July x-books sales: X-Men #1 comes out on top!

[Purplevit]

And then there is Hellions.

Which has as main characters besides Psylocke (who is not even the original Psylocke but just a previously minor character who lucked out in getting the appearance and costume that has been heavily associated with the name Psylocke for decades), Scalphunter/Greycrow a classic B-list villain, Wildchild an old C-list hero/villain, Empath an old C-list villain, Nanny and Orphan Maker both old C to D-list villains.

Besides that there is of course Mister Sinister as major antagonist, being essentialy a second protagonsit besides the team, but for many people he is a mixed bag where they either love him or hate him when he appears in stories. So it's not like he is a sure fire draw.

So if the cast of SWORD was the major issue for the book not selling well because of not having enough fan favorits in it, than Hellions should have declined just as fast as SWORD does.

Yet in the sales we are seeing here, it's not only 6 issues ahead of SWORD (meaning a longer time for sales to decline), but still selling 10k more issues.

To me it seems that what makes Hellions work well so far despite the lack of many fan favorits as team members, is that it features enjoyable main stories, a strong overaching sup-plot and a consistent major antagonist in Mister Sinister and his secret activities, which also has the fortune of tying into a major element from HOX/POX.

Meanwhile SWORD got tied into foreign events almost every issue since launch, leaving it unable to have enjoyable longer main stories and has not established any real major antagonist for itself beyond Henry Gyrich.

Further i would argue that Hellions is walking on familiar ground for X-men fans (ragtag bunch of misfit mutants having to handle the problems a classic villian is causing constantly), while SWORD centers on an experimental concept of a mutant nation (allready experimental in itself) becomming a major power in the galactic community of the Marvel Universe (and barely a year after the whole thing has been retconned into existence with no build up), which goes contrary to the classic image of the Marvel's mutants as reflection of a fantastic but modern cosmopolitical urban presence (see the whole mutant metaphor as reflection of racism and/or exclusion of people who are different). Compare to the Inhumans who have always been more of a "aliens living near us in space" concept, therefor making it easy for them to be a minor space presence.

Yes the X-men have been in space frequently and have ties there, but these are for them as team specifically, similar to the Fanastic Four or Avengers and their space adventures, not for the mutants as overall presence in the marvel universe, who had been frequently presented as rooted to Earth just like the rest of humanity.

And then there is the whole idea of "Mutant Circuits" which is a pretty dehumanizing reduction of characters down to their function via powers, which might decrease the joy of seeing minor fan favorits on pannel, because they are automatically reduced to just playing cogs in a machine.

So as far as i can see, there is a lot more weighting down on SWORD despite it's positives, than just it's lack of "fan favorits" as draw.

Hellions is my favorite current book and it has the same problem. Can`t find more detailed sales.
Gala issues for Hellions and Sword sold almost the same. Before Gala Hellions #11 sold worse than Sword with sales probably around 25 k.
Maybe Gala issue boosted sales a little bit and more people decided to stay on book because Hellions Gala was probably my favorite issue this year. Completely amazing.

#54 Hellions #13 --- 34,802
58 65 Hellions 12 $3.99 06/02/21 Marvel 46,810
77 86 Hellions 11 $3.99 05/05/21 Marvel
67 78 Hellions 10 $3.99 03/03/21 Marvel
56 63 Hellions 9 $3.99 02/03/21 Marvel
59 63 Hellions 8 $3.99 01/06/21 Marvel


#76 S.W.O.R.D. #7 --- 26,238
64 74 Sword 6 $3.99 06/23/21 Marvel 44,069
58 66 Sword 5 $3.99 04/21/21 Marvel
61 72 Sword 4 $3.99 03/17/21 Marvel
47 56 Sword 3 $3.99 02/10/21 Marvel
54 58 Sword 2 $3.99 01/13/21 Marvel

[Devaishwarya]

Which makes sense based on what was revealed recently (as a result of HiX-Man moving away from the X-books) that in 2022 the books will fall into a weekly schedule for a short while leading up to a more condensed/streamlined line of books.

I'm quite certain the premise of SWORD will continue even if it's under another name.

The main reasons I think why SWORD "seems" to be doing so badly (it's still in the 100) are...
1: Lack of brand recognition, leading to lack of interest. (X-Men fans are notorious for buying everything with an X in the name even if it's gawdawful)
2: It doesn't deal with anything directly related to Krakoa, (a HUGE plus for me, but I'm in the minority) again...rabid X-fans who follow only mutant goings-on but completely ignore everything else Marvel is publishing.

[Grunty]

Hellions is my favorite current book and it has the same problem. Can`t find more detailed sales.
Gala issues for Hellions and Sword sold almost the same. Before Gala Hellions #11 sold worse than Sword with sales probably around 25 k.
Maybe Gala issue boosted sales a little bit and more people decided to stay on book because Hellions Gala was probably my favorite issue this year. Completely amazing.

*sales numbers*

Thanks for the informations, so i can re-evaluate my assessment.

[cranger]

The days of the sales chart are dead, enjoy the freedom of liking a book and not having someone tell you it is not as good as the book they like because it has less sales.

The only thing it was good for as a reader is knowing if a book was probably going to get cancelled and they have not even been a reliable indicator of that for half a decade.

[Milici]

I could see S.W.O.R.D morphing into X-Terminators, What do you all think Zeb Wells next book could be? I hop he doesn't get`s the chop.

[Purplevit]

I could see S.W.O.R.D morphing into X-Terminators, What do you all think Zeb Wells next book could be? I hop he doesn't get`s the chop.

I would love Zeb Wells to get Uncanny X-Force with Wolverine, Gambit, Deadpool, Psylocke, Frenzy and Sinister.

[Rev9]

Wish SWORD was doing better. I like it so much more than X-Force.

I hope they have something in the works to make it work.

What I find a little strange is how in XMen 1 and 2 we hear about some intergalactic casino playing for spoils and yet it is Jean who has the Intel on this .While I love that the X-Men began in such high stakes face-offs , wouldn't it be better optics if the intergalactic casino was spotted by the S.W.O.R.D team? What the hell are S.W.O.R.D doing up there? they look redundant.Wouldnt it be better X-Men began facing off a more earthly threat?

[Devaishwarya]

The days of the sales chart are dead, enjoy the freedom of liking a book and not having someone tell you it is not as good as the book they like because it has less sales.

The only thing it was good for as a reader is knowing if a book was probably going to get cancelled and they have not even been a reliable indicator of that for half a decade.

Exactatiously.