Austin's annual SXSW festival has become a traditional platform for Marvel to announce new projects and promotions relating to their digital comics services. At last year's SXSW, Marvel announced their weekly Infinite Comics digital series and several key upgrades to their Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited subscription service. Part of that latter announcement involved something called Project Gamma, which would add adaptive audio to their digital comics in the form of musical scores and sound effects.
With this year's SXSW, Project Gamma has now become a reality. And it's one of three big changes being rolled out on the Digital Comics Unlimited app starting today. Scroll down for more on this and the other Marvel announcements from the festival.
As reported by CNet, the iOS version of the DCU app has received a significant upgrade, with the source code being switched from HTML5 to a native iOS format. This allows for faster, smoother transitions between panels and pages. The update is available for download as of today. Luckily for Android users, Marvel's Vice President of Digital Products, Kristin Vincent, was quick to point out that an upgrade to the Android version is coming "so, so soon." Both upgrades were handled by developer Chaotic Moon.
This upgrade also makes the adaptive audio element a reality. For compatible comics, the score begins playing with the front cover, changes as the reader shifts from panel to panel, inserts sound effects where appropriate, and can adjust tempo based on the user's reading speed. Naturally, readers can disable this feature in the Options tab if they so choose.
Currently, the only adaptive audio-compatible comics on the service are part of the Captain America: The Winter Soldier storyline. Marvel is seeking feedback from readers before expanding the function. "I think we have the best fans in the world, and the most vocal fans in the world. We're always watching the metrics," said Vincent. "We look for what people are sharing in the social space. We're very in tune with our fans, or at least try to be, and move where they move."
Another key upgrade to the service involves direct integration of the "Augmented Reality" videos that have become commonplace in Marvel's print comics in recent years. While digital readers were technically able to make use of the AR function before, it required them to scan a QR code displayed on one digital device with another device running the AR app. Now readers can access the AR content directly through the DCU app. Again, this function is being rolled out slowly, with Jonathan Hickman's Avengers run finally debuting on the service and being the first to have the option.
With Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited being a subscription-based app, these features and upgrades are being added free-of-charge. And Marvel even announced a special promotion to accompany the upgrade. New subscribers who sign up by March 14 can use the code SXSW99 to get the first month of service for $.99. After that, the standard rates of $9.99 per month or $69.99 annually will apply.
Marvel's website has been home to various video featurettes in recent years. But the newly announced "Tales to Astonish" series appears to be far more ambitious than any previous project. Named after the classic Silver Age sci-fi anthology, Tales to Astonish is a series of video documentaries that will focus on some of Marvel's more iconic stories and characters. These documentaries will feature interviews from the relevant creators and others who inspired those stories.
The first Tales to Astonish video will focus on the 2006-07 mini-series Civil War. The video will be directed by Eric Drath, who previously directed the HBO boxing documentary "Assault in the Ring" and produces various programs for ESPN. The 13-minute video will feature commentary from familair Marvel faces like Brian Michael Bendis, Stan Lee, Joss Whedon, and Clark Gregg, as well as newscasters like Tucker Carlson and Chris Hayes.
No release date or specific method of distribution for Tales to Astonish has been revealed yet.
Marvel's Infinite Comics format was also a major focus of last year's SXSW. What began life as a digital tie-in to Avengers vs. X-Men became a weekly source of new stories. Over the past year, we've seen weekly, 13-issue Infinite Comics series for Wolverine, Iron Man, and Deadpool, with a Daredevil series due to start soon.
Marvel has now revealed their next Infinite Comics project, which will focus on Spider-Man this time. But whereas previous Infinite Comics took place within regular Marvel Universe continuity, this new series will be a tie-in to the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series. Marvel Universe: Ultimate Spider-Man will also be longer than previous projects, clocking in at 24 weekly chapters.
The series will be a joint effort between writers Eugene Son, Matt Kindt, Cullen Bunn, & Tim Seeley. Not unlike Amazing Spider-Man's Brand New Day format, each will script their own story arcs that contribute to a larger storyline. The comics will be storyboarded by JL Mast and Geoffrey Beulieu, with finished art provided by Luciano Vecchio and Soutchey Leimetry.
Marvel Universe: Ultimate Spider-Man has no specific release date right now other than "later in 2014."
Marvel's Avengers Alliance is a free-to-play, turn-based RPG designed for Facebook and mobile devices. Fans of the game will know that Marvel has previously released new batches of playable characters and missions to coincide with their films. That trend will continue this spring and summer.
First, later this month, Marvel will introduce a new Spec Ops mission inspired by Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This will add the Winter Soldier, "Captain Steve Rogers" (Cap in his Steve Rogers: Super Soldier outfit), Batroc the Leaper, and the Falcon into the game. Later in the summer, Marvel will introduce a Guardians of the Galaxy update that adds Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, and the rest of the gang to the app, while also opening the door for more cosmic characters and elements.
Avengers Alliance is part of the "Marvel Gaming Universe" continuity that links it with games like Marvel Puzzle Quest: Dark Reign. At the SXSW panel, Marvel hinted at increased story ties between the various games, using the upcoming introduction of Taskmaster in Avengers Alliance as one example.
Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.
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