Legion sales data for issue #10

Comichron has done their number crunching dealy thing with Diamond and Lunar/UCS data and produced approximate sales charts for October 2020, which includes Legion #10. Still impacted by the Covid shutdown and DC's change in distributors, Comichron has managed to put together some approximate sales numbers for October's books (within a range).

 

For October, LSH v8 #10 tied for the #64 book overall, with sales somewhere between 28,000-34,000 - a tick up from last month's 27-32k. (I'll use the midpoint of 31,000 here for simplicity.) Other books it tied with in that same range (or very close to it) were Batman's Grave #11, Wonder Woman #764, Flash #763, Maestro #3, Star Wars Bounty Hunters #6, Shang-Chi #2, Werewolf by Night #1, and Miles Morales Spider-Man #19. It was tied for the #25 book for DC (out of 51 for the month). Although there were two different covers, they are not broken out here because they were the same price and retailers could order as many as they wanted of each (not limited variants).

Batman 3 Jokers #3 was the top-selling book for the month (the third straight month), selling between 195k and 235k copies (midpoint 215,000).

Other DC books that sold higher than LSH in October: 12 different Bat-books (Batman, Joker, Harley, Batgirl, Nightwing, Catwoman), 2 Death Metal, 2 each of Justice League, Wonder Woman, and Superman, and 1 each of Rorschach, Batman/Superman, Strange Adventures, Green Lantern, and Flash (the usual suspects, with the extra sales for WW based on her "when is the movie coming out" factor plus a new appearance of Rorschach).

So here's what our table looks like now, with the limited insight into sales. Sales still look remarkably consistent with what we've seen for the entire run so far. The position number has slipped a bit - it had been hovering at around #17, then last issue it was #20, but the total number of issues sold by the title has remained roughly constant at around 30k per month.

I added a new column this month, showing how many books DC has put out that month. It's worth noticing that DC has significantly cut down the number of different issues it publishes per month (all lower selling titles). It's more important to look at the number of issues sold.

LSH v8 sales and rank

Issue	Total sales (all covers)	overall #	DC #	Total DC	#1 book
1	75,611	10	3	114	138,434
2	35,653	50	17	95	117,926
3	34,732	44	15	112	167,377
4	30,675	51	18	88	190,568
5	29,058	59	18	80	142,089
6	TBD	23	17	65	TBD
7	TBD	41	18	49	TBD
8	Est. 38,000	46	22	57	Est. 300,000
9	Est. 29,500	Tie 62	Tie 20	55	Est. 207,500
10	Est. 31,000	Tie 66	Tie 24	51	Est. 215,000

More data as it becomes available....

Annotations for Justice League Adventures #28

Annotations for Justice League Adventures #28

• On sale 2/4/04
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 632 (November 23, 2020)
• Timeline: DCAU 2980

In the "New Kids in Town" episode of Superman: The Animated Series, a trio of Legionnaires (Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy, and Chameleon Boy) travel back to the past to Smallville chasing Brainiac, to a time just before Clark Kent became Superman. She telepathically tells him about the Legion, and from that scene we get this image showing what the DCAU Legion of 2979 looks like:

Everyone from this scene appears in this issue (only Brainy has a more sensible haircut, having lost his mullet). 

The Legion would appear once more in the DCAU, in the final season of Justice League Unlimited episode called "Far From Home". In that one, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, and Supergirl travel to the 30th century where they help the Legion battle the Fatal Five.

