 Vol 2 #4 - 49,606 ( -2.3%)
07/10 Vol 2 #5 - 46,886 ( -5.5%)
08/10 Vol 2 #6 - 46,358 (-11.3%)
08/10 Vol 3 #1 - 53,870 (+16.2%)
09/10 Vol 3 #2 - 43,119 (-20.0%)
10/10 Vol 3 #3 - 38,529 (-10.6%)
11/10 Vol 3 #4 - 36,777 ( -4.5%)
12/10 Vol 3 #5 - 34,483 ( -6.2%)
6 mnth (-30.5%)
1 year ( --- )

42. ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN
12/05 #88 - 72,984
12/06 #103 - 76,251
12/07 #117 - 60,361
12/08 #129 - 51,071
=====
12/09 #5 - 45,849 ( -6.6%)
01/10 #6 - 43,622 ( -4.9%)
02/10 #7 - 42,176 ( -3.3%)
03/10 #8 - 40,967 ( -2.9%)
04/10 #9 - 39,955 ( -2.5%)
05/10 #10 - 39,690 ( -0.7%)
06/10 #11 - 39,149 ( -1.4%)
07/10 #12 - 37,879 ( -3.2%)
08/10 #13 - 36,946 ( -2.5%)
09/10 #14 - 35,776 ( -3.7%)
10/10 #15 - 34,657 ( -3.1%)
11/10 #150 - 40,553 (+17.0%)
12/10 #151 - 33,707 (-16.9%)
6 mnth (-13.9%)
1 year (-26.5%)
2 year (-34.0%)
3 year (-44.2%)
4 year (-55.8%)
5 year (-53.8%)As expected, the sales boost for ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #150 is a blip, though underlying sales seem reasonably stable. ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS is dropping rather more swiftly, though. Given that Marvel have been struggling of late to attract interest in the Ultimate books, it’ll be very interesting to see what happens to these two with the heavily hyped “Death of Spider-Man” in the spring.

46. ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS
05/10 #1 of 5 - 55,428
06/10 #2 of 5 - 44,953 (-18.9%)
07/10 ---
08/10 ---
09/10 #3 of 5 - 38,951 (-13.4%)
10/10 ---
11/10 ---
12/10 #4 of 5 - 33,100 (-15.0%)
6 mnth (-26.4%)Shedding readers rather more quickly than you’d hope for at this stage in a miniseries; normally the drops level out as the series goes on. The delays might be a problem, but then again, readers generally seem willing to put up with dodgy schedulingÉ

47. CARNAGE
10/10 #1 of 5 - 47,452
11/10 ---
12/10 #2 of 5 - 32,794 (-30.9%)A steep second issue drop, even allowing for the fact that the first issue had two variants (compared to one this month).

50. SUPERIOR [Icon]
10/10 #1 of 6 - 40,842
11/10 #2 of 6 - 34,688 (-15.1%)
12/10 #3 of 6 - 31,952 ( -7.9%)Another Mark Millar creator-owned project, levelling out nicely.

56. DAKEN: DARK WOLVERINE
12/09 #81 - 48,102 ( -8.2%)
01/10 #82 - 54,838 (+14.0%)
02/10 #83 - 53,958 ( -1.6%)
03/10 #84 - 49,469 ( -8.3%)
04/10 #85 - 47,527 ( -3.9%)
05/10 #86 - 46,315 ( -2.6%)
06/10 #87 - 43,087 ( -7.0%)
07/10 #88 - 42,522 ( -1.3%)
08/10 #89 - 41,409 ( -2.6%)
08/10 #90 - 39,815 ( -3.8%)
09/10 #1 - 48,819 (+22.6%)
10/10 #2 - 38,660 (-22.9%)
11/10 #3 - 32,679 (-15.5%)
12/10 #4 - 30,726 ( -6.0%)
6 mnth (-28.7%)
1 year (-36.1%)

60. X-23
09/10 #1 - 48,481
10/10 #2 - 35,280 (-27.2%)
11/10 #3 - 31,224 (-11.5%)
12/10 #4 - 29,703 ( -4.9%)We’ll take X-23 out of sequence, because the same points apply to both these books.

At first glance they look like they’re levelling out. But on closer inspection, it’s a bit more complicated than that. In both cases, the December issue has a variant cover; issue #3 didn’t. So a drop of five or six percent isn’t great.

On the other hand, in both cases, issues #1-3 were tie-ins to the “Wolverine Goes to Hell” story. So one explanation is that the crossover was boosting sales and the book is now returning to its natural level. Nonetheless, considering that DARK WOLVERINE was managing 40K before its relaunch, the fact that it’s already down to 31K is not encouraging.

