[Previous chapters: 1 to 8 - 1953 – 1985 Roundup, 9 - The Dawn of Eclipse, 10 - Alan Moore at Eclipse, 11 - The Twilight of Eclipse, 12 - All About Angela, 13 - More Angela, More Courtrooms, and Much More Todd]

In Prince of Stories, towards the end of the chapter on Neil Gaiman’s involvement with Miracleman, there are two paragraphs that say,

According to Gaiman, ‘Actually, it looks as if the rights to Marvelman were held by Mick Anglo all that time* – it was always copyrighted to him, not to Len Miller, and Dez admits he had no rights to Marvelman and did nothing to obtain them. Mick Anglo was legally pursuing Eclipse all the years I was writing it, although they never mentioned this to me [...] They were working out a deal with him that then died when Eclipse died.’

In 2007, Anglo’s Marvelman/Miracleman rights were sold to Emotiv and Company. As of this writing, there is no resolution. An Emotiv and Company representative simply stated, ‘This is an ongoing situation that will probably still take years to fix.’ Gaiman notes, ‘I know they bought the rights to Marvelman from Mick Anglo for four thousand pounds, and have been working hard to establish his ownership of the property [...] I’ve chatted to the guys who bought the Marvelman rights … and wish them well.’

[*Although, in Kimota!, he is quoted as saying, speaking of Dez Skinn publishing Marvelman, ’He had some sort of gentleman’s agreement with Mick, but Mick Anglo didn’t actually own Marvelman.’]

This piece of information about Emotiv seemed to slip under everyone’s radar when the book first came out in 2008, but they became the name on everyone’s lips after a post called Marvelman / Miracleman to the Big Screen? appeared on the ComicMix.com website on the 30th of April 2009 that said,

A highly placed source with one of Hollywood’s leading film production companies has revealed to ComicMix that an agent for a Scottish businessman has been offering around to studios and producers the purported feature film rights to Marvelman, the superhero property whose rights status has been in limbo since publisher Eclipse Comics went into bankruptcy in the middle of Neil Gaiman’s iconic run as its writer more than twenty years ago.

The article later says,

So is this Holy Grail of comics finally about to see the light of day with, at minimum, a major Hollywood film? The answer is that it’s possible, but our investigation casts serious doubts on this latest sales effort.

For one thing, there’s the matter of the original author, Mick Anglo. Still alive by all accounts (though Mick Anglo created the character in the 1950s, putting Mr. Anglo well north of ninety years old), the agent asserts that their rights emanate from Mr. Anglo. Mick Anglo, however, had always had the reputation for maintaining tight control over any derivations from the Marvelman character as Anglo originally conceived it, and our source says that Jon Campbell, the Scottish businessman whom the agent represents, may not have from Anglo a critical waiver of Anglo’s droit morale rights. The phrase refers to the right of a screenwriter and director to take liberties with the story and characters as conceived and depicted in the original source material.

The article itself was a mixed bag, I’m afraid to say, occasionally presenting potential new information, and other times a poorly written and badly researched piece (where did the assertion that ‘Mick Anglo had always had the reputation for maintaining tight control over any derivations from the Marvelman character as Anglo originally conceived it’ come from, for instance, as nothing I’ve ever come across supports it?), leading a lot of people at the time to see it as just another unfounded story about Marvelman, of which there had been plenty, but some people found a link between Emotiv and Company, as mentioned in Prince of Stories, and the name Jon Campbell, as mentioned in the article.

Campbell turned out to be a Scottish music producer and performer called Jon Paul Campbell, based in Glasgow, who formed techno group The Time Frequency in 1988, with which he had quite an amount of success, with their 1993 remix of their own Real Love reaching #8 in the UK singles chart. Their website, timefrequency.co.uk, contains the text ‘© 2009 Emotiv Records Ltd’ at the bottom right of the front page. All of which – coupled with the story circulating that Mick Anglo had a son in the music business who got talking to Jon Campbell and told him about Anglo’s creation of this comic character that everyone was fighting about, causing Campbell to go to talk to the senior Anglo himself – seemed to verify that something interesting was indeed going on with Marvelman.

At about the same time that the story about Jon Campbell’s agent trying to sell the movie rights to Marvelman first appeared, another strange story about Marvelman turned up. In a listing on eBay in May 2009 selling several copies of Miracleman, the seller included the text,

In speaking with Garry Leach recently, co-creator of Miracleman, he tells me there is yet another bizarre twist in the tale. Plans are afoot to completely revamp the character with a new name, a new costume and new artwork but keeping Alan Moore’s words! Garry was not pleased to say the least! That means it is very unlikely that the original Miracleman comics will ever be reprinted as originally intended, everyone please take note of that!

After a potential bidder got in touch with the seller, he said,

All I know is that plans are afoot to revamp Miracleman, they will change the name, the costume etc but still keep Alan Moore’s original dialogue! I have no idea about the other characters but they will probably be revamped too. Garry wouldn’t reveal which company plans to publish this comic but apparently they plan to announce something around the time of this year’s San Diego Comicon so no doubt we will hear something soon!

Obviously enough, the assertions of someone on eBay who is selling the very comics he is talking about can hardly be seen to be entirely unbiased, nor the most reliable of news sources, but it would turn out that at least some of what he said was true.

Before we get to that, though, some further examination of the claim that Emotiv had bought Mick Anglo’s rights to Marvelman is called for. A search through the online files of the UK’s Companies House, the official United Kingdom Registrar of Companies, and the purchase of a few relevant documents from them, reveals a fascinating story.

All along Mick Anglo’s interest in Marvelman seemed to be have been vested in his company, Mick Anglo Limited, as evidenced by his having added a copyright notice in that name to the page from Young Marvelman #38 that he reproduced in Nostalgia: Spotlight on the Fifties in 1977 (as seen in Poisoned Chalice Part 4, back at the beginning of March), as well as other uses of the company name in his work, so it is this company’s history that I have concentrated on.

Mick Anglo Limited was set up on the 21st of August 1954 with a share allocation of 100 £1 shares, with ten of those shares being drawn down and paid for, nine by Mick Anglo, who was the company director, and one by his wife Minnie Anglo, who was the company secretary. A bit over thirty years later, on the 5th of August 1986, the company was sent a letter by the Registrar of Companies telling them that they would be struck off the Register of Companies under Section 652 of the Companies Act 1985, unless reason was given not to. This section allowed the Registrar to strike defunct companies off the Register. Presumably the Anglos raised no objection, and on the 11th of November 1986 Mick Anglo Limited was struck off the Register of Companies and dissolved.

That should have been that for Mick Anglo Limited, but nearly twenty years later, on the 4th of May 2006, the company was restored to the Register after an application to do so by David Livingston of Emotiv on the 31st of March. Jon Campbell was listed as a director of Mick Anglo Limited from the 14th of June 2006, along with Dawn Stevenson, who is currently the company secretary, a position she also holds at two different Emotiv companies. Soon afterwards, on the 25th of June 2006, both Mick Anglo and his wife Minnie resigned as officers of Mick Anglo Limited, only a few days after Mick Anglo’s ninetieth birthday. On the 24th of August 2006 the remaining 90 of the 100 £1 shares in the company were allotted to Jon Campbell. Immediately after that, all the outstanding accounts and returns for the company for the previous twenty years were brought up to date.

At the moment there are only two officers listed for the company, Jon Campbell and Dawn Stevenson, and the most recent statement of capital I have looked at, on the 21st of December 2010, shows that, of the 100 £1 shares that the company was originally set up with, all of them are currently owned by Jon Campbell, in his own name,. The ten shares that Mick Anglo and his wife had owned were no longer theirs, so I can only surmise that they were sold to Jon Campbell, and presume this was what Neil Gaiman was referring to when he is quoted in Prince of Stories as saying,

I know they bought the rights to Marvelman from Mick Anglo for four thousand pounds.

[All of the relevant documents relating to Mick Anglo Limited can be found in this folder on my own Flickr account, for those of you who are interested. There's too many of them to publish here, and they're not the most visually stimulating, but if you're interested, go copy them, in case anything happens to them!]

After they had bought out Mick Anglo and his wife for £4,000, the next thing that Emotiv did was to contact some of the individuals who had become involved with the Marvelman property after its L Miller and Son incarnation. This seems to be backed up by that article on the ComicMix.com website in April 2009, which said,

According to our source in Hollywood, the information from the agent showing the rights around reflects that there has been a lot of ownership movement between Mr. Anglo, Mr. Campbell, and various business entities, necessitating, one presumes, a lengthy stack of warranties and indemnities from Anglo, Campbell and the several businesses that purportedly held title at various times.

This meant talking to the people who had produced the 1982 version of Marvelman in Warrior, to tell them that they had actually been using a character that was now apparently owned by Jon Campbell, which he felt they hadn’t had the right to use, despite the fact that Mick Anglo not only hadn’t objected at the time, but had apparently given it his whole-hearted support. Dez Skinn, for instance, was approached, and eventually signed a waiver of any rights his company, Quality Communications, may have had in publishing the character.

Dez Skinn was not the only one contacted, either. Alan Moore told me,

Somebody from Emotiv called me up and explained that they had been working with a son of Mick Anglo’s who was a musician, that this son had told them something of the Marvelman story, that they had decided to get involved, because it sounded to them as if Mick Anglo was being cheated, so they told me a few things – such as the fact that L Miller hadn’t gone bankrupt. [...] As soon as I knew that the rights to Marvelman had never been with the Official Receiver, I said, ‘well, if I’d known that, I would have never taken the job, and, yes, if I can help, I do feel bad that I must have been instrumental in taking these rights from their rightful owner, whoever that might be.’

I felt that OK, yes, I know that it’s because I wrote Marvelman the way that I did that it became the work that it’s become, but the fact remains that I had taken somebody else’s property without knowing that that was what I was doing, because I was being assured that this wasn’t what I was doing [...] and I just thought anything that could actually get Mick Anglo some money at this point in his life, when it sounds like he could use it – if there was anything I could help towards that, then I was prepared to do it. So someone came down to Northampton, eventually, and filmed an interview with me where I just answered all the questions that they asked me as honestly as I could, and there may have been some other back and forth. I haven’t spoken to any of the people from Emotiv for a couple of years now. I mean, once I’d signed all the – done the interviews and done everything else, that seemed to be sufficient for them to progress.

One thing that I said at that time was that I was prepared to – if they brought out a collection, if somebody brought out a collection of Marvelman, then I would want all of the money from the first edition to go to Mick Anglo. This was at a time when I though, yes, I did do a lot of the work on it and it would be nice if, I don’t know, Leah and Amber, or Mel, were to profit from it in the future, but by the time that Marvel Comics were involved I just though, no, let it go, give all the money to Mick Anglo, which is more tricky than it – it looked like it was going to be quite easy to do, but then I kept getting all these contracts that didn’t want me to – didn’t seem to want me to give the money to Mick Anglo, or to take my name off of it. Eventually I signed one that did state just that.

One thing that was becoming clear was that the news story on ComicMix at the end of April 2009 contained at least some amount of truth after all. There was a Scottish businessman called Jon Campbell who claimed to have some or all of the rights to Marvelman, and who was attempting to find an interested party in America to deal with. As well as that, there was that seller on eBay in May 2009 who had said, amongst other things,

Garry [Leach] wouldn’t reveal which company plans to publish this comic but apparently they plan to announce something around the time of this year’s San Diego comicon so no doubt we will hear something soon!

This would turn out to be true, as well.

But, before we get to that, there was another bidder who was trying to secure the rights to Marvelman from Jon Campbell and Emotiv. Let me return to that seller on eBay, who had quoted Garry Leach as telling him,

Plans are afoot to completely revamp the character with a new name, a new costume and new artwork but keeping Alan Moore’s words.

Was there any truth in this? Surely there couldn’t be a plan to replace, for instance, Garry Leach’s or Alan Davis’s beautiful artwork, could there? Perhaps there could. I mentioned this story to one of the artists who had worked on the series, who told me,

I was contacted some years ago by a lawyer representing one of the new Marvelman ‘owners’. I was told they wanted to reprint my work in a new collection. I said I would be prepared to allow that IF I was paid enough. The lawyer said I would get the same flat-reprint rate as all other artists and if I withheld my pages in an attempt to increase my reprint rate they could easily be redrawn. So I told him to have the pages redrawn. I mention this incident only because it may be linked to the rumour you heard.

It’s worth pointing out here that there were several other parties who might have been meant by ‘one of the new Marvelman ‘owners’,’ besides Marvel Comics, and that the incident referred to seems to predate Marvel’s involvement with Marvelman, in any case.

Emotiv had another bid put to them besides Marvel’s bid, though, which might shed light on those allegations. That bid was spearheaded by Dave Elliott, who had co-founded Atomeka Press with Garry Leach in 1988, and whose A1 title had contained a number of Warpsmith stories, written by Alan Moore and drawn by Leach.

In a podcast interview conducted by Orbital Comics of London in March 2011, Elliott revealed that he had been one of the people involved in a bid to licence the rights to Marvelman from Emotiv, before they sold the rights to Marvel Comics. He said,

There was a project we were so close to doing a couple of years ago. We were the other party after Marvelman – we’d even been exchanging contracts, closing on it. Our approach was – we weren’t buying Marvelman. We were going to republish Alan’s material, and do a film.

We weren’t directly dealing with Alan, but, when we first started, and we were going out to shop the film, I wouldn’t do it without something in writing from Alan saying that he knew we were doing it, because the last thing we wanted, was it to get out in the trades, you know, some gossip like, ‘Oh! Apparently Marvelman is being shopped in Hollywood!’ I wanted something in writing, so Alan said, ‘Yup, you’ve got my blessing. Off you go, as long as my name’s not on it’ – which is the standard thing for Alan recently.

So that was great, you know. I wanted Alan to be comfortable, because I know for all the creators involved in Marvelman it’s been a very bumpy ride over the last twenty-odd years.

The bid had previously been referred to in a story by Rich Johnston on the Bleeding Cool website on the 10th of August, 2009, although at the time it was only referred to as ‘The other bid,’ without any names being attached to it, the bidding party simply being referred to as The Anons. Johnston said,

The negotiations took over two years, and contracts between the Anons and Emotiv were drawn up three weeks before the Marvel announcement, when suddenly Emotiv stopped returning calls and e-mails to the Anons. This was after they asked about a contract clause – in that they would have had to sign a statement that Emotiv were not responsible for the legal rights that the buyer would or would not buy. So if there was a subsequent challenge to them, the buyer not the seller would be responsible for all legal fees to fight it.

Briefly, what the Elliott group intended to do was to licence Marvelman from Emotiv – rather than buy the character from them outright – and with the consent of all the other copyright holders – Moore, Leach, and so on – to produce three films based on the three books of Moore’s run on the character; to publish the three volumes of Moore’s run with new artwork, all done by a single artistic team, possibly with Garry Leach involved; to also republish the books in Moore’s run as they had originally appeared, with the original artwork; and to then go ahead and produce two new mini-series, both set in the time before Moore’s story started.

Dave Elliott explained to me what these would have been:

One was the origins of the [Zarathustra] project, including a second scientist working with Gargunza who was actually the one responsible for starting it. As Gargunza used himself in the stories as the villain, this scientist was the Astrophysicist. The other series would be Johnny Bates’s story, from the bomb going off in 1963 to Marvelman coming back in 1982. I’d actually reached out to Grant Morrison to see if I could use the material in his story that was never published.

Of course, despite Marvel having lifting their objections to anyone else using the name Marvelman when Neil Gaiman set up Marvels and Miracles, it was possible that they might reverse that decision, so a new name was devised: Marvelman would no longer be Miracleman, he would be Masterman. Emotiv had even gone to the trouble of having a logo made up, just in case they needed it.

It could be said that this bid, with a group of people including Dave Elliott and presumably Garry Leach also, would have been in a position to make contact and deal properly with the various people involved, and in a reasonably short amount of time. However, their bid was ignored, right at the eleventh hour, and this is what happened instead…

On the 24th of July, 2009, at Comic Con International in San Diego, Joe Quesada announced that Marvel Comics had bought the rights to Marvelman. A press release from Marvel just afterwards said,

The biggest news of Comic Con International in San Diego was revealed moments ago and jaws are still on the floor – the world-renowned superhero Marvelman is now part of the Marvel Comics family! Marvel Comics has purchased the rights to Marvelman from creator Mick Anglo and his representatives, finding a home for one of the most sought after heroes in graphic fiction!

‘It is an honor to work with Mick Anglo to bring his creation to a larger audience than ever before,’ said Dan Buckley, CEO & Publisher, Print, Animation & Digital Media, Marvel Entertainment Inc. ‘Fans are in for something special as they discover just what makes Marvelman such an important character in comic book history.’

Originally created in 1954 by Mick Anglo and appearing in some of the most celebrated comic stories of all time, Marvelman is Micky Moran, a young reporter gifted with the power to save the world by simply uttering the word ‘Kimota!’

‘I did not think it would ever happen,’ said Mick Anglo. ‘It’s a wonderful thing to see my creation finally back.’

Marvelman is back and he’s found a new home at Marvel Comics! What’s next for Mick Anglo’s legendary creation? Stay tuned to Marvel.com for all the news on Marvelman and this exciting new addition to the Marvel family!

