Quick TakeArticle at a glance
- Marvel's Midnight Universe line has crossed 1 million combined retailer orders across its three September 23, 2026 debut issues, Marvel confirmed — enough to send all three straight to second printings.
- Marvel announced the milestone on September 23, 2026, the same day Bleeding Cool first published the comparative order numbers against DC's Absolute Batman #24, which hit shops that same Wednesday.
- The three Midnight Universe #1s — Midnight Spider-Man, Midnight X-Men and Midnight Fantastic Four — combined for more than 1,000,000 orders from comic shops before their September 23, 2026 release, Marvel said.
Marvel’s Midnight Universe line has crossed 1 million combined retailer orders across its three September 23, 2026 debut issues, Marvel confirmed — enough to send all three straight to second printings. But according to order figures reported by Bleeding Cool the same day, a single issue of DC’s Absolute Batman still out-ordered Marvel’s entire three-book launch by itself.
Marvel announced the milestone on September 23, 2026, the same day Bleeding Cool first published the comparative order numbers against DC’s Absolute Batman #24, which hit shops that same Wednesday.
What Marvel Actually Announced
The three Midnight Universe #1s — Midnight Spider-Man, Midnight X-Men and Midnight Fantastic Four — combined for more than 1,000,000 orders from comic shops before their September 23, 2026 release, Marvel said. Retailer interest was strong enough across all three titles that Marvel is sending each one back to press for a second printing, due in stores October 28, 2026 with new “uncloaked” variant covers that drop the line’s cloaked-cover gimmick and show the art in full. Comic Book Club independently reported the same million-order figure the same day.
That is a real number for a line built around three separate #1s rather than one single launch issue, and it lands the Midnight Universe among Marvel’s stronger horror-inflected relaunches of the year.
How Absolute Batman #24 Still Won
Bleeding Cool’s retailer-order figures put a single issue — Absolute Batman #24, the issue that debuts Barbara Gordon as the new Bat — at roughly 500,000 orders on its own, or close to half of what Marvel’s three new #1s pulled in combined. That is a notable number for a title roughly two years into its run rather than a debut issue riding launch hype, and it means one ongoing DC book is still outperforming three brand-new Marvel #1s stacked together.
It is worth being precise about what these numbers measure: both figures are retailer orders placed ahead of street date, the standard way the direct market tracks demand, not final point-of-sale receipts from comic shops. Marvel and DC don’t publish sell-through data, so orders are the closest public number the industry has — and by that measure, Absolute Batman is still setting the pace.
Why One Ongoing DC Book Keeps Beating Marvel’s New Launches
This is not a one-off. DC captured nearly double Marvel’s comic-shop market share for the week of September 1-7, 2026, largely on the strength of the Absolute line, and Absolute Batman specifically has held retailer orders around half a million per issue for most of 2026. The read here isn’t that Marvel’s Midnight Universe underperformed — three #1s combining for over a million orders is a genuinely strong number. It’s that DC built a single ongoing book with enough momentum to out-order an entire new line by itself, which is a much harder thing to sustain than a launch-week spike.
| Book | Publisher | Status | Reported Retailer Orders |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midnight Spider-Man #1 | Marvel | New #1, Sept. 23, 2026 | Part of 1,000,000+ combined |
| Midnight X-Men #1 | Marvel | New #1, Sept. 23, 2026 | Part of 1,000,000+ combined |
| Midnight Fantastic Four #1 | Marvel | New #1, Sept. 23, 2026 | Part of 1,000,000+ combined |
| Absolute Batman #24 | DC | Ongoing, ~2 years into run | ~500,000 (single issue) |
What Happens Next
All three Midnight Universe second printings ship October 28, 2026. None of the three titles has a confirmed issue count yet, so whether the line holds its launch-week orders into a #2 and #3 is the real test — first issues routinely outsell later ones once the direct market’s initial order window closes. Absolute Batman, for its part, is going on a two-month hiatus after issue #25, which will be the next real test of whether its order strength survives a break.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Marvel’s Midnight Universe?
Midnight Universe is a horror-inflected Marvel relaunch built around three separate September 23, 2026 debut issues: Midnight Spider-Man, Midnight X-Men and Midnight Fantastic Four, each shipping with a “cloaked” cover that conceals the interior art until a variant reveals it.
How many copies did the Midnight Universe launch sell?
Marvel says the three #1 issues combined for more than 1,000,000 retailer orders ahead of their September 23, 2026 release, enough for all three to receive second printings.
Did Absolute Batman really outsell all of Marvel’s new titles combined?
One single issue, Absolute Batman #24, was ordered by retailers at roughly 500,000 copies, according to Bleeding Cool — about half of Marvel’s combined three-title total, from one ongoing book rather than three new #1s.
When do the Midnight Universe second printings come out?
Marvel has set October 28, 2026 for the second-printing “uncloaked” variant covers of all three Midnight Universe #1s.
Are these sales figures or orders?
They’re retailer orders placed ahead of street date, the standard public metric in the direct market. Neither Marvel nor DC publishes final point-of-sale sell-through numbers.
