DC Closes In On Half the Direct Market as Absolute Batman #25 Carries the Whole Line

New point-of-sale data covering October 27 through November 2 has DC Comics sitting at nearly 49% of direct market comic shop sales, with Marvel trailing at just under 30% and Image rounding out the top three at roughly 12%. It's the strongest single-week showing yet for a publisher that's been steadily eating into Marvel's lead for months, and the chart leaves little mystery about why: Absolute Batman #25 is the week's top seller outright, and the rest of DC's Absolute and Bat-line output rode its coattails hard.

Absolute Wonder Woman #25, DC All In Saga: Darkseid Vs The World #1, Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunrise #1, and a Justice League: The Dark Realm special all landed in the week's top sellers, giving DC five titles in the upper tier of the chart. Marvel wasn't shut out — Amazing Spider-Man #1002, Daredevil #8, X-Men #40, Captain America #16, and Fantastic Four #18 all posted solid numbers — but nothing in that lineup came close to matching the pull of DC's flagship.

Back in late September, DC's marketshare lead over Marvel sat around 41% to 28%. Less than six weeks later, the gap has only widened, and it's a problem squarely on new Marvel editor-in-chief Steve Wacker's desk as he tries to right the line following NYCC. Whether Marvel's own Midnight Universe launch, which opened to seven-figure order numbers, can translate into the kind of weekly chart dominance DC is currently enjoying is the thing to watch heading into the holiday sales season.