• WHAT consequences? The whole thing's been wiped clean like a wino's ass on his own shirt-sleeve.

• Things the DC Reboot has ruined: Nearly everything. Things the DC Reboot has improved: Aquaman. Let's go over that again, shall we? DC fucked itself in the ass for short-term sales and long-term pain, and the best part about it is that Aquaman is almost a real superhero for a change. I wish Barry Allen (instead of fucking us all over in order to save his mommy) had gone back in time and aborted the DC editorial staff while they were still incubating in their eggs attached to Jenette Kahn's pubes. Presumably, he'd have to use some sort of medicated shampoo mixed with holy water.

• Oh come now, are we really surprised? Look at everything Marvel has done for the past few years: http://apiusman.blogspot.com/2010/11/disasters-to-marvel-at-comic-discussion.html and continue to do. Forget continuity, at least with DC, they have reasons for doing the things that happen. Flashpoint had cause and effect.  Why do we have Red Hulks?  Did Civil War have a POINT? Or Siege? Or Dark Reign and their Dark League of Darkness?  DC had universe-altering events that had consequences. What does Marvel have, aside from a run of meaningless events that mean nothing to anyone? What's been the point of everything since Civil War?And don't get me started on One More Day. Just don't.

• Sales went up, so the pie has increased in size.

• They don't have to sit on anything, since the titles are returnable.

• Lee has been working on this for over two years.

• I wasn't impressed with Justice League #1, but issue two was great. They should have made it a double issue.

• Diamond takes 10 - 20% off titles that are returnable. From what I've read, not many titles are actually being returned. Also, DC has three Morrison titles coming out in 2012 (Multiversity, Batman Inc., and Wonder Woman), a rumored Watchmen prequels being done by talent like Cooke and Kubert, Simone doing a new book, etc. You know they must have something big for Superman/Batman and a huge event surrounding that mystery woman. With Marvel canceling a lot of mini-series, the battle between the two will be much tighter.

• Jim Shooter got word of a big event Marv Wolfman and George Perez were doing and wanted to do it as well. They were able to beat DC, because Shooter had no idea how big the event DC was doing.

• That's.been the greatest thing about the reboot. Titles like Animal Man and Swamp Thing have a legitimate shot at being hits. Beforebthe launch, a title like Animal Man would have sold 30,000 titles for the first issue, suffered an 80% drop for the second issue, and being in danger of being cancelled by the third issue.

• Every time I see the Dark Horse and Image comics getting trounced by DC/Marvel their generic 'cape' comics I die a little inside.

• DC Comics did manage to reignite my interest by enacting this reboot, and I continue to follow 10+ titles. My gripes are all minor, and the biggest of them is still named Bob Harras, but ... time will tell.

• The funny thing is that, from what I have read in the Red Hood book, this sounds oddly plausible by the logic of that title.

• I think your title just died a death not too dissimilar to one of yours, Rick.

• Peter Parker and Carlie Cooper got together?

• One thing all this  isn't taking into account is that almost all the DC books, with the exception of most of the main Bat books, Justice League, Flash, and GL, are returnable through November orders. While this doesn't sound like a big deal, it's HUGE. Normally, comics are only returnable if they ship more than a month late, or a couple other very narrow reasons. What retailers order, they get stuck with. This is allowing retailers to order higher, AND not worry about if a book won't sell or sucks, and then be able to adjust orders based on sales. What I want to know is if returns of previous issues will be calculated against sales of current ones. So, what we are seeing is an artificially HIGH sales chart in DC's favor. I'm more interested to see what the sales will be once stores are no longer able to return books. I Know the numbers at the store I work at will be SIGNIFICANTLY lower than they are now. Don't get me wrong, most of the DCnU is actually enjoyable (I can't believe I typed that), but we'll see where the sales really are in December or January.

• Nah not really, because I felt the same way. Give me a "Brand New Day" book and I would scream at the utter stupidity of Peter involving the analog of the Devil to save his mummy of an aunt by sacrificing his marriage. Play me the Spider-Man movie, though, and I'll be just nice and peachy. XD

• As a fellow Marvel Fanboy, allow me this one bit of mean spiritedness by saying so long as DC kept fucking up their live action properties that isn't Batman, we got nothing to fear. XD

• Penis bebimus Vagina endimus ABRAXAS! -bows down with respect-

• Somebody get Tim Gunn on the phone RIGHT. NOW!!

• And kill off that old mummy Aunt May to prevent something THAT retarded from ever happening again. Just not with flash and flair and more mundane and ordinary. Like a heart attack. I mean come the fuck on! She's what, 700 years old? Is it THAT hard to believe that she died out of a sudden heart attack? No drama, no villains involved, just a POW and a fuck you Aunt May and she's done! Why must anything simple always gets way too overcomplicated in comic books?!

