10.) Death of Wolverine I was surprised by this, but apparently it’s true. This is a comic by Marvel and was released in September of 2014 with unit sales of 274,000. Although it seems like every character is dying and coming back to life the death of Wolverine, in particular, got some heavy duty sales.
9.) All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder This is a comic by DC Comics that was released in July of 2005 with unit sales of 276,000. The All Star line was undoubtedly an answer to the Marvel Ultimate line, but it didn’t do quite as well. This is Batman’s highest selling appearance so far this century. The combination of Frank Miller and Jim Lee were unbeatable at the time.
8.) Uncanny Avengers A spinoff of Avengers vs. X-Men, this combination of the Avengers and the X-Men in one team was quite a hit. As a comic fan I can honestly say that I felt this was a long time coming and was bound to be big. This was released by Marvel in October of 2012 with unit sales of 305,900.
7.) Rocket Raccoon This one comes as no surprise. Fresh off the success of Guardians of the Galaxy there was no character more popular save for Groot. This was released in July of 2014 by Marvel comics and had unit sales of 311,000. If you have this one, and any possible variants, ya’ done good.
6.) Captain America Not just any Captain America, the Civil War Death of Captain America. Though it’s no surprise that Cap died, since many of his colleagues had already done the same and come back, it symbolized the death of freedom and liberty. In his place, the very capable, and newly reformed, Bucky Barnes. This was released by Marvel in March of 2007 with unit sales of 317,700. We will soon get to see this live in the upcoming Civil War movie.
5.) Justice League of America No surprise here, this was part of the New 52 and was the best selling comic of the entire event. This particular issue has a cover with an American flag (shown) and a cover for every state with each having it’s state flag on the cover. I’ve seen comic stores selling the entire set for $100. This was released by DC in February of 2013 with unit sales of 326,000.
4.) Civil War I’ve seen this listed as one of the worst events in comic history and couldn’t disagree more. This event was a long time building and was played out very well by the writers and artists. This particular comic is where Spiderman unmasks starting a cavalcade of mixed emotions that follow him through subsequent comics. Civil War was released from May 2006 to February 2007 by Marvel comics and this comic had unit sales of 341,900. This was Marvel’s biggest event of the century....by far.
3.) Walking Dead Issue #100 is the only “non-DC/Marvel” comic to be on this list. It is the smash event that took TV by storm and did extremely well in it’s comic adaptation. If you follow the two storylines, though, you will see that the two differed markedly as soon as issue #2. This was released by Image in July 2012 with unit sales of 384,800.
2.) The Amazing Spider-Man Arguably Marvel’s version of Superman/Batman, Spider-Man has gone through many changes, clonings, and death’s of loved ones over the years. It was all capped off in #700 by the “death” of Peter Parker himself. This comic was the rejuvenation of the brand and the return of the original Peter Parker. This comic was released by Marvel in April 2014 with unit sales of 559,200. An astounding 170,000 units more than the #3 spot.
1.) Star Wars This is an interesting comic to be at this spot. As you well know Marvel was in a state of near bankruptcy in the 70’s. It was Star Wars that not only bailed them out but brought them back to near financial stability. Marvel did this by licensing Star Wars early in the game and thereby helping the brand, and themselves, get a foothold in the marketplace. Now, with Star Wars coming back to Marvel it’s no surprise that it did it again by being at the top spot. Released by Marvel in July 2015 with unit sales of 985,976 it crushed the #2 spot by over 400,000 units and the #3 spot by 600,000 units. It wasn’t even close.
For those keeping score at home this makes 7 titles for Marvel, 1 title for Image and 2 titles for DC. My guess is that you could have called Marvel as the clear winner before you even started reading.
So what does this say about the future of comic sales? Has the Trinity lost it’s appeal with DC? Has Batman run it’s course after 75+ years? Or are we seeing just another cyclical high by Marvel soon to be replaced by an equally impressive low? My guess is that unless DC gets it’s act together it won’t be outselling Marvel anytime soon. The New 52 didn’t perform like it was supposed to and Convergence confused people more than anything with no real changes coming from it. It’s going to take more than yet another “reboot” to get DC back in the running.
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