In the following few months, there was furious speculation on the Internet and in the comics media as to what was to happen. One thing that stood out for me was that, in all the statements and interviews that Marvel gave at the time, the name Miracleman was never once mentioned. Neither, for that matter, was the name of Alan Moore. And, once again, as with Todd McFarlane’s supposed purchase of the rights to Miracleman, the question that everyone really wanted to know the answer to was, what exactly had Marvel bought? It was a good question in July 2009, and it’s still a good question now. Another good question was, and is, what were they intending to do with it now that they’d got it?

After that initial announcement, Marvel eventually revealed plans to publish a one-off comic called Marvelman Classic Primer in July 2010, a six-issue series of reprinted stories called Marvelman Family’s Finest, starting in July 2010, and the first hardback volume of Marvelman Classic in August 2010, which was presumably the start of what would eventually become a full collection of all the stories published in L Miller and Son’s Marvelman comic, with further volumes due on a roughly six-monthly basis. There was also a first volume of Young Marvelman Classic in May 2011, which would presumably follow the same publishing schedule as Marvelman Classic.

However, and despite their saying they would have news about it ‘soon,’ anyone who was waiting for an announcement from Marvel about their plans to reprint Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman’s work on the title is still waiting (there’s an incomplete collection of those ‘coming soon’ announcements here, which I really need to update). The listing for the Marvelman Classic Primer on Marvel’s website said,

Who is the mysterious Marvelman? The answer to that question is one of the most mysterious in comics lore. Created in 1954 by writer/artist Mick Anglo, the character enjoyed a long run in the British comics market as one of its most powerful heroes. A few decades later, the character was revived with a dark, moody, deconstructionist bent, and produced one of the most important works of comic art in the medium’s history.

But now, miracle of miracles, Marvel has stepped up to the plate to deliver on the promise of Anglo’s incredible characters. The Marvelman Primer will help readers unfamiliar with that character get up to speed on the past, present and future of Marvelman stories. We’ll check in with Mick Anglo, Neil Gaiman and others who contributed to this character’s history over the years. It was the news that swept the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con and the Marvelman Primer explains why.

Leaving aside the obvious hyperbole – ‘The answer to that question is one of the most mysterious in comics lore’ – and the somewhat ominous foreshadowing of what their plans for the character might have been – ‘Marvel has stepped up to the plate to deliver on the promise of Anglo’s incredible characters’ – it did look as though Marvel really were going to explain what their plans for the character were, and the fact that Neil Gaiman was to be in it would seem to suggest they were going to talk about the later incarnation of the character, and not just the Miller-era stuff. However, this never came to pass. The Primer was published, but there was no interview with Neil Gaiman in it.

There was the promised interview with Mick Anglo, however, talking to Joe Quesada, who travelled to England to meet him, but Anglo really had nothing to say about Marvelman, with most of the interview being about his days in the Second World War. He actually only referred to Marvelman three times, saying, firstly,

My brother called me Gargunza. He said I was an ugly-looking fellow. That was my brother!

And later,

Marvelman is one word: I’ve seen it on milk powder, on special products for babies. Marvel was a good name. It was unique, simple, and it means a lot. I liked drinking Marvelmilk! I’ve got a Marvelman T-shirt. I don’t know who gave it to me. The silly thing comes down to my ankles.

Finally, apparently in answer to a question about the possibility of the success of a Marvelman revival, he said,

I don’t like taking anything for nothing unless it’s in big quantities.

And those three statements are the sum total of what Mick Anglo said to Joe Quesada about Marvelman, at least according to what is printed in the interview in Marvelman Classic Primer. It’s worth bearing in mind that, at the time of the interview, Mick Anglo was 94 years old and, sadly, there’s a very real possibility that he didn’t fully understand what was going on, or what he was being asked about.

The rest of the Marvelman Classic Primer consisted of a very brief and incomplete history of Marvelman, more or less beginning in 1953 and ending in 1954; an article about Marvel UK; any amount of Marvelman artwork by recent Marvel ‘superstar’ artists, but virtually none by any of the original 1950s artists, with what there was by them usually being unattributed, unless it was attributed to Mick Anglo; and a history of British comics, which included this paragraph:

In 1982, Dez Skinn – who, during his reign as Marvel UK Editor in Chief, had successfully resurrected the idea of UK-originated material with Hulk Comic and Doctor Who Weekly – launched Warrior, a groundbreaking anthology. A launch pad for the careers of John Bolton, Alan Davis and others who had also contributed to Skinn’s 1976 title House of Hammer, it led the way when it came to offering the more mature British reader an alternative to traditional comics fare.

For whatever reason, Marvel seemed to be going out of their way to avoid any mention of Marvelman past the Miller-era run, even mentioning Warrior, the very magazine it was resurrected in, without mentioning the strip itself, or Alan Moore, its famous writer, without whom nobody would actually be interested in the very character they were touting. It was becoming obvious that something odd was going on at Marvel, and that things might not be as straightforward as they had originally appeared to be.

And it was becoming apparent that nobody really cared about the reprints of those old 1950s Marvelman comics. The sales figures for both the hardback books and the comics reprinting the 1950 Marvelman stories were very poor, and Marvel abandoned Marvelman Classic after volume 3, which had sales below 300, and Young Marvelman Classic after volume 2, which had sales below that again. The reprint project has been in abeyance since January 2012, and it’s unlikely ever to resume.

However, it was obvious to anyone with eyes to see that these weren’t Marvel’s primary target in buying the rights to Marvelman. After all, Marvel Comics are not in the business of buying up the rights to what are really pretty bad old British comic stories that haven’t stood the test of time too well, just to reprint them in expensive hardback books that have a very limited market, particularly if one rumour, which holds that Marvel paid Jon Campbell $1,000,000 for the rights he held, is to be believed. Their primary reason for buying the property can only have been to reprint the Moore and Gaiman stories, the very things they avoiding even mentioning. I’d like to think that they have some sort of a plan, but at the moment it seems as if nobody actually knows what it is, perhaps not even themselves.

And that is the Marvelman story very nearly up to date, with the exception of recent news about Marvel publishing work featuring Todd McFarlane and Neil Gaiman’s Angela, which I just wish to comment on briefly. One good thing about reviewing all of this material again, to put it online here at The Beat, is that sometimes something that passed me by the first time gains a new significance in light of what we now know. For instance, the interview with Todd McFarlane from 2005 on UGO.com that I led off with in the last part, where we get this exchange:

UGO: Has the Miracleman film gone back to Neil Gaiman or wherever it is supposed to go?

TMcF: With the lawsuit, Gaiman walked away from Miracleman. I have the trademark for Miracleman. No one wants to say it out loud, but that’s what happened with the lawsuit. Everyone was like ‘Hah hah, he killed Todd,’ but unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on where you are standing – he had to pick some copyrights to some Spawn characters or pick Miracleman. He didn’t pick Miracleman.

UGO: Did he take Angela?

TMcF: Yeah, he took some of the Spawn stuff. For whatever reason he walked away from Miracleman, so now Miracleman will be in the Image 10th Anniversary Book.

When the interviewer said ‘Did he take Angela?’, was this actually an indication that Neil Gaiman was after full ownership of the Angela character all along, and had actually secured it fully eight years and more back? Certainly the whole thing, where Marvel were suddenly talking about publishing Angela, as if it was part of the plan all along, is pretty peculiar – as is McFarlane’s comments on the whole situation, where he said,

“Neil Gaiman and I had a resolution in our legal dispute, and as part of that he ended up with the rights of Angela. Whatever Neil chooses to do with something that he owns is at his complete and utter discretion.

The health of the industry is based upon having good stories and good characters, and a wide customer base. If bringing some of these characters back to the fold in a meaningful way adds to that, then it just strengthens our industry.

Good stories that entertain are something that we all should applaud on any level. Whether we’re doing it directly at Image Comics, or at our competition, it helps keep our industry that we love alive. I will sit back and be as interested as anyone else.”

Who was this man, and what had he done with the Todd McFarlane we knew and loved?

And, somewhere along the line, McFarlane’s last attempt to claim a trademark on Miracleman was abandoned, and this was quickly followed up by Marvel Comics claiming the trademark on the name instead. What did this mean? Much like everything else, I don’t really know, and they’re not telling me, but I may speculate on it later on.

I did do some actual speculation about whether or not Marvel had succeeded in buying Garry Leach‘s share of the rights to various things, particularly including his half-share of Warpsmiths, which would include the crucial rights to the Qys technology, the backbone on which Alan Moore’s version of Marvelman is build, here, but as it is simply that, speculation, I don’t know if it even belongs here. None the less, it is not without interest, I hope, and I’ll also be referring back to that later on.

And, really, that’s it. That’s the Marvelman story pretty much right up to date. Over the next few weeks I’m going to be going back over it all again, first to try to condense it all into some sort of comprehensible whole, and then to try to finally answer the question that started me off on this quest, maybe ten years ago now: Who Owns Marvelman?

Thanks to everyone who has hung on this long, and who have given me such valuable feedback. Courage, mes braves, the end is in sight! To you all I address the question, before I start to wrap it all up, is there anything I’ve forgotten? Anything I haven’t made clear? One of the guiding principles for this, from the beginning, was to cast light into corners, but to do so using verifiable sources, by telling the story out of the mouths of those involved, and I hope this is what I’m achieved. But now’s everyone’s chance to ask me about everything, before I’m finally done with this, and I shall do my best to answer as plainly and honestly as I can.

Oh, yes, there’s one other thing: I’ve one more witness to bring forward, a man I’ve been keeping behind the curtain for a very long time now, who casts a very interesting light on, well, pretty much everything. See you all back here next week!

To be wrapped up, and concluded, very very soon now…

[The Marvel Milk photograph is copyright to Edward Coughlan, and is used without permission, but in good faith!]

Writer James Robinson announced his departure from Earth 2 with issue #16 on Twitter— and added that it meant he would no longer be working at DC.

Yes, this also means I’m no longer working at DC Comics.Best wishes and regards to Dan, Geoff and everyone.

— JamesDRobinson (@JamesDRobinson) May 17, 2013

Robinson will always be remembered for his historic runs on Action Comics, Starman, and Justice Society of America. Also his contributions to the Blackest Night, Flashpoint, and Superman: World of Krypton tie-ins. His last work with the company will be Earth-2 #16, and isn’t due for another couple months. Here’s the cover for the next issue, looks like good jumping on point for new readers.

Captain Steel debuts as the World Army sends the hero into the Fire Pits left over from the war with Apocalypse, but even Earth 2’s newest hero isn’t ready for what is hidden within the burning reminders of the conflict that killed Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

 

Even indie comics are getting to be, if not big business, then extremely popular. More popular than a street fair, even. The last two years, perhaps inspired by BCGF and TCAF, have seen indie shows spring up in many cities from Minneapolis Autopic, to Portland’s The Projects to Chicago’s CAKE.

While we noted that last weekend’s TCAF has mostly outgrown its venue, and the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival shutdown came partly over problems over the show’s growth (more on that in a minute) it’s also evident in the trouble exhibitors had getting tables at SPX. Even a comparatively small show like this weekend’s Maine Comics And Arts Festival had a very quick sellout in January:

The first wave of exhibitor tables has sold out. We have started the waiting list and will fill the remaining tables from that list.

[snip]
Based upon the number of requests for information that we received this year we knew that the demand for tables would be more than in previous years. We have seen many first time exhibitors get tables tonight.

In a post on MeCAF’s old website (now gone) the show’s owner Rick Lowell had mused about what to do about growing demand for tables. MeCAF is definitely a smaller show, but it’s a delightful one, and a growing one, and even a show in an out of the way state is getting too big.

Speaking of too big, Tim Hodler has the behind the scenes on the end of the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival and it’s kind of he said/he said. Turns out the show’s remaining two co-owners couldn’t agree on how to move forward with Dan Nadel having to bow out due to his other duties. And Gabe Fowler didn’t even know yesterday’s announcement was coming. And someone has already pulled the plug on the shows’s website, which is kind of sad and final (or petty). All the guests, all the fests…gonna have to live on in our memories and Facebook, I guess.

Bill K. has a lot to say about growing pains and how indie comics festivals fit into the industry structure:

Kartalopoulos elaborates: “The other thing I would say is that the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival has been a very successful event. Every year it grew beyond our expectations. I think anyone who was at the 2012 show probably observed that the festival was sort of maxing out the structure that had been built to support it. I mean both literally in terms of the space and also, I would say, organizationally. So you know growth is hard, and presents a lot of challenges. I think that the 2012 event represented the peak of what could be accomplished within the constraints of the current model. So even though I’m sad and upset in certain ways, I am happy to go out on a high note rather than start hitting walls.”

[snip]“As far as I’m concerned, money-making has never been a consideration,” says Kartalopoulos. “The festival just needs to support itself.” But he does think that the perception brings up issues worth discussing. “There’s a bigger infrastructural point here which is that a big part of the indie comics economy at this point seems to rest on the shoulders of people who work very hard for very little reward to create these festivals,” he says. “I think there are some structural issues that I hope people will start talking about, even if not as a direct result of this situation. It’s really hard and it’s really a lot of work to put together these festivals. No one is making money personally doing these things, and you can’t have an industry that depends on volunteer labor forever.”

We noted that TCAF had growing pains this year as well, and showrunner Chris Butcher looked exhausted and said as much. The shows are so important to the economy of small publishers, but they are not, in and of themselves, a profit center for those running them. TCAF doesn’t even charge for admission OR tables!

At some point making money for what you do is a good reward and a good incentive to keep doing them and keep doing them right. That goes for show runners as well as cartoonists. We’re a long way from that being the case on the indie circuit.

In the meantime, Brooklyn will not be without a comics show. The brand new Grand Comics Festival in Brooklyn rolls out June 8-9. See ya there!

The winners of the Bill Finger Award for 2013 have been announced and they are Steve Gerber and Don Rosa. The award was created in 2005 to recognize writers—one living, one deceased—who have yet to receive adequate notice for their work.

Gerber and Rosa are certainly exemplary choices. Gerber’s work on Howard the Duck, The Defenders, Man-Thing and many other ’70s Marvel titles broadened the expressiveness and subject matter of mainstream comics in a way that went on to influence indie creators and inspired much of the alt.comix boom of the 80s. That was a system that Gerber himself took part in with Stewart the Rat, a roman-a-clef about his battle to regain ownership of Howard The Duck. Gerber died in 2008 from pulmonary thrombosis.

Rosa, the first Finger winner to be a cartoonist in his own right, took the work of Carl Barks and expanded it to become adventure comics of an even higher degree in his masterwork, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Although not perhaps adequately recognized in the US, Rosa is a household name in Denmark, where his Disney Duck comics are beloved classics. Rosa has had to retire from cartooning due to eyesight problems.

Rosa and Gerber were the unanimous selection of an award committee consisting of Charles Kochman (executive editor at Harry N. Abrams, book publisher), comic book writer Kurt Busiek, artist/historian Jim Amash, and writer/editor Marv Wolfman.

“The premise of this award is to recognize writers for a body of work that has not received its rightful reward and/or recognition,” Evanier explained in a statement. “That was what Jerry Robinson intended as his way of remembering his friend, Bill Finger. Bill is still kind of the industry poster boy for writers not receiving proper reward or recognition. Steve Gerber was one of the most influential writers of his day, and his work has stood the rest of time. Don Rosa is now retired from producing his acclaimed work with Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge. He also drew the comics, but we honor him for the excellence of his stories, which will forever be reprinted around the world. Also, we liked the idea of having an ‘all-duck’ Finger ceremony.”

Steve Gerber got his start in fanzines, worked in advertising, and then found his way to comics in 1972 when he was hired by Roy Thomas for a staff job at Marvel. Gerber wasn’t suited for staff work, but by the time Marvel realized that, they’d discovered the value of his quirky imagination as a writer. Before long, he was distinguishing himself with scripts for, among others, Daredevil, The Defenders, Sub-Mariner. and Man-Thing. It was in the Man-Thing feature that he developed his most popular, lasting character, Howard the Duck. Somewhat autobiographical and wildly popular when written by Gerber, Howard was a unique presence in the Marvel Universe that is fondly remembered by many fans of the era. They also hailed Omega the Unknown, which Gerber wrote and co-created with Mary Skrenes. He parted ways with Marvel over a contract dispute in 1978, though he would return later. Thereafter, he worked for DC and Eclipse and in TV animation, story-editing and writing shows including Thundarr the Barbarian, G.I. Joe, and The Transformers. Gerber died in 2008 from pulmonary fibrosis.

Don Rosa also got his start in fanzines, with “The Pertwillaby Papers,” a comic strip for his college newspaper in Kentucky. An avid collector of comics, he chose for a time to write and draw as a hobby and to make his livelihood in his family’s tile business. In 1986, though, he had the opportunity to write and draw stories of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge, his favorite characters when in the hands of the legendary Carl Barks. His meticulous, carefully researched work caught on big, at first in America and then overseas, where he was hailed for expanding on the foundation laid by Barks. Particularly popular was a 12-part series he began in 1991, “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck,” which filled in many details of the character’s past. That series, along with Rosa’s other tales, has been reprinted around the world as much as any comic book of the last quarter-century. Rosa has now retired from creating new stories, due to failing eyesight and disputes with his publisher over compensation.

