Delays

Marvel announced in August 2006 that some issues of the main Civil War series would be pushed back several months to accommodate artist Steve McNiven. The schedule had issue #4 being released one month late, in September, while issue #5 was released two months later, in November. Furthermore, various tie-in books, including the Civil War: Front Line miniseries, were delayed to avoid spoiling plot developments.^[6]

In late November 2006, Marvel announced another delay. Civil War #6, originally scheduled for December 20, was pushed back two weeks and released on January 4. Unlike the previous instance, only The Punisher War Journal #2 was delayed. In a final act of rescheduling, Civil War #7 was pushed back two weeks (from January 17 to January 31),^[7] and then pushed back again until February 21.^[8]

Behind the scenes

After the publication of Civil War #7, Mark Millar described the book to Newsarama as "a story where a guy wrapped in the American flag is in chains as the people swap freedom for security".^[9] Millar conceded a "certain amount of political allegory"^[9] but said its real focus was on superheroes fighting each other. Contrasting it with The Ultimates, Millar said Civil War was "accidentally political because I just cannot help myself."^[9]

Aftermath

At the end of the storyline, a number of changes to the status quo have occurred, including:

• The President of the United States grants general amnesty to all Superhuman Registration Act opponents who turn themselves in or register.
• Captain America, the act's chief critic, is arrested and subsequently assassinated by a brainwashed Sharon Carter.
• Spider-Man's identity, Peter Parker, is now public knowledge, causing J. Jonah Jameson to sue.
• An assassin hired by Wilson Fisk, alias the Kingpin, to kill Spider-Man fails, instead shooting "secondary target" Aunt May and leaving her in critical condition. An enraged Spider-Man dons a cloth version of his black suit and confronts Kingpin in prison, mercilessly beating him within an inch of his life. The Wallcrawler warns the Kingpin that Fisk will die if May does, and promises the other inmates he'll come for them if they try to harm Spider-Man or his family.
• Tony Stark is appointed director of S.H.I.E.L.D., while Maria Hill is demoted to deputy director.
• The 50-State Initiative is set up to eventually place a superhero team in every state.
• The Mighty Avengers assemble as a new team.
• Some heroes choose to leave the country, rather than submit, leading to the third Omega Flight's formation in Canada. Firestar, conversely, retires, while several heroes still in the U.S. remain underground, including the New Avengers:^[18] Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman (actually the Skrull Queen Veranke), Iron Fist, Doctor Strange, Ronin (actually a resurrected Clint Barton), Echo, and Wolverine.
• Goliath, Bantam, Typeface, and Stilt-Man have been killed during the conflict. Tom Foster continues his uncle's legacy, becoming the new Goliath.
• Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman are replaced by Black Panther and Storm while Reed and Sue work on their marriage.
• Captain Marvel enters the present day.
• Speedball's powers (and sanity) are drastically altered, and he becomes the new Penance, joining the Thunderbolts.
• A reconstituted version of the New Warriors emerges, bearing little resemblance to the original. Most of the previous Warriors become part of The Initiative Program.
• Nova (Richard Rider) returns to Earth after defeating Annihilus' annihilation wave and killing its insectoid leader. Now bonded with the Nova Corps Worldmind, Rider learns his former New Warriors teammates are dead, and is asked to join the Initiative by Iron Man. After battling Norman Osborn's Thunderbolts, however, he instead chooses to leave Earth for Kree space.
• Mephisto offers to rescue Aunt May's life, in exchange for Peter Parker and Mary Jane "MJ" Watson's marriage. MJ and Peter eventually agree to Mephisto's terms, and May's life is saved. Peter and MJ's marriage, meanwhile, is erased from history, and Spider-Man's secret identity is restored.

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows

When the Super-Human Registration Act was proposed, Professor X and the Avengers argued that mutantkind and super-powered communities should police themselves. Cyclops thought it was preposterous for Professor X to appoint himself the representative of mutantkind, and his opposition to Xavier's proposal led Jean Grey to break up with him and marry Wolverine.^[19]

Contest of Champions

The 2015 Contest of Champions series featured an alternate version of Civil War that had everything go in Tony Stark's favor. Five years after the war, Tony becomes the President of the United States and leads the Mighty Avengers as the Iron Patriot. His team consists of Penance (Robbie Baldwin), Iron Spider (Natasha Romanoff), Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), and the Thor clone known as Thunderstrike. Steve Rogers (no longer called Captain America) and his teammates have been arrested and buy time off their sentence by performing suicide missions as the Thunderbolts. Steve's team consists of Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Invisible Woman, the Punisher, and Bill Foster's Goliath (who survived the Civil War in this reality).

