The Mayo Report: Analyzing Marvel's March Domination, DC's New 52 Slide

[CBR News]

Marvel Comics' current line of titles not only dominated March's top ten, it accounted for nearly 50% of every comic sold in the Top 300.


Full article here.

[surgeon_general]

Is it possible that most retailers were completely unaware of Loot Crate giving Orphan Black that huge promotional push? They ordered issue 2 as if it never happened. A 98% drop!

[Michael P]

Is it possible that most retailers were completely unaware of Loot Crate giving Orphan Black that huge promotional push? They ordered issue 2 as if it never happened. A 98% drop!

Well, since that big Loot Crate order wouldn't have been reflected at all in the number of people buying the issue in their stores, no, they probably wouldn't have any cause to act on it.

Of course, if a lot of people came in looking for issue 2 after getting 1 in their Loot Crate, you could see significant reorder activity.

[NDHorse]

I am looking forward to some of the new style of books coming out of DC post-Convergence. I will be picking up Batmite, Prez, and Bizzaro.

[RobinFan4880]

I think DC was really ambitious with the New 52 but the problem was that there were simply too many books. It seemed like for every great or good book, there were two either poorly implemented books and/or books that failed to capture a big audience. Regardless, without the New 52, I know lots of people who would not be reading comics right now. I myself jumped into the floppy side of comics with the New 52 (have been decidedly more trade oriented before then). I definitely feel like the New 52 was a net boon for the industry as a whole. I believe DC is just now hitting its stride with the New 52 content, with many titles being allowed to have their own voice and tone. Toom much of the early New 52 work was grim and dark, even for characters who did not need or want to be grim and/or dark. Shifting the focus away from a brand-oriented theme and instead allowing creators to make good and unique comics is only going to help DC further grab a diverse audience.

I am not as invested in the lore of Post-Crisis DC the way many fans are, so the Convergence line has really left a sour taste in my mouth. At least the post-Convergence stuff sounds great!

[PretenderNX01]

New 52 just wasn't thought out enough to be sustainable, that's why a lot of it has had little retcons. Power Girl is more old school, Harley has now ignored New 52, Batgirl is basically yet another reboot. And that's not counting Convergance which is basically DC admitting people miss the old universe.

As for Orphan Black, maybe everyone is trade waiting. Or it's not that popular a franchise, it has fans for sure but it isn't Star Wars or even Dr Who.

[Jack Flag]

I think DC was really ambitious with the New 52 but the problem was that there were simply too many books. It seemed like for every great or good book, there were two either poorly implemented books and/or books that failed to capture a big audience. Regardless, without the New 52, I know lots of people who would not be reading comics right now. I myself jumped into the floppy side of comics with the New 52 (have been decidedly more trade oriented before then). I definitely feel like the New 52 was a net boon for the industry as a whole. I believe DC is just now hitting its stride with the New 52 content, with many titles being allowed to have their own voice and tone. Toom much of the early New 52 work was grim and dark, even for characters who did not need or want to be grim and/or dark. Shifting the focus away from a brand-oriented theme and instead allowing creators to make good and unique comics is only going to help DC further grab a diverse audience.

I am not as invested in the lore of Post-Crisis DC the way many fans are, so the Convergence line has really left a sour taste in my mouth. At least the post-Convergence stuff sounds great!

I think I am probably like many readers - I gave each title of the new 52 a try and slowly reduced my monthly buys. Some of the 52 was pretty good. Also, DC has Batman which is outselling all other books it seems. I agree that the new 52 should just have been renamed and called DC2020 or some such. Have it revolve around the core group of the big shots (WW, Supes, Batman, Flash, GLs) and then slowly expand outwards from that.

[RobinFan4880]

I think I am probably like many readers - I gave each title of the new 52 a try and slowly reduced my monthly buys. Some of the 52 was pretty good. Also, DC has Batman which is outselling all other books it seems. I agree that the new 52 should just have been renamed and called DC2020 or some such. Have it revolve around the core group of the big shots (WW, Supes, Batman, Flash, GLs) and then slowly expand outwards from that.

52 titles was probably too ambitious, I think. It allowed DC to pump a lot of comics starring heroes and characters that don't normally get a shot but, at the same time, few of those heroes found any traction and thus lead to mass cancellations (which is definitely not good for the consumer or the publisher). In many ways Marvel has the better model in that they publish fewer individual titles but pump out more issues of each comic more often (i.e. double shipping). Controversial, I know, but it would make more sense to double down on your "good stuff" than constantly produce failed series the way DC had been doing.

