I made a quick comparison between the preliminary Diamond October sales rank figures and the September sales rank figures to get an idea as to which titles might be gaining relative momentum and which might be crashing. Now, of course, this doesn't make any adjustments for returnability or make any allowances for gross numbers, it just compared relative ranks of the "New 52". I knew a couple of these titles would make gains or losses based on reviews, but there were some surprises.
Animal Man had the biggest gain, going up 8 spots, (no surprise there). The next highest rank gain was a tie between Demon Knights and Grifter which each went up 6 spots, (now that I didn't see coming, as I haven't read very many positive comments about Grifter at all). Frankenstein moved up 5 places and Batwoman moved up 4, (again, based on reviews I read, no real surprise here). Omac and Catwoman each jumped 3 places, (I was kind of surprised about Catwoman but not Omac). Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, Superboy, and Suicide Squad all went up 2 ranks, (I was a little surprised Wonder Woman and Swamp Thing didn't move up more but when the numbers get higher, rank movement is probably a less effective indicator as to how well a comic is being received).
Captain Atom fared the worst in the relative ranking, dropping 5 spots. A number of comics dropped 4 places in the ranking, including: Green Lantern New Guardians, Justice League Dark, Green Arrow, Savage Hawkman, Fury of Firestorm, Blue Beetle, and Hawk & Dove. (I can't say I'm really surprised by any of these, but I am a little sad to see Fury of Firestorm and Blue Beetle drop that much.) Green Lantern Corps and Blackhawks each fell 3 places, (Blackhawks really couldn't fall much further with only Men of War coming in lower in October), while Birds of Prey and Legion Lost went down 2 spots each. The surprise for me here was the poor showing from the Green Lantern titles.
It'll be interesting to see how this changes as the months go by. I know personally, there were 6 or 7 titles where the 2nd issue drastically changed my impressions from the 1st issue.
So, does this seem about right to everyone else?
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I keep hearing conflicting things about all the titles. I've heard that OMAC isn't selling well, but then the next thing I see says it's actually climbing every month. OMAC is one title that, to me, is the break-out amazingly well-done hit of the 52. Sure, I'm loving some other titles as well, but just not as much as I love OMAC.
Other ones I'm enjoying, anyway, are Grifter, Supergirl, Swamp Thing, All-Star Western, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Action Comics. I've been surprised by how much I like the new Birds of Prey, Hawk and Dove, and Savage Hawkman (the last two are considered duds by the general populace, but I like them! And how weird that they're all bird-related...).
Great analysis, Border Mutt -- thanks for doing it!
Of the ones I'm reading, Birds of Prey, Firestorm and Legion Lost are the only ones that have dropped. JL Dark, too, but I decided to drop that after issue 2).
I'm very happy to see leaps for unusual books -- both the ones I read (Frankenstein, Demon Knights, OMAC) and the ones I don't (Animal Man, Grifter). It makes me feel good that some of these chances are paying off, and that these projects are getting some good word of mouth. (Although I don't think I'd heard a kind word about Grifter until your post, Jeff, but I hope it remains a bunch o' fun for you!)
Yeah, I think I'm one of the few people to have come into this book having been a former Grifter fan, having only known him from the pages of Wildcats (and the occasional spin-offs, such as Grifter/Midnighter). This is my first reading of his origin, and as far as I know, it's the first time it's really been seen. I have always loved the character, and I've always liked the Daemonites as bad-guys, and I like seeing their influence on the new DCU. Even if this Grifter series doesn't quite take root, I'm hoping before long we'll see a new Wildcats series pop up on the horizon.
Heck, I've even been enjoying Legion Lost and Birds of Prey, so I'm gratefully looking forward to all of these becoming a part of the same universe!
Well, it wasn't mentioned in the discussion so far but I am dropping Men of War but that is mostly due to my own expectations. I was imagining it was going to end up being a bit more like Ostrander's Manhunter from the 80s except we would have a non-powered fighting unit bringing down some super-baddie and that might dovetail a story into Suicide Squad (another title which so far is on the fence for me). I am enjoying the way that JLI is progressing but as its flagship title, I am more than a bit disappointed about how Justice League is progressing so far. I found the first issue moving at a crawl and it hasn't picked up much speed since. The costume specs don't really make up for the lack of progress of the story for me thus far. GL: New Guardians is starting to show some improvement & I have been a long time Legion fan so both LSH and Legion Lost have been a pleasure to read. The one series I haven't read but am considering based on a very positive review by Liana K is Batgirl. I wasn't impressed that DC decided to cure her shot out spine but I trust Liana's judgement as she has always shown great taste in the past so as it is a bit late now, I will pick up the series when it is collected and may add it to my list after I have read that.
I have to really give props to DC overall though. They aren't cancelling things as soon as there is a dip and are trying to allow all their titles to find their niche audience & see how things come out after the dust has settled.
I had heard that the first couple issues were going to start off with a slow burn, which I found disappointing even before I had read the first issue. That having been said, though, I came to enjoy the first issue for what it was--The Bourne Identity plus what I knew would soon be the Grifter persona.
I still wish we had been dropped in to an already-operational Grifter like we knew in Wildcats 3.0, but I'm hoping it won't take long before we're there. For the time being, I'm liking the story in process.
Interesting article on reorders for DCnU titles.
Over at The Beat, Marc-Oliver Frisch makes a short comment about the effectiveness of DC's different promotions for increasing sales. He doesn't draw any conclusions, but it looks to me like the comics that were returnable were more effective at getting copies in the comic shops than those with the deep discounts. Further, it looks like the alternate covers for the top tier titles was a good call over the other two options.
It kind of makes you wonder if Flash got extra benefit or Wonder Woman was hurt by the way DC promoted them. Would the numbers have been majorly different if Wonder Woman had had the alternate covers and The Flash had had the deep discount?
Dagwan, care to weigh in?
Keep in mind, you're looking at retailers' orders, not at customer sales. So we're mostly seeing how retailers forecast customer purchases will go between issues #1 and #2 right now.
Retailers may figure everyone wants Action #1 but only half of those people will want #2, whereas only 80% of people buying All-Star Western want #2, as some will read and opt out, while anybody buying Grifter #1 wants #2. So the standings can change from month to month before anyone has bought an issue of anything.
Likewise, reorders indicate how retailers misjudged initial sales, not how well they're selling. They may win as "most underrated," but that doesn't tell us much about how well they're doing.
I'm always skeptical of claims of something being the "fastest growing," as that usually means it's new or small. You sell one car last month and two this month, you're the fastest-growing car company at 100% growth. If GM sells 1 million cars last month and 1.1 million this month, it's only grown 10%--but 100,000 cars. But I digress.
And, as noted, there also might be some outside noise based on promotions for various titles or total counts or whatever that throw off retailer sales based on something other than what they perceive to be customer purchase demand.
I'm more interested in sales of issues #4 on. By then, retailers are responding to customers' initial reactions and their own sales after the surge of #1s. By January or so we should get an idea of what's really working.
-- MSA
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