Though he did invent the white dwarf shrinking tech.

Yea, SimonMoon's long post just points out how it was a silly idea not to reboot Green Lantern.

Also Batman. Dude has still had 4 Robins, he's got to be pushing 35-40. Way not to take care of continuity problems, DC.

My favorite part:

After he became Batman (about five years ago), he met Talia. He then had a son who grew up to be ten years old in only five years.

OTOH, there have been hints that while "superheroes" started five years ago, Batman's not a "superhero" so that doesn't apply to him. Or Stormwatch. So the Justice League parody existed before the Justice League did.

I was really hoping that was Choi as the Atom in the FCBD new 52 splash page for Trinity War, but then I looked closer at the girlish figure. So woman or Choi, I'll accept diversity in DC however I can get it.

As for SimonMoon's GL rant, yeah, it's why I just stop thinking about that stuff and enjoy the good stories being told. Continuity is a tricky thing, and it's a hindrance for some writers who just want to tell a good story.

That's why I stick with the cosmic books or ones set in another time. While there's a continuity in those books, it's not so heavily tied to the other books under a company nearly as much as the present-day Earth-based books, and it allows writers to make great stories since they're not chained down to a whole heap of continuity compared to the modern Earth-based books.

I have no idea how the Before Watchmen stuff is doing at the LCS level. But here's the thing: that doesn't matter to DC. DC put out all the Before Watchmen stuff at the same time so that the LCS would have no way to gauge how well they'd sell at the store level, so the stores would have to order high in hopes of meeting demands.

That in mind, here's how the Before Watchmen stuff has been selling from DC to the stores:

1 Avengers Vs. X-Men 6
2 Avengers Vs. X-Men 5
3 Batman 10
4 Justice League 10
5 Before Watchmen: Minutemen 1
6 Before Watchmen: Comedian 1
7 Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre 1
8 Before Watchmen: Nite Owl 1
9 Spider-Men 1
10 AVX Vs 3

That's a list of the top 10 best-selling books for June. All of the Before Watchmen stuff is in that top 10. Thus, no matter how well or poorly the books sell at the stores, Before Watchmen will be considered a success by DC.

Personally, I think the art is beautiful but the writing can't compare to the original, so I'm not picking them up.

Makes sense he is the whole Urban legend shtick and he didnt go public till the JLA. I mean we know heroes predate 5 years just through the whole All Star Western title. Would not be surprised to see the BLUR used instead of Superboy as well

Update with June sales:

1. Captain Atom (cancelled) (11,546)
2. Voodoo (cancelled) (12,928)
3. Grifter (14,258)
4. DC Universe Presents (14,310)
5. Blue Beetle (14,413)
6. Resurrection Man (cancelled) (15,481)
7. Fury of Firestorm (15,789)
8. Frankenstein (16,377)
9. Savage Hawkman (16,417)
10. I, Vampire (16,517)

I, Vampire is still losing sales, but not as quickly as some of its peers, so it's climbing in the ranks.

11. Legion Lost (17,581)
12. Demon Knights (19,006)
13. Deathstroke (19,772)
14. Legion of Super-Heroes (19,963)

Demon Knights and LSH have now slipped below the 20k danger line, as has Deathstroke.

15. Stormwatch (20,592)
16. Batwing (20,724)

The following "bottom half" books are probably not in danger:

17. All Star Western (25,334)
18. Green Arrow (25,769)
19. Birds of Prey (28,457)

A significant drop for BoP but after a significant increase, so last month was probably just a crossover glitch.

20. Superboy (31,358)
21. Suicide Squad (31,576)


Overall, expected decreases across the board. Failing books are still failing.

Update with June sales numbers:

1. Batman (130,265). Still didn't beat Avengers vs X-Men # 5 or 6.
2. Justice League (127,090). Still slipping in sales, still not selling as well as Batman for the second month in a row.
3. Detective (83,317)
4. Action (82,654).
5. Green Lantern (80,615).

