Quote Originally Posted by abetterday View Post
In general I think most solo comic titles are not doing that well at all. If you look at the top graphic novels for April batman has 12 books in the top 20 but there are no other solo titles from DC or Marvel. Also in amazon.com top Graphic Novels for May 7 2021 same thing, mostly Batman. I don't believe I saw one solo title from DC or Marvel other than Batman. So sales are not that good across the board.

Cyborg has proven to be a good initial seller. His first solo ongoing written by David Walker had orders above 50,000 for the first issue. Cyborg Rebirth one shot had orders over 60,000. Cyborg Rebirth ongoing series for issue # 1 had orders for above 50,000. And the DCeased series sold like gangbusters. So initially his series sold well but like every other title sales wan as time goes on. I believe that Cyborg was a victim of the comicsgate movement that targeted all Black Superheroes at the time. That along with online fans complains about him replacing Martian Manhunter and not having any connections with the New Teen titans probably hurt sales. But poor sales did not stop DC from publishing the recent Dial H for Heroes and the Wonder Twins comic. Initially it was only going to be a 6 issue limited series for both titles but they expanded it to another 6 issues making it a 12 issue maxi-series despite having very poor sales. sales for the Wonder Twins and Dial H for Heroes # 6 was down to about only 12-10 K copies ordered before DC decided to renew it for another 6 issues. So sales are not the end all when it comes to why a series moves forward or not. But it is a major factor and I do understand why the sales for Cyborg was bad when it return for a second run with Marv Wolfman because the solicitation copy was terrible and if you read Cyborg # 21 you can see that the story changed. But DC cancelled Cyborg with issue # 23 in the middle of a storyline and did not continue it in a trade paperback. To my knowledge this has not happen before in the history of comics.
Books that go under 20k get cancelled - starting out well in Rebirth does not mean anything, its retailers over ordering - the real proof of the pudding comes when months later the title should stabilize and remain constant in a sales bracket. Cyborg kept dropping, went lower than 20k and even 10k. As for other titles you mention depends on what are the expectations of DC and what limit its gives them to be profitable.
But the reason for Cyborg was extremely low sales, it was a miracle that it was kept ongoing to issue 23. Probably not even worth the paper it was printed on if you take in consideration the expenses to have a creative team to publish it.
If Cyborg was a victim of what you say than why black readers did not prop him? We keep hearing that we need diversity etc and when there are, you don't support them?

However the real reason with Cyborg was what happened to other historic DC characters like Green Arrow, Hawkman, SuperGirl and Aquaman, low sales below 20k you get cancelled. Most often its the quality of the runs and no other factor that leads to that. That said, if creative teams are not up to standard don't expect the likes of cyborg etc to do well.