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Buffy The Vampire Slayer #3 Outsells Buffy #2

Published Fri, 22 Feb 2019 09:30:36 -0600

Last updated Sat, 23 Feb 2019 08:32:22 -0600

It doesn't happen a lot. Green Arrow after DC Rebirth was one. Immortal Hulk has been another. Thanos too. A couple of the Ahoy Comics titles of late.

A continuing series that puts on sales is a rare beast. It generally means an underrated comic book with retailers unwilling to risk ordering non-returnable comics, given that it is expected that with every issue someone will decide to stop reading it. It's called attrition and everyone seems to expect it. Which is why you get all those relaunches, as an attempt to persuade people to jump back on. Though it can also persuade others to jump off too.

You get the big splashy launch and then sales diminish upwards of 50% between the first two issues and don't stop falling with each subsequent release. And they definitely don't increase orders from issue #2 to issue #3.

Unless you're Buffy The Vampire Slayer from Boom.

Issue #1 sold out of its 41,000 print run. The secret variants are still selling for a nice price. And next Wednesday, issue #2 hits stores with the first appearances of Spike, Robin Wood, Cordelia and Willow's new girlfriend Rose Yup. Right now that's roughly 25,000 units sold.

But issue #3, the one we told you ties to a pretty big surprise item shipping alongside the fourth issue? Rather than falling further, that jumped a thousand copies to 26,000 sold.

So now we have Buffy The Vampire Slayer #2 hitting stores next week with those first rebooted appearances, the beginning of a Buffy/Robin romance, the new Willow romance and, what I'm told, will be hints of a potential divisive new pairing that some Angel purists fans will…have strong feelings about, to say the least. You can expect we'll probably spoil it for you if you ask nicely…

It's looking like Buffy The Vampire Slayer #2will end up being the rarest issue of the series if these sales continue to hold strong, as we've seen with sister series Firefly. And is expected to also sell out before it hits stores.

Kinda makes you wonder what could be so big about that fourth issue, doesn't it?

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