Civil War II #8

History

The entire Civil War II series — and by extension this final issue — was conceived under significant editorial time pressure: then-editor-in-chief Axel Alonso had only three to four months to plan the event, an unusually compressed window driven by the need to align publication with the May 2016 theatrical release of Captain America: Civil War. The series was originally planned as seven issues, but mid-production Bendis announced an expansion to eight, attributing the schedule disruption partly to artist David Marquez slowing to approximately one page per day following the birth of his son, and partly to Bendis developing what he described as a stronger ending that required additional pages. Those compounding delays pushed issue #8 from its originally solicited November 2, 2016 on-sale date all the way to December 28, 2016 — meaning Marvel's 'Marvel NOW!' relaunch titles, which were meant to spin out of Civil War II's aftermath, were already reaching stores before the event that caused them had even concluded.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Written by Brian Michael Bendis with pencils by David Marquez (primary); additional future-vision sequences drawn by Adam Kubert, Leinil Francis Yu, Daniel Acuña, Alan Davis & Mark Farmer, Marco Rudy, Mark Bagley & John Dell, and Esad Ribic.
• Cover-dated February 2017; released in stores December 28, 2016; editor-in-chief Axel Alonso; primary cover by Marko Djurdjevic, with variant covers by John Cassaday, Michael Cho, Phil Noto, Kim Jung Gi, and others.
• Concludes with Captain Marvel defeating Iron Man over Washington, D.C., leaving Tony Stark in a coma caused by extensive cybernetic self-modification — a status quo that directly launched both the Invincible Iron Man (Riri Williams) and Infamous Iron Man (Doctor Doom) ongoing series.
• Ulysses Cain is removed from the mortal playing field when Eternity appears and elevates him to the level of an Abstract Cosmic Entity, ending his role as the event's central conflict-driver.
• A multi-page sequence depicts flash-forward visions of possible Marvel futures, each rendered by a different guest artist — a structural device that functioned as a promotional preview of upcoming 2017 titles including Champions, Hulk, and Monsters Unleashed.
• The series was expanded from seven to eight issues mid-production; Bendis publicly credited a desire for 'a better ending' that required the additional pages, while the schedule was also disrupted by Marquez's reduced output following his son's birth.
• Issue #8 received an average critical score of 5.0 out of 10 across 20 reviews aggregated by Comic Book Roundup, making it among the lowest-rated chapters of the series — though David Marquez's artwork was singled out for praise by multiple reviewers.
• The entire Civil War II limited series (issues #0–8) plus Free Comic Book Day 2016 material were collected in a trade paperback (ISBN 9781302901578) by Marvel.

Other variants of Civil War II #8 (3)