Secret Invasion #1, the first issue in Marvel’s newest editorial event, launched at a high level, with over 250,000 copies sold by Diamond Comic Distributors to independent retailers in April.  This compares very favorably to the first issue of Civil War, which sold only 10,000 more copies, at 260,804 only 4% more, two years ago in May of 2006.

Secret Invasion also topped the graphic novel list, where Diamond sold over 7200 copies of the $19.99 Secret Invasion: The Infiltration TP in April. 

DC's Countdown to Final Crisis series wrapped up with the final issues at around 70,000 each. 

Marvel had nine out of the top ten comics, and 15 out of the top 25 comics in April. 

Nine out of the top 25 titles were higher than the previous issue; 12 of the top 25 were lower.     

Here are ICv2's estimates of the sales by Diamond Comic Distributors to comic stores on the top 25 comic titles in April:

250,263   Secret Invasion #1 (Of 8) SI

110,470   New Avengers #40 SI

103,029   Dark Tower: The Long Road Home #2 (Of 5)

  97,239   Mighty Avengers #12 SI

  93,369   Uncanny X-Men #497 DWS

  92,487   Hulk #3

  91,981   Thor #8

  86,902   Amazing Spider-Man #555

  85,807   Justice League of America #20

  85,750   X-Force #3 DWS

  83,580   Buffy the Vampire Slayer #13

  80,635   Captain America #37

  80,507   Justice Society of America #14

  78,458   Amazing Spider-Man #556

  77,441   X-Men Legacy #210 DWS

  77,057   Amazing Spider-Man #557

  75,584   Titans #1

  72,703   Countdown to Final Crisis 1

  71,593   Young X-Men #1 DWS

  71,138   Batman #675

  70,163   Countdown to Final Crisis 2

  69,829   Countdown to Final Crisis 3

  69,630   Countdown to Final Crisis 4

  65,568   Cable #1 DWS

  65,347   Green Lantern #30

We are estimating actual sales by Diamond U.S. (primarily to North American comic stores), using Diamond's published sales indexes and publisher sales data to estimate a sales number for Batman (the anchor title Diamond uses in its calculations), and using that number and the indexes to estimate Diamond's sales on the remaining titles.  We can check the accuracy of our numbers by comparing the Batman number that we calculate using multiple data points; our numbers for Batman are within 1/10 of 1% of each other, ensuring a high degree of accuracy.

For an analysis of the dollar trends in April, see "Comic Sales Slip in April."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during April, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--April 2008."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during April, see "Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--April 2008."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during March, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--March 2008."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during March, see "Top 100 Graphic Novels Actual--March 2008."

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through April 2008, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 100 GNs Index."