• I agree. I've stuck with a couple titles just to give them a fair chance. Some aren't going to continue to make the cut...

• Yeah the reboot sure worked on me too.

• Along the same lines of reasonings is the reason behind why I became a Marvel MOVIE Guy, instead of just a Marvel Guy. Evil, thy name is decompressed storylines.

• Ah yes, the eternal question: is 50% of a shitpie better than no shitpie. What a conundrum!

• You know what will happen now, don't you? That's right: it's the super epic story that will shake the status quo to its foundation that Marvel has been preparing in years and SO not in retaliation of DC's reboot. It shall be called...drumroll please! "Xtinction of House of Civil War of Messiah Phoenix Brand New Galactus Saga of Devil in an Infinity Gauntlet from Secret Invasion of Fuck You Detective Comics. Part Deux" GOD I hate comic book logic!

• Aren't sales of comics in general going down? So DC temporarily has 50% of a shrinking pie, no?

• So they are succeeding despite the fact that the general consensus is that the reboot was a slapdash, poorly planned and relatively poorly executed clusterfuck?  Damn, I hate comic book logic. They did get me too though I guess.  I've never been much more than a casual reader of comics (in love with what they represent way more than reading the decompressed as fuck stories on regular basis), but I'm giving more than half-dozen different series a multi-issue chance.

• We've already seen slight signs of desperation from Marvel in the Spider-man books... Peter Parker and Carlie Cooper broke up.

• I'm wondering what percentage reprints of DC's #1s are reflected in that sales graph.

• i'm a little suspicious of the success indicated in this nicely colored pie chart.  yes diamond has sold a bunch of dc number two's and they sold ok at my local comic shop.  some titles have just a few copies left hanging, but an unfortunate amount have fat stacks of unwanted left overs.  the number threes are just hanging out in droves miserably failing to attract any buyers.  action comics and detective comics,  these big books  that are supposed to be selling like hotcakes are just collecting dust.  i can't imagine the diamond sales numbers staying that high for another month.   i get that dc did what they wanted to do with the relaunch, they got press, people were talking and it all translated into really nice sales this quarter, but they did it at the expense of pissing off the fans and possibly screwing over the shops left with merchandise they can't sell.  trading long standing, loyal, habitual customers for the attention of new fans that may or may not stick around just seems like a deeply questionable business move.  

• Shit, I accidently hit "like" when I meant "reply".... Anywho- Secret Wars is from 1984. Crisis on Infinite Earths was put out in 1985. Who's the copycat?

• That's a wonderful pie chart. Too bad the markerting stunts, bad art, incomprehensible stories, Diamond monopoly, and availablility only in repugnant unfriendly comics shops keeps making the ENTIRE PIE smaller and smaller EVERY YEAR....

• I agree -- that's key for building a new fan base following a reboot or major event.  I actually downloaded the CBRs of the whole Marvel "Civil War" thing, and I was amazed there were like 105 different books in the whole story arc.  I went about 8 or 9 in and was like, "ah, screw it" and never picked it back up.  The way DCs doing this makes it a lot easier for new fanse to ease their way into the universe.

• Also, I'd like to add that they best thing they've done so far is to keep the issues mostly separate. You don't need to buy 3 other series to understand what happened in 1 comic. Marvel is really bad at that, and it's the reason I buy less Marvel than DC, even though I consider myself a "Marvel Guy".

• Sales won't mean squat until at least 6 months in. If you bought #1, you'll buy #2 unless it is really, really bad (*cough*Catwoman*cough*). By issue 6, people will have settled in to what they will keep buying.

• which all also means Marvel really doesn't have to do anything at all. they can just continue as usual and wait it out. they'll be back to an equal or greater share within 6 months.

• and a pretty good portion of these titles have no chance whatsoever. does anyone really think all the crap like Hawk and Dove, Suicide Squad, I Vampire, Voodoo, etc etc is going to even make it a year? there is no way in hell. at LEAST a dozen of these books are going to be gone by next September. next to go will be the good, but obscure stuff like the Cornell and Lemire titles. especially if they've now raised their cancellation standards like they keep claiming. 2-3 years from now it'll be right back to only big name JLA members having surviving titles and they'll be pretty much back where they were before all of this. 

