Wouldn't depress me too much about Batwing. Since they got rid of David as Batwing and his story pretty much came full circle. Lucius Fox son as Batwing sounds interesting, and I like Jimmy Palmiotti, but I would not be to sad to lose it from my pull list.

Well, they're doing everything they can to retool Batwing and Stormwatch, so clearly they're going to see if making Luke Fox the new Batwing brings in new readers and they're going to see if bringing in Jim Starlin to bring back the old Stormwatch brings in new readers. So, these books probably have a few more months left.

I have no idea about Demon Knights.

And the Dial H rumor: well, it could be true or it could be false. But the second story-arc does seem to be taking longer than normal to complete, so it might just be a case of "Well, the second Dial H story was 10 issues long, so we'll make that a TPB." On the other hand, the sales are pretty poor so it would be reasonable for it to be cancelled. On the other hand, the sales aren't that bad for a Vertigo book... which is the feel the first story arc definitely had.

Oh, well, I'm just holding out hope that Dial H can somehow survive, as I've found the second story arc far more interesting and accessible than the first one.

I would be thrilled if sales remain steady enough for all three of those titles to stick around. It's nice to see DC giving the fringe titles a fighting chance despite low sales.

So, it's been about a year since this thread started. How have the remaining titles fared since then? (Note: this is not since the beginning of the new 52; this thread started a few issues later. So we don't have the super-inflated sales numbers for the #1 issues.) The titles are sorted by their 2012 popularity. Percentages are rounded to nearest percentage.

From March 2012 to March 2013:

1. Justice League
Then: 131,697.
Now: 102,494
Sales lost: 22%

2. Batman
Then: 127,402
Now: 137,893
Sales gained: 8%

3. Action
Then: 91,822
Now: 61,879
Sales lost: 33%

4. Green Lantern
Then: 90,232
Now: 69,801
Sales lost: 27%

5. Detective
Then: 89,891
Now: 76,237
Sales lost: 15%

6. Batman: The Dark Knight
Then: 75,297
Now: 54,269
Sales lost: 28%

7. The Flash
Then: 64,475
Now: 41,659
Sales lost: 35%

8. Superman
Then: 66,588
Now: 48,236
Sales lost: 28%

9. Aquaman
Then: 62,345
Now: 53,337
Sales lost: 14%

10. Batman and Robin
Then: 61,209
Now: 69,614
Sales gained: 14%

11. Teen Titans
Then: 51, 402
Now: 42,055
Sales lost: 18%

12. Wonder Woman
Then: 51,314
Now: 38,406
Sales lost: 25%

13. Green Lantern: New Guardians
Then: 48,442
Now: 42,028
Sales lost: 13%

14. Batwoman
Then: 46,874
Now: 31,381
Sales lost: 33%

15. Batgirl
Then: 45,685
Now: 51,677
Sales gained: 13%

16. Nightwing
Then: 45,440
Now: 48,233
Sales gained: 6%

17. Green Lantern Corps
Then: 43,823
Now: 44,215
Sales gained: 1%

18. Swamp Thing
Then: 40,268
Now: 30,716
Sales lost: 24%

19. Red Lanterns
Then: 37,465
Now: 35,203
Sales lost: 6%

20. Catwoman
Then: 35,647
Now: 33,220
Sales lost: 7%

21. Red Hood & the Outlaws
Then: 34,767
Now: 37,731
Sales gained: 9%

22. Supergirl
Then: 33,337
Now: 28,051
Sales lost: 16%

23. Animal Man
Then: 33,174
Now: 28,711
Sales lost: 13%

24. Justice League Dark
Then: 32,480
Lost: 25,664
Sales lost: 21%

25. =cancelled=

26. Superboy
Then: 29,745
Now: 24,455
Sales lost: 18%

27. Suicide Squad
Then: 29,617
Now: 25,232
Sales lost: 15%

28. Birds of Prey
Then: 26,276
Now: 21,957
Sales lost: 16%

29.Green Arrow
Then: 26,104
Now: 28,080
Sales gained: 8%

30. Stormwatch
Then: 24,384
Now: 13,255
Sales lost: 46%

31. All Star Western
Then: 22, 814
Now: 16,897
Sales lost: 26%

32. Demon Knights
Then: 19,800
Now: 12,975
Sales lost: 34%

33. Legion of Super-Heroes
Then: 19,705
Now: 16,148
Sales lost: 18%

34. Savage Hawkman
Then: 17,490
Now: 12,021
Sales lost: 31%

35. Batwing
Then: 18,952
Now: 12,084
Sales lost: 36%

36. Deathstroke
Then: 17,770
Now: 12,306
Sales lost: 31%

37. DCU Presents
Then: 16,047
Now: 11,679
Sales lost: 27%

38. Fury of Firestorm
Then: 16,007
Now: 10,679
Sales lost: 33%

39. I, Vampire
Then: 16,596
Now: 11,568
Sales lost: 30%

Good job Batman, I guess?

