Earlier this week, Marvel Comics unveiled an online archive offering more than 2,500 back issues of some of its most popular comics, featuring characters such as the X-Men and Spider-Man, with new comics being added to the database six months after their release. Access to Digital Comics Unlimited runs $9.99 a month, or $59.88 a year, but fans will have to read the comics in the web browser rather than being able to download any files. When USA Today reporter David Colton asked Marvel prez Dan Buckley "why people would pay for superheroes when newspaper websites have been unable to charge for content," Buckley's response was: "You can get the news anywhere. We're the only ones who have Spider-Man." (This is of course technically untrue, since a syndicated strip featuring the character runs on several newspaper comics pages and online; it is, however, not terribly well archived and thank heaven for that, as it is unspeakably lame.)

Fans quickly managed to crash Marvel's servers, a show of enthusiasm that warmed the hearts of Motley Fool analyst Tim Beyers, who compared DCU to iTunes, but then he already believed the company was "a screaming buy." ComicMix blogger Glenn Hauman is less impressed by the move online, pointing out one fan-unfriendly aspect of the launch: If a comics proves to be selling well in trade paperback collections, you can pretty much expect that it's going to be taken out of the digital archives.