In hopes to “reintroduce” todays young readers to yesterdays classic comic series, Marvel and several others are putting more than 2,500 issues online in digital format for immediate consumption. As of this week, users will be able to log onto Marvel.com and read X-Men, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Wonder Woman and many more directly from the site. These new digital comics will not be downloadable but will be available online for “at least 6 months after they first appear in print” which is a very aggressive approach for any publishing company. This just proves my point that publishers are very slowly starting to realize the potential of providing content online as I mentioned in last week’s article about Rolling Stone.

Other companies such as DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics already provide digital versions of their comics online at MySpace.com of all sites, so it was only a matter of time before Marvel made the leap. DC Comics president Paul Levitz said he expects to put more original comics online in coming years. “We look at anything that connects comics to people,” Levitz said. “The most interesting thing about the online world to me is the opportunity for new forms of creativity. … It’s a question of what forms of storytelling work for the Web?”

Marvel is taking a slightly different approach by charging 9 dollars per month to view unlimited issues, or a yearly commitment of $59.88 for the same deal. Marvel comics will be viewable in several different formats online including “frame-by-frame” navigation. As stated above, more than 2,500 issues are now available at Marvel Digital Comics, with 20 more being released each week.