How books with female leads / co-leads in the title have done recently

[MajorHoy]

NOTE: I posted this in a thread ("Who is Marvel's flagship female?") over on the Marvel forum section, but thought it might also be useful / interesting over here.

The numbers are based on Diamond's Top 500 Comics list for November 2018 using both Marvel and DC's female leads (to the best of my knowledge):

* 25th - CATWOMAN #5 (DC) - 50,131 copies
* 33rd - WONDER WOMAN #58 (DC) - 44,467 copies
* 45th - IRONHEART #1 (MARVEL) - 40,739 copies
* 49th - WONDER WOMAN #59 (DC) - 37,418 copies
* 53rd - BATGIRL #29 (DC) - 35,356 copies
* 56th - SPIDER-GWEN GHOST SPIDER #2 (MARVEL) - 32,715 copies
* 62nd - X-23 #6 (MARVEL) - 29,682 copies
* 66th - HARLEY QUINN #54 (DC) - 28,028 copies
* 68th - HARLEY QUINN #53 (DC) - 27,903 copies
* 80th - MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #12 (with Invisible Woman - MARVEL) - 24,958 copies
* 89th - SPIDER-GIRLS #2 (MARVEL) - 23,189 copies
* 96th - SHURI #2 (MARVEL) - 21,881 copies
* 100th - SUPERGIRL #24 (DC) - 21,295 copies
* 102nd - DOMINO #8 (MARVEL) - 21,050 copies
* 105th - OLD LADY HARLEY #2 (DC) - 20,427 copies
* 107th - MR AND MRS X #5 (MARVEL) - 19,611 copies
* 123rd - SUICIDE SQUAD BLACK FILES #1 (Katana - DC) - 16,953 copies
* 138th - MARVELS CAPTAIN MARVEL PRELUDE #1 (MARVEL) - 13,316 copies
* 142nd - MS MARVEL #36 (MARVEL) - 12,827 copies
* 147th - PEARL #4 (DC) - 11,693 copies
* 155th - RAVEN DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS #10 (DC) - 11,070 copies
* 165th - SCARLET #4 (DC) - 10,405 copies
* 168th - SILENCER #11 (DC) - 10,018 copies
* 169th - HEX WIVES #2 (DC) - 9,869 copies
* 177th - UNSTOPPABLE WASP #2 (MARVEL) - 9,475 copies
* 189th - UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #38 (MARVEL) - 8,298 copies
* 201st - MARVEL SUPER HERO ADVENTURES CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 (MARVEL) - 7,320 copies
* 213th - MOON GIRL & DEVIL DINOSAUR #37 (MARVEL) - 6,533 copies

Hopefully I didn't miss anybody. And remember, these numbers are based on what comic book shops ordered from Diamond, not necessarily how many copies individual readers bought.

NOTE: December 2018's numbers are also available, but some of DC's title featuring female leads didn't ship during the week of December 26th, instead being bumped to the following week, January 2nd of 2019.

[Frontier]

Batgirl's sales seem better then I remember it being. Has that picked up, or do we have variants to thank?

[MajorHoy]

Batgirl's sales seem better then I remember it being. Has that picked up, or do we have variants to thank?

The previous month (October) featured the foil cover.
While Joshua Middleton has been providing interesting variant covers for this book each month, I'm not sure that would make a huge difference for November's numbers.

[HandofPrometheus]

Dang Catwoman doing good.

[byrd156]

Who is currently on Batgirl? I haven't read her since Simone.

[SneakyLookingSort]

Who is currently on Batgirl? I haven't read her since Simone.

Mairghread Scott

[Osiris-Rex]

Dang Catwoman doing good.

For December Catwoman #6 only dropped to 28th and is still the top selling female character, with Wonder Woman #60 in 2nd place at 45th place overall. Nice to see that although Harley Quinn
is DC's current "it" girl, the grand old lady Catwoman can still hold her own. (Harley Quinn #55 is in 63rd place for December)

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomi...8/2018-12.html

[MajorHoy]

But how much boost Catwoman gets from King's recent "use" of her in Batman, not to mention her general Bat-family ties, may also play a part in her numbers.

RE: Batgirl.

Batgirl's sales seem better then I remember it being. Has that picked up, or do we have variants to thank?

The variants. Now if that book is good that is an added bonus.

Batgirl, like most other regular DC continuing main universe titles, typically gets a regular and a single variant cover each issue. I don't know if/how much the variant option, lovely as those covers may be, would be solely responsible for boosting the sales that significantly.

[kjn]

It's interesting how DC is out in front with some of their leading ladies who have been around forever, like Wonder Woman and Catwoman and Batgirl and Supergirl.

Meanwhile, looking at Marvel's grand dames, Invisible Woman, Wasp/Janet, Scarlet Witch, Jean Grey, Storm, and there's not as much interest in headlining the classic ladies over at the other company. Marvel seems to be fine with the younger ones, invented more recently, like Ms. Marvel and Shuri and Spider-Gwen and Ironheart, but they get too long in the tooth, and it's back to the cornfield with you.

I believe that's partly because of the way that these superheroines have been constructed. Sue Storm and Jean Grey were created to be the good trophy girlfriend to the square-jawed leader of a team, and there is fundamentally not much you can do with a character like that. Likewise, the only X-Men character that I know has managed a lasting success outside of X-men is Wolverine. (I know too little about Wasp and Scarlet Witch to say anything of value about them.)

