Comics retailer and critic Brian Hibbs reports that despite producing a “much better comic”, DC Publishing’s DC/Marvel Batman/Deadpool #1 sales were disappointing compared to Marvel’s earlier one-shot version of Deadpool/Batman. In a social media post, Hibs shared raw numbers and anecdotal experiences that seem to suggest that some of the hype surrounding the crossover may have cooled in the weeks between comics.
Mr. Hibbs is a longtime columnist for Comic Book Resources, The Beat, and elsewhere, and owns Comix Experience in San Francisco, California. He said he ordered 120 copies of Marvel/DC’s Deadpool/Batman in September and they were all sold out in two weeks. As a result, he increased orders for Batman/Deadpool, but it only sold about half as many comics with higher cover prices.
DC had some more expensive “enhanced” variant covers, but the publisher didn’t offer “incentive variants,” or rare covers that weren’t available unless retailers ordered them in bulk. Marvel actually offered 1:50 and 1:100 incentive editions, but Mr. Hibbs listed them on eBay for significantly more than the cover price.
Hibbs says there were more hand sales because he thought the DC version was a better book, and he doesn’t offer much explanation as to why he thinks the book may have performed the way it did. However, there are a number of relatively obvious possibilities.
The first Deadpool/Batman was the first DC/Marvel crossover in years, which probably helped. It probably hurt that a DC book with virtually the same title and a higher cover price came in second place. The two one-shots were both advertised as number one issues, and the fact that they were released several weeks apart, similar to past “one-and-one” crossover events such as Spawn/Batman and Superman/Savage Dragon, may have caused fans to react to the DC book as if it were a “second issue” rather than a one-shot. As anyone who reads comics closely knows, the attrition rate between the first and second issues of a new series is virtually always high.
Many commenters also noted that some consumers were confused by the back-to-back #1 issues and numerous variant covers, and thought the DC version was just a reprint of the same Marvel book they already owned.
The Deadpool/Batman crossover is also completely different from other crossovers. In the past, these crossovers featured one or two creative teams telling a one-shot story. This crossover is more like an anthology title, with different creative teams creating short stories that feature crossover characters from DC and Marvel. The main characters in each are a combination of Batman and Deadpool, and each publisher has entrusted the work to a renowned creative team.
Despite being a major retailer in a large American city, Mr. Hibbs is still just one man with anecdotal experience…but the comments on his post from other retailers seem to reflect that experience.
Fiennes Massey of Massey’s Comics in Missouri said, “The additional price of variants is definitely a bottleneck for customers,” while Ron Hill, co-owner of JHU Comic Books, said only about half of his DC book inventory was sold.
Still, Mr. Hill is less concerned about the book than Mr. Hibbs, saying he thinks the book is “evergreen” and will essentially sell itself over time.
“I like to call it ‘Tchotchke,’ and I think this book will continue to appeal to a wide variety of beginners in the coming months,” Hill wrote.
At least that’s probably true in stores that have enough shelf space to keep them outside instead of storing them in boxes of back issues. But Mr Hibbs was not impressed with the solution. In the original post, he wrote, “It’ll probably trickle out a few copies a month until next June! I wish I had that money now, but it’s not doing me any good to have it sitting on a shelf like this.”
Something like this:
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