The Bill Finger Award honors the memory of William Finger (1914-1974), who was the first and, some say, most important writer of Batman. Many have called him the “unsung hero” of the character and have hailed his work not only on that iconic figure but on dozens of others, primarily for DC Comics.

The Rock’s been making suggestions on Twitter again.

Thank U @marvel President Kevin Feige for the nod. I’ll be ready. #RockAsCage #HeroForHire bit.ly/11EJTft twitter.com/TheRock/status…

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) May 17, 2013

This comes off the back of recent comments made by Feige, reported here –

His name has come up in the past. I’m a gigantic fan of his. I think he’s incredible. I might have met him once a long time ago, but I haven`t really met him. I don’t really know him, but I think he`s an unbelievable personality and an unbelievable sort of force of nature.

The Rock, of course, has a longstanding friendship with several key personnel at Disney.

Fangrabs is a comics rental site. You pick up the books in your queue have them mailed to you, you read em and mail em back. Just like Netflix. They have over 6,500 titles to choose from, including manga, Walking Dead, DC, Marvel. etc. Several plans are available, including $15 for two books a month and unlimited plans starting at $20 a month. There are no late fees and presumably a mailing envelope, which is our great downfall.

I think this is a pretty sound idea for a service, but I hope their overall business plan is better than the logo and name “Fangrabs” — not the most attractive image ever.

What do you think, Beatniks? Would you use a service like this?

Brooklyn’s Scott Eder Gallery has announced an impressive show for next month devoted to art, sketches and other drawings from Will Eisner’s A Contract With God, the groundbreaking graphic novel that helped inspire comics storytelling in the US. IT’s the first time the art hyas been shown and offered for sale, so it should be quite the event.

Will Eisner: A Contract with God  
June 14th to August 15th, 2013 
Opening reception June 14th at 6 PM
Scott Eder Gallery
18 Bridge St., Brooklyn, NY

A Contract with God, and Other Tenement Stories was published in 1978, and while you can argue here or there what was the first complete graphic novel to be published—certainly they were way ahead of the game in Europe with TinTin to name but one—it was a forerunner of much that was to come—as well as an affecting story of Jewish tenementlife in its own right.
 

This May DC released a free guide in magazine-like format, about the size of a small prestige graphic novel itself, containing a list of “essential graphic novels” and also a “chronology” for new readers. It’s not a bad idea considering what a difficult time new readers, or those who have left for awhile, can have finding jumping on points. But it’s particularly interesting to see what graphic novels they picked as their 25 most “essential” and to ponder the ramifications of that decision. Here are the titles included in the list:

WATCHMEN

BATMAN: The Dark Knight Returns

THE SANDMAN: Volume 1, Preludes and Nocturnes

BATMAN: Year One

V FOR VENDETTA

SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING: Book One

FABLES: Volume 1, Legends in Exile

BATMAN: The Killing Joke (the Deluxe Edition)

Y: THE LAST MAN, Volume 1, Unmanned

ALL STAR SUPERMAN

KINGDOM COME

BATMAN: The Long Halloween

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN: Volume 1

BATMAN: Earth One

GREEN LANTERN: Rebirth

AMERICAN VAMPIRE: Volume 1

BLACKEST NIGHT

FINAL CRISIS

JLA: Volume 1

IDENTITY CRISIS

BATMAN: Hush

JOKER

THE FLASH: Rebirth

SUPERMAN: Earth One, Volume 1

PLANETARY: Volume 1, All over the World and Other Stories

If you managed to pick up the free guide already, you’re probably skipping over that list, but on the off chance you haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth scanning through. Obviously, the list isn’t in alphabetical, chronological, or character-based order, so it must form some kind of chosen ranking system, though putting too much emphasis on the order might be a mistake. General impressions for anyone would be that firstly, there’s rather a lot of Alan Moore’s work represented (no surprise) but also a pretty vast contingent of BATMAN titles. After the initial read-through, you’ll notice that 8 of the titles are from Vertigo, which isn’t a particularly low number in terms of DC’s total output versus Vertigo’s own production numbers. And the Vertigo titles aren’t entirely relegated to the bottom of the list, thankfully, in fact, many of them are near the top, though that’s skewed a little by the fact that many are by Alan Moore and SANDMAN, of course, by Neil Gaiman is up there too.

But the number of BATMAN titles is a little surprising. He’s been one of the most appealing characters in DC history, particularly once films started being made, and is more or less the de facto symbol of DC more than Superman these days, but are that many Batman titles really so essential? Many of them are by prominent writers and artists and have justly gained critical praise, which does seem to justify plenty of Batman in the list. But when you consider how many graphic novels have been released by DC, it seems like there might have been a little more room for diversity.

Vertigo gets its own separate list of “top” series, versus individual graphic novels later on in the catalogue, too, and they are:

THE SANDMAN

FABLES

Y: THE LAST MAN

To be fair, other titles are listed as Vertigo graphic novels that readers might be interested in, but these three series receive their own break-down into volumes and are also rounded off by a spotlight and listing of the works of Alan Moore and Grant Morrison for Vertigo.  This is good guidance for approaching Vertigo for less experienced readers, particularly since it gives short summaries of individual volumes, and its not too much of a stretch to suppose that these three series are their top sellers and so were chosen as the top three overall for readers. But Vertigo has produced so many alarmingly good books over the years, many of which stand alone as high achievements in comic art that giving Vertigo its own section in the DC guide while stacking the Top 25 overall category so heavily in favor of Alan Moore (pre-eminent though he certainly is) seems a little unbalanced.

There’s room to argue that more Vertigo titles should have made it into the Top 25 overall due to the critical attention and wide readership they enjoy even over long periods of time, stocking the shelves of libraries and being added to high-school and college level reading lists, whereas collections of big DC crossover events rarely reach that cultural status. It would be unfair to knock superhero titles out of the Top 25 simply because they are superhero graphic novels, but should be judged on their own merit. There’s little doubt that ALL STAR SUPERMAN is a classic in its own right and deserves to be given attention, but it really comes down to how we judge the word “essential”.

Essential to buy? Essential to read? Essential to understanding the DC Universe? The introductory essay to the book plainly states that it is geared to help new readers. That’s admirable, but what are they guiding new readers towards? The Top 25 list does represent a wide range of possible tastes and interests from new readers, from superheroes to sci-fi, gothic, and mythological content. But the truth is that DC has produced an enormous number of great books over the years from its main imprint to Vertigo, so enormous that it would be hard to create an adequate Top 25 list that didn’t raise some eyebrows. But compromises are at work when you limit a list to 25. Wouldn’t it have been better, particularly knowing that readers are likely to latch onto the list more fully than later information in the volume, to give a wider range of creators, subject matter, and characters so that new readers really get the “best of” feel for DC’s works? If a new generation of readers only read these top 25 as their starting point, they are going to miss out on plenty unless they dig a little further and strike out on their own to discover for themselves what they deem “essential” reading.

Hannah Means-Shannon writes and blogs about comics for TRIP CITY and Sequart.org and is currently working on books about Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore for Sequart. She is @hannahmenzies on Twitter and hannahmenziesblog on WordPress.

Every Friday, Stately Beat Mansion invites round a comic creator or two for a cup of tea, complementary Kit Kat, and a chat about their work in The Phoenix. The Phoenix is a UK series which features a range of the best all-ages comics available, from all kinds of wonderful creators – all compiled into a single issue each week! The Phoenix have very kindly commissioned an old pirate ship just for this feature, which sails across to The Mansion every week with a new creator onboard.

This week sees Neill Cameron and Daniel Hartwell sail on over to tell us about The Pirates of Pangaea, a series appearing in today’s newest issue. If you want to find out more, then try an issue of The Phoenix for yourself!

Steve: So, what is ‘The Pirates of Pangaea’ about?

Neill: Pirates of Pangaea tells the story of Sophie Delacourt, a young and well-brought-up English girl of the early eighteenth century who, following the tragic loss of her parents, is shipped off to live with her uncle; governor of the British colony on the recently-discovered new continent of Pangaea.

Where there are dinosaurs. And pirates. And pirates riding dinosaurs.

Yeah.

Dan: Sophie is accompanied by Kelsey, a clever boy who got lost in the Sea of Green during a research expedition. Kelsey has a tendency to let his stomach get him into trouble.

Together Sophie and Kelsey stride across the land on Cornflower! A bright blue Tyranosaur that Sophie somehow managed to tame during one of her earliest adventures! Cornflower is fiercely loyal to Sophie, but like Kelsey she can cause a lot of problems when she gets hungry…

Steve: What’s your favourite thing about this week’s story?

Neill: Frankly, just that we managed to complete it and that I am not (at time of writing) dead or insane. This week’s episode is the final instalment of Escape From Razorbeak Mountain, our second big story arc, in which Sophie and Kelsey find themselves trying to defend a village of innocents from the wrath of our new baddy Raven Jess and her terrifying band of Pterodactyl pirates. It’s been a big, whopping long story with a lot of moving parts and character stuff going on, and the sheer challenge of tying it all together and resolving everything satisfactorily, in the space of four pages… was interesting.

Dan: This is the big climax! Where it comes together and all the ups and downs of the previous episodes pay off. I’m getting excited just thinking about it. Seriously this episode is going to be AMAZING!

Neill: Just from an art point of view, this episode was very satisfying to finally get to. There’s all kinds of stuff that we seeded in the story early on, little background details and such, that may have seemed extraneous at the time, or like I just obsessively like drawing unnecessary detail (which admittedly is true), but which all pays off here, in the mechanics of how the climax comes together. I realise this sounds very vague but I’m trying to avoid spoiling it!

Steve: What inspired the story?

Dan: Hmm. I think this story arc is all about overcoming fear. Bravery isn’t about not feeling any fear, it’s about being terrified to do something but forcing yourself to do it anyway, because you have to. Every day in the fearsome land of Pangaea is like this for Sophie.

Neill:  Yeah, it’s also about pirates riding pterodactyls because we thought that would be awesome?

Steve: Where else can people find your work? What else do you have coming up in the future?

Neill: More Pirates of Pangaea, coming soon to the Phoenix! We’re following up the epic drama of Escape From Razorbeak Mountain with something that is as completely different as it is possible to be, while still being a story about pirates riding dinosaurs. I’m really excited about our next arc, it’s an absolute riot of sheer demented fun and calls for me to draw, amongst other things, more species of dinosaur in a single panel than I dare say anyone has ever attempted before. Or probably ought to.

Dan: Yes! More pirates! More dinosaurs! I’m also cooking up some other shorter stories, but we’ll have to see what happens with those.

Neill: You can also see my work on the self-explanatory How to Make (Awesome) Comics, every week in the Phoenix, and in my first graphic novel Mo-bot High, available from the DFC Library and coming out in a nice shiny new paperback edition this summer. More details at www.mobot-high.com!

Thanks so much to Neill and Dan for their time! The Pirates of Pangaea will be appearing this week in The Phoenix #72. And thanks to Liz Payton, who set up the ship!

One last thing — last week we had a comment asking about if there’s a way for American readers to get physical, rather than digital, copies of The Phoenix. Well! I asked The Phoenix’s Tom Fickling about it:

“From next week (at some point!) US fans will be able to buy single back issues from our web-shop if they want to try a single paper edition. This is with international postage, but without the commitment to a sub. We’ll let you know as soon as that is working.

In the meantime we can generate paypal invoices and ship to people if they email collect@thephoenixcomic.co.uk.”

Al Kennedy, the man most of us refer to as KEEN EYES KENNEDY, has done it again! He’s spotted a secret code in Marvel’s newest batch of solicitations, which suggests some much-loved characters will be making their return very soon.

The solicitation for Nova #7 by Zeb Wells and Paco Medina reads:

Nova’s Eventful World-Wide Adventure Rockets Roaringly Into Our Renegade Spider!

Hm. Looks like if we go a bit acrostic, we can spot a secret clue in the code there! Good eyes, Kennedy!

I know a lot of people would be very excited to see Speedball and co return to Marvel, and it’ll be especially interesting to see how they interact with the new Nova. And OF COURSE can lead me to speculate wildly, as most things tend to.

If the New Warriors are returning to Marvel soon, then could this perhaps solidify the rumour that Rage will be in Marvel’s SHIELD TV series, which will be kicking off around the same time? Or is Zeb Wells playing one of his legendary pranks on us all, and all of this means nothing?

Fingers crossed that this is true, and Niels the cat will show up too!

Well I suppose it was only a matter of time before they took over a castle of their own. We should’ve seen this coming. Today the Tower of London revealed that art from the trio of Paul Duffield, Kate Brown and Emma Vieceli had been erected around the base of scaffolding currently in place on the tower. Featuring key moments from the history of the tower (what’re you doing with those little princes, eh?!), the panels will be up for the next few months, while work goes on with the building. It’s the coolest.

You can read more over at their respective tumblrs – Vieceli, Duffield and Brown!

Even as the glow of great comics at TCAF is drifting away, some bad news for great indie comics festivals: according to a post on their Tumblr, The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival is being suspended.

We have decided not to continue with BCGF. We had a great run and thank all of our colleagues for their support.

Founded in 2009, the BCGF was run by a troika of PictureBox’s Dan Nadel, educator and publisher Bill Kartalopoulos and Desert Island’s Gabe Fowler.

The show brought a spectrum of great comics guests from the US and Europe, including last year, Olivier Schrauwen and Blexbolex, and US greats like Chris Ware and Lynda Barry. The programming alone put it at the top of the indie show circuit and sales were huge.

However, it was also the work of only three people, and last year the crowd was so huge that it was obvious the show had outgrown its spot in a church basement.

Recently, word had circulated that the demands of their day jobs had taken a toll on the organizers’ ability to put on a show. In the growing world of graphic novels and indie comics, certainly putting on a show of BCGF’s stature was no part-time matter. Hopefully the show will be back in some form…it was already one of the best days in comics in the year and I for one will miss it terribly.

Developing.

And if you haven’t, I strongly recommend that you don’t read this full review, or maybe not even any of it, since not knowing anything about the comic before reading it makes for a pretty astonishing experience. TEN GRAND reads like a Choose Your Own Adventure story and you feel convinced somehow that you did choose all those twists and turns via the power of suggestion embedded in remarkable writing by J. Michael Straczynski and the disarmingly plausible world created by Ben Templesmith’s all-too-convincing artwork. The fact that it convinces you that you want to read a story that descends, and ascends such crazy distances is part of the allure, of course, and draws you into the life and times of main character Joe Fitzgerald. Maybe I’m doing the book a slight injustice to say that you should know nothing about it to enjoy it. Reading promo ahead of time and knowing the general gist will probably fly out the window once you actually start reading it and it’s likely to be just as surprising despite your previous sense of knowing where the story’s going.

[*Spoilers start here]

TEN GRAND is several different types of stories in one. You’ve got the hard-boiled hit-man/detective feel which initiates you into Joe’s world as he meets potential clients in the seediest of seedy bars and decides whether to take their cases. The tropes don’t last long enough to make you feel you’ve read this story before, though, as Joe’s next case turns out to feature a cult. That somehow strikes home as being fairly relevant rather than being a plot device. There are plenty of crazy cults out there popping up from time to time in the media and plenty of missing young people families are searching for. It is, in fact, the world we live in. That helps establish some plausibility in TEN GRAND before things get really weird. Joe’s horror at the possibility that a man he thought he killed is actually now a cult leader is the turning point into a descent Dante would find familiar. Here you choose to follow him into that subterranean realm, against your instincts to stay in a familiar detective story formula.

There’s a particular parallel between the reader’s choice to descend like this and Joe’s own flashbacks of crossing that line in his own life, from operating in a fairly logical manner as a hired hitman, to discovering that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in his philosophy, all turning on this same apparent cult leader. In this way the reader becomes a kind of mirror image of Joe’s psychology entering into unknown realms. It’s a fabulous reveal when Joe’s flashbacks introduce us to “James” in his infernal world of demonic beings and you realize that TEN GRAND isn’t the kind of story you thought is was. But that’s also the turning point where the story takes on its epic scale, because it leads to a series of rapid changes in expectation. Joe turns out to be a different character than you thought he was, too, incrementally. Summoning an Angel in a strip club, using cryptic magic to gain online information that possesses computers. There’s no way a reader could have predicted the rapidity of this descent into the strange, and the pace only becomes more driving the further the book progresses.

It also becomes much more shocking in its contrasts between sentimentality and violence and it’s a credit to the book that it doesn’t desensitize you to violence before flashbacks to the gruesome deaths of Joe and Laura. By the end of the book you understand where Joe stands, a semi-damned man between heaven and hell, which has a backward flowing affect on how you viewed the seedy guy in the seedy bar at the beginning of the issue. Joe is both grotesque and infused with significance as a character, as a definitive underdog with an also fairly grotesque path of redemption looming. Joe’s position in the story is also reinforced by his chosen mission of dealing with his definitive nemesis, someone who blocked his way to earthly redemption in the first place. In Joe’s own words, things have gotten increasingly “personal” in a big way.

