Sales Review: March 2018

The sales numbers for March have come out and things are both fascinating and frustrating. Here is a link to the ICv2 coverage:https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/40108/top-300-comics-march-2018

For this blog, the big news has been the shelving of the Supergirl title.

'Bendis is Coming!' The landscape of the super-titles will be changed. Supergirl will have a 'new mission'. And it all seems strange when you look at the numbers.

I will also say I realize that sometimes I, as a reader, am impossible to please.

I want Supergirl to be her own hero, having her own adventures.
I want Supergirl to be part of Superman's life but not too much. If she isn't in his books or mentioned in his books I am unhappy. But I don't think his books or life should dictate her series.

And it is probably tough to satisfy all those things. If she wasn't impacted by whatever is happening in Superman's books, I wouldn't be happy. And yet, here she is impacted and I'm not happy.

Surely there can be some happy medium. If Batgirl and Red Hood and Batwoman and Nightwing can all somehow have their own titles *and* be part of the Batman books, it can be done!

So on to the sales!

Supergirl #19 was the 'very special' issue discussing nonbinary people. We had Vita Ayala and Steve Orlando telling the story of Lee Serrano. It also sported this Bruce Timm inspired Artgerm variant.

The book ranked at #55 and sold 30,669.
It sold better than Harley Quinn.

I understand that much of this might be due to the Artgerm variants. But the book was selling very well. And it is going away.

This reminds me so much of the midseason hiatus of the Supergirl show. The momentum is probably going to be broken. It is a jumping off point.

Action Comics #999 also came out last month, the last issue before the mega-anniversary of Action Comics #1000 and the Bendis era. It also wrapped up Dan Jurgens' time on the book.

That also sold very well coming in at #19 and selling over 51K.

It sold better than Detective Comics.Incredible.

The Rebirth era for the super-books have been fantastic and it is basically over. We should all be happy it happened. And hopefully the new landscape builds on it instead of erasing it.

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