PKJ Action Comics Discussion and Spoilers

[The Frog Bros]

I still think there's room (and potential) for a third book.

One focusing on Clark/Kal, one focused on Jon, and a third one with Superfam (specific to Metropolis?). Especially since PKJ is expanding this last one of late and in the near future.

A pipe dream? Maybe. But would love to see it and there's def enough characters and potential content out there.

[Ascended]

Any speculation on the path going forward after Dark Crisis ends? Jon becomes Earth's Superman in his book. And Kal more or less retires with his book - Action - being non-Earth Kal stories. Will Jon's book be retitled Superman or will DC retire the Superman title? Action and Son of Kal El don't sell well so I can't see DC adding another Superman title.

I think for the immediate future, Jon will remain the Superman of earth in his own SoKE title, Clark will be the Superman of space (with frequent visits home) in Action. We don't have accurate sales data anymore (insofar as we ever did) but far as I know, the titles are selling roughly what most Super runs sell; selling less than most Bat books but more than most of DC's other titles. Neither book is setting the world on fire, but nor are people forming mobs to burn copies of the comics. Action gets good reviews, the twitter crowd love Jon. We've no way to know if the books are meeting DC's expectations, but I'd imagine they're satisfied, if not thrilled, with the brand's performance. Not much incentive to make drastic changes in the short term, though new creators are always a possibility and DC might be shopping around for the perfect new direction to replace the current status quo. Y'never know.

In the wider DCU, Jon will likely be part of whatever new team comes out of Dark Crisis (we're all expecting that right?), and Clark will be doing whatever the rest of the League do; get the band back together or go their separate ways for a time, or attach themselves to different groups, or whatever.

From there, sales and larger media presence will dictate. DC will try to capitalize on whatever makes money, and change stuff when something isn't selling. Maybe Jon gets a second book. Maybe he gets de-aged and put back in Clark's supporting cast. Or erased from history. Or killed. Maybe it's Clark who succeeds and is rewarded, maybe it's he whose book fails. Odds are, without extraordinarily great or nightmarishly awful creators, the books will just chug along at their modest, yet respectable, upper-mid-tier (internal) sales rankings.

I don't think a third ongoing is likely. Far as I know, most everything is selling bad these days, but the Super books sell less bad than many others. But that's not enough to justify a third title in this market, with recession fears creeping around. What I expect to get instead, at least until the current regime get replaced, is a steady diet of miniseries and stand-alone stuff. The brand has seen some respectable success doing "S" mini's like '78, Authority, Supergirl, etc., and they're likely far easier and faster (ie; cheaper) to produce than an ongoing.

When the chaos in the upper echelons of WBD settle, and those new folks get into the dirty work of restructuring the smaller offices.... who knows what happens then?

[Jeffrey2]

I don't think a third ongoing is likely. Far as I know, most everything is selling bad these days, but the Super books sell less bad than many others. But that's not enough to justify a third title in this market, with recession fears creeping around. What I expect to get instead, at least until the current regime get replaced, is a steady diet of miniseries and stand-alone stuff. The brand has seen some respectable success doing "S" mini's like '78, Authority, Supergirl, etc., and they're likely far easier and faster (ie; cheaper) to produce than an ongoing.

When the chaos in the upper echelons of WBD settle, and those new folks get into the dirty work of restructuring the smaller offices.... who knows what happens then?

The June sales for DC were not good. Only 15 in the top 50 and 27 in the top 100. 18 of those 27 were Batman related books. Son of Superman came in at 79 and Action at - ouch - 134. PKJ is doing a great job, but few are reading the book. Flash and WW do poorly as well but outperform Action. After Dark Crisis I could see a consolidation of titles at DC and especially given WBD taking control. WBD could also shake up the writers. PKJ is generally recognized as doing an excellent job on Action, but will the suits only consider the sales in gauging the value of the creative teams?

[Venomized-spider-man]

The June sales for DC were not good. Only 15 in the top 50 and 27 in the top 100. 18 of those 27 were Batman related books. Son of Superman came in at 79 and Action at - ouch - 134. PKJ is doing a great job, but few are reading the book. Flash and WW do poorly as well but outperform Action. After Dark Crisis I could see a consolidation of titles at DC and especially given WBD taking control. WBD could also shake up the writers. PKJ is generally recognized as doing an excellent job on Action, but will the suits only consider the sales in gauging the value of the creative teams?

where are you getting June sales from?