President Stark and his Mighty Avengers are taken to Battleworld by Maestro and have their memories altered to think that they are on Earth and that the Renegade Champions already there are unregistered vigilantes. The Thunderbolts are sent to rescue them, but misunderstandings result in the deaths of Penance and Thunderstrike and all three teams start fighting each other. Tony kills Steve and reveals that he is in the possession of the Reality Gem from the Infinity Gauntlet. Tony and the members of the Illuminati divided the six Infinity Stones after hunting them down and vowed never to use them. But when Tony let the events of Civil War happen in their natural course, he couldn't resist using the Reality Gem to alter events in his favor. He used the gem to prevent the deaths of Goliath and Captain America, win the war, and rig the presidential election. He attempts to use it again to undo his killing of Steve, but it does not work since they were in another dimension. Maestro kills Tony and the Punisher, but is stopped by the intervention of Stick, the Sentry, and Nigel Higgins using the Iso-Sphere. The remaining five heroes from the Mighty Avengers and Thunderbolts stay behind on Battleworld with the Sentry and fight villains attempting to gather the Iso-Sphere as the Civil Warriors.^[20]

Earth-3490

When Mister Fantastic was researching realities where the Civil War ended differently, he found one reality in which their version of Anthony Stark was a woman named Natasha Stark. The Civil War was avoided entirely in this reality due to her marriage to Steve Rogers, by deterring each other's more aggressive behaviour and allowing Reed Richards to complete the Super Hero Registration Program.^[21]

Spider-Man: Life Story

In a reality where all the characters age naturally after Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man in 1962, the Superhuman Registration Act was passed shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001 and lasted for years. As a result, most of the heroes are middle-aged and older. In 2006, Ben Reilly (who was publicly known as Peter Parker/Spider-Man) was murdered by Morlun, prompting the real Peter Parker to return to New York to reveal he's alive to draw Morlun out to him and prevent Stark from taking control of Parker Industries. When Peter refuses Stark's offer to register, he is attacked by the U.S. Avengers (consisting of Tony Stark/Iron Man, James Rhodes/War Machine, Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk, and Danny Rand/Iron Fist all wearing power armors) before he is assisted by the Anti-Registration Avengers (consisting of Steve Rogers/Captain America, Clint Barton/Hawkeye, Luke Cage, Tyrone Johnson/Cloak and Tandy Bowen/Dagger). Peter dons a new Spider-Man armor and defeats the U.S. Avengers with a device that exposes a fail-safe Tony placed inside all of their armors. After Tony is revealed to be a hologram and disappears, Spider-Man joins the Anti-Registration Avengers to follow his daughter's advice on leaving the world a better place for future generations.^[22] A decade later, it is revealed that Dr. Doom took over the planet as the heroes were too busy fighting each other (a reference to the 2015 Secret Wars). Peter becomes the new leader of the resistance after all the other heroes died or disappeared from the public.^[23]

Spider-Verse

During an attempt by the reality-displaced Superior Spider-Man (Otto Octavius's mind in Peter Parker's body) to reach back to his dimension as seen in the Spider-Verse storyline, he discovered an alternate dimension where a Civil War Iron Spider-Man lies dead (killed by Karn) prompting him to continue investigating the murders of Spider-Men throughout the Multiverse.^[24]

What If?

In What If Civil War Ended Differently?, a stranger appears in front of Iron Man, who is visiting Captain America's grave at Arlington National Cemetery. Tony Stark is told of two alternate ways the Civil War could have concluded:^[25]

• The first is detailed in, "What if Captain America led all the heroes against the Registration Act?" In this reality, Tony Stark dies of the Extremis virus, leaving the U.S. government to choose Steve Rogers as the spokesperson for heroes, who, as in the regular universe, opposes the Registration Act. Though he manages to delay its passing, the Stamford disaster occurs as in Earth-616. Without Tony to provide a fairer path for registration, the government's response is more extreme. Government forces led by Henry Peter Gyrich destroy the resistance and many heroes are slain.

