angelophile | Comic sales figures for March

The estimated sales figures for March have been released, so I'll do my usual thing of looking at a few of the ongoing Marvel titles (since that's all I'm reading at the moment) to see what trends there are for those titles. As usual, note that as usual, they're just based on domestic estimates and don't include any sales outside of the Diamond channel such as newstands, book stores or overseas markets.

One thing to note, before we start looking at the regular titles, is that top five with Wolverine weighing in at number 4, ahead of Uncanny X-men at number 6. Millar's "alternative future" run on Wolverine might be suffering from the usual Millar scheduling but it's been consistently edging out the main X-men titles, which is worth a mention. Apparently the choice not to schedule this story as a stand-alone mini-series was the right one, in terms of sales. Although I suppose it would have given them a chance to shift another Wolverine title in a month. It'll be interesting what happens when the next creative team start on the book - amusingly before Millar's final issue comes out, meaning that issue #73 will be released before #72. Fun.

Interesting, Uncanny X-men sees quite a sales bump this month - up 8% to 78k from last issue's 71.5k (the lowest point in the title's history). I'm at a loss to put one particular reason on this. Firstly, there's a variant cover. Secondly, the start of a new storyline. Thirdly, a change in artist (although, the artist in question is Greg Land. But some people seem to like him in the same way that some people like Ally McBeal and Michael Bay movies. Who am I to judge?) Whatever the case, it's a healthy jump and puts Uncanny on more solid ground. There's a variant cover for the next issue too, so it'll be hard to do a solid like for like for a couple of issues.

Amazing Spider-man's issues continue to hold steady around the 60k mark between them for the second month running. As noted before, sales are now down on the pre-Brand New Day stuff, but not by a huge percentage, considering the economic climate. Marvel must be hoping there's no further slides, though. Dipping below 59k for #589 isn't positive, though.

X-men Legacy drops yet another 1k. Not as bad as last month's 3k, but it's increasingly looking like the best course of action would be to scrap this title entirely and start again with a new number one, because the rot's so strong now, it's hard to see what would tempt readers back short of a new title and complete relaunch. I feel sorry for Mike Carey who was producing a solid X-men book before getting given the albatross of trying to sell this as a Professor X solo title. This being the same Professor X who often disappears for months or years at a time without anyone really caring one way or another. He's not exactly the character I'd want to try and built a flagship title around.

Along with Spider-man, X-Force is incredibly steady, barely a blip, for the second month in a row. Impressive and seems to be indication this book's got a solid level at 50k+. Marvel must be pleased with that. It's actually very slightly up on sales, presumably because of the semi-crossover starting in the issue.

Deadpool sees a jump too and is still doing well. Apparently they may finally have found the market for the Deadpool character that never seemed to be there when he was teamed up with Cable or by the end of his original series. It's up 3k this issue to 47k, presumably down to there being a crossover story with the Thunderbolts starting this issue.

X-Infernus also steady, the final issue staying around the 36k mark, barely down on the previous issue. That suggests the New Mutants revival should perform solidly, if Marvel have realistic expectations. If they're prepared to accept 40k an issue for a younger X-men title, it should be a solid seller. But they've come unstuck each time before when they've believed that an X-men book should be selling more and messed around with the format every 12 issues or so, until the utter failure of Young X-men. If they're finally prepared to accept that 40k is a god solid level, I think New Mutants should comfortably achieve that and more.

There's actually a jump on Incredible Hercules, up 1k and now around 32k. I'm not sure quite why, but I assume it's people picking the book up for the promise of a Dark Reign crossover. Of course, Hercules has managed to build in crossovers without them seeming like crossovers, so anything that works, really. That's a positive sign.

X-Factor barely shifts, still around the 32k level and supposedly only losing 40 readers between issues. That's impressive. If they can continue to sustain this level, there's a future for the book which I was starting to question a few month ago when it was being pulled from crossover to crossover and sales were all over the place.

Ouch. X-men Kingbreaker sees a huge 7k drop between issues, #4 coming in at just below 26k. I'm at a loss to explain why so many readers would jump ship before the final issue and the only reason I can see is the supposed follow on War of Kings shipping the same month and I have the feeling it shipped before the final issue came out and perhaps took the wind out of the sails of Kingbreaker if it revealed character's fates or lack thereof.

Another 500 readers went for Young X-men. It's gone, history, and the final issue limped in around 25k. For what was supposed to be an ongoing core X-men title, that's lamentable. I imagine a few harsh questions have been asked on the X-men line relaunches. Only X-Force seems to be performing. Uncanny, X-men and this teen X-men title have all suffered badly.

Runaways drops another 700 readers (identical to last month) and is now firmly in the cancellation zone. I hate repeating myself but despite Marvel's continuing investment and the new creative team, this is looking hairy. There's a premiere hardcover of Moore's first six issues out this month which only charts in the trade charts at #45 and no digests does to be released until October, with trades in July. It's hard to claim the digests buoy the monthly when they're not releasing them with any regularity. It's around the save levels now as BKV's later issues in the original run, back in 2004 and at this point I'm surprised they're continuing the numbering and not restarting from issue 1 and the sales boost from doing so again.

Pity Captain Britain and MI:13. Paul Cornell's take on Excalibur has been critically acclaimed, sold out in the UK and started so strong. But the 2000 readers who joined for the start of the Vampire State storyline don't stick around and bail immediately, taking another 800 readers with them. This puts the book just below 18k and undoubtedly in the cancellation zone. I can't see what will save it now. There's an Annual coming and supposedly plans afoot, but I suspect those plans will be shelved. I truly hope it's not the case, but I can't see this book surviving beyond issue 15. Depressing.

Well, at least it did better than the Marvel Apes Speedball one shot, which, at sales of around 7k, makes you wonder whether it would have been cheaper not to print the issue at all and just send the writer to the reader's houses to tell them what happened in the story in person.