as an aside, I hadn't looked at sales charts in.... i dunno, months, because everything got all screwed up with Diamond and DC and all, but went down a sales figures rabbit hole just now, and Cates' Thor is selling PHENOMENALLY well for a Thor book, it's kind of mind boggling, and gets more impressive the more you dig into it. It's like, this never happens, especially during a freaking pandemic. At first i was going to put it down to inaccurate estimates, (more inaccurate than usual, i mean, due to the pandemic and DC going it's own way for distribution, which removed their usual index book from the charts) but... all the other books line up, more or less, and going back, you can see that there was some massive re-order activity, indicating retailers vastly under-estimated how many they'd be able to sell, so the numbers shown aren't even complete, because it's complicated by a huge numbers of re-orders, month after month. we're talking 6th printings, and re-orders that rank above other books on their first go out. Though some of that also likely is due to chaos caused by the pandemic, to be fair. As of October, the most recent set of estimates, (which are likely more inaccurate than previous ones) Thor is selling over 100k, 8 issues into it's run. These are amazingly good numbers for Thor. We have never seen a Thor book sell this well by issue 8 in modern times, let alone in the middle of a pandemic, which is hampering shops abilities to do business. JMS's run in 2007 is the next highest, and it was selling 91k by issue 8. So... close, but not there. And keep in mind that digital wasn't a thing back then, and trades were not as hot as they are right now (I went down this rabbit hole after seeing that sales of adult TPBs/GNs had more than doubled over the past year, thanks at least in part to pandemic binge reading. got curious how floppies were doing, if the trade sales had eaten into their numbers, and, then saw Thor's numbers and was like whaaa? so down the rabbit hole i went) so books around that time saw a much larger percentage of their readers via floppies. Today, you have to factor in digital and trades to a greater degree, and those are not counted on these charts. So Cates' numbers are already higher than shown relative to the 2007 run, we just are not sure by exactly how much.
What's really interesting though is that sales have been GOING UP, not down. This is extremely unusual, and happens when retailers realize they have vastly underestimated interest in a book. It's happened with books like Ewing's Hulk, Tom King's Vision, and a few others. But typically, a book debuts high and then sheds readers quickly at first then settles into a slow decline with maybe the occasional blip upward, but more or less holding steady, and then they relaunch to shake things up and begin the process again. Upward growth almost never happens, especially early into a run. It debuted at 158k, which is decent for Thor, then immediately, the very next issue, which came out in the SAME MONTH, plummeted to 51k. This is around the place where Aaron's Thor finished. So it appears retailers expected a big #1, then for it to settle into the same kinds of numbers Aaron's Thor had (and the Thor runs before that) which isn't unreasonable, i guess, though that is a very steep drop for a #2, i would have expected something closer to 75k, but.... There's certainly no way they could have anticipated it would sell double what Aaron's run did, in any case. And Aaron's run, despite what some will say, didn't do badly. It did well for a solo book with a character of Thor's stature. He's not Spider-Man, he's not Batman, he's just not a 100k character.... usually. Ewing's Hulk, for comparison is extremely well received, and it sells around 40k. Cap sells 40k. Before Aaron took over with God of Thunder, it was selling 30k. So 50k is not bad for a character like Thor. anyway, then issue 3 was down to 48k, (steep drop then slow decline, as mentioned) and this is about when retailers would have realized they fucked up, and demand was far more than they anticipated, so the re-orders begin. Thor #1 saw some small re-order activity this month, but it was the next month that it began really going, and issue 4 was at 76k, and 1-3 also all chart with re-orders, just a few thousand, but this is before the reprints begin. But then the pandemic hit so the estimates charts got thrown completely out of whack for a while, books were delayed, and it was a mess. But you can see re-order activity in the advance re-order charts, and though there are no estimates for a while, Thor creeps up the chart placements, until it is outselling X-Men and Spider-Man by issue 6. Estimates come back for issue 7, and it is at somewhere between 110 and 130k (Comichron added an estimate range for the first time here, i presume because they are less certain of the accuracy of their estimates) which is a huge jump from the estimated 76k for issue 4, so i can only guess that issues 5 and 6 were between 80k or so and 130k, somewhere. Though maybe not all at once, because they were also on that same chart, somewhere between 65 and 85k in re-orders. Now, I am sure this could be greatly inflated due to pandemic supply issues, but still, a 65k re-order is insane, and the other books that month didn't see the same book place 3 times with massive re-orders. Re-orders, sure, but nothing crazy. X-Men is on there with issue 12 at 75k+, X-Men 10 with 1,200+, 11 with 1000+ and 2 with 1000+. Hulk issue 37 at 60k+ and 36 with 800+ and stuff like that. Re-orders, but normal re-orders of a few thousand or less. In any case, it is upward movement, not downward, which is extremely unusual, as mentioned. And then, issue 8, we seem to see it leveling off, as it sees it's first decline since issue 3, but that still has it at 105-115k, and still outselling X-Men, though it has dipped back below Spider-Man. (and Venom, so, like Cates is killing it all round. Though to be fair this was full steam towards King in Black, so, Spider-Man and Venom got a boost)
But this isn't about it being the top book, it hasn't hit #1, it's about how well it sells relative to other Thor books that came before, and that is insanely well. Double what they tended to average. By issue 8, JMS' run was at 91k as mentioned, so not TOO much better than that, (though, the digital and trade thing, as mentioned) but settled around 70k. Then Fraction's run averaged around 30k, God of Thunder averaged around 50k, Jane Foster Thor around 70k, Mighty Thor was at 50k by issue 8 (though it seems it was basically just treated as a continuation of the previous book as far as ordering went) but was around 40k by the time the book ended, and then Thor, the one where Thor was the main character again, started out at 100k, 46k by issue 8, and that's about where it settled, before War of the Realms began messing with the numbers. And Cates did that without any event tie-ins. Cates could have tied it into King In Black, but he didn't. (though he did have Thor participate in the event books, but the Thor book itself has remained completely self contained so far) Anyway after that they stopped doing estimates, but Thor makes repeated appearances in the advance re-order charts, and Thor #2 is on it's 6th printing, 8 has a second printing already, despite, as just laid out, already selling over a hundred thousand copies. I mean I knew Thor was a hot book, I just didn't realize how hot. Especially when you consider that it's Thor. A book that seems to have an average level somewhere between 30k and 70k most of the time. Even if Thor's numbers dip to 80k, which, considering after 8 issues it's at 100k doesn't seem unreasonable, it will still be selling better than any Thor book in the past 20 years or more.
anyway. all that is to say, this actually bodes well for Loki. If Loki factors into things, then it is in what has become an extremely high profile book. And if it spins off into a solo, it gives it a huge amount of exposure, and any potential spinoff will get a bigger boost, especially if it spins directly out of events in Thor, and they are treated as true sister books where to get the full picture you should probably read both. And if Cates writes both (he is off Venom soonish so he's got a spot in his schedule opening up) even better, cus he is clearly the hottest ticket in town right now.