Notes:

• We’re reading this because it was just reprinted in the "Justice League Unlimited: Time After Time" TPB earlier this month. The writer of the issue, Jason Hall - who's a listener to the podcast! -  provided some information after hearing this episode.
• The DCAU continuity was only internally consistent with itself, and so anything we see in this issue pertaining to the Legion was based only on what we had seen before in a single episode of Superman: The Animated Series. Anything else pertaining to the Legion was fair game, so Hall cherry-picked items from pre-5YL, 5YL, and Reboot (up to 2003) continuity that fit the story he wanted to tell.
• Page 1: that's Professor Hamilton, from the Superman books, and Ludwig's appearance is based on that of writer Jason Hall
• Page 2 panel 5: “Fort Bridwell” after E. Nelson Bridwell
• Page 4 panel 4: the couple at the bottom are artist Min Ku and his wife
• Page 6 panel 1: Kilg%re was from an early Wally West Flash issue (Flash v2 #3), and when it appeared on the “Supergirl” TV show, the name was pronounced “Kilgore”
• Page 7 panel 3: rainbows and circles means traveling through time, all we need are calendar pages
• Page 8 panel 1: this view of Metropolis and LSH HQ is from the animated show; plus a new version of Kent Shakespeare
• Page 8 panel 2: reads “Kent Shakespeare” in Interlac
• Page 8 panel 3: reads “Legion of Super-Heroes” in Interlac
• Page 9: the kid is actually a contest winner, wearing Colossal Boy’s Silver Age costume. I wonder if this page was meant to have dialog? Subway had some sort of contest where the winner would get drawn into an upcoming issue of Justice League Adventures. Jason Hall thought it would be more fun to have the boy appear in the whole story, not just one page, and had to get permission to put him in more.
• Page 11: The editor requested that the story only use four Legionnaires in an active role, that's why we only see Brainiac 5, Phantom Girl, Andromeda, and Kid Quantum.
• Page 11 panel 1: this takes place in 2980, meaning it's a year or so after the first appearance of the Legion in the DCAU (the Superman: The Animated Series episode "New Kids in Town", aired 10/31/98, took place in 2979). The Justice League Unlimited episode "Far From Home" (aired 4/15/06) takes place a few years later.
• Page 11 panel 3: All of the Legionnaires seen here are from the group shot in “New Kids in Town”, except for Shadow Lass who’s new here. 
• Page 12 panel 2: Hawkgirl mentions freedom fighters from Daxam, who they had met in Justice League Adventures #3
• Page 13 panels 3-4: Shvaughn Erin saying “sprock”, “nass”, and “grief” are from the Reboot
• Page 13 panel 5: Andromeda has a thing for Brainy, though in the “Far From Home” episode he starts developing a thing for Supergirl (Andromeda is not present in that episode)
• Page 14 panel 2: it’s the Silver Age Computo, but with the Reboot name C.O.M.P.U.T.O.
• Page 14 panel 3: This Computo ALMOST killed one of Triplicate Girl’s bodies.
• Page 14 panel 5: Wonder Woman is dressed up as Laurel Kent, while Hawkgirl looks like Dawnstar (neither of whom exist yet in this continuity, but neither appear in “Far From Home” either). The "Check out the Justice League babes!" line is from the editor, not writer Hall.
• Page 15 panel 1: the Green Lanterns aren’t allowed on Earth, as seen in pre-Crisis history in LSH 295
• Page 15 panel 3: Wonder Woman alludes to a flirtation she had with Batman
• Page 18 panel 4: this Phantom Girl has the ability to short out electronics that she phases through (like Kitty Pryde) – as we saw being set up earlier when she shorts out Kent Shakespeare’s camera-bot; this came from her Reboot incarnation
• Page 18 panel 5: they defeated Computo in one page, a lot faster than the pre-Crisis or Reboot Legion did
• Page 19 panel 3: the man's name is LUDwig DYTEman, and he is a Luddite (get it?)
• Page 21 panel 1: in the Legion trophy room, we see Starfinger I’s costume, Lightning Lad’s robot arm, and an old-school jetpack. And is that a statue of Superboy or Reflecto?
• Green Lantern is in the future in this issue and also in "Far From Home", but in the episode he doesn't acknowledge meeting the Legion. It must be that the shock of traveling through time wiped his memory of being in the future and meeting the Legion. (Not the writer’s fault, since “Far From Home” appeared 2 years after this issue!)