58. DEADPOOL
12/08 #5 - 46,856
=====
12/09 #18 - 45,914 ( -1.8%)
01/10 ---
02/10 #19 - 44,580 ( -2.9%)
02/10 #20 - 43,347 ( -2.8%)
03/10 #21 - 42,062 ( -3.0%)
04/10 #22 - 43,061 ( +2.4%)
05/10 #23 - 42,761 ( -0.7%)
06/10 #24 - 38,663 ( -9.6%)
07/10 #25 - 36,828 ( -4.7%)
08/10 #26 - 35,595 ( -3.3%)
09/10 #27 - 36,404 ( +2.3%)
10/10 #28 - 34,828 ( -4.3%)
11/10 #29 - 31,350 (-10.0%)
12/10 #30 - 30,488 ( -2.7%)
6 mnth (-21.1%)
1 year (-33.6%)
2 year (-34.9%)Drifting slowly down. No variants for the last couple of issues, so it’s actually more stable than it looks.

59. HEROES FOR HIRE
12/10 #1 - 30,375A new ongoing series spinning out of the SHADOWLAND crossover (well, using characters who appeared in SHADOWLAND, at any rate). This has two variant covers, so a 30K debut isn’t too great – NAMOR launched with 37K, for example, and it’s already down below 20K.

62. THUNDERBOLTS
12/05 #16 - 25,084
12/06 #109 - 27,300
12/07 ---
12/08 #127 - 36,378
=====
12/09 #139 - 29,957 ( -4.1%)
01/10 #140 - 28,644 ( -4.4%)
02/10 #141 - 33,948 (+18.5%)
03/10 #142 - 34,132 ( +0.5%)
04/10 #143 - 35,656 ( +4.5%)
05/10 #144 - 33,276 ( -6.7%)
06/10 #145 - 31,999 ( -3.8%)
07/10 #146 - 31,501 ( -1.6%)
08/10 #147 - 31,252 ( -0.8%)
09/10 #148 - 32,190 ( +3.0%)
10/10 #149 - 30,580 ( -5.0%)
11/10 #150 - 31,704 ( +3.7%)
12/10 #151 - 27,943 (-11.9%)
6 mnth (-12.7%)
1 year ( -6.7%)
2 year (-23.2%)
3 year ( --- )
4 year ( +2.4%)
5 year (+11.4%)The book finally drifts back to pre-SIEGE sales levels, after a very solid 2010.

63. AVENGERS ACADEMY
06/10 #1 - 45,890 (+20.3%)
07/10 #2 - 38,061 (-17.1%)
08/10 #3 - 35,629 ( -6.4%)
09/10 #4 - 31,212 (-12.4%)
10/10 #5 - 31,272 ( +0.2%)
11/10 #6 - 25,977 (-16.9%)
12/10 #7 - 27,774 ( +6.9%)
6 mnth (-39.5%)Two variants this month, compared to one in November. I’d like to hope that there’s a genuine sales increase in there as well, since I think this is an underappreciated title, but we’ll see next month.

64. ULTIMATE COMICS DOOM
12/10 #1 of 4 - 27,469Once again, the Ultimate spin-off minis don’t appear to be generating a huge amount of interest.

65. S.H.I.E.L.D.
04/10 #1 - 44,543
05/10 ---
06/10 #2 - 37,595 (-15.6%)
07/10 ---
08/10 #3 - 33,335 (-11.3%)
09/10 ---
10/10 #4 - 32,495 ( -2.5%)
11/10 ---
12/10 #5 - 27,133 (-16.5%)
6 mnth (-27.8%)An additional variant on the previous issue skews the trend, but nonetheless S.H.I.E.L.D. is clearly still shedding readers. On the other hand, for a book which isn’t really a conventional Marvel Universe superhero title and doesn’t have big name characters attached, it’s doing remarkably well. Marvel’s response, not unreasonably, is to declare issue #6 the end of the first volume, presumably with a view to promoting issue #7 (or vol 2 #1, more likely) as a jumping on point – perhaps hoping to play off any attention created by writer Jonathan Hickman’s involvement in the big FANTASTIC FOUR event.

67. X-FACTOR
12/05 #2 - 52,705
12/06 #14 - 40,208
12/07 #26 - 74,699
12/08 #38 - 34,425
=====
12/09 #200 - 36,577 (+21.4%)
01/10 #201 - 29,732 (-18.7%)
02/10 #202 - 30,981 ( +4.2%)
03/10 #203 - 28,924 ( -6.6%)
04/10 #204 - 40,534 (+40.1%)
05/10 #205 - 41,745 ( +3.0%)
06/10 #206 - 40,981 ( -1.8%)
07/10 #207 - 32,082 (-21.7%)
08/10 #208 - 30,095 ( -6.2%)
09/10 #209 - 29,626 ( -1.6%)
10/10 #210 - 27,548 ( -7.0%)
11/10 #211 - 26,632 ( -3.3%)
12/10 #212 - 26,443 ( -0.7%)
6 mnth (-35.5%)
1 year (-27.7%)
2 year (-23.2%)
3 year (-64.6%)
4 year (-34.2%)
5 year (-49.8%)Rock solid, which is always nice to see.

