‘Ultimate Spider-Man’ Tops March 2025 Graphic Novel Sales, ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ Yet Again Fails To Break Top 20
For proof that Marvel Comics’ current run of Ultimate Spider-Man is resonating with far more readers than its mainline Amazing Spider-Man counterpart, look no further than the fact that while the former’s trade paperback releases have again proven themselves as one of the best-selling books month-to-month, the collected editions of the latter have not found themselves in the running for that honor in a very, very long time.
Per ICv2’s recently-released ‘Top 20 Graphic Novels’ report for this past March, despite releasing more than half-way through the month on the 18th, the second volume of writer Jonathan Hickman and artist/colorist duo Marco Checchetto and Matthew Wilson’s Earth-6160 take on the wall-crawler was still the number one selling Western TPB by units across the relevant five-week period.
Coming in at second was the first Image Comics’ Digest Edition Invincible volumes, undoubtedly thanks to the premiere of its Amazon-produced animated adaptation’s third season the month prior, followed by the previous trade of Ultimate Spider-Man in third.
(And while any other time would likely see both regularly-priced-at-$20 Ultimate books also take home the top spots on the ‘per dollar’ chart, the aforementioned Invincible season led to a run on the original comic book’s Compendium releases, the first two of which retail for $65 and the last for $40, which in turn boosted their respective sales chart placements.)
Notably, with its bronze medal finish in March 2025, the first Ultimate TPB has officially placed in the Top 3 for monthly graphic novel sales ever since its first hit shelves in September 2024 – an impressive run of eight months that has not only posted manga-level numbers but also shows no signs of slowing down.
On the other hand, things are going quite the opposite way on Earth-616.
While recent history has seen various Spider-related titles make occasional appearances on ICv2’s graphic novels sales charts, such as Spider-Punk: Battle of the Banned Vol. 1 placing 10th overall by units across the whole of 2023, the last time a TPB of the main, Peter Parker-led Amazing series placed in even the Top 20 was October 2022 when the first volume of Zeb Wells and John Romita Jr.’s now-infamous run took 11th in overall numbers sold.
Admittedly, due to ICv2 locking their extended sales charts behind a premium subscription, it’s unknown by this article’s author where, if at all, any other volumes of Amazing Spider-Man have happened to place in recent years.
But even assuming that they’ve performed held relatively consistent with the last extended sales report from the now-defunct Diamond Comics in April 2022, wherein the third volume of the Ben Reilly-led Beyond arc came in 49th by units and 69th by dollar, Amazing is still getting absolutely trounced every month in TPB sales by Ultimate.
And though the bitter truth of the ongoing Spider-discourse is that Amazing has consistently been one of Marvel Comics’ best-sellers ever since the One More Day disaster, that Ultimate continues to sell so well in collected form while Amazing does not reveals how the former, with its delivering on the fan-demand for a married Peter/MJ and its just generally exceptional writing, offers more appeal to every possible demographic, even those readers who may have abandoned the publisher all together than the latter offers to the most die-hard comic book aficionados.
(And let’s be frank: The fact that every issue of Amazing receives a handful of variant covers, as well as speculators leaping on each ‘BIG ISSUE’ advertised by Marvel, likely plays a not-insignificant-role in the series’ sales.)
For those interested in one of the wall-crawler’s best books in ages, the second TPB of Ultimate Spider-Man is on sale now.
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