The old Comixology browser reader was functionally quite basic, but Kindle Cloud Reader - designed more for reading digital books than a primarily visual medium like comics - lacks even those basic functions. Which you’ll probably want to do, because reading comics in Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader is a major pain in the arse. Purchasing comics is now identical to purchasing pretty much anything else on Amazon, and as digital purchases you have all the benefits of things like synced page tracking, so you can pick up in-app where you left off on a browser. Although featuring Comixology iconography, it is for all intents and purposes similar to many other in-site storefronts on Amazon - and clumsily awkward to find from the homepage of the site, nestled under “Books > Comics & Graphic Novels” without a direct link. As of this week, Comixology’s original native website now re-directs you to Amazon Kindle Comics storefront, a page on Amazon’s own site. The most radical changes - and biggest failures - come in the browser experience.

Older releases and digital collections of classic comics can look a little crusty zoomed all the way in, but newly released comics look great with this functionality I tested it out on this week’s Nightwing #89, and Bruno Redondo and Adriano Lucas’ Dick Grayson still looks as glorious as ever zoomed all the way in. Comixology’s “Guided View” - a somewhat dynamic, panel-by-panel reading experience - returns, along with basic pinch-to-zoom for closer reading. The updated Comixology app now promises faster downloads of comics to your library, better search filtering, and new navigation features that, by and large, bring the experience of reading comics on the Comixology app in line with the experience of reading them on Amazon’s Kindle library apps - alongside the fact that you can read Comixology purchases in the Kindle app, and previous Kindle purchases vice versa. Changes to the Comixology app have been largely unobtrusive, aside from the full merger of Amazon and Comixology accounts. Kicking off with this week’s wave of comic releases midweek, Amazon has radically overhauled the experience of using the biggest digital comics storefront in the industry. A new update this week changes that… for the considerable worse.

The ability to sign in with your Amazon account aside, the two storefronts have largely stayed separate. Since Amazon acquired Comixology in 2014, its larger relationship with the storefront - which, for those years, has remained the premiere hub for buying and reading digital comics - has been relatively hands off.

Comixology voucher