There are a couple things wrong with Marvel's new "Digital Comics Unlimited" archive - a $60/year back issue extravaganza. First off, acronymized it reads "Marvel DCU", which is a bit confusing. Secondly, Marvel apparently crashed its site while attempting to launch the new feature, because Marvel.com has been down all day. Both of those are forgivable.
Thirdly and worst, Marvel seems to intend to make the comics available only through a proprietary web application. Probably the company is doing that to prevent subscribers from sharing with non-subscribers, while also preventing users from creating a personal archive independent of their subscriptions. The net effect, though, will be to encourage pirates to find other ways to scan and share back issues. They'll probably even use Marvel's own high-quality scans from the archive.
A smarter approach may be what DC did with Mad Magazine a few years back - it sold "Absolutely MAD Magazine - 50+ Years", a DVD collection of the magazine for $50.
Check out the Newsarama write-up on Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited.
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