Sales Review: December 2016

After a sort of dismal November for DC, the company rallied a bit in December, mostly in market share. The usual coverage is over on ICv2, my favorite site to review this sort of information. Here is the link:
http://ift.tt/1StJJA5

Despite that bump, it feels like there is the same sort of erosion at the company. Remove things like the Dark Knight miniseries and opaque bagged variants and you are stuck with a company that doesn't seem to have any lasting bright spots, especially with the Super-family.

In fact, maybe in this new year, DC should resolve to shore up this part of their lineup. They need to fix Superman.

We do know that the fiftieth issues of many of the New 52 books will be a turnover point, a place for bold new directions. And solicits show a flying Superman in those issues meaning the powerless Truth must be sprinting to an end.

Superman #47 brought a semi-closure to the Hordr_Root threat as Superman defeated the information terrorist, capturing him in a portable hard drive.

This was something of a climax to the plot running in the Superman book. So how did it sell?

Well, Superman #47 was the best selling of the super-books, coming in at 47K, just above Ms. Marvel and Hellcat #1.

I think part of the problem with The Truth has been the sort of meandering villain plots when I don't quite see the big picture of any of the villains. If this story was more character driven, I might be more invested.

Superman Annual #3 was also released last month. This was a key issue for The Truth as it looked closely at Vandal Savage, the big bad of the whole storyline.

We see that Savage wants to get back in touch with the comet that gave him power.

How that translates into any of the plots before this annual I have no idea. Why the energy drain? Why the nazi gun ship? Why stealing uranium? If he had control of the Stormwatch ship, why attack Earth? Why not just go to the comet?

The annual sold nearly 29000, just under what Action Comics #47 sold.

I have to say, it really pains me to see the Pak/Kuder book down in the weeds here.

It might sound crazy given my general rant about the super-books, but I hope Pak/Kuder get to stay on the book once a sort of status quo is brought back. I think they flourish when not involved in a mega-crossover. That haunted Smallville storyline was phenomenal.

Meanwhile, Lois and Clark, the best Superman book out there in my opinion, slipped to 21K, probably why it was truncated to a mini-series. I have to assume that won't be picked up as an ongoing.

And the best Supergirl book on the market ... indeed one of my favorite books overall ... is Justice League 3001 and that book also continues to slip.

Justice League 3001 #7 sold just under 14K. That is pretty dangerous waters to be in.

And it is a shame because there is solid characterization in this book and a brilliant take on a Silver Age Supergirl thrust into a leadership role in a dark future. All Kara fans should be reading this.

Thankfully, the Truth is limping to an end. But it pains me that the higher quality super-books are languishing a bit in sales.

Posted in: Reviews