Is there literally any evidence of out of market advertising having any impact whatsoever on comic sales? Ever? Black Panther had a billion dollar movie and its selling in the 20k or teen range consistently. The only time any sort of mainstream publicity has any impact is when it tickles the speculation market and then it’s a blip, much like the identity reveal. Action Comics 1000 wasn’t a relaunch it was a massive anniversary issue.
He didn’t lose them faster though. He lost them at a rate that was generally consistent with the market. If you compare the attrition between Superman and Action and bunch of other books from that same span Bendis retained more month to month than books like Green Lantern and Amazing Spider-Man. Which have been generally very well received. The % drop month to month was steeper for Morrison’s Green Lantern than Superman or Action Comics.
This month drop seems steeper, but I don’t know that is an indication that anything has been rejected by fans. Likely we have a couple of months worth of typical attrition hitting with a drop off from the drive by buyers who picked up a couple of issues of the ID reveal and likely artificially inflated the numbers and hid that attrition.
As for the relaunch point, Look at the X-Men books. They’ve had years of new number 1’s and creative team shifts that give little bumps. That’s the typical way those sales bumps go. That’s closer to what Bendis’s Superman run was. It wasn’t until Hickman effectively relaunched the entire line that that the X-Books had any traction. Rebirth had a massive line wide relaunch, it’s comparable to New 52’s launch, not Bendis coming over. I give you that Bendis is probably closer to Hickman’s X-Men than Rebirth, but even then Hickman has taken the books in a completely new direction. There was no massive change in direction for the Super books or a complete revamp. It’s been far more subdued.