In June DC Comics fans were left shaking in their Superman skivvies after the publisher announced that it would reset all its continuing series and reintroduce their heroes, as if they were appearing for the first time. The hope was to entice new readers by simplifying decades of lore.

The gambit was risky: if it failed, it could alienate longtime readers and send an already declining industry into a tailspin.

But so far the heroes seem to have won the day. In the last five weeks, since the first of these 52 renumbered or new series were introduced, the sales of DC comics have increased by leaps and bounds. The first issue of the new Justice League, the company’s flagship book, has sold more than 200,000 copies, compared with the roughly 46,000 for each of the last few issues before the reboot.