[Jeffrey2]

where are you getting June sales from?

ICV2 as per here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDSZabJ8oqg

[Venomized-spider-man]

that seem very low and devastating to DC no matter what way to spin it

also when did SSOKE overtook AC? It always seemed that it was doing better in April & may

[Jeffrey2]

that seem very low and devastating to DC no matter what way to spin it

also when did SSOKE overtook AC? It always seemed that it was doing better in April & may

I've seen speculation that DC is doing Dark Crisis to try to boost sales - linking it to as many titles as possible. The reason being the WBD merger and DC knowing their books will be under the microscope with the new ownership. My bet is Lee will be gone sooner rather than later.

Not sure about SSOKE and Action. Both have been dropping but recently Action has trailed SSOKE. The numbers are bad for DC - except for Batman - which is why I think there will be a paring of lots of titles. There is no reason to print books no one reads and that lose money. That will be the focus of WBD. While Batman does much better than the other DC titles there are so many Batman linked titles that many of them are in the bottom 50. I expect some Batman titles to go in any culling.

I think WBD will keep the core books even though many of them like Action don't sell well. Drop the non-core titles or many of them. Shift to one-offs and limited editions and bring in new titles when a movie/TV project featuring a secondary character is in the works. Hence Black Adam #1 which came in at 27 and may emerge as DC's top selling superhero book after Batman. IIRC when Diamond analyzed all comic companies and printed units of sales titles at 100 meant sales of 5K or so. It doesn't make sense to print books with no audience.

[Vordan]

ICV2 doesn’t have accurate data anymore just an FYI on account of DC pulling out of Diamond. They guesstimate the sales data. Only DC knows the real numbers.

[Last Son of Krypton]

I don't expect Clark getting his main SM book back and SoK demoted to a satellite book till Taylor is still on board. The latter is not already the top selling book that Taylor makes it out to be, but turning it into another Supergirl/Superboy/Supersons/Superwoman type of skippable secondary book would kill sales overnight and piss him off. And DC doesn't want to piss off his new "golden boy".

that seem very low and devastating to DC no matter what way to spin it

also when did SSOKE overtook AC? It always seemed that it was doing better in April & may

ICV2 doesn't release complete data for the series that come out at the end of the month like AC does. So June issue of AC will be listed among both June and July sales, splitting in 2 different month the data ICV2 has. Same happened with all the past issues of each comic book out during the 2nd half of a month.

I don't bother to check ICV2's sales charts, it's just confusing. I look at Comichron's instead, it release its estimate charts once in a while but they are less messy.

[Jeffrey2]

I don't expect Clark getting his main SM book back and SoK demoted to a satellite book till Taylor is still on board. The latter is not already the top selling book that Taylor makes it out to be, but turning it into another Supergirl/Superboy/Supersons/Superwoman type of skippable secondary book would kill sales overnight and piss him off. And DC doesn't want to piss off his new "golden boy".

Definitely SoK is not selling well. It started out strong, in the top 10, but has dropped into the 70s. Meaning lots of readers have given up on the book.

SoK does outsell Action which makes me think that, after Dark Crisis, DC will have Jon take over a relaunched Superman title - he is Earth's Superman now - while Action features Kal's off Earth adventures. A crossover now and again with Kal returning to visit Earth to see Lois and Jon. SoK will be dropped as a title.

[Last Son of Krypton]

Definitely SoK is not selling well. It started out strong, in the top 10, but had dropped into the 70s. Meaning lots of readers have given up on the book.

SoK does outsell Action which makes me think that, after Dark Crisis, DC will have Jon take over a relaunched Superman title - he is Earth's Superman now - while Action features Kal's off Earth adventures. A crossover now and again with Kal returning to visit Earth to see Lois and Jon. SoK will be dropped as a title.

No idea how much it sells. It's probably in the lower 30k range.

Btw, you should check the Comichron's sales projections. As I said above, ICV2 splits data of AC in 2 different months making impossible to get an idea of the proper ranking of AC and other titles coming out in the 2nd half of each month.

I forgot the last time I posted AC and Super books sales, lol. Comichron skipped the estimated sales for some months and started again with Jan. 2022 data. DC books are now ranked separately from Marvel and other publishers. PKJ's AC seems doing better than SoK post #5 drop.

