Non-original-new52 sales reports:

Well, from just looking at the new52 sales continuing to decline, we might think DC's sales in general are in decline, but that's not completely accurate. They have a lot going for them this month, with the Before Watchmen books selling quite highly:

Before Watchmen Ozymandias 88,210
Before Watchmen Minutemen 68,768
Before Watchmen Comedian 63,686
Before Watchmen Silk Spectre 61,563

These sales put these books in the ranks of DC's top ten of the original new 52.

Plus, there's the new-new-six:

Batman Incorporated -- n/a
Earth 2 67,403
Worlds Finest 40,963
Dial H 23,498
Ravagers 22,467
G.I. Combat 12,923

Well, okay, only the first two (or three) are doing well here, with GI Combat selling worse than the worst of the non-cancelled new 52 books... and it's only on issue 2, not issue 11, like the rest of the new 52.

I always thought it was ridiculous to have 4 monthly titles starring Batman (not to mention the other half dozen bat family books), but it appears everybody is buying them.

Yeah, I know the feeling: before the new 52, I was buying every DC superhero book except the Bat-books; I'd only buy a couple of Bat-books (like Gotham Sirens and so forth) and that was plenty. But apparently, I'm in the minority.

My impression (which could well be wrong) is that to a lot of people, Batman is the only "cool" DC superhero. Because he wears black. And broods. So, he can appeal to that teen-aged angsty mentality really well. And a lot of people never outgrow that.

But as far as having a ton of Bat-books... well, both DC and Marvel try to find *anything* that works and milk the heck out of it.

Batman's popular? We'll sell Batman, Batman: The Dark Knight, Batman and Robin, Detective, Batgirl, Batwoman, Batwing, Batman Inc., Red Hood and the Outlaws (Red Hood being Batman's second Robin), Teen Titans (starring Batman's third Robin), Batman's Girlfriend Selina Kyle (Catwoman), and Batman's Pal Dick Grayson (Nightwing).

Green Lantern's popular? We'll sell Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern New Guardians, and Red Lanterns.

Justice League's popular? We'll sell Justice League, Justice League International, and Justice League Dark.

The top 25 DC books (of the new 52) all feature The Justice League, a member of the Justice League, a junior version of the Justice League, or a spin-off of a member of the Justice League. The only exceptions are Animal Man and Swamp Thing.

But DC's not alone in doing that. Marvel's had a ton of X-men books forever and in recent years has really gone crazy with a ton of Avengers books.

However, I do still agree with befuddlement over so much Batman stuff, since at least the other overly-milked books have different characters with different abilities. Batman books are all very samey to me.

Stop that blasphemous talk of yours. We can never have enough "Bat" books.

ok we could do with out Batwing

Amanda Waller: Because the world needs a Batman.....and Amanda knows best.

We will always need Batman books.

ok maybe we could have had a better story then of Bruce coming back to life through time, that was just plain weird

But other then that we will always need Batman books.

I am for the most part a Target Reader (prior to New52 I hadn't bought 2 comic in a row since Green Arrows post Longbow Hunter series).

I am most surprised by Blue Beetle a pretty good read so far.

Also I like the 2 Legion titles although at first LoSH was hard to follow. Legion Lost has been pretty good despite the weak character selection.

The "teenage angst" comment is misguided.

Batman is my favorite character because he's an inspirational hero to me. He is quite possibly the biggest OPTIMIST in all of comics. He believes that he'll eventually win his war. He's wrong, but it's still what he believes.

He will risk his life for ANYONE. That's what I admire.

"Everyone's worth it."

Agreed. Jim Lee's JL #6 cover really shows why I love Batman.

The Justice League is all bowing down before Darkseid. In Jim Lee's words, “Except of course Batman who, despite not having powers, fights with all his strength in defiance.”

The homage cover to Great Darkness Saga?

That was a great JL cover.

Well, I may have been a bit dismissive, just because the thought of Batman being the MOST popular DC hero is so completely bizarre to my way of thinking. Of course, I also don't understand the popularity of bad 90's Image artists like Rob Liefeld or Jim Lee.

Really? That's not how I would think of Batman. He's a mean badass to cover the little child inside who was hurt badly. He wants to lash out and manages to maintain control by pointing his childhood fury at the badguys.

And even if so, aren't characters like Superman and Wonder Woman even more optimistic? Superman (esp. Silver/Bronze Age) keeps hoping Luthor will reform. Wonder Woman (at least pre-nuDC) is always trying to talk to villains first before punching them, optimistically thinking that anyone can be a decent person. Heck, the Golden Age Wonder Woman would take that a step further, saying that any woman can be a wonder woman. Love that optimism!

Whereas, Batman's the guy who assumes his friends are going to turn on him and makes plans to take them all down.

Superman and Wonder Woman hope their enemies will become their friends. Batman expects his friends will become his enemies.


Um, isn't that EVERY superhero? Isn't that Superman? Isn't that the Flash? Isn't that Wonder Woman? I really don't see how that's unique to Batman. I still don't see ANY reason why Batman would be more popular than EVERY other DC hero.

(My impression is that a lot of Batman fans may never have read about any other heroes but got exposed to Batman through cartoons, TV shows, and movies, without realizing that there are other heroes out there. And so, since Batman's the only DC superhero they've ever heard of, he must be the best in their eyes. But I could be wrong.)

