Can You Guys Just Relax About the Treatment of the X-Men? They'll Be Fine

[Starleafgirl]

Continuing from the thread's title, there's literally nothing to worry about.

Putting aside the fact that we don't know how many of those "Secret Wars" X-themed books are just limited series and not new ongoings...

Diamond Comic Distributors preorders for October 1996:
http://comichron.com/monthlycomicssa...6/1996-10.html

Here are the X-titles that made it into the Top 20:

1 X-Men 59 $1.95 Marvel 202,024
2 Uncanny X-Men 339 $1.95 Marvel 200,127
3 Wolverine 108 $1.95 Marvel 179,775
9 Generation X 22 $1.95 Marvel 137,175
13 X-Man 22 $1.95 Marvel 130,441
14 X-Force 61 $1.95 Marvel 125,752
16 X-Men Unlimited 13 $2.95 Marvel 122,694
18 X-Factor 129 $1.95 Marvel 119,680
19 Cable 38 $1.95 Marvel 119,162
20 Magneto 2 $1.95 Marvel 116,973

Heck, Generation X was #9 and that title never really crossed over with the "main" x-books. It did tie into an event or two.

===

Fast-forward to January 2000:
http://comichron.com/monthlycomicssa...0/2000-01.html

Numbers for the Top 20 have dropped, with the bottom rung titles around the 50k mark.

As you can see, Uncanny, adjectiveless, and Wolverine are still king, but there are many fewer x-titles making it to the Top 20 at all.

1 Uncanny X-Men 378 $1.99 Marvel 113,703
2 X-Men 98 $1.99 Marvel 109,676
3 Wolverine 148 $1.99 Marvel 87,852
10 X-Men Unlimited 26 $2.99 Marvel 62,097
12 Cable 77 $1.99 Marvel 57,214

If we're generous enough to expand it to the Top 50, you can see that the numbers for many x-titles have dropped below the 50k mark.

21 X-Men Children of the Atom 4 (Res) $2.99 Marvel 49,001
23 Mutant X 17 (Res) $1.99 Marvel 48,726
25 X-Force 100 $2.99 Marvel 46,671
28 X-Men The Hidden Years 4 $2.50 Marvel 44,051
33 Generation X 61 $1.99 Marvel 41,599
44 Gambit 14 $1.99 Marvel 38,978

===

Disney completed its acquisition of Marvel in December of 2009, though we'd known it it was happening since at least August 2009.

January 2010 numbers:
http://comichron.com/monthlycomicssa...0/2010-01.html

A decade after our last little look-see, the Top 20 comics' x-content is:

10 Uncanny X-Men 520 $2.99 Marvel 65,758

Well, that's awkward.

Now you can see why I had to expand it to the Top 50. So let's take a look...

21 Dark Wolverine 82 $2.99 Marvel 52,015
22 X-Force 23 $2.99 Marvel 50,848
23 X-Men Legacy 232 $2.99 Marvel 49,200
36 Deadpool Merc With A Mouth 7 $3.99 Marvel 40,568
42 Dark X-Men 3 $3.99 Marvel 37,873

===

Moving on to May 2012:
http://comichron.com/monthlycomicssa...2/2012-05.html

The release of the first Avengers movie and about two years into the Disney acquisition, we see in the Top 20 a couple of event titles (the first event to really vilify the X-Men and proclaim the Avengers as the heroes that must beat them) reigning at the top.

1 Avengers Vs X-Men 4 $3.99 Marvel 178,330
2 Avengers Vs X-Men 3 $3.99 Marvel 175,695
6 AVX Vs 2 $3.99 Marvel 98,819
14 Uncanny X-Men 12 $3.99 Marvel 69,265
16 Wolverine And X-Men 11 $3.99 Marvel 64,936
18 Wolverine And X-Men 10 $3.99 Marvel 63,650

Additional titles from the Top 50:

27 Astonishing X-Men 50 $3.99 Marvel 57,931
29 Uncanny X-Force 25 $4.99 Marvel 50,851
37 X-Men Legacy 267 $2.99 Marvel 46,279
42 X-Men Legacy 266 $2.99 Marvel 43,199

===

Next: November 2012:
http://comichron.com/monthlycomicssa...2/2012-11.html

Some called him our savior, others regarded him a herald of the Apocalypse: B.M. Bendis arrives on the x-scene with All-New X-Men #1. Following that are Deadpool and Uncanny Avengers, neither of which I consider X-Books. Rounding out the Top 20 are the second issue of All-New X-Men and the first issue of the now-cancelled X-Men: Legacy.