Faced with this vision, Tony believes that this proves that he was right to pursue his pro-registration course of action, but the stranger then reveals another possibility;

• The second is detailed in, "What if Iron Man lost the Civil War?" In this reality, Iron Man asks for Cap's help during the confrontation at the power plant instead of threatening him, admitting his doubts about his actions rather than trying to justify them, and thus Cap does not use the hidden weapon in his glove to disable Tony's armor. The heroes then unite to defeat the out-of-control Thor clone, Ragnarok, which is released when a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent detects the weapon and assumes that Cap is still planning to use it. The resulting goodwill convinces Captain America to help run the program as he is the only one the heroes will trust with their secret identities.

The stranger is revealed to be Uatu, Earth 616's Watcher. Upon learning of the possibility of this alternate reality, Tony is devastated and weeps for the bright future he helped prevent.

In What If: Annihilation by David Hine and Mico Suayan, the cosmic Annihilation War reaches Earth during the War. The heroes unite to neutralize it, and many die in the first clashes. Captain America and Iron Man, after a final reconciliation, sacrifice themselves alongside Nova to deflect the full Annihilation Wave.^[26]

Road to Civil War

• Amazing Spider-Man #529
• Amazing Spider-Man #530
• Amazing Spider-Man #531
• New Avengers: Illuminati Special #1
• Fantastic Four #536
• Fantastic Four #537

Civil War

Related but not listed

• The 2006 Eternals relaunch has the Civil War play a fairly present background in the setting with Sprite appearing in pro-registration PSAs. In issue #3, Iron Man reminds Sersi to register. In issue #6, Iron Man and Hank Pym try to get the Eternals to register again, but they refuse. In the end, Zuras explains that the Eternals have no desire to meddle with humanity, and will stay out of their affairs, which Iron Man concedes as a fair compromise.
• New X-Men #28 and She-Hulk #9 are indirectly, but strongly involved.
• Marvel Comics Presents (vol. 2) #12 involves a patsy attempt to get Man-Thing to register with the government. The story was published late (October 2008 cover date), during Secret Invasion and the same month as Marvel Zombies 3, in which Man-Thing also appeared.
• The cover of Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #11 features a Civil War parody cover including a plaid background, the words "Not part of a Marvel Comics event," and Aaron Stack holding up a card reading "Mark Millar licks goats."
• Spider-Man and Power Pack #3 (March 2007) includes a parody entitled "Civil Wards," written by Marc Sumerak and illustrated by Chris Giarrusso.
• The final issue of Robert Kirkman's Marvel Team-Up opens with Peter Parker getting ready to travel to Washington with Iron Man.
• The third issue of the 2006 Union Jack miniseries also mentions Tony Stark and Peter Parker's trip to Washington.
• Incredible Hulk #100 includes a 12-page backup story dealing with Mr. Fantastic's involvement with the Thor clone, and the repercussions of the Illuminati having exiled the Hulk into space.
• In Annihilation #4, the former Earth hero Nova is aware of the Civil War and is disappointed with the actions the heroes have taken, as they are not united against the threat of Annihilus.
• In Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #6-13, Spider-Man is seen wearing the new suit he got in The Road to Civil War.
• Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #14-16
• New X-Men #29-31
• Thunderbolts #106-108
• In Sensational Spider-Man #26-27, Spider-Man is seen wearing the new suit he got in The Road to Civil War.
• In Sensational Spider-Man #28-34, Spider-Man deals with the aftermath of revealing his identity.
• Captain America (5th ed.) #25 is subtitled Civil War Epilogue.
• Fantastic Four #543 is subtitled Civil War Epilogue.
• Moon Knight (5th ed.) #8 and #9 are direct Civil War tie ins.
• Civil War: Front Lines #9-11 are direct Civil War tie-ins.

