Reading Digital Before Physical: Avenging Spider-man #1

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Having always been a staunch supporter of owning a physical copy of any comic I read, I’ve rarely partaken in digital downloads. So when Marvel started offering “free”* Digital Downloads with their recently released Avenging Spider-man #1, I found it the perfect time to experiment with what it would be like to read a comic digitally before physically in the old floppy book format.

Now before I begin, let me state this isn’t truly a review of Avenging Spider-man. Though the comic is quite fun, with great dialogue from Zeb Wells, the purpose is to compare how reading a comic digitally feels instead of reading it physically. However, parts of the art style specific to Avenging Spider-man certainly affect this review. So let me outright say, I am quite the fan of Joe Madureira’s work and it in no way disappoints in this issue. Now on to the digital experience!

Picking up this comic at my local shop, I found the title already polybagged so as to prevent shoppers from stealing the digital download code. A quick razor to the tip (still have to protect my physical copy from any damage ripping that bloody thing open could’ve caused) and I had the issue out. Humorously, I could read the digital code through the back page advertisement, without opening the comic. Apparently Marvel has promised comic shops this will be fixed in the future. So opening to the last page I got the instructions to go to Marvel’s website, sign into my marvel account, type in the code, and then enjoy my comic. All of this seemed a bit troubling when I had the comic right in front of me to read, but it was a fairly smooth process never-the-less. Now Marvel offers readers several ways to enjoy their free digital comic: iProduct, Desktop, or Android, all using their Marvel Comics App. The app itself is fairly solid, a rather basic comic reader for your hand held digital device (or desktop). I chose to use my Android based Droid X phone.

Once you’ve done all that it says to do in the back of your comic, hoping to obtain the free digital copy, there is still more. Once you sign in on your Marvel app you have to download the comic from your ‘my comics’ section. Sit tight, because depending on your data plan or connection speed, this could take awhile. For me, my 3G had the file on my phone in roughly 3-5 minutes. I was finally able to enjoy my comic…but it felt odd reading the title on my phone while in my favorite chair, like I would a normal floppy comic book. So, waiting for Thursday, I found time to sit down at a cafe for lunch and turn on my phone.

One of the things I noticed immediately about reading a comic digitally first is that NOTHING is spoiled for me. Generally when we think spoilers we think about your friend or some internet site ruining an upcoming storyline or plot twist for us. However, when you’re sitting back enjoying a physical comic book your eyes might wander now and then (often on accident) to the next panel or page before you’ve read to that bit. This is a truly common problem whenever you’re reading a two page spread and page one leaves you with a series of panels while page two has a big splash reveal. Digitally this is not a problem, as we are given every bit of the story one panel at a time. It certainly makes the minor twists and turns of the plot all the more exciting when revealed.

In many other ways, the experience of reading a comic digitally isn’t all that different or as jarring as I might have feared. It isn’t until I get home and crack open the physical copy of Avenging Spider-man #1 that I notice the subtleties I missed out on while reading the title digitally. First thing I noticed was that there was a lot of minor, but cool pieces between the paneling I was missing out on (such as the spider-web barely shown digitally in between panels on page one). Joe Mad also had a very unique way of doing much of the comic’s panel bordering, with different styles for different pages, that all got cut out of the digital copy. Yet here is the biggest art adjustment for me that I felt was lost between digital and physical. When reading digitally, each panel fills your screen as if it was a splash page. You would think this would be really cool, until you read the physical comic and realize that the digital version truly just makes the splash pages feel like panels. There is honestly quite a loss not seeing the splash page for what it is, so defined from the smaller panels.

All in all the experience isn’t so different that one couldn’t be just as good as another to a new reader. That could easily change if artists created comics more for the digital format though. But for now? I much prefer to have my floppy old physical comic books in hand each Wednesday, as I recline in my favorite chair.

*Though the digital download of the comic is free, Avenging Spider-man (and other upcoming comics to offer the digital download code) is pricier (by a dollar) than your average story for this page count. This means you’re likely paying for the digital download, at a discounted cost.[/private]