1 All New X-Men 1 $3.99 Marvel 181,693
4 Deadpool 1 $2.99 Marvel 118,976
8 Uncanny Avengers 2 $3.99 Marvel 114,257
11 All New X-Men 2 $3.99 Marvel 96,436
12 X-Men Legacy 1 $2.99 Marvel 87,081

November 2012 Top 50 expansion. Again, I don't consider A+X or AVX to be X-Books, but it's just to give you some idea of where the X-characters are in the Top 50. Besides those event-related titles, you've got Deadpool, the second issue of X-Men: Legacy, and a couple of books benefiting from having "Wolverine" in their name -- and back in May 2012 they were in the Top 20, not the Top 50:

21 Deadpool 2 $2.99 Marvel 67,421
23 A Plus X 2 $3.99 Marvel 64,606
31 AVX Consequences 5 $3.99 Marvel 58,469
34 X-Men Legacy 2 $2.99 Marvel 58,037
46 Wolverine And X-Men 20 $3.99 Marvel 48,432
48 Wolverine And X-Men 21 $3.99 Marvel 48,244

===

Fast-forward to February 2013:
http://comichron.com/monthlycomicssa...3/2013-02.html

Bendis is launching his second x-book Uncanny X-Men. If the first Bendis-Men book was good for the X-Men (lol), then this second one must be even better, right?? Well, let's see... It's second only to a different #1, so that's great for that particular title, but where are all the other x-books?? It's the two Bendis books and the non-X-title Uncanny Avengers in the Top 20 and that's it.

2 Uncanny X-Men 1 $3.99 Marvel 177,463
7 Uncanny X-Men 2 $3.99 Marvel 94,615
8 Uncanny Avengers 4 $3.99 Marvel 87,539
11 All New X-Men 7 $3.99 Marvel 85,234

February 2013: Top 50 expansion:

23 Savage Wolverine 2 $3.99 Marvel 58,254
24 Deadpool 5 $2.99 Marvel 57,312
26 Uncanny X-Force 2 $3.99 Marvel 56,713
39 Cable And X-Force 4 $3.99 Marvel 46,104
41 Wolverine And X-Men 25 $3.99 Marvel 45,057

===

Finally, December 2014, the most recent numbers available at this time:
http://comichron.com/monthlycomicssa...4/2014-12.html

8 Avengers and X-Men Axis 7 $3.99 Marvel 70,194
9 Avengers and X-Men Axis 9 $4.99 Marvel 69,518
10 Avengers and X-Men Axis 8 $3.99 Marvel 69,449
14 Spider-Man and X-Men 1 $3.99 Marvel 61,952
18 All New X-Men 34 $3.99 Marvel 57,569

If you take away the event books (for the second event vilifying the X-Men), all you've got left is Spider-Man and the X-Men (which clearly benefits from Spider-Man's massive popularity, but even so is around 60k in sales) and one Bendis-Men book.

Is that what we've really been reduced to??

Here we get the second Bendis-Men book, related annuals, and more Deadpool to round out the Top 50:

21 Uncanny X-Men 29 $3.99 Marvel 53,502
37 All New X-Men Annual 1 $4.99 Marvel 44,052
39 Uncanny X-Men Annual 1 $4.99 Marvel 43,978
40 Deadpool 38 $3.99 Marvel 43,433
44 Deadpool 39 $3.99 Marvel 42,198

======================

Conclusions:

The first Bendis-Men's book has numbers comparable to the X-Men books in their heyday (example above: Oct. 1996), which could be a sign that the X-Men books are fine, but if you really look at the Top 20, what else do you see besides All-New?

