Keeping track of Post-Rebirth Superman sales

[DragonPiece]

November 2018 sales:

Superman #5 - 54,727

Action Comics #1005 - 49,149

Super Sons #4 - 22,320

Supergirl #24 - 21,295

Sideways Annual #1 - 11,643

Source: http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomi...8/2018-11.html

Supergirl lost near 20k readers from the last month, jeez.Was it just the cover that made people interested in October?

Superman will probably get a boost once Jon shows up, I can see Action getting more steam once the levithan event gets announced. Either way, the numbers are fine right now, even if they could be a lot higher.

[Truman Burbank]

Supergirl lost near 20k readers from the last month, jeez.Was it just the cover that made people interested in October?

Superman will probably get a boost once Jon shows up, I can see Action getting more steam once the levithan event gets announced. Either way, the numbers are fine right now, even if they could be a lot higher.

Yes, the cover gimmick accounts for Supergirl's boost in October. These are more normal numbers for that book.

But those numbers are not fine for Superman and Action. Dollar-wise, those numbers are below the "end of Rebirth" monthly sales threshold. Even as someone who's not been thrilled with these books, I didn't think DC would be taking a money hit this quickly.

[Miles To Go]

Comixology Top 25 For The Week


Batman Annual #3
Superman #6
The Batman Who Laughs #1
Batman: Damned #2
Avengers #11
Detective Comics #994
Amazing Spider-Man #11
Uncanny X-Men #5
Fantastic Four: Wedding Special #1
X-Men Red #11
Justice League Dark #6
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #1
The Flash #60
Wonder Woman #60
Doomsday Clock #8
Titans #31
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #27
The Magic Order #5
Shazam! #1
X-23 #7
Hawkman #7
Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #313
Supergirl #25
Mr. and Mrs. X #6
Die #1

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/12...nual-surprise/

[Miles To Go]

Bleeding Cool Bestseller Top Ten For The Week

Batman Damned #2
The Batman Who Laughs #1
Batman Annual #3
Amazing Spider-Man #11
Superman #6
Miles Morales Spider-Man #1
Detective Comics #994
Avengers #11
Justice League Dark #6
Fantastic Four Wedding Special #1

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/12...ed-who-laughs/

[HeroVladimir93]

Bleeding Cool Bestseller Top Ten For The Week

Batman Damned #2
The Batman Who Laughs #1
Batman Annual #3
Amazing Spider-Man #11
Superman #6
Miles Morales Spider-Man #1
Detective Comics #994
Avengers #11
Justice League Dark #6
Fantastic Four Wedding Special #1

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/12...ed-who-laughs/

Once again, Batman destroys the competition but Superman still manages to hold on.

[Ascended]

I haven't paid much attention but the Bendis numbers dont seem all that awful. Perhaps not as good as one might hope, but its been a while since Bendis was a guaranteed seller like he was back when Daredevil and Ultimate Spidey were still fresh, fond memories. He's not changing the game but I dont feel like he's in any real danger either.

The Sideways annual makes me a little sad. I had hoped to see better numbers from that. I know the regular title wasn't setting the charts on fire by any measure, but I had hoped the appearance of Nuperman and the finale to the title's run would get more attention. Looks like Sacred wont be getting that Nuperman series like he had hoped.

[Sacred Knight]

I don't know, I honestly expected no boost for Sideways. The numbers didn't shock me at all. Regardless the fact it was co-starring an alternate Superman, it was still a pretty fringe title that wasn't part of/hyping any sort of event or anything like that either. In other words if they opened the door for that Superman for any specific purpose, they didn't tip their hand to it to the point where they advertised it as being particularly meaningful. And heck, maybe that is pretty straightforward and a sign they don't intend to do anything with it anyway. This could have always been wishful thinking on my part. But if they were thinking about it, I'm not really sure I'd count the issue not seeing a boost of any kind as being any indicator either way. For instance, I'd consider it more meaningful how much attention/reception it got if he were to show up in an event later on or something.

[Miles To Go]

Bleeding Cool Bestseller Top Ten For The Week

Batman #61
Justice League #14
Amazing Spider-Man #12
Infinity Wars #6
Catwoman #6
Uncanny X-Men #6
Defenders Best Defense #1
Extermination #5
Spidergeddon #5
Thor #8

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/12...k-of-all-time/


DC hold onto to the top two positions despite an otherwise dominant peformance from Marvel, with Catwoman tucked in there too

[Badou]

The numbers already being this low is probably not what DC hoped when they signed Bendis to his deal. They are paying him a ton I imagine and this run is selling less than what the previous run did. It will be interesting to see how the trade sales of his first volume look. I don't think DC will do it but I wonder if they will step in and try and do something to boost the sales. I guess they will probably just ask Bendis to write an event to have the sales jump back up in the short run with that.

