Jim Lee's Batman led the way in a January that started off 2003 weakly in comparison with 2002. Diamond began reporting final order sales figures in February, rather than preorders. The first quarter of the year finished down; the 1980s nostalgia revival of 2002 seemed to have peaked.

    Comic book unit sales continued to struggle in April, but Jim Lee's Batman sales began to really catch fire, pointing the way to better numbers in the summer. The relaunched Wolverine helped the market move into positive territory for the year in May. But in June the first half of the year ended basically flat versus the first half of 2002.

    Fantastic Four was restored to its original numbering in this slightly up July. Comics and trade paperback sales lagged behind a year earlier in August but a number of new title launches set up the fall for improvement. Jim Lee's Batman continued to help DC top the charts in September — and the long-awaited JLA/Avengers crossover finally came out.

    October was way up above 2002; Marvel restored the numbering for Amazing Spider-Man, not coincidentally just in time for #500. Marvel took a massive 21 out of the Top 25 slots in November. 2003 closed out only slightly better than 2002 in the wider categories, but the industry kept its string of growth years going nonetheless.