The 2010s featured a slew of heavy hitters coming out on the comic book market but nothing was bigger than Star Wars. The decade saw DC publish Detective Comics #1000 and a handful of #1 issues from all different publishers hit the top-100 list. However, Marvel’s Star Wars #1 reigned supreme as the top-selling single issue from 2010 to the end of 2019.
It comes as little surprise Marvel’s Star Wars #1 by Jason Aaron, John Cassady, and Laura Martin ranks above its competition as the best-selling issue of the decade according to PREVIEWSworld. For starters, Marvel’s first Star Wars comic after acquiring the franchise was always going to make serious noise. Factor in the number of variants (there was more than 50 in total) its spot makes perfect sense.
Marvel confirmed with CBR back in 2014 that the issue would exceed more than 1 million copies sold. Marvel led the pack with five comics reaching the top-ten including Star Wars #1, The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (3), Secret Wars #1 (4), The Amazing Spider-Man #800 (9), and Star Wars: Vader Down #1 (10). DC Comics had three entries, Detective Comics #1000 (2), Action Comics #1000 (5) and Dark Knight III Master Race #1 (8). Boom! Studios Bravest Warriors: Tales Holo John #1 ranked 6th and IDW Publishing’s Orphan Black #1 checked in at 7th. Meanwhile Boom! Studios almost cracked the top-10 twice with Big Trouble Little China Escape New York hitting the 11th spot on the list.
In news that will surprise nobody, Marvel and DC Comics dominated the list with 92/100 comics coming from the big two according to CBR. Image Comics picked up five of those non-Marvel/DC spots, with The Walking Dead #100, #115 and #132 all ranking within the top-20. Spawn #300 (36) and #301 (89) also cracked the list. Taking the 100th spot on the list was, surprise, surprise, Star Wars: Poe Dameron #1.
Star Wars is a dominant force for Marvel Comics at the moment. With the momentum from starting an all-new trilogy, mixed in with the franchise coming back to where it originally started (in the comics), it was the perfect concoction to blow up sales for the first issue and ensuing series’. Marvel smartly packaged Star Wars #1 in a variety of different ways with a ton of variants - a strategy that’s been emulated since. So, while 10+ variants might seem like too much for some comic buyers, it’s still helping Marvel pull big numbers when it comes to sales.
Hopefully, 2020-29 will see more up-and-coming comic book companies land on the next version of this list. While Marvel and DC have earned the right to dominate, there’s nothing wrong with a little variety in the top-100 mixed in with the big Marvel’s Star Wars books.
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