TEN GRAND is an exemplary framework for Ben Templesmith to stretch his own stylistic wings. He’s well versed in the sepulchral and underworld settings, as seen in the logical comparison to TEN GRAND, FELL, with Warren Ellis. But that’s not an accurate comparison because while Templesmith manages to infuse the most Hadean human underworlds with a sense of alluring energy, here he has full reign to explore the opposite, the gritty elements in the angelic. Joe’s visions of Laura, equal to Dante’s visions of Beatrice, are the visual counterpart to Straczynski’s suggestions of redemption. It would be difficult to imagine a redemption for Joe, given the world he moves in, but not once we encounter Laura’s affect on Joe in dreams, and in human terms through flashbacks. She’s the only graceful influence in the book, and operates like a central radiating point for the story.

While Laura is depicted radiating her own innocence and strength, Angels, also “enforcers”, like Joe, are at once beautiful and terrible as depicted by Templesmith. Their luminous eyes are fairly sinister, their wings have a disconcerting angle to them, and their absolute power over Joe’s fate is only accentuated by mandates delivered over Joe’s mangled, almost monstrously disfigured body. Apparently angels are bad asses, and both Straczynski and Templesmith agree on that. Templesmith’s visual characterization of Joe, contrasting his “normal” facial expressions and body language with the elevated, altered person he seems to become when dreaming or thinking of Laura is also a really effective strategy to suggest to the reader that Joe is the sum of disparate parts, someone for whom redemption is not impossible, but one who is not particularly close to that goal in daily life, either.

Reading TEN GRAND convinces you that you don’t really want predictable stories even if going off the beaten path means the occasional bout of vertigo. It’s simply solid storytelling, on one level, but on another, it goes much further than necessary to merely make a good comic, both in the realm of narrative and of artwork. It’s a winning concept, once you grasp the assembled pieces and look back at issue #1, but you also realize at that point how difficult and unlikely it was for an artist to be able to pursue these strange avenues so convincingly in order to bring these concepts so fully to life.  Straczynski and Templesmith definitely chose their own adventure in TEN GRAND, and that’s only the first issue. I almost shudder to think what’s coming up for the series, but they’ll no doubt convince us, again, in upcoming issues that we wanted the full tour: heaven, hell, and all points in between, from the start.

Title: TEN GRAND: Blood Oath

Publisher: Image, Joe’s Comics, Studio JMS

Creative Team: J. Michael Straczynski, writer/Ben Templesmith, illustrator/Troy Peteri, letters.

Hannah Means-Shannon writes and blogs about comics for TRIP CITY and Sequart.org and is currently working on books about Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore for Sequart. She is @hannahmenzies on Twitter and hannahmenziesblog on WordPress.

by Paul O’Brien

The AGE OF ULTRON crossover anchored Marvel’s line in April, with tie-in issues spreading across a range of titles. As often happens when event titles are underway, it’s a quiet month for new releases, with the notable exception of the THANOS RISING origin mini. And of course, as the months roll on, we’re getting an increasingly clear picture of how the assorted Marvel Now launches and relaunches are working out.

Oh, and following Marc-Oliver’s lead from last month, I’ve included the ten-year comparisons, for those of you wondering how the long-running books stack up compared with 2003.

As usual, Marvel had the largest share of the North American direct market – and the margin is pretty big. They beat DC by 42% to 28% in terms of units, and by 38% to 26% in dollars.

Thanks as always to ICV2.com for letting us use these figures.

2.  THANOS RISING
04/13  Thanos Rising #1 of 5 - 114,720

Even allowing for the multiple covers – there were six in total – this is a remarkably good number for an origin miniseries. It’s a further illustration of the fact that Marvel have been able to convince people that the cosmic titles matter, after many years where they were seen as a bit of a backwater niche. Obviously it helps that everyone knows Thanos is going to be in the next Avengers film, but the bottom line is that the sales say that readers are taking these books more seriously than they have a long time.

4,6,7. AGE OF ULTRON
03/13  Age of Ultron #1 of 10 - 174,952
03/13  Age of Ultron #2 of 10 - 109,383  (-37.5%)
03/13  Age of Ultron #3 of 10 - 105,505  ( -3.5%)
04/13  Age of Ultron #4 of 10 - 101,057  ( -4.2%)
04/13  Age of Ultron #5 of 10 -  97,982  ( -3.0%)
04/13  Age of Ultron #6 of 10 -  97,242  ( -0.8%)

Another three issues this month, and the experiment with releasing this particular event book on a more accelerated schedule seems to be working well. After the inevitable second-issue drop, sales have held up solidly. Issue #3 picks up reorders of 5,158, which are included in the number above. Without those numbers, issue #4 would actually have posted a slight gain.

10. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
04/09  Guardians v2 #13 -  27,107
04/10  Guardians v2 #25 -  24,568
=====
02/13  Guardians #0.1   -  80,344
03/13  Guardians v3 #1  - 217,993  (+171.3%)
04/13  Guardians v3 #2  -  88,184  ( -59.5%)
                           4 year  (+258.9%)
                           5 year  (+225.3%)

The vast array of variant covers on issue #1 meant that there was always going to be a big drop on the second issue – though it’s worth noting that even this second issue still comes equipped with 1:25. 1:50, 1:100, 1:150 and 1:200 variants, marking this unmistakably as a book that Marvel are determined to make work. After all, they’ve got a film in the works.

Even allowing for that, though, this is a better number than GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY has seen in many a year. The strategy of putting big name creators on lesser-known properties has worked well here.

Issue #1 picks up re-orders of 6,681, which are added into the figures above.

11,12. SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN
04/03  Amaz. v2 #52 -  96,624
04/08  Amazing #557 -  77,057
04/09  Amazing #591 -  60,508
04/10  Amazing #629 -  53,560
04/11  Amazing #658 -  61,687
=====
04/12  Amazing #683 -  59,153  (  +3.5%)
04/12  Amazing #684 -  57,454  (  -2.9%)
05/12  Amazing #685 -  58,121  (  +1.2%)
05/12  Amazing #686 -  58,337  (  +0.4%)
06/12  Amazing #687 -  62,680  (  +7.4%)
06/12  Amazing #688 -  60,409  (  -3.6%)
07/12  Amazing #689 -  59,859  (  -0.9%)
07/12  Amazing #690 -  58,976  (  -1.5%)
08/12  Amazing #691 -  60,767  (  +3.0%)
08/12  Amazing #692 -  91,071  ( +49.9%)
09/12  Amazing #693 -  59,772  ( -34.4%)
09/12  Amazing #694 -  58,461  (  -2.2%)
10/12  Amazing #695 -  58,185  (  -0.5%)
10/12  Amazing #696 -  57,950  (  -0.4%)
11/12  Amazing #697 -  59,872  (  +3.3%)
11/12  Amazing #698 -  87,537  ( +46.2%)
12/12  Amazing #699 -  80,048  (  -8.6%)
12/12  Amazing #.1  -  71,344  ( -10.9%)
12/12  Amazing #700 - 267,971  (+275.6%)
01/13  Superior #1  - 209,944  ( -21.7%)
01/13  Superior #2  - 118,104  ( -43.7%)
02/13  Superior #3  - 101,811  ( -13.8%)
02/13  Superior #4  -  95,892  (  -5.8%)
03/13  Superior #5  -  94,224  (  -1.7%)
03/13  Superior #6  -  86,614  (  -8.1%)
03/13  S. S-M #6AU  -  85,807  (  -0.9%)
04/13  Superior #7  -  87,945  (  +2.5%)
04/13  Superior #8  -  85,671  (  -2.6%)
                       6 mnth  ( +47.8%)
                       1 year  ( +44.8%)
                       2 year  ( +38.9%)
                       3 year  ( +60.0%)
                       4 year  ( +41.6%)
                       5 year  ( +11.2%)
                      10 year  ( -11.3%)

A slight bump on issue #7, for no immediately apparent reason – in fact, it’s the first issue of the series that didn’t have a variant cover. Overall, there’s a very slight downward trend in evidence, but the book appears to be settling down quite happily in the mid-80K range – better than it’s been managing in quite some years.

13. ALL-NEW X-MEN
11/12  All-New X-Men #1  - 181,693
11/12  All-New X-Men #2  - 100,983  (-44.4%)
12/12  All-New X-Men #3  -  90,161  (-10.7%)
12/12  All-New X-Men #4  -  90,946  ( +0.9%)
01/13  All-New X-Men #5  -  86,301  ( -5.1%)
01/13  All-New X-Men #6  -  85,403  ( -1.0%)
02/13  All-New X-Men #7  -  85,234  ( -0.2%)
03/13  All-New X-Men #8  -  90,990  ( +6.8%)
03/13  All-New X-Men #9  -  81,692  (-10.2%)
04/13  All-New X-Men #10 -  84,760  ( +3.8%)

The variant covers skipped issue #9 for some reason, but return here. That probably explains the slightly odd rebound we’re seeing here.

14,20. UNCANNY AVENGERS
10/12  Uncanny Avengers #1 - 303,722
11/12  Uncanny Avengers #2 - 114,257  (-62.4%)
12/12  ---
01/13  Uncanny Avengers #3 -  92,165  (-19.3%)
02/13  Uncanny Avengers #4 -  87,539  ( -5.0%)
03/13  Uncanny Avengers #5 -  84,382  ( -3.6%)
04/13  Uncanny Avengers #6 -  80,863  ( -4.2%)
04/13  Uncanny Avengers #7 -  77,027  ( -4.7%)
                              6 mnth  (-74.6%)

Both of this month’s issues drop 4%, which is a bit more than you’d ideally want at this stage. Retailers still seem to be figuring out a level for this title.

15,16. UNCANNY X-MEN
04/03  Uncanny X-Men #421   -  86,503
04/08  Uncanny X-Men #497   -  93,369
04/09  Uncanny X-Men #508   -  76,443
04/10  Uncanny X-Men #523   -  74,090
04/11  Uncanny X-Men #535   -  56,795
=====
04/12  Uncanny X-Men v2 #10 -  56,906  (  -0.1%)
04/12  Uncanny X-Men v2 #11 -  75,109  ( +32.0%)
05/12  Uncanny X-Men v2 #12 -  69,265  (  -7.8%)
06/12  Uncanny X-Men v2 #13 -  70,521  (  +1.8%)
06/12  Uncanny X-Men v2 #14 -  67,793  (  -3.9%)
07/12  Uncanny X-Men v2 #15 -  66,114  (  -2.5%)
07/12  Uncanny X-Men v2 #16 -  63,835  (  -3.4%)
08/12  Uncanny X-Men v2 #17 -  61,095  (  -4.3%)
09/12  Uncanny X-Men v2 #18 -  59,794  (  -2.1%)
10/12  Uncanny X-Men v2 #19 -  59,283  (  -0.9%)
10/12  Uncanny X-Men v2 #20 -  65,981  ( +11.3%)
11/12  ---
12/12  ---
01/13  ---
02/13  Uncanny X-Men v3 #1  - 177,463  (+169.0%)
02/13  Uncanny X-Men v3 #2  -  94,615  ( -46.7%)
03/13  Uncanny X-Men v3 #3  -  85,775  (  -9.3%)
04/13  Uncanny X-Men v3 #4  -  80,047  (  -6.7%)
04/13  Uncanny X-Men v3 #5  -  78,919  (  -1.4%)
                               6 mnth  ( +19.6%)
                               1 year  ( +38.7%)
                               2 year  ( +39.0%)
                               3 year  (  +6.5%)
                               4 year  (  +3.2%)
                               5 year  ( -15.5%)
                              10 year  (  -8.8%)

Two issues this month, and the book is still comfortably up from the sales of the last couple of years. The drop on issue #4 isn’t great, but issue #5 is rather more encouraging. It’s too early to say whether this is levelling out, though – for whatever reason, where books ship two issues a month, retailers often cut their orders more heavily on the first one.

17,19. AVENGERS
04/03  Avengers v3 #66 -  58,312
04/11  Avengers v4 #12 -  63,441 
=====
04/12  Avengers v4 #25 -  65,664  ( +25.9%)
05/12  Avengers v4 #26 -  67,744  (  +3.2%)
06/12  Avengers v4 #27 -  68,885  (  +1.7%)
07/12  Avengers v4 #28 -  63,169  (  -8.3%)
08/12  Avengers v4 #29 -  61,653  (  -2.4%)
09/12  Avengers v4 #30 -  58,609  (  -4.9%)
10/12  Avengers v4 #31 -  62,495  (  +6.6%)
10/12  Avengers v4 #32 -  56,204  ( -10.1%)
11/12  Avengers v4 #33 -  53,336  (  -5.1%)
11/12  Avengers v4 #34 -  57,315  (  +7.5%)
12/12  Avengers v5 #1  - 186,989  (+226.2%)
12/12  Avengers v5 #2  -  99,028  ( -47.0%)
01/13  Avengers v5 #3  -  92,165  (  -6.9%)
01/13  Avengers v5 #4  -  83,088  (  -9.8%)
02/13  Avengers v5 #5  -  82,452  (  -0.8%)
02/13  Avengers v5 #6  -  84,868  (  +2.9%)
03/13  Avengers v5 #7  -  78,278  (  -7.8%)
03/13  Avengers v5 #8  -  82,691  (  +5.6%)
04/13  Avengers v5 #9  -  77,780  (  -5.9%)
04/13  Avengers v5 #10 -  78,905  (  +1.4%)
                          6 mnth  ( +40.4%)
                          1 year  ( +20.2%)
                          2 year  ( +24.4%)
                         10 year  ( +35.3%)

The title seems to be wandering around the high 70K range over the last couple of months – which seems like a sign that the book is finding its level.

22. NEW AVENGERS
04/08  New Avengers #40    - 110,470
04/09  New Avengers #52    -  93,975
04/10  New Avengers #64    -  75,430
04/11  New Avengers v2 #11 -  61,778
=====
04/12  New Avengers v2 #24 -  64,533  ( +24.8%)
04/12  New Avengers v2 #25 -  61,950  (  -4.0%)
05/12  New Avengers v2 #26 -  64,326  (  +3.8%)
06/12  New Avengers v2 #27 -  64,927  (  +0.9%)
07/12  New Avengers v2 #28 -  62,739  (  -3.4%)
08/12  New Avengers v2 #29 -  59,441  (  -5.3%)
09/12  New Avengers v2 #30 -  56,742  (  -4.5%)
10/12  New Avengers v2 #31 -  53,456  (  -5.8%)
11/12  New Avengers v2 #32 -  52,784  (  -1.3%)
11/12  New Avengers v2 #33 -  50,045  (  -5.2%)
11/12  New Avengers v2 #34 -  53,862  (  +7.6%)
12/12  ---
01/13  New Avengers v3 #1  - 116,280  (+115.9%)
01/13  New Avengers v3 #2  -  79,433  ( -31.7%)
02/13  New Avengers v3 #3  -  72,110  (  -9.2%)
03/13  New Avengers v3 #4  -  65,150  (  -9.7%)
04/13  New Avengers v3 #5  -  63,423  (  -2.7%)
                              6 mnth  ( +18.6%)
                              1 year  (  -1.7%)
                              2 year  (  -2.7%)
                              3 year  ( -15.9%)
                              4 year  ( -32.5%)
                              5 year  ( -42.6%)

After some rather steep drops in the previous two months, this is a bit more encouraging. It’s still a good 15,000 adrift of AVENGERS, despite both books being written by Jonathan Hickman and supposedly building to a story connection down the road.

23. WOLVERINE
04/03  Wolverine #189   -  61,282
04/08  Wolverine v3 #64 -  64,871
04/09  ---
04/10  W: Weapon X #12  -  30,050
04/11  Wolverine v4 #8  -  47,010
=====
04/12  Wolverine #304   -  37,836  (  +4.0%)
04/12  Wolverine #305   -  37,440  (  -1.0%)
05/12  Wolverine #306   -  34,873  (  -6.9%)
05/12  Wolverine #307   -  34,485  (  -1.1%)
06/12  Wolverine #308   -  35,142  (  +1.9%)
07/12  Wolverine #309   -  33,148  (  -5.7%)
07/12  Wolverine #310   -  60,880  ( +83.7%)
08/12  Wolverine #311   -  42,404  ( -30.3%)
08/12  Wolverine #312   -  41,030  (  -3.2%)
09/12  Wolverine #313   -  39,262  (  -4.3%)
10/12  Wolverine #314   -  34,504  ( -12.1%)
10/12  Wolverine #315   -  38,557  ( +11.7%)
11/12  Wolverine #316   -  32,208  ( -16.5%)
12/12  Wolverine #317   -  34,367  (  +6.7%)
01/13  ---
02/13  ---
03/13  Wolverine v5 #1  - 117,669  (+242.4%)
04/13  Wolverine v5 #2  -  57,165  ( -51.4%)
                           6 mnth  ( +48.3%)
                           1 year  ( +51.1%)
                           2 year  ( +21.6%)
                           3 year  ( +90.2%)
                           4 year  (   --- )
                           5 year  ( -11.9%)
                          10 year  (  -6.7%)

That’s on the steep side for a second issue drop, even by the standards of Marvel Now relaunches. For what it’s worth, this title launched higher than SAVAGE WOLVERINE, but now finds itself at about the same level with issue #2.

