Digital Comic Book Subscriptions
Best way to read comics or a waste of money?
Ever since the advent of smartphones in the late 2000’s, comic books have been heavily shifting towards a more digital format. No longer do you need to keep massive longboxes of physical comics or trade paperbacks on your shelf taking up space. You can simply grab your phone or tablet and read almost any comic book on go. Just pay a cheap price on your favorite vendor like amazon to get a full comic book on the go to read digitally.
The comic book companies took even more advantage of this by offering a subscription model. Pay a monthly fee and you can read almost every and any comic you want. Note that I’m saying almost.
I used to be heavily against subscription models in general as I hate paying for things monthly and not actually owning them. I always preferred buying comics digitally than paying for a subscription service. I remember spending around $50+ on Amazon one day buying my favorite Spider-Man digital comics I loved as a kid. I was paying around $1.99 for a single issue and probably $6-$7+ for a trade paperback compilation of issues. Sounds like a bargain, right?
Well, after getting all of my favorite childhood issues, I wanted more.
I wanted to start reading X-Men, Punisher, Daredevil, Fantastic Four and then Superman and Batman from DC and much much more.
I thought it was gonna be cheap since most single comics were $1.99 on average. Well, if you multiply the hundreds, if not thousands of comics I wanted to read and multiply that by $1.99 or $5.99, etc…
Yeah, the math quickly adds up.
Paying for every comic I wanted to read wasn’t exactly going to be economically viable even if I became a multi-millionaire. So, I bit the bullet and eventually subscribed to Marvel Unlimited in 2024. A while back, I already had made the decision to subscribe to Viz Manga/Shonen Jump for $2.99 (now $3.99) a month for my manga fix which was worth it. I always wanted to find a way to satisfy my comic book fix, so it seemed like a no brainer.
Since the average single comic book is $1.99 digitally and a Marvel Unlimited Subscription is $9.99 a month, I only need to read 5 comics a month to get my money’s worth. I absolutely love having thousands of comics and decades of stories available at any time. I’ve been reading upwards to 25+ and more comics a month, saving me a ton of money otherwise.
Problems with Digital Comic Availability
The biggest issue with these digital comic book subscription services is that not everything is available. Newer comics aren’t available on day one and you usually have to wait several weeks or months to get them. This is fine as I’m still trying to catch up on past issues and checking out other series.
Certain series are missing comics entirely as Spider-Man (1990-1998), Web of Spider-Man (1985-1995), and a ton more are still missing issues. However, older issues are being trinkled out very very slowly for example as The Spectacular Spider-Man #87 (1984) where Spider-Man reveals his secret identity to the Black Cat was only released in 2024 on Marvel Unlimited.
One super convenient thing that these comic book subscription services have are “Reading Guides” which are reading lists where you can read storylines in a certain order like the 1993 Maximum Carnage epic that takes you through the different Spider-Man publications in the Maximum Carnage storyline order to read from beginning to end.
However, not all of these storyline reading lists are accurate or complete as I was trying to read the infamous Spider-Man “Clone Saga” from 1994-1996. The storyline reading list on Marvel Unlimited was missing a ton of issues to the point where I had to resort to a more accurate fan made online list to actually read it all coherently. There are also a ton of storyline comics that aren’t even properly listed, making me have to jump from different publications just like owning the physical copies. One of my all time favorite stories “Beware the Rage of a Desperate Man” which is Spider-Man (1991-1998) #46-49 aren’t even on Marvel Unlimited at all and I’ve been wanting to re-read it without resorting to my downloaded cbr issues.
I can understand if certain older comics aren’t available as they need to be properly scanned in and cleaned up digitally which I can safely assume is a time consuming process. From a business standpoint, it makes sense to focus on the newer comics which were most likely drawn digital from the start and are easier to convert to a digital readable format.
Like I mentioned earlier, certain newer comics aren’t available for a while and could range from weeks to months before they appear on subscription services. For example, I’m also subscribed to Comixology to read TMNT comics and I’m reading The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution which is the sequel to the acclaimed The Last Ronin. While The Last Ronin and the Lost Years are free to read, only the first couple of The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution comics are free to read while I have to pay for the other ones. I’m more than willing to wait months for them to become free to read since I have a ton of comics to keep me occupied in the meantime.
Are Digital Comics The Future?
At this point, I’m going to say yes. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love having physical comics and trade paperbacks to grab off my shelf and read like in my youth. However, I’m constantly on the go all the time and having the convenience of digital comics is an absolute life saver to prevent me from getting bored. Not too long ago while my mom was getting surgery, I read a huge chunk of the “Inferno” storyline which spanned from X-Men, Spider-Man, and much more while waiting in the hospital. My mom’s fully recovered and is fine.
When I’m stuck at my office for two days a week due to the Return to Office policy, reading my digital comics during breaks and lunch has been a lifesaver to get me through the day. I’ve also been screencapping and voice acting any comic panels I feel are worth making videos of for my YouTube channel which has been helping my ad revenue and I can declare my comic book subscription services as tax write offs.
Right now, I’m subscribed to Viz/Shonen Jump, Comixology, Marvel Unlimited, and DC Infinite. It might be a bit of hefty price monthly, but it’s saving me thousands of dollars in the long run and I get to catch up on stories I missed as a kid and read up on new ones.
With that said, I highly recommend any comic subscription to catch up on your favorite comics anytime and anywhere.