Back in 1996, I didn't have to expand to the Top 50 to find no less than 10 x-related titles in the Top 20! By the time we get to the second Bendids-Men book, you can see that the #1 for that title is also comparable to the top books for the X-Books' heyday, but by then the two Bendis books are the only ones making the Top 20.

Most recently, not even both Bendis-Men books made it to the Top 20. For the rest of the "metric crap-ton of X-books" as you put it, you'll find them here (I didn't include the ones with Deadpool in the title, but those are doing better than most of these if you want some context), ranked from 53 to 148 (EDIT: I think the 297 one is a reprint, lol):

53 Death of Wolverine Logan Legacy 6 $3.99 Marvel 36,647
57 Death of Wolverine Logan Legacy 7 $3.99 Marvel 34,807
76 Amazing X-Men 14 $3.99 Marvel 31,468
82 X-Men 22 $3.99 Marvel 30,200
84 Death of Wolverine Weapon X Program 3 $3.99 Marvel 29,355
88 Death of Wolverine Weapon X Program 4 $3.99 Marvel 27,979
91 Magneto 13 $3.99 Marvel 27,418
124 All New X-Factor 17 $3.99 Marvel 20,916
128 Nightcrawler 9 $3.99 Marvel 20,317
131 All New X-Factor 18 $3.99 Marvel 19,963
137 X-Force 13 $3.99 Marvel 18,759
145 Cyclops 8 $3.99 Marvel 17,146
148 Storm 6 $3.99 Marvel 17,028
297 Death of Wolverine 2 $4.99 Marvel 5,079

The lowest-ranked of the regular x-books are hovering around the 17k. Not 50k, not 30k, but 17k! That's well below the 20k cancellation line. We can't see how much digital sales are helping the X-titles, or any other books for that matter, so these preorder numbers are all we've got.

So yeah...

It's not going to be fine.

I'm not going to relax about it.

I don't know why you'd expect any x-fan to do so.

[Neoxon]

Thanks, but I do not need to edit that other than maybe replace a comma with a 'then' for clarity, so that "if they think they can get away with a lineup that is X-Men free then I have no doubt they will do it". The condition is whether they have gone all in on the MCU or not. While Disney/Marvel cares about the MCU more than X-Men they also care about their market share and profits. It all depends on whether they think their lineup is strong enough without the mutants.

As for F4, there may be something that has not been hinted at yet like Secret Wars 2099 and whatever that Kung-Fu title is seem to have come out of nowhere, or it could just be that there was no big F4 story they felt was going to wow the readers when they made their initial marketing push.

This is exactly why the X-Men will stick around. 4 of the Top 10 comic of 2014 were involving mutants (granted, it was Death of Wolverine, & it got outsold by Spidey & Rocket, but still), & they still pull in great numbers overall monthly. Besides screwing over Fox, Marvel has no reason to remove the X-Men. At least the Fantastic Four were selling terribly.

[Mr. Brightside]

[Info Realness]

So yeah...

It's not going to be fine.

I'm not going to relax about it.

I don't know why you'd expect any x-fan to do so.

Nice job!!!
And which are now the top titles? And are they... oh... ones pushed by Disney and their movies?
The x-men stick around DESPITE attempts at their diminishment, thanks to non-complacent fans.

[Neoxon]

[Tons of Informative Sales Figures That Starleafgirl Should Be Commended on Gathering]
The lowest-ranked of the regular x-books are hovering around the 17k. Not 50k, not 30k, but 17k! That's well below the 20k cancellation line. We can't see how much digital sales are helping the X-titles, or any other books for that matter, so these preorder numbers are all we've got.

So yeah...

It's not going to be fine.

I'm not going to relax about it.

I don't know why you'd expect any x-fan to do so.

