ChiSoxRox

There definitely is a lack of elaboration on the Kate-Maggie relationship; going from "the kids are safe but you're still under arrest" to "Yes! I'll marry you!" had to have taken at least some consideration. Heck, we didn't even get to see the Yes the first time. Batwoman #23 was a step in the right direction (where Kate re-proposes after some talking), but there hasn't been much else.

However, I think that might change now that Jamie Sawyer is in the picture. We've heard how protective Maggie is of her daughter, and if Jamie is around, that's a pretty strong impetus for Maggie to iron out any ongoing uncertainties. Personally, I'm an avid fan of Kate/Mags, and would love to see significant character progress between them (and no DC, that doesn't mean a cliched rush into bickering over wedding plans, especially since that got iced).

I loved the last issue -- the art on the hallucinogen trip was well-executed, and cross matching the references gave me a delightful excuse to dig through the series/Elegy archives. But poor Jamie -- her first impression of her future step mom is some bloody nut in the bathroom. I'm hoping Maggie's plan of calming her daughter down (once Kate is back to clean and in civilian clothes) is for Kate to really get to know Jamie (giving us a gauge on how well Kate does in the meantime). My gut sense is that DC is going to keep Mags and Kate together for at least the foreseeable future; given how much flack they (rightfully) caught over the wedding cancellation and Williams/Blackman jetting out I don't think DC wants the attention of breaking them up.

Batwing has been in the bottom ten for over a year now (since November 2012), so I have no idea what DC is planning with that title.

I will be awaiting this...

@papinacho: Keep in mind most books see about a third of the audience leave by the second issue, which would drop JL 3000 to 40k and likely 11th place. It's doing well enough it will stick around, but it's lower than I think DC would have hoped.

@hulyushay: The Bat Family books (Nightwing, Batgirl, etc.) are coming off Zero Year tie-ins, which presumably brought in that big pool of Batman series readers; the rest seems to just be steady readership drop. I'd be curious in digital sales, but there doesn't seem to be any public releases on those

Here's a list from an Excel sheet I'm maintaining of the sales figures for each series in the New 52, for those who want to see how their favorite title is trending. The figures are taken from Diamond Comic Distributors (via Comichron), who keeps track of this sort of thing. In the following tables, assume the November issue is #25 unless otherwise noted. To make the chart easier to read, I put in the ranking for every fifth series.

Series in italics have already been cancelled. Here are November numbers.

Not counting the Forever Evil miniseries, the New 52 (or 48) sold 1,682,569 issues, down 6.93% from last month. The Bat Family books have come off their Zero Year bumps, and the flagship Bat title is back to the only DC title over 100k in sales. Among those slight drops is my Batwoman, who so far is weathering the creator shift well, at least sales-wise.

But that decline is worrisome in light of a top five book returning and a new debut. Note in the table that the two issues of Justice League last month are in the proper columns per issue numbers, but even without the first issue's numbers added to November, this month saw a sales decline; the monthly change was larger (around 115k down) than the sales numbers of any issue other than Batman. Put another way, not even Justice League's readership returning this month can cancel the natural decline.

The real bad news for DC is where Justice League 3000 debuted: 57,726 issues and edging out a first wave volume for seventh place. That's not a death sentence by any means -- it still did more than twice the first issues of a DOA title like Green Team -- but it's not something to celebrate considering Superman/Wonder Woman launched with almost twice as many sales. Expect JL 3000 to hang around, but to slide down to the middle of the pack quickly.

Speaking of Superman/Wonder Woman, my prediction held up as the lovebirds perched right on the edge of the top 10. Next week, they may be in the same ranking as Batman and ____ is the only title left in the 40k range, but they've now lost almost half that initial audience in two issues.

Overall, it was not a good month for the New 52. Only two titles (Constantine and Phantom Stranger) saw gains, and the once sizable group of titles bobbing along in the 40k range (Flash, Batgirl, Aquaman, Nightwing, etc.) have slumped into the 30s. Meanwhile, Green Team set a new record of futility at 317th place industry-wide, and the number of books below 20k (a good estimate of the danger zone) hit a new high (unlucky 13).

In short: no Christmas bump for DC.

New numbers out Monday; here's the top 10 for December.

Superman/Wonder Woman is likely right on the edge of the top 10 for DC (Batman, FE, SU, JL, HQ, JLA, and then places 7 to 9 are likely Detective, Green Lantern, and Batman & ____).

@timelord: Stormwatch is cancelled too, hence the italics in my table.

As for Constantine, yeah he is getting low but he is still outside the bottom 10. DC seems to cancel 4 books at a time on average, so Constantine has a buffer of bad titles that should go before he would. As well, I'm thinking him being a former flagship Vertigo title will help him hang on. I expect him to still be around in 2015.

True; unfortunately the people with the digital sales numbers don't release them to the public. As well, technically this is shipment numbers; if a comic sits on the store shelf forever it still gets counted.

Keep in mind guys that it is the first issue. Still, she ought to be able to stay in the top five next month, and the top ten for the foreseeable future.

Yeah, and honestly I can't blame them. I'm still getting the series, but I already miss the old writing and art.