Sales Review: September 2019

The sales number for September sales have come out and as usual, ICv2 is a great place to go for a breakdown. Here is a link: https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/44317/top-500-comics-september-2019

It was an interesting month overall. Spawn #300 came out and broke the 250K number. Spider-Man #1 came out and broke 150K. The Hickman X-titles all came close to 140K. Those are healthy numbers. And Doomsday Clock #11 finally hit the stands and cracked 115K. For comics, which always seem to be fading, that is a solid top 10.

As for Supergirl, it was a rare calendar month where 2 issues hit the stands. Due to some delays to recolor and redraw some Legionnaires, Supergirl #33 was put on pause until the pages were fixed.
And it was an interesting month storywise for the Girl of Steel. Supergirl #33 was the end of the Rogol Zaar epic and tied in closely to the Unity Saga. Supergirl #34 had Supergirl return to Earth and be suddenly thrust into the Event Leviathan and Year of the Villain arcs. Suddenly Kara was plugged into the main DCU again.

Since both issues were tied into bigger events, I wondered if sales would show a bump. Both issues also had 'card stock' covers.

Let's look.

Review: Supergirl #33

Supegirl #33 came out this week and I must admit I was something of a roller coaster of emotions. There are downs and ups and then a little bit of a down again.  The art by Kevin Maguire is great. Overall there are lots of wonderful moments in this book. There are bits in this book that made me say 'now that sounds like Supergirl', something that  has been very rare in this Marc Andreyko written run.

But after a year of Supergirl tooling around in space, this book ends pretty much back where it was at the end of the Orlando/Houser run. Which makes me quote Bugs Bunny. 'Was this trip really necessary?'

It is probably easier to just review the bits of the book that struck me and then give my end thoughts. There is a section in the middle which basically is a repeat of the Legion portion of Superman #14 so I wont be reviewing those pages here. Just know that Kevin Maguire's 2 page spread of the new Legion is just as prestigious as Ivan Reis' pages.

So let's jump right in.

DC Comics August Solicitations

The DC solicits for August came out and there are a number of things that stood out to me. You can check out all the books over on Newsarama here:
https://www.newsarama.com/45229-dc-comics-august-2019-solicitations.html

One thing I will say is that I don't have much interest in the Super Sons novels or the Miller/Romita Superman Year One, so no coverage of that here.

For me, this is definitely the summer of Leviathan as I am all in on this plot. For one, it is fresh and new. As a grizzled fan, I love anything that true feels innovative. And this crossover event, a sort of street level, not galactic/universal, feels very new.

As it is the year of the villain, the title logos of the super-books are all getting busted up, an effect I always like. We also get Lois and Jimmy!

Add to that a reset on the Supergirl book and the summer can't get here soon enough.

On to the books.

SUPERGIRL #33
written by MARC ANDREYKO
art by EDUARDO PANSICA and JULIO FERREIRA
cover by EDUARDO PANSICA
card stock variant cover by DERRICK CHEW

After a year in space solving the mystery of Krypton’s demise, Supergirl returns to Earth to discover that everything she knew as Kara Danvers is gone! Plus, the usurper Brainiac-1 has set his sights on the unsuspecting Girl of Steel – and his plans are far from benevolent! ON SALE 08.14.19

So Kara is back home. But all of Kara Danvers is gone?

Is Andreyko erasing the 2 years of stories we got from Steve Orlando and Jody Houser? Seems wrong. I was hoping we'd pick up that continuity. Maybe I am ringing the alarum too early.

I like Brainiac as a villain for Supergirl given she truly lived through the Kandor event.

Let's hope she stays on Earth, isn't a rager, and acts the hero.