The cancel those particular books. We still have X-Men in the Top 20 at all, & not every X-Book has to be a best seller (the same could be said for Avengers).

[Starleafgirl]

Nice job!!!
And which are now the top titles? And are they... oh... ones pushed by Disney and their movies?
The x-men stick around DESPITE attempts at their diminishment, thanks to non-complacent fans.

Thanks.

You could analyze the same path the Avengers titles took over the same amount of time if you want, but I don't think anyone would be surprised to see the Avengers-related titles in the Top 20 and outselling most of the x-books after The Avengers movie... meh, the popularity of Avengers comics isn't really a subject of interest for me.

Just glancing at the Top 20 for December 2014, though...

DC is King:
1 Batman 37 $3.99 DC 113,255

A couple of titles Disney loves (incl. their amicable relationship with Sony films):

2 Amazing Spider-Man 11 $3.99 Marvel 104,739
3 Shield 1 $4.99 Marvel 94,503

DC again:

4 Batman Annual 3 $4.99 DC 81,396

An Avenger:

5 Thor 3 $3.99 Marvel 72,563

DC:

6 Justice League 37 $3.99 DC 72,081

Spider-Man, he's amazing!

7 Amazing Spider-Man Annual 1 $4.99 Marvel 71,284

Event vilifying the X-Men:

8 Avengers and X-Men Axis 7 $3.99 Marvel 70,194
9 Avengers and X-Men Axis 9 $4.99 Marvel 69,518
10 Avengers and X-Men Axis 8 $3.99 Marvel 69,449

11-13: DC & Image

Spider-Man, X-Men, and psuedo-Avengers-related character:

14 Spider-Man and X-Men 1 $3.99 Marvel 61,952
15 Angela Asgards Assassin 1 $3.99 Marvel 61,398

16-17: DC

Second Bendis-Men book:

18 All New X-Men 34 $3.99 Marvel 57,569

19-20: DC

[Starleafgirl]

The cancel those particular books. We still have X-Men in the Top 20 at all, & not every X-Book has to be a best seller (the same could be said for Avengers).

Where would you draw this imaginary cancellation line in the sand?

At 50k in sales? That would seem reasonable in the X-Men's heyday, since the top titles were 200k to 100k...

Let's see which titles would survive that:

14 Spider-Man and X-Men 1 $3.99 Marvel 61,952
18 All New X-Men 34 $3.99 Marvel 57,569
21 Uncanny X-Men 29 $3.99 Marvel 53,502

That would give us a total of three X-books, two of which are written by Bends.

Well, I guess that's just ridiculous.

Let's be a little more lenient... 30k sales:

76 Amazing X-Men 14 $3.99 Marvel 31,468
82 X-Men 22 $3.99 Marvel 30,200

Okay, now you've got a total of five X-Books that aren't event-related titles or limited to the Death of Wolverine storyline.

Is that plenty enough for you? Is that a praiseworthy "metric crap-ton" of X-Books to you?

[Neoxon]

Just watch this. He does touch on the fears you guys have & pretty much say what I've been trying to tell you guys.

[Neoxon]

Where would you draw this imaginary cancellation line in the sand?

At 50k in sales? That would seem reasonable in the X-Men's heyday, since the top titles were 200k to 100k...

Let's see which titles would survive that:

14 Spider-Man and X-Men 1 $3.99 Marvel 61,952
18 All New X-Men 34 $3.99 Marvel 57,569
21 Uncanny X-Men 29 $3.99 Marvel 53,502

That would give us a total of three X-books, two of which are written by Bends.

Well, I guess that's just ridiculous.

Let's be a little more lenient... 30k sales:

76 Amazing X-Men 14 $3.99 Marvel 31,468
82 X-Men 22 $3.99 Marvel 30,200

Okay, now you've got a total of five X-Books that aren't event-related titles or limited to the Death of Wolverine storyline.

Is that plenty enough for you? Is that a praiseworthy "metric crap-ton" of X-Books to you?

We have around 5-6 Guardians books, & I forget how many Avengers books there are. And even then, not every single one is a best seller.