Oversized hardcovers

Trade paperbacks

• Straczynski, J. Michael; Bendis, Brian Michael (February 2007). The Road To Civil War. Illustrated by Alex Maleev. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-1974-6.
• Bendis, Brian Michael (February 2007). New Avengers Vol 5: Civil War. Illustrated by Howard Chaykin, Olivier Coipel. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2242-5.
• Reed, Brian (March 2007). Ms. Marvel Vol 2: Civil War. Illustrated by Roberto De La Torre, Mike Wieringo. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2304-0.
• Gray, Justin; Palmiotti, Jimmy (April 2007). Heroes for Hire Vol 1: Civil War. Illustrated by Billy Tucci. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2362-0.
• Millar, Mark (April 2007). Civil War TPB. Illustrated by Steve McNiven. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2179-4.
• Nicieza, Fabian (April 2007). Civil War: Thunderbolts. Illustrated by Tom Grummett. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-1947-0.
• Jenkins, Paul (April 2007). Civil War: Front Line, Book 1. Illustrated by Ramon F. Bachs. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2312-5.
• Straczynski, J. Michael (April 2007). Civil War: Amazing Spider-Man. Illustrated by Ron Garney. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2237-1.
• Hine, David (April 2007). Civil War: X-Men. Illustrated by Yanick Paquette. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2313-2.
• Fraction, Matt (April 2007). Punisher War Journal Vol 1: Civil War. Illustrated by Ariel Olivetti. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2775-8.
• Straczynski, J. Michael (April 2007). Civil War: Fantastic Four. Illustrated by Mike McKone. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2227-2.
• Wells, Zeb (May 2007). Civil War: Young Avengers and Runaways. Illustrated by Stefano Caselli. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2317-0.
• Guggenheim, Marc (May 2007). Civil War: Wolverine. Illustrated by Humberto Ramos. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-1980-7.
• Brubaker, Ed (May 2007). Civil War: Captain America. Illustrated by Mike Perkins, Lee Weeks. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2798-7.
• Aguirre-Sacasa, Roberto (May 2007). Civil War: Peter Parker, Spider-Man. Illustrated by Clayton Crain, Angel Medina. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2189-3.
• Jenkins, Paul (May 2007). Civil War: Front Line, Book 2. Illustrated by Ramon F. Bachs, Steve Lieber. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2469-6.
• David, Peter; Nicieza, Fabian (May 2007). Civil War: X-Men Universe. Illustrated by Dennis Calero, Staz Johnson. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2243-2.
• Tieri, Frank (May 2007). Civil War: War Crimes. Illustrated by Staz Johnson. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2652-2.
• Hudlin, Reginald (May 2007). Black Panther: Civil War. Illustrated by Scot Eaton, Manuel Garcia, Koi Turnbull. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2235-7.
• Biggs, Chris; Byrd, Ronald; Carter, Madison; David, Peter; Fichera, Mike; Flamini, Anthony; Gray, Justin; Guggenheim, Marc; Hine, David; Hoskin, Michael; McLauchlin, Jim; O'English, Mark; Reed, Brian; Slott, Dan; Straczynski, J. Michael; Thomas, John Rhett; Trodglen, Dugan; Vandal, Stuart; Wells, Zeb; York, Jeph (May 2007). Civil War Companion. Illustrated by Scott Kolins, Mike Mayhew. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2576-1.
• Brubaker, Ed; Slott, Dan; Jenkins, Paul; Fraction, Matt; Oeming, Michael Avon (June 2007). Civil War: Marvel Universe. Illustrated by Lee Weeks, Tom Raney, Paul Smith, Leinil Francis Yu, David Aja, Phil Hester, Scott Kolins, Ty Templeton. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2470-2.
• Brubaker, Ed; Knauf, Charlie; Knauf, Daniel; Hudlin, Reginald (June 2007). Civil War: Iron Man. Illustrated by Mike Perkins. Marvel. ISBN 978-0-7851-2314-9.

Novels

Marvel adapted Civil War into a prose hardcover novel in July 2012 as the first of a series of four novels adapting some of Marvel's most significant fictional events.^[30] It was written by Stuart Moore, the writer of Namor: The First Mutant. The book expanded on the story and set the events during Barack Obama's first term in office, rather than George W. Bush's last term; Tony Stark makes reference to the Affordable Care Act when speaking to Spider-Man in the first chapter of the novel.^[30] The novel is set in the alternate timeline created by the controversial storyline "One More Day" and detailed in "One Moment in Time", as Spider-Man is depicted as never having married Mary Jane Watson, having never arrived on the day of their wedding.^[31] In the original comics version, Civil War was a lead-in to "One More Day", depicting May Parker's assassination on the orders of Wilson Fisk near the end of the main Civil War storyline.