69. CHAOS WAR
12/08 Herc #124 - 36,855
=====
12/09 #139 - 23,591 ( -6.1%)
01/10 #140 - 23,244 ( -1.5%)
02/10 #141 - 24,539 ( +5.6%)
03/10 Fall #1 - 23,036 ( -6.1%)
04/10 #2 of 2 - 20,215 ( -12.2%)
05/10 Prince #1 - 20,373 ( +0.8%)
06/10 #2 of 4 - 17,068 ( -16.2%)
07/10 #3 of 4 - 15,667 ( -8.2%)
08/10 #4 of 4 - 17,137 ( +9.4%)
09/10 ---
10/10 Chaos #1 - 34,509 (+101.4%)
10/10 #2 of 5 - 29,375 ( -14.9%)
11/10 #3 of 5 - 28,630 ( -2.5%)
12/10 #4 of 5 - 26,313 ( -8.1%)
6 mnth ( +54.2%)
1 year ( +11.5%)
2 year ( -28.6%)

89. CHAOS WAR: X-MEN
12/10 #1 of 2 - 20,156

109. CHAOS WAR: DEAD AVENGERS
11/10 #1 of 3 - 20,312
12/10 #2 of 3 - 17,111 (-15.8%)

128,135. CHAOS WAR ONE-SHOTS
11/10 Chaos King - 17,578
11/10 Alpha Flight - 17,164
12/10 Ares - 15,232
12/10 God Squad - 14,627CHAOS WAR is still comfortably outselling the previous HERCULES-related titles, so promoting this story arc as a free-standing event appears to be working. The spin-off minis (which also include CHAOS WAR: THOR, listed separately with the other Thor books above) lag some way behind, and may be stretching things a bit.

71. ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN/WOLVERINE
05/10 #1 of 5 - 56,518
06/10 ---
07/10 #2 of 5 - 34,704 (-38.6%)
08/10 ---
09/10 #3 of 5 - 29,455 (-15.1%)
10/10 ---
11/10 ---
12/10 #4 of 5 - 25,580 (-13.2%)Not holding up too well, despite having a strong creative team (Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert). I’m not sure these “Astonishing” minis are working quite as Marvel might have hoped.

75. NEW MUTANTS
12/09 #8 - 32,240 ( -3.3%)
01/10 #9 - 30,572 ( -5.2%)
02/10 #10 - 30,807 ( +0.8%)
03/10 #11 - 36,629 (+18.9%)
04/10 #12 - 49,591 (+35.4%)
05/10 #13 - 54,169 ( +9.2%)
06/10 #14 - 53,926 ( -0.4%)
07/10 #15 - 35,426 (-34.3%)
08/10 #16 - 31,989 ( -9.7%)
09/10 #17 - 31,684 ( -1.0%)
10/10 #18 - 27,027 (-14.7%)
11/10 #19 - 25,440 ( -5.9%)
12/10 #20 - 24,416 ( -4.0%)
6 mnth (-54.7%)
1 year (-24.3%)Still shedding readers, but sales ought to be significantly boosted by the upcoming crossover with X-MEN LEGACY.

77. SECRET WARRIORS
12/09 #11 - 30,748 ( -2.6%)
01/10 #12 - 29,894 ( -2.8%)
02/10 #13 - 30,843 ( +3.2%)
03/10 #14 - 28,580 ( -7.3%)
04/10 #15 - 29,669 ( +3.8%)
05/10 #16 - 29,340 ( -1.1%)
06/10 #17 - 28,017 ( -4.5%)
07/10 ---
08/10 #18 - 27,415 ( -2.1%)
08/10 #19 - 26,902 ( -1.9%)
09/10 #20 - 25,947 ( -3.5%)
10/10 #21 - 24,748 ( -4.6%)
11/10 #22 - 24,059 ( -2.8%)
12/10 #23 - 23,078 ( -4.1%)
6 mnth (-17.6%)
1 year (-24.9%)Wrapping up in the next few months when the storyline finishes. (It hasn’t been solicited for April.)

84. SPIDER-GIRL
11/10 #1 - 23,926
12/10 #2 - 21,606 (-9.7%)The good news is that you’d normally expect a much bigger drop on the second issue – particularly since the first issue had three covers. So while the sales aren’t high, they may be unusually stable.

87. DEADPOOLMAX [Max]
10/10 #1 - 29,176
11/10 #2 - 23,382 (-19.9%)
12/10 #3 - 20,990 (-10.2%)Levelling out, though 10% is on the high end for a third issue. Still, it is outselling the two cancelled Deadpool books.

