Avengers #1, the new title by Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr. kicking off Marvel’s 'Heroic Age' (see “Thor is an Avenger”), topped the direct market comic charts in May with over 163,000 sold, the bestselling title since Captain America: Reborn #1 in July of 2009.  Secret Avengers #1 was the #4 title in May with around 107,000 sold, and New Avengers Finale #1 was #11, with around 77,000 sold (at $4.99).  Three of the top five dollar books in May were Avengers titles. 

The last issue of Marvel’s Siege, which was supposed to ship in April, was #2 with around 114,000 sold; although not a remarkably impressive number for a major Marvel editorial event, the last issue did outsell the first by around 5%.   

Grant Morrison’s Batman Return of Bruce Wayne and Brightest Day were the top four DC books, with the #1 issues of each topping 100K and the #2s over 90K.  Brightest Day is doing well over-all.

Marvel’s Second Coming mutant storyline is also strong, with most people happy with the storyline and multiple printings on a number of the titles. 

A surprising 2:1 advancers to decliners ratio prevailed in the Top 25 this month, with ten titles up vs. five titles down from the previous issues.  Marvel had 15 of the Top 25, although only four of the Top 10.  DC had the rest. 

As usual, Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer #35 was the top non-Big Two title, at #36.

Graphic novels did not have a great month in comic stores in May, with the top title selling under 5,000 copies.  Perhaps most notable was the fact that Robert Kirkman Image titles (Invincible TP Vol. 12 and The Walking Dead HC Vol. 5) were two of the top five titles, and three of the top 20.  Kick-Ass was still in the top 10 despite a weak performance at the box office for the associated movie. 

The top manga was Dark Horse’s Hellsing Vol. 10, with around 3,600 sold in the direct market in May. 

The first volume of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels was #26, down a bit from #12 in April but still showing strength with the movie not due out until later in the summer.

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

 163,867         Avengers #1
 113,752         Siege #4
 108,534         Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne #1
 106,750         Secret Avengers #1
 103,326         Brightest Day #1 (*)
   93,606         Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne #2
   90,245         Brightest Day #2 (*)
   88,292         Green Lantern #54
   84,843         Batman and Robin #12
   77,056         Uncanny X-Men #524
   76,918         New Avengers Finale #1
   76,560         Flash #2
   71,509         Dark Avengers #16
   68,826         Green Lantern Corps #48
   64,850         X-Men Legacy #236
   62,509         X-Force #27
   62,465         Justice League of America #45
   62,377         Batman #699
   61,779         Thor #610 Epilogue
   60,883         Sentry: Fallen Sun
   57,969         Amazing Spider-Man #630
   57,239         Amazing Spider-Man #631
   56,723         Amazing Spider-Man #632
   56,518         Astonishing Spider-Man Wolverine #1
   55,428         Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis #1

For an analysis of the dollar trends in May, see "Comic Sales Turn Around in May."

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during May, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--May 2010."

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

For our estimates of actual sales by Diamond U.S. from comic specialty stores on comic books shipped during April, see "Top 300 Comics Actual--April 2010."

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

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