[Mr. Brightside]

Where would you draw this imaginary cancellation line in the sand?

At 50k in sales? That would seem reasonable in the X-Men's heyday, since the top titles were 200k to 100k...

Let's see which titles would survive that:

14 Spider-Man and X-Men 1 $3.99 Marvel 61,952
18 All New X-Men 34 $3.99 Marvel 57,569
21 Uncanny X-Men 29 $3.99 Marvel 53,502

That would give us a total of three X-books, two of which are written by Bends.

Well, I guess that's just ridiculous.

Then Pad's X-factor gets cancelled, and he's put to work on a 2099 title.... featuring future AVENGERS!!

[Park Slope Pixie]

EDIT: I just finished reading the link. He said that the X-Men as we know them will end after Axis. Axis has come & gone, yet the mutants are still around.

He didn't say that they'd be gone. He said that it'd be over as we knew them. And he's right, it's dovetailing right into the Secret Wars reboot.

The guy was right on the money Deep throat.

[cranger]

We have around 5-6 Guardians books, & I forget how many Avengers books there are. And even then, not every single one is a best seller.

Because Avengers are garbage and were built up at the X-Men's expense but people are getting tired of that one-trick pony.

(Note: I don't hate the Avengers, but it was never a franchise that established itself the same way X-Men was)

[Neoxon]

Because Avengers are garbage and were built up at the X-Men's expense but people are getting tired of that one-trick pony.

(Note: I don't hate the Avengers, but it was never a franchise that established itself the same way X-Men was)

The MCU is the reason why the Avengers became pop-culture icons, & them still being prevalent today shows that they aren't garbage. They also weren't built up at the expense of the X-Men, as we still see stuff from the mutants.

[Neoxon]

He didn't say that they'd be gone. He said that it'd be over as we knew them. And he's right, it's dovetailing right into the Secret Wars reboot.

The guy was right on the money Deep throat.

We also don't know if Secret Wars will end with a reboot, as Marvel has pretty much avoided using the word reboot.

[Beezzi]

Putting aside the fact that we don't know how many of those "Secret Wars" X-themed books are just limited series and not new ongoings...

Diamond Comic Distributors preorders for October 1996:
http://comichron.com/monthlycomicssa...6/1996-10.html

Here are the X-titles that made it into the Top 20:

1 X-Men 59 $1.95 Marvel 202,024
2 Uncanny X-Men 339 $1.95 Marvel 200,127
3 Wolverine 108 $1.95 Marvel 179,775
9 Generation X 22 $1.95 Marvel 137,175
13 X-Man 22 $1.95 Marvel 130,441
14 X-Force 61 $1.95 Marvel 125,752
16 X-Men Unlimited 13 $2.95 Marvel 122,694
18 X-Factor 129 $1.95 Marvel 119,680
19 Cable 38 $1.95 Marvel 119,162
20 Magneto 2 $1.95 Marvel 116,973

Heck, Generation X was #9 and that title never really crossed over with the "main" x-books. It did tie into an event or two.

===

Fast-forward to January 2000:
http://comichron.com/monthlycomicssa...0/2000-01.html

Numbers for the Top 20 have dropped, with the bottom rung titles around the 50k mark.

As you can see, Uncanny, adjectiveless, and Wolverine are still king, but there are many fewer x-titles making it to the Top 20 at all.

1 Uncanny X-Men 378 $1.99 Marvel 113,703
2 X-Men 98 $1.99 Marvel 109,676
3 Wolverine 148 $1.99 Marvel 87,852
10 X-Men Unlimited 26 $2.99 Marvel 62,097
12 Cable 77 $1.99 Marvel 57,214

If we're generous enough to expand it to the Top 50, you can see that the numbers for many x-titles have dropped below the 50k mark.

