I certainly did not see this coming. On January 10, 2024, Marvel Comics released Ultimate Spider-Man #1 written by Jonathan Hickman, drawn by Marco Checchetto, colored by Matthew Wilson, and lettered by VC’s Cory Petit. I was excited for this book. I’ve been reading Spider-Man comics since 1993, Jonathan Hickman is my favorite comic book writer ever, and Marco Checchetto is one of the best artists in the industry. In other words, this comic was pretty much a lock to be something I would enjoy. There was no way I wouldn’t have purchased a copy.
I was also pretty confident that it would sell very well. Hickman is practically a brand all his own in terms of name recognition among comic book fans. The “Ultimate” label still appeals to the nostalgia of those who grew up on the original line in the ‘00s. Spider-Man is Marvel’s most popular character, and he’s up there with Batman and Superman as one of the most iconic superheroes of all time. Beyond that, this version of Spider-Man is an adult Peter Parker who is married to Mary Jane (whom he has two children with). This has an instant appeal to a vocal segment of Spider-Man fans who have been begging Marvel to allow Spider-Man to age and remarry Mary Jane in the primary continuity. My confidence was rewarded when Ultimate Spider-Man #1 became the bestselling comic of January. What I did not anticipate was the level of excitement from fans. I saw Ultimate Spider-Man constantly trending on Twitter. Videos about Ultimate Spider-Man were all over my YouTube feed. Copies of Ultimate Spider-Man #1 immediately started popping up on eBay selling for ten times the cover price. It is no longer easy to find the total numbers of copies sold anymore, but I don’t remember seeing this level of buzz and excitement around a Marvel superhero comic book debut since at least Secret Wars #1 from Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic back in 2015. That was also the culmination of stories Hickman had been telling for six years instead of the beginning of a new story.
My first thought was that Marvel had seemingly awoken a sleeping giant within its fan base. It would be easy for the editorial and sales teams to assume their handling of Spider-Man within the main continuity in Amazing Spider-Man was the best approach. The title is consistently one of the top three selling titles based on data from ComicHub every single month. In fact, Amazing Spider-Man #41 from Zeb Wells and John Romita, Jr. was the third bestselling comic book in January. It’s possible, however, that the title is basically a foolproof seller just because of brand recognition and customer loyalty regardless of the content. Could the title be putting up record breaking numbers if it stirred up excitement with a bolder approach to the character instead of playing it safe? This was my working theory for why there was so much excitement for this book. Then along came Ultimate Black Panther #1.
Ultimate Black Panther #1 written by Bryan Edward Hill, illustrated by Stefano Caselli, colored by David Curiel, and lettered by VC’s Cory Petit was just released this past week, and it immediately sold out and went to a second printing. Copies are already showing up on eBay selling at five and six times the cover price. What the hell is going on? It’s far too early to know where this issue will rank among the top selling comics for the month of February, but it’s safe to say it has exceeded even the most optimistic predictions within the industry. Almost none of the potential explanations I made for the success of Ultimate Spider-Man #1 apply to Ultimate Black Panther #1. Hill is a talented and respected writer, but he does not have anywhere close to the same level of name recognition as Hickman. This version of Black Panther has a number of differences from the one in the main continuity, but it isn’t nearly as radical a departure from the main continuity as the Ultimate version of Spider-Man is. While the title could still benefit from nostalgia for the original Ultimate line, the original Ultimate version of Black Panther never even had a solo series to be nostalgic for (conversely, the original Ultimate Spider-Man series ran for 133 issues). Lastly, Black Panther has never been an A-list character for Marvel. For as popular as the character is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that popularity has never translated into comic book sales. The first issue of the current main continuity Black Panther from Eve Ewing and Christopher Allen debuted at eleventh out of ComicHub’s top fifty comics sold in June of 2023, but it had failed to crack the top fifty in any subsequent month.
To find an issue in the top fifty prior to that, you have to go all the way back to Black Panther #1 from John Ridley and Juann Cabal that ranked twenty-third in copies sold in November of 2021. The point here is that there was no historical precedent for the kind of success that Ultimate Black Panther #1 is having.
So the questions now become what is driving the success of Ultimate Black Panther #1, and will that excitement and momentum carry over to Ultimate X-Men #1 that comes out next month from Peach Momoko? To answer that first question, I should probably start by asking myself why I preordered a copy of Ultimate Black Panther #1. I don’t have much of a history of following Black Panther, and I’ve never preordered one of his series prior to this one. I did so primarily because of how excited I was about the birth of this new Ultimate line in Ultimate Invasion from Jonathan Hickman and Bryan Hitch. I had preordered all of the debut titles for this new line as soon as they were available to do so. That included Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Black Panther, and Ultimate X-Men. I plan on preordering the new Ultimates comic written by Deniz Camp (and presumably drawn by Juan Frigeri, but this has not been confirmed) the second it is officially solicited as well. Along with the excitement generated by Ultimate Invasion, I was also encouraged by the way Marvel appeared to be handling the rollout of this new Ultimate line. Much like the rollout of the original Ultimate line, it feels like there is a concerted effort to put a lot of high end talent and resources into making this a serious launch that will propel the company forward into the next several years of publishing. Hickman, Hitch, and Checchetto are all established superstars in the industry. Hill, Caselli, Momoko, Camp, and Frigeri are all quickly becoming some of the biggest young players in the industry as well. There are a lot of reasons to believe that these titles will all be quality products.
Those are the reasons for my personal excitement that could easily translate to excitement among other fans leading to high sales figures. The other potential reason is the speculator market. These are the folks who buy comics the way some people play the stock market. They try to predict what comics will become popular and increase in value, buy up as many copies as they can, and then sell them on the secondary market. Seeing issues of Ultimate Spider-Man #1 and Ultimate Black Panther #1 already selling for outrageous prices on eBay indicates that speculators are already swarming on these books. This practice has always stuck in my craw because I view comic books as pieces of art and literature that are meant to be read and appreciated instead of items meant only for reselling in an attempt to get rich quick. My hope is that this is only a minor factor impacting the high sales numbers. I’m old enough to remember when the comic book industry nearly collapsed in the ‘90s due to the speculator bubble bursting, and I do not want to see a repeat of that disaster.
I will be paying very close attention to how well Ultimate X-Men #1 does next month as well as how future issues of Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate Black Panther perform. Hopefully this is the dawn of a new era in comics publishing that can propel the industry forward in the coming years.