Last week, I talked about some free and cost-effective digital reading services. This time around, I thought I would tackle the big three, but each has similar pros AND cons. None of them are free, but at least checking out.
The three most prominent, most well-known comic book digital platforms are ComiXology Unlimited, Marvel Unlimited, and DC Universe Infinite. All three have their quirks but are still worth checking out. They are worth paying for—up to a point. That ‘point’ I’ll get to in a minute.
Marvel Unlimited has been around for almost twenty years and has quite an extensive catalog of Silver and Bronze Age. Some still frown on digital comics, but where can you quickly and affordably read the complete original run of The Avengers or Fantastic Four? Even though there are over 30,000 comics and complete runs of many series, it lacks in other genres like romance and western comics. You can subscribe for $10.00 a month or pay $70 for an entire year.
It seems like a slight sticking point, but before the heroes, the likes of Millie the Model and the tons of westerns Marvel put out were the bread and butter. Marvel wasn’t only built by the likes of Lee, Ditko, and Kirby. It would be nice to see more of the stuff from… say, John Severin and Stan Goldberg. Also, both Romita Sr. and Kirby (to name a few) did a lot of work on romance comics. From a fan perspective, it would be nice to see some of that lesser-known stuff.
New comics hit the service three months after the comic shops. One of the nice things is if Marvel releases a new Epic Collection or other trade and that comic isn’t in MU—it gets added. Back in 2021, Marvel launched a new line of phone-friendly comic series called Infinity Comics, which is canon. Since then, there have been over 1,000 issues and almost 75 different series. These comics are only available via Marvel Unlimited.
At first, I was wondering what the end game was and why Infinity Comics began. Well, it seems it caused a 30% increase in the number of fans subscribing to MU. To me, it shows Marvel is aware that the digital market is growing and is trying to find new ways of making their service grow. That also explains why, in the past few months, I’ve seen footnotes in comics of events, arcs, and character points that happened in one of the Infinity Comics. Many fans might not realize, but the X-Men: From the Ashes Infinity Comic, running twenty-five issues, picks up after the fall of Krakoa. Several key X-Men events—before the new series launched—happened here.
Now, this is one service I have subscribed to for years. I recently stopped. Only because I read countless comics on MU, and there wasn’t much left for me to read! I mean, most of the hero stuff from the Silver and Bronze Age is already there. Unfortunately, some of the lesser genres—like spooky anthology stuff, westerns, and romance—don’t seem like a big priority at Marvel. I get that! I really do! If you’re looking to deep dive into Marvel, it’s a fantastic place!
Then there’s DC’s Infinite Universe, which has only been around for about four years. I have a lot of mixed feelings about the service because I feel it never lived up to its promise as a service, and DC broke a lot of promises concerning the service. I still don’t think DC truly knows what to do with the service, and it feels like they are throwing darts in the dark.
My main sticking point is there are considerable gaps in runs of titles. For example, for the whole decade of 1970, ONE Action Comic was archived. Yes, a ten-year gap. For a while, they were adding older issues to the archives, and it’s how you can now read over ten years of the original Barry Allen Flash series. What they added often made no sense, and then they would stop adding comics to specific runs. Eventually, they totally stopped adding older material to the archives.
It might seem like a minor quibble—but I enjoy discovering older comics and reading them for the first time. It’s what kept me hooked to Marvel Unlimited for years. And. It wouldn’t have been so bad if DC hadn’t backed out on promises of what they had planned to add.
Let’s talk about the positives and why I think it is still fantastic for fans to check out. Unlike Marvel’s new comics hitting the service three months after they hit comic shops, DC puts things one month after they are available at the comic shop. That’s a cost-saving right there. And every DC collection or trade gets put on the service when released. Marvel doesn’t put their trades up. There’s Vertigo, Black Label, and pretty much everything from the last ten years or so.
Last October, they followed Marvel’s Infinite Comics idea with DC Go! They are a mix of new stories (webcomics) designed for mobile devices. The first wave included Harley Quinn in Paradise, Nothing Butt Nightwing, and Renaissance of Raven. And started adapting key comics—like Hush—to the webcomic format.
I also think the app’s search engine is wonky. To me, it’s often hard to find key comics or trades. Also, they don’t strip comics out of trades and add them to the regular run of the series. Okay, slightly annoying—and maybe a tiny quibble. But it would be nice to strip out some of Neal Adam’s early war comics and put them where more fans can discover them.
While they do have a monthly plan—for $8.00—it’s worth it because it takes out a lot of the extras. The annual plan is $120, which is not a bad price, considering the costs of comics and what the service offers. No, I don’t subscribe to the service for pretty much the same reasons I stopped Marvel Unlimited: I kind of ran out of things to read.
Then there’s ComiXology, a service I started subscribing to again after not doing so for over a year. For years, it has been a fantastic service, especially when looking for indie comics. Amazon bought it about ten years ago and left it alone for years.
ComiXology used to have a stand-alone app, which was fantastic. A few years back, Amazon started “upgrading” the app, which actually made the app worse and made it harder to find indie comics. Then, at the end of 2023, Amazon shut the app down and the website and merged everything with its Kindle app and the Amazon site.
Searching for comics on Amazon is bizarre. For example, go to the Amazon page and type, say, Fantastic Four #1. Sure, it gives you some comics, but if you scroll down a bit, you’ll see some odd “picks” that have nothing to do with either the Fantastic Four or comic books. My point is that if Amazon can’t handle a simple search query for something popular, it will be rather challenging to drill down and find hidden gems and indie comics.
With all that said, I recently started subscribing to the service again. While it doesn’t offer an annual plan—the monthly charge of $5.99 makes it reasonable. Also, every month, ComiXollogy Unlimited adds hundreds and hundreds of comics from DC, Marvel, Image, and most of the top-tier publishers.
They also have lots of genres and all kinds of comics that you can discover if you take the time to drill down on the Amazon site. Some of the titles added are from last year, and some are old classics from all publishers.
I haven’t had the service in about a year, but they’ve added enough new things to keep me interested for a while. But it can be frustrating. Looking for “fun comics to read” through ComiXology is like digging through a quarter box at your comic shop and hoping to find a few gems tucked within. Still, if you haven’t ever tried any of the services before or it’s been a while, they are all worth checking out.
About Author
