‘Civil War II’ Suffers More Delays, Final Issue Pushed To December

It's charitable to say that Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez's Civil War II has not been the most well-received of events, with its killing off of one of Marvel's most prominent black superheroes in War Machine, and the resulting character assassination of Captain Marvel. However, it isn't just on the page that things seem to be going wrong, as the comic's release schedule --- like that of many event comics --- has gone almost completely off the rails, with the final issue pushed back to December 28th.

The original plan for the finale of Civil War II was for the seventh issue to go on sale October 19th, but in mid-August the publisher announced an extra eighth issue, which would be released on November 2nd. With this delay, the new schedule for Civil War II looks like this.

• Civil War II #5 - September 21st
• Civil War II #6 - October 26th
• Civil War II #7 - November 20th
• Civil War II #8 - December 28th

Bendis had previously attributed the delays, at least in part, to the arrival of a baby boy to Tara Marquez, wife of artist David Marquez --- though presumably Marvel could have anticipated such a joyous event!

This is nowhere near the first delay on a big Marvel event comic. Ten years ago the original Civil War was plagued by delays that had a knock-on effect on the entire publishing line-up, as tie-ins were forcible delayed to prevent spoiling the main series.

Last year, Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic's Secret Wars suffered similar delays, and also saw the addition of an extra issue halfway through the run. However, Marvel didn't delay its launch of All-New, All-Different Marvel, and elements from the finale of Secret Wars --- such as the disappearance of the Fantastic Four, and Doctor Doom losing his facial scars --- were spoiled or at least teased in the new line of comics.

The first comics from Marvel's new Marvel Now initiative are set for release in October with titles such as Champions and Infamous Iron Man promising big Civil War II fallout. It's unclear at this stage whether the release of these comics will go ahead, potentially spoiling Marvel's latest big summer event, or whether they might be pushed back to the new year to keep the secrets of Civil War II #8.