21 X-Men Children of the Atom 4 (Res) $2.99 Marvel 49,001
23 Mutant X 17 (Res) $1.99 Marvel 48,726
25 X-Force 100 $2.99 Marvel 46,671
28 X-Men The Hidden Years 4 $2.50 Marvel 44,051
33 Generation X 61 $1.99 Marvel 41,599
44 Gambit 14 $1.99 Marvel 38,978

===

Disney completed its acquisition of Marvel in December of 2009, though we'd known it it was happening since at least August 2009.

January 2010 numbers:
http://comichron.com/monthlycomicssa...0/2010-01.html

A decade after our last little look-see, the Top 20 comics' x-content is:

10 Uncanny X-Men 520 $2.99 Marvel 65,758

Well, that's awkward.

Now you can see why I had to expand it to the Top 50. So let's take a look...

21 Dark Wolverine 82 $2.99 Marvel 52,015
22 X-Force 23 $2.99 Marvel 50,848
23 X-Men Legacy 232 $2.99 Marvel 49,200
36 Deadpool Merc With A Mouth 7 $3.99 Marvel 40,568
42 Dark X-Men 3 $3.99 Marvel 37,873

===

Moving on to May 2012:
http://comichron.com/monthlycomicssa...2/2012-05.html

The release of the first Avengers movie and about two years into the Disney acquisition, we see in the Top 20 a couple of event titles (the first event to really vilify the X-Men and proclaim the Avengers as the heroes that must beat them) reigning at the top.

1 Avengers Vs X-Men 4 $3.99 Marvel 178,330
2 Avengers Vs X-Men 3 $3.99 Marvel 175,695
6 AVX Vs 2 $3.99 Marvel 98,819
14 Uncanny X-Men 12 $3.99 Marvel 69,265
16 Wolverine And X-Men 11 $3.99 Marvel 64,936
18 Wolverine And X-Men 10 $3.99 Marvel 63,650

Additional titles from the Top 50:

27 Astonishing X-Men 50 $3.99 Marvel 57,931
29 Uncanny X-Force 25 $4.99 Marvel 50,851
37 X-Men Legacy 267 $2.99 Marvel 46,279
42 X-Men Legacy 266 $2.99 Marvel 43,199

===

Next: November 2012:
http://comichron.com/monthlycomicssa...2/2012-11.html

Some called him our savior, others regarded him a herald of the Apocalypse: B.M. Bendis arrives on the x-scene with All-New X-Men #1. Following that are Deadpool and Uncanny Avengers, neither of which I consider X-Books. Rounding out the Top 20 are the second issue of All-New X-Men and the first issue of the now-cancelled X-Men: Legacy.

1 All New X-Men 1 $3.99 Marvel 181,693
4 Deadpool 1 $2.99 Marvel 118,976
8 Uncanny Avengers 2 $3.99 Marvel 114,257
11 All New X-Men 2 $3.99 Marvel 96,436
12 X-Men Legacy 1 $2.99 Marvel 87,081

November 2012 Top 50 expansion. Again, I don't consider A+X or AVX to be X-Books, but it's just to give you some idea of where the X-characters are in the Top 50. Besides those event-related titles, you've got Deadpool, the second issue of X-Men: Legacy, and a couple of books benefiting from having "Wolverine" in their name -- and back in May 2012 they were in the Top 20, not the Top 50:

21 Deadpool 2 $2.99 Marvel 67,421
23 A Plus X 2 $3.99 Marvel 64,606
31 AVX Consequences 5 $3.99 Marvel 58,469
34 X-Men Legacy 2 $2.99 Marvel 58,037
46 Wolverine And X-Men 20 $3.99 Marvel 48,432
48 Wolverine And X-Men 21 $3.99 Marvel 48,244

===

Fast-forward to February 2013:
http://comichron.com/monthlycomicssa...3/2013-02.html

Bendis is launching his second x-book Uncanny X-Men. If the first Bendis-Men book was good for the X-Men (lol), then this second one must be even better, right?? Well, let's see... It's second only to a different #1, so that's great for that particular title, but where are all the other x-books?? It's the two Bendis books and the non-X-title Uncanny Avengers in the Top 20 and that's it.

