Rember these are the number that were bought by stores not readers
They always had to estimate things, but it was easier to come up with 'exact' numbers when Diamond provided how much of the pie each title was. Now Comichron uses all sorts of other sources to try to piece it together. As questionable as the numbers may have been in the past, particularly in determining sell through and distinct readers, these recent numbers are almost useless.
The idea that Cable would be higher if it was actual Cable is comedic.
Not all of X-men books are "firm" ongoings I remember reading that some where. I don't know why they just don't flat out call a book limited series or mini but I guess their must be some internal reason why they are using this approach.
As for the numbers they look pretty solid for what a modern day book sell at if you need to see what the median is for book, I general use Wonder Woman or Flash which never are top sellers but never drop into cancellation numbers
Wonder Woman 35,000 41,000
Flash 26,500 32,000
The X-men books are still doing good with only Cable really out of that sweet spot. These numbers don't tell you anything if you don't understand the trends. This how I look at Comichron chart
100,000- Pretty amazing for anything that is not a issue 1
75,000 Great
30,000 and above- Healthy
20,000- A little worrisome
16,000- You are probably going to be canceled if you are Marvel or DC book, This is were most of independent comics typical stay at like Undiscovered Country,Seven Secrets, Power rangers,Tmnt
11,000- If you are still around at those numbers Marvel or DC must like something about character
Its really hard to say if these numbers are really that good or bad (except the couple at the top, they're great). Global pandemic kind of messes with everything.
Global pandemic and lots of people losing their jobs would naturally interfere with Diamond sales. Hard to say how accurate those are when it comes to the success of failure of titles.
Cable #5 in September 2017 sold about 5-10k more copies, and it had him off in the timestream on his own separate from the X-men. When he is relevant to and embedded in the present day Marvel Universe, and especially the other X-books, Cable can be a solid seller. Especially with a writer who is as invested in the character as, say, Benjamin Percy is in Wolverine. And who doesn’t just view him as a vehicle to tell time travel stories.
Mike Carey wrote a great Cable during his X-men run. Some great Cable stories in that Supernovas hardcover that I own, with killer Bachalo art too. I say give him a shot. Maybe with Bachalo. See what happens. It would be way better than the current Cable book. For sure.
Some of his fans do. Not sure Captain America fans, for example, would be thrilled if suddenly he was 14 years old, inexperienced and crying when he lost a fight. But, sure. Cable fans need to just suck it up here and accept this.
I’d love to see this happen to some other folks’ favorites and watch their reactions. Oh, wait. It did. To the O5. And fans of those characters hated it then too. Ha.