Update with May sales. These numbers seem a little suspicious to me since they are uniformally higher than the previous month's sales. Is there some reason why people jumped on these comics this month? Apart from the Legion Lost sales bump from the teen comics crossover? Batwing in particular nearly doubled in sales! How is that possible? (Was he part of that owl crossover?) And the order of the comics in the list is completely different too.

1. Captain Atom (12,264) -- now cancelled
2. Voodoo (13,762) -- now cancelled
3. Grifter (15,228)
4. DCU Presents (15,776)
5. I, Vampire (17,175)
6. Blue Beetle (16,6077)
7. Fury of Firestorm (17,240)
8. Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE (17,266)
9. Savage Hawkman (17,626)
10. Resurrection Man (18,018) -- now cancelled
11. Demon Knights (20,196)
12. Legion of Super-Heroes (20,854)
13. Deathstroke (20,878)
15. Legion Lost (23,794)
20. Batwing (35,731)

So, with the newly cancelled books, the new 52 (new 46) is down to the new 42.

The formerly borderline books:


14. Stormwatch (22,448)
16. Green Arrow (26,966)
17. All Star Western (31,413)
18. Suicide Squad (32,581).
19. Superboy (34,873).
21. Birds of Prey (41,521)

Why have sales gone UP? Have new creative teams really revitalized sales across the board? Stormwatch is the only borderline book still with abysmal sales.

Sales numbers on the top selling books:

1. Batman (134,605). Still didn't beat Avengers vs X-Men # 3 or 4.
2. Justice League (131,332).
3. Detective (96,016)
4. Action (88,796).
5. Green Lantern (87,601). One of the few books with decreased sales. Action and GL switched places again.

6. Batman: The Dark Knight (82,169)
7. Batman and Robin (75,967). Big increase, probably due to the crossover.

8. The Flash (62,807).
9. Superman (62,232). Sales dropped below Flash.
10. Nightwing (61,395).

11.Aquaman (60,527). No longer a top ten book.
12. Batgirl (58,710)

13. Teen Titans (50,261)
14. Catwoman (49,726)
15. Red Hood & the Outlaws (48,798)
16. Wonder Woman (48,750). Sales still dropping.
17. Green Lantern: New Guardians (46,237)
18. Batwoman (43,942)
19. Green Lantern Corps (46,336)
20. Swamp Thing (39,385)
21. Red Lanterns (39,215)
22. Animal Man (35,699).
23. Supergirl (35,129)
24. Justice League Dark (34,649)
25. JLI (32,558) -- cancelled

I'm surprised Legion Lost outsold the regular Legion book, but considering "The Culling" crossover that included Teen Titans & Superboy, not so surprised. Didn't Night of Owls get tie-ins in May? That would explain the sales bump in Batwing & even All-Star Western, as they made a retroactive Night of Owls reference and included it as a tie-in. Birds of Prey was also likely affected with a tie-in. Apparently Batman boosts sales.

Suicide Squad and Ressurection Man also crossed over in May. May was a big crossover month for DC. Even the Animal Man annual included Swamp Thing mythos.

Good to see Demon Knights & Legion of Super-Heroes are still treading water. The book of the past and the book of the future hold a high interest for me, since, like Marvel cosmic books, you don't usually have to worry about them getting mucked up by editorial from a shared timeline with other DC books, which also leads to less decompression compares to other books that have to move at a slower rate due to tie-ins, etc. At least Suicide Squad's picked up dramatically, but that writer is making quality stories on par with Ostrander and Simone. The fact that the focus character in the book, Deadshot, is a Batman villain may also speak for the reputation Batman has on comics sales. Having Harley Quinn in the Suicide Squad book isn't hurting either in the Bat factoring.

Time for DC to include Ra's al-Ghul or some other immortal that's Batman-related to get included in Demon Knights for that series to pick up in sales. Who wouldn't want to see a fight between Ra's and Vandal Savage in medieval times?

