We are through the first checkpoint! For months we were talking about the ethereal comics we’d never actually seen, other than some covers and creative teams. And talk we did. But now, the first data is in and we’ve got a snapshot of how you, the readers took the first wave of new DC titles. To make it a little easier, we’re including Justice League #1 in this batch.
We asked you to make sure you pull, rate, review, and comment on your titles from the relaunch, and boy did you. Here’s what we found. All numbers reflect the current figures at the time of posting, and are subject to change, but this is what it looks like after the weekend, when people have had a chance to buy and read their books. You’re going to see some clear winners in this, and probably some losers as well.
Highest Average Rating (out of a possible 5):
1. Animal Man #1 – 4.6
2. Swamp Thing #1 – 4.4
3. Action Comics #1 – 4.1
Highest Pulls:
1. Justice League #1 – 1595 Pulls
2. Action Comics #1 – 1572 Pulls
3. Swamp Thing #1 – 1362 Pulls
Highest Pick of the Week Percentage*:
1. Animal Man #1 – 63.8%
2. Action Comics #1 – 15.6%
3. Swamp Thing #1 – 10.3%
* Not including Justice League #1, which got 67.5% of POW voting last week.
Most User Reviews:
1. Justice League #1 – 46 User Reviews
2. Action Comics #1 – 34 User Reviews
3. Animal Man #1 – 25 User Reviews
Most Comments:
1. Action Comics#1 – 183 Comments
2. Justice League #1 – 156 Comments
3. Animal Man #1 – 97 Comments
Lowest Pulled Relaunch Books:
1. Static Shock #1 – 431 Pulls
2. Hawk & Dove #1 – 434 Pulls
3. Men of War #1 – 515 Pulls
Lowest Average Rating (out of a posible 5):
1. Green Arrow #1 – 2.6 % / Hawk & Dove #1 – 2.6%
2. Static Shock #1 – 3.0%
3. Men of War #1 – 3.3%
Least Comments:
1. Static Shock #1 – 20 comments
2. Men of War #1 – 25 comments
3. OMAC #1 – 31 comments
Top Pulled Non-DC Books:
1. Moon Knight #5 – 564 pulls
2. New Avengers Annual #1 – 549 pulls
3. The Punisher #3 – 516 pulls
Highest Pick of the Week Percentage – Non-DC Books:
1. Atomic Robo: Ghost of Station X #1 – 2.0%
2.Wolverine: Debt of Death – 1.0%
3. Casanova: Avaritia #1 – 0.7%
So what have we learned?
DC dominated sales and reader attention this week. The first non-DC book on the list had a little over a 1/3 of what the highest pulled DC book had. People are trying these books, even unknown quantities like Swamp Thing and Animal Man, who had much stronger showings than you’d expect, especially in comparison to known properties like Detective Comics and Batgirl, who landed squarely in the middle of the pack. That must have something to do with strong word of mouth, and trust in those creative teams.
Conversely, titles out of the typical DC wheelhouse, like Static Shock, Men at War, and O.M.A.C. didn’t get nearly as much attention, and the ratings seemed to reflect those expectations.
Green Arrow and Hawk & Dove seem to be the big disappointments of the group, as readers didn’t respond to what the creative teams delivered.
To try and glean more, you can check out everything DC released this past week. We’ll see you back here next week for a look at week two.
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Thanks again for crunching all these numbers, which seem to match the sense I was getting from reading comments and so on . . .
So . . . Marvel universe relaunch next year? 🙂
Lets see how the market share is in 6 months. If DC maintains somthing close to 2/3rds of all this attention, then that Marvel relaunch will be happening really soon.
I think the current Daredevil is the “new 52/ soft reboot” test for Marvel right now.
If Marvel relaunches I might throw up on myself….
I think it’s also indicative of the mindset of iFanboy — it’s okay to love characters, but they don’t write/draw themselves.
I love the details here. Thanks for doing this.
(sports stats junkie = me)
Word of mouth on books works so much better with day and date digital*. Before, if I hit iFanboy on Thursday (or any time after I went and got my books at the store) and I didn’t get the big buzz book, I would have to go back to the store if I was so inclined (I usually wasn’t) and hope they still had it. Now, I hear OMAC is the surprise of the week (something I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise) and I just hit BUY on the app, and I’m happier.
*If “day and date” is still scary to retailers, I think even a couple of days delay could accomplish this same goal, but it has to be in the same cycle (i.e. before the next Wednesday) so I don’t forget when the next wave of books appears. I like day and date the best though.
I’m really interested in the numbers in 6 months and 1 year from now. I’m curious if DC can sustain decent numbers. I plan on reading about 20 of the first 52. But realistically I will probably continue reading maybe 3 of them. Out of the ones that I’ve read so far, Batgirl is the only one I’ve added to my pulllist. The one I’m anticipating the most is Mr. Terrific.
Those seem to be indicative of how the books seemed to be doing ay my store. All those lowest pulled and rated books were still on the shelves, and almost everything else sold out, except for Action Comics and Justice League, which still had some left of both of those. But Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Batgirl, Batwing all were gone by Sunday when I went in. Good for DC, it seems like lots of people are at least trying stuff out.
