[SPEAKER_00]: DC Comics sold big in 2025.
[SPEAKER_00]: Diamond is officially done so.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ultimate Endgame gets damaged.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stasis comic book club news for January 5, 2026.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who wants some catch-up for the new year?
[SPEAKER_00]: You do!
[SPEAKER_00]: Way back in December of 2025, the Hollywood Reporter put out a big end of year Hollywood report about the state of DC Comics.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's state?
[SPEAKER_00]: Pretty good!
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, most of the article is essentially a victory lap for the publisher.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's some actual figure shares, specifically
[SPEAKER_00]: Equate to absolute universe line of monthly comics as sold over 8.2 million units in total, not accounting for December sales.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolute Batman, the flagship title continues to make up around 35% close to 3 million of that total.
[SPEAKER_00]: First issue of absolute Batman continues to sell well, and is now in its 10th printing, while the latest issue absolute Batman number 15 has orders of over 300,000.
[SPEAKER_00]: The trade also notes that, quote, five of the six titles have outpaste and outperform DC's previous re-launches and reboots, 2011's new 52 and 2016's Rebirth, even absolute Martian Man Hunter received orders of the six figures.
[SPEAKER_00]: As for the main line of comics, the real winner is Batman.
[SPEAKER_00]: The titular hero dominating sales and the bet fraction Jorge Jimenez reboot of the title garnering more sales issue by issue, a rarity in the industry.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, while we don't have exact sales figures for the house of ideas, on charts like those provided by ICV2, Marvel makes up and volume with a mightlack in individual title sales.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meaning at least going into 2026, Marvel is still number one, though they absolutely should watch out for DC.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You won't have Diamond Comics distributors to kick around any more for real this time.
[SPEAKER_00]: As the company was officially for real, 100% closed down on December 31st.
[SPEAKER_00]: Perth of the beat, not only did the company close the doors on its office, but they let go the last of the remaining employees, leading to some poignant goodbye messages from those who were made.
[SPEAKER_00]: As for the company, the tiny pieces leftful rebrand is Diamond Select and become part of a
[SPEAKER_00]: That said, over a year of the most Byzantine business finankeling seen in the comic book industry since, well, the last time something this weird happened as for whether there will be even more legal issues going forward into twenty twenty six.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, probably somehow.
[SPEAKER_00]: The blind bag conditions of Marvel's ultimate and game number one were widely reported to be damaged, released on December 31st, multiple comic book stores and purchasers noted on social media that the packages they received were improperly packed.
[SPEAKER_00]: The culprit?
[SPEAKER_00]: The blind bags are larger than the comics.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meaning the books tended to shuffle around while shipping, damaging the spines.
[SPEAKER_00]: And particularly for a book meant to be collectible, featuring everything from cardstock prints of the main cover to unique sketches signed by Robert Daddy Jr. that instantly downgrades the values.
[SPEAKER_00]: Subsequently, multiple stores noted they were pulling the blind bags from circulation, not selling them to customers, and sending them back to the distributor.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, and this is addict.
[SPEAKER_00]: The blind bag seemed to be a hit, at least for those who were able to pick them up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Videos of opening the bag's dominated video platforms like TikTok.
[SPEAKER_00]: While some fans noted the damage, others wondered what the big deal was.
[SPEAKER_00]: The silver lining potentially, despite shipping a ridiculous number of copies, with some printings of the issue being said back to Penguin Random House, which distributes Marvel's books, that could drive up the price of those left.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as of this recording, a curse-reglance at eBay shows unique sketch covers selling anywhere
[SPEAKER_00]: For comic book club news, I'm Alex Albin, and happy new year!
[SPEAKER_00]: You're all cut up now.