Marvel's Entire ULTIMATES Line Will Include Free Download With In-Store Purchase

Whether or not you are in support of comics going digital, that's exactly where they are headed. In fact, most publishers are already releasing many of of their digital books the same day as the in store releases, with the exception of Marvel Comics. For a long time, you could only purchase your Marvel books long after their in store releases; and it also meant a subscription through the Marvel website. And while all that's well and good, consumers do like uniformity, and perhaps the publisher is finally feeling the pressure to release digital copies of their books on a more timely basis.

Back in October Marvel announced their first digital copy of Avenging Spider-Man #1 (in stores this week) when you purchased the comic book. If you purchased the hard copy of the comic book at your local comic shop, you would be able to access a free digital version of the comic through an access code. This promotion from Marvel must have done well, because following that announcement, Marvel revealed they would be offering Avenging Spider-Man #'s 1, 2 and 3 for free digital download with the in-store purchase of those books.

If you thought it couldn't get better than this, well, you're wrong. Marvel revealed that their entire ULTIMATES line of comics would be available for free digital with the purchase of those books in store. That means that starting with ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #6 , ULTIMATE COMICS: ULTIMATES #7 and ULTIMATE COMICS: X-MEN #7 would all be polybagged and include a download code. Prior to this announcement, however, publishers spoke to retailers about this promotion and admitted that their opinions indeed shaped their decision, according to Marvel's Senior Vice President of Sales, David Gabriel.

We were working on putting the code on an inside flap on the back cover of the book. From talking with [retailers], we realized that was not the smartest way to go with this, certainly not for the first time out, and that's how the whole idea of just doing it within a polybag came about.

You can read the full story, including an interview with Marvel Vice President of Sales David Gabriel and Senior Vice President and General Manager, Marvel Digital Media Group Peter Phillips, here. What do you think of Marvel's ULTIMATE line going digital? How do you think it will affect retailers?

That is damn smart of them, good for Marvel.

I love buying a record that comes with a digital download code, it encourages me to buy records that offer that perk when given a choice. Good on Marvel for doing the same.

Marvel needs to keep in competition with DC now with DC's New 52 doing this. Sound strategy.

Dont care. So tell me are digi comic's worth it?

I have fully converted to digital. But this is nice for collectors and such I guess. I'm just waiting on American Vampire and Journey Into Mystery to go digital and I'm golden.

really everyone should do this for every book, that way you can buy the collector's piece and still have the digital copy within easy reach and not in some long box stuffed away somewhere.

All pretty cool. I am not a fan of digital comics, but it is cool. Too bad the tablet that we are getting won't have Marvel comics on it :( I just got Avenging Spider-Man today.

Very smart thinking, while I do not myself like digital comics, I do like that they give those who do like them that option, and best of all it gets people in the stores buying the hardcopy issue so that the comic book shops are still getting money off it.

I am glad/excited that they are doing this but they should do this will all or most of their books. Same goes for DC. But at least with Marvel they are not charging you a dollar extra for the digital download like DC did with the New 52 Justice League. I like reading Digital Comics but I also like to have a hard copy of the comic to show for the 3 or 4 dollars I shelled out to purchase it. I can't see this really affecting retailers too much.

I really love the free downloads that Mavel has been doing with some of their popular most resent comics. I think it is smart that Marvel is making it free unlike Dc who are making you pay an extra dollar for a digital copy.

I know this is a little off-topic, (It is great that Marvel is pushing it's Ultimate Comics line to go digital!) but I coun't help be amazed that Wanda is back in her Ultimates costume and Falcon is back! Woot! (Sorry this is the first time I see those two covers)

@sora_thekey said:

I know this is a little off-topic, (It is great that Marvel is pushing it's Ultimate Comics line to go digital!) but I coun't help be amazed that Wanda is back in her Ultimates costume and Falcon is back! Woot! (Sorry this is the first time I see those two covers)

this. And to go back on topic, I rarely buy digital copies since I'm so used to buying the tangible book. Like someone said earlier, Marvels needs to do something to compete with DC's new 52 so it sounds like they're going in the right direction.

Blade looks like Falcon...

Or is that, Falcon who looks like Blade?

Marvel, DC... All of the companies should be doing this for all of their titles, not just some. I'm not into the Ultimate universe myself, but it's a step in the right direction.

its Falcon looking like Blade.

Blade looks like Falcon...

Or is that, Falcon who looks like Blade?

The new Ultimates "reboots" have all been pretty great. Nice job Marvel.

Pardon my ignorance of the Ultimate realm, but who is that on the cover of UCXmen 7?

Ultimate Psylocke looks sexy!

Makes NO sense to me. I'm glad people enjoy it, but why do I need two copies of the same comic? A whole tpb, maybe if you are someone who travels? But this is a fake incentive to me. Make mine DC

That is so weird, seeing a British Betsy Braddock again...I like it.

Great, now make that the standard and drop the price of digital only and it'll make sense.

That's Ultimate Scarlet Witch guys.

Good thing. Free digital copy should be by default on all books, all companies....

ugh must everything be digital

I think this is a great idea, if only so now I can more easily share my comics with others. I really don't need a digital copy at all, so I'm planning on giving away all my digital copies to those interested.

Hopefully, if they like what they read, then they'll want to follow the series.

Neat. I expect more of this in the future.
 
That said, for now, I doubt I even redeem them.

@davelecave: @The Impersonator: @MSBoyd23: That's Ultimate Scarlet Witch. She's wearing her Ultimates outfit.

@sora_thekey: Oh....By the looks of those colored psychic energy glowing from her hands, I thought it was her.

@The Impersonator: Yeah, Wanda's powers look and work a bit different in the Ultimate Universe.

@Skaddix said:

its Falcon looking like Blade.

It's Falcon looking like Eriq La Salle.

The only flaw Marvel has yet to remedy with this approach as they are still starting out & leaning heavily on their subscription model, is simply that one is not actually getting a digital copy of the comic you bought in the store. What one actually gets is accessto a digital version, not an actual digital copy that you can download and keep/store on whatever device you have.

This isn't something I see either Marvel or DC being willing to change anytime soon, but the day that either does is the one I long for instead of the current digital rights control they impose. I really think Amazon.com has the best & most relevant digital policy in regards to digital content (specifically Mp3s) and I wish that were the model used for digital comics. Amazon allows for one to purchase non-DRM Mp3s and download them to whatever computer or device one uses while at the same time, allowing access to a digital backup in their Cloud player which one can alternatively listen to/access anytime.

If this were the model for digital comics: buy issue in-store, redeem online code for a DRM-free copy and access to a backup copy available in some sort of licensed online comic reader then I think more people like myself would be down with digital comics. It'd be easy for the publishers to get their money for this as they could also do as Amazon does by offering 4 gigabytes of free comic (Cloud) storage for starters and then offering pricing plans to for those who want to expand once they hit the limit.

In summation, I think the digital age for comics is still a far way off until consumers are actually getting digital comics and not just access to digitial copies.