88,91,100,105,108. WHAT IF?
12/10 #200 - 20,436
12/10 Wolverine: Father - 19,867
12/10 Spider-Man - 18,810
12/10 Dark Reign - 17,902
12/10 Iron Man: Demon in an Armor - 17,616The annual What If? one-shots. Last year they sold in the range of 21-25K, so we’re down significantly.

92. DARK TOWER
12/07 ---
12/08 Treachery #4 - 53,735
=====
12/09 Jericho Hill #1 - 30,756 ( -5.5%)
12/09 Jericho Hill #2 - 28,350 ( -7.8%)
01/10 ---
02/10 Jericho Hill #3 - 27,215 ( -4.0%)
02/10 Jericho Hill #4 - 26,336 ( -3.2%)
03/10 ---
04/10 Jericho Hill #5 - 25,896 ( -1.7%)
05/10 Gunslinger #1 - 26,275 ( +1.5%)
06/10 Gunslinger #2 - 24,024 ( -8.6%)
07/10 Gunslinger #3 - 22,744 ( -5.3%)
08/10 Gunslinger #4 - 21,820 ( -4.1%)
09/10 Gunslinger #5 - 21,323 ( -2.3%)
10/10 ---
11/10 ---
12/10 Little Sisters #1 - 19,807 ( -7.1%)
6 mnth (-17.6%)
1 year (-35.6%)
2 year (-63.1%)The full title is DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER – THE LITTLE SISTERS OF ELURIA. DARK TOWER is no longer getting even a token bump for the first issue of each miniseries.

102,121. WIDOWMAKER
06/10 H&M #1 - 27,552
07/10 #2 - 20,531 (-25.5%)
08/10 #3 - 17,870 (-13.0%)
09/10 #4 - 16,405 ( -8.2%)
10/10 #5 - 15,337 ( -6.5%)
11/10 #6 - 14,217 ( -7.3%)
12/10 WM #1 - 18,245 (+28.3%)
12/10 #2 of 4 - 16,050 (-12.0%)
6 mnth (-41.7%)This is a curious one. “Widowmaker” was originally going to be a two-month crossover between HAWKEYE AND MOCKINGBIRD #7-8 and BLACK WIDOW #9-10. Both of those titles have been cancelled, so the story is now appearing as a four-issue mini – though still with alternating creative teams.

Following this series, HAWKEYE & MOCKINGBIRD writer Jim McCann is going on to do another Hawkeye miniseries. So for present purposes I’m going to treat this as part of a continuing Hawkeye/Mockingbird feature. Both books sold around 14-15K last month, so it doesn’t make a huge amount of difference. The crossover does deliver some sales increase, presumably because the books were different enough in tone to attract distinct audiences.

107. NAMOR: THE FIRST MUTANT
08/10 #1 - 37,399
09/10 #2 - 23,880 (-36.1%)
10/10 ---
11/10 #3 - 20,541 (-14.0%)
12/10 #4 - 17,730 (-13.7%)Dropping rather too quickly for comfort, four issues in.

111. DEADPOOL CORPS
03/10 Prelude #1 - 37,011
03/10 #2 of 5 - 32,024 (-13.5%)
03/10 #3 of 5 - 31,065 ( -3.0%)
03/10 #4 of 5 - 30,254 ( -2.6%)
03/10 #5 of 5 - 29,037 ( -4.0%)
04/10 Corps #1 - 39,466 (+35.9%)
05/10 #2 - 28,236 (-28.5%)
06/10 #3 - 26,251 ( -7.0%)
07/10 #4 - 24,476 ( -6.8%)
08/10 #5 - 22,887 ( -6.5%)
09/10 #6 - 21,888 ( -4.4%)
10/10 #7 - 19,644 (-10.3%)
11/10 #8 - 18,267 ( -7.0%)
12/10 #9 - 16,735 ( -8.4%)
6 mnth (-36.3%)Cancelled with issue #12.

113. OSBORN
11/10 #1 of 5 - 23,152
12/10 #2 of 5 - 16,704 (-27.9%)I remain a little surprised that this isn’t doing better, given the profile that Norman Osborn’s had over the last couple of years. (It’s a good book, too.)

115. PUNISHER: IN THE BLOOD
12/06 ---
12/07 #14 - 38,471
12/08 #26 - 22,243
=====
12/09 #12 - 24,985 ( +0.3%)
01/10 #13 - 23,734 ( -5.0%)
02/10 #14 - 23,455 ( -1.8%)
03/10 #15 - 22,285 ( -5.0%)
04/10 #16 - 23,047 ( +3.4%)
05/10 ---
06/10 #17 - 22,378 ( -2.9%)
06/10 #18 - 19,605 (-12.4%)
07/10 #19 - 24,947 (+27.2%)
08/10 #20 - 24,304 ( -2.6%)
09/10 #21 - 20,036 (-17.6%)
10/10 ---
11/10 #1 of 5 - 20,028 ( -0.0%)
12/10 #2 of 5 - 16,608 (-17.1%)
6 mnth (-15.3%)
1 year (-33.5%)
2 year (-25.3%)
3 year (-56.8%)Still losing readers. The miniseries ends in March, and nothing has been solicited for April; hopefully Marvel will at least give the character a rest to build interest, before trying to relaunch him yet again.

