DC, JAN-05

I covered off Marvel's January solicits last week, so here's the other big-bad-guy...

DC

A weak month for the distinguished competition, with 3 core titles not seeing their ways to the shelves made for easy pickings by the big dog on campus, Marvel. Let's see how they did anyways... (I will only cover that stuff I read -- although very brief mention of the rest might get tossed in...)

Teen Titans #20 -- DC's top performer, coming in at #14 on the charts... a bit of an upsurge in sales to around the 65,000 mark, thanks to an I-C tie-in apparently, and recent re-sales have proven strong... this title is showing some staying power.

JLA #110 -- right behind Titans at #15... 64,000+ issues sold... a new writer has helped a bit... a solid title all around.

JLA: Classified #3 -- still dropping, but this title will be switching creative teams very frequently(with a new one coming on next issue), so I would expect some up and downs... Morrison's run wasn't as strong as expected, I'd wager.

Batman #636 -- under 60,000 units. A year ago this was clocking in at around 90,000. Though Jim Lee likely had something to do with that. A title in need of some help... soon!

Flash #217~218 -- first an up-swing of about 6,000 issues(although with re-sales, it about comes even...), then a settling back to it's normal levels... slightly over 40,000 (a big drop from the previous DC title, Batman, at close to 60,000). This title seems to be catching on with folks though... I see good things if they keep up the quality of late...

JSA #69 -- steady. I-C helped some... a good writer should keep it solid. I'm a pretty big fan of this title -- and of all the team titles...

Legion Of Super-Heroes #2 -- typical issue 2 drop-off... (or so they say). Still leaps and bounds ahead of the previous incarnation, in no small part due to the writer -- Waid is a legend.

Detective Comics #802 -- quickly dropping, though still 5,000 issues above it's previous standard... not sure if the year long "pre" story concept their going with will actually be good for sales... but this title is one of two "will always see print" books, so they can afford to play with it as they please...

Outsiders #19 -- drops below 40,000 for the first time. I'm a fan, but it needs to do something to ensure it doesn't go too low, too fast...

Adventures Of Superman #636 -- another 5,000 issue bump thanks to I-C. Before this, a continual spiral had been in place... will it return to that next month, or does this bring the turning of the corner, so to speak?

Nightwing #101~102 -- not reading this yet. Next on my list.

Action Comics #823 -- the other 'safe' title. Sales have been spiraling(Austen is not a boon for comics sales... I figure he gets jobs because he is consistent in getting the job done... it's just not done well...)

Next is a whole bunch of stuff I'm not reading... then we get:

Wonder Woman #212 -- the third in DC's holy-trinity(supposedly) gets very little respect in terms of sales. 25,000 issues is close to cancellation levels for most titles... it has leveled out at least, but this title needs to see a boost, purely out of respect to DC's premiere super-female...

Superman: Strength #1 -- 25,000 issues... not great, but it is prestige format ($5.95 American), so acceptable. I haven't read it yet... it's "on my list". That was DC's top monthly premiere of the month, FYI.

So, there you have it. DC out-publishes Marvel, but does not out-perform (although they're quite competitive, and often take the lead in the top 10 when all guns are firing). Unlike at Marvel, I don't read 90%+ of what DC puts out... I avoid the Vertigo, Wildstorm and Kids labels... and only pick up around half(or less) of the rest...

One area where DC puts Marvel to shame is re-orders. Green Lantern: Rebirth is cleaning up here, as are Legion Of Super-Heroes, Superman/Batman, Teen Titans, Space Ghost(I'm gonna back-issue this some day), Batman, JLA: Classified, Superman, Adam Strange(ditto for this), Identity Crisis and many, many more...

Big winners for DC are: Legion Of Super-Heroes(Waid rules!), Flash, Nightwing(that's why it's next on my list...), Adventures of Superman(I-C) and Robin(also on my list).

Big losers(of note): Plastic Man(should be cancelled), JLE(ditto, but I think it's a mini), Hawkman(pity...), Firestorm(just can't hack it in today's market I guess), Batman and Wonder Woman

So, what would I do at DC. Not much, actually. They've got some exciting projects coming up and their big titles are doing well. Ship Jim Lee over to Wonder Woman after his run on Supes. Try and maintain consistency on the top sellers (currently that's GL:Rebirth, Superman/Batman and Superman). Keep up the good work on the various team titles. The Bat-verse could maybe use some stream-lining. Maybe a bit more inter-connectivity between some solo and team titles (as some of the solo titles need the sales boost). Overall though, DC seems to be a bit more on the ball, going forward, than Marvel. So Marvel had best look out.

The only other title I'll consider worth mentioning, which is outside the Marvel/DC spectrum, is Conan, as published by DarkHorse. I don't read this, but maybe I should... or maybe I'll wait for the TPB. I'm anti-Image til the day I die... and most of the licensing and/or self-published stuff out there ain't for me...

So there you have it. Thoughts?