The crux of the original Civil War was Iron Man versus Captain America, but now in 2016's Civil War II will face another Captain: Captain Marvel.
Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso described Carol Danvers as being on the frontlines in opposition to Iron Man for the event which begins in May's Civil War II #0, playing off her new role as leader of the space defense agency Alpha Flight as seen in recent issues of Captain Marvel.
“There’s a reason that Carol is a part of the opposition forces. It not only speaks to her character, but her new role in the Marvel universe,” Alonso told The Washington Post Wednesday. “She’s the leader of Alpha Flight, which is Earth’s first line of defense from all incursions. As of today, she is a very powerful authoritative figure in the Marvel universe.”
Captain America - neither Sam Wilson nor Steve Rogers - was mentioned by Alonso as being a major figure in the series, despite his recently announced return scheduled for just prior to Civil War II and being the key figure in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War movie. Alonso squarely puts Tony Stark and Iron Man as the integral figure of the new series, which made the appointment of Brian Michael Bendis to write the series "perfect sense."
Having been involved in the initial architecture of the story, and given Tony Stark’s involvement in the story, it made perfect sense for [Bendis] to write it,” Alonso said.
Interesting to note is the pronounced appearances recently of James "Rhodey" Rhodes as War Machine in both Invincible Iron Man and Captain Marvel, and the strong relationships the character has with both title characters.
One unique aspect to Civil War II revealed by Alonso in this interview is the relatively short pre-planning for the event. The E-i-C said the series wasn't conceived until in the midst of the recently concluded Secret Wars.
“This was not like [the first] Civil War or Secret Wars, where we planned for a couple of years,” said Alonso. “We’ve been planning this for maybe three or four months.”
Civil War II will debut in May with a special zero issue, with #1 scheduled for June.