[Sacred Knight]

At comparative times both Rebirth era books were beating out Bendis's runs by about 10k. Likewise just for the sake of comparison, again around similar times in the runs, New 52 Superman title is beating out Bendis Superman by about 1k. And New 52 Action beats it by over double.

I'm really enjoying both titles but yeah, that's probably not what DC had in mind. The argument could be made though that Rebirth was still feasting off its relaunch and the newness of Jon, and the New 52 was still feasting on the allure of its reboot. Bendis is starting a new era, but he also had no relaunch/reboot scenarios which always boosts sales short term. How much that is a factor I can't say but I would imagine it is a factor.

[Badou]

At comparative times both Rebirth era books were beating out Bendis's runs by about 10k. Likewise just for the sake of comparison, again around similar times in the runs, New 52 Superman title is beating out Bendis Superman by about 1k. And New 52 Action beats it by over double.

I'm really enjoying both titles but yeah, that's probably not what DC had in mind. The argument could be made though that Rebirth was still feasting off its relaunch and the newness of Jon, and the New 52 was still feasting on the allure of its reboot. Bendis is starting a new era, but he also had no relaunch/reboot scenarios which always boosts sales short term. How much that is a factor I can't say but I would imagine it is a factor.

I don't think the numbers would be bad if it was a typical Superman writer. Like what you said the numbers aren't way off of the other recent runs, but with the amount DC is paying Bendis it makes things a lot more difficult. So I do wonder if they will shake things up soon like an event or just let Bendis do what he wants

I do think Rebirth helped it a lot, along with bringing back classic Superman and things, so it had a lot going for it at the beginning of Rebirth. Though I guess you could say that Action had the hype of being issue #1000 behind it to help boost it. Action #1000 was the highest selling DC issue maybe ever or something like that? I can't remember, but 5 issues in the sales for Action are approaching what they were before #1000 so the series wasn't able to gain much from that huge milestone.

[Stardust]

The numbers already being this low is probably not what DC hoped when they signed Bendis to his deal. They are paying him a ton I imagine and this run is selling less than what the previous run did. It will be interesting to see how the trade sales of his first volume look. I don't think DC will do it but I wonder if they will step in and try and do something to boost the sales. I guess they will probably just ask Bendis to write an event to have the sales jump back up in the short run with that.

The Man of Steel trade currently is on sale on comixoloxy while the Bizzaroworld trade isn't

[Vordan]

The Man of Steel trade currently is on sale on comixoloxy while the Bizzaroworld trade isn't

Doesn’t really mean anything. The Rebirth trades sold less than the New 52 trades did. In the last Christmas sale Snyder’s trades were on sale whereas King’s weren’t iirc.

[Yoda]

Does Bendis really command a premium over say Snyder or King? His output is double or triple theirs. He's about to have 4+ monthlies and mini series including his Jinxworld and Wonder Comics imprints. King and Snyder average like 2 max. I actually wouldn't be surprised if his page rate is lower than like Tom King or Snyder. Plus, Bendis likely gets a cut of the Wonder Comics imprint and the Lions share of the Jinxworld books. He may actually save them money on a book like Superman or Action.

And I'm sure DC was well aware of his numbers at Marvel these last few years, so while I'm sure they were likely expecting a slightly bigger bump or longer honeymoon period, I'd hazard a guess that he's likely within the ballpark of what they anticipated.

[Ascended]

And I'm sure DC was well aware of his numbers at Marvel these last few years, so while I'm sure they were likely expecting a slightly bigger bump or longer honeymoon period, I'd hazard a guess that he's likely within the ballpark of what they anticipated.

That's my guess too.

I feel like getting Bendis was more "bragging rights" than anything at this point. His latter Marvel work hadn't moved like it once did, and while Im sure his page rates are on the high end it's entirely possible that the sheer amount of output kept it lower than what you see from King, Snyder, Johns, and other top end writers who only put out half as many pages a month. Perhaps it was more beneficial to get Bendis away from Marvel moreso than having Bendis generate a pile of revenue for DC. Sometimes its just good business to hurt the competition even if you don't gain much from it directly. And we've seen DC make moves like that in the past too.

There's also the fact that DC (and WB) dont seem to value Superman very much beyond his ability to move merchandise (where he's still one of the biggest sellers between the Big 2). The "S" shield makes a mountain of money on t-shirts but the people working at DC haven't really given a sh*t about Superman in a long time, and seem quite content to ignore the titles as long as they're breaking even.