Marvel Unlimited Changes the Digital Comics Game

Ben Sherry ‘17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

We were not prepared for Marvel Unlimited.

When Marvel first announced its intention to create an online subscription-based “Netflix for comic books,” comic book fans had their doubts. Some felt like digital comics didn’t really work unless there was a tablet roughly the size of a comic book, but in the past few days, readers have witnessed something of a revelation. Marvel Unlimited works, and it works extremely well.

Anyone who goes to a comic store on a weekly basis can easily relate to looking through stacks of old comics, trying to find a deal on a legendary graphic novel, and trying to expand their knowledge of the thousands of stories that exist within the (in this case Marvel) comic universe. Marvel Unlimited streamlines all of that by having subscribers pay a monthly fee of $9.99 and then letting them run amok with almost every story they have produced over the last seventy-five years. Want to read Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s original run on The Amazing Spider Man or the original run of The Fantastic Four, The X-Men or The Avengers? It’s all there, ready to be accessed on computers, iPhones, iPads—whatever device readers prefer. From the fun, happy 1960s to the extreme and violence-heavy 1990s to the diverse present-day comics, it’s impossible not to find something for everyone within the vast, vast catalogue of comics available through the service. Readers can access and devour legendary runs from some of the most prolific writers of each era with the push of a button.

In just one week, subscribers can read Spider-Man, The Infinity Gauntlet and Jonathan Hickman’s current run of The Avengers—all runs they probably wouldn’t have gotten around to reading without Marvel Unlimited. With the new service, it’s easy to start a day reading one issue and by sundown know almost everything about infinity stones. That’s the beauty of Marvel Unlimited—anything that can possibly be thought of can be conjured up on a computer screen in mere minutes. Instead of paying exorbitant amounts of money on separate graphic novels that take up lots of space, readers can simply pay a monthly fee and have access to years and years of Marvel stories. It would take a long time to read everything the service has to offer, and every week, new and current selections are added, giving readers an easy way to catch up on current arcs.

All this is just a long way of saying that yes, Marvel Unlimited is worth readers’ time. And it’ll change the way people read comics forever.