LSH v4 #39 annotations: In the Beginning....

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #39

• On sale 11/17/92
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: https://itsokimasenator.livejournal.com/18973.html
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 630 (November 9, 2020)
• Timeline: June 6-7, 2995

Notes:

• Cover: “Beginnings”, as compared to last issue’s “The End”
• Page 1: welcome new penciller Stuart Immonen!
• Page 7: on the ship it reads “Ark 2” in Interlac
• Page 9: Two Brainiac 5s and two Element Lads 
• Page 12: Lightning Lad isn’t the only one who got a personality transplant in the SW6 chambers, so did Sun Boy and Matter-Eater Lad
• Page 12 panel 5: the reference to “space happy” is from when Sun Boy had a breakdown in ADV 318
• Page 14: switch pencillers from Immonen to Giffen
• Page 15 panel 5: On Gallan, that’s Leland McCauley III, aka dear old dad, last seen in LSH v3 #17
• Page 15 panel 8: That’s Dev-Em, last seen on April 11th (ADVSUP 478) as the moon blew up
• Page 15 panel 9: That’s Shagrek, formerly of the Taurus Gang, last seen in ADV 374 (his only appearance, not including a flashback to a not-previously-seen fight back in issue 10); he should be in green like all the other characters in the collection
• Page 16 panel 1: that’s Elvo the swordsman (in purple and yellow), and Dartalg master of the blow gun (in green), both formerly of the Wanderers. Last we saw them, they were in their cloned forms, flying through a space warp with the rest of the team (WAND 13) as Elvar and Dartalon. But we did see the clone version of Dartalon way back in issue 2 in an advertisement. They should be all in green, like the other characters.
• Page 16 panel 2: who’s the woman with the skirt?
• Page 16 panels 4-7: Now we know what happened to Cham, RJ, Kid Quantum, and the Proteans when McCauley and the Emerald Eye hijacked the ship at the end of issue 33. They’ve been gone a month, leaving on May 8.
• Page 16 panel 6: The Heckler has a cameo here
• Page 16 panel 9: the Emerald Eye is keeping them all in stasis
• Page 18: Ultra Boy and Ferro Lad are waiting (in vain) for Valor, who left in a Time Bubble at the end of issue 37.
• Page 19 panel 5: I don’t know who that is in stasis
• Page 20 panel 9: If you notice, this panel looks different from the previous one – Tom Bierbaum said it took Giffen so long to do his art for this issue that his style literally changed between page 20 and 21 (the lawyer in page 20 panel 9 is a Photostat from page 21). We briefly see Giffen’s “March Hare”/“Trencher” art style.
• Page 22: the quick release of Cham, RJ, the Proties, and KQ seems awfully sudden, as if Giffen wanted to wrap it up before he left
• Page 22 panels 7-9: compare and contrast McCauley father and son with RJ and Cham
• By the way, remember when Imra was kidnapped in issue 37? That was May 22, more than 2 weeks ago. And Cham was missing for a month, since May 8. I guess nobody’s too concerned with missing Legionnaires?

Legion sales data for issue #9

Comichron has done their number crunching dealy thing with Diamond and Lunar/UCS data and produced approximate sales charts for September 2020, which includes Legion #9. Still impacted by the Covid shutdown and DC's change in distributors, Comichron has managed to put together some approximate sales numbers for September's books, which, while not exact and calling the sales within a range, is better than we had last month.

Issue 9 was part 2 of the all-star artist lineup. How did that impact sales? Let's see... 

For September, LSH v8 #9 tied for the #62 book overall, with sales somewhere between 27,000-32,000. (I'll use the midpoint of 29,500 here for simplicity.) Other books it tied with in that same range were Joker/Harley Criminal Sanity #5, Batman/Superman #12, Miles Morales Spider-Man #18, Star Wars Bounty Hunters #5, Wonder Woman #763, and Marauders #12. It was tied for the #20 book for DC. Although there were two different covers, they are not broken out here because they were the same price and retailers could order as many as they wanted of each (not limited variants).