The expansion idea is how it should have worked. It is not the most profitable idea in the short =run but I think it would have yielded much better fruit in the long run.

New 52 just wasn't thought out enough to be sustainable, that's why a lot of it has had little retcons. Power Girl is more old school, Harley has now ignored New 52, Batgirl is basically yet another reboot. And that's not counting Convergance which is basically DC admitting people miss the old universe.

As for Orphan Black, maybe everyone is trade waiting. Or it's not that popular a franchise, it has fans for sure but it isn't Star Wars or even Dr Who.

I think this is very much the problem.

It is easy to say "Superman is the world's first super hero and he's only 23!" It is much more difficult to then extrapolate out from there all of the ramifications that that decision entails - what do we do with the JSA? What about the Titans? What about Batman and the other big named leaguers? The decision to allow each family of books to independently decide whether they wanted to fully reboot, partially reboot or not reboot was also a mistake as it created a weird dichotomy between Batman and Green Lanter (basically un-rebooted) and Superman and Wonder Woman (wholly rebooted). It just felt so odd and unnatural (at least to me).

A lot of great ideas came from the New 52 but an equal number of bad ideas also sprang from the New 52. I feel like if there had been a more concerted effort at the beginning to craft a new universe that many - if not most - of the bad ideas we have seen could have been avoided. This is doubly true for all the little retcons that have happened.

[surgeon_general]

It did not help that they hired so many failed 90s creators.

[skyvolt2000]

It did not help that they hired so many failed 90s creators.

Well you can say that but you also have to look at how many guys like Static & Blue Beetle LOST what made them stand out. That Static book could have worked if that was NOT Static.

Then you toss in what happened to Wally West and the battle over Cassandra Cain*there was too many ideas tossed on the wall and hoped for the best mind set.

Outside of Batman-Dc has to go into recovery mode but everyone else has stepped up to the plate and are aiming for the guys they chased off.

Sure you won't get the new Archie selling 100K or Orphan Black doing the same thing (most folks are trade waiting) however your shares in the market becomes smaller. Sure havign the top 10 be DC books seems cool but what do you do when My Little Pony and others dominate 11-100?

[Jack Flag]

Well you can say that but you also have to look at how many guys like Static & Blue Beetle LOST what made them stand out. That Static book could have worked if that was NOT Static.

Then you toss in what happened to Wally West and the battle over Cassandra Cain*there was too many ideas tossed on the wall and hoped for the best mind set.

Outside of Batman-Dc has to go into recovery mode but everyone else has stepped up to the plate and are aiming for the guys they chased off.

Sure you won't get the new Archie selling 100K or Orphan Black doing the same thing (most folks are trade waiting) however your shares in the market becomes smaller. Sure havign the top 10 be DC books seems cool but what do you do when My Little Pony and others dominate 11-100?

I read that DC outsells Marvel in the collected editions. In other words there is gold in the back stories of the past but for some reason they can't handle continuity at DC and at Marvel - they just hate it it seems. It used to be writers/artists for comics actually were either the inventors of the comic or guys who grew up reading them as fans but now Marvel and DC want to break that tradition and bring in outside writers who may not be life long fans and only know the basics of the super hero and thus continuity is a hinderance?

I think Marvel and DC would maybe produce better stories if they allowed artists to profit from their creations rather than treat them as work for hires - I think the biggest hinderance for creativity is that no comic book writer for Marvel or DC will create any new character and are saving them for self published works. When Image came along that was the writing on the wall for Marvel and DC to change but they did not. That is why instead of new character with a new name we get a female called "Thor". If a creator had the next Wonder Woman idea they would save it for their own publishing.

That is why we are seeing the Beyonder again - this time plural - and Secret Wars used again rather than an original name for an event.

[RLAAMJR.]

Orphan Black #2 - 10,652 copies

[Jack Flag]

Orphan Black #2 - 10,652 copies

The diff between Orphan Black #1 and #2 just remind me of the speculator boom and bust of the 90s. Not good.

[yet another]

The diff between Orphan Black #1 and #2 just remind me of the speculator boom and bust of the 90s. Not good.

Think you have Rock Crate to thank for this particular diff though.

[cranger]

Is it worth reading this article? Does it even bother to figure out why nothing Marvel has done has lead to sustained sales of any of its titles? Or is it just going to pat Marvel on the back for more one-shot sales spikes?