Before I get into more on the Marvel AR app, I thought it prudent to point out some important dates coming up for Marvel’s media end:

Today, April 4th: Avengers vs X-men #1 hits stores. This is the first Marvel comic to use the new Marvel AR app. If you haven’t picked yours up already, you might want to head down to your local comic shop and see if they still have a copy. Remember, the AR app is a free download and makes the $3.99 price tag a lot more of a deal when you buy AvX #1 (which also comes with a free digital download code and free copy of Marvel: Infinite!)

April 18th: AvX #2 comes out, with even more AR goodies and the continuing tale of the Avengers taking on the X-men

May 4th: A month from today fans can finally enjoy The Avengers movie by Joss Whedon

June 26th: The brand new Amazing Spider-man video game comes out from Activision

 

July 3rd: The Amazing Spider-man movie hits theaters!

Now, with all that fun information out of the way, on to the AR app analysis for smaller mobile/android devices. If you haven’t already check out the previous AR review, I recommend it. Most of what I say below will simply be complimentary additions to what was written there.

Now first and foremost, lets talk about changes between the Apple and Android applications. Basically put, there really isn’t much. A little tiny hint of visual changes, but for the most part its the same basic program. Android users get a quick easy download through the new Google Play store. You install the app, turn it on, get enjoy the classic Marvel media flip show, and then its all a matter of looking through your device’s camera lens.

So on to the mobile bit? Instantly pulling out AvX #1 for the cover scan I’m feeling that my mobile device just simply isn’t going to bring me the enjoyment that a tablet did to the AR cover. I even have the nice large screen of a Droid Razr Maxx, but it still feels…less special. You pretty much need to keep your mobile close to the comic to enjoy the video at full size, killing the ‘reality’ aspect of seeing whats around your now movie comic book. From there it only got disappointing. It literally took me 3 minutes to scan in the first double page spread of editor Axel Alonso talking. My phone simply didn’t want to read the page. However, after a bit of frustration, I jumped to the second double page spread and was easily capable of scanning in that. Unfortunately the second double page spread was one of the sketches to final color pieces, which was hard to make out on a smaller screen. As I said in the original review, a zoom option would help here. After a little bit of time playing with that spread I went back to the Axel Alonso piece and finally got it to work. The small phone and it’s 4g speeds made load time absolutely non-existent…but visual entertainment somewhat low. Thankfully the smaller panels and single page splashes were much more enjoyable. Though my mobile device has a smaller screen then a tablet, it was less noticeable on this and the AR tended to fill the screen more. That said, the character profiles were barely large enough to read, but they worked for the most part, knowing that marvel has generally kept the same stat line up since they began doing their Marvel Encyclopedia power scales around 2000.

All in all, the AR experience on a smaller mobile device is pretty much what I guessed it would be: Enjoyable, but far more frustrating than on a tablet. This really has nothing to do with the Apple over Android, or vice versa. It is all about screen size, and sadly size does matter here. So for those of you lucky enough to have an iPad or Android based tablet? You’re set for the best Marvel AR experience out there. For those of us using our smaller screened mobile phones? We’re going to have to hope Marvel AR gets some zooming upgrades soon. That or we just watch the clips on youtube when they are undoubtedly, eventually put up.