Sales of the original ‘Uncanny X-Men’ series have held fairly consistently for the past six years. I wish I could go back further than the eight years shown here to see how these numbers compare to the heyday of the 1980s. And yes, ‘Uncanny X-Men’ has averaged almost 15 issues per year (and managed 19 issues in 2003!).

While there have been many spikes in sales since 2000, the letters on the chart above correspond to the most pronounced jumps:

– A: Issue 395 (sales of 130,299) featured the ‘relaunch’ by Joe Casey at the same time as the Grant Morrison relaunch of ‘New X-Men’
– B: Issue 400 (sales of 125,044) was the landmark 400th issue by Joe Casey
– C: Issue 444 (sales of 112,500) boasted the return of Chris Claremont to the flagship X-Men title
– D: Issue 475 (sales of 103,993) started Ed Brubaker’s run on the series
– E: Issue 494 (sales of 105,520) marked a three-issue spike around the ‘Messiah CompleX’ crossover

Actual data comes from the monthly top 300 charts generated by ICv2.com.

Previous sales overview include
-Adjectiveless X-Men Sales #103-211
-New Avengers #1-41 Sales
-Ultimate X-Men #1-94 Sales Analysis
-Sales Overview for ‘Astonishing X-Men’ #1-24 (and Giant-Size)
-Sales Overview for ‘Wolverine’ Vol. 2, uh… Vol. 3?
-‘Wolverine: Origins’ Sales Freefall

Sales over the past eight years of the ‘adjectiveless’ X-Men series have declined some 20%, but considering the collapse of other titles over the same period, these numbers are quite resilient, especially for the junior X-Men series in the Marvel universe.

And while there have been many jumps in sales since 2000, the letters on the chart above correspond to the most pronounced spikes:

– A: Issue 114 (sales of 135,394) featured the debut of Grant Morrison as series writer
– B: Issue 151 (sales of 124,012) was Grant Morrison’s final arc, the future of the X-Men with Marc Silvestri as artist
– C: Issue 188 (sales of 95,487) kicked off the Mike Carey/Chris Bachalo run
– D: Issue 200 (sales of 136,672) started the ‘Endangered Species’ backup series
– E: Issue 207 (sales of 104,793) concluded the ‘Messiah CompleX’ crossover event

Actual data comes from the monthly top 300 charts generated by ICv2.com.

Previous sales overview include
-New Avengers #1-41 Sales
-Ultimate X-Men #1-94 Sales Analysis
-Sales Overview for ‘Astonishing X-Men’ #1-24 (and Giant-Size)
-Sales Overview for ‘Wolverine’ Vol. 2, uh… Vol. 3?
-‘Wolverine: Origins’ Sales Freefall

Brian Bendis followed up the hugely successful ‘Avengers: Disassembled’ storyline with the new series, ‘New Avengers’. Sales for the first issue topped 240,000, and while numbers did understandably decline, sales stayed well above 120,000 for 31 of its first 32 issues. And while sales have dropped to the 100,000 range recently, ‘New Avengers’ has achieved a most impressive run during its first 3 1/2 years.

The letters on the chart above correspond to spikes in sales as shown below (some increases significant, but most less so):

- A: Issue 5 (sales of 162,412) featured Wolverine joining the team and on the cover
– B: Issue 21 (sales of 134,278) was a Civil War crossover boasting ‘New Avengers: Disassembled’
– C: Issue 23 (sales of 154,262) was another big Civil War crossover featuring Spider-Woman
– D: Issue 27 (sales of 130,531) promoted the return of the New Avengers
- E: Issue 31 (sales of 160,911) teased the infamous “most important last page of the year,” unveiling the Skrull secret Invasion
- F: Issue 40 (sales of 110,470) started the ‘Secret Invasion’ crossover issues

Actual data comes from the monthly top 300 charts generated by ICv2.com.

Previous sales overview include
-‘Wolverine: Origins’ Sales Freefall
-Sales Overview for ‘Wolverine’ Vol. 2, uh… Vol. 3?
-Sales Overview for ‘Astonishing X-Men’ #1-24 (and Giant-Size)
-Ultimate X-Men #1-94 Sales Analysis

Following the huge success of ‘Ultimate Spider-Man,’ Marvel decided to ultimatize their mutants and launched ‘Ultimate X-Men’ in December of 2000. The first issue logged impressive sales of 116,017, but those numbers didn’t last, dropping down to the 90,000 range over the next 2 1/2 years.

