Justice League of America Tie-In Books Disappoint in February Sales

Diamond Comics Distributors have released their Top 100 for the month of February 2013, revealing that both Justice League of America's Vibe and Katana failed to crack the top fifty in domestic, single-issue comic book sales last month. Vibe came in at #78 and Katana at #80, performing below books like Supergirl, Swamp Thing, Animal Man and Talon. The Katana numbers probably aren't a huge surprise--that a fairly unrecognized character managed to outsell Justice League Dark (#85) and Birds of Prey (#99) is probably as good a sign as DC could have expected. The creative team--Ann Nocenti and Alex Sanchez--aren't exactly guaranteed sellers, either. On the other hand, the involvement of Arrow showrunner Andrew Kreisberg and DC's Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, coupled with an aggressive promotional campaign and even that unweildy title meant to draw eyes, should have helped Vibe along a little bit. It's been a long time since Johns launched a title that debuted out of the top 50; back in 2007, Booster Gold came in at #58, but that was during Countdown, World War Hulk and the Sinestro Corps War, three major events with weekly installments that forced other items down the sales charts. The failure of these books to connect with a wider audience is even more notable because Justice League of America, the parent title that was supposed to lift their profile, topped the sales charts and sold nearly twice what the number 2 book (Uncanny X-Men #1) did. While no concrete numbers are available, Diamond charts sales based on the percentage that any given comic sells of Batman. Batman, the #3 book of the month, is obviously always 100%, but this month Uncanny X-Men is around 117% and Justice League of America is 204%.