Also, Levitz needs to find a way to work in a Batman angle on the Legion book. Maybe the Legion of Substitute Heroes can regroup and have meetings in the batcave. I would say Ra's al-Ghul as a villain, but it's been done before in a Legion title, albeit the post-Zero Hour team.

I miss the legion series from about five years ago, the one that turned into supergirl and the legion in issue 16. The first fifteen issues of that series was great. The legion was a sort of intergalactic youth movement, in addition to the regular team there were thousands of alien teens living outside of their base. The dialogue was witty, the lineup was great, and it all led up to the legion stopping an invasion of the UP. I liked how they spend so much time on characterization and made it more realistic than cartoony. Of course they switched writers on issue 16 and the entire series went down the toilet.
Its no huge surprise that DC presents is doing poorly. Instead of nothing but Z-listers that can't support their own book they should use the brave and the bold approach, teaming up already known chars that at least have a fan base.

I was reading Captain Atom, JLI, and Resurrection Man. Too bad. Hopefully they'll all get wrapped up nicely. Surprised Resurrection Man got canceled before some of the books below it in sales.

I need to drop some books anyway.

Here's my attempt at rationalizing this:

(1) The Liefeld Three (Grifter, Hawkman, and Deathstroke) aren't getting cancelled because Didio and Lee actually think Liefeld will draw in big audiences. Won't they be surprised...

(2) I, Vampire is selling well if you consider it to be a Vertigo book. For a Vertigo book, its sales aren't bad. And its sales have stayed fairly consistent lately which is unusual.

(3) Blue Beetle III (or IV) is a character that I think Didio is trying to keep around as much as possible. His appearances in various media (cartoons, Smallville) seem to be an attempt to cement Jaime as an important DCU character to add much needed diversity attached to a pre-existing character name. So they may want to keep the comic out there even though he just hasn't sold comics, before or after the nu52.

(4) Firestorm? No idea. Perhaps due to world-building issues? Don't know, dropped it with issue #2.

(5) Frankenstein? No idea. It might be well received critically.

Off topic, but any idea how the new Watchmen stuff is selling? I have a feeling that DC has a lot of horses hitched to that cart...

My LCS owner said it's tanking, but I can't verify the accuracy or the frame of reference.

I honestly believe alot of their titles that they're keeping around are because they're trying too hard to add diversity. They already gave mister terrific the axe right in the neck so jason rusch and jamie are two of the only non Caucasian heroes. I think they're trying a little bit too hard to broaden their appeal, kind of like making Alan Scott gay.
Personally I think firestorm should have been one of the first to go. That is one of the books I DL but don't buy, and I've lost track of how many firestorms there are now.

Well, I'll miss Resurrection Man when it gets canceled. They probably should have picked up the pace, though, it was dragging a little. That leaves me with Green Arrow and Dial H from the "New 52", plus Batman Beyond Unlimited. I'm going to skip Arrow's 0 issue, though, since Winick's writing it. I'm on the book for Nocenti, but I wish they'd give her a better artist. Tolibao's work is a mess.

I can tell you that my local shop has been ordering the heck out of it and I wouldn't have a problem picking up anything that's come out....still plenty of each on the shelf. If that's any indicator, it may not be the huge seller DC hoped for.

Justed started reading Superboy. I had no intention or interest. Picked up the first couple of issues on a bored whim and was like what...what?! Excellent book in my opinion.

I thought it started very well but got bogged down in "The Dulling" event. I lost interest in continuing from there.

Not there yet. So now I'm nervous.

It ha started very,well. He is a very interesting character, love the anti hero undertones. I think they have guts to reboot him in such a way.. from tactile telekinetic , to one of the most powerful telekinetics in the DC universe...possibly and an overall latent psionic. Ver cool.

They should have just brought John Stewart back into the spotlight. To people my age (25ish) who don't read comics, he's still THE Green Lantern, despite the recent movie. That Justice League cartoon was big, and DC is just letting one of their few popular non-white characters fade away. Why not use what you already have?

They also dropped the ball with Static.