Yeah, though I suspect that the Bat-results may be anomalous because of the big cross-over.

Here are the books sorted by gain/loss:

1. Batman and Robin +14%
2. Batgirl +13%
3. Red Hood & the Outlaws +9%
4. Batman +8%
5.Green Arrow +8%
6. Catwoman +7%
7. Nightwing +6%
8. Green Lantern Corps +1%
----------------------------------
9. Red Lanterns -6%
10. Green Lantern: New Guardians -13%
11. Animal Man -13%
12. Aquaman -14%
13. Detective -15%
14. Suicide Squad -15%
15. Supergirl -16%
16. Birds of Prey -16%
17. Teen Titans -18%
18. Superboy -18%
19. Legion of Super-Heroes -18%
20. Justice League Dark -21%
21. Justice League -22%
22. Swamp Thing -24%
23. Wonder Woman -25%
--------------------------
24. All Star Western -26%
25. Green Lantern -27%
26. DCU Presents -27%
27. Superman -28%
28. Batman: The Dark Knight -28%
29. I, Vampire -30%
30. Savage Hawkman -31%
31. Deathstroke -31%
32. Action -33%
33. Batwoman -33%
34. Fury of Firestorm -33%
35. Demon Knights -34%
36. The Flash -35%
37. Batwing -36%
38. Stormwatch -46%


So, clearly, the first tier of books, the ones with net gains, are doing well. This first tier consists mostly of Bat-books (and RHATO) who have just finished a crossover, so that may be responsible for the sales jumps. The other books in this tier are Green Arrow and Green Lantern Corps. GA just got a new creative team that bumped sales up but sales are still falling, so this probably an anomalous result. Green Lantern Corps is a bit of a surprise; possibly the unending GL crossovers convinced more people to pick it up?

The second tier (drawn arbitrarily) consists of books that have lost no more than one quarter of their sales in a year. These are the reasonably consistently selling books. It's mostly the expected decently selling books: some Batbooks, some GL books, Animal Man & Swamp Thing, and the Justice League related books (or JL-member-related books like Supergirl and Teen Titans). The books that stand out for me in this tier are: (1) LSH which isn't selling well but isn't losing many of its sales and (2) JL and WW both of which are books with high sales but which can't seem to hold onto their sales as well as other books in this tier. Justice League may alternate between being the #1 or #2 best selling DC book, but it's #21 in terms of retaining sales.

The third tier consists of books that lost more than one quarter of their sales in a year. Many of these are not surprising, with the worst-selling books making up most of this tier. The still-not-yet-cancelled Stormwatch is bottom of the barrel here, having lost almost half of its last year's sales. There are still a few surprises in this tier: both the Superman books (Superman and Action) are plummeting fast, as are Flash and Green Lantern, with Flash coming in 36th out of 38. It's also odd to see two Bat-books in this tier (B:TDK and Batwoman); Batwing is not a surprise.

Wow. I just read through this ENTIRE THREAD. Thank you for all the time and effort that you have put into this. I still buy all the DC New 52 issues digitally including the lower end stuff like Human Bomb. Some series haven't been read past issue 2 but I am a completist.

Jay

Cool to see that the most successful books (in terms of reader retention) are Batman titles, Lantern titles, and then a few less popularized characters/teams in Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Suicide Squad.

April sales numbers:

1. Batman 132,147
2. Justice League 100,943

No change in the top two best-selling DC books since last month. Batman loses 5k sales, JL loses 2k sales.


3. Batman and Red Robin 89,182

This title climbs up two positions, gaining 20k sales, probably in anticipation of a new Robin.


4. Detective Comics 77,922
5. Green Lantern 71,018

Detective stays fairly stable, gaining about 1k sales while dropping a position from being overtaken by B&RR. Green Lantern has a similar performance.

