word on the street is storm and wolverine isn't that great given the sales for issue 3 being the lowest so far... 👀
This sounds like the take of someone who doesn't understand what they're talking about. But I got time - I'll shed some knowledge.
Comic sales are based on many things, but the biggest factor is the amount of units ordered for the issue. So for example, if shops only ordered 10k of Book A and it sold out vs. 50k of Book B and it sold 50% of its stock, the second book will have better sales no matter what because it had more units available for purchase. But you can argue that the popularity of Book A is higher given it sold 100% of its units.
The other thing to factor in is what's considered when units are ordered. Comic shops look at the character, their history with selling for that character at their shop, and - very important - the reception of the previous issues. If issues 2 and 3 sold well, they'll buy a lot of issue 4... if issues 2 and 3 weren't strong sellers, then they become more conservative with how many of issue 4 they order, and so on.
In the case of Storm, who has a history of not selling well long-term, she's not going to get a high order from shops. Issue 1 was high simply because it's the first issue, but then it was a big drop in units ordered for issue 2 and then another drop for issue 3. Again, comic shops are understandably conservative with their orders given her history.
But you mentioned issue 3, so let's talk about that one specifically. If anything, the sales of issue 3 are more of an indication of issues 1 and 2, because the reception to those issues is what shop owners would rely on to know how much to order for issue 3 (they have to place the orders weeks in advance and then can order again right before the final cutoff). And given that issue 3 was selling out at shops AND sold out at the distributor level, it sounds to me like the reception was pretty damn good and that shops didn't order enough to begin with (and this all indicates that if the initial order for issue 3 had been higher, the sales would have been, too). And considering the issue was mainly a filler issue, it's actually very impressive that it even made the Top 50 for the month and was Top 10 for its highly competitive week.
An even bigger indicator that it was well-received was the spike in issue 4's sales. More units of issue 4 were ordered - why? Because shops saw how well issue 3 was selling, and they didn't want to be in a position where they didn't have enough supply to meet the demand again. And guess what, when issue 4 sold well, they ordered more of issue 5 - and that one also had high sales because again more units were available to purchase. And this isn't speculation by the way - the author of the series AND comic shops (including mine and those of my friends who are also shop owners) confirmed more of issues 4 and 5 were ordered based on the reception of the prior issue. Murewa Ayodele has even said they (Marvel) were surprised and excited by how well issue 3 did considering Storm's track record, and its reception along with the subsequent increase in orders for issues 4 and 5 is what allowed the series to be greenlit to go beyond issue 10.
Now was this all due to the Storm and Wolverine of it all? I don't think so. It certainly was a major factor considering it was all over social media and drowned out discussion of pretty much anything else happening in comics that week - people were interested in it and were curious about what would come next with two of the most popular X-Men characters ever. But I also think the tease of a pending confrontation with Sorcerer Supreme Doom also added to it, and the fact that it's actually just a very good book with solid word of mouth. But at the same time, if you're quick to lay blame on the issue's "failure" on the sex scene, you better be just as ready to give it credit for its success.
But I say all this to say... just be quiet. Things are much more complex than these dumbass shipping wars, and trying to draw conclusions from the tiny bit you see online ends up making you look stupid. People read the book for a multitude of reasons, and I personally don't care what those reasons are. We have a really good Storm series going right now that people are supporting - stop being petty and just enjoy the damn ride.