2 Uncanny X-Men 1 $3.99 Marvel 177,463
7 Uncanny X-Men 2 $3.99 Marvel 94,615
8 Uncanny Avengers 4 $3.99 Marvel 87,539
11 All New X-Men 7 $3.99 Marvel 85,234

February 2013: Top 50 expansion:

23 Savage Wolverine 2 $3.99 Marvel 58,254
24 Deadpool 5 $2.99 Marvel 57,312
26 Uncanny X-Force 2 $3.99 Marvel 56,713
39 Cable And X-Force 4 $3.99 Marvel 46,104
41 Wolverine And X-Men 25 $3.99 Marvel 45,057

===

Finally, December 2014, the most recent numbers available at this time:
http://comichron.com/monthlycomicssa...4/2014-12.html

8 Avengers and X-Men Axis 7 $3.99 Marvel 70,194
9 Avengers and X-Men Axis 9 $4.99 Marvel 69,518
10 Avengers and X-Men Axis 8 $3.99 Marvel 69,449
14 Spider-Man and X-Men 1 $3.99 Marvel 61,952
18 All New X-Men 34 $3.99 Marvel 57,569

If you take away the event books (for the second event vilifying the X-Men), all you've got left is Spider-Man and the X-Men (which clearly benefits from Spider-Man's massive popularity, but even so is around 60k in sales) and one Bendis-Men book.

Is that what we've really been reduced to??

Here we get the second Bendis-Men book, related annuals, and more Deadpool to round out the Top 50:

21 Uncanny X-Men 29 $3.99 Marvel 53,502
37 All New X-Men Annual 1 $4.99 Marvel 44,052
39 Uncanny X-Men Annual 1 $4.99 Marvel 43,978
40 Deadpool 38 $3.99 Marvel 43,433
44 Deadpool 39 $3.99 Marvel 42,198

======================

Conclusions:

The first Bendis-Men's book has numbers comparable to the X-Men books in their heyday (example above: Oct. 1996), which could be a sign that the X-Men books are fine, but if you really look at the Top 20, what else do you see besides All-New?

Back in 1996, I didn't have to expand to the Top 50 to find no less than 10 x-related titles in the Top 20! By the time we get to the second Bendids-Men book, you can see that the #1 for that title is also comparable to the top books for the X-Books' heyday, but by then the two Bendis books are the only ones making the Top 20.

Most recently, not even both Bendis-Men books made it to the Top 20. For the rest of the "metric crap-ton of X-books" as you put it, you'll find them here (I didn't include the ones with Deadpool in the title, but those are doing better than most of these if you want some context), ranked from 53 to 148 (EDIT: I think the 297 one is a reprint, lol):

53 Death of Wolverine Logan Legacy 6 $3.99 Marvel 36,647
57 Death of Wolverine Logan Legacy 7 $3.99 Marvel 34,807
76 Amazing X-Men 14 $3.99 Marvel 31,468
82 X-Men 22 $3.99 Marvel 30,200
84 Death of Wolverine Weapon X Program 3 $3.99 Marvel 29,355
88 Death of Wolverine Weapon X Program 4 $3.99 Marvel 27,979
91 Magneto 13 $3.99 Marvel 27,418
124 All New X-Factor 17 $3.99 Marvel 20,916
128 Nightcrawler 9 $3.99 Marvel 20,317
131 All New X-Factor 18 $3.99 Marvel 19,963
137 X-Force 13 $3.99 Marvel 18,759
145 Cyclops 8 $3.99 Marvel 17,146
148 Storm 6 $3.99 Marvel 17,028
297 Death of Wolverine 2 $4.99 Marvel 5,079

The lowest-ranked of the regular x-books are hovering around the 17k. Not 50k, not 30k, but 17k! That's well below the 20k cancellation line. We can't see how much digital sales are helping the X-titles, or any other books for that matter, so these preorder numbers are all we've got.

So yeah...

It's not going to be fine.

I'm not going to relax about it.

I don't know why you'd expect any x-fan to do so.

