With Comichron releasing their full market analysis for the month of October, we are now able to check how well The Batman Universe did in this prolific month. The influx of one-shots that Metal is bringing, plus new titles such as Batman: White Knight, Harley & Ivy Meet Betty & Veronica, Gotham City Garage, and Ragman coming out, and the Halloween special, October has us covering seven more titles than September. And seven is the lucky number for October, with seven Batman titles figuring in the overall top 10 best selling of the month.
Most of the new titles had encouraging numbers on their debuts, White Knight standing out for outselling every DC title apart from Metal and Batman. Ragman and DC: House of Horror were the exceptions, both standing in the lower tier of sales. Gotham City Garage, being a digital-first, is well around where those publications stand.
The addition of new titles on the top tier of the ranking pushed almost all of the books down some position. Mostly the shifts for this month are virtual, with the exception of Suicide Squad dropping six positions and New Order dropping five positions. Nightwing #30, Teen Titans #13, and Suicide Squad #27 are all returning from the temporary skyrocket in sales brought by Gotham Resistance, the Metal crossover, which came to a close in Green Arrow #32.
BATMAN
Insanity took over the Bat titles for this month, with sales of both Batman and Detective Comics going up and then down again. Batman #32, being the “YES” issue, was expected to have an increase in sales. The drop for the following issue though represents the same number of extra copies sold for #32 and then some more. As for Detective Comics, issue #966 was the second part of A Lonely Place of Living. Together with #965, Tim Drake’s return brought the sales up by roughly 5 thousand copies, even considering the drop in issue #967. All-Star Batman comes to a close with a reasonable number of copies sold, despite having fallen to almost a third of its initial sales.
GREATER GOTHAM
Significant drops in sales was the rule for the Gotham titles during October. Almost all of the titles sold over one thousand copies less than the previous month, Batgirl, Batman Beyond and New Order leading the descent. Batgirl is coming from two months of slight increases in sales numbers, which makes it less worrisome. As for New Order, the drop rate actually slowed down considerably, with the initial drop having been of 7.5K copies. Batman Beyond #12 marks Bernard Chang’s last issue on the title, as he will now be taking over Nightwing.
Bouncing back from Gotham Resistance, the variation in sales for Nightwing does not exactly attest to the current arc itself, the last one of the current creative team. The titles faring better are Batgirl and the Birds of Prey, Red Hood and the Outlaws and Mother Panic. The Birds entered a new story arc with issue #15, “Manslaughter.” Mother Panic #12 was the last one to come out until February’s Young Animal crossover special.
GREATER DC
Other titles bouncing back from Gotham Resistance are Teen Titans and Suicide Squad, both also showing an exaggerated decrease in sales. The DC titles are all dropping a thousand copies per month on average. The ones doing better are Justice League and Super Sons.
Justice League #31 marked the finale of “Legacy” and the last of Bryan Hitch on the title. The two next issues are part of the Bats out of Hell crossover, followed by Christopher Priest’s debut on the title. Titans #16 featured the death of Wally West – again -, which did not serve to boost sales at all, probably because Wally West dying has become almost as common as Bruce brooding.
DARK NIGHTS: METAL
With almost all titles going to a second printing, after Dark Nights: Metal #2 dropping to half the sales of the first issue, Metal #3 saw a significant rise in sales. Dawnbreaker followed the same pattern, as compared to the previous Batman one-shot, Murder Machine. The event as a whole is being successful, including the crossover, Gotham Resistance, which wrapped up with Green Arrow #32. I don’t expect to see those sales numbers dropping much below what they are now, and with The Batman Who Laughs and Batman: Lost numbers still to be released, I’d dare say sales will have reached a high point in November. That remains to be seen.
