"Invincible Iron Man" Leads Marvel Sweep of October's Top 10 Comics; Image Strong In Trades

[davewire]

Were Star Wars titles' numbers ever so high when they were under Dark Horse? I wonder if this is because of Marvel's name brand being attached to Star Wars or the creative teams Marvel brought onto the titles. I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan but I am a big Keiron Gillen fan which ultimately led to me binging through all of Vader the other day and I'm quite happy I did. Iron Man is proving to be some of Bendis' best writing in years in my opinion, and while I can't say that the numbers will remain so high as they were for last month given the influx of #1s, I wouldn't be surprised if Iron Man continues to be a best seller. Marvel still has a bunch of #1s to release over the next few months so we'll see if that keeps their sales this high.

[skyvolt2000]

Were Star Wars titles' numbers ever so high when they were under Dark Horse?

NO. Dark Horse really didn't do series but mini runs here and there. There as no monthly book under them.

Marvel is giving you a monthly book. I think the boost for Star Wars is not the Marvel name because I have always seen Star Wars trades and issues in back issue bins. I think that movie is helping and it will be real interesting to see those numbers if or when Finn shows up.

[skyvolt2000]

Yeah, I completely agree that Marvel is overdoing it with the renumbering. But an occasional well-placed renumbering that coincide with a complete change in creative direction and/or creative teams could be helpful. Superman, Green Lantern, and Aquaman after the Convergence event come to mind...

As far as market shares go, I don't think even the folks at Marvel expect to keep such a big lead on DC. But that does not change the fact that DC has been trailing their main competitor for awhile or that DC hasn't come up with anything to offset the losses of the first few months of the ANAD Marvel initiative...yet....

I'll put it to you like this all the complaints about Finn in Star Wars, Michael B Jordan in Fantastic Four, the hip hop issue, lack of POC at Marvel and so on have helped more than they have hindered Marvel. Even the Fox news mess with Falcon.

Dc has done more to chase folks off by pretty much screwing over the B-Z level fanbases. What was done to Wally West, Jaime Reyes, Static, John Stewart and others made no character safe outside of Justice League, Arrow & Bat Family.

When you made Wally Black and alienated that fanbase-the message was clear-we don't care for you money. So if you are a DC fan-why bother when your character can get a fate worst than Wally West, Batwoman, John Stewart and others.

And your new guys like Doom are suffering from badly done books.

All Marvel did was say lets go after EVERYBODY. Even if they fail-you can't say they didn't try. Because they went after everybody and aimed in places where no one was at.

Remember there is no black female lead book except Devil Dino. The book everyone calls the sleeper seller at Marvel and now you got a book targeting (black) girls? If that book lasts 7 issues-Marvel still WON.

You have enough books like it or not that can fill in the gaps Dc choose to give up.

[MosSuperman]

It's not that Marvel went after everyone, it's that they renumbered their issues to ones. Didn't Rocket Raccoon hit 300k when it launched but then fell of the top 10 list as have other that have a huge #1's sales. Amazing Spider-Man #1 had over 600k and Star Wars hit 1 million but both dropped to Batman numbers and these are the only Marvel titles that stayed just above 100k. Once they go into #2 or #3, Marvel won't have such a huge cut of the pie.

[jeanvaljean]

It's not that Marvel went after everyone, it's that they renumbered their issues to ones. Didn't Rocket Raccoon hit 300k when it launched but then fell of the top 10 list as have other that have a huge #1's sales. Amazing Spider-Man #1 had over 600k and Star Wars hit 1 million but both dropped to Batman numbers and these are the only Marvel titles that stayed just above 100k. Once they go into #2 or #3, Marvel won't have such a huge cut of the pie.

Most of the sales of Rocket Raccon #1 were due to it be included in the monthly "Loot Crate" delivery. These books don't have their sales numbers inflated by that.

[RobinFan4880]

It's not that Marvel went after everyone, it's that they renumbered their issues to ones. Didn't Rocket Raccoon hit 300k when it launched but then fell of the top 10 list as have other that have a huge #1's sales. Amazing Spider-Man #1 had over 600k and Star Wars hit 1 million but both dropped to Batman numbers and these are the only Marvel titles that stayed just above 100k. Once they go into #2 or #3, Marvel won't have such a huge cut of the pie.

DC has done a fairly good job since Convergence at pumping out good titles. The problem is that the Market did not favor their offerings for several reasons. The biggest two reasons were that Marvel pushed out an amazing event filled with tie in comics (tie ins sell well) and then followed it up with a massive relaunch of their line. The second reason was that DC specifically targeted trade readers with their post-Convergence offerings and the floppy market did not respond kindly. put the two together and it is easy to see why DC is not hitting the upper echellons of the sales charts.

NO. Dark Horse really didn't do series but mini runs here and there. There as no monthly book under them.

Marvel is giving you a monthly book. I think the boost for Star Wars is not the Marvel name because I have always seen Star Wars trades and issues in back issue bins. I think that movie is helping and it will be real interesting to see those numbers if or when Finn shows up.

I have a shelf full of Star Wars Legacy, Star Wars KOTOR and Star Wars Dark Times comics that beg to differ. Dark Horse did series.

Were Star Wars titles' numbers ever so high when they were under Dark Horse? I wonder if this is because of Marvel's name brand being attached to Star Wars or the creative teams Marvel brought onto the titles. I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan but I am a big Keiron Gillen fan which ultimately led to me binging through all of Vader the other day and I'm quite happy I did. Iron Man is proving to be some of Bendis' best writing in years in my opinion, and while I can't say that the numbers will remain so high as they were for last month given the influx of #1s, I wouldn't be surprised if Iron Man continues to be a best seller. Marvel still has a bunch of #1s to release over the next few months so we'll see if that keeps their sales this high.

Dark Horse's best Star Wars title was Star Wars (a comic showcasing the original trilogy heroes) and it sold 40-50k pretty consistently. A lot of things are feeding into Star Wars mania right now, the hype from the movie, the fans devouring everything about new universe, variant covers and Marvel's superior marketing ability and market reach. Basically, there is a strong tail wind behind Marvel and they were ready and waiting to launch Star Wars into the stratosphere.

What will be interesting to see is if Marvel can maintain sales after the movie is out and the hype dies down. Once the new universe becomes just the universe. Once interest wanes and we settle into normality.

As for Bendis, well, regardless of what the internet pundits may claim, Bendis' name sells comics. Regardless of what he is writing, he can move units. Marvel is re-positioning Iron Man as their new Flagship character and put their flagship writer and an amazing artist on the task of helping foster this new reality for the character. Sales will remain high for a long while. Even if he settles into the 50-70k range, it would be a massive success over the series that came before (all of whom struggled to stay in the 30k range).

[Arfguy]

I love how Batman is 45 issues into his run and still selling big numbers. I'm not a Batman fan, but you gotta respect that.

[ian0delond]

I expect DC to be in the top three with TDKIII next month.

[PretenderNX01]

I have a shelf full of Star Wars Legacy, Star Wars KOTOR and Star Wars Dark Times comics that beg to differ. Dark Horse did series.

And good series at that but Disney made them all apostate. LOL.
It's not the "Marvel" name that's doing it, it's the fact that they are leading into the new movie that's fueling readers. If Marvel released some version of 1,000 years before Star Wars then no one would care. People are into the new comics as hype for Episode VII.

I expect DC to be in the top three with TDKIII next month.

Yeah, I mean I don't care about it like I didn't care about more Watchmen but people ate that up