Wonder Woman, on the contrary, was created as her own independent hero, just as Ms Marvel or Squirrel Girl. Spider-Gwen is of course in an analogous situation to Batgirl and Supergirl, in being distaff counterparts that are given their own personality, and they can easily have staying power but will always belong to the B league because of that.

Catwoman is the really interesting DC character here. She was created as an adjunct to Batman, but to contrast to him and be in conflict with him, not as a trophy. I believe that's why she and Lois Lane both have had such lasting success (in Lois's case because she was set up in conflict with the Superman/Clark Kent dual identity).

For December Catwoman #6 only dropped to 28th and is still the top selling female character, with Wonder Woman #60 in 2nd place at 45th place overall. Nice to see that although Harley Quinn
is DC's current "it" girl, the grand old lady Catwoman can still hold her own. (Harley Quinn #55 is in 63rd place for December)

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomi...8/2018-12.html

Sad to see WW dropping on the chart, but I believe the somewhat slow start and the artist issues are the cause. But it'd be interesting to see how Catwoman and Wonder Woman trades sell in comparison to the Harley Quinn trades. In any case I believe that Harley Quinn is pushed so much by DC because she is a female character that the higherups there are confident in them being able to handle her, and can understand her. Meanwhile, once one starts to examine Wonder Woman, she's as even more subversive character than Poison Ivy. I think that's why she has been so mishandled for so long, because writers and editors try to make her safe to use for them, and in the process cuts of important pieces of her character that makes her incompleat.

[Koriand'r]

Dang Catwoman doing good.

It's a GREAT book! Said it before and it's still true, I couldn't be happier with it.

[skyvolt2000]

Batgirl's sales seem better then I remember it being. Has that picked up, or do we have variants to thank?

The variants. Now if that book is good that is an added bonus.

[kjn]

FWIW, I like how Scott has approached and written Batgirl.

On one hand, it's depressing to look at the relative numbers. Joëlle Jones's Catwoman is excellent, but still doesn't manage more than #25, and Wonder Woman was badly hurt by Robinson's run. Wilson started off a little bit shaky, but I believe her opening story was badly damaged by Cary Nord's art (we have discussed that extensively in the Wonder Woman forum).

But more than that I think it's clear that the comic book market is deeply bifurcated, and that the demographics might very well be dissimilar between who buys floppies (which the statistics above show) and those who buy trades.

[Korath]

Well damn.

The Silencer isn't doing great, but it isn't the worst out there. Really, it really trails off behind books with far larger brand recognition (Harley Quinn, Catwoman, etc.).

What's surprising is how steep the difference is : you've got a lot of books in the 20K+ range, two in the 15K and then it's clear decline through 12k to 6k.

I didn't expect such wide ranging differences.

[kjn]

Another factor that I can see here is that despite all the talk about how a hot seller Harley Quinn is, and how much DC pushes her, she is still far below Catwoman and Wonder Woman. Meaning, that if DC wanted to meaningfully push any of their superheroines, they should first look to Catwoman and Wonder Woman.

[MajorHoy]

And here the numbers based on Diamond's Top 500 Comics list for December 2018 using both Marvel and DC's female leads (to the best of my knowledge):

* 28th - CATWOMAN #6 (DC) - 48,014 copies
* 45th - WONDER WOMAN #60 (DC) - 36,966 copies
* 57th - SPIDER-GWEN GHOST SPIDER #3 (MARVEL) - 29,016 copies
* 63rd - HARLEY QUINN #55 (DC) - 27,742 copies
* 66th - LIFE OF CAPTAIN MARVEL #5 (of 5 / MARVEL - 27,079 copies
* 67th - X-23 #7 (MARVEL) - 26,934 copies
* 69th - HARLEY QUINN #56 (DC) - 26,491 copies
* 91st - SPIDER-GIRLS #3 (MARVEL) - 21,682 copies
* 92nd - SUPERGIRL #25 (DC) - 21,564 copies
* 95th - DOMINO #9 (MARVEL) - 20,692 copies
* 104th - MR AND MRS X #6 (MARVEL) - 18,675 copies
* 109th - SHURI #3 (MARVEL) - 17,561 copies
* 110th - GODDESS MODE #1 (MR / DC) - 17,471 copies
* 126th - SUICIDE SQUAD BLACK FILES #2 (Katana - DC) - 13,378 copies
* 156th - PEARL #5 (MR / DC) - 10,584 copies
* 171st - UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #39 (MARVEL) - 9,464 copies
* 192nd - UNSTOPPABLE WASP #3 (MARVEL) - 7,737 copies
* 213th - MOON GIRL & DEVIL DINOSAUR #38 (MARVEL) - 6,502 copies
* 219th - MARVEL SUPER HERO ADVENTURES CAPTAIN MARVEL FROST GIANTS #1 (MARVEL) - 5,954 copies

Hopefully I didn't miss anybody. And remember, these numbers are based on what comic book shops ordered from Diamond, not necessarily how many copies individual readers bought.

NOTE: Batgirl #30, Old Lady Harley #3 (of 5), Raven Daughter of Darkness #11 (of 12), Silencer #12, and Wonder Woman #61 (among others) didn't ship during the week of December 26th. Instead, they were delayed until the following week (January 2nd, 2019).