13 - Superman Son of Kal-El #6

14 - Action Comics #1039

20 - Superman Son of Kal-El #7

22 - Superman and Robin Special #1

33 - Superman ’78 #6

37 - Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow #7

45 - World of Krypton #2

Full charts: https://comichron.com/monthlycomicss...2/2022-01.html

February's estimated ranking:

13 - Action Comics #1040

20 - Superman - Son of Kal-El #8

34 - Supergirl - Woman of Tomorrow #8

53 - World of Krypton #3

Full February's charts: https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...2/2022-02.html

March's estimated ranking:

1 - Batman Superman - World’s Finest #1

21 - Action Comics #1041

23 - Superman - Son of Kal-El #9

53 - Superman Vs. Lobo #3

61 - World of Krypton #4

Full March's charts: https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...2/2022-03.html

April's estimated ranking:

12 - Batman Superman - World’s Finest #2

16 - Action Comics #1042

24 - Superman Son of Kal-El #10

50 - World of Krypton #5

51 - Earth-Prime #2 (Superman & Lois)

Full April's charts: https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...2/2022-04.html

[Jeffrey2]

From Comic Book Revolution for June 2022. They compare all publisher's titles. Not just DC against itself. Interesting their comment on why Action is failing:

DC Comics meekly took second place with twenty-seven titles. This was actually worse than the twenty-nine titles that DC Comics had in the Top 100 in May 2022. Sixteen of DC Comics’ twenty-seven titles came from the Batman franchise. This means that 60% of the DC Comics in the Top 100 came from the Batman franchise. That is too unbalanced.

Superman Franchise
24 Batman Superman Worlds Finest #4

79 Superman Son of Kal-El #12

95 Action Comics 2022 Annual #1 (One-Shot)

131 Action Comics #1044

186 Batman Superman Worlds Finest #3 (Resolicitation)

It is so sad to see the horrendous mess that is the Superman franchise. Look, I have never been a big Superman fan. I have always been Team Batman. But, I respect the Big Red S for being the most iconic superhero of all time. And I know that Superman fans are large in numbers.

The Superman franchise should be one of DC Comics’ marquee brands. No doubt about it. Instead, the Superman franchise is in ruins. The flagship Superman title cannot even make it into the Top 75. That is pathetic. Superman Son of Kal-El #12 only managed to get the number 79 spot. This should be utterly unacceptable for DC Comics.

Of course, the best-selling comic book starring Superman is Batman Superman Worlds Finest #4 which took the number 24 spot. This is not surprising since this title is treating readers to the classic Superman that we all know and love. And this classic Superman is actually, you know, doing superhero stuff rather than just engaging in boring messaging.

There is nothing good to be found anywhere here. Action Comics is selling outside of the Top 100. This should never happen. This is Action Comics we are talking about! Obviously, there is little appetite for the Superman version of Hulk living on planet Sakaar.

[Yoda]

I don't expect Clark getting his main SM book back and SoK demoted to a satellite book till Taylor is still on board. The latter is not already the top selling book that Taylor makes it out to be, but turning it into another Supergirl/Superboy/Supersons/Superwoman type of skippable secondary book would kill sales overnight and piss him off. And DC doesn't want to piss off his new "golden boy".

If this were to happen, they'd probably offer Superman back to Taylor. That's what he's wanted all along and hasn't yet gotten the chance to write.

[Last Son of Krypton]

If this were to happen, they'd probably offer Superman back to Taylor. That's what he's wanted all along and hasn't yet gotten the chance to write.

It's a possibility, I agree.

Currently DC only has King and Taylor, they can get what they want. Everybody else are freelancers that could lose their job at DC next month/year.

[Vordan]

If this were to happen, they'd probably offer Superman back to Taylor. That's what he's wanted all along and hasn't yet gotten the chance to write.

What he actually wants is the Batman/Superman book. He’s not interested in Superman as a solo character, only as Batman’s pal. Dude can’t stop himself from putting Batman into everything he does, and it’s just painful to see how a guy who keeps talking about how much he loves Superman has yet to do anything other than the most basic takes on Clark and his world. Really hope he never gets the Clark under his pen because his take will be horrendous, especially given how he can’t write villains at all. PKJ has focused on trying to build up Clark’s Rogues again, if Taylor takes over it will be the Lex show and none of the other Rogues will get the focus they need.