With digital comics more visible than ever in the wake of delays caused by the coronavirus, Marvel has announced they will be closing the Marvel Digital Comics Shop on June 2nd. Readers will still be able to access already-purchased digital books after that date.
After the closure, Marvel's digital comics will be available to purchase through Comixology. Readers will also need to download either the Marvel app or Comixlogy to access their previously-purchased digital books after June 2nd. Any pre-orders or subscriptions to be fulfilled by the Digital Comics Shop will also be canceled after June 1st.
The Marvel Digital Comics Shop exists separate from Marvel Unlimited, the subscription service which offers access to a variety of digital comics from Marvel's archives. Instead, the Marvel Digital Comics Shop acts more like Comixology, selling single issues as well as collections and bundles directly to the customer. Like Comixology, the Digital Comics Shop also offers substantial discounts on select digital back-issues.
Presumably, the Marvel Digital Comics Shop is being shut down because it doesn't provide any new services that Comixology doesn't offer, making its continued existence redundant. The only possible advantage Marvel would have received from Marvel Digital Comics Shop is the ability to cut out the middle man - namely, the Amazon-owned Comixology - and receive a bigger slice of the profits. The Digital Comics Shop might have seemed like the perfect place to push readership of digital comics in the wake of the coronavirus. But, the quarantine has affected the bottom line of numerous companies, and it's very likely Marvel no longer saw any incentive to keep their Digital Comics Shop open. After all, their Marvel Unlimited service is much more popular and visible, as it offers access to digital back-issues via a subscription service more akin to Netflix and Amazon Prime.
While not unexpected, the move certainly benefits Comixology, which has effectively become the industry standard for purchasing and viewing digital comics. Comixology has certainly overshadowed the Marvel Digital Comics Shop as well as numerous other competitors. This move could also push new digital comics readers onto Comixology, assuming they were not familiar with the digital comics retailers beforehand. While the closure of the Marvel Digital Comics Shop might seem like a small matter given its redundancy, it does illustrate the digital comic book landscape is continuing to undergo major changes, even when their print counterparts are frozen in place due to quarantine.