0. Batman Incorporated 56,464 --cancelled


6. Batman The Dark Knight 52,644
7. Action Comics 52,007

These two books swap positions on the chart. BTDK loses a few sales, but Action loses even more (over 9k sales, a loss of nearly 16% of its sales). Action has not found its level yet and is still plummeting pretty fast for such a high-ranking book.

8. Superman 48,598

Superman's sales, on the other hand, stay fairly stable, with a negligible increase. Superman moves up two places. Where have the former #8 and #9 gone? They were Aquaman and Batgirl. Seems they haven't done as well...

9. Nightwing 46,978
10. Wonder Woman 46,492

No sign of Aquaman and Batgirl just yet. Nightwing, while still losing sales, goes up two positions on the chart. Wonder Woman *gains* 8k sales (I guess the return (or first appearance) of Orion is a big deal) and this book goes up *six* spots on this chart.


11. Batgirl 45,939
0. Earth 2 45,468

At last! Here's Batgirl. She's lost over 5k sales and dropped two positions on the chart, no doubt as a result of her sales going back to pre-crossover levels.

What about Aquaman? Looks like he's MIA this month, just like Superman was two months ago. So, take any further "moved up one position" comments with a grain of salt, as Aquaman's missing position would account for those. Likewise, anybody dropping positions would probably have dropped another position if Aquaman were here.


12. Green Lantern Corps 43,903
13. Flash 42,079
14. Green Lantern New Guardians 41,481

GLC and GL:NG are in their same positions on the chart, with negligible sales losses. Flash moves up two places with a small (less than 1k) sales increase.


0. Before Watchmen Comedian 40,852
15. Teen Titans 39,532
16. Red Hood And The Outlaws 36,630
17. Red Lanterns 34,673

Teen Titans loses two positions on the chart and drops over 2k in sales. Red Hood loses over 1k sales, but gains one position in the charts (thanks to Aquaman). Red Lanterns loses fewer sales, but has the same chart phenomenon occurring (gains one position thanks to Aquaman).


18. Batwoman 31,538
19. Green Arrow 29,922

Batwoman has a negligible sales increase but gains two positions on the chart. Green Arrow climbs again; two months ago it had a huge sales increase followed by last month's huge fall, so... yeah. Anyway, it goes up four positions on the chart and gains nearly 2k sales. Is this a trend? Who knows.


20. Supergirl 29,558
21. Swamp Thing 29,254
22. Catwoman 28,058
0. Batman Lil Gotham 27,591
23. Animal Man 27,562
0. Worlds Finest 27,453
24. Justice League Dark 25,407

Supergirl goes up four positions, while gaining over 1k sales. Swamp Thing and Animal Man drop one position, while losing over 1k sales. Catwoman falls 3 positions, while losing nearly 5k sales, presumably a result of post-crossover sales returning to normal. Justice League Dark gains one position (thanks Aquaman) while losing negligible sales.

To Be Continued...

I still waiting and maybe always will. To the classic Universe comeback.

Is not just a wishful thinking. I really think that the New 52 is not organized enough to survive.

25. Suicide Squad 24,300
26. Superboy 24,211
27. Birds of Prey 21,707
0. Injustice Gods Among Us 21,669

Okay, here's the last batch before the 20k sales of doom.

Suicide Squad loses 1k sales but goes up one position (thanks Aquaman!). Superboy and Birds of Prey lose minimal sales and go up one position (thanks Aquaman!).


0. Legends of The Dark Knight 18,201
0. Phantom Stranger 17,326
0. Justice League of Americas Vibe 16,972
28. All Star Western 16,838
0. Batman Beyond Unlimited 16,283
0. Katana 16,157

All Star Western is pretty stable, losing negligible sales.


29. Legion of Super Heroes 16,015
0. Smallville Season 15,930
0. Fables 15,606
0. Fairest 15,269

Legion is also fairly stable, losing minimal sales.


0. Batman Arkham Unhinged 14,702
30. Stormwatch 13,626
31. Batwing 13,570

Well, the big changes to Stormwatch have... increased its sales! But by less than 3%. And Stormwatch's position on this chart hasn't changed (except the boost from Aquaman).

Batwing, on the other hand, shows noticeable improvement. It goes up three positions and gains over 1k in sales (something that *never* happens to books this far down the charts). That's an increase of 12% in sales. This could be good news for Batwing if it continues.

0. Dial H 13,355
0. Ravagers 13,074 -- cancelled

I don't usually comment on these non-original-new-52 books, but... Dial H has gone up in sales! Ravagers is a good contrast, continuing to lose more and more sales, having sold better than Stormwatch the previous month but selling worse this month.