Batman 3 Jokers #2 was the top-selling book for the month, selling between 190k and 225k copies (midpoint 207,500).  

Other books that sold higher than LSH in August: 10 different Bat-books (Batman, Joker, Harley, Batgirl, Nightwing, Catwoman), 3 Death Metal, 2 each of Justice League, Superman, and Wonder Woman, and 1 each of DCeased, Batman/Superman and Strange Adventures (the usual suspects, with the extra sales for WW based on her "when is the movie coming out" factor).

So here's what our table looks like now, with the limited insight into sales. Not sure we can trust the issue 8 sales just yet, but issue 9's sales still look remarkably consistent with what we've seen for the entire run so far, both book numbers and relative DC numbers. Interestingly, the market is selling more issues but of fewer titles: there were 25% fewer titles in September compared to March, right before the shutdown, but unit sales are up by about the same amount.

LSH v8 sales and rank

Issue	Total sales (all covers)	overall #	DC #	#1 book
1	75,611	10	3	138,434
2	35,653	50	17	117,926
3	34,732	44	15	167,377
4	30,675	51	18	190,568
5	29,058	59	18	142,089
6	TBD	23	17	TBD
7	TBD	41	18	TBD
8	Est. 38,000	46	22	Est. 300,000
9	Est. 29,500	Tie 62	Tie 20	Est. 207,500

More data as it becomes available....

LSH v4 #38 Annotations: That's Great, It Starts with an Earthquake, Birds and Snakes and Aeroplanes

Annotations for Legion of Super-Heroes v4 #38

• On sale 11/3/92
• It's OK, I'm a Senator: https://itsokimasenator.livejournal.com/18778.html
• Legion of Substitute Podcasters episode 628 (October 26, 2020)
• Timeline: May 24 to June 4, 2995

Notes:

• Cover: My first thought was that this was the end of the series. I wonder if the color palate for this cover of volume 4 #38 is supposed to be reminiscent of the colors for volume 3 #38, the death of Superboy?
  
• Page 3: The Tokyo sinkhole opens up 9 days after the destruction of the underground chambers. We’ll see on the next page that they want this to be May 24 – let’s ignore the 9 days part and just go with May 24, which is the day after last issue’s baseball game.
• Page 4: Says that the chambers were detonated on May 15 (echoing what the Sourcebook says), but we know that can’t be correct because May 15 was given in issue 34 as the date that King Jonn declined the adult Legion’s offer to help from off-world. The two Brainiac 5s arrive in Tokyo on May 25. But recall that adult Brainy got to Earth the day before (last issue) while young Brainy was in Metropolis with some of the other SW6 Legionnaires sending Valor back in time.
• Page 5: May 26, the Brainys report that the Earth is doomed. The Interlac talks about the proton jelly and an estimate of how much time is left.
• Page 9: June 3, the domed cities take off; of the 480 with domes, 102 take off, and 100 make it to orbit (losing Barcelona, Spain; and Tashkent, Uzbekistan)
• Page 13: 95 cities successfully link up (losing Chongqing, China; Dakar, Senegal; Dresden, Germany; Nairobi, Kenya; and Santiago, Chile)
• Page 16: 94 cities make it to the Bgztl Buffer Zone (losing Seoul, South Korea). The Eyth Incident of ’73 was the planetary system that Lucifer Seven threatened to destroy if his demands were not met. His demands were not met, so he destroyed the system (as seen in Secrets of the Legion 1).
• Page 18: that looks like Death – notice the ankh around her neck, the umbrella, and the scarab.
• Page 21: The second appearance of Death of the Endless outside of Sandman. They basically had to get Neil Gaiman’s approval for this after her appearance in Captain Atom #42.
• Page 23: June 4 is the Great Terran Disaster