Wally West: The Flash Appreciation 2021

[Digifiend]

Sales numbers are almost impossible to determine these days. With DC no longer at Diamond and digital and TPBs so much more important in terms of long-term profitability, all the gnashing of teeth over sales numbers is largely pointless because no one, outside of DC themselves, know what their metric for a successful book is these days.

Yeah, 20,000 used to be considered the cancellation threshold for the big two a few years ago, but not any more. Books have survived with much lower numbers. Probably because of digital sales.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Yeah, 20,000 used to be considered the cancellation threshold for the big two a few years ago, but not any more. Books have survived with much lower numbers. Probably because of digital sales.

Digital sales, in addition to collected editions. Some books do better with different audiences. Gaiman and Morrison are good examples. Their stuff tends to do much better in TPBs than they do in individual issues. This isn't to say those sell poorly though, but DC makes more money from the trades of those issues than they do from the issues that came out each month.

This book is obviously a very different animal that their stuff, but, I suspect as the overwhelmingly positive word of mouth on this book continues to grow, I can see sales steadily increasing in the monthly issues.

[married guy]

I want to see Flash sales could have the same impact numbers like Tom's Nightwing runs.

Me too. I am surprised with Nightwing numbers.
Taylor seems to be one of those writers fans either love or hate - with very little middle ground so I wasn't expecting Nightwing to be doing so well.
Adams seems to be universally loved at the moment, so hopefully an uptick in sales numbers is just around the corner.

[Vordan]

Me too. I am surprised with Nightwing numbers.
Taylor seems to be one of those writers fans either love or hate - with very little middle ground so I wasn't expecting Nightwing to be doing so well.
Adams seems to be universally loved at the moment, so hopefully an uptick in sales numbers is just around the corner.

As one of the guys who is generally in the “haters” camp when it comes to Taylor: he usually sells very well. Not always, he’s flopped on Suicide Squad and GL, but generally his DC stuff is very successful. He’s built up his “brand” name. Adams meanwhile hasn’t and unfortunately he may end up being an “Al Ewing”, writing stuff that fans love but sold poorly (until Immortal Hulk that is).

[married guy]

As one of the guys who is generally in the “haters” camp when it comes to Taylor: he usually sells very well. Not always, he’s flopped on Suicide Squad and GL, but generally his DC stuff is very successful. He’s built up his “brand” name. Adams meanwhile hasn’t and unfortunately he may end up being an “Al Ewing”, writing stuff that fans love but sold poorly (until Immortal Hulk that is).

I REALLY hope that doesn't happen!

[John Venus]

Finally caught up with the latest issue.

Man, I'm loving this run. Thank you Jeremy Adams for rescuing Wally West. This guy really gets Wally West and the whole family dynamic.

[Hol]

Finally caught up with the latest issue.

Man, I'm loving this run. Thank you Jeremy Adams for rescuing Wally West. This guy really gets Wally West and the whole family dynamic.

Agreed. I get a very early Waid feeling from this run. It is exciting.

[John Venus]

Yeah this does feel like all the best parts of Waid's run.

[Digifiend]

As one of the guys who is generally in the “haters” camp when it comes to Taylor: he usually sells very well. Not always, he’s flopped on Suicide Squad and GL, but generally his DC stuff is very successful. He’s built up his “brand” name. Adams meanwhile hasn’t and unfortunately he may end up being an “Al Ewing”, writing stuff that fans love but sold poorly (until Immortal Hulk that is).

Very true about Ewing. His Avengers, which was the third or fourth book in that line, relaunched four times before finally getting axed via absorption into the main book. Mighty Avengers, then Captain America and the Mighty Avengers, then New Avengers, then U.S.Avengers, then Avengers No Surrender. His Ultimates also had a renumbering after a year because it wasn't selling. Rocket and Royals both didn't last long.

[InfamousBG]

Finally caught up with the latest issue.

Man, I'm loving this run. Thank you Jeremy Adams for rescuing Wally West. This guy really gets Wally West and the whole family dynamic.

I love it as well. Just love seeing Wally and the family again.

[Iclifton]

Am I missing something numbers wise? Flash pulled in 34k for June(July has not been released yet). These are the same numbers prior to Barry leaving the title correct?

[Vordan]

Am I missing something numbers wise? Flash pulled in 34k for June(July has not been released yet). These are the same numbers prior to Barry leaving the title correct?

It’s moreso that Wally’s return hasn’t improved sales that has a lot of us bummed. It means, well, it means there aren’t a lot of people out there anymore who care if he’s back or not. It means Didio won essentially lol, Wally is just a Flash now, not The Flash like he used to be. But the sales are solid enough for now that we’ll probably get another year at least of stories which makes me happy, and even if he gets shuffled off the book at least he doesn’t have HiC following him around anymore.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Guys, you realize that Waid's run took a while to really build up some buzz and, even then, wasn't ever a huge seller, right?

Just enjoy the good times while they last and worry about what happens next later. Editorial is going to do whatever it is going to do. Hopefully, they'll be patient enough to let the positive word of mouth let this run build an audience. If they don't, c'est la lie, but at least we got a fun run out of it. No point in wasting this worrying about what happens next

[Lal]

Well, Taylor's Nightwing sells more than Taylor's Batman, so it's not just that (although batman already has other books)

Anyway, it's quite annoying that the Flash trades are published so late. A lot of the Infinite Frontier trades would be available around December - January, but there's no sign of a flash TPB.

[Frontier]

To be honest I'm not too worried because I think sales and DC's reaction to them are more complicated and varied than just sales not increasing dramatically just because Wally is in the suit again. At least in my opinion.