The year started slowly, with no major driving editorial events. On Feb. 7, Marvel announced that it was closing Heroes World and returning distribution to Diamond in April. The final Heroes World month, March, saw DC launch the "blue Superman" editorial event.

    In April 1997, comic-book distribution in the direct market was unified in a single distributor, and Marvel and DC joined for another round of "Amalgam" cross-over issues. May was "Flashback" month at Marvel, a promotion in which negative-numbered issues for its series were published. By June of 1997, Marvel had already announced its plans to end the "Heroes Reborn" project later in the year.

    By July, DC had more than 30 titles on the market more than Marvel each month. DC's "Genesis" and the end of "Heroes Reborn" helped the market to its third-best month of the year in August, but the final month of the promotion was disappointing.

    Heroes Reborn: The Return helped October rebound, while DC unleashed Tangent Comics, an event that did middling numbers. Third volumes began for Fantastic Four and Captain America in the wake of "Heroes Return" in November, but the market was at a hugely reduced level versus the year before. December was a better than average month for retailers in 1997 — still down, but helped by fifth-week sales including Darkness #11, the year's top title with 11 variant covers, and DC's "New Year's Evil" promotion..