Bah, that's just "Dream Girl syndrome," by which I mean the writers always go to great lengths to pretend that Batman has a reason to be in the Justice League (just like Dream Girl in the Legion of Super-Heroes) despite his absolute uselessness compared to the rest of them. So, despite not having any useful abilities (much like Dream Girl), the writers artificially make him better than all the other heroes. Just as Dream Girl suddenly became the best (or 2nd best) leader, the 2nd best scientist, the 2nd best martial artist, and the 2nd best occultist in the group, suddenly Batman has to be the best at those one or two things that he is actually capable of doing.


What's worse is that anytime Batman shows up, the rest of the Justice League suddenly stop being as competent as they are in their own books. Superman is intelligent, but not when Batman's around. Superman is strong-willed, but not when Batman's around. Superman can come up with a plan to defeat any villain, but not when Batman's around. Superman can beat Darkseid single-handedly, but not when Batman's around.

(Substitute "Wonder Woman", "Green Lantern," etc for Superman and see how ridiculous this quickly becomes.)

If Batman wasn't in the JLA, the other members would have to remember how competent they really are, and nobody would notice that Batman was missing.

This sort of thing doesn't make me like Batman more. Shoving Batman on a pedestal makes the other heroes seem so much less than they otherwise are and as someone who (pre-nu) loved all those other heroes, I feel a strong resentment towards Batman for doing that to my heroes.


It makes me just sigh when I realize how much the writers worship Batman for no reason I can see. Bat-God? Bah.

Update with August sales numbers for the top half of the new 52: (and I'm not including annuals)


1. Batman (125,249)
2. Justice League (120,796)
3. Green Lantern (77,187)
4. Detective Comics (75,998)
5. Action Comics (71,203)

Same rankings so far. Steady (typical) declines, with Action losing the most readers.

6. Batman The Dark Knight (67,084)
7. Batman And Robin (63,993)
8. Aquaman (61,653)
9. Superman (53,326)
10. Flash (51,779)

Again, no change in the rankings, with continual small declines.



11. Nightwing (47,484)
12. Wonder Woman (44,584)
13. Batgirl (43,804)
14. Teen Titans (42,817)

The Teen Titans book slips below Batgirl.


15. Green Lantern Corps (41,778)
16. Green Lantern New Guardians (41,479)
17. Batwoman (38,064)
18. Swamp Thing (36,696)
19. Red Lanterns (35,070)

Swamp Thing actually overtakes Red Lanterns, as Swamp Thing manages a minimal increase in sales!

20. Animal Man (34,549)
21. Red Hood And The Outlaws (34,439)
22. Catwoman 12 (34,117)

Animal Man makes a significant increase in sales, jumping past both Red Hood and Catwoman.

23. Justice League Dark (30,754)
24. Supergirl (30,420)
25. Suicide Squad (28,302)

Justice League Dark technically surpasses Supergirl this month, but it's a minimal increase. The books had similar sales last month and similar sales this month.

Update with August numbers for the bottom half of the new 52. This time, I'm going to switch how I've been doing things, putting the books in best-selling to worst-selling order (it's easier this way). And I'll have the numbering count down from 26, to make this a continuation of the best-selling list.

26. Justice League International (28,261) -- cancelled
27. Superboy (27,518)
28. Birds of Prey (26,587)
29. Green Arrow (23,126)
30. All Star Western (22,767)

All of the above books have declining sales, but they haven't yet gone below the 20k cutoff point.

31. Legion of Super Heroes (18,907)
32. Stormwatch (18,531)
33. Batwing (18,279)
34. Demon Knights (17,295)
35. Deathstroke (16,772)
36. Legion Lost (16,066)

These books are still below 20k sales. Of these, the Legion has moved up two places, meaning its sales have decreased significantly less than Stormwatch and Batwing's have. Batwing has actually fallen two places on the list, on this, it's first month selling below 20k; it seems to be crashing fast.

37. DC Universe Presents (15,138)
38. I Vampire (14,788)
39. Savage Hawkman (14,745)
40. Frankenstein Agent of Shade (14,679)
41. Fury of Firestorm The Nuclear Men (14,137)
42. Resurrection Man (13,741) -- cancelled
43. Blue Beetle (13,325)
44. Grifter (12,400)
45. Voodoo (11,328) -- cancelled
46. Captain Atom (10,445) -- cancelled

Of these, the truly hopeless books, DC Universe Presents actually increased sales (jumping an unheard of six spots!), but sales fluctuations are to be expected with a book that switches lead features. I, Vampire is starting to decline like the other books in the range, rather than holding steady as it had been doing.

Savage Hawkman, while still losing sales, actually started selling better than Frankenstein this month. (Did Liefeld actually help slow Hawkman's decline? Inconceivable!)

I suspect it's more of the brand recognition of Hawkman and the writing change in Frankenstein. There is probably a bit of "Liefeld factor," but I wouldn't chalk up Hawkman's relative stability to Liefeld alone.

And Frankenstein will get another bump when Rotworld starts happening.

Well, here are the next four to be cancelled: Frankenstein, Grifter, Legion Lost, and Blue Beetle.