Marvel Digital Comics Bring Superheros to The Cloud
Posted on 09. Mar, 2011 by Julian West in Features, Reviews
Editor’s Note: Julian West is a new contributing writer for the site. You can read his first post about Google Search as the ultimate web application here.
Is your family complaining that your comic book collection is taking up too much space in your basement bedroom? Would you actually start reading that collection if it wasn’t for the fear of some misfortune that would result in a dreaded crease or some grease smear? Scared to loan your comic to a buddy of yours for fear he just won’t handle it with the love and tenderness your comics deserve, resulting in some unspoken tension?
Then I have the webapp for you: The Marvel Comics app from the Chrome Web Store.
The comfort and ease of ebook reading has arrived for comic book geeks. People with an unending fascination for grown people in spandex should rejoice!
Marvel Digital Comics offers comics for sale at $2.00 an issue. Not a bad deal. It’s cheaper than a paper copy and you don’t have to worry about dirtying the awesome art on the pages as you read.
Even more intriguing is subscribing to Marvel Digital Comics. Access to the whole Marvel Comics universe is only $9.99 a month. That’s about the price of three comic books a month. If you pay a year subscription in advance, you get a 50% discount which comes out to $4.99 a month, or $59.88 a year. This includes access to back issues going back to “The Golden Age” of comics, and more being added every month. You can read the first hand origin stories of all your favorite Marvel superheros and their nemeses and get yourself caught up before the next superhero movie hits theaters.
That’s right, you can be the comic book know-it-all who complains indigently about how Hollywood ruined the memory of your beloved comic book character and have your friends want to smack you in the face. Marvel Digital Comics has all those essential back issues that only the few, the proud and the ultimately geeky people had to previously put months, maybe years of their time and energy into finding and never getting a date in the process are now at your fingertips.
Marvel also wants bring you and your comic book fans together with the “share” option, so you can recommend a particularly good comic book to your friends.
There are plenty of free comics offered to try and see if digital comics are the way to go for you. Marvel Comics’ art is actually quite dazzling on the Cr-48 screen, especially on full screen mode and the interface is very intuitive. You can magnify the text of the comic and still read in the original two-page composition.
Another thing that your Marvel Digital Comics subscription can be handy for is deciding which paper comics you’d actually find worthy enough to add to your collection. You can now keep your comics in that protective plastic and still be able to read them. Personally, I’m saving my collection to help fund my retirement.
Alas, nothing in this world is perfect. None of what I mention below is a “deal breaker” for me in terms of the Marvel Comics service, but here are some things that could be improved.
(1) Magnify Text Button: One glitch I came across is that the magnify text button would actually make the words smaller in full screen mode. Also, a full page panel was a bit clumsy to read because full screen would divide it in too. Ultimately though, it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the comic.
(2) Zoom: There are only two settings for zoom “ – “ and “ + “. It would be nice you could have several degrees of zoom. My recommendation is to first see the page in the minimal zoom so you can see the composition in the familiar two page form, then go through each panel in max zoom.
Despite these things, overall reading of a Marvel Digital Comic is a very smooth experience. Personally, I find it preferable than turning pages paper pages. My suggestion is if comics are your thing, give Marvel Digital Comics a try. There are plenty of free comics at the sight for you to read to see if the service is right for you.