• Not just speaking as someone who favors Marvel, but I don't think it's that noteworthy that DC maintained their lead for the second month. Comic fans are far more savvy today thanks to the Internet and decreased funds due to the economy. They know that everyone comes for #1 but a lot of people drop off, miss #2, and then THAT becomes the must have issue years down the line. You're right that the true question is how long can this continue. I do believe that the novelty will wear off sooner than later. Heck, it could come as early as the November figures. As you've said Rob, a lot of the comics are less than inspiring. People can't just go buying every book nowadays. They need quality and they cherry pick just for that reason. Now that fans have the first two issues of practically every book in their long boxes I expect them to streamline their selections.

• That "smell" is something I could have lived forever having not thought about.

• Thinking about it now, these were also available same day via digital download.  Damn...that's the impressive part.

• Yeah, but DC knows that top titles probably won't be returned.  My LCS has been pricing (and selling) first prints of the sold-out #1s and #2s of top titles for $10-15 each.  This has probably been great for shops, who likely needed the economic boost.

• Actually, there's the trick with these numbers.  These were returnable! At least a good number of the top sellers  were.  So let's see what happens once DC stops making them returnable.

• My LCS owner explained part of the reason behind the sky-high sales over the weekend: Unlike traditional variant ordering methods (1 variant for every 10 copies ordered of a specific title, another one for every 25 or 100 copies), DC changed it all around and dealers now get a certain # of variants for ALL titles for a month based on orders for standard issues of one of the low-list titles.  Basically, if "Static Shock" is the title of the month, if dealers want 3 copies of the standard variants for JL, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc., the have to order a minimum of three copies of "Static Shock."  So if they tag two or three titles as "variant" titles you'll see really inflated #'s for those titles. Kind of a neat way to do it, but dealers will probably be sitting on some JLA Darks, Static Shocks and Hawk & Doves for a while.

• What do you mean "No to a Marvel reboot"?  Marvel relaunches and even reboots their comics all the time.  Hell, don't you remember the shitstorm over One More Day?  heh. I almost typed Brightest Day.  Never mind all the new #1s where marvel tries to create a new jumping on point. Marvel reboots all the time.

• Reply by Pat Lee: Thanks for the advice, mate! Do you wanna work as an artist for my new company? I promise I'll actually pay you (crosses fingers behind back).

• Starfire's Gangbanged induced Orgasm is so powerful that it can shatter continuity, huh? Oh man, I smell a new "Crisis" Crossover event coming on.

• Partially. A big percentage of this includes second and third print on the #1's. This is still a great sign for DC though.

• I'm like you, but the other way. There's something about Marvel characters that I just don't care about anymore in comic form, but I love the movies and cartoons quite a bit. Weird world we live in, huh.

• True...but second issues traditionally see a drop off on ordering because of this. The fact that DC saw an increase is pretty impressive

• Marvel just needs to correct on Fatal Mistake: The Retarded Un-Marriage of Mary Jane Watson to Peter Parker by the coward Joe Quesada.

• Yes.  The #1s of Detective Comics, GL and Aquaman were all in the top 100.

• “brazenly desperate copycating of DC” Welcome to the House of Ideas.

• The big question is if Jim Lee will continue to draw JLA before stopping at #3 and giving the art chores to DC Mr. Reliable Doug Mahnke. When your artist can't commit to schedule, Doug is your man!

• I finally dipped my toe into the DCnU pool this weekend, picking up the first 2 issues of Justice League and Batman.  While I agree the first issue of Justice League beign pretty meh, I think the 2nd issue did much better (I loved the interaction between Hal and Barry). Both Batman issues were pretty good, and I spotted the Mystery Hooded Chick in Bat issue 2 as well as the first (did not see her in JL#2). Still don't see why they felt the need to total reboot, but nothing I read turned me off of reading DC. I also picked up the first issues of Wolverine and the X-Men and Uncanny X-Men to see what was happening there.  And as someone who hasn't read an X-Men comic since the Onslaught thing wrapped up, I found them pretty easy to follow.... Decent reboots without the loss of continuity.... TC

• Simple answer: Marvel's characters will stop wearing their underwear inside-out. Et voilà! Instant resurgence! :P

• Higher sales are a short-term bonus to DC for this. The sales will quickly even out.  The real prize is netting a new generation of readers. And not just a new generation, but catching lapsed readers, and those who have wanted to read DC comics but have been put off by confusing Crisis-type continuity. It strengthens the company with a new fanbase and gives their product an extended lifespan. In short, it's already suceeded in what it needs to do - the sales boost are a side-effect of that. I feel I need to say that, because the moment DC's sales dip below Marvel's, you'll have both old-DCu and Marvel fanboys screaming impotently that the relaunch has 'failed'. It did what it's needed to do, all power to 'em.  Plus, it made Wonder Woman worth reading. That alone gets it worth noticing. 