That was freakin epic! Hats off for all the hard work.

[Starleafgirl]

Just watch this. He does touch on the fears you guys have & pretty much say what I've been trying to tell you guys.

If that guy is wondering why we're so paranoid, I'd invite him to take a look at the x-book numbers for 1996 vs. 2014 again.

We have around 5-6 Guardians books, & I forget how many Avengers books there are. And even then, not every single one is a best seller.

So then it's fine to cancel the X-Books down to the point where there are as many GotG books as there are X-Books, then inevitably expand the GotG brand to the point where it eclipses the X-Men, and we're not supposed to be worried.

As for how many Avengers books there are, it's anybody's guess... do you count just the ones with Avengers in the title or do you expand it to the prominent Avengers members' solo outings, even if they weren't in the movies? I didn't include Iron Fist or Moon Knight, but I did include Spider-Woman. I did include the Asgardians Angela and Loki. You might use a different metric.

5 Thor 3 $3.99 Marvel 72,563
15 Angela Asgards Assassin 1 $3.99 Marvel 61,398
25 All New Captain America 2 $3.99 Marvel 50,077
32 Avengers 39 $3.99 Marvel 47,062
35 Spider-Woman 2 $3.99 Marvel 44,618
48 New Avengers 28 $3.99 Marvel 39,855
51 Superior Iron Man 3 $3.99 Marvel 38,806
55 Hawkeye Vs Deadpool 3 $3.99 Marvel 36,162
86 Captain America and Mighty Avengers 3 $3.99 Marvel 28,744
90 Hulk 9 $3.99 Marvel 27,697
117 Loki Agent of Asgard 9 $3.99 Marvel 21,697
120 Black Widow 13 $3.99 Marvel 21,444
126 Avengers World 16 $3.99 Marvel 20,853
130 Captain Marvel 10 $4.99 Marvel 19,973
134 She-Hulk 11 $2.99 Marvel 19,095
146 Secret Avengers 11 $3.99 Marvel 17,109
162 All New Invaders 13 $3.99 Marvel 14,697 - I see some Avengers in the cast, but it wouldn't really be recognizable.
179 Avengers Now $4.99 Marvel 12,479 - this is a Handbook so it doesn't count.
188 Marvels Avengers 1 $2.99 Marvel 11,370 - this one is a two-issue mini tie-in to the movies, so it shouldn't really count.

Really, the Avengers book range from about 70k to 17k, as opposed to the X-Men's 60k to 17k range. If you don't count Thor and Angela, it's more like 50k to 17k, with absolutely no books in the Top 20. Though there probably isn't any good reason not to count Thor.

So why aren't a bunch of Avengers fans complaining about sales and worrying about the future of their franchise, too? The answer is self-evident, if you look at toys, cartoons, video games, movies, etc. With Disney's backing, they really have nothing to worry about, despite the sales numbers.

Not to mention the fact that the Avengers brand has expanded since the '90s, not shrunk:

32 Avengers 39 $3.99 Marvel 47,062
48 New Avengers 28 $3.99 Marvel 39,855
86 Captain America and Mighty Avengers 3 $3.99 Marvel 28,744
126 Avengers World 16 $3.99 Marvel 20,853
146 Secret Avengers 11 $3.99 Marvel 17,109
179 Avengers Now $4.99 Marvel 12,479
188 Marvels Avengers 1 $2.99 Marvel 11,370

Compare that with the number of titles that had the word "Avengers" in it for Oct. 1996:

12 Avengers (Vol. 2) 2 $1.95 Marvel 130,961

Just one.

But stop sucking me into analyzing sales numbers, I've spent way too much time on this already. XD You could probably do a better job yourself if you want to look at the numbers directly from the ComicChron site itself.

Then Pad's X-factor gets cancelled, and he's put to work on a 2099 title.... featuring future AVENGERS!!

Hahaha. Cry.

That was freakin epic! Hats off for all the hard work.

Thanks. I just get way too engrossed in numbers sometimes. XD