Justice League fans know exactly who you mean when you refer to “The Big Seven”: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter.
They’re the greatest of DC’s greatest superheroes, right?
Well, actually, they’re just the seven characters who were in the original Justice League comics, and are thus always thought of as the Big Seven within the fictional DC Universe, no matter how popular or unpopular they actually are in our universe.
And let’s face it, some of those guys aren’t exactly selling comic books hand over fist. Or, you know, at all. Martian Manhunter has only had one, short-lived solo ongoing title. Aquaman is constantly starring in comics that are retooled, canceled, relaunched, retooled, canceled, relaunched and so on. The others usually have books on the stands, although their popularity waxes and wanes with their creative teams, different directions and the whims of the direct market readers.
Every once in a while, I like to take a look at the sales charts to see which heroes are actually the most popular as judged by sales, and wonder what it would do to the Justice League if the roster was determined by who The Big Seven were in terms of those sales (Yes, I like to think about Justice League line-ups in my free time; is that a problem?).
Last week Marc-Oliver Frisch offered his monthly analysis of DC Comics sales at The Beat, which occasioned another round of such thinking on this subject.
According to the numbers Frisch sites for DC’s May sales, and if we exclude team books like Green Lantern Corps and Justice League of America and team-up titles like Superman/Batman—the top-selling seven solo superheroes in the DCU are:
1.) Batman Dick Grayson (Battle For The Cowl was basically a Dick Grayson comic full of guest stars, right? If not, the post-BFTC Gotham Gazette special should place Grayson in the top seven)
2.) Flash Barry Allen (thanks to The Flash: Rebirth; a couple months ago there was no Flash title)
3.) Green Lantern Hal Jordan
4.) Power Girl
5.) Superman (By the way—Holy crap, Power Girl is outselling all three Superman titles!?)
6.) Supergirl
7.) Oracle (Thanks to Oracle: The Cure, a miniseries that wrapped up in May; now that it’s over, Wonder Woman would presumably be the next in line for the seventh slot)
That’s a rather unusual line-up, and one I don’t think many (any?) writers or editors would choose. But if it were up to the invisible hand of the market to decided your Big Seven? There you have it.
(Although it’s probably worth noting that there aren’t actually all that many solo superheroes on the stands anyway; aside from the books starring those seven and Wonder Woman, the only other DCU books with solo stars as of May were Booster Gold, The Last Days of Animal Man, Vigilante, Solomon Grundy, Warlord and Jonah Hex).
July 16th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Very interesting article.
July 16th, 2009 at 10:30 am
I would buy it. It is a little Kryptonian heavy, but it is an interesting mix of personalities.
July 16th, 2009 at 10:53 am
um did you see the sales figures for issue 2. power girl is most certainly NOT outselling superman.
July 16th, 2009 at 11:13 am
“Well, actually, they’re just the seven characters who were in the original Justice League comics, and are thus always thought of as the Big Seven within the fictional DC Universe, no matter how popular or unpopular they actually are in our universe.”
Brings into question, who ELSE could have been in the original seven. What other super-hero characters was DC publishing at that time?
July 16th, 2009 at 11:43 am
A Justice League book, written by James Robinson, with solomon Grundy on it. Hmmm.
BTB, I don’t think a writer would want PG, Supes, and Supergirl all on one team. A little power heavy?
I remember a Titans story, where they’re sitting at a restaurant, and Harper asked who was leading the JLA, and Lian says, “Owacle”. Even as Bats spy, she was good for that team.
Cheers,
B
July 16th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Superman and Power Girl might be an interesting mix. I could see Power Girl using her abilities a little more… recklessly than Superman. Not that she’s uncontrollable, just a little more extreme. I could see Superman being miffed at watching someone else not holding back quite as much as he does.
July 16th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Honestly, a Superman-Batman-Wonder Woman-Flash-Green Lantern-Power Girl team, with Oracle as the behind-the-scenes info resource, would be pretty cool…lots of character interaction potential there…
Not that DC seems to know what it’s doing with the JLA nowadays…
July 16th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Well, didn’t the Oracle series sell extra units by being part of the Battle For The Cowl stuff? If it had just been Birds of Prey, it wouldn’t have ranked that high, I don’t think.
If we wanted a free market to decide, there should be a series of 900 numbers to call and…what?
Seriously, though, I’m sure that DC could do a 5th week event with several different one-shot JLA tryouts of potential characters. If they made those particular issues returnable, they’d get a good sense of the sell through of each character and tally them as votes. Or, alternatively, they could sell digital only issues with some free preview pages to help make the final sales tally more reflective of final fan opinion.
They could, also, offer free PDF downloads of tryout issues and put in the characters with the highest download numbers, but free normally means stuffing of the ballot box.
July 16th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Having never bought a Justice League comic, if Oracle became a regular in that title (hell, in any comic), I’d buy the hell out of it.
July 16th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Pick up Grant Morrison’s JLA, then. Oracle was a member through most of it, though she mostly stayed on the fringe.