September 2026 Top 50 Single Issues Chart

Commentary by Walt

After a less exciting month, we're entering new territory here.

I'm writing this from my hotel room in New York, looking out at brightly lit skyscrapers, and I keep telling myself: Don't let it go to your head. Just a snapshot in time. But still: this is our best single-issue sales month, BY FAR.

Heiko showed me our latest Pullbox numbers, and we've almost doubled since January. Sure, there are special factors, like six weeks of DC releases and five weeks of Marvel. And Midnight is already making quite an impact. But still: it's massive.

I'm simply grateful. For the incredible ammount of quality comics coming out right now, and for our amazing customers, who carry us from one peak to the next while enjoying what might just be the best era for single issues since the late 80s and early 90s.

OK, enough of the blabla. Let's get to the juicy bits.

And those begin with an absolute shocker: Amazing Spider-Man #1000. We sold out of everything, all covers, and even most of the high priced incentives. An amount of revenue we've only previously only achieved with Marvel blind bags. Without blind bags, this is easily the best-selling Marvel single issue in our shop history.

From what I've heard here in New York from the distribution side, everyone was completely blown away by how high the sales were. And for a $9.99 comic, no less!! Why this particular issue? Nobody can really explain it. I haven't read it myself, and while the reviews have mostly been positive, we've had plenty of anniversary issues like this before. Maybe somehow people just WANT to be excited about Marvel again? And Midnight wasn't ready yet? That's my explanation.

After that, the usual suspects line up. Places #2 through #10 are exclusively DC. I'd particularly like to highlight Teen Titans #1 at #10, which is a really strong launch for this Next Level series. Kyle Higgins seems to have been exactly the right choice. I'm curious to see how well it holds up.

Doom Patrol #1 also had a fantastic start at #14. It was a great introduction to the world of Doom Patrol, but even for longtime fans like me, it was a lot of fun to meet some old friends again. And the creative team of Darcy Van Poelgeest (Little Bird!) and Niko Henrichon really delivered.

At #22, we have Batman of Two Worlds. These are only the copies we actually sold. More than eight times as many went out for free during our two Batman Days! Btw, Batman Day was a real blast this year, and DC absolutely nailed it with this exclusive release.

At #24 things get interesting. Just released, with absolutely no subscription sales included, the first Midnight title already enters the chart: Midnight Spider-Man #1. These are purely new sales from release day and maybe another half a day after that. 🤪

Midnight is a already massive success, and in our subscription numbers, Midnight Spider-Man and Midnight X-Men are now sitting directly behind Absolute Batman and (!!!) ahead of the regular Batman series! So Marvel has finally managed to break into our Top 5 with an ongoing series.

But just so it's not all sunshine and rainbows, there's also Legion of Super-Heroes #1. We were extremely bullish on this title and ordered massive quantities. Unfortunately, that didn't work out. A debut at #25 is not too bad, in theory. But with fans having been eagerly awaiting a new series for years, and now helmed by a top creative team in Joshua Williamson and Hayden Sherman, plus a really great first issue.... the sales numbers are underwhelming. But that's okay. It keeps me grounded to see that I can still get things spectacularly wrong. And I can only warmly recommend that everyone pick this one up. Hayden Sherman is the artist superstar of our time, as far as I'm concerned.

In the second half of the Top 50, we find the other two Midnight titles, along with several #1 issues from DC, Marvel and Image. Pretty much as expected. Have nothing clever or insightful to add about them.

That's it for September (with a little bit of October).

Be sure to grab those Midnight titles and get ready for a new head-to-head race:

Marvel is back in the game.