Both titles, of course, are doing significantly better than WOLVERINE has managed in quite some time, ever since the botched WOLVERINE: WEAPON X relaunch of 2009.

24,28. DEADPOOL
04/09  Deadpool v3 #9  -  48,483
04/10  Deadpool v3 #22 -  43,061
04/11  Deadpool v3 #35 -  28,517
=====
04/12  Deadpool v3 #53 -  29,334  (  +4.8%)
05/12  Deadpool v3 #54 -  29,644  (  +1.1%)
05/12  Deadpool v3 #55 -  29,022  (  -2.1%)
06/12  Deadpool v3 #56 -  29,513  (  +1.7%)
07/12  Deadpool v3 #57 -  29,155  (  -1.2%)
07/12  Deadpool v3 #58 -  28,706  (  -1.5%)
08/12  Deadpool v3 #59 -  28,507  (  -0.7%)
09/12  Deadpool v3 #60 -  28,548  (  +0.1%)
09/12  Deadpool v3 #61 -  28,351  (  -0.7%)
10/12  Deadpool v3 #62 -  28,897  (  +1.9%)
10/12  Deadpool v3 #63 -  29,049  (  +0.5%)
11/12  Deadpool v4 #1  - 127,977  (+340.6%)
11/12  Deadpool v4 #2  -  76,445  ( -40.3%)
12/12  Deadpool v4 #3  -  64,591  ( -15.5%)
01/13  Deadpool v4 #4  -  57,061  ( -11.7%)
02/13  Deadpool v4 #5  -  57,312  (  +0.4%)
03/13  Deadpool v4 #6  -  57,095  (  -0.4%)
04/13  Deadpool v4 #7  -  57,016  (  -0.1%)
04/13  Deadpool v4 #8  -  52,851  (  -7.3%)
                          6 mnth  ( +81.9%)
                          1 year  ( +80.2%)
                          2 year  ( +85.3%)
                          3 year  ( +22.7%)
                          4 year  (  +9.0%)

After holding steady for four straight issues, DEADPOOL suddenly lurches down by 4K. The obvious reason is that issue #8 is the first since the relaunch not to have a variant cover, though that seems like a surprisingly large chunk of sales to be attributing to routine variants. Even so, this relaunch is still one of the big successes of Marvel Now, in terms of breathing life into the sales of a moribund title.

26. INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK
04/03  Incredible v3 #53     -  57,837
04/08  Hulk #3               - 100,167
04/09  Hulk #11              -  82,726
04/10  ---
04/11  Incredible Hulks #626 -  29,782
=====
04/12  Incredible v4 #7      -  42,135  (  +4.0%)
05/12  Incredible v4 #.1     -  38,472  (  -8.7%)
05/12  Incredible v4 #8      -  42,076  (  +9.4%)
06/12  Incredible v4 #9      -  40,467  (  -3.8%)
06/12  Incredible v4 #10     -  38,122  (  -5.8%)
07/12  Incredible v4 #11     -  36,743  (  -3.6%)
08/12  Incredible v4 #12     -  36,860  (  +0.3%)
09/12  Incredible v4 #13     -  33,858  (  -8.1%)
09/12  Incredible v4 #14     -  33,887  (  +0.1%)
10/12  Incredible v4 #15     -  36,091  (  +6.5%)
11/12  Indestructible #1     - 118,200  (+227.5%)
12/12  Indestructible #2     -  63,653  ( -46.1%)
01/13  Indestructible #3     -  59,431  (  -6.6%)
02/13  Indestructible #4     -  56,214  (  -5.4%)
03/13  Indestructible #5     -  54,967  (  -2.2%)
04/13  Indestructible #6     -  55,470  (  +0.9%)
                                6 mnth  ( +53.7%)
                                1 year  ( +31.6%)
                                2 year  ( +86.3%)
                                3 year  (   --- )
                                4 year  ( -33.1%)
                                5 year  ( -44.6%)
                               10 year  (  -4.1%)

A very slight uptick this month. The real significance is that the book has been more or less steady over the last couple of months, which suggests that it’s found its level – and at a level very much increased from the previous run.

31. THOR: GOD OF THUNDER
04/03  Thor v2 #62 -  34,638
04/08  ---
04/09  ---
04/10  Thor #601   -  79,626
04/11  Thor #609   -  64,522
=====
04/12  Thor v4 #.1 -  33,533  (  -1.3%)
04/12  Thor v4 #13 -  34,500  (  +2.9%)
05/12  Thor v4 #14 -  32,550  (  -5.7%)
06/12  Thor v4 #15 -  33,674  (  +3.5%)
06/12  Thor v4 #16 -  31,798  (  -5.6%)
07/12  Thor v4 #17 -  30,879  (  -2.9%)
08/12  Thor v4 #18 -  35,392  ( +14.6%)
09/12  Thor v4 #19 -  30,289  ( -14.4%)
09/12  Thor v4 #20 -  30,172  (  -0.4%)
10/12  Thor v4 #21 -  34,550  ( +14.5%)
10/12  Thor v4 #22 -  35,328  (  +2.3%)
11/12  Thor v5 #1  - 110,443  (+212.6%)
11/12  Thor v5 #2  -  65,533  ( -40.7%)
12/12  Thor v5 #3  -  55,547  ( -15.2%)
01/13  Thor v5 #4  -  50,478  (  -9.1%)
02/13  Thor v5 #5  -  51,861  (  +2.7%)
03/13  Thor v5 #6  -  50,481  (  -2.7%)
04/13  Thor v5 #7  -  51,526  (  +2.1%)
                      6 mnth  ( +45.9%)
                      1 year  ( +49.4%)
                      2 year  ( -20.1%)
                      3 year  ( -35.3%)
                      4 year  (   --- )
                      5 year  (   --- )
                     10 year  ( +48.8%)

Sales have been rock solid over the last four issues. That’s actually a little strange, since issue #6 didn’t have a variant cover, but the overall impression is still that the book has found its level following the relaunch. And here, too, the sales are very comfortably up from the previous run. Another one in the win column for Marvel Now.

33. CAPTAIN AMERICA
04/03  Captain America v3 #12 -  51,804
04/08  Captain America v6 #37 -  80,635
04/09  Captain America v6 #49 -  63,874
04/10  Captain America #605   -  59,051
04/11  Captain America #617   -  45,400
=====
04/12  Captain America v7 #10 -  41,474  (  -0.4%)
05/12  Captain America v7 #11 -  39,012  (  -5.9%)
05/12  Captain America v7 #12 -  38,800  (  -0.5%)
06/12  Captain America v7 #13 -  39,456  (  +1.7%)
07/12  Captain America v7 #14 -  36,812  (  -6.7%)
07/12  Captain America v7 #15 -  36,433  (  -1.0%)
08/12  Captain America v7 #16 -  35,155  (  -3.5%)
09/12  Captain America v7 #17 -  34,279  (  -2.5%)
10/12  Captain America v7 #18 -  38,318  ( +11.8%)
10/12  Captain America v7 #19 -  40,205  (  +4.9%)
11/12  Captain America v8 #1  - 123,667  (+207.6%)
12/12  Captain America v8 #2  -  64,377  ( -47.9%)
01/13  Captain America v8 #3  -  59,836  (  -7.1%)
02/13  Captain America v8 #4  -  53,112  ( -11.2%)
03/13  Captain America v8 #5  -  49,186  (  -7.4%)
04/13  Captain America v8 #6  -  47,802  (  -2.8%)
                                 6 mnth  ( +18.9%)
                                 1 year  ( +15.3%)
                                 2 year  (  +5.3%)
                                 3 year  ( -19.0%)
                                 4 year  ( -25.2%)
                                 5 year  ( -40.7%)
                                10 year  (  -7.7%)

The position here is a little less clear. CAPTAIN AMERICA was losing sales rather quickly through to issue #5. In April, it seems to be levelling out somewhat. But it’s too early to say whether the trend is slowing, or whether it’s just a one-off.

At any rate, the book is still a good 10K up from its typical pre-relaunch sales.

34,44. WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN
04/12  Wolverine/X-Men #8  - 53,757  ( -1.5%)
04/12  Wolverine/X-Men #9  - 64,984  (+20.9%)
05/12  Wolverine/X-Men #10 - 63,650  ( -2.1%)
05/12  Wolverine/X-Men #11 - 64,936  ( +2.0%)
06/12  Wolverine/X-Men #12 - 64,838  ( -0.2%)
07/12  Wolverine/X-Men #13 - 62,689  ( -3.3%)
07/12  Wolverine/X-Men #14 - 61,029  ( -2.6%)
08/12  Wolverine/X-Men #15 - 58,441  ( -4.2%)
09/12  Wolverine/X-Men #16 - 55,857  ( -4.4%)
09/12  Wolverine/X-Men #17 - 54,768  ( -1.9%)
10/12  Wolverine/X-Men #18 - 52,331  ( -4.4%)
10/12  Wolverine/X-Men #19 - 50,008  ( -4.4%)
11/12  Wolverine/X-Men #20 - 48,432  ( -3.2%)
11/12  Wolverine/X-Men #21 - 48,244  ( -0.4%)
12/12  Wolverine/X-Men #22 - 45,658  ( -5.4%)
01/13  Wolverine/X-Men #23 - 43,963  ( -3.7%)
01/13  Wolverine/X-Men #24 - 44,716  ( +1.7%)
02/13  Wolverine/X-Men #25 - 45,057  ( +0.8%)
03/13  Wolverine/X-Men #26 - 42,019  ( -6.7%)
03/13  Wolverine/X-Men #27 - 41,960  ( -0.1%)
04/13  Wolv & X-Men #27AU  - 47,055  (+12.1%)
04/13  Wolverine/X-Men #28 - 42,718  ( -9.2%)
                             6 mnth  (-14.6%)
                             1 year  (-20.5%)

Two issues this month – a regular one, and issue #27AU, which is part of the AGE OF ULTRON crossover. It has pretty much nothing whatsoever to do with the regular series, other than having Wolverine in it, but notionally it’s an issue of WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN, so I’m including it in the list above. (See also: AVENGERS ASSEMBLE.)

Still, if we’re going to count these books as issues of the regular series, then we’ve got to acknowledge that the crossover delivers a healthy sales boost for that issue. Leaving that issue aside, the regular series would have posted a slight increase over issues #26-27 – but that’s most likely due to a 1:20 variant cover.

38. SAVAGE WOLVERINE
01/13  Savage Wolverine #1 - 102,530
02/13  Savage Wolverine #2 -  58,254  (-43.2%)
03/13  Savage Wolverine #3 -  50,310  (-13.6%)
04/13  Savage Wolverine #4 -  45,933  ( -8.7%)

The drops are getting smaller, but they’re still a lot larger than you’d like to see four months in – particularly on a book where every issue has a 1:50 variant cover.

It’s only fair to point out that sales on the first two issues of WOLVERINE (the Cornell/Davis title) are pretty close to the first two issues of SAVAGE, and that both books are still doing pretty decently by the standards of WOLVERINE comics over the last couple of years.

41. ULTRON
04/13  Ultron #1AU - 44,854

Despite the title, this is actually a story about Victor Mancha from the Runaways. This makes a lot more sense when you realise that Mancha is being reintroduced in advance of his role in the AVENGERS A.I. series launching in July.

42. IRON MAN
04/03  Iron Man v3 #67 -  32,479
04/08  Iron Man v4 #28 -  35,754
04/09  Iron Man v5 #12 -  51,774
04/10  Iron Man v5 #25 -  73,694
04/11  Iron Man #503   -  45,314
=====
04/12  Iron Man #515   -  32,409  (  +3.1%)
05/12  Iron Man #516   -  31,374  (  -3.2%)
05/12  Iron Man #517   -  31,536  (  +0.5%)
06/12  Iron Man #518   -  32,553  (  -3.2%)
06/12  Iron Man #519   -  32,518  (  -0.1%)
07/12  Iron Man #520   -  32,765  (  +0.8%)
07/12  Iron Man #521   -  32,172  (  -1.8%)
08/12  Iron Man #522   -  31,464  (  -2.2%)
08/12  Iron Man #523   -  31,568  (  +0.3%)
09/12  Iron Man #524   -  30,976  (  -1.9%)
09/12  Iron Man #525   -  30,885  (  -0.3%)
10/12  Iron Man #526   -  35,934  ( +16.3%)
10/12  Iron Man #527   -  36,981  (  +2.9%)
11/12  Iron Man v6 #1  - 116,529  (+215.1%)
11/12  Iron Man v6 #2  -  72,902  ( -37.4%)
12/12  Iron Man v6 #3  -  59,041  ( -19.0%)
12/12  Iron Man v6 #4  -  56,708  (  -4.0%)
01/13  Iron Man v6 #5  -  50,899  ( -10.2%)
02/13  Iron Man v6 #6  -  46,206  (  -9.2%)
03/13  Iron Man v6 #7  -  44,040  (  -4.7%)
04/13  Iron Man v6 #8  -  43,974  (  -0.1%)
                          6 mnth  ( +18.9%)
                          1 year  ( +35.7%)
                          2 year  (  -3.0%)
                          3 year  ( -40.3%)
                          4 year  ( -15.1%)
                          5 year  ( +23.0%)
                         10 year  ( +35.4%)

After months of decline, IRON MAN suddenly levels out – despite this issue being the find part of a storyline. I’d assume it’s a spillover effect from the movie launch, plus the return of a variant cover (which skipped last month).

47. CABLE & X-FORCE
12/12  Cable & X-Force #1 - 90,334
12/12  Cable & X-Force #2 - 57,719  (-36.1%)
01/13  Cable & X-Force #3 - 51,761  (-10.3%)
02/13  Cable & X-Force #4 - 46,104  (-10.9%)
03/13  Cable & X-Force #5 - 44,680  ( -3.1%)
03/13  Cable & X-Force #6 - 42,896  ( -4.0%)
04/13  Cable & X-Force #7 - 41,500  ( -3.3%)

This seems to be settling into a steady erosion of 3-4% an issue.

49,55. FANTASTIC FOUR
04/03  Fantast. Four v3 #68 -  51,405
04/08  Fantastic Four #545  -  74,700
04/09  Fantastic Four #556  -  65,013
04/10  Fantastic Four #570  -  37,940
04/11  FF #2                -  72,697
=====
04/12  Fantastic Four #605  -  42,372  (  +0.6%)
05/12  Fantastic Four #.1   -  39,475  (  -6.8%)
05/12  Fantastic Four #606  -  39,914  (  +1.1%)
06/12  Fantastic Four #607  -  40,453  (  +1.4%)
07/12  Fantastic Four #608  -  37,776  (  -6.6%)
08/12  Fantastic Four #609  -  36,496  (  -3.4%)
09/12  Fantastic Four #610  -  35,388  (  -3.0%)
10/12  Fantastic Four #611  -  45,322  ( +28.1%)
11/12  Fantastic Four v5 #1 - 114,532  (+152.7%)
12/12  Fantastic Four v5 #2 -  58,421  ( -49.0%)
01/13  Fantastic Four v5 #3 -  50,555  ( -13.5%)
02/13  Fantastic Four v5 #4 -  44,999  ( -11.0%)
03/13  Fantastic Four v5 #5 -  42,590  (  -5.4%)
03/13  Fantastic Four #5AU  -  45,756  (  +7.4%)
04/13  Fantastic Four v5 #6 -  41,291  (  -4.8%)
04/13  Fantastic Four v5 #7 -  39,314  (  -4.8%)
                               6 mnth  ( -13.3%)
                               1 year  (  -7.2%)
                               2 year  ( -45.9%)
                               3 year  (  +3.6%)
                               4 year  ( -39.5%)
                               5 year  ( -47.4%)
                              10 year  ( -23.5%)

Two issues this month. The drop on issue #6 looks worse than it is, because of the Age of Ultron issue – on a straight comparison with issue #5, it would be down 3.1%. Nonetheless, between the two issues, the book has still shed over 7% of its audience in a month and is set to drop below the previous sales level very soon. This relaunch doesn’t seem to be taking.

51. NOVA
04/08  Nova v4 #12 - 28,185
04/09  Nova v4 #24 - 26,240
04/10  Nova v4 #36 - 22,365
=====
02/13  Nova v5 #1  - 80,857
03/13  Nova v5 #2  - 46,725  (-42.2%)
04/13  Nova v5 #3  - 40,548  (-13.2%)
                     3 year  (+81.3%)
                     4 year  (+54.5%)
                     5 year  (+79.3%)

While Marvel have turned GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY into a major franchise, it hasn’t worked quite so well with NOVA. Sales are still way up from any recent version of the character, but the fact remains that it’s going to wind up as a mid-table book, and one where Marvel are paying for big name creators in Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness.

