Marvel Comics’ Shelter-in-Place Share

I’ve been wary to tout too many of the free offers from publishers during this time of distance teaching and learning and shelter-in-place.  As I see them, many of the current free offers will get us on the hook for paid content later.  That’s fair, but I don’t want to lead our students down too many of those roads.  I really wanted to check out, though, the newly offered digital issues from Marvel Comics.  I’m a sucker for Marvel’s content.  This goes back to my youth when I paged through new and old, dog eared issues at Washburn Library in south Minneapolis (shout out!).

I have liked what I’ve seen so far with Marvel’s free offer.  But a quick word before getting to it specifically …. I went to Marvel’s website first to explore.  I was hesitant to download their Marvel Unlimited app, which is required to access the free content.  I spent an entire enchanted evening in their preview mode on their full website paging through Spiderman, Black Panther and Avenger issues.  The resolution, navigation and, in a few, well chosen instances, animation in their viewer are fantastic.  I was hoping I might be able to access all of the free content on the website but, alas, the preview mode is, indeed, limited.  Again, fair enough!

Today I downloaded the Marvel Unlimited app, not to be confused with the Marvel Comics app.  (The free issues are available through both apps, but easier accessed through the former.)  Again, hats off to Marvel for placing the button to free issues front and center on the welcome page of the app.   Access is quick and easy, and so far I haven’t had to make an account.  The app’s permissions are also reasonable.  I would be OK recommending the download in the trade-off for accessing the free content.

Oh yes, … the content!  There are enough free issues to easily get us to May 4th, the end of this free offer.  Marvel has shared, in most cases, the first six or seven issues of some classic series (e. g. The Uncanny Avengers, 1963; CIVIL WAR, 2006) and some newer series like BLACK WIDOW (2016).  There are also several Marvel Action titles for younger readers.  These are all complete story arcs.  I’m giving this free offer a *RECOMMENDED listing to our library patrons and hoping they may enjoy some of this beautiful artwork and storytelling as much as I have.

For more information, see Marvel’s announcement.