 #1 (August 1990) sold 2.5 million copies, largely due to the variant covers with which Marvel, seeking to capitalize on McFarlane's popularity, published the issue in order to encourage collectors into buying more than one edition.This practice was a result of the comics speculator bubble of the 1990s, which would burst later that decade.McFarlane, unbeknownst to his parents at the time, was making about a million dollars a year.