52. DAREDEVIL
04/03  Daredevil v2 #46  - 60,517
04/08  ---
04/09  Daredevil v2 #118 - 44,982
04/10  Daredevil #506    - 37,467
04/11  ---
=====
04/12  Daredevil v3 #.1  - 38,463  ( +0.9%)
04/12  Daredevil v3 #11  - 46,111  (+19.9%)
05/12  Daredevil v3 #12  - 39,231  (-14.9%)
05/12  Daredevil v3 #13  - 39,056  ( -0.4%)
06/12  Daredevil v3 #14  - 43,865  (+12.3%)
07/12  Daredevil v3 #15  - 38,469  (-12.3%)
08/12  Daredevil v3 #16  - 37,804  ( -1.7%)
08/12  Daredevil v3 #17  - 38,149  ( +0.9%)
09/12  Daredevil v3 #18  - 37,185  ( -2.5%)
10/12  Daredevil v3 #19  - 37,228  ( +0.1%)
11/12  Daredevil v3 #20  - 36,515  ( -1.9%)
12/12  Daredevil v3 #21  - 35,848  ( -1.8%)
01/13  Daredevil v3 #22  - 36,102  ( +0.7%)
02/13  Daredevil v3 #23  - 37,170  ( +3.0%)
03/13  Daredevil v3 #24  - 37,231  ( +0.2%)
04/13  Daredevil v3 #25  - 39,678  ( +6.6%)
                           6 mnth  ( +6.6%)
                           1 year  ( +3.2%)
                           2 year  (  --- )
                           3 year  ( +5.9%)
                           4 year  (-11.8%)
                           5 year  (  --- )
                          10 year  (-23.4%)

There are two variant covers on this issue, hence the sales increase. Overall, DAREDEVIL remains a very consistent seller.

53. HAWKEYE
08/12  Hawkeye v4 #1 - 48,346
09/12  Hawkeye v4 #2 - 33,563  (-30.6%)
10/12  Hawkeye v4 #3 - 35,403  ( +5.5%)
11/12  Hawkeye v4 #4 - 34,208  ( -3.4%)
12/12  Hawkeye v4 #5 - 34,385  ( +0.5%)
12/12  Hawkeye v4 #6 - 33,440  ( -2.7%)
01/13  Hawkeye v4 #7 - 37,000  (+10.6%)
02/13  Hawkeye v4 #8 - 36,898  ( -0.3%)
03/13  ---
04/13  Hawkeye v4 #9 - 39,678  ( +7.5%)
                       6 mnth  (+12.1%)

No variant covers here. No gimmicks. It’s just going up. Once in a while, it seems, good word of mouth actually does translate into sales.

56. SECRET AVENGERS
04/11  Secret Avengers #12   - 50,641
=====
04/12  Secret Avengers #25   - 38,466  (  +0.3%)
04/12  Secret Avengers #26   - 54,854  ( +42.6%)
05/12  Secret Avengers #27   - 49,851  (  -9.1%)
06/12  Secret Avengers #28   - 51,572  (  +3.5%)
07/12  Secret Avengers #29   - 41,653  ( -19.2%)
08/12  Secret Avengers #30   - 38,243  (  -8.2%)
09/12  Secret Avengers #31   - 35,987  (  -5.9%)
10/12  Secret Avengers #32   - 35,346  (  -1.8%)
10/12  Secret Avengers #33   - 34,260  (  -3.1%)
11/12  Secret Avengers #34   - 32,146  (  -6.2%)
12/12  Secret Avengers #35   - 30,755  (  -4.3%)
01/13  Secret Avengers #36   - 29,330  (  -4.6%)
01/13  Secret Avengers #37   - 32,139  (  +9.6%)
02/13  Secret Avengers v2 #1 - 85,267  (+196.4%)
03/13  Secret Avengers v2 #2 - 46,419  ( -45.6%)
04/13  Secret Avengers v2 #3 - 38,676  ( -16.7%)
                               6 mnth  ( +12.9%)
                               1 year  (  +0.5%)
                               2 year  ( -23.6%)

That’s a very steep drop for a third issue. Retailers seem to be chasing this one downwards.

57. THUNDERBOLTS
04/03  Thunderbolts #78   - 21,806
04/08  ---
04/09  Thunderbolts #131  - 49,155
04/10  Thunderbolts #143  - 35,656
04/11  Thunderbolts #156  - 25,117
=====
04/12  Thunderbolts #172  - 19,203  (  +0.7%)
04/12  Thunderbolts #173  - 19,017  (  -1.0%)
05/12  Thunderbolts #174  - 18,792  (  -1.2%)
06/12  ---
07/12  ---
08/12  ---
09/12  ---
10/12  ---
11/12  ---
12/12  Thunderbolts v2 #1 - 83,396
12/12  Thunderbolts v2 #2 - 50,897  (-39.0%)
01/13  Thunderbolts v2 #3 - 44,272  (-13.0%)
02/13  Thunderbolts v2 #4 - 43,287  ( -2.2%)
02/13  Thunderbolts v2 #5 - 41,663  ( -3.8%)
03/13  Thunderbolts v2 #6 - 39,293  ( -5.7%)
03/13  Thunderbolts v2 #7 - 38,553  ( -1.9%)
04/13  Thunderbolts v2 #8 - 36,979  ( -4.1%)
                            6 mnth  (  --- )
                            1 year  (+92.6%)
                            2 year  (+47.2%)
                            3 year  ( +3.7%)
                            4 year  (-24.8%)
                            5 year  (  --- )
                           10 year  (+69.6%)

Shedding a couple of thousand readers a month, it seems – but for now, at least, these are still pretty good sales by THUNDERBOLTS standards. (Though granted, the book doesn’t have much in common with earlier incarnations besides the name.)

59. AVENGERS ASSEMBLE
04/12  Avengers Assemble #2  -  53,024  (-47.4%)
05/12  Avengers Assemble #3  -  43,886  (-17.2%)
06/12  Avengers Assemble #4  -  43,022  ( -2.0%)
07/12  Avengers Assemble #5  -  38,951  ( -9.5%)
08/12  Avengers Assemble #6  -  36,131  ( -7.2%)
09/12  Avengers Assemble #7  -  36,259  ( +0.4%)
10/12  Avengers Assemble #8  -  36,453  ( +0.5%)
11/12  Avengers Assemble #9  -  42,088  (+15.5%)
12/12  Avengers Assemble #10 -  34,035  (-19.1%)
01/13  Avengers Assemble #11 -  31,027  ( -8.8%)
02/13  Avengers Assemble #12 -  29,475  ( -5.0%)
03/13  Avengers Assemble #13 -  28,432  ( -3.6%)
04/13  Av. Assemble #14AU    -  35,985  (+26.6%)
                                6 mnth  ( -1.3%)

No regular issue this month, but we do have an AGE OF ULTRON tie-in issue. Admittedly, the actual content is more of a Black Widow solo story by a completely different creative team, but officially, it’s an issue of AVENGERS ASSEMBLE. Quite why you’d choose the lowest-selling Avengers title to randomly attach a one-shot to, I don’t altogether understand. At any rate, compared to regular issues, it does get a big increase.

61. ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN
04/03  Spider-Man #39    - 103,531
04/08  Spider-Man #121   -  56,633
04/09  ---
04/10  Spider-Man v2 #9  -  39,955
04/11  Spider-Man #157   -  50,896
=====
04/12  Spider-Man v3 #9  -  43,724  ( -5.5%)
05/12  Spider-Man v3 #10 -  42,356  ( -3.1%)
06/12  Spider-Man v3 #11 -  42,549  ( +0.5%)
07/12  Spider-Man v3 #12 -  42,050  ( -1.2%)
08/12  Spider-Man v3 #13 -  42,642  ( +1.4%)
09/12  Spider-Man v3 #14 -  40,960  ( -3.9%)
09/12  Spider-Man v3 #15 -  40,435  ( -1.3%)
10/12  Spider-Man v3 #16 -  39,679  ( -1.9%)
10/12  Spider-Man v3 #.1 -  38,321  ( -3.4%)
11/12  Spider-Man v3 #17 -  38,481  ( +0.4%)
12/12  Spider-Man v3 #18 -  36,944  ( -4.0%)
01/13  Spider-Man v3 #19 -  36,017  ( -2.5%)
02/13  Spider-Man v3 #20 -  35,461  ( -1.5%)
03/13  Spider-Man v3 #21 -  35,284  ( -0.5%)
04/13  Spider-Man v3 #22 -  34,918  ( -1.0%)
                            6 mnth  (-12.0%)
                            1 year  (-20.1%)
                            2 year  (-31.4%)
                            3 year  (-12.6%)
                            4 year  (  --- )
                            5 year  (-38.3%)
                           10 year  (-66.3%)

Continuing its steady drift downwards.

62. DEADPOOL: KILLUSTRATED
01/13  Killustrated #1 of 4 - 41,980
02/13  Killustrated #2 of 4 - 35,846  (-14.6%)
03/13  Killustrated #3 of 4 - 35,275  ( -1.6%)
04/13  Killustrated #4 of 4 - 34,703  ( -1.6%)

The previous run on DEADPOOL had orders below the 30K mark, so the fact that he’s now sustaining a miniseries at this level is more evidence that the Marvel Now relaunch has reinvigorated him. Paring down the number of minis so that they stand out more will also have helped, I suspect.

Understandably, another miniseries – DEADPOOL KILLS DEADPOOL – is due in July.

64. YOUNG AVENGERS
04/08  YA Presents #4       - 30,483
=====
01/13  Young Avengers v2 #1 - 76,144
02/13  Young Avengers v2 #2 - 43,559  (-42.8%)
03/13  Young Avengers v2 #3 - 38,469  (-11.7%)
04/13  Young Avengers v2 #4 - 34,378  (-10.6%)
                              5 year  (-12.8%)

Well, that’s not showing any obvious signs of levelling out. YOUNG AVENGERS reads like a book that ought to have a cult audience, but the question is how big that audience turns out to be.

66. FF
04/11  FF #2    - 72,897
=====
04/12  FF #17   - 37,325  (  +0.5%)
05/12  FF #18   - 34,555  (  -7.4%)
06/12  FF #19   - 34,260  (  -0.9%)
07/12  FF #20   - 31,652  (  -7.6%)
08/12  FF #21   - 30,220  (  -4.5%)
09/12  FF #22   - 29,847  (  -1.2%)
10/12  FF #23   - 30,844  (  +3.3%)
11/12  FF v2 #1 - 80,701  (+161.6%)
12/12  FF v2 #2 - 46,096  ( -42.9%)
01/13  FF v2 #3 - 41,108  ( -10.8%)
02/13  FF v2 #4 - 35,815  ( -12.9%)
03/13  FF v2 #5 - 34,601  (  -3.4%)
04/13  FF v2 #6 - 32,937  (  -4.8%)
                  6 mnth  (  +6.8%)
                  1 year  ( -11.8%)
                  2 year  ( -54.8%)

Like parent title FANTASTIC FOUR, FF isn’t holding on to its audience at all well, and should be dropping back below its inherited sales level in early course.

68. A+X
04/12  Versus #1 of 6 - 111,913
05/12  Versus #2 of 6 -  98,819  (-11.7%)
06/12  Versus #3 of 6 -  94,528  ( -4.3%)
07/12  Versus #4 of 6 -  86,526  ( -8.5%)
08/12  Versus #5 of 6 -  78,380  ( -9.4%)
09/12  ---
10/12  Versus #6 of 6 -  75,298  ( -3.9%)
10/12  A+X #1         - 105,420  (+40.0%)
11/12  A+X #2         -  64,606  (-38.7%)
12/12  A+X #3         -  56,700  (-12.2%)
01/13  A+X #4         -  48,091  (-15.2%)
02/13  ---
03/13  A+X #5         -  37,250  (-22.5%)
03/13  A+X #6         -  34,434  ( -7.6%)
04/13  A+X #7         -  31,183  ( -9.4%)
                         6 mnth  (-58.6%)
                         1 year  (-72.1%)

Bleeding – though as I’ve said before, I doubt that the launch sales of this title were ever remotely sustainable, given that it’s a throwaway team-up anthology.

71,77. AVENGERS ARENA
12/12  Avengers Arena #1 - 64,626
12/12  Avengers Arena #2 - 43,014  (-33.4%)
01/13  Avengers Arena #3 - 38,461  (-10.6%)
02/13  Avengers Arena #4 - 33,611  (-12.6%)
02/13  Avengers Arena #5 - 32,548  ( -3.2%)
03/13  Avengers Arena #6 - 31,617  ( -2.9%)
04/13  Avengers Arena #7 - 29,784  ( -5.8%)
04/13  Avengers Arena #8 - 27,900  ( -6.3%)

Also in need of a tourniquet, from the looks of it. Over April’s two issues, AVENGERS ARENA sheds more than 3,500 in sales. That doesn’t look like it can be sustainable.

74. AVENGING SPIDER-MAN
04/12  Avenging Spider-Man #6  - 47,430  (+16.0%)
05/12  Avenging Spider-Man #7  - 38,012  (-19.9%)
06/12  Avenging Spider-Man #8  - 39,861  ( +4.9%)
07/12  Avenging Spider-Man #9  - 37,134  ( -6.8%)
08/12  Avenging Spider-Man #10 - 34,537  ( -7.0%)
08/12  Avenging Spider-Man #11 - 33,808  ( -2.1%)
09/12  Avenging Spider-Man #12 - 35,462  ( +4.9%)
10/12  Avenging Spider-Man #13 - 32,908  ( -7.2%)
11/12  Avenging Spider-Man #14 - 30,102  ( -8.5%)
12/12  Avenging Spider-Man #15 - 28,240  ( -6.2%)
12/12  Avenging Spider-Man #.1 - 41,504  (+47.0%)
01/13  Avenging Spider-Man #16 - 29,032  (-30.1%)
02/13  Avenging Spider-Man #17 - 30,783  ( +6.0%)
03/13  Avenging Spider-Man #18 - 31,657  ( +2.8%)
04/13  Avenging Spider-Man #19 - 28,740  ( -9.2%)
                                 6 mnth  (-12.7%)
                                 1 year  (-39.4%)

Sales are kind of all over the place on this book, aren’t they? Overall, it seems to be hovering in the high 20K range, but it’s not very consistent. The book relaunches as SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN TEAM-UP in July (because he’s not in the Avengers any more).

75. X-MEN LEGACY
04/03  New X-Men #139     - 95,981
04/08  X-Men Legacy #210  - 77,441
04/09  X-Men Legacy #223  - 71,935
04/10  X-Men Legacy #235  - 65,302
04/11  X-Men Legacy #247  - 51,970
=====
04/12  X-Men Legacy #265  - 35,712  (  -0.7%)
05/12  X-Men Legacy #266  - 43,199  ( +21.0%)
05/12  X-Men Legacy #267  - 46,279  (  +7.1%)
06/12  X-Men Legacy #268  - 49,163  (  +6.2%)
06/12  X-Men Legacy #269  - 46,923  (  -4.6%)
07/12  X-Men Legacy #270  - 44,914  (  -4.3%)
08/12  X-Men Legacy #271  - 37,206  ( -17.2%)
08/12  X-Men Legacy #272  - 37,120  (  -0.2%)
09/12  X-Men Legacy #273  - 36,020  (  -3.0%)
09/12  X-Men Legacy #274  - 35,168  (  -2.4%)
10/12  X-Men Legacy #275  - 38,726  ( +10.1%)
11/12  X-Men Legacy v2 #1 - 87,081  (+124.9%)
11/12  X-Men Legacy v2 #2 - 58,037  ( -33.4%)
12/12  X-Men Legacy v2 #3 - 45,407  ( -21.8%)
01/13  X-Men Legacy v2 #4 - 37,673  ( -17.0%)
01/13  X-Men Legacy v2 #5 - 34,823  (  -7.6%)
02/13  X-Men Legacy v2 #6 - 31,074  ( -10.8%)
03/13  X-Men Legacy v2 #7 - 29,231  (  -5.9%)
03/13  X-Men Legacy v2 #8 - 28,174  (  -3.6%)
04/13  X-Men Legacy v2 #9 - 28,405  (  -0.8%)
                            6 mnth  ( -26.7%)
                            1 year  ( -20.5%)
                            2 year  ( -45.3%)
                            3 year  ( -56.5%)
                            4 year  ( -60.5%)
                            5 year  ( -63.3%)
                           10 year  ( -70.4%)

There’s a variant cover on this issue, which probably accounts for the drop being lower than usual.

81. ASTONISHING X-MEN
04/08  ---
04/09  Astonishing X-Men #29 -  67,774
04/10  ---
04/11  ---
=====
04/12  Astonishing X-Men #49 -  31,291  ( -8.5%)
05/12  Astonishing X-Men #50 -  61,866  (+97.7%)
06/12  Astonishing X-Men #51 -  82,654  (+33.6%)
07/12  Astonishing X-Men #52 -  35,766  (-56.7%)
08/12  Astonishing X-Men #53 -  32,268  ( -9.8%)
09/12  Astonishing X-Men #54 -  30,225  ( -6.3%)
10/12  Astonishing X-Men #55 -  29,060  ( -3.9%)
11/12  Astonishing X-Men #56 -  27,583  ( -5.1%)
12/12  Astonishing X-Men #57 -  26,263  ( -4.8%)
01/13  Astonishing X-Men #58 -  25,159  ( -4.2%)
02/13  Astonishing X-Men #59 -  24,195  ( -3.8%)
03/13  Astonishing X-Men #60 -  27,683  (+14.4%)
04/13  Astonishing X-Men #61 -  27,090  ( -2.1%)
                                6 mnth  ( -6.8%)
                                1 year  (-13.4%)
                                2 year  (  --- )
                                3 year  (  --- )
                                4 year  (-60.0%)
                                5 year  (  --- )

Part of the X-Termination crossover, which helps sales marginally. Of course, since the other participating titles were AGE OF APOCALYPSE and X-TREME X-MEN, both of which are on life support, it was never likely that ASTONISHING would see much of a gain from crossing over with them.

