DC has released the Justice League November solicitations, including…
THE FLASH #14
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO
Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:25 B&W Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
On sale NOVEMBER 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
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.
| 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.
Newsarama has a 3-page preview of next week’s The Flash #11 featuring Heat Wave, written by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato with guest art by Marcus To and Ray McCarthy.
It looks like this version of Heat Wave is somewhere between Geoff Johns’ pyromaniac and Adam Glass’ full-on psychopath in Flashpoint: Legion of Doom (a portrayal I could do without ever seeing again) — a lot of it probably due to the fact that his power upgrade doesn’t seem to have worked out as cleanly as Captain Cold’s or Weather Wizard’s.
Also, I can’t stop seeing the fact that the splash page uses the STAR WARS lettering style.
Warner Brothers showcased some new DC animation teasers at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, and fortunately they’ve been put online as well.
The Young Justice: Invasion teaser features Wally and has a brief cameo of Bart (non-Americans may not be able to view this; last night I could, but now I can’t).
The DC Nation trailer shows a funny-animal Flash versus Captain Cold, and possibly Tar Pit fighting Black Lightning. And notice the ‘Gambi’ sign behind Thunder and Lightning. Other characters shown include the Masters of Disaster and Amethyst, and an interesting new Batman piece.
All in all, something to look forward to!
I’m back from Comic-Con, and trying to both catch up and readjust to the real world. My first batch of photos are already up on Flickr, and I plan on getting the rest of them posted tonight, and the convention write-up over the next day or two.
There really wasn’t a whole lot of news about the Flash at the con. They just reiterated what we know from solicitations and previous interviews: After the annual, we get to learn what makes Barry Allen tick in the origin flashback (adding new details around what we already know, rather than completely redoing it), then Gorilla Grodd invades Central City and the Flash has to team up with the Rogues. Wally West remains nowhere to be seen in the new DCU.
We did learn that Mattel will release a Wally West figure as part of their subscription line, and that Flash and Kid Flash will meet “at some point.”
DC’s October solicitations are up, including…
THE FLASH #13
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO
Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:25 B&W Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
On sale OCTOBER 24 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T