It’s been a while since I’ve written up sales analysis, partly because of time, and partly because I’m really not sure my analysis means anything. So here are three months of rankings from Diamond and the sales estimates* from ICv2: for #19 in May, #31 in June, and #29 in July, selling roughly 53K copies of Flash #11.
There’s a really steep drop with #10. As The Beat points out, DC stopped shipping a 1:200 variant covers with that issue. Additionally, Flash #10 and Flash #11 both have fill-in artists, which may have led retailers to order less.
We’re also seeing, a year into the New 52, the series dropping below the level where volume 3 settled at around 55K.
It’s been dropping in the rankings as well, but a lot of that can be attributed to Avengers vs. X-Men and Before Watchmen. (Note the sharp drop in rankings between April and May, while estimated sales numbers stayed pretty close.) And the Flash isn’t alone. The New 52 seems to have lost a lot of its initial luster, which is no doubt part of why DC plans to revitalize the line with its Zero Month in September.
Numbers
| Issue | Rank | Month | Units Sold | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flash vol.4 | ||||
| Flash v.4 #1 | 4 | September 2011 | 129,260 | |
| Flash v.4 #2 | 5 | October 2011 | 114,137 | -11.7% |
| Flash v.4 #3 | 9 | November 2011 | 90,417 | -20.8% |
| Flash v.4 #4 | 8 | December 2011 | 77,336 | -14.5% |
| Flash v.4 #5 | 8 | January 2012 | 71,611 | -7.4% |
| Flash v.4 #6 | 8 | February2012 | 68,061 | -5.0% |
| Flash v.4 #7 | 11 | March 2012 | 64,975 | -4.5% |
| Flash v.4 #8 | 11 | April 2012 | 63,702 | -2.0% |
| Flash v.4 #9 | 19 | May 2012 | 62,807 | -1.4% |
| Flash v.4 #10 | 31 | June 2012 | 55,681 | -11.3% |
| Flash v.4 #11 | 29 | July 2012 | 53,674 | -3.6% |
A few key articles covering past sales (with lots of numbers):
*What these numbers measure: US-only sales, wholesale from Diamond to comics retailers. They don’t count sales through bookstores, they don’t count international sales, and they don’t count how many copies were actually bought and read…but they do measure the same thing every month, which means they can be used to spot trends.
Looking at DC’s top selling ongoing titles…
1 Batman
2 Justice League
3 Detective Comics
4 Action Comics
5 Green Lantern
6 Earth 2
7 Batman Inc
8 Batman: The Dark Knight
9 Batman and Robin
10 Aquaman
11 Superman
12 Flash
That’s pretty good. As a franchise Flash is only being outsold by Batman, Justice League, Superman, Green Lantern, Earth 2 and Aquaman. Even then, both Justice League and Earth 2 have a strong Flash presence.
Also, all of the DC titles ahead of The Flash have at least one notable name on them.
I can’t believe Superman sells more than Flash.
I’ve found that book to be a total car crash, so I’m surprised to see it rate 11th in sales for DC.
It’ll be interesting to see if the numbers rise again with issue #12 and the return of the creative team.
I almost dropped the book after #9. The first arc was compelling, but the subsequent stories just didn’t move me. I decided to hang on for a bit longer and found numbers #10 and #11 enjoyable, though somewhat imperfect (read my review here of #11: http://kamaurashid.tumblr.com/post/28788339562/flash-11-review). This notwithstanding, the book has good potential. I think that DC missed the opportunity to capitalize on the abundant interest in the Flash family between Flash: Rebirth and now. Earth 2 is a partial remedy to this, and Bret Booth’s proposed speedster series would’ve been a good move. I’m surprised that DC doesn’t take advantage of this. This works well for the Bat-books and Lantern-books. This works well for Marvel, who seizes every opportunity to capitalize on any character in their continuity. Interconnected series could likely boost sales and interest in the Flash.