Comic Book Retailers Say Uncanny X-Men Reboot With Gail Simone Failed To Push Industry Out Of Its Disastrous Sales Slump

Despite an all new Uncanny X-Men #1 from Gail Simone, Marvel Comics isn't moving as many units as years past.

The comic industry has been in one of its worst sales slumps in recorded history, with an alarming number of comic shops going out of business this year and big companies like Marvel and DC Comics failing to move the needle with their latest books enough to jumpstart matters. This has led to several comic properties being rebooted with all-new “first issues,” but even the effect of this gimmick is wearing off for worn-out comic book fans.

2024 has seen some of the most reboots and restarts in modern history, as the entire comic industry seemed to be in panic mode, with their stories not selling on their own merits. The powers that be across Marvel, DC Comics, Dynamite, IDW Publishing, and more are all seeing the same sales decline, even if the comic book media at large is downplaying it.

Most of these reboots were timed for summer, after the industry watched closely when Dynamite Entertainment launched a new iteration of Thundercats #1, announcing their sales numbers of 170,000. There was a time in the comic industry when the top comics were selling in the millions, but moving that number of units in the modern era is nearly unheard of. Still, comic publishers know that this gimmick is only a short-term boost as it doesn’t work with subsequent issues because of speculators who aren’t even reading the book in most cases.

The “all-new #1 collectible first issues” sales numbers are often driven by pushing variant covers, forcing retailers to get even fifty or even one hundred copies to get one copy of the exclusive variant. Speculators will order these from comic shops, which will charge the cost of purchasing that many regular copies to pay for it, and most of those copies sit and end up unread. When issue #2 rolls around for a book, the power of those variants wears off, and stores see a substantial drop in sales.

This tactic is constantly repeated. We saw Marvel relaunch their new Ultimate line with four “all tew number ones” this year, and most readers tuned in for Jonathan Hickman’s Ultimate Spider-Man. However, the newer books in the line are not selling nearly as well.

IDW Publishing played the game with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, not only getting a “milestone” 150th issue but then relaunching a couple of months later with Jason Aaron’s #1 first issue. While most IDW Publishing books struggle to sell 5,000 copies, this gimmick worked with speculators as the new issue 1 moved over 300,000 copies, according to AIPT.

Despite these bright spots for a couple of issues, most comic sales are not reaching levels they need to survive.

In July, Marvel then dipped back into the well by relaunching their entire X-Men line, with Gail Simone headlining Uncanny X-Men #1. Though Marvel Comics doesn’t report its sales numbers, Fandom Pulse has access to several large retailers that tell a troubling story for comics.

The retailers mention sales for the relaunch are up over the previous iteration of the title but that the boost from the “first issue” is not near what they were the last time it was launched. Sales are doing “strong numbers, but that’s relative to the challenging market we have,” one retailer said.

This isn’t indicative of the quality of the story, as Uncanny X-Men #1 by Gail Simone is getting positive reviews across the board. It’s more of a red flag for the sales gimmicks and reboots turning fans off who used to love these properties and have simply given up as the direction of the characters changes wildly every time a new creative team comes onto the book. There seems to be no consistency or editorial direction like Marvel once had.

It also doesn’t help books down the line, as Spider-Man editor Nick Lowe announced on his X feed recently that the new Spider Woman would be canceled with issue #10, not even making it to a year’s worth of content, as more and more titles are starting to get canceled faster than ever before.

DC Comics is facing an even bigger sales slump, as Wes from the Thinking Critical channel reported that more than 2/3 of its comics are now below what was previously the “cancelation line” for low sales. The company is losing money on a huge portion of its line before its All In relaunch. By declaring a demarcation of where all of the titles would be having a soft reboot, DC Comics has inadvertently killed its summer sales by alerting readers that their current titles don’t matter and the storylines would end soon.

With so many desperate attempts at reboots and restarts and the sales slump hitting the retailer industry harder than ever before despite the gimmick attempts at getting speculators to buy the "first issue,” it appears as if the comic industry needs to reevaluate its strategies and focus on trying to find readers again rather than collectors. If it can’t do it soon, there may not be an industry to come back to.

What do you think of the reported sales slump by comic book retailers? Leave a comment and let us know.

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