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Bleeding Cool Bestseller List 22nd July 2018 – Batman No 1 But Sales Are Dropping

This is the Top 10 Bleeding Cool Bestseller List, as compiled by a number of comic stores from their sales on Wednesday and Thursday. It measures what are known as the "Wednesday Warriors", those who can't wait till the weekend to get this week's comics. We salute you, and the keenness you bring to your passion. This is the only chart that measures actual sales in comic book stores.

Batman topped the charts – but unlike usual not in every store as Justice League made its move. Could this be a marketplace change? How will Bruce Wayne react to such a change?

Bleeding Cool Bestseller List 22nd July 2018 – Batman No 1 But Sales Are Dropping

It's at times like this that you really need an Alan Davis sound effect.Bleeding Cool Bestseller List 22nd July 2018 – Batman No 1 But Sales Are Dropping

That's the one. And note that while DC takes the top, Marvel titles are doing far better than usual, with Immortal Hulk as the real surprise break out. And unlike the first issue, Magic Order makes it into the top ten without counting any bulk sales. And X-Men Red is rapidly becoming the mutant reader's title of choice.

Top Ten Bestselling Comics

  1. Batman #51
  2. Justice League #4
  3. Avengers #5
  4. Immortal Hulk #3
  5. Thor #3
  6. Life of Captain Marvel #1
  7. Tony Stark Iron Man #2
  8. Infinity Countdown #5
  9. Magic Order #2
  10. X-Men Red #6

Thanks to the following retailers

Who have this to say,

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Solid week of product – everyone came away happy with something GOOD to read. Immortal Hulk just keeps growing in readership with each issue.

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Batman is king at FFF this week with Batman #51 taking the top spot on our Top Ten list followed closely by Justice League and Batman #50 (third place on it's third week!). Avengers, Thor and Immortal Hulk give Marvel three spots on our Top Ten. The Avengers is just a fun book with a solid creative team. Thor and Hulk selling so well again is a little bittersweet. It's good to see a Marvel book actually sell over ten copies, but I've seen a lot of customers who have only come back for the old characters. With Hulk I can see why, Totally Awesome Hulk had less than awesome monthly numbers. But Mighty Thor was a solid book through and through. It still kept some older fans while gaining a handful more. When a customer comes in and breathes a sigh of relief that the "Real Thor" is back it shakes my faith in the fan-base just a little more. But books selling is never a bad thing and for whatever reason, some Marvel books are selling again. Teen Titans Go to the Movies and Die Die Die were the shake ups of the week. It was cool to see the $1 reprint of a goofy kids show actually grabbing some interest. Die Die Die I will never complain about selling. The fact that we're still selling it in it's second week is amazing and I foresee it selling well for the foreseeable future!

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Total honesty, the week has been pretty slow for new releases and no surprises or shakeups outside of Harley Quinn's last two issues selling completely out from the shelf. I can't figure out that one unless perhaps the Fourth World stuff on the covers has piqued people's interest. Back issue sales have been great, and every 10th customer who has come in or called has asked about 52 back issues.

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After all the Bat-weddings and #1st issues, we're back to a relatively boilerplate week. BATMAN #51 unsurprisingly resides in the top spot, followed rather closely by JUSTICE LEAGUE #4. Just behind those two, we've got a slew of Marvel titles with AVENGERS #5, Al Ewing and Joe Bennet's excellent IMMORTAL HULK #3, and the most recent issues of THOR, IRON MAN, and X-MEN RED.

The bottom portion of the list is pretty large this week, as we had numerous titles tied for tenth place. It was a mix of a lot of usual suspects: KICK-ASS, DARTH VADER, and HUNT FOR WOLVERINE.

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Good week. Batman 51 dropped from last issue, not just a slight drop either. Enough to let Justice League take the top spot. Cut the orders for future issues already. Immortal Hulk is doing very well. Tony Stark Iron Man is doing very badly. Star Wars 51 and the Vader annual made it in our top ten. Marvel should be very thankful they were handed the Star Wars license. With out it they would be a in a lot of trouble.

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Some amazing market changes in our store. For the first time in all the weeks we've been participating in this Bleeding Cool list, a new Batman release did NOT take first place in our store's Top Ten. Batman #51 was hurt by a large number of defections from readers who said they were no longer buying Batman after being misled about Batman #50. Our Batman sales were 22% below the lowest first-day Batman sales since Rebirth began, which is a pretty disturbing sales swing. Even more concerning for DC: they only took four of our stores top ten slots this week, compared to five for Marvel (Image took the remaining spot with Magic Order #2). The customer frustration with DC's wedding deception is intense and apparently far-reaching, as some customers trimmed their entire DC list down to only a few titles.

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This is a week with very little #1s, but DC is holding the top spots with their biggest titles, Batman and Justice League. Marvels Fresh Start continues to sell well for us. Because of our strong push of the first issue of Magic Order, we're selling a larger amount of #2s.

Notable sales:

  • NYX #3 9.2 $300 First X-23!
  • Catwoman #51 NM $120.00 The notorious Lost numbers Adam Hughes cover!
  • Batman #251 7.5 $325 What a beautiful classic Neal Adams Cover!
  • Thanos #13 9.4 $50 Cosmic Ghost Rider is figuratively and literally on fire.
  • New Mutants #87 9.0 $190 Very Sharp Signature Series CGC 9.0 first Cable signed by Liefield parted our store a little earlier in the week.

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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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