Released today and spied by those eagle eyes at Bleeding Cool, the Marvel AR App is now available for iOS. Free for download for your iPhones and iPads (providing you have the iPad 2 or 3, of course), the app is Marvel’s experiment in augmented reality with comics — something the company had teased back at SXSW last month with Infinite Comics and ReEvolution.
The app is simple to use and easy to understand: starting this week with “Avengers vs X-Men” #1, various Marvel comics will come with an AR logo on the cover, noting that they work with the augmented reality application. The app operates through your camera, and unlocks the AR elements of the comic by having you hold your lens so that the associated image is framed within your screen. If the comic you buy has that logo, open the app and watch reality get augmented! (Don’t be afraid to move your iPad or iPhone, either, so long as the image being augmented is still visible.)
So far, the “experience” has proven to work, and is actually fairly cool in terms of digital experimentation. The app works alongside the “AvX” #1 cover, and use of the app makes the comic cover come to life, unlocking a trailer for the series which plays over the comic’s cover. We tested it out on both the second printing cover as well as the first printing (which we’ve posted here for you to use), and it works seamlessly with both. It’ll be very fun to watch what else Marvel has planned with the AR App, but so far we definitely enjoy their first foray.
Go on, then. Download the app, frame the above image in your screen and watch what happens. Seriously. It works. And is neat!
