November sales chart

[capandkirby]

Falcon is a prime example of why legacy characters are needed in the current market. The book is on its 2nd issue and is already selling less than Captain America: Sam Wilson ever did.

Having too many legacy characters at once is one of the reasons Marvel is in this predicament (i.e. low sales) in the first place. Replacing Steve, Tony, Thor (Odinson) and Bruce Banner all within months of each other was a mistake.

[Of Atlantis]

If you want to go down that route then consider the long term sustainability of selling comics a dollar cheaper.

Loyal fanbase and consistent sales? I'm sure there are many advantages of short term gains vs. long term gains, few of which benefit me as a reader though. I expect DC to up the prices eventually, as the market may eventually demand that in order to compete in the dollar share, but I'd wager a more dedicated fanbase will retain DC's consistent sales patterns when/if they do.

Print (paper) costs are one of the smallest costs of comics and actually get smaller when you are printing in greater volumes. It all adds up, and for comic shops I am sure they would rather sell more $3.99 comics because they make more per sale with less cost in shipping, but for DC/Marvel the costs they are worried about is creative teams, editors, office staff, marketing, lawyers, etc.

From our (readers) perspective, stable sales and more units means a title is doing better with readers, and as a reader that means more to me than how much Marvel/DC are reporting to their shareholders. When I look at these, I look at them to gauge where the industry is going, as stated above, are we due for another price increase or some other change to publishing practices.

I think slowly, straight-to-TPBs will become more of a thing. I can understand that relaunching a consistently underselling Captain Marvel series is more meant to build a library once the movie comes out. I think Marvel sees the potential, and monthly issues will eventually be seen as a lengthy stall.

[JKtheMac]

Loyal fanbase and consistent sales? I'm sure there are many advantages of short term gains vs. long term gains, few of which benefit me as a reader though. I expect DC to up the prices eventually, as the market may eventually demand that in order to compete in the dollar share, but I'd wager a more dedicated fanbase will retain DC's consistent sales patterns when/if they do.

Well just as we can be sure DC won’t maintain that price forever but currently seem happy with it, we can be pretty sure Marvel will maintain their price and appear to be happy with it too. Why worry about the viability of their decisions? What we don’t see clearly is exactly how much discounting is happening in this market. We also don’t see what the working profit margins are for each company. It is pretty hard to second guess their future prices without this data.

This was an unusual month, with an incredibly high profile comic riding a wave of controversy, but it is also a month when Captain America rebooted (not without controversy too I guess). Both these initiatives did exceptionally well - outselling the Batman benchmark in terms of market value.

[Of Atlantis]

Well just as we can be sure DC won’t maintain that price forever but currently seem happy with it, we can be pretty sure Marvel will maintain their price and appear to be happy with it too. Why worry about the viability of their decisions? What we don’t see clearly is exactly how much discounting is happening in this market. We also don’t see what the working profit margins are for each company. It is pretty hard to second guess their future prices without this data.

This was an unusual month, with an incredibly high profile comic riding a wave of controversy, but it is also a month when Captain America rebooted (not without controversy too I guess). Both these initiatives did exceptionally well - outselling the Batman benchmark in terms of market value.

I definitely agree there's not enough info to make a truly educated analysis. Given what we have though, I'd be hard pressed to say Marvel didn't have its share of shortcomings when it comes to the numbers we're given. I suppose in Cap's case, we'll have to see what the next issue's numbers are.

[Solid Snake]

Falcon is a prime example of why legacy characters are needed in the current market. The book is on its 2nd issue and is already selling less than Captain America: Sam Wilson ever did.

I’m not denying that Captain America title did some good to Sam, but Captain America: San Wilson was actually a good written book (at least until Secret Empire) while current Falcon series is a bad written book. Have a good creative team, make good comics, only then you can see if those characters are able to survive without a bigger franchise name. It doesn’t say much when there is such a sharp decline in quality of work.

[Bossace]

I’m curious why Falcon had such a big drop, where are all the fans that read him as Captain America? I enjoyed his CA title and I’m getting to like his new one but wished they hadn’t gone the big supernatural route but looking forward and ahead to the next arc. If people were only reading him because he was a legacy character with the name Captain America that kinda upsets me they wouldn’t see past just the name.

[Prof. Warren]

I’m not denying that Captain America title did some good to Sam, but Captain America: San Wilson was actually a good written book (at least until Secret Empire) while current Falcon series is a bad written book. Have a good creative team, make good comics, only then you can see if those characters are able to survive without a bigger franchise name. It doesn’t say much when there is such a sharp decline in quality of work.

The new Falcon is not a badly written book. It's pretty damned good.

I’m curious why Falcon had such a big drop, where are all the fans that read him as Captain America? I enjoyed his CA title and I’m getting to like his new one but wished they hadn’t gone the big supernatural route but looking forward and ahead to the next arc. If people were only reading him because he was a legacy character with the name Captain America that kinda upsets me they wouldn’t see past just the name.

As much as some fans love to say that it's wrong to do Legacy characters and that they'd buy a solo book with a minority or female protagonist without them adopting the mantle of another, more prominent hero, reality says otherwise.

I loved Sam's Cap run but this new solo is really good too and it's getting better each issue.

[Unspeakable Evil]

I’m curious why Falcon had such a big drop, where are all the fans that read him as Captain America? I enjoyed his CA title and I’m getting to like his new one but wished they hadn’t gone the big supernatural route but looking forward and ahead to the next arc. If people were only reading him because he was a legacy character with the name Captain America that kinda upsets me they wouldn’t see past just the name.

The Falcon was never particularly popular. Being the movies helped but we on known movie goers=/=comicbook readers.

[Frontier]

Falcon is a prime example of why legacy characters are needed in the current market. The book is on its 2nd issue and is already selling less than Captain America: Sam Wilson ever did.

Though as I recall Sam's Cap book sales were getting fairly low by the time Spencer's run ended.

[capandkirby]

Though as I recall Sam's Cap book sales were getting fairly low by the time Spencer's run ended.

It was low, yes. This is from May 2017.

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[capandkirby]

I’m curious why Falcon had such a big drop, where are all the fans that read him as Captain America? I enjoyed his CA title and I’m getting to like his new one but wished they hadn’t gone the big supernatural route but looking forward and ahead to the next arc. If people were only reading him because he was a legacy character with the name Captain America that kinda upsets me they wouldn’t see past just the name.

I read the first issue of Falcon but dropped it when it pretty much invalidated everything touching about the Captain America Generations issue and had Sam victim blaming Steve. Just for me, personally, that was a deal breaker.

[AcesX1X]

falcon's new costume is hideous. it is one of the worst designs i have ever seen him in. that could explain some drops, but not all