116. INCOGNITO: BAD INFLUENCES
10/10 #1 of 4 - 20,316
11/10 ---
12/10 #2 of 4 - 16,368 (-19.4%)Fairly normal second issue drop.

118. INVADERS NOW!
09/10 #1 of 5 - 33,696
10/10 #2 of 5 - 21,137 (-37.3%)
11/10 #3 of 5 - 18,366 (-13.1%)
12/10 #4 of 5 - 16,106 (-12.3%)Not holding up very well, particularly when you consider that every issue of this series has variant covers.

123. X-MEN: TO SERVE AND PROTECT
09/10 Vampires #1 - 25,654
10/10 #2 of 2 - 23,362 ( -8.9%)
11/10 Serve #1 of 4 - 19,273 (-17.5%)
12/10 #2 of 4 - 15,976 (-17.1%)The X-Men anthology titles are similarly struggling to hold on to readers. As a second-issue drop, it’s not too bad, but the series is miles below the sales of the preceding vampire anthology.

126. DEADPOOL TEAM-UP
11/09 #899 - 39,584 (-22.9%)
12/09 #898 - 36,308 ( -8.3%)
01/10 #897 - 32,671 (-10.0%)
02/10 #896 - 30,119 ( -7.8%)
03/10 #895 - 28,573 ( -5.1%)
04/10 #894 - 28,835 ( +0.9%)
05/10 #893 - 26,578 ( -7.8%)
06/10 #892 - 23,697 (-10.8%)
07/10 #891 - 22,439 ( -5.3%)
08/10 #890 - 21,279 ( -5.2%)
09/10 #889 - 19,917 ( -6.4%)
10/10 #888 - 18,394 ( -7.6%)
11/10 #887 - 17,677 ( -3.9%)
12/10 #886 - 15,626 (-11.6%)
6 mnth (-34.1%)
1 year (-60.5%)Cancelled with issue #883.

133. SHE-HULKS
11/10 #1 - 18,616
12/10 #2 - 14,673 (-21.2%)Cut back to a four-issue mini before the first issue came out.

139. DEADPOOL: PULP
09/10 #1 of 4 - 20,965
10/10 #2 of 4 - 16,782 (-20.0%)
11/10 #3 of 4 - 15,009 (-10.6%)
12/10 #4 of 4 - 14,085 ( -6.2%)To be fair, for an out of continuity book, this isn’t bad at all.

142, 274. OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
02/10 A to Z Update #1 of 5 - 5,406
03/10 Deadpool Corps - 21,900 (+305.1%)
04/10 Iron Manual Mark 3 - 9,456 ( -56.8%)
05/10 Avengers Assemble #1 - 15,113 ( +59.8%)
06/10 A to Z Update #2 of 5 - 5,312 ( -64.9%)
07/10 X-Men: Phoenix Force - 9,566 ( +80.1%)
08/10 A to Z Update #3 of 5 - 4,962 ( -48.1%)
09/10 Heroic Age: Heroes - 11,224 (+126.2%)
10/10 A to Z Update #4 of 5 - 4,990 ( -55.5%)
11/10 Heroic Age: Villains - 9,294 ( +86.3%)
12/10 A to Z Update #5 of 5 - 4,808 ( -48.3%)
12/10 Heroic Age: X-Men - 13,789 (+186.8%)
6 mnth (+159.6%)The HEROIC AGE profile one-shots have been doing rather better than the HANDBOOK issues they’ve been interspersed with. That most likely reflects the fact that the HANDBOOK issues are miscellanies, which tend not to do as well as the themed issues.

150. IRON MAN LEGACY
04/10 #1 - 48,956
05/10 #2 - 29,175 (-40.4%)
06/10 #3 - 23,340 (-20.0%)
07/10 #4 - 20,142 (-13.7%)
08/10 #5 - 17,773 (-11.8%)
09/10 #6 - 15,949 (-10.3%)
10/10 #7 - 14,882 ( -6.7%)
11/10 #8 - 13,686 ( -8.0%)
12/10 #9 - 12,483 ( -8.8%)
6 mnth (-46.5%)Hasn’t been solicited past issue #11, which is the end of a storyline and a natural finishing point.

152. TASKMASTER
09/10 #1 of 4 - 18,550
10/10 #2 of 4 - 14,553 (-21.5%)
11/10 #3 of 4 - 13,127 ( -9.8%)
12/10 #4 of 4 - 12,350 ( -5.9%)Not bad numbers in the current climate, considering it’s a villain book.

