Absolute Batman #1 First Printing was the best-selling comic book in comic book stores in 2024, according to the Bleeding Cool Annual Bestseller List, followed by Ultimate Spider-Man #1 First Printing. DC’s Absolute books get four places in the top nine, while Marvel gets three Ultimate titles. The other two are Marvel’s X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #1. Missing is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, despite selling more than all the others, as that was skewed to specific stores that ordered a huge amount of retailer-exclusive variants – including one store ordering over 60 exclusive variants to sell on WhatNot. Also, it is worth knowing that Ultimate Spider-Man has been through seven printings, and Absolute Batman has had four… but only the first printings make it onto the chart. Last year’s chart was almost entirely the Batman and Amazing Spider-Man ongoing comics… and not a single issue of either made it onto this chart. That won’t be the case next year. And why nine instead of ten? That was a quirk of getting the top ten data from ComicHub this year, as a non-eligible item was in the chart and couldn’t be removed…
The list:
- Absolute Batman #1
- Ultimate Spider-Man #1
- Absolute Superman #1
- Absolute Batman #2
- Absolute Wonder Woman #1
- X-Men #1
- Ultimate Spider-Man #2
- Uncanny X-Men #1
- Ultimate Spider-Man #3
The Big Two’s Ultimate/Absolute launches of redesigned characters is paying off handsomely, partly, I suspect, because people are always up for stashing away the first few issues for posterity but also because both initiatives have generated a lot of buzz.
The Ultimate stuff has been really decent as well, I haven’t been as impressed with the Absolute stuff. :(
Yeah, neither have really demanded I must read them. I’ll borrow a few trades at some point or wait for it to trickle down to more niche characters.
I took entirely too long to read Ultimate Black Panther and Ultimate Spider-Man. I bought both but they were just sitting here, taunting me.
Finally knuckled down and powered through them and they are both excellent.