I’m really curious about the second month and onward sales trends though, if they stay relatively high, or drop back down to where they were pre-relaunch.
Apparently my LCS sold out of all DC titles this week, that never happens. There were definetly quite a few people buying the books who don’t normally (or normally go in the shop)…..really interested to see how long DC can keep up the strong sales.
And I flunked the Green Arrow average by liking it and giving it a positive review… I liked it! 🙁
You didn’t flunk anything. Some one on this site made the comment that “if they like every single book in the relaunch then DC is not doing their job”. Hopefully a lot of the titles I did not particularly enjoy have a long run due to others liking them a lot.
Don’t feel guilty for what you like! If it’s a comic, and you paid money for it, you’re helping keep the industry alive. No one should judge you for that.
Static Shock was such a fun book. Come on people! I don’t wanna see it fail due to nobody checking it out.
That’s the beauty of digital comics… see I wouldn’t buy it in print, but I might check it out when it’s a 1$ less on the DC Comics app and maybe I’ll like it enough to pull #2 or #3… 😉
I’m surprised at the low rating on Men of War. I thought it was cool that DC was trying to relaunch the war genre in the new 52. Does anyone remember Attack!, Fightin’ Navy!? Not that they were my favorites but I thought it was a bold move to bring in some genres that aren’t usually popular these days. Also, I thought the creative team did a great job and putting an unknown meta in the mix (and thus rooting the title in the DCU?) is a cool, creative idea.
Ok, that’s my pitch for Men of War… Give it a chance!
I agree, Men of War was much better than I thought it would be. It had good characterization and an interesting hook. I’ve never read war comics before, but I think I’ll be giving this one a chance.
Me three. I liked MOW pretty well, enough to pick up #2. I’ve read a lot of military fiction and non-fiction, and I thought it was well done. I think the book may be in for an uphill climb due to the $3.99 price tag and niche appeal. But it was nowhere as bad as some people have made it out to be.
Men of War was easily my favorite comic this week.
I plan on picking it up next month when it is $1 cheaper. $4 is a bit for a book I’m not completely sure I’ll enjoy.
glad to see animal man is in top 3 in the best % numbers
I’ve had so much fun with what DC is doing. But one thing that’s really cool is all the community traffic and participation on the iFanboy site. Love it.
I wish I could afford to try out more of the 52. Maybe when they’re a dollar less in a month.
Am I the only one who had a lot of fun with Hawk & Dove?
It looks like re-integrating the DC characters that had migrated to vertigo from the DCU Proper was a good idea, as Animal man and Swamp Thing seem to be the two biggest buzz books so far. I picked up Animal Man, knowing NOTHING about the character beforehand, and absolutely loved it. Gave it to my wife to read and she loved it, too!
I have picked up 6 books so far and liked all 6 to various degrees. I have 6 more to go and I really hope I end up reading all 12 titles for a long time to come.
So far, for me, the DC Reboot has been exactly what i needed. Fun comics that I enjoyed reading and continued to think about long after I was done reading them. It has me excited for comics again, the most i have been in a very long time!
You’re not alone!
It certainly wasn’t the best thing on the stands this week, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. Just like I enjoyed OMAC for the exciting Silver Age riff it was, I enjoyed Hawk & Dove for the Bronze Age style story. I know Liefeld can be a deal breaker for a lot of folks, but I really like his work for what it is. I thought it was a solid 4/5.
Hey, can we have a keep/drop thread? For me, it’s:
KEEP:
ANIMAL MAN
BATGIRL
BATWING
DETECTIVE COMICS
JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL
MEN OF WAR
STORMWATCH
SWAMP THING
UNDECIDED:
ACTION COMICS
Didn’t pick up Hawk & Dove, Green Arrow, or OMAC, and don’t plan to.
I’m keeping everything I read from the first week. I’m probably also going to buy OMAC because of all the interesting buzz it has received.
Thanks for crunching these numbers, guys. We apparently don’t agree on the quality level of some of the stories (I loved Men of War and hated Batgirl), but stats never lie, and I have a love for them from my college days.
i am with you on MOW and Batgirl. I know it shouldn’t miss Stephanie Brown so much…
“Fuckin’ Smart [Josh]” – Epic Meal Time
I’m guessing that the scoring bug in the reviews engine must show you what we actually awarded the book, even if it doesn’t show us?
I’m just being extra generous to DC this month. I won’t be picking up more than 1/3 of what I’m trying out this month, if this past week was any indication. Hey, I’ll give them a shot, but there’s no way I can sustain buying that many issues every month.
The pull numbers for the LEAST pulled DC books are amazingly high. If nothing else, DC has succeeded in creating a staggeringly large amount of interest in their product.
Great to see this listing, really interesting numbers. I haven’t had a chance to get to the LCS yet, and although I could have just downloaded them, I’ve decided on the first batch to get the physical copies.
Oh, on a side note the “Lowest Average Rating (out of a posible 5):” are listed as percentages, when they probably shouldn’t be.
I’ll be interested to see how this changes for week two. I know just by the nature of what books are coming out I have less on my pull list this week then last.
John