Since DC's relaunch went wide in September the "New 52" have outsold Marvel comic books, reversing a four year industry trend of downward sales. The figures represent the number of comics sold to stores and outlets, and not those bought by customers, but there is no doubt that DC's relaunch has been a success, at least financially.
Here are the figures from DC's best sellers in 2011 courtesy of THR..
Justice League no. 1, written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Jim Lee, which has shipped 361,138 copies since its August launch and has gone to press five times;
Batman no. 1, written by Scott Snyder and penciled by Greg Capulo, which has sold 262,379 copies in two printings;
Action Comics no. 1, which sold 250,898 copies, going back to the press three times.
Those numbers, accurate as of Dec 13, easily rank those books as some of the decade's best. By contrast, Marvel’s best-selling 2011 comic was Ultimate Spider-Man no. 160, which featured the death of the hero and shipped 159,355 copies in June.
Apparently Marvel can still lay claim to having the best selling book of the decade with
Amazing Spider-Man #583, the one with Barack Obama on the cover, shipping 530,500 issues. As THR note, such a successful relaunch for DC could well
boost in-development projects at Warners like Justice League and influence the future of Batman, Superman and Flash..