While none of the offerings are currently the newest material in their catalog, Marvel Comics is partnering with some app developers for the iPhone to bring comics to the small screen. If the sampling is any indication of how well comics can be done on a 3.5-inch screen, I can hardly wait for Apple to bust out the 10.7-inch tablet.

At this stage, at least three apps sell select titles from Marvel's catalog and the three of them offer differing iterations on the reading experience. Readers of comics can find their mobile fix at Comics by Comixology, iVerse and Panelfly, all of which feature in app purchasing of comics. While Comics and iVerse are offering Marvel titles at the price of $1.99, Panelfly is the better bet for pricing, offering the same titles at the discount price of $.99.

The three apps share many similarities with other reader apps while also each delivering their own take on the graphic format reading experience. They also each handle the downloading of comics in their own way, each highlighting different publishers and a different variety of free comics.

In the Marvel category, there seems to be variation with the titles on offer for each app. Comics offers Astonishing X-Men, Captain America, Civil War, Marvel Zombies, X-23, and X-Men Age of Apocalypse, while Panelfly offers Astonishing X-Men, X-23, X-Men Age of Apocalypse, Iron Man, and Amazing Spider-Man. iVerse for its part offers X-Men Age of Apocalypse, Amazing Spider-Man, Astonishing X-Men, Captain America, Iron Man, and X-23. No word on exactly the disparity in titles, though it's worth noting that the mix represents the new, with Josh Whedon's Astonishing X-Men series side by side with issues 1-25 of the classic Stan Lee/Steve Ditko Amazing Spider-Man.

The apps also differ on previews of the comics and other features. Some are strong in some aspects, while outshined by others elsewhere. Marvel's cautious approach in letting third-parties act as distribution channels could also be seen as a wise first toe into the mobile market before the creation of their own app culling the best features from others.

In the realm of samples, iVerse seems to offer nothing beyond a thumbnail of the cover. It also locks image sizing, preventing readers from zooming in on Veronica's tight sweaters in Archie Comics. One suspects that the same can be said for X-23's more revealing wardrobe choices. It does, however, feature nicely sized screens that don't crowd the view and a rotation to landscape focuses automatically in on just enough to fill your screen with readable goodness. iVerse's user interface is slick and polished, your comics titles resting nicely on a woodgrain shelf for you to tap and begin reading

Panelfly is a beautiful app to look at and allows you to preview up to four pages of a comic, though its download speeds are considerably slower than the other two and comics needed to process and be added to the library in a time consuming fashion prior to reading. Pages stocked with panels load and you have to double tap to get to one screen-sized panel zoomed in sufficient to read. Tap the right hand side of the screen to navigate to the next panel, left panel taps takes you back a panel or you can swish your thumb across the screen to bounce around the page without controls. There is no pinch-resizing of images.

Comics by Comixology works similarly to Stanza with the page being broken into thirds for tap-based controls which animate panel shifts beautifully. These occur in all directions, moving you across larger panels as you might read each text box, then zooming out to allow the whole picture to be viewed. The drawback here is that you frequently find yourself switching the iPhone from landcape to portrait and back. Comics does, however, allow for pinch resizing and image dragging, as well as the helpful feature of an in-app comic book store finder that uses GPS to put you on the right path to your local print comics seller. Of all three apps, it also has the finest tuning in the settings.

Each comics reader has something for a class of customers, each holds a slightly different selection of titles and publishers, and if you're a dedicated comics reader you just might wish to download all three to find out which experience works best for you. Or to take advantage of all the titles currently available across the spectrum. With well-developed user interfaces in each of the three apps it really comes down to a matter of taste and preferences.

For Marvel this step hopefully proves successful enough that more of their back and current catalog will soon be available. The inclusion of longer-length graphic novels and more adult geared titles would also be welcome as would a few more freebies to encourage more readers to support these formats.

If their moves are indicative of anything, this is likely to happen. Marvel has also tried experimenting with "motion comics" (minimally animated cartoons, reminiscent of low budget "cartoon" versions of children's books in the seventies) available in iTunes including Spider-Woman and Josh Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men. Exactly what support or benefits Marvel's Apple products related ventures may receive from their new parent company Disney isn't exactly clear at this point.

One thing is certain in this regard, though, the folks at DC Comics are watching with anticipation to see if their competitor can make a go of it. If it proves a success, we'll almost certainly see some kind of similar offering from the Warner stable. The sooner Batman ends up on the iPhone, the better.