Marvel tops sales charts in December 2004

[Kevin Boyd]

http://www.icv2.com./articles/home/6288.html

 

December 2004 - Top 25 books:

 

1 240,724 New Avengers #1

2 146,271 Ultimates 2 #1

3 139,572 Identity Crisis #7

4 134,103 Astonishing X-Men #7

5 119,926 Superman / Batman #15

6 115,657 Superman / Batman #16

7 106,523 Green Lantern: Rebirth #3

8 100,244 Superman #212

9 89,952 Uncanny X-Men #453

10 88,960 Ultimate Spider-Man #70

11 86,633 X-Men #165

12 82,840 Amazing Spider-Man #515

13 80,678 Wolverine #23

14 77,931 Ultimate Fantastic Four #14

15 76,658 Ultimate Nightmare #4

16 74,515 X-Men Fantastic Four #1

17 66,220 X-Men The End Book 1 #6

18 66,147 JLA Classified #2

19 64,461 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #9

20 63,791 JLA #109

21 62,585 Teen Titans #19

22 60,898 Batman #635

23 57,975 Supreme Power #14

24 53,292 Iron Man #2

25 50,691 Legion of Superheroes #1

 

For the rest of the top 300 check here:

http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/6291.html

[Kevin Boyd]

 

42 WHAT IF MAGNETO HAD FORMED X-MEN W/PROFESSOR X $2.99 MAR 37,897

 

59 WHAT IF KAREN PAGE HAD LIVED $2.99 MAR 32,312

 

60 WHAT IF AUNT MAY HAD DIED INSTEAD OF UNCLE BEN $2.99 MAR 31,783

 

66 WHAT IF DR DOOM HAD BECOME THING $2.99 MAR 30,930

 

67 WHAT IF JESSICA JONES HAD JOINED AVENGERS $2.99 MAR 30,839

 

72 WHAT IF GENERAL ROSS HAD BECOME HULK $2.99 MAR 29,785

 

Wha...huh? hasn't been published yet.

[Silver Surfer]

Interesting that outside of Superman and the new Lantern series which I am enjoying, Marvel basically owns the top 20. Not too shabby considering who is running the show.

[Kevin Boyd]

Well, that's a very Marvel positive way to look at it. Certainly the top 2 books had their numbers inflated by the presence of variant covers.

 

Astonishing X-men definitely is Marvel's big regular book, but DC product makes up 1/2 of the the top 10 - Identity Crisis, Superman/Batman (2 issues), Green Lantern: Rebirth (which has moved up the chart), and Superman.

 

DC had 10 books in the top 25 - that's 40% of the top of the charts. In December 2003 DC had only 5 books in the top 25 - 20% of the top of the charts.

 

DC's doubling of their presence at the top of the charts should be troubling for Marvel.

[deathlok]

42 WHAT IF MAGNETO HAD FORMED X-MEN W/PROFESSOR X $2.99 MAR 37,897

 

59 WHAT IF KAREN PAGE HAD LIVED $2.99 MAR 32,312

 

60 WHAT IF AUNT MAY HAD DIED INSTEAD OF UNCLE BEN $2.99 MAR 31,783

 

66 WHAT IF DR DOOM HAD BECOME THING $2.99 MAR 30,930

 

67 WHAT IF JESSICA JONES HAD JOINED AVENGERS $2.99 MAR 30,839

 

72 WHAT IF GENERAL ROSS HAD BECOME HULK $2.99 MAR 29,785

 

Wha...huh? hasn't been published yet.

 

these were all kinda boring.

 

The only one that was kinda good was the Aunt May Had Died.

[Hobgoblin]

Interesting that outside of Superman and the new Lantern series which I am enjoying, Marvel basically owns the top 20. Not too shabby considering who is running the show.

 

Well, 13 of the top 20. That's definitely no landslide. And keep in mind that 5 of those 13 are Ultimate books. The Ultimate line is really holding Marvel above water right now. DC will even things up even more later this year.

 

I am becoming such a DC fan all of a sudden. I used to be the biggest X-Fan ever, what the H3LL happened? I started reading S/B, Flash, and JLA, and suddenly DC rules my world.

[awe4one]

Wha...huh? hasn't been published yet.

 

Attempt to pad the 4th Quarter report numbers maybe?

 

It'll be interesting to see how it's written. The comic sales were down both over last quarter and the same quarter a year ago. Also, the movie licenses aren't doing particularly well. You can spin Blade's number positively but it'll be more work to do the same for the badly underperforming Elektra and the still unreleased Man-Thing.

 

I will admit...the New Avengers #1 numbers are impressive regardless of the fact variants boosted the sales.

