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Comic giants Marvel are set to make more than 700 classic first issues of their iconic characters like Spider-Man and X-Men available to digital readers for free through the Marvel app and the company’s website.
They are initially available as free downlaods, but will shortly revert to being sold for between $1.99 to $3.99 per issue.
The titles range from the 1960s Silver Age to contemporary issues with characters including Wasp, Mr. Fantastic, Power Man and Iron Fist,
David Gabriel, Senior Vice President of Sales said: “This is aimed at attracting fans from all walks of life – those who know our characters from the big screen, those who were readers but fell out of the habit and our long-term fans too.
“We believe that if we get those fans in the door, they’ll stay and help grow this industry, with purchases both in comic stores and via digital comic outlets.”
The publisher went through its catalogue of more than 13,000 titles that were already available digitally and plucked out the No. 1 issues with historic ones like “Amazing Spider-Man” by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko or the “Fantastic Four” by Lee and Jack Kirby as well as modern titles like “Civil War,” Joss Whedon’s “Astonishing X-Men” and characters and teams like the Uncanny Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, too.
“We never want fans to feel like they need to have read it all. Of course we want them to want to check out those stories, but the beauty of these No. 1 issues is that each is an entry point,” he said. “So with a character like Iron Man, you can choose if you want to start with the recent `Iron Man’ series from Kieron Gillen or go back a few years to when Matt Fraction launched `Invincible Iron Man’ or even before that.”