Avengers  and New Avengers Sales Figures

Circulation as Reported in Publishers' Statements of Ownership
Filed with the United States Postal Service

Check out our video discussion of this title's postal record!

Marvel's The Avengers brought together several heroes from other titles under the roof of Avengers Mansion: Iron Man (and later Captain America) from Tales of Suspense; Thor from Journey Into Mystery; and Hulk, Wasp, and Ant-Man from Tales to Astonish.

The formula succeeded, providing Marvel with a new team title and a subgroup of heroes within its own universe. When Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor got their own titles, the books were colloquially known as "the Avengers titles," even though all had started elsewhere.

Sales declined with other titles in the 1960s, but held relatively steady through much of the 1970s. Sales improved dramatically in 1979, with modest growth continuing during Jim Shooter's return tenure on the title through to 1984. But sales began to slip in the late 1980s, with sales now split between the main title and West Coast Avengers and, later, Solo Avengers. When the rest of the industry was exploding in sales in the early 1990s, Avengers saw only modest increases.

The title had dwindled to five-figures in the mid-1990s when Marvel brought Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld on board to relaunch part of the Marvel line as part of "Heroes Reborn." Liefeld's Avengers dramatically increased sales on the title, and Avengers had better luck holding onto its gains after "Heroes Return" began than other titles in the experiment had.

But by 2003, sales had again approached pre-Reborn levels, and Marvel rebooted the series as New Avengers under Brian Michael Bendis. Sales soared again, and the title benefitted from its central role in the Civil War storyline in the mid-2000s. Sales slipped during the recession later in the decade, and Marvel rebooted the series a fourth time (again as New Avengers) in 2010, in advance of the 2012 Avengers feature film.

Several more relaunches continued until Marvel restored the original numbering in 2017 — and then did a "Fresh Start" relaunch in 2018 — but the publisher was already done printing circulation statements by then.

Some direct-market only information is available in our monthly reports.

—John Jackson Miller

Statement history
Marvel did not publish Statements of Ownership in the title until 1966. The 1971 and 1972 Statements had minor math errors lower in the entries, and incorrect filing dates were published in the 1987 and 1992 forms. No Statements for 1975 or 1988 appeared in any issues of the title. In 1996 and 1997, the numbering of the series restarted, but the subscriptions from the previous incarnation were carried over. This happened again in 2005, when the series transformed into New Avengers, and again in 2010, when it reverted to a renumbered Avengers. No filing was made for either of the first years of those incarnations, as the postal application was refiled and was still pending.

The 1996 data, which would have taken into account only the pre-reboot issues, appears to have left out most all newsstand sales, both sold and unsold.

Marvel stopped printing Statements after the 2011 publishing year.

Understanding Statements of Ownership
The figures above are taken directly from the annual Statements of Ownership, Management, and Circulation filed by publishers with the United States Postal Service. The sales figure is the Average Paid Circulation figure and includes all copies sold through newsstands, comics shops, and postal subscription. It does not count copies the publisher gave away for free, or copies that were kept for office use.

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