162,168. X-MEN FOREVER
12/09 #13 - 18,870 ( -3.4%)
12/09 #14 - 18,376 ( -2.6%)
01/10 #15 - 17,665 ( -3.9%)
01/10 #16 - 17,290 ( -2.1%)
02/10 #17 - 17,873 ( +3.4%)
02/10 #18 - 16,464 ( -7.9%)
03/10 #19 - 16,183 ( -1.7%)
03/10 #20 - 15,990 ( -1.2%)
04/10 #21 - 15,530 ( -2.9%)
04/10 #22 - 15,305 ( -1.4%)
05/10 #23 - 15,045 ( -1.7%)
05/10 #24 - 14,940 ( -0.7%)
06/10 GS#1 - 15,039 ( +0.7%)
06/10 #1 - 16,094 ( +7.0%)
06/10 #2 - 14,933 ( -7.2%)
07/10 #3 - 14,151 ( -5.2%)
07/10 #4 - 13,835 ( -2.2%)
08/10 #5 - 13,632 ( -1.5%)
08/10 #6 - 13,351 ( -2.1%)
09/10 #7 - 12,869 ( -3.6%)
09/10 #8 - 12,753 ( -0.9%)
10/10 #9 - 12,260 ( -3.9%)
10/10 #10 - 12,064 (-16.0%)
11/10 #11 - 12,018 ( -0.4%)
11/10 #12 - 11,756 ( -2.2%)
12/10 #13 - 11,419 ( -2.9%)
12/10 #14 - 11,192 ( -2.0%)
6 mnth (-25.1%)
1 year (-40.7%)Cancelled with #16.

164. I AM AN AVENGER
09/10 #1 of 5 - 20,922
10/10 #2 of 5 - 14,882 (-28.9%)
11/10 #3 of 5 - 12,277 (-17.5%)
12/10 #4 of 5 - 11,242 ( -8.4%)Another struggling anthology title.

177. BULLSEYE: PERFECT GAME
11/10 #1 of 2 - 15,462
12/10 #2 of 2 - 10,609 (-31.4%)Not much sign of interest here.

179. OZMA OF OZ
12/08 #1 of 8 - 25,116
=====
12/09 #2 of 8 - 15,783 (-37.7%)
01/10 #3 of 8 - 14,216 (-10.0%)
02/10 #4 of 8 - 13,364 ( -6.0%)
03/10 ---
04/10 #5 of 8 - 12,922 ( -3.3%)
05/10 #6 of 8 - 12,366 ( -4.3%)
06/10 #7 of 8 - 12,200 ( -1.3%)
07/10 #8 of 8 - 12,152 ( -0.4%)
08/10 ---
09/10 ---
10/10 ---
11/10 #1 of 8 - 13,222 ( +8.8%)
12/10 #2 of 8 - 10,419 (-21.2%)
6 mnth (-14.6%)
1 year (-34.0%)
2 year (-58.5%)Drifting slowly down.

181. STRANGE TALES 2 [Max]
10/10 #1 of 3 - 11,800
11/10 #2 of 3 - 9,960 (-15.6%)
12/10 #3 of 3 - 10,140 ( +1.8%)Modest sales, but at least steady.

182. ANT-MAN & WASP
11/10 #1 of 3 - 14,975
12/10 #2 of 3 - 10,044 (-32.9%)That’s a disappointingly steep second issue drop. But Marvel were pushing their luck trying to get a spin-off miniseries out of the Avengers’ D-title.

185. NEW MUTANTS FOREVER
08/10 #1 of 5 - 16,784
09/10 #2 of 5 - 13,778 (-17.9%)
10/10 #3 of 5 - 11,910 (-13.6%)
11/10 #4 of 5 - 10,515 (-11.7%)
12/10 #5 of 5 - 9,878 ( -6.1%)Levelled out as it went on, at least, and only a couple of thousand behind its thematic parent title X-MEN FOREVER.

196. KLAWS OF THE PANTHER
12/05 #11 - 29,327
12/06 #23 - 54,762
12/07 #33 - 25,906
12/08 ---
=====
12/09 #11 - 17,989 ( -6.0%)
01/10 #12 - 17,881 ( -1.0%)
02/10 Doomwar #1 - 43,241 (+141.8%)
03/10 #2 of 6 - 30,555 ( -29.3%)
04/10 #3 of 6 - 27,859 ( -8.9%)
05/10 #4 of 6 - 28,307 ( +1.6%)
06/10 #5 of 6 - 26,041 ( -8.0%)
07/10 ---
08/10 #6 of 6 - 24,797 ( -4.8%)
09/10 ---
10/10 Klaws #1 - 16,973 ( -31.6%)
10/10 #2 of 4 - 12,960 ( -23.6%)
11/10 #3 of 4 - 10,356 ( -20.1%)
12/10 #4 of 4 - 9,145 ( -11.7%)
6 mnth ( -64.9%)
1 year ( -49.2%)
2 year ( --- )
3 year ( -64.7%)
4 year ( -83.3%)
5 year ( -68.8%)The end of the line for this incarnation of BLACK PANTHER (which is no surprise, with sales like that). But yet another relaunch has taken over DAREDEVIL’s numbering, as seen already. Marvel just don’t give up with this character.

