Well, that's a statistic and a half. I understand from someone with access to such figures, that Marvel Comics have received more preorders for Avengers Vs X-Men #1 than they did for Civil War #1. It looks as if, for the direct market, AvX #1 will be the best selling comic for 2012.

Marvel have bet the farm on this one. Buying advertising, creating very attractive incentives for retailers to order large, and promoting it up the wazoo. Well, we'd previously heard that this weekend, Marvel had received over 200,000 in orders. And I understand that after this week, it's a bit more…

Civil War #1 was a high point for Marvel, since the final days of the nineties boom, and saw orders on related series increase massively as well. It set the stage for a series of Marvel "Event" comics, none of which managed to attract the same interest or acclaim that Civil War garnered. That book was a suprise by just how much a hit it was and cemented Mark Millar's reputation in the industry as a hit maker, with Marvel even choosing to put the rest of their titles on hold when subsequent issues of Civil War were delayed. It was a more innocent time.

Final orders for the series are now due on Monday. Something tells me it won't be too hard to find a copy when it's published next month…