Naturally, the PWJ #1 news is good news, as that book deserved to sell well. However, as always when these things come out, I am always dismayed at how many books I really like that continue to sell rather poorly. Or at least poorly by Marvel editorial standards (they consider most books that sell in the Top 80-100 as bad, and that's not entirely unfair). Naturally NEW AVENGERS is the best selling Marvel ongoing, but CW has been a huge boost to ASM, which two years ago was consistantly outsold by USM. Granted, ASM has now offically been relying on crossovers for sales for a good year now; THE OTHER, then PRELUDE, and now CW. Eventually it will have to stand on it's own again. USM, sucking arse through a straw with Clone Saga, is selling within the Top 25.
Marvel, for all their flaws, has been relaunching quite a few franchises either competantly or even well this year. MOON KNIGHT is one of them and it's good to see it still selling well enough at #27. It even outsold CW: YA/RUNAWAYS #4, which was also good (and within the Top 30). ETERNALS and GHOST RIDER (perhaps the worst of the relaunches due to retcons and ignorance by the writer) sell within the Top 30-45. Many books continue to "bleed" readers until they gain a steady audience, so to me a book is in a "danger zone" if it sells, especially debuts, past the Top 50. Especially since second issues are usually underordered.
ANNIHILATION #4, aces better than CW, should be selling better than #54, but I guess that's not too bad considering the cast and Marvel's hype machine is all but ignoring it. IRON FIST #1 debuted at #56, past the Top 55 which could be a sign of danger if it slides too much within the first 6 issues. It doesn't surprise me to see X-MEN: FIRST CLASS selling at #81, as it is a rather pointless X-mini in a market that doesn't need any. It's simply way more fun and readable than WARSONG sure it, and Warsong outsells it badly. DR. STRANGE: OATH also deserves to sell better than #84. However, the last issue of DAREDEVIL: FATHER from Joe Q, shipping very late, sold worse at #86. Keep in mind it was a Top 20 book when it first debuted. One can only wonder if lateness was a factor, and if seeing his own book lose thousands of readers may get the EIC to not be as willing to brush off timliness for issues.
RUNAWAYS should always sell better, but it at least has maintained a steady audience of 24,000-25,000 readers to remain within the Top 90 or so for a while (like maybe a year).
However, I was concerned at ANT-MAN #2 slipping a whopping 59 slots to sell at #122. That's almost at the level that MTU was selling by it's second year. This innovative and quirky dark tale was always a tough sell but if it keeps slipping, seeing an issue #7 may be impossible. It also appears that while CW: CHOOSING SIDES sold at #20, it did nothing to boost ANT-MAN's sales. Perhaps redefining a little that crossovers are steriods for sales and don't always work for the long term.