32. Demon Knights 12,941
0. Ame Comi Girls 12,878
0. Threshold 12,811
0. Django Unchained 12,561

Demon Knights loses minimal sales and stays in its position on the charts (despite the boost that Aquaman's absence gives).


33. DC Universe Presents 12,444 -- cancelled
34. Deathstroke 12,392 --cancelled
35. Savage Hawkman 11,927 --cancelled
0. Team 7 11,610 -- cancelled
36. I Vampire 11,469 -- cancelled
0. Sword of Sorcery 11,412

DCU Presents goes up 3 positions on the chart, while increasing sales by nearly 1k. (Anybody know why?)

Deathstroke goes down one position but gains sales... 86 sales to be precise. No, not 86% or 86k... just 86. So, nothing to be too excited about if you're a Deathstroke fan. And it's cancelled anyway.

Hawkman, however, loses sales and keeps its position (despite the Aquaman boost).

I, Vampire gets the Aquaman boost but is otherwise stable, with sales decreasing by less than 100.


0. JSA Liberty Files The Whistling Skull 10,728
37. Fury of Firestorm The Nuclear Man 10,603 --cancelled
0. Arrow 10,462

And selling even worse than books by Liefeld, here's Firestorm. No surprises here: it's still the worst-selling of the still-published original new 52. And it lost some sales.



0. Unwritten 8,226
0. Superman Family Adventures 7,175 --cancelled
Etc.

While I might also wish for a return to a pre-new universe, I don't think it's going to happen, at least not for at least a decade. I mean, sure, anything's possible (I got my original Legion back! Well, mostly...), but sales are all that will drive DC's decisions about such things. And sales on the top books are still good.

The odd thing, though, is that sales on the other books are abysmal. Any book that doesn't feature a major character (a Justice League member, a Justice League spin-off like Red Lanterns from Green Lantern, or another team book) isn't doing well (except Animal Man and Plant Man... I mean Swamp Thing). And even new highly-hyped books like Vibe and Katana pretty much start off at the "begging to be cancelled" area of the sales charts.

So, it seems that a lot more people are buying the big name books, but a lot fewer people are buying books starring the B-list characters, as if there's no real interest in the DC Universe as a whole anymore. That does seem a bit unstable and unwieldy to me, but as long as people keep buying the Superman books, the Batman books, and the Green Lantern books, then the DC universe will continue along in the new52 direction.

It may be interesting to see what happens when Geoff Johns leaves the GL books, as that *could* cause some sales ripples. And Action still isn't doing well. And maybe people will eventually get tired of moody guys-without-powers dressed in black? (Yeah, I know, never gonna happen.)

But even if they do decide to revert to the old universe, I doubt it will be the same. For example, the upswing in Wonder Woman's popularity in her current incarnation may mean that we never see a return to the old version(s) ever again... just as the newly returned original LSH still have to wear the flight rings of the Archie Legion.

Man, I know its sales aren't great, but I feel encouraged to see that Demon Knights only lost .26% of its sales (34 copies) since March.

I know what you say Simon.

Heck I would just love ONE book showing how the classic universe is going (is this 52 is actually not the old universe transformed and is in fact a separate universe)

They could easy make happy classic fans by making one or more books about the old universe.

New 52 could be DCs Ultimate line and keep both universes like Marvel do.

Im SURE DC would had a very sucesfull book (or more than one!) staring the classic Universe.

As much as I hate to admit it, not ALL changes in the Pu52 have been bad. Yes I am one of the most vocal about the desecration of Captain Marvel, but at the same time, Aquaman is amazing, Batgirl is being written very well, Snyder has retooled Batman to be quite the good book, and IMO JLI was pretty damn good before it got cancelled.

Not everything needs to be reverted, but the Pu52 has NOT been a success as a universe wide event, as is proven by sales numbers. Certain characters and teams have benefited, but others have suffered tremendously.

Part of what Mr. Mucha suggests would be a great idea. Take the ideas that aren't working, and revert them back to the Classic universe as a separate line of books. I'd love to see Old School JLI brought back (minus Ted Kord, may he rest in peace) as well as the proper Captain Marvel and Marvel family. If something like this were to happen, I'd stopp my company wide boycott and tirade simply because I would have gotten what I wanted in the first place.

But until then, DC won't get a dime from me.