I think one of the worst things old school publishing companies can do as they transition into the digital age (kicking and screaming) is lock themselves down into their own application or portal. Apparently someone at Marvel Entertainment thinks so too because Marvel announced this week that a bevy of their most popular graphic novels are now available in the Apple iTunes iBookstore.

To be fair Marvel, and other comic book publishers have been fairly open to making their products available in multiple venues. Prior to this announcement you could get Marvel Comics in the Marvel App for iOS and Android, the ComiXology app, and other mobile comic book specific apps. The most complete collection of Marvel products was of course in their own app, but at least you could grab the most recent releases by other means. Now Marvel has graphic novels available in the iBookstore. Titles include X-Men, Avengers, Civil War, the Castle graphic novel, The Dark Tower, and many others.

You can see the complete list of available graphic novels by launching the app on your iDevice or by going to at Marvel.com.