The penultimate issue of DC’s Blackest Night, at over 130,000 copies sold in February, was up 30% from the previous issue’s first month sales.  Blackest Night was also unusually strong for February, the month that is traditionally the weakest comics sales month of the year, with the highest sales for the top comic seller since November.

Marvel’s Siege #2 had a remarkably strong performance as well, holding virtually unchanged from its sales on #1. 

There were still only two titles with sales above 100,000, not an auspicious month over-all. 

Marvel won the top 25 by an unusually small margin, beating DC by only 13 titles to 12.  A fairly typical 16 out of the top 25 titles were down in sales vs. the previous issue, eight were up.    

Dark Horse had the top title not from the Big Two, with Buffy the Vampire Slayer #32 coming in at #28 (around 48,000 copies sold).  That was the only title from a non-Big Two company in the top 80 comics in February. 

Fables Vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover topped the graphic novel chart, with nearly 12,000 first-month sales.  Marvel's Kick-Ass Premium HC came in at #2 in the run-up to the movie, with around 9000 copies sold. 

Viz had the top manga title, with Naruto Vol. 47 coming in at #4 with around 5100 copies sold.

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

 130,613   Blackest Night #7 (of 8)
 108,429   Siege #2 (of 4)
 95,509     Green Lantern #51
 87,302     Batman and Robin #8
 84,562     Batman and Robin #9
 76,639     Dark Avengers #14
 76,405     New Avengers #62
 75,404     Green Lantern Corps #45
 70,824     Flash Rebirth #6 (of 6)
 67,049     Uncanny X-Men #521
 66,973     Thor #607
 65,348     Blackest Night: The Flash #3 (of 3)
 63,568     Captain America #603
 61,290     Batman #696
 59,860     Amazing Spider-Man #620
 59,159     Ultimate Comics X #1
 58,700     Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #3 (of 3)
 57,522     Justice League of America #42
 55,350     Amazing Spider-Man  #621
 54,906     Blackest Night: JSA #3 (of 3)
 53,958     Dark Wolverine #83
 53,929     Amazing Spider-Man #622
 53,721     Adventure Comics w/ Black Lantern Superboy #7
 51,962     Hulk #20
 51,344     X-Men Legacy #233 XN

For an analysis of the dollar trends in February, see "Comic Sales Edge Lower in February."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during February, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--February 2010."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during February, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--February 2010."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books scheduled to ship during January, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--January 2010."

For our estimates of actual orders to Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on graphic novels scheduled to ship during January, see "Top 300 Graphic Novels Actual--January 2010."

For our index to our reports on the top comic and graphic novel preorders for January 2000 through February 2010, see "ICv2's Top 300 Comics and Top 300 GNs Index."