 

Jim

[rob_react]

DC's doubling of their presence at the top of the charts should be troubling for Marvel.

 

With the All Star lin waiting in the wings...

[chrisco37]

I am becoming such a DC fan all of a sudden. I used to be the biggest X-Fan ever, what the H3LL happened? I started reading S/B, Flash, and JLA, and suddenly DC rules my world.

 

I used to be the same way, but DC continually puts out higher-quality stuff. The stories are just better and more interesting than what Marvel does.

 

Vertigo, man! It's all about Vertigo!!!!! (And anything Loeb does)

[Hobgoblin]

I am becoming such a DC fan all of a sudden. I used to be the biggest X-Fan ever, what the H3LL happened? I started reading S/B, Flash, and JLA, and suddenly DC rules my world.

 

I used to be the same way, but DC continually puts out higher-quality stuff. The stories are just better and more interesting than what Marvel does.

 

Vertigo, man! It's all about Vertigo!!!!! (And anything Loeb does)

 

Yeah, I like Loeb's work, as well as Johns'. I even love Porter's art on Flash just about as much as Lee's art on anything he's ever done. I took the liberty of ranking my Top 10 titles. It's pretty even Marvel/DC, but I believe the All-Stars books will push me even moreso to the DC side. I'm sure both Batman & Robin and Superman will be in my Top 10 once those books get going.

 

1. Superman/Batman

2. MK Spider-Man

3. New Avengers

4. Astonishing X-Men

5. Flash

6. Ultimate Spider-Man

7. JLA

8. Ultimate X-Men

9. Ultimate Fantastic Four

10. Batman

 

Without the ultimate books, Marvel may not even have a shot.

[Kevin Boyd]

Also, the movie licenses aren't doing particularly well. You can spin Blade's number positively but it'll be more work to do the same for the badly underperforming Elektra and the still unreleased Man-Thing.

 

The #2 highest grossing film of 2004 was Spider-Man 2 - $373,585,825

 

Elektra had too much going against it, and I don't honestly understand why the thing was greenlit. I suppose they thought that Garner's star was on the rise... big mistake.

 

A bad film is a bad film, whether it's a comic book movie or not. And people smelled a dog with this one, just as they did with Berry's Catwoman.

[awe4one]

The #2 highest grossing film of 2004 was Spider-Man 2 - $373,585,825

 

Sure...but we're talking 4th Quarter report here...not 2nd or 3rd. Spider-Man will definitely be mentioned as a DvD release.

 

And it just dawned on me that Elektra will fall under the 1st Quarter 2005 report...

 

Jim

[uclapeterg]

Elektra was realeased in January, which typically is the season where big studios "dump" their disappointments (of course, there are exceptions).

 

Wasn't "Elektra" originally supposed to be released Feb 14? That date was of course before they saw the final product.

[Kevin Boyd]

Actually, I thought we were discussing the 4th quarter comic sales, not the overall 4th quarter financial report for Marvel. That should be along soon though...

[Kevin Boyd]

As far as I know, Elektra has always had a January date.

 

January is generally the month where we get the full releases of the last-minute Oscar contenders (that had limited releases in December in order to qualify). Not that this was the case with Elektra...

[DKB]

Elektra wasn't NEARLY as bad or as laughable as Catwoman, or, for that matter, Daredevil.

[Kevin Boyd]

Daredevil the Director's Cut was actually pretty good.

 

And I still think if Catwoman was called something other than Catwoman it would have been better received, as it's not a bad film, it's just extraordinarily boring and uninspired.... and that costume was horrendous. In retrospect, it's a very bizarre remake of Spider-Man the movie, substituting Spider with Cat, and Man with Woman. It has nothing to do with the Catwoman from Batman lore.

[awe4one]

Daredevil the Director's Cut was actually pretty good.

 

I didn't think Daredevil was as bad as some made it out to be. It wasn't great but it was far from a travesty.

 

Jim

[Kevin Boyd]

The DVD of the director's cut has an interesting documentary detailing the reasoning behind the two versions... the original cut of Daredevil was a little slower because it spent time developing the characters and established why the Kingpin and Matt Murdock were destined to come to a head (besides the fact the Kingpin killed his father). The producers wanted a peppier Spider-Man-like action flick and cut a lot of the story out in order to emphasize the action scenes. It also added a superfluous sex scene between Matt and Elektra that isn't in the director's cut.

[Hobgoblin]

I suppose they thought that Garner's star was on the rise... big mistake.

 

Maybe if Jennifer Garner didn't act like a prissy 17 year old girl when she's not filming Marvel movies or Alias.......