199. IRON MAN: RAPTURE
11/10 #1 of 4 - 12,479
11/10 #2 of 4 - 11,239 ( -9.9%)
12/10 #3 of 4 - 8,758 (-22.1%)One for the Marvel Universe completists.

And from this point down, it’s the usual mix of all-ages books, licensed material, digital reprints and so forth:

208. HALO
12/09 Blood Line #1 - 10,551
01/10 #2 of 5 - 9,172 (-13.1%)
02/10 #3 of 5 - 8,793 ( -4.1%)
03/10 #4 of 5 - 8,683 ( -1.3%)
04/10 ---
05/10 #5 of 5 - 8,510 ( -2.0%)
06/10 ---
07/10 ---
08/10 ---
09/10 Boot Camp #1 - 10,715 (+26.0%)
10/10 #2 of 4 - 9,056 (-15.5%)
11/10 ---
12/10 #3 of 4 - 8,567 ( -5.4%)
6 mnth ( --- )
1 year (-18.8%)

230. WOMEN OF MARVEL
11/10 #1 of 2 - 8,145
12/10 #2 of 2 - 7,334 (-10.0%)

241. AVENGERS: EARTH'S MIGHTIEST HEROES
11/10 #1 of 4 - 7,934
12/10 #2 of 4 - 6,540 (-17.6%)

249. TRON: ORIGINAL MOVIE ADAPTATION
11/10 #1 of 2 - 6,854
12/10 #2 of 2 - 6,091 (-11.1%)

262. AVENGERS VS PET AVENGERS
02/10 Tails - 8,214 (-27.6%)
03/10 Unleashed #1 - 8,554 ( +4.1%)
04/10 #2 of 4 - 6,767 (-20.9%)
05/10 #3 of 4 - 6,339 ( -6.3%)
06/10 #4 of 4 - 6,166 ( -2.7%)
07/10 Dogs/Summer - 5,142 (-16.6%)
08/10 ---
09/10 ---
10/10 #1 of 4 - 7,097 (+38.0%)
11/10 #2 of 4 - 5,871 (-17.3%)
12/10 #3 of 4 - 5,372 ( -8.5%)
6 mnth (-12.9%)

266. SPIDER-MAN [Marvel Adventures]
12/05 #10 - 6,391
12/06 #22 - 6,396
12/07 #34 - 6,115
12/08 #46 - 4,851
=====
12/09 #58 - 4,352 ( -3.3%)
01/10 #59 - 4,315 ( -0.9%)
02/10 #60 - 4,212 ( -2.4%)
03/10 #61 - 4,200 ( -2.8%)
04/10 #1 - 9,770 (+132.6%)
05/10 #2 - 7,709 ( -21.1%)
06/10 #3 - 7,200 ( -6.6%)
07/10 #4 - 6,347 ( -11.8%)
08/10 #5 - 6,202 ( -2.3%)
09/10 #6 - 5,779 ( -6.8%)
10/10 ---
11/10 #7 - 5,603 ( -3.0%)
11/10 #8 - 5,269 ( -6.0%)
12/10 #9 - 5,116 ( -2.9%)
6 mnth ( -28.9%)
1 year ( +17.6%)
2 year ( +5.5%)
3 year ( -16.3%)
4 year ( -20.0%)
5 year ( -19.9%)

267. SUPER HERO SQUAD
12/09 #4 - 4,132 ( -5.7%)
01/10 #1 - 9,709 (+135.0%)
02/10 #2 - 5,691 ( -41.4%)
03/10 #3 - 5,399 ( -5.1%)
04/10 #4 - 5,822 ( +7.8%)
05/10 #5 - 5,639 ( -3.1%)
06/10 #6 - 6,029 ( +6.9%)
07/10 #7 - 5,328 ( -11.6%)
08/10 #8 - 5,358 ( +0.6%)
09/10 #9 - 5,304 ( -1.0%)
10/10 #10 - 5,139 ( -3.1%)
11/10 #11 - 4,977 ( -3.2%)
12/10 #12 - 5,054 ( +1.5%)
6 mnth ( -16.2%)
1 year ( +22.3%)Final issue of the series, but there are some one-shots to come.

Three titles missed the top 300 altogether: MARVELMAN FAMILY’S FINEST #6, SUPER HEROES #9, and OFFICIAL INDEX #8, all with estimated sales below 3,811.

