Marvel Comic’s Ultimate Comics line was the first to be offered same day digitally and in print kicking off with Jonathan Hickman’s four-issue run on Ultimate Comics Thor. Now the house that Stan and Jack built has announced the next step in their digital comics plans. Starting with Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #6 in January every book in the Ultimate line will come polybagged with a code to get the digital version of that particular issue through the Marvel Comics App on Android and iOS devices.
“The groundbreaking stories told each month in the Ultimate Comics Universe are some of the best comics being published today,” said David Gabriel, Senior Vice-President of Sales, Marvel Entertainment. “Looking at the tremendous response to our digital copy code offer with Avenging Spider-Man #1, it’s clear that this is something fans want to see more of and we’re delivering it on a scale never seen before, with no extra cost to retailers or fans—and historic benefits for our retail partners.”
Following the wallcrawler Ultimate Comics X-Men and Ultimate Comics Ultimates (ugh) will hit store shelves bagged with codes in February. So if you buy these issues in store, in print, for $3.99 you get the bonus of the digital version. If however you buy the digital copy for the same price you get no bonus for that purchase. You could argue that digital fans should go buy the print copy so they could reap the benefits of this new program too, but digital fans don’t usually want the comics in print. So, it would make more sense to sell the digital only version at a reduced price, but that’s not likely to happen anytime soon. Reducing the price would just make the digital version all the more appetizing and Marvel is still afraid of that much commitment to digital.
More announcements are likely after the new year regarding digital comics. Marvel hinted in various panels at San Diego Comic-Con over the Summer that most, if not every, Marvel book would be on the digital app by the time the Avengers movie hits theaters next summer. Now we’re getting a taste of just how they plan to make that happen.
