Nappaland's BookBlog Review

Face front, Marvel fans! Your prayers have been answered because Marvel Comics has now entered the digital age with full commercial force.

Really, it’s not that bad of a deal. For the cost of a single monthly fee ($5 a month for a year’s subscription, $10 month to month), you can access thousands (about 2500 right now) of Marvel’s comics, both old and new. Considering what a single comic, or one of the anthologies, costs, that’s pretty good.

The one catch, however, is that your access to the comics depends on your continued subscription. The comics are viewed through a special online viewing browser. You can’t download them, print them out, or save them to your hard drive. But it’s not really a big deal, in my opinion.

The site itself is pretty self-explanatory. Within a few minutes you’ll be able to figure it out and start browsing through your favorite titles. You can also read the first few pages of dozens of free comics if you haven’t quite made up your mind yet. This is a nice feature, since it lets you see what it will really be like to read the comics on your computer.

As for the experience itself, it’s pretty darn good. The page images are made from the original files used to print them and generally look great. It’s a bit different larger computer monitor (most laptop screens won’t be big enough), you’ll have to do some zooming. The resolution is excellent, though, and it’s a treat to be able to zoom in until one amazing panel takes up the whole screen, which helps make up for the limitations of the medium.

As for the selection and organization (which is what most people will judge the service by), Marvel did a fine job…so far. You can browse by series, author, characters, age, etc., or you can search through special groupings called Collection Highlights (origin stories, special events, etc.) and Fan Favorites (Spidey’s greatest villains, Marvel classic #1s, etc.). The two latter options, in particular, are much fun. As for selection, like I said, there are about 2500 issues available right now and more being added as time goes by.

Whether the digital format and subscription model will catch on remains to be seen. So far reactions have been good. In fact, so many people hit the site when it first went live that the server couldn’t handle it and the site crashed. Personally, I think it’s a great idea. Comics are expensive, and it can be hard to navigate your way through the dozens of different franchises and series to find the story you’re looking for. This makes it all so much easier. There’s even a rating system for quality (or at least popularity), and for parents looking for kid-friendly comics, there’s a convenient collection of new kid-friendly stories featuring your favorite Marvel characters.

All in all, this seems like a neat development in the world of comics, and a fun way to access your favorite old (and new) storylines and characters or find enjoyable and appropriate comics for your kids. Hopefully, other publishing houses will catch on and the service will prove popular enough for Marvel to keep expanding the library. As for me, I’ve got some back issue of Iron Man to catch up on!