Some significant drops in the top 5 books.


6. Batman: The Dark Knight (71,671)
7. Batman and Robin (66,894).
8.Aquaman (59,288). Back in the top 10 of the new 52 as sales on Superman, Flash, and Nightwing plummet this month.

9. Superman (59,081).
10. The Flash (55,681).
11. Nightwing (50,585).
12. Teen Titans (47,522)
13. Batgirl (47,229)

Nightwing and Batgirl sales are falling quickly after a brief bump from the crossover.

14. Wonder Woman (47,229).
15. Green Lantern Corps (44,615)
16. Green Lantern: New Guardians (44,404)
17. Batwoman (41,014)
18. Red Lanterns (38,005)

19. Catwoman (37,158)
20. Red Hood & the Outlaws (37,044)

Catwoman and Red Hood are falling down the charts, falling five positions each.

21. Swamp Thing (37,383)
22. Animal Man (34,992).
23. Supergirl (33,309)
24. Justice League Dark (33,238)

25. JLI (31,015) -- cancelled. And its sales have actually slipped below Superboy and Suicide Squad, putting it into the bottom half of the new 52.

Where do the second wave books come in at?

Second issues:


1. Batman Incorporated (73,654). Decent sales, but what do you expect for a book with "Batman" in the name? But it's also only on issue #2, so it could experience steep sales drops. Currently, it's between Green Lantern and "Batman the Dark Knight".


2. Earth 2 (68,885). Selling between "Batman the Dark Knight" and "Batman and Robin", it has strong sales, but then again, it's only on issue #2.

3. Worlds' Finest (46,359). Between Batman and Green Lantern Corps, which sounds great, but again, it's still only on issue #2, so expect steep drops.

4. Ravagers (28,015). This is not good for a #2. It's decent compared to the new 52 comics that are on issue #10, but if the usual sales drops occur, it can be expected to plummet below the 20k line.

5. Dial H (27,556). What I said about Ravagers is true here too. These books are stuck between Birds of Prey and Green Arrow sales-wise, neither of which are top selling books.

6. GI Combat (17,102). What were they thinking?

It would be interesting to see where the 52 books were at during issue #2. It could give a good idea as to where these are going.

As for GI Combat, it is my understanding that they had some characters that had to be used or they would lose some of there rights to the characters. (I have no idea how that all works, so I'll admit that it is just a rumor.)

While I love that DC is trying to do more than just superhero stories, it seems like there just isn't a mark for war comics, at least from the big publishers. With the wave 1 war comics being some of the first to go, it was odd that DC added another in wave 2.

I'm really looking forward to wave 3. I personally find those books much more appealing than the wave 2 books.

1 Justice League 180,709
2 Batman 172,428
3 Action Comics 153,855
4 Green Lantern 142,344
5 Flash 2 114,137
6 Detective Comics 110,789
10 Superman 94,233
11 Batman The Dark Knight 90,445
12 Batman And Robin 88,926
13 Wonder Woman 79,060
14 Batgirl 75,227
15 Batwoman 74,392
16 Teen Titans 72,107
17 Green Lantern New Guardians 71,713
18 Aquaman 71,240
19 Green Lantern Corps 70,651
20 Red Lanterns 66,747
21 Nightwing 65,749

etc. So, sales of Earth 2 and Batman Incorporated put them up among some of the top books. Looking down the chart around 46k, we have...

33 Supergirl 55,249
35 Red Hood And The Outlaws 53,444
36 Green Arrow 52,837
39 Superboy 51,682
42 Animal Man 48,089
43 Birds of Prey 47,840
44 Stormwatch 47,520
45 Suicide Squad 44,613
49 Savage Hawkman 42,987
50 Legion of Super Heroes 42,504

So, World's Finest's sales of around 46k put it in a sort of nebulous realm, between some decent selling books, some borderline books, and some absolute poor sellers like Hawkman would turn out to be.

