WonderCon 2016: Marvel Discusses Civil War II and Other Titles

During Marvel Comics’ “Next Big Thing” panel at WonderCon 2016, there was a discussion of a slate of upcoming titles, including the big Civil War II mini-series. The panelists included Brian Michael Bendis, David Walker, Charles Soule and James Asmus. Each panelist talked about the series that they are currently working on while also taking audience questions.     Bendis discussed what would be happening in titles he is writing, such as Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man, Invincible Iron Man and the new International Iron Man. However, the biggest focus was on this summer’s big crossover event Civil War II, a series Bendis will be writing. He discussed how the story idea came about from discussions from Marvel staffers about personal responsibility. It was not initially intended as a sequel to Civil War or related to Captain America: Civil War, but Marvel higher-ups suggested calling it Civil War II because “everyone else will.” He also pointed out that the state of the Marvel Universe is much different from what it looked like during the original Civil War, with some heroes having entirely different identities and other heroes having vastly different personal beliefs.   Bendis also revealed something interesting about the Civil War II sides/teams in response to an audience question. Marvel determined which heroes would be on Iron Man’s side and who would be on Captain Marvel’s side by discussing with the current writers for each character. The creative team for each character decided which side their hero would align with, and afterwards the sides were luckily relatively equal in number.     David Walker was on hand to discuss the new Power Man & Iron Fist title, which he is writing with art from Sanford Greene, and the upcoming new series Nighthawk. He talked about how Power Man & Iron Fist is a buddy story, with the first arc being a temporary team-up during which Iron Fist wants to reunite the duo permanently but Luke Cage resists. He also discussed how readers will see the best and worst of Luke Cage and Danny Rand in upcoming arcs.     James Asmus (All-New Inhumans) and Charles Soule (Uncanny Inhumans) talked about the Inhuman realm of the Marvel Universe and how it’s an increasing part of the line. The development of new Inhumans gives the writers an opportunity to show new Inhuman characters, ones who also come from all over the world. Soule discussed how Uncanny Inhumans focuses on Medusa and the rest of the traditional center of the Inhuman group. Regarding his work on Daredevil, Soule confirmed that we would eventually learn how Daredevil’s identity as Matt Murdock went from public knowledge to secret, but that it would be a slow reveal. He mentioned that in addition to Blindspot and Tenfingers, upcoming arcs in Daredevil would include brand-new characters as well as Elektra.