SPOILER WARNING: This interview contains major spoilers for "Civil War II" #1 and 2, on sale now.


Sometimes, in order to save the day, a hero must make the ultimate sacrifice. That's precisely what happened to Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes, aka War Machine, in the opening issue of Marvel Comics' current event series "Civil War II," by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist David Marquez.

Only two issues into the series, Iron Man (Tony Stark) and Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) have found themselves at odds over how best to utilize the powers of the new Inhuman known as Ulysses, powers which would allow them to pre-emptively deal with evil doers before they have a chance to commit a crime. Their divide became even deeper when Rhodey -- Tony's best friend and Carol's boyfriend -- was mortally wounded while dealing with one of the events Ulysses predicted. Now, Carol and Tony find themselves at opposite ends of a deep ideological schism on how best to protect the future and honor Rhodey's memory -- one that will lead other heroes to align behind them and set the heroic community on the path to another divisive Civil War.

RELATED: Which Marvel Hero Will Die in "Civil War II" #3?

In Issue #2, Ulysses was struck with a dire vision of a rampaging Hulk, leaving readers with the question of, what comes next for the heroes of the Marvel Universe? For the answer to that question and more, CBR News spoke with Bendis about the opening shots of "Civil War II." Our in-depth discussion touched upon a variety of topics, including what went into the decision to kill War Machine, and the fate of She-Hulk, who was critically wounded at the same time as Rhodey. Bendis also shares his thoughts on Steve Rogers' current status quo as an agent of Hydra, how he considers elements like the Inhumans' expanded role in the Marvel Universe a gift to his story, and what people can expect when "Civil War II" #3 arrives on July 6.

CBR News: Let's start with the big question: Why kill Rhodey?

Brian Michael Bendis: From the day it popped into my head all the way through to the release of the book, of course, I can imagine people responding with, "Oh, my God! You killed the black guy!" I thought about it the whole time.

I talked to everyone I know about it, and it came down to the fact that there was this Inhuman with the power to predict or profile the future which would split our heroes down the middle. They've all experienced many events together, though, including the first "Civil War." They all learned from that event, too, so for this spiritual sequel, the stakes had to be upped in order for this throwdown to happen.

Then you go, "Oh, my God! Tony's best friend, who is in the military, is also in a romantic relationship with Carol!" If he dies because of this, they both suffer a personal loss and they both take away something different from it, which happens. Then the argument becomes, nothing else matters. He's the only character that comes anywhere near filling this role in the story.

I talked to everybody about it, and then the conversation turned around to the plus side and the minus side of the Marvel Universe becoming so diverse -- and it is so diverse, if you compare it to the first "Civil War." You literally look at the line up of the "Civil War" #1 cover and the "Civil War II" #1 cover, you can see the difference. Thor is a woman! Cap is African-American! Spider-Man is biracial. Everything changed.

The mistake would be, then, to coddle the characters; don't let anything bad happen to them because of representation. But if we do that, we're not telling stories. Still, I can't help but be conscious of the fact that from the original "Star Trek" on up, the black guy in the red shirt is going to die, and everyone knows the trope of the African-American guy going into the ghost house first.

I did wrestle with that, but when we came down to it, the story dictated Rhodey [dies]. But at the same time, I already, regardless of Rhodey, had been down a road with our new character, Riri Williams. I didn't create her to replace Rhodey, but in some karmic way, it does balance. I hope I put something in the toy box that one day might end up being of equal or greater value. I don't know.

We also had to deal with the fact that, for a completely different reason in the story, Rhodey took a hit in the "Civil War" movie. I actually didn't know where that was going to land in their final edit, so I had to take that into consideration as well.

What's it been like, dealing with the fan reaction to Rhodey's death?




The only thing that annoys me when people criticize stuff like this is, they think I'm sitting here full of whimsy and arrogance, and Marvel lets me do whatever the Hell I want. They think that I don't answer to anybody. I don't know what kind of job that is. The president answers to people. Who do you think doesn't answer to people? And what kind of whacked out creative relationship would I have with the universe if I was putting myself in a position where you couldn't speak to me? That's not what I want. The reason I signed up with Joe [Quesada] is, he told me my art sucked.

I want people to tell me the truth. Just yesterday, we were arguing about something unrelated to this. As frustrating as it is to be creatively battling with people, I'm so relieved that I have people I can trust to tell me that something doesn't work, or, "That's not the best idea you've ever had." And of course, on a big event I'm being vetted by everybody. Everyone has read this, up and down. It's been discussed from every angle, and I truly listen to good arguments everywhere I can get them.

Back during my "Daredevil" run, I had permission to kill the Kingpin. My editor Ralph Macchio called me up and said, "Don't do it! I know you have permission to do it, and I know why you want to do it. You're trying to make sure you don't imitate Frank Miller. If you get rid of that character you cannot tell a Frank Miller style 'Daredevil-Kingpin' story because one of the elements has been taken off the table. Or you're saying to yourself that you're more bad-ass than Frank Miller because you killed him. So both of those things I understand, but here's why you shouldn't: We killed Norman Osborn in Spider-Man, and it created a hole in the story that never was filled. It almost broke the book. If you think I'm wrong, go ahead, but if what I'm saying rings true, think about it."

