Is it possible that instead of building reader awareness and buzz with DCU 0, DC instead scared off younger fans who had no idea what was happening and who really, really don’t know from Barry Allen? Is it possible that the older DC fans are just tired of it all?

” There’s an arcane formula that requires the use of an abacus, a slide rule, and Batman for a baseline to determine the estimated sales — at least I think they still use Batman — so I don’t know yet how many (tens of) thousands of copies that gap represents.”

So, basically, the numbers are irrelevant.

Also, these never reflect actual sales to customers. Since Marvel prints to order, their titles are always overordered by retailers because if they run out, they’re completely boned.

“Well, I guess this just proves that Marvel has more going for it than DC right about now. The build up for Secret Invasion was slow and steady yet shocking, while the build up for Final Crisis was a 52 issue series that is mostly ignored. Which do you think would be on top?”

The one put out by a company who knows exactly how to structure their retailing arrangements to take full advantage of this “arcane” method of divining (and boy is that word ever well used in this instance) sales numbers?

Yes. That’s the one I would “think would be on top.”

There have been numerous detailed explanations as to why this method is incredibly flawed. It’s really time to stop taking these numbers seriously, and/or parading them out as some kind of indication of superiority.

@Simon DelMonte: Not only is it possible, it’s probable. I like both DC and Marvel pretty equally most of the time, but Marvel did the right thing with Secret Invasion Saga. That filled you in on the events leading up to Secret Invasion, as opposed to DC Universe Zero, which was a promo book for the entire universe which told you very little about Final Crisis itself. People will probably also mention the multiple covers on Marvel’s part, as 4 Marvel covers vs. 2 DC covers. But I still doubt that is the factor in this. If someone can prove me wrong go right ahead, but I’m calling a greater general interest in Marvel’s big event over DC’s as the reasoning behind the victory here.

“If someone can prove me wrong go right ahead, but I’m calling a greater general interest in Marvel’s big event over DC’s as the reasoning behind the victory here.”

See above.

Lots of numbers, still nowhere closer to discovering how many people walked up to the counter of their LCS and bought either book.

I bet Secret Invasion will have consistent art throughout as well. Now we know Final Crisis won’t. Oh well. *lowering expectations dramatically*

This is it fair or right since Marvel Owns Diamond so of courser they will be Number one

Take into consideration that the Final Crisis numbers were for only the initial week’s worth of orders (i.e., no reorders) while Secret Invasion’s numbers account for an entire month of reorders, based on when each book shipped. I suspect we’ll see more copies of Final Crisis #1 on next month’s charts.

“This is it fair or right since Marvel Owns Diamond so of courser they will be Number one”

DC has a way better deal with Diamond, as they signed first and get more preview covers a year.

Thank god it’s finally becoming common knowledge that Marvel is skewing the sales charts through their private ownership of Diamond. I thought I was the only one who knew, considering the amount people talk about these things. Did you hear that Quesada is picking up all the 4th world characters on the sly as well? S’true. They’re going to be the force behind the follow-up event to Secret Invasion. Totally true, read it on CBR. Someday, people are going to realize what a good thing we had with Hero By Night. That was the best American comic book since RAW.

I don’t think anyone is arguing that the sales charts aren’t flawed, Benjamin.

However, I do think that Michael imagines Marvel owns Diamond.

It depends on if you mean people as in readers or people as in retailers, caleb.

(I like “meaning-lite” a LOT.)

Undoubtedly, in the first wave of ordering, more copies of SI #2 were ordered than FC #1. Whether or not at the end of the day readers purchased more copies of one or the other, there’s really no way to tell, at least from this chart. I think that there are charts on reorders that retailers see but I’m not sure if they’re publicly available.

But the problem is gauging “popularity” or “success” from these numbers, as they are mostly a reflection of Marvel and DC’s very different approaches to dealing with retail orders.

I generally gave up on DC decades ago–got INFINITE CRISIS, but thought that the plot was overly sentimental and, well, boring. From what I see online and announcements re yet more relaunchings and revamping, DC seems comparable to a TV production company with a number of treasured pilots and execs who think that if we recast the roles with *these* actors and use *these* scripts, then the pilots will be hits. They’re practically always wrong.

Is Marvel better at promoting its material, online and in the media generally? Successful promotion is a big factor. SECRET INVASION (SI), discounting all the hype, is reading like what it started out as: an “Avengers” event, artificially turned into an EVENT, by telling writers to come up with ideas for tie-ins. The actual plot content in SI is silly, with Spider-Woman trying to convince a feverish, confused Stark that he’s a Skrull, Bendis’s favorite action figure (Fury) running around shooting a gun, and gameplaying readers wasting hours looking for nonexistent clues about the SI storyline in old issues of NEW AVENGERS. As with other events, readers seem to be anticipating a big payoff at the end (Skrulls winning? Things changing dramatically?) that might not be done believably.

SRS

Not the same person as Ian L. Just for the record.

Regarding this sales disparity… kind of interesting if you ask me. I didn’t really pick up on a lot of buzz from FC #1 or SI #1 so I wonder how it will go from here.

As for the “The Avengers have been all build-up”- Not the same thing and you know it.