Sales Review: June 2018

The sales (orders) numbers for June have come out and, as always, ICv2 does a great job laying out the numbers and talking about the market as a whole. Here is a link to the month's numbers:
https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/40801/top-500-comics-june-2018

 It seems like DC has been riding something of a creative crest lately. DC Metal was a huge hit. Scott Snyder/Jim Cheung/Jorge Jimenez are on one of many new Justice League books coming out in the aftermath of Justice League:No Justice. Brian Michael Bendis is on the DC side of the border and spearheading a Superman era. Tom King has been steadily bringing us excellent Batman stories. Joshua Williamson is redefining the Flash family. And other big projects like Heroes in Crisis, G. Willow Wilson on Wonder Woman, and Grant Morrison on Green Lantern are all in the wings.

It has the feel of a post-Legends DCU with so much unbridled creativity exploding onto the shelves but with the added feel that many of these things will stick.

So how did things sell?

Let's start with Man of Steel.

I thought the mini-series had some high points and low points. The high points (Supergirl, Daily Planet scenes, interaction with heroes) were very good. Kara played a huge, crucial part in the story basically acting the part of the hero. So for someone worried about where she would end up, I was thrilled.

But the Lois/Jon storyline never made sense. We still know nothing of Rogol Zaar.

The mini-series sat nicely in the 60K range. For a book with no variant covers based on orders, based solely on the book, that has to be pretty solid.

But I wonder if DC is internally bewildered or disappointed. "BENDIS IS COMING" and he is doing a Superman mini-series to open up his run on the character. They must have been thinking 100K sales.

Now if the monthlies sell 60K, they'll be thrilled. But's let's see. I'm thinking 45K, around where Jurgens and Tomasi were.

 Let's compare that to Scott Snyder and Jim Cheung's Justice League #1.

Okay, I get it. It is a number one. It has a new team. It is coming off a big lead-in cross-company event.

But is a Snyder-led JL book as big a deal as Marvel's Brian Michael Bendis leading the flagship character into the future?

It sold 200K!

I am blown away by that number (and I must admit I don't know anything about incentive covers, etc).

I am amazed it sold over 3x the amount of Man of Steel.

I guess Snyder is a draw. Cheung on DC characters is a draw. And it had that lead in. But 200K? Amazing!

I love the Justice League book. So it deserves that number one spot.