Marvel’s digital comics are moving to a new app. WEBTOON Entertainment announced on October 5 that it is working with Marvel to launch the Marvel Comics app on November 16, giving readers digital access to Marvel’s current and classic library.
The launch comes with a shutdown attached. Marvel Unlimited, the subscription service that has run since November 2007, ends in December. It stops adding new comics on December 7, and reading on the service ends the same day. Members can still browse their saved library until December 21, and the app shuts down for good on December 28.
Existing Marvel Unlimited readers will not lose their shelf. Their library and reading history can be exported to the new Marvel Comics app, and active subscribers qualify for an automated, prorated refund.
What the new app will do
The Marvel Comics app runs on mobile and in a browser, and WEBTOON is developing it. The catalog pulls from Marvel, Star Wars, and 20th Century Studios, and it supports both traditional page-based comics and vertical-scroll reading.
Readers get a cover-based browsing view, personalized recommendations, and the ability to follow specific series, characters, and creators. A Pull List feature sends a notice when a new issue of a followed title lands, and a smart-panel mode enlarges individual panels for phone screens.
WEBTOON says the service will keep growing with more features and stories from across Disney’s portfolio.
Two tiers and a founding offer
There are two subscription tiers at launch. Base costs $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year and gets new issues three months after their print release. Ultimate costs $12.49 a month or $99.99 a year, and it cuts that wait to one month while adding the full digital library.
Anyone who pre-registers can lock in a founding member price of $59.99 for the first year of the Ultimate annual plan.
The app is debuting at New York Comic Con, which runs October 8 to 11, and visitors can preview the beta at the Marvel Comics app booth.
A deal years in the making
The app is the latest step in a partnership that has been building since last year. WEBTOON announced a global deal with Disney in August 2025 to adapt and distribute around 100 comics from Disney, Marvel, 20th Century Studios, and Star Wars in WEBTOON’s mobile vertical-scroll format. A month later, Disney and WEBTOON signed a non-binding term sheet to develop a new digital comics platform. The Marvel Comics app is that platform’s first visible product.
Why it matters
For Marvel readers, the practical change is simple: one app retires and another takes its place, with the library moving across. The bigger shift is who runs it. WEBTOON built its audience on vertical-scroll serials, and now it is handling the digital storefront for the largest superhero publisher in the world. For a company that started with webtoons and mobile-first reading, holding Marvel’s backlist is a different kind of business.
Marvel Unlimited’s long run and the careful ordering of this transition suggest the two companies planned the handoff rather than rushed it. Less clear is whether the tiered pricing and the delayed access to new issues will satisfy readers used to Marvel Unlimited’s model. The refund and export tools soften the landing, but the value question depends on how quickly the library and monthly releases fill out.
For more on WEBTOON’s business moves, see our report on the platform’s new co-CEOs at Naver Webtoon, and for its push into live-action, our coverage of The Mafia Nanny’s Hulu series.
Source: Anime News Network
Featured image: Marvel Comics app promotional art, via WEBTOON / Anime News Network.
