Marvel Comics Launches Digital Archive

While it would be nice to be able to read originial issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, The X-Men, Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four, I don't know if people want to spend $5 a month to view comics online only.

LINK

Marvel Comics on Tuesday announce the launch of Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited. The new service is Mac and PC compatible and is priced starting at $4.99 per month. Users can also check out 250 free samples.

The service provides users with access to classics like the first issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, The X-Men, Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four and others, along with newer likes like New Avengers and Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men. Marvel counts 2,500 comic books at launch, and plans to add at least 20 additional titles weekly.

I heard about this yesterday and decided to post it for the members awareness.

So is this cool, or a crock?

Personally I like to hold a comic in my hands rather than read them online. Marvel has had a few comic on their site for a while now, I think that is what they consider to be the 250 free samples.

I'm not sure how successful this will be 5 bucks a month isn't much but I just don't see that many people being interested in the service.

reply to post by Umbrax


I agree, I first heard about it yesterday on the Stern show, Robin had this as one of her news items, since Howard is a big comics fan, they never discussed the monthly fee.

5 bucks a month if you commit to a year or 10 bucks monthly without the year commitment will definitely turn off a bunch of potential users.

I don't know who does their marketing but they could do so much more business if they offered the archive for free and used ads on the site for people to subscribe to their new comic issues.

I mean they already are preventing download of their content, I would think for 60 bucks a year you would be able to get something for your money besides being able to look at them online.

That's just my opinion, maybe they will rethink their approach, I think it would be cool to look at some of the most valuable issues without having to touch them.

Marvel's been working a lot on their online presence lately. Recently they redesigned their website. Before that they were having all kinds of coding issues and I've never been a fan of their forum. Maybe the site is under new management.
Much of their ad space is dedicated to pushing subscriptions. I don't know how well that is doing for them but in my experience comic fans like to get out and go to the shop and get their books. I wouldn't trust the mail system to deliver a comic in good condition.
If it were me in charge I would use the site primarily as a tool to communicate with fans. Provide them news on the brand and also give a space for feedback. An archive is a neat idea and I guess they don't have anything to lose by providing such a service. I just don't see much money to be made in it.

In my opinion this will be a huge flop.There are already plenty of places you can get pretty much EVERY comic online,and readers that make them much easier to read.

Morality aside,this is like the sites that think offering music at a low price will help curtail the people who are downloading their stuff for free.

The number of "pirates" far outweighs the number of people who will pay to read a comic on their PC's.

Sorry....double post.

[edit on 11/14/2007 by DocGonzo]

Got to what agree with Doc on this one as well.

I am 26 and just recently got into comics for the first time in my life. It really started with the X-men and esculated with the Civil War and all the publicity it received.

But those comics and other elements in media (i.e. Toy Fair & Wizard Magazines.... and THE BRAXCAVE) Reallly had me interested in the multiple backstories of these characters.

So being broke for the most part I have found at least one website that would provide with all the history I could want in highly detailed text form.
The Artwork isn't there, but so what, it's Free.

So I ask myself, "Why would I pay $60 to update myself on the history, when I can get hte story for free?"

Simple answer: I won't

-Andy

(edit to say: I cut this post short cause Heroes is on!!!!!)

[edit on 19-11-2007 by MetalSphere]

It would be nice to be able to read titles that you normaly do not buy, but I'd rather hold the ones I do collect in my hands...