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

[Iron Maiden]

The numbers are based on shops that use ComicHub. Interesting, but possibly not entirely representative. That might explain some unusual or unexpected rankings.

For now Marvel is still using Diamond Distributors but they are on the verge of ending that deal. DC already switched distributors from Diamond Distributors to Lunar last year. Diamond Distributors is losing their lock on a lot of companies. IIRC Marvel will be switching to PenguinRandom House in October but for now the agreement is still with Diamond Distributors

Diamond Distributors rankings for July haven't been published yet but here are the June figures

The Comichron site keeps track of these figures also, gathering data from the distributors and here's what they have from June and it looks like they might be combining data from other distributors than Diamond, which is necessary now since they aren't the only game in town anymore.

[Luckystar.]

The estimates are in.

#1 X-Men #1 --- 248,800
#15 Wolverine #14 --- 60,892
#50 Marauders #22 --- 36,103
#54 Hellions #13 --- 34,802
#56 X-Force #21 --- 34,738
#59 Excalibur #22 --- 32,874
#60 X-Men Legends #5 --- 32,561
#61 Way of X #4 --- 32,553
#62 X-Corp #3 --- 31,084
#64 New Mutants #20 --- 30,234
#73 Children of the Atom #5 --- 26,932
#76 S.W.O.R.D. #7 --- 26,238
#82 Cable #12 --- 23,288

https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...07Diamond.html

SWORD is flopping hard.

[Kingdom X]

The estimates are in.

#1 X-Men #1 --- 248,800
#15 Wolverine #14 --- 60,892
#50 Marauders #22 --- 36,103
#54 Hellions #13 --- 34,802
#56 X-Force #21 --- 34,738
#59 Excalibur #22 --- 32,874
#60 X-Men Legends #5 --- 32,561
#61 Way of X #4 --- 32,553
#62 X-Corp #3 --- 31,084
#64 New Mutants #20 --- 30,234
#73 Children of the Atom #5 --- 26,932
#76 S.W.O.R.D. #7 --- 26,238
#82 Cable #12 --- 23,288

https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...07Diamond.html

SWORD is flopping hard.

Lower than COTA… that’s rough.

[Grunty]

*Numbers*

SWORD is flopping hard.

Considering i've seen even the more cynic X-men fans being positive about the quality of writing and story, i can't help but suspect the repeated critiscm of the constant event tie ins to be a major reason for it suffering in sales.

Overall a lot of numbers which aren't ecouraging.

[Jackraow21]

Feel confident SWORD will be getting a reboot as something else. Maybe Uncanny? You don’t just add Storm to the cast and make a huge deal out of her being Regent of Sol, Queen of Mars and then cancel the book she appears in. Feel very confident there’s a relaunch coming as something else, with her and Cable and some other X-men characters out in space. I’d bet money on it.

[Saturius]

Feel confident SWORD will be getting a reboot as something else. Maybe Uncanny? You don’t just add Storm to the cast and make a huge deal out of her being Regent of Sol, Queen of Mars and then cancel the book she appears in. Feel very confident there’s a relaunch coming as something else, with her and Cable and some other X-men characters out in space. I’d bet money on it.

With the X line getting rebooted in January, its poor sales probably don't matter anyway. It's definitely getting rebranded as something else.

[Jackraow21]

No doubt in my mind. Fully agree.

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

With the X line getting rebooted in January, its poor sales probably don't matter anyway. It's definitely getting rebranded as something else.

Watch them call it "Cable and...." ala Cable and X-Force.

[Jackraow21]

Doubtful. Storm would be the bigger headliner. My guess is Uncanny X-men if they want to maximize sales.

[Saturius]

With sales this low, it would be dumb if the Uncanny name wasn't brought back come January. That title instantly comes with brand recognition of flagship status. Everyone is right. Throw a few more names and A Listers on the team and it certainly wouldn't feel like a cheat to give SWORD that title.

[RamaBird]

Feel confident SWORD will be getting a reboot as something else. Maybe Uncanny? You don’t just add Storm to the cast and make a huge deal out of her being Regent of Sol, Queen of Mars and then cancel the book she appears in. Feel very confident there’s a relaunch coming as something else, with her and Cable and some other X-men characters out in space. I’d bet money on it.

Actually that does sound like something they would do! lol.

Anyway, it sucks SWORD is struggling when XFORCE is doing well? Maybe they need to rebrand SWORD as XFORCE? I don't see it lasting but maybe they'll continue the story in a new book?

Also, are these numbers that bad? I haven't followed sales in a while but when I did you had to dip below 20K to be in cancellation range.

[Purplevit]

SWORD is one of the best X book now and Ewing is awesome but its main problem was always cast from the start: Magneto, Abigail Brand, Teen Cable, Frenzy, Wiz-Kid, Fabian Cortez, Manifold.

Magneto is the only character in a book that can get votes as favorite character for a lot of people. People may like Brand, Manifold or Frenzy but there are not a lot of die hard fans for them as their favorite character. Teen Cable was also a problem because he was mostly hated even by Cable fans. Most of the cast can be forgotten.

If adding Storm to the book not from the start would influence sales to rise then she would have had a solo a long time ago. She is not Wolverine and won`t save a dying book.

Excalibur is a pure trash but sells better because holds as a prison fan favorite characters. Gambit, Rogue (21 issues before Gala), Betsy fans had no other option or other book to read or support since 2019 if they want to get a monthly fix of their fave character. I know a lot of Gambit fans who hate that book but still buy it.

[FFJamie94]

Sword is great, but it reminds me a lot of Ewing's Mighty Avengers from a few years ago. Both suffered from being event heavy books, with Mighty covering Infinity, Inhumanity and Original Sin in its first 14 issues alone. Neither have had much of a chance to find an identity. The biggest difference with Sword is that it at least has ties to Ewing's Guardians and also references his Empyre event.
Sword at least has Ewing DNA all over it, even if the other half of the run so far has been external tie-in to events.

[Grunty]

SWORD is one of the best X book now and Ewing is awesome but its main problem was always cast from the start: Magneto, Abigail Brand, Teen Cable, Frenzy, Wiz-Kid, Fabian Cortez, Manifold.

Magneto is the only character in a book that can get votes as favorite character for a lot of people. People may like Brand, Manifold or Frenzy but there are not a lot of die hard fans for them as their favorite character. Teen Cable was also a problem because he was mostly hated even by Cable fans. Most of the cast can be forgotten.

If adding Storm to the book would influence sales to rise then she would have had a solo a long time ago. She is not Wolverine and won`t save a dying book.

Excalibur is a pure trash but sells better because holds as a prison fan favorite characters. Gambit, Rogue (21 issues before Gala), Betsy fans had no other option or other book to read or support since 2019 if they want to get a monthly fix of their fave character. I know a lot of Gambit fans who hate that book but still buy it.

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.

[bishop66]

praying sword morphs into uncanny-men.....could be something else but i have had it confirmed to me by several people in the know that issue 11 is the last issue of sword