Superman issue #18 preview/discussion (spoiler) thread

[Robanker]

For what it's worth, the shops in my town have a lot of them left... But my town also has a lot of shops, so it may not be the best for anecdotal evidence.

[Sam]

I mean, it's all anecdotal. Bleeding Cool's article doesn't have a huge sample size and one of the stores featured in the article said it sold pretty well for them. There were just more that said it didn't sell very well. Who knows? None of this can really be generalized totally. The only way we'll really know if it did well is if we hear about a second printing, which as far as I know, we haven't. Beyond that we don't have much to go on. Even the December diamond figures won't tell us much. That will only tell us how much comic book stores ordered, not how much they sold. They could have ordered a ton in anticipation of the big reveal and then sold the normal amount for Bendis's Superman. I guess we'll just have to see what happens to the numbers down the road.

[Robanker]

I mean, it's all anecdotal. Bleeding Cool's article doesn't have a huge sample size and one of the stores featured in the article said it sold pretty well for them. There were just more that said it didn't sell very well. Who knows? None of this can really be generalized totally. The only way we'll really know if it did well is if we hear about a second printing, which as far as I know, we haven't. Beyond that we don't have much to go on. Even the December diamond figures won't tell us much. That will only tell us how much comic book stores ordered, not how much they sold. They could have ordered a ton in anticipation of the big reveal and then sold the normal amount for Bendis's Superman. I guess we'll just have to see what happens to the numbers down the road.

Yeah, not to mention BC probably has people who share their opinions feeding into their curated list. Does that invalidate their findings? Absolutely not, but nevertheless, I wait for the numbers to come in before I really gauge this sort of thing.

[seismic-2]

Maybe what are more nearly meaningful are the digital-version sales figures on sites like Comixology, since that shows how many copies are actually purchased by readers rather than just copies ordered in advance by stores.

[Vordan]

Maybe what are more nearly meaningful are the digital-version sales figures on sites like Comixology, since that shows how many copies are actually purchased by readers rather than just copies ordered in advance by stores.

I use ComiXology as a rough estimate too. Superman #16 is number 3 for last week’s top 10.

[Digifiend]

You mean #18, right?

Maybe what are more nearly meaningful are the digital-version sales figures on sites like Comixology, since that shows how many copies are actually purchased by readers rather than just copies ordered in advance by stores.

Why have BC stopped posting those? Not seen them for a few weeks.

[Ascended]

For what it's worth, the shops in my town have a lot of them left... But my town also has a lot of shops, so it may not be the best for anecdotal evidence.

I'm not expecting it to sell very different from the norm, honestly. This is a big, huge change yes, but it's not a Crisis. Compared to all the other huge things DC has going on this actually feels kinda quaint and small and character driven. It's not a war being fought across space, time, and the multiverse. It's not Dr. Manhattan dissecting time itself to see how reality ticks.

It's just more of Bendis' Superman, on the same trajectory it's been on since the start. If you're not down with it you left a while ago, and if you're just looking for some speculator grabs, you bought Doomsday Clock instead.

And really, Superman sells like Superman sells; changes in creators and new directions and big changes rarely cause big waves now. I think the true measure of this story will be taken over the course of years. Does this mark the beginning of a new normal and the next stage of Superman's evolution or will it just be another short-term shift like so many others, and be forgotten as soon as it's over? Maybe in twenty years Superman 18 will be considered a must-read issue and milestone for the character, just like Superman 75 is. Or maybe not.

For what it's worth, I finally sat down to read the issue today (along with two months' worth of comics I only just got a few days ago) and this was a gods damn fine story. If DC really is trying to make this a organic change they started off on the right foot. Perfectly played on so many levels. The page with Perry especially hit an emotional chord.

[Ascended]

And at my main and back up stories I couldn't get a copy because I came in just a day after (got it digital day of). I'm told I'll most assuredly have to wait for the second printing.

Bleeding cool loves a troll-y click bait headline. Should've counted their wins after comicbeat partially vindicated them on 5G.

Yeah, my shop was cleaned out too, the only copy left in the whole place was the one in my pull box.

Different stores sell differently. I'm sure there's places that can't sell Superman for their lives and other stores that sell tons of Superman. I bet every comic shop in Metropolis, Illinois got cleaned out.

[Slim Shady]

I'll admit I hated this idea when I first heard about it. Like, really hated it. I've enjoyed the Bendis run so far and none of the controversial stuff has bothered me, I wasn't all that attached to Jon so aging him up was fine, but THIS bothered me. I figured this might be what turns me off Bendis and join his haters club. But I have to say, he pulled it off so far. The execution was really good. Superman's speech nailed it. This was probably the best single issue of the Bendis run. Really good. I still have some reservations about all of this and still don't really love the idea, but the way this issue was done I'm willing to stick with it and see how it plays out.

[astro@work]

A little late here since I couldn't get to my shop until Saturday, but I REALLY liked this issue.

I was a little leery going in, because I felt like "didn't we just do this recently in nu52?"...but the execution was so good that I loved it.
The silent scene with Perry was the best, but so many other touches just really made it great. Supergirl raising her victory fist in the air,
the JLA's different reactions, Lex's quiet anger...all great.

I was a teeny bad sad having just read DC#12 that we didn't get two just-returned family member's reactions, but maybe that will come soon.

Overall, this issue sold me on the idea of this being a long-term story idea, not just another genie that will get put back in the bottle.

[Ascended]

It does feel like something that might actually stick. Unlikely but it's possible, and that's a rare thing. Unlike Truth, Bendis is doing it right and providing a quality story instead of a cheap, empty gimmick for the sake of gimmicks.

I still worry about the overall mythos however. The Clark-Superman dynamic is what this whole thing is built on. This whole "coming out" thing is.....it's gonna change Clark in such drastic ways. It's not the first time Clark's life has changed, but this is arguably bigger than the focal shift onto "Clark" instead of "Superman," telling Lois who he really is, the marriage, or having a kid. This changes the foundation of Superman itself. And I don't trust DC to do that without botching it in legendary fashion.

But, for the most part.....Bendis has earned my trust. So we'll see. I think if anyone at DC right now could write Clark stepping into this new phase of his life and make it work, it's him. Which is funny, because outside of his older Marvel work like Ultimate Spidey and Daredevil I'm not a big Bendis fan. But dude has sold me on his Superman, other than him giving the Legion to Jon. And even that I can understand, I just don't agree with it.