Learn Marvel History: Discover Marvel Unlimited’s New Features

Do you love Marvel Comics?  Do you have a limited budget?  Do you like to read comics online? Do you like to delve into the history and back story of a particular Marvel character, team, or story arc?

If you answered YES to any of those questions, ( or better yet, all four), then there is a new feature in Marvel Unlimited that may interest you.

For those unaware of what Marvel Unlimited is and can do, here is a brief primer: Marvel Unlimited is an online service from Marvel Comics where the budget-conscious reader can pay a $9.99 monthly fee to access over 13,000 Marvel titles online.  For that monthly fee, you can read as many of those comics online as you can fit into your reading schedule.  Older issues (think 1960s, 70s, and 80s) are added all the time, while the newer titles and issues are loaded into Marvel Unlimited about six months after they hit the stands at your local comics shop.  If you are willing to wait six months or so, you could actually do all of your Marvel reading online.  This service is available via your computer’s browser, or through a mobile device or tablet.

Marvel Unlimited New this Week

This reader uses an iPad, and the latest new feature included in the iPad app (and other apps, plus the desktop browser version), is a handy little tool for discovering connections, story arcs, and special themes in the Marvel Universe.  This new feature is called “Discover.”  Marvel selects and collects comic stories and themes that may be of interest to readers.  Hit the Discover button, and up pops a screen that currently says “Discover: The Vision.”  Now, as you all know, the Vision is an Avengers comic book character who will make his first big-screen appearance in the upcoming second Avengers movie.  Thus, he is in the  news.  With the Discover feature, Marvel Unlimited  puts his most important stories in one place for you to peruse.  For example, on my iPad right now as I write this, I can see comics telling the history of the Vision, including Avengers Origins: Vision (2013) #1,  his first appearance in Avengers #57, the first spark of love between Vision and the Scarlet Witch in Avengers #75, and so on. Nine more Vision-related titles are listed on the screen, all available for readers to read and catch up on the history of the Vision.

Marvel Unlimited Discover The Vision

Obviously, Marvel has an eye toward marketing their products in other media, as the current crop of themes in Marvel Unlimited Discover, are heavily weighted toward upcoming or recent movies, with Discovery events around the villain of the upcoming Avengers film, Ultron.  Also featured is the question of “Who Has Wielded Thor’s Hammer?”  This last one is in reference to the fact the old, male Thor is being deemed unworthy to wield the hammer, and a female is taking his place.  Want to know the stories behind Enrakt, Captain America, Eric Masterson, Deadpool (Deadpool?),  Beta Ray Bill, and Red Hulk all using the Hammer Mjolnir?  Oh, and what about that whole Frog Thor thing?

Who Has Wielded Thor’s Hammer?

Discover them all in Marvel Unlimited’s Discover feature.