82. X-TERMINATION
03/13  X-Termination #1 of 2 - 33,377
04/13  X-Termination #2 of 2 - 26,538  (-20.5%)

Yes, the one-shot comes in slightly below one of the participating titles. Logical, I guess, but still somewhat unusual.

83. DAREDEVIL: END OF DAYS
10/12  End of Days #1 of 8 - 40,911
11/12  End of Days #2 of 8 - 32,072  (-21.6%)
12/12  End of Days #3 of 8 - 29,273  ( -8.7%)
01/13  End of Days #4 of 8 - 27,770  ( -5.1%)
02/13  End of Days #5 of 8 - 26,777  ( -3.6%)
03/13  End of Days #6 of 8 - 26,316  ( -1.7%)
04/13  End of Days #7 of 8 - 25,577  ( -2.8%)

Reasonable miniseries numbers, especially for an out of continuity title.

88. SCARLET SPIDER
03/12  Scarlet Spider #3  - 32,616  ( -3.5%)
04/12  Scarlet Spider #4  - 33,097  ( +1.5%)
05/12  Scarlet Spider #5  - 30,932  ( -6.5%)
06/12  Scarlet Spider #6  - 30,722  ( -0.7%)
07/12  Scarlet Spider #7  - 29,140  ( -5.1%)
08/12  Scarlet Spider #8  - 27,690  ( -5.0%)
09/12  Scarlet Spider #9  - 27,140  ( -2.0%)
10/12  Scarlet Spider #10 - 31,786  (+17.1%)
11/12  Scarlet Spider #11 - 32,287  ( +1.6%)
12/12  Scarlet Spider #12 - 26,652  (-17.5%)
12/12  Scarlet Spider #.1 - 25,771  ( -3.3%)
01/13  Scarlet Spider #13 - 25,919  ( +0.6%)
02/13  Scarlet Spider #14 - 24,388  ( -5.9%)
03/13  Scarlet Spider #15 - 23,682  ( -2.9%)
04/13  Scarlet Spider #16 - 24,207  ( +2.2%)
                            6 mnth  (-23.8%)
                            1 year  (-25.8%)

Variant cover.

90. FEARLESS DEFENDERS
04/08  Last D. #2 of 6  - 25,731
=====
04/12  Defenders v4 #5  - 27,893  (  -6.4%)
05/12  Defenders v4 #6  - 25,518  (  -8.5%)
06/12  Defenders v4 #7  - 23,574  (  -7.6%)
07/12  Defenders v4 #8  - 22,504  (  -4.5%)
08/12  Defenders v4 #9  - 21,500  (  -4.5%)
09/12  Defenders v4 #10 - 20,220  (  -6.0%)
10/12  Defenders v4 #11 - 19,361  (  -4.2%)
11/12  Defenders v4 #12 - 18,588  (  -4.0%)
12/12  ---
01/13  ---
02/13  Defenders v5 #1  - 53,688  (+188.8%)
03/13  Defenders v5 #2  - 28,244  ( -47.4%)
04/13  Defenders v5 #3  - 23,514  ( -16.7%)
                          6 mnth  ( +21.5%)
                          1 year  ( -15.7%)
                          5 year  (  -8.6%)

Not looking too healthy. It’s going to have to level out very quickly from here.

92. ULTIMATES
04/08  ---
04/09  ---
04/10  ---
04/11  Ultimates v4 #3  -  43,822
=====
04/12  Ultimates v5 #9  -  31,336  ( -2.7%)
05/12  Ultimates v5 #10 -  31,257  ( -0.3%)
05/12  Ultimates v5 #11 -  31,344  ( +0.3%)
06/12  Ultimates v5 #12 -  30,845  ( -1.6%)
07/12  Ultimates v5 #13 -  32,380  ( +5.0%)
08/12  Ultimates v5 #14 -  30,311  ( -6.4%)
09/12  Ultimates v5 #15 -  30,382  ( +0.2%)
09/12  Ultimates v5 #16 -  30,533  ( +0.5%)
10/12  Ultimates v5 #17 -  29,382  ( -3.8%)
11/12  Ultimates v5 #18 -  29,072  ( -1.1%)
12/12  Ultimates v5 #.1 -  27,659  ( -4.9%)
12/12  Ultimates v5 #19 -  26,971  ( -2.5%)
01/13  Ultimates v5 #20 -  25,613  ( -5.0%)
02/13  Ultimates v5 #21 -  23,811  ( -7.0%)
03/13  Ultimates v5 #22 -  23,442  ( -1.5%)
04/13  Ultimates v5 #23 -  22,778  ( -2.8%)
                           6 mnth  (-22.5%)
                           1 year  (-27.3%)
                           2 year  (-48.0%)
                           3 year  (  --- )
                           4 year  (  --- )
                           5 year  (  --- )

ULTIMATES was relatively solid until about six months ago when it lurched downhill. It’s been levelling out a bit over the last couple of months, but it’s still not looking entirely comfortable.

93,94. VENOM
04/11  Venom v2 #2  - 41,006
=====
04/12  Venom v2 #15 - 28,858  ( -0.2%)
04/12  Venom v2 #16 - 28,440  ( -1.4%)
05/12  Venom v2 #17 - 30,157  ( +6.0%)
05/12  Venom v2 #18 - 28,309  ( -6.1%)
06/12  Venom v2 #19 - 28,702  ( +1.4%)
07/12  Venom v2 #20 - 26,941  ( -6.1%)
07/12  Venom v2 #21 - 26,534  ( -1.5%)
08/12  Venom v2 #22 - 26,734  ( +0.8%)
08/12  Venom v2 #23 - 26,854  ( +0.4%)
09/12  Venom v2 #24 - 30,080  (+12.0%)
09/12  Venom v2 #25 - 25,242  (-16.1%)
10/12  Venom v2 #26 - 31,711  (+25.6%)
11/12  Venom v2 #27 - 31,118  ( -1.9%)
11/12  Venom v2 #.1 - 25,727  (-17.3%)
12/12  Venom v2 #28 - 25,573  ( -0.6%)
01/13  Venom v2 #29 - 24,644  ( -3.6%)
01/13  Venom v2 #30 - 24,551  ( -0.4%)
02/13  Venom v2 #31 - 23,441  ( -4.5%)
03/13  Venom v2 #32 - 22,521  ( -3.9%)
04/13  Venom v2 #33 - 22,327  ( -0.9%)
04/13  Venom v2 #34 - 22,120  ( -0.9%)
                      6 mnth  (-30.2%)
                      1 year  (-23.3%)
                      2 year  (-46.1%)

The six-month comparison is misleading, since October’s issue #26 was an unusually high seller (it was the first part of the “Minimum Carnage” crossover). Filter out the occasional spikes and the basic trend here has been one of steady erosion over the last year.

99. AGE OF APOCALYPSE
04/12  Age of Apocalypse #2  - 39,263  (-30.4%)
05/12  Age of Apocalypse #3  - 32,085  (-18.3%)
06/12  Age of Apocalypse #4  - 30,469  ( -5.0%)
07/12  Age of Apocalypse #5  - 27,223  (-10.7%)
08/12  Age of Apocalypse #6  - 25,393  ( -6.7%)
09/12  Age of Apocalypse #7  - 23,618  ( -7.0%)
10/12  Age of Apocalypse #8  - 22,293  ( -5.6%)
11/12  Age of Apocalypse #9  - 20,630  ( -7.5%)
12/12  Age of Apocalypse #10 - 19,337  ( -6.3%)
01/13  Age of Apocalypse #11 - 18,555  ( -4.0%)
02/13  Age of Apocalypse #12 - 17,643  ( -4.9%)
03/13  Age of Apocalypse #13 - 20,670  (+17.2%)
04/13  Age of Apocalypse #14 - 21,486  ( +3.9%)
                               6 mnth  ( -3.6%)
                               1 year  (-45.2%)

Cancelled. The sales increase on the last two issues was due to the “X-Termination” crossover.

100. ULTIMATE COMICS WOLVERINE
03/13  Wolverine #1 of 4 - 29,537
03/13  Wolverine #2 of 4 - 25,472  (-13.8%)
04/13  Wolverine #3 of 4 - 21,431  (-15.9%)

102. ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN
04/03  X-Men #32    - 90,484
04/08  X-Men #93    - 49,107
04/09  ---
04/10  Ult X #2     - 47,996
04/11  ---
=====
04/12  X-Men v2 #10 - 29,743  ( -1.1%)
05/12  X-Men v2 #11 - 28,711  ( -3.5%)
05/12  X-Men v2 #12 - 28,839  ( +0.4%)
06/12  X-Men v2 #13 - 29,159  ( +1.1%)
07/12  X-Men v2 #14 - 29,879  ( +2.5%)
08/12  X-Men v2 #15 - 27,847  ( -6.8%)
09/12  X-Men v2 #16 - 27,066  ( -2.8%)
10/12  X-Men v2 #17 - 26,503  ( -2.1%)
10/12  X-Men v2 #18 - 26,322  ( -0.7%)
11/12  X-Men v2 #.1 - 25,425  ( -3.4%)
11/12  X-Men v2 #19 - 25,419  ( -0.0%)
12/12  X-Men v2 #20 - 24,789  ( -2.5%)
01/13  X-Men v2 #21 - 23,479  ( -5.3%)
02/13  X-Men v2 #22 - 22,456  ( -4.4%)
02/13  X-Men v2 #23 - 22,197  ( -1.2%)
03/13  X-Men v2 #24 - 21,862  ( -1.5%)
04/13  X-Men v2 #25 - 21,139  ( -3.3%)
                      6 mnth  (-19.7%)
                      1 year  (-28.9%)
                      2 year  (  --- )
                      3 year  (-56.0%)
                      4 year  (  --- )
                      5 year  (-57.0%)
                     10 year  (-76.6%)

Eroding away. Technically it’s being outsold by a cancelled book, AGE OF APOCALYPSE. But to be fair, that wouldn’t be the case without the sales boost that AOA got from its closing crossover. Nonetheless, we must surely be approaching a crunch time where Marvel have to decide what they’re going to do with this imprint.

106. X-FACTOR
04/08  X-Factor v3 #30 - 51,447
04/09  X-Factor v3 #42 - 32,000
04/10  X-Factor #204   - 40,534
04/11  X-Factor #218   - 24,826
=====
04/12  X-Factor #234   - 23,821  ( -0.1%)
05/12  X-Factor #235   - 24,051  ( +1.0%)
05/12  X-Factor #236   - 24,031  ( -0.1%)
06/12  X-Factor #237   - 24,854  ( +3.4%)
06/12  X-Factor #238   - 23,607  ( -5.0%)
07/12  X-Factor #239   - 23,506  ( -0.4%)
07/12  X-Factor #240   - 23,223  ( -1.2%)
08/12  X-Factor #241   - 22,943  ( -1.2%)
08/12  X-Factor #242   - 22,782  ( -0.7%)
09/12  X-Factor #243   - 22,118  ( -2.9%)
09/12  X-Factor #244   - 22,193  ( +0.3%)
10/12  X-Factor #245   - 22,364  ( +0.8%)
11/12  X-Factor #246   - 22,165  ( -0.9%)
11/12  X-Factor #247   - 22,005  ( -0.7%)
12/12  X-Factor #248   - 21,664  ( -1.5%)
12/12  X-Factor #249   - 21,211  ( -2.1%)
01/13  X-Factor #250   - 22,521  ( +6.2%)
02/13  X-Factor #251   - 21,096  ( -6.3%)
02/13  X-Factor #252   - 20,929  ( -0.8%)
03/13  X-Factor #253   - 20,835  ( -0.4%)
04/13  X-Factor #254   - 20,579  ( -1.2%)
                         6 mnth  ( -8.0%)
                         1 year  (-13.6%)
                         2 year  (-17.1%)
                         3 year  (-49.2%)
                         4 year  (-35.7%)
                         5 year  (-60.0%)

Cancelled with issue #262, as even its slow erosion finally catches up with it.

107. WINTER SOLDIER
04/12  Winter Soldier #4  - 33,519  ( -4.0%)
05/12  Winter Soldier #5  - 30,646  ( -8.6%)
06/12  Winter Soldier #6  - 30,386  ( -0.8%)
06/12  Winter Soldier #7  - 28,984  ( -4.6%)
07/12  Winter Soldier #8  - 27,317  ( -5.8%)
08/12  Winter Soldier #9  - 26,255  ( -3.9%)
09/12  Winter Soldier #10 - 25,811  ( -1.7%)
09/12  Winter Soldier #11 - 25,310  ( -1.9%)
10/12  Winter Soldier #12 - 24,807  ( -2.0%)
11/12  ---
12/12  Winter Soldier #13 - 23,951  ( -3.5%)
01/13  Winter Soldier #14 - 22,873  ( -4.5%)
02/13  Winter Soldier #15 - 22,199  ( -2.9%)
03/13  Winter Soldier #16 - 20,973  ( -5.5%)
04/13  Winter Soldier #17 - 19,395  ( -7.5%)
                            6 mnth  (-21.8%)
                            1 year  (-42.1%)

Cancelled with issue #19.

108. GAMBIT
08/12  Gambit v5 #1  - 40,418 
08/12  Gambit v5 #2  - 32,336  (-20.0%)
09/12  Gambit v5 #3  - 28,530  (-11.8%)
10/12  Gambit v5 #4  - 27,828  ( -2.5%)
11/12  Gambit v5 #5  - 26,723  ( -4.0%)
11/12  Gambit v5 #6  - 25,522  ( -4.5%)
12/12  Gambit v5 #7  - 23,978  ( -6.0%)
01/13  Gambit v5 #8  - 22,396  ( -6.6%)
02/13  Gambit v5 #9  - 20,851  ( -6.9%)
03/13  Gambit v5 #10 - 20,187  ( -3.2%)
04/13  Gambit v5 #11 - 19,355  ( -4.1%)
                       6 mnth  (-30.4%)

At time of writing, not yet cancelled – but with sales like this, it’s surely a matter of time.

109. WOLVERINE MAX
10/12  Wolverine: Max #1 - 37,509
11/12  Wolverine: Max #2 - 27,217  (-27.4%)
12/12  ---
01/13  Wolverine: Max #3 - 24,058  (-11.6%)
02/13  Wolverine: Max #4 - 22,072  ( -8.3%)
03/13  Wolverine: Max #5 - 20,479  ( -7.2%)
04/13  Wolverine: Max #6 - 19,316  ( -5.7%)
                           6 mnth  (-48.5%)

The Max imprint is much more willing to tolerate sales like this – see FURY MAX below. But the rate of decline still poses a real problem.

112. CAPTAIN MARVEL
04/08  Ms Marvel v2 #26      - 42,277
04/09  Ms Marvel v2 #38      - 27,535
=====
07/12  Captain Marvel v6 #1  - 41,582
08/12  Captain Marvel v6 #2  - 28,434  (-31.6%)
08/12  Captain Marvel v6 #3  - 27,649  ( -2.8%)
09/12  Captain Marvel v6 #4  - 24,799  (-10.3%)
10/12  Captain Marvel v6 #5  - 28,619  (+15.4%)
10/12  Captain Marvel v6 #6  - 23,103  (-19.3%)
11/12  Captain Marvel v6 #7  - 21,744  ( -5.9%)
12/12  Captain Marvel v6 #8  - 19,970  ( -8.2%)
01/13  Captain Marvel v6 #9  - 19,151  ( -4.1%)
02/13  Captain Marvel v6 #10 - 18,359  ( -4.1%)
03/13  Captain Marvel v6 #11 - 17,743  ( -3.4%)
04/13  Captain Marvel v6 #12 - 18,344  ( +3.4%)
                               6 mnth  (-20.6%)
                               1 year  (  --- )
                               2 year  (  --- )
                               3 year  (  --- )
                               4 year  (-33.4%)
                               5 year  (-56.6%)

Variant cover. The next two issues are part of a crossover with AVENGERS ASSEMBLE, but I struggle to see that turning things around.

114. X-TREME X-MEN
07/12  X-Treme X-Men v2 #1  - 36,802
08/12  X-Treme X-Men v2 #2  - 25,689  (-30.2%)
09/12  X-Treme X-Men v2 #3  - 24,490  ( -4.7%)
09/12  X-Treme X-Men v2 #4  - 22,584  ( -7.8%)
10/12  X-Treme X-Men v2 #5  - 19,841  (-12.1%)
11/12  X-Treme X-Men v2 #6  - 17,947  ( -9.5%)
11/12  X-Treme X-Men v2 #7  - 17,602  ( -1.9%)
12/12  X-Treme X-Men #7.1   - 16,682  ( -5.2%)
12/12  X-Treme X-Men v2 #8  - 16,536  ( -0.9%)
01/13  X-Treme X-Men v2 #9  - 15,529  ( -6.1%)
02/13  X-Treme X-Men v2 #10 - 14,813  ( -4.6%)
02/13  X-Treme X-Men v2 #11 - 14,623  ( -1.3%)
03/13  X-Treme X-Men v2 #12 - 17,782  (+21.6%)
04/13  X-Treme X-Men v2 #13 - 18,007  ( +1.3%)
                              6 mnth  ( -9.2%)

Final issue. Again, the sales boost on the last two issues is due to the X-Termination crossover.