6 month comparisons
===================

+159.6% - Official Handbook
+ 75.8% - Wolverine
+ 54.2% - Chaos War/Hercules
+ 4.2% - Fantastic Four
- 0.3% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 4.7% - Daredevil/Black Panther
- 10.0% - Uncanny X-Force
- 12.7% - Thunderbolts
- 12.9% - Pet Avengers
- 13.9% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 14.6% - Oz
- 15.3% - Punisher
- 16.2% - Super Hero Squad
- 17.6% - Secret Warriors
- 17.6% - Dark Tower
- 19.1% - Captain America
- 19.9% - Invincible Iron Man
- 20.0% - Thor
- 21.1% - Deadpool
- 25.1% - X-Men Forever
- 26.4% - Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis
- 26.7% - Uncanny X-Men
- 27.8% - S.H.I.E.L.D.
- 28.7% - Daken: Dark Wolverine
- 28.9% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
- 29.7% - Incredible Hulks
- 30.5% - Ultimate Comics Avengers
- 30.6% - Secret Avengers
- 31.5% - Hulk
- 32.1% - Avengers
- 34.1% - Deadpool Team-Up
- 35.5% - X-Factor
- 36.3% - X-Men Legacy
- 36.3% - Deadpool Corps
- 39.5% - Avengers Academy
- 41.7% - Hawkeye & Mockingbird/Widowmaker
- 46.5% - Iron Man Legacy
- 47.4% - New Avengers
- 54.7% - New Mutants
- 64.9% - Klaws of the Panther

1 year comparisons
==================

+ 57.8% - Wolverine
+ 22.3% - Super Hero Squad
+ 17.6% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
+ 11.5% - Chaos War/Hercules
+ 7.1% - Uncanny X-Force
- 0.8% - Fantastic Four
- 6.2% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 6.7% - Thunderbolts
- 6.8% - New Avengers
- 16.0% - X-Men Legacy
- 16.2% - Invincible Iron Man
- 18.7% - Uncanny X-Men
- 18.8% - Halo
- 24.3% - New Mutants
- 24.9% - Secret Warriors
- 25.7% - Incredible Hulks
- 26.5% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 26.7% - Thor
- 27.7% - X-Factor
- 33.5% - Punisher
- 33.6% - Deadpool
- 34.0% - Oz
- 34.7% - Hulk
- 35.6% - Dark Tower
- 36.1% - Daken: Dark Wolverine
- 40.2% - Daredevil/Black Panther
- 40.7% - X-Men Forever
- 49.2% - Klaws of the Panther
- 53.3% - Captain America
- 60.5% - Deadpool Team-Up

2 year comparisons
==================

+ 5.5% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
- 5.6% - X-Force
- 18.7% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 23.2% - Thunderbolts
- 23.2% - X-Factor
- 25.3% - Daredevil/Black Panther
- 25.3% - Punisher
- 26.1% - Invincible Iron Man
- 27.8% - Captain America
- 28.6% - Chaos War/Hercules
- 29.5% - Fantastic Four
- 31.0% - X-Men Legacy
- 32.2% - Uncanny X-Men
- 34.0% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 34.9% - Deadpool
- 38.8% - Thor
- 39.8% - Captain America
- 46.6% - Wolverine
- 58.5% - Oz
- 60.4% - Hulk
- 62.8% - Incredible Hulks
- 63.1% - Dark Tower

3 year comparisons
==================

+ 7.9% - Iron Man
- 16.3% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
- 16.4% - Wolverine
- 24.5% - Daredevil/Black Panther
- 25.7% - Fantastic Four
- 35.7% - Avengers
- 44.2% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 45.2% - Captain America
- 45.4% - Uncanny X-Men
- 55.0% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 55.5% - Thor
- 56.8% - Punisher
- 57.3% - X-Men Legacy
- 57.6% - Incredible Hulks
- 64.6% - X-Factor
- 64.7% - Klaws of the Panther

4 year comparisons
==================

+ 2.4% - Thunderbolts
- 20.0% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
- 31.0% - Daredevil/Black Panther
- 31.8% - Incredible Hulks
- 33.0% - Wolverine
- 34.2% - X-Factor
- 35.1% - Uncanny X-Men
- 42.9% - Iron Man
- 44.7% - New Avengers
- 46.5% - X-Men Legacy
- 55.1% - Fantastic Four
- 55.8% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 83.3% - Klaws of the Panther

5 year comparisons
==================

+ 11.4% - Thunderbolts
- 4.6% - Captain America
- 11.6% - Incredible Hulks
- 18.5% - Fantastic Four
- 19.9% - Spider-Man [Marvel Adventures]
- 25.3% - Wolverine
- 29.4% - Amazing Spider-Man
- 31.4% - Uncanny X-Men
- 34.4% - Daredevil/Black Panther
- 45.4% - New Avengers
- 49.8% - X-Factor
- 51.8% - X-Men Legacy
- 53.8% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 68.8% - Klaws of the Panther