Film

The 2016 film Captain America: Civil War was a cinematic treatment of the story, albeit focusing more on the issue of government control rather than public knowledge of secret identities: these matters were also being escalated by the interference and manipulation of Helmut Zemo as his plan for revenge against the Avengers' role in Ultron's assault and the deaths of Zemo's family. The movie version of Civil War also differs from the comic substantially, former U.S Army General Thaddeus Ross as the U.S Secretary of State is involved in the registration debacle instead of S.H.I.E.L.D and Maria Hill as the former was dismantled in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the latter's whereabouts are unknown at that point or is presumably in hiding with Nick Fury, with the fate of Bucky Barnes becoming a key element of the war after he is framed for the assassination of the Black Panther's father, the king of Wakanda. As in the comics, Captain America and Iron Man are the respective leaders of the anti-registration and pro-registration sides of the conflicts, with Cap's side including the Falcon, Bucky, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, and the Scarlet Witch, and Iron Man's side being Black Widow, War Machine, the Black Panther, Spider-Man and the Vision. Stark and Rogers reconcile after realizing the truth of the king's assassination, but it is short-lived as Zemo reveals Barnes' role in Stark's parents' deaths, and that Rogers kept the truth from him. An enraged Stark attacks both Rogers and Barnes, and the fight culminates with Rogers abandoning his shield and identity and escaping with Barnes, becoming a fugitive in the process. The film concludes with Cap's side seeking asylum in Wakanda after the Black Panther recognizes that he was wrong to target Bucky. The latter is then put into cryogenic sleep. Black Widow goes on the run after betraying Stark's side to help Rogers find the instigator of their fight, and War Machine is left crippled after injuries sustained in the final battle.

Later in the 2018 film Avengers: Infinity War it was revealed that Hawkeye and Ant-Man made deals with Ross to be placed in house arrest, so they could be with their families. The impact of the Civil War is also heavily felt throughout the film as the Avengers' disunity and Rogers and Stark still being on bad terms, left them vulnerable to Thanos' invasion and the Blip.

Television

A different variation of the Civil War storyline closely resembling Civil War II as it features Iron Man and Captain Marvel in opposition to each other was adapted in the four-part Season finale of Avengers: Ultron Revolution. In this version of the storyline, the Registration Act targets new Inhumans, and teams of Avengers come into conflict over the issue, as in other adaptations. It is revealed in Part 3, however, that the Inhuman Registration Act is actually part of a plan by Ultron (disguised as Truman Marsh) to begin the Ultron Revolution by manipulating humans and Inhumans into destroying each other, which is foiled by the combined efforts of the Avengers.

Video games

• The comic is adapted into Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2. While the storyline remains relatively faithful to the original comic, it takes a different path halfway through the game, as the act is briefly suspended for the heroes to deal with a crisis involving the nanite network used to control supervillains manifesting a form of sentience. In the game, the player gets to choose whether to side with Pro or Anti-Registration- with Captain America, Luke Cage and Iron Fist 'locked' into Anti-Registration and Iron Man, Mister Fantastic and Songbird in Pro-Registration- which affects the story's progression, characters they interact with, and the story's ending. Spider-Man and Wolverine are however playable on both sides.
• In Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, Iron Man and Captain America reference the event if they are pitted against each other. The player also receives an achievement titled "Whose Side are You On?" if Iron Man defeats Captain America or vice versa in an online match.
• In Marvel: Contest of Champions, a special storyline featured elements of the Civil War, as the apparent death of the Collector causes Iron Man and Captain America to become divided over what action they should take with the Iso-Spheres that must be collected in the game. This storyline also introduces a special player in the form of the Civil Warrior, who is identified as a version of Steve Rogers who witnessed so much death in the final battle of the Civil War that he adopted some of Tony Stark's armor and dedicated himself to preventing such a catastrophe ever again.