Among the most impressive of iPad apps that will become available on the April 3 launch day of the much-hyped Apple iPad will include the high-profile Marvel Comics App, which will enable iPad users to purchase and read the entire range of Marvel comics.

Announcing the availability of the ‘free’ app right from the iPad’s launch day, Marvel Comics – the well-known publishing home of heroes like Spider-Man and the X-Men – said on Friday that its iPad-specific app will allow readers to access a digital library of over 500 comics from its seven-decade-old history.

The Marvel Comics App, which has been developed by the digital comics’ distributor comiXology, will offer free access to the first issues of titles like New Avengers and The Invincible Iron Man; while the other recent and classic issues will be available for download at $1.99 each.

A BoingBoing-released video shot of the Marvel Comics App shows smooth transitions, panning and zooming mark the change of one cell of the comic book to the next. In addition, readers can also leaf through all the pages of the book or scan them via a thumbnail view.

About the availability of the Marvel Comics App on the iPad, Ira Rubenstein, the Executive VP of Marvel’s global digital media group, said that the app will only ‘complement’ the experience of buying and reading physical comics, and not ‘supplant’ it.