115. MORBIUS: THE LIVING VAMPIRE
01/13  Morbius v2 #1 - 43,883
02/13  Morbius v2 #2 - 25,735  (-41.4%)
03/13  Morbius v2 #3 - 20,262  (-21.3%)
04/13  Morbius v2 #4 - 17,544  (-13.4%)

This looks like it’s going to be a very short run.

117. JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY
04/11  J/into Mystery #622 - 43,925
=====
04/12  J/into Mystery #636 - 21,148  ( -2.2%)
05/12  J/into Mystery #637 - 24,378  (+15.3%)
05/12  J/into Mystery #638 - 23,766  ( -2.5%)
06/12  J/into Mystery #639 - 21,914  ( -7.8%)
06/12  J/into Mystery #640 - 20,714  ( -5.5%)
07/12  J/into Mystery #641 - 19,850  ( -4.2%)
08/12  J/into Mystery #642 - 22,336  (+12.5%)
09/12  J/into Mystery #643 - 21,109  ( -5.5%)
09/12  J/into Mystery #644 - 20,588  ( -2.5%)
10/12  J/into Mystery #645 - 20,705  ( +0.6%)
11/12  J/into Mystery #646 - 22,898  (+10.6%)
12/12  J/into Mystery #647 - 22,514  ( -1.7%)
01/13  J/into Mystery #648 - 20,887  ( -7.2%)
02/13  J/into Mystery #649 - 20,064  ( -3.9%)
03/13  J/into Mystery #650 - 19,007  ( -5.3%)
04/13  J/into Mystery #651 - 17,443  ( -8.2%)
                             6 mnth  (-15.8%)
                             1 year  (-17.5%)
                             2 year  (-60.3%)

Much the same applies here, though Marvel have proved remarkably willing to stick with the book despite sales which have been pretty lousy for quite some time.

118. SECRET SERVICE [Icon]
04/12  Secret Service #1 of 6 - 39,505
05/12  Secret Service #2 of 6 - 28,265  (-28.5%)
06/12  ---
07/12  Secret Service #3 of 6 - 22,993  (-18.7%)
08/12  ---
09/12  ---
10/12  Secret Service #4 of 6 - 21,751  ( -5.4%)
11/12  ---
12/12  ---
01/13  Secret Service #5 of 6 - 19,365  (-11.0%)
02/13  ---
03/13  ---
04/13  Secret Service #6 of 6 - 17,328  (-10.5%)

Not one of Mark Millar’s bigger hits by any stretch of the imagination, but still a very respectable performance for a creator-owned series.

124. DARK AVENGERS
06/12  Dark Avengers #175 - 39,532  (+110.4%)
06/12  Dark Avengers #176 - 34,614  ( -12.4%)
07/12  Dark Avengers #177 - 30,643  ( -11.5%)
07/12  Dark Avengers #178 - 28,572  (  -6.8%)
08/12  Dark Avengers #179 - 25,835  (  -9.6%)
09/12  Dark Avengers #180 - 23,761  (  -8.0%)
09/12  Dark Avengers #181 - 23,044  (  -3.0%)
10/12  Dark Avengers #182 - 21,936  (  -4.8%)
11/12  Dark Avengers #183 - 21,109  (  -3.8%)
12/12  Dark Avengers #184 - 20,584  (  -2.5%)
01/13  Dark Avengers #185 - 19,229  (  -6.6%)
01/13  Dark Avengers #186 - 18,937  (  -1.5%)
02/13  Dark Avengers #187 - 18,213  (  -3.8%)
03/13  Dark Avengers #188 - 17,448  (  -4.2%)
04/13  Dark Avengers #189 - 16,654  (  -4.6%)
                            6 mnth  ( -24.1%)

Cancelled with issue #190.

136. RED SHE-HULK
04/08  Hulk #3          - 100,167
04/09  Hulk #11         -  82,726
04/10  ---
04/11  Hulk #32         -  30,652
=====
04/12  Hulk #50         -  34,437  (+60.1%)
05/12  Hulk #51         -  22,085  (-35.9%)
05/12  Hulk #52         -  21,882  ( -0.9%)
06/12  Hulk #53         -  22,386  ( +2.3%)
06/12  Hulk #54         -  22,070  ( -1.4%)
07/12  Hulk #55         -  22,141  ( +0.3%)
08/12  Hulk #56         -  21,558  ( -2.6%)
08/12  Hulk #57         -  21,553  ( -0.0%)
09/12  ---
10/12  Red She-Hulk #58 -  31,136  (+44.5%)
11/12  Red She-Hulk #59 -  20,668  (-33.6%)
12/12  Red She-Hulk #60 -  20,798  ( +0.6%)
01/13  Red She-Hulk #61 -  18,815  ( -9.5%)
02/13  Red She-Hulk #62 -  17,766  ( -5.6%)
03/13  Red She-Hulk #63 -  15,941  (-10.3%)
04/13  Red She-Hulk #64 -  15,055  ( -5.6%)
                           6 mnth  (-51.6%)
                           1 year  (-56.3%)
                           2 year  (-50.9%)
                           3 year  (  --- )
                           4 year  (-81.8%)
                           5 year  (-85.0%)

I can only assume this is being allowed to complete a storyline, since the sales certainly don’t seem to justify keeping the book around.

156. FURY MAX
05/12  Fury Max #1  - 20,620
05/12  Fury Max #2  - 19,021  (-7.8%)
06/12  Fury Max #3  - 17,152  (-9.8%)
07/12  Fury Max #4  - 16,329  (-4.8%)
08/12  Fury Max #5  - 15,646  (-4.2%)
09/12  Fury Max #6  - 14,646  (-6.4%)
10/12  ---
11/12  ---
12/12  Fury Max #7  - 14,345  (-2.1%)
01/13  Fury Max #8  - 13,703  (-4.5%)
02/13  Fury Max #9  - 13,283  (-3.1%)
03/13  Fury Max #10 - 13,096  (-1.4%)
04/13  Fury Max #11 - 12,937  (-1.2%)

Cancelled with issue #13.

162. DARK TOWER: GUNSLINGER - EVIL GROUND
04/08  Long Road Home #2   - 103,029
04/09  Sorcerer #1         -  39,210
04/10  Jericho Hill #5     -  25,096
04/11  Little Sisters #5   -  17,283
=====
04/12  Way Station #5      -  13,823  ( -1.2%)
05/12  ---
06/12  Man in Black #1     -  14,672  ( +6.1%)
07/12  #2 of 5             -  13,831  ( -5.7%)
08/12  #3 of 5             -  13,677  ( -1.1%)
09/12  #4 of 5             -  13,240  ( -3.2%)
10/12  #5 of 5             -  13,310  ( +0.5%)
11/12  ---
12/12  ---
01/13  Sheemie's #1 of 2   -  12,985  ( -2.4%)
02/13  Sheemie's #2 of 2   -  12,723  ( -2.0%)
03/13  ---
04/13  Evil Ground #1 of 2 -  12,473  ( -2.0%)
                              6 mnth  ( -6.3%)
                              1 year  ( -9.8%)
                              2 year  (-27.8%)
                              3 year  (-50.3%) 
                              4 year  (-68.2%)
                              5 year  (-87.9%)

New miniseries, same sales.

166. ALPHA: BIG TIME
01/13  Alpha: Big Time #0.1    -  8,534
02/13  Alpha: Big Time #1 of 5 - 22,778  (+166.9%)
03/13  Alpha: Big Time #2 of 5 - 16,305  ( -28.4%)
04/13  Alpha: Big TIme #3 of 5 - 12,265  ( -24.8%)

These have to be disappointing numbers considering the fanfare with which the character was introduced.

And finally, the two all-ages books and a stray adaptation…

279. MARVEL UNIVERSE ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN 
04/12  MUU Spider-Man #1  - 10,886
05/12  MUU Spider-Man #2  -  7,581  (-30.4%)
06/12  MUU Spider-Man #3  -  6,756  (-10.9%)
07/12  MUU Spider-Man #4  -  6,447  ( -4.6%)
08/12  MUU Spider-Man #5  -  6,310  ( -2.1%)
09/12  MUU Spider-Man #6  -  5,873  ( -6.9%)
10/12  MUU Spider-Man #7  -  5,768  ( -1.8%)
11/12  MUU Spider-Man #8  -  5,588  ( -3.1%)
12/12  MUU Spider-Man #9  -  5,235  ( -6.3%)
01/13  MUU Spider-Man #10 -  5,077  ( -3.0%)
02/13  MUU Spider-Man #11 -  5,086  ( +0.1%)
03/13  MUU Spider-Man #12 -  4,978  ( -2.1%)
04/13  MUU Spider-Man #13 -  5,004  ( +0.5%)
                            6 mnth  (-13.2%)
                            1 year  (-54.0%)


282. MARVEL UNIVERSE AVENGERS
04/12  MU Avengers #1  - 12,874
05/12  MU Avengers #2  -  6,733  (-47.7%)
06/12  MU Avengers #3  -  6,345  ( -5.8%)
07/12  MU Avengers #4  -  6,421  ( +1.2%)
08/12  MU Avengers #5  -  6,134  ( -4.5%)
09/12  MU Avengers #6  -  5,906  ( -3.7%)
10/12  MU Avengers #7  -  5,630  ( -4.7%)
11/12  MU Avengers #8  -  5,389  ( -4.3%)
12/12  MU Avengers #9  -  5,207  ( -3.4%)
01/13  MU Avengers #10 -  4,951  ( -4.9%)
02/13  MU Avengers #11 -  4,940  ( -0.2%)
03/13  MU Avengers #12 -  4,960  ( +0.4%)
04/13  MU Avengers #13 -  4,911  ( -1.0%)
                         6 mnth  (-12.8%)
                         1 year  (-61.9%)


298. CASTLE: A CALM BEFORE THE STORM
12/12  Castle #1 of 5 - 7,174
01/13  Castle #2 of 5 - 5,911  (-17.6%)
02/13  Castle #3 of 5 - 4,656  (-21.2%)
03/13  ---
04/13  Castle #4 of 5 - 4,383  ( -5.9%)


6 month comparisons
===================

+ 81.9% - Deadpool
+ 53.7% - Hulk
+ 48.3% - Wolverine
+ 47.8% - Superior Spider-Man
+ 45.9% - Thor
+ 40.4% - Avengers
+ 21.5% - Defenders
+ 19.6% - Uncanny X-Men
+ 18.9% - Iron Man
+ 18.9% - Captain America
+ 18.6% - New Avengers
+ 12.9% - Secret Avengers
+ 12.1% - Hawkeye
+  6.8% - FF
+  6.6% - Daredevil
-  1.3% - Avengers Assemble
-  3.6% - Age of Apocalypse
-  6.3% - Dark Tower
-  6.8% - Astonishing X-Men
-  8.0% - X-Factor
-  9.2% - X-Treme X-Men
- 12.0% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 12.7% - Avenging Spider-Man
- 13.2% - MUU Spider-Man
- 13.3% - Fantastic Four
- 14.6% - Wolverine and the X-Men
- 15.8% - Journey into Mystery
- 19.7% - Ultimate Comics X-Men
- 20.6% - Captain Marvel
- 21.8% - Winter Soldier
- 22.5% - Ultimates
- 23.8% - Scarlet Spider
- 24.1% - Dark Avengers
- 26.7% - X-Men Legacy
- 30.2% - Venom
- 30.4% - Gambit
- 48.5% - Wolverine Max
- 51.6% - Red She-Hulk
- 54.0% - MU Avengers
- 58.6% - A+X
- 74.6% - Uncanny Avengers


1 year comparisons
==================

+ 92.6% - Thunderbolts
+ 80.2% - Deadpool
+ 51.1% - Wolverine
+ 49.4% - Thor
+ 44.8% - Superior Spider-Man
+ 38.7% - Uncanny X-Men
+ 35.7% - Iron Man
+ 31.6% - Hulk
+ 20.2% - Avengers
+ 15.3% - Captain America
+  3.2% - Daredevil
+  0.5% - Secret Avengers
-  1.7% - New Avengers
-  7.2% - Fantastic Four
-  9.8% - Dark Tower
- 11.8% - FF
- 13.4% - Astonishing X-Men
- 13.6% - X-Factor
- 15.7% - Defenders
- 17.5% - Journey into Mystery
- 20.1% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 20.5% - Wolverine and the X-Men
- 20.5% - X-Men Legacy
- 23.3% - Venom
- 25.8% - Scarlet Spider
- 27.3% - Ultimates
- 28.9% - Ultimate Comics X-Men
- 39.4% - Avenging Spider-Man
- 42.1% - Winter Soldier
- 45.2% - Age of Apocalypse
- 54.0% - MUU Spider-Man
- 56.3% - Red She-Hulk
- 61.9% - MU Avengers
- 72.1% - A+X


2 year comparisons
==================

+ 86.3% - Hulk
+ 85.3% - Deadpool
+ 47.2% - Thunderbolts
+ 39.0% - Uncanny X-Men
+ 38.9% - Superior Spider-Man
+ 24.4% - Avengers
+ 21.6% - Wolverine
+  5.3% - Captain America
-  2.7% - New Avengers
-  3.0% - Iron Man
- 17.1% - X-Factor
- 20.1% - Thor
- 23.6% - Secret Avengers
- 27.8% - Dark Tower
- 31.4% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 45.3% - X-Men Legacy
- 45.9% - Fantastic Four
- 46.1% - Venom
- 48.0% - Ultimates
- 50.9% - Red She-Hulk
- 54.8% - FF
- 60.3% - Journey into Mystery


3 year comparisons
==================

+ 90.2% - Wolverine
+ 81.3% - Nova
+ 60.0% - Superior Spider-Man
+ 22.7% - Deadpool
+  6.5% - Uncanny X-Men
+  5.9% - Daredevil
+  3.7% - Thunderbolts
+  3.6% - Fantastic Four
- 12.6% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 15.9% - New Avengers
- 19.0% - Captain America
- 35.3% - Thor
- 40.3% - Iron Man
- 49.2% - X-Factor
- 50.3% - Dark Tower
- 56.0% - Ultimate Comics X-Men
- 56.5% - X-Men Legacy


4 year comparisons
==================

+258.9% - Guardians of the Galaxy
+ 54.5% - Nova
+ 41.6% - Superior Spider-Man
+  9.0% - Deadpool
+  3.2% - Uncanny X-Men
- 11.8% - Daredevil
- 15.1% - Iron Man
- 24.8% - Thunderbolts
- 25.2% - Captain America
- 32.5% - New Avengers
- 33.1% - Hulk
- 33.4% - Captain Marvel
- 35.7% - X-Factor
- 39.5% - Fantastic Four
- 60.0% - Astonishing X-Men
- 60.5% - X-Men Legacy
- 68.2% - Dark Tower
- 81.8% - Red She-Hulk


5 year comparisons
==================

+225.3% - Guardians of the Galaxy
+ 79.3% - Nova
+ 23.0% - Iron Man
+ 11.2% - Superior Spider-Man
-  8.6% - Defenders
- 11.9% - Wolverine
- 12.8% - Young Avengers
- 15.5% - Uncanny X-Men
- 38.3% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 40.7% - Captain America
- 42.6% - New Avengers
- 44.6% - Hulk
- 47.4% - Fantastic Four
- 56.6% - Captain Marvel
- 57.0% - Ultimate Comics X-Men
- 60.0% - X-Factor
- 63.3% - X-Men Legacy
- 85.0% - Red She-Hulk
- 87.9% - Dark Tower


10 year comparisons
===================

+ 69.6% - Thunderbolts
+ 48.8% - Thor
+ 35.4% - Iron Man
+ 35.3% - Avengers
-  4.1% - Hulk
-  6.7% - Wolverine
-  7.7% - Captain America
-  8.8% - Uncanny X-Men
- 11.3% - Superior Spider-Man
- 23.4% - Daredevil
- 23.5% - Fantastic Four
- 66.3% - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man
- 70.4% - X-Men Legacy
- 76.6% - Ultimate Comics X-Men

Note: This Zeus Comics is in no way associated with the well known Texas store Zeus Comics.
Back on April 1, we told you about Zeus Comics—a purported line of salacious 50s comics that had recently been rediscovered. Given the date and people involved we correctly deduced it was an elaborate April Fools Joke, but now the main perpetrator Mort Todd is back with a Kickstarter for the book No Social Redeeming Value: The Secret Inside History of the U.S. Government VS. Comic Books! which will be half novel and half graphic novel.

“The book follows the life of New York publisher Zigmund Z. Zoosman, who created the Zeus Comics line in the 1940s. We see his ups and downs in the industry, his interaction with gangsters and the government, as well as the creators and the comic creations that will be the focal point of the novel section of the book,” Todd said in a statement. The book will follow the real life comic book purge of the 50s mixed in with some zany faux history.

The Kickstarter is pretty modest — $2500 — and it’s more than halfway there already.

More info here and here.