DC’s Batman and Robin #1 topped all comics in the direct market in June with sales over 168,000 copies, the bestselling comic since the Obama Amazing Spider-Man in January.  The bulked-up Captain America #600 (2 covers--50/50 ratio; $4.99 cover price) came in at #2 with sales to comic stores of over 112,000 copies (and was the #1 dollar comic), but for at least some stores, with no major revelations the sell-through was weaker than expected.

Marvel’s Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men Utopia #1, the "chapter one" kickoff for the Dark Avengers/X-Men crossover event, was the #3 title, but it was unable to top 100,000 copies.  Two titles over 100,000 was better than May, when no titles achieved that distinction.

In the post-Battle for the Cowl era, the Batman-related titles performed strongly with four titles placing in the Top 25.  Batman #687 (with Dick Grayson in the Bat suit) was the #4 title selling 96,913 copies.  Detective Comics #854, featuring the new Batwoman in the lead (and a new regular $3.99 cover price), came in at #13 with 72,808 copies sold.  Red Robin #1 sold 64,261 copies for the #19 spot.  Also, Batman: Gotham Streets #1 debuted at the #28 position with 57,650 copies and Gotham City Sirens #1 came in at #32 with 52,439 copies.

But nine Dark Reign titles from Marvel were the biggest cluster of titles in the top 25.  The bestseller in the group, Dark Avengers, which shipped two issues this month, sold in the mid-90s.  New Avengers, last month's number one title, slipped down to the #7 spot shedding some 6,300 copies.

Eight titles were up vs. 14 down vs. the previous issue in the top 25, a fairly typical mix.

Marvel and DC were unusually dominant, with the first title not from one of the Big Two (Dark Horse's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Vampires one-shot) not appearing until #37.  The next non-Big Two title, Dynamite Entertainment's Project Superheroes: Chapter Two #0 $1.00 book, did not appear until the #66 position.

The bestselling graphic novel in comic stores in June, DC's Final Crisis hardcover, sold 8,219 copies.  The #2 graphic novel, DC's All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder Vol. 1 TP, sold 5,579 copies.  And the #3 graphic novel was Deadpool Vol 1: Secret Invasion TP with 5,385 copies.

For the second month in a row, returns from the Watchmen consignment program outweighed new sales, leaving Watchmen off the Top 300 Graphic Novel list.

In market share, IDW was a solid #3 in both pieces and dollars, ahead of perennial #3 Dark Horse.  Two other publishers with strength in licensed books are also showing share growth:  Dynamite Entertainment was #6, BOOM! Studios was #7.

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

168,604        Batman and Robin #1
112,287        Captain America #600
  97,680        Dark Avengers / Uncanny X-Men Utopia #1 DAX
  96,913        Batman #687
  95,746        Dark Avengers #5 DKR
  93,634        Dark Avengers #6 DKR
  88,067        New Avengers #54 DKR
  87,339        Ultimatum #4 (of 5)
  84,131        Green Lantern #42
  83,086        Flash Rebirth #3 (of 6)
  80,780        Dark Wolverine #75 DKR
  76,283        Uncanny X-Men #512
  72,808        Detective Comics #854
  71,148        Uncanny X-Men #511
  69,568        Thor #602
  66,186        Wolverine #74
  65,010        Mighty Avengers #25 DKR
  64,608        Astonishing X-Men #30
  64,261        Red Robin #1
  63,574        Green Lantern Corps #37
  63,525        Amazing Spider-Man #596 DKR
  63,178        Mighty Avengers #26 DKR
  61,646        Amazing Spider-Man #597 DKR
  61,585        Amazing Spider-Man #598 DKR
  61,115        Justice League of America #34

For an analysis of the dollar trends in June, see "Comic Sales Up in June."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during June, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--June 2009."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during June, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--June 2009."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during May, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--May 2009."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during May, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--May 2009."

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through June 2009, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."

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