• You have to realize that comic shop owners (which is what those figures represent they don't represent  places like 7-11 or vons) have to order their comics in non returnable numbers 2 months ahead of time.  When these comics were being ordered no one who was ordering them knew what the sell through would be on these issues.  Also this is just what was ordered.  There is no way to tell how many of these were actually bought at the store.  It usually takes a few months for the actual demand to be reflected in these numbers.

• Well...fuck. This does not bode well for those of us that were fans of the previous continuity. I guess we have to wait 20 years until Starfire has a gangbang so powerful her orgasm brings Connor Hawke and company back into continuity through a convoluted,poorly written mega-event....

• I wonder if some of this increase is due to the #1's selling out, so comic shops doubled up on their order of #2s.

• you know, the DCnU would have been a lot easier to swallow if they were honest about it. Dear DC Readers, We totally screwed the pooch with all of the infinite, Infinite Crisis bullshit and have decided to start the fuck over.  Sorry if you think we threw out too much baby and kept too much bathwater, but if you think you can do better, go start your own fucking company, barely keep it afloat for 20 years and then sell out to Warner. Sincerely, Jim Lee

• Now THAT might get me to buy comics again.

• marvel needs to hire comicsnix STAT

• Wonder how long it'll be before sales shrink. I'm already dropping some stuff. And heck - Animal Man is becoming a bit TOO WTFfish for my own tastes. And I enjoyed the Morrison stuff back in the day.

• Not very, given they've made a point to say that character from Flashpoint previously seen in the Marvel/DC amalgamation has a planned role going forward, to the extent they snuck her into all 52 #1s.

• I'll be honest, I'm a Marvel fanboy but I'm glad DC is having success with the reboot. Anything to get readers is good for the industry as a whole. I myself sampled a few of the nu52 books, but there's something about the DC characters that just don't really appeal to me in comic form. (Strangly, I DO like watching the various animated series and some of the movies.)

• And blind, lets not forget blind. (He is still blind right?)

• Daredevil has been excellent, and I am truly liking the direction they took with Black Panther. Setting him in the more active area of the Marvel Universe (New York) and making him a bit grittier and (imo) a little more relatable. (It's a bit hard to identify with someone who's not only a super-genius, but a king as well.)

• Sadly the DC reboot is on of the few things I just cannot laugh about..that and getting a bullet to the head.

• You don´t have to be very smart to know that this charts and the new 52 are just running on steam  and is a short term increase. By, say, issue #10 everything´s going to normal , Marvel will kill, say... the human torch again, the numbers will change, then DC is going to kill... say, Buddy Baker, and so on. Then they´ll whine about how sales are declining and why it´s Red hood´s fault because nobody saw his anime

• Yes. DC has two things going for it. People are still curious about the new versions of pre-exisisting titles.  And mind, the slow pace of some of the titles means it will take months to figure out just how much they've changed, or not.  The main thing we know currently is that it hasn't been horribly received overall, as people aren't turning away in droves. The second thing DC has is that the hype around the "New 52" has likely given a boost to any new critically acclaimed titles.  Animal Man is getting a lot of hype, but it is probably also getting better sales than it would have gotten if it had launched last year.  Swamp Thing seems to be getting praise as well, but a relaunch a year ago might barely have been noticed.

• Still more interested in the sales of issue sevens or what ever the end of the first story arcs are. I think they're being very vague on that so people don't just buy the 4 or 6. also, wouldn't the numbers for October include second prints for the #1's as well?

• "can they really do anything other than their own Crisis on Infinite Reboots? And if not, would comics fans respond as well to such a brazenly desperate copycating of DC? Hmm." I have two words for you. Secret Wars. (Which was a pretty decent copycatting, by the way.)

• What I wonder is how long will DC wait until they start churning out universe-spanning events again.

• Same here. Swamp Thing isn't my.. thing, but, Demon Knights is a hoot! Also, Marvel's been benefiting from this too since I've also been picking up several of their titles as well.

• It's still got that new car smell.  Everyone's still curious.  The real test will be a year from now.  

• I'll go ahead and admit that the DCnU reboot got me buying comics again for the first time in almost a decade. I'm definitely loving the new run of Swamp Thing.

• No to a Marvel reboot please. You can sum up as many crossover complaints as you please (perfectly understandable for Fear Itself), but I can still enjoy many of their single titles on their own eg. Black Panther MWF, Venom, Daredevil. Also, if DC wanted to bring accessibility to new readers so much, all they had to do is add one freakin 'Previously In...' page to their books. Heck, even copy those free Saga recap issues Marvel churns out.

TotalComments: 78