Sales Review: March 2013

I have decided the best thing to do is just continue to blog. 

Comic sales were overall up last month while DC continued to suffer a bit from strong Marvel releases, cohesive stories at Marvel, and a series of publicity missteps by DC. It hasn't been pretty for DC these days. And personally, I wonder how that translates to sales. I have to admit, not much of what DC has recently released has grabbed me. As always, ICv2 does a great job of breaking down sales. Here is their list of the top 300 books for March 2013: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/25462.html

 

Supergirl #18, the first issue post-H'El on Earth, a book with a hidden creative team, and in many ways a transition issue while we wait for writer Michael Alan Nelson comes on board, saw the book fall below the 30K mark for the first time. In fact, the issue is down 7% from the prior issue.

So the anticipated 'bump' from H'El on Earth is quite the reverse, no big surprise given how odious Supergirl was in that arc. It is sad how basically everything that the character was in the prior year plus was simply ignored and undone by H'El. 

And I am not surprised that readers left. The book has something of a lame duck feel right now. It feels like the time between Kelly and Puckett, the forgotten Bedard issues of the last incarnation.

What we need now is a splash to bring people to the book. And I don't know if fighting Power Girl is the right way to do it.

But it seems to me that maybe DC simply doesn't know what to do with Superman or his family of characters. I know that reading stuff on-line doesn't necessarily reflect the majority but there seem to be lots of Superman fans who are pretty unhappy with the way Superman is being portrayed in the 'new 52'. And you can include me in that group. 

And sales seem to bear out that the new approach to the character isn't selling.

Action Comics #18 was the end of a Grant Morrison run on the title. It sold nearly 62K, a very very healthy number in this current market. But shouldn't it have sold more? 

Meanwhile, Scott Lobdell's Superman has slipped below 50K. And Superboy is selling around 24K.

Now I know these are all decent sales in the comic world of 2013. 

But shouldn't these characters draw more readers?

I long for the day when Superman is written like Superman, with quality creators, and soars to the top of the charts. I hope that Supergirl becomes the strong and optimistic hero she should be.  Maybe Superman Unchained and Batman/Superman will bring about a renaissance.