Legacy isn’t Going to Save Marvel Comics

No.94977405 ViewReplyOriginalReport
>No one, not even DC Comics, wants Marvel’s comic sales to crash and burn. The direct-market comic industry, comprised of specialty shops that carry monthly print comics, is too small, and too dominated by the Big Two publishers of Marvel and DC, to absorb the hit of a Marvel implosion. And while it’s difficult to determine hard monthly numbers in the comics industry, observers of ICv2 and ComicChron sales estimates recognize Marvel’s destructive trend in recent years: heavily inflated launches followed by near-immediate plummets. And their next attempt at repeating that algorithm with the upcoming “Legacy” initiative isn’t going to work.

>Sales attrition is a constant in comics. First issues almost always sell much better than subsequent installments, and so publishers aim for steady, sustainable numbers following debuts. DC Comics isn’t immune to low-selling titles, but most of their marquee titles, now more than 24 issues into their “Rebirth” era, have maintained consistent sales above the 30,000-copy mark, with books like Batman, Flash, Justice League and Superman holding well above that. Marvel’s attrition pattern has been much more dramatic.