The letters on the chart above correspond to spikes in sales as articulated below (some sales increases significant, but most less so):

- A: Issue 34 (sales of 110,753) began Brian Bendis’ Wolverine-Spider-Man crossover
– B: Issue 38 (sales of 117,729) featured Brian Bendis and Ultimate Phoenix
– C: Issue 50 (sales of 103,154) boasted Brian K. Vaughan and Ultimate Gambit
– D: Issue 61 (sales of 87,097) kicked Brian K. Vaughan’s final run
- E: Issue 75 (sales of 73,837) starred Ultimate Cable by Robert Kirkman
- F: Issue 87 (sales of 63,028) offered up the Ultimate Sentinels by Robert Kirkman

Actual data comes from the monthly top 300 charts generated by ICv2.com.

Previous sales overview include
-‘Wolverine: Origins’ Sales Freefall
-Sales Overview for ‘Wolverine’ Vol. 2, uh… Vol. 3?
-Sales Overview for ‘Astonishing X-Men’ #1-24 (and Giant-Size)

“More charts! More charts!”

The pleas of the masses have been heard!

The ‘Astonishing X-Men’ run by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday (through issue 24 and the Giant-Size finale) kicked off with unbelievable first issue sales of 209,389 in May 2004 before plateauing to still impressive numbers (between 120,000 and 140,000) for most of its run.

And despite a slight downturn to 105,508 to wrap things up, overall sales were fairly consistent considering only 25 issues came out over the course of four years.

Compare that to other titles during the same period and ‘Astonishing X-Men’ proved to be quite… uh… astonishing.

Actual data comes from the monthly top 300 charts generated by ICv2.com.

Readers seem to be enjoying these charts, so let’s take a look at the current ‘Wolverine’ series through issue 65 (not including Mark Millar’s ‘Old Man Logan’ from issue 66). As with all these charts, the actual data comes from the monthly top 300 charts generated by ICv2.com.

The relaunch of ‘Wolverine’ (Vol. 2) by Greg Rucka and Darick Robertson — also referred to as Vol. 3 over confusion whether ‘Wolverine’ from 1982 was Vol. 1 or just a limited series — kicked off with impressive sales of 158,787 in May 2003 before dropping to the 60,000 range over the next 18 months.

The letters on the chart above correspond to spikes in sales (some significant, some not so) and are as follows:

- A: Issue 20 with sales of 116,831 started Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.’s ‘Enemy of the State’ run.
– B: Issue 26 with sales of 105,984 began Millar and Romita’s sequel, ‘Agent of SHIELD.”
– C: Issue 32 with sales of 89,026 was Mark Millar’s ‘Prisoner Number Zero.’
– D: Issue 36 with sales of 85,969 launched Daniel Way’s ‘Origins and Endings’ the beginning of the ‘Wolverine: Origins’ storyline.
- E: Issue 45 with sales of 108,680 opened the Civil War crossover ‘Vendetta’ by Marc Guggenheim and Humberto Ramos.
- F: Issue 50 with sales of 115,621 commenced the final Wolverine-Sabretooth tale by Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi.
– G: Issue 55 with sales of 130,707 finished the Wolverine-Sabretooth storyline in emphatic fashion.
– H: Issue 58 with sales of 83,810 initiated the first chapter of Marc Guggenheim and Howard Chaykin’s ‘Logan Dies’ arc.

Unfortunately, the last six months, covering the end of ‘Logan Dies’ and all of the ‘Get Mystique’ arc, features the lowest sales of the past five years. One suspects, however, that ‘Old Man Logan’ will result in a huge spike.

But if history is any guide, those sales won’t last.

I think the above chart really says it all, but I’m going to blather on about it anyway.

On a lark, I decided to review sales for the various series that Wolverine stars in or appears in (data coming from the monthly top 300 charts generated by ICv2.com).

As you can see, ‘Wolverine: Origins’ kicked off with an impressive 150,283 orders in April 2006 but has steadily plummeted over the course of the last two plus years (covering the first 25 issues of the run). In fact, the drop is so precipitous that the book, written by Daniel Way and illustrated by Steve Dillon, has lost a staggering two-thirds of its audience in that time.

As an aside, please let me know if you enjoyed this feature. I have sales data going back all the way to 2000 so I can do similar analysis to any number of Wolverine-related titles.