As for the 28k of Ravagers and 27k of Dial H...

81 I Vampire 31,139
84 Omac 29,434
85 Static Shock 29,124
86 Blackhawks 28,534
87 Men of War 28,301

That puts Ravagers in the company of books that were cancelled in the first wave, along with I, Vampire, whose sales are cancel-worthy, though steady and Vertigo-style sales are presumably keeping it afloat. But even I, Vampire (and Omac and Static Shock) sold better in its second issue than Ravagers did. And Dial H didn't even sell that well. It's possible Dial H might do as well as I, Vampire with steady though small sales.

There were no books in the new 52 that had sales as low as 17k on their second issues, so there's nothing to compare GI Combat to. Of course, the new 52 had a huge advertising push that the second wave didn't get.

IIRC, Batman is presumed to have been around for 10 years or so, which kind of explains continuity problems.

I don't care much about strict continuity, as long as a story is good. Continuity causes all sorts of problems, anyway.

Update with July numbers (for the bottom half of the original new 52). Again, this list is reversed, with the worst-selling at the top of the list.

1. Captain Atom (11,041) -- cancelled
2. Voodoo (12,120) -- cancelled
3. Grifter (13,382)
4. DC Universe Presents (13,619)
5. Blue Beetle (13,923)
6. Resurrection Man (14,715) -- cancelled
7. Fury Of Firestorm The Nuclear Men (14,931)
8. Savage Hawkman (15,460)
9. Frankenstein Agent Of Shade (15,635)
10. I Vampire (15,734)

No real changes (except expected sales decreases) in the list here. It's still amazing only three of these bottom ten books have been cancelled.

11. Legion Lost (17,037). The crossover doesn't seem to have helped.

12. Deathstroke (17,107). The addition of Liefeld has made this book sink past Demon Knights.

13. Demon Knights (18,201)

14. Legion Of Super Heroes (19,421). Retaining its position near the 20k failure line, but still below that line and sinking.

15. Stormwatch (19,678). Finally fallen below the 20k failure line.

16. Batwing (20,047). Barely above the 20k failure line.

And those were all the books that were in danger last month. Continuing with the bottom half, we have...

17. All Star Western (23,572)
18. Green Arrow (24,646)
19.Birds Of Prey (27,389)
20. Superboy (29,677)
21. Justice League International (29,802) -- cancelled

Just as last month, JLI is now in the bottom half, putting Suicide Squad in the top half.

Apart from that, no real change in the order of the books on the list (apart from Deathstroke and Demon Knights switching places).

Update with July sales numbers:

1. Batman (127,210)
2. Justice League (123,971)
3. Detective Comics (79,835)
4. Green Lantern (78,708)
5. Action Comics (76,232)

Green Lantern now surpasses Action Comics as Action had a pretty severe drop.

6. Batman The Dark Knight (68,632)
7. Batman And Robin (65,043)
8. Aquaman (57,675)
9. Superman (56,066)
10. Flash (53,674)

No other real changes in the top ten books except expected sales declines.

11. Nightwing (49,124)
12. Wonder Woman (45,669)
13. Teen Titans (45,367)
14. Batgirl (45,004)

The big news here is that Wonder Woman has overtaken Teen Titans and Batgirl, as her sales didn't decline as much as theirs did.

15. Green Lantern Corps (42,996)
16. Green Lantern New Guardians (42,929)
17. Batwoman (38,980)
18. Red Lanterns (36,462)

No real news here.

19. Swamp Thing (36,257)
20. Red Hood And The Outlaws (35,820)
21. Catwoman (35,551)

Just as last month, Red Hood and Catwoman are falling down the charts some more. Or maybe Swamp Thing is climbing the charts.


22. Animal Man (33,909)
23. Supergirl (31,879)
24. Justice League Dark (31,792)
25. Suicide Squad (29,809)

Not much to see here.