Marvel Comics in Chrome as Captain America movie makes digital debut

Marvel Comics has teamed up with Google to bring comics to Chrome. The X-Men, The Avengers and the Ultimates are all bursting into your browser, with a digital-only prequel to the forthcoming Captain America movie set to kick some HYDRA heinie this week.

Over 1,600 comics are available, in titles including Astonishing X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man and Mildly Surprising Squirrel Girl. Not really -- although Squirrel Girl is in fact the most powerful hero in the Marvel Universe. Seriously. She once beat up Doctor Doom. Even Iron Man was impressed.

You can also catch up with soon-to-be film stars Captain America, Thor and the rest of the Avengers. First Vengeance, a digital prequel comic to Captain America: The First Avenger, starring Chris Evans (not that one), will be released via the Marvel iTunes app on 8 February. The Nazi-biffin' film itself is due in late July.

The Chrome app is based on the Marvel app, built in HTML 5 and allowing you to tap or click and zoom in to panels, and swipe or click back and forth through pages.

If you've bought comics through the Marvel app on iTunes, you'll be able to read them in Chrome as well as on your iPhone or iPad. Comics bought in Chrome won't go the other way, though. It's a wonder there's any Marvel heroes left, what with the Fantastic Four's Human Torch having been killed off recently and Ultimate Spider-Man also heading for the super-cemetery. Anyone would think they were cynical publicity stunts...

Google's Chrome team obviously love their sequential art: the browser was originally introduced in a comic by Scott McCloud.

You can download Marvel comics from chrome.marvel.com. There's a smattering of free issues, but most cost around £2.