Here's someone with more experience than me, who expressed an idea that I had not considered. I didn't think I was killing Kingpin to be better than Frank Miller, or to stop those comparisons, but then I was like, "Subconsciously, I bet that's why I'm doing that." It's the same thing with this.

There was great consideration to all of this. Plus, we considered the idea of what it looks like to see an African-American super hero covered in blood or killed. It's a powerful image. I'm on Tumblr; these images sit. They don't go away. People see them, even out of context, which drives me nuts, but what are you going to do?

I thought about all of that, and at the end of the day, the story still came above everything else. And as the story continues, people may have different feelings about it. They may feel better about it. They may feel worse about it. We'll see.

Also, I decided that if Rhodey was going to go, I want to do a killer arc of Rhodey and Tony in "Invincible Iron Man." I've done some bits and pieces here and there over the years, but I really want to express my love of the character and this friendship.

I did that and every page as I was writing it I went, "Awww -- why? Why?"

She-Hulk was critically injured in the same attack as Rhodey. We currently don't know, though, if she's still alive, or if she succumbed to her injuries. Her being injured adds additional emotional stakes to the story, since Carol is her friend and her teammate on A-Force.

Yes, and she has a very interesting perspective on the law and justice much like Matt Murdock, in that they balance a vigilante act by acting as heroes and abiding by the rules of the court. Those things don't always go hand-in-hand. That is interesting as well.

Notice, I didn't answer if she was still alive? There are some people reacting to Internet rumor like they heard She-Hulk died. I can always tell from the way the question is asked whether a person read the story or not. We are at issue #2 of 7, which means we're not even done with the first act, as far as I'm concerned. Also, with all of the tie-ins and the special one-shots coming out, like "The Accused," there's a lot more story to be told from a lot of different perspectives. I know, I know, I'm talking to the wind here, but all I can do is encourage people to be patient and hold some judgment back until the whole story has been told. Or, you can just yell at me. It's fine.

I knew these reactions were coming. It's not like I'm surprised. I love She-Hulk! And I know she's beloved. She's also beloved by different pockets of fandom. Some characters have one pocket of fandom, but she has a few. She's an empowerment figure, and she's a classic figure now. She's been around for decades. There's a lot to her, plus she's had some substantially excellent recent runs. It's not just, "Remember John Byrne's 'She-Hulk?'" It's, "Remember Dan Slott's 'She-Hulk?' And Charles Soule's 'She-Hulk?'" Those were fantastic, recent runs.


We knew going in, but there's always a plan.

Let's talk a little bit about the man whose predictions resulted in She-Hulk and Rhodey's fates, Ulysses. What inspired his creation?

We had a lot of talks about Ulysses, and our earliest conversations were, "Should we use someone that already exists?" I actually made a little list of characters in the Marvel Universe who have a similar power that the Terrigen Mists could change into what we wanted it to be. At the end of the day, though, it seemed that there was much more story to get out of the slow discovery of who he is, what he's accomplishing, and what his perspective is as the story goes forward. What we've seen now, and what we're going to see in issue #6 may be very different things. Is this the birth of a hero? Is this the birth of a villain? Or the birth of neither of those things?

In "Civil War II" #2, Ulysses is abducted by Iron Man and the Inhuman Royal Family goes after Tony Stark until being asked to stand down by Captain Marvel. Are the Inhumans effectively their own faction in "Civil War II?"

People who are reading the Inhuman titles know that they're not just one faction. There's several factions among them.

Putting the Inhumans in this story was a real gift to me. Charles Soule, and before him Matt Fraction, did an insane amount of heavy lifting in creating this Inhumans world that we now see. What's being created is pretty spectacular, and it's evolving even as we speak.

Even though the Inhumans have been around as long as the rest of the Marvel Universe, there's still less baggage involved with them for some reason. I think it's probably because, up until recently, they always had this one thing that they were. It was the Royal Family, and they live in the cool city, and there's the mad guy. It was that for a very, very long time. I loved that, too. If anyone gets a chance to read Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee's run, you should, because it's something really special.

The new evolution of them, though, is such a gift because it creates all of this raw emotion between the characters. It's raw in Charles' book, so when it spills into my book it's still fresh as a daisy. It's not like, "It's that old thing..." This is brand new stuff. Medusa and Black Bolt not being together is new in relation to the Marvel Universe.

I was very grateful for that, and Charles has been very cool about it. It's a lot landing on his shoulders, and I'm always wincing about that stuff because I've been on both sides of it. I've been the person who dumps their event in someone else's lap, and I've had the event dumped on my lap.

In the first "Civil War," I thought I was handed gold every week because I wanted to write all the stuff that Mark [Millar] had no interest in writing. To me, that was the good stuff. With Charles, it's the same thing. There's an issue coming up in "Uncanny Inhumans" that I think is the best issue of the book. He would not have written it if it weren't for the event. That made me feel good.

While we're on the topic of gifts from other writers, what about Nick Spencer revelation about Steve Rogers?

[Laughs] Nice trap question there! There's not much I can say there, but yes! I was highly aware of what's going on with Captain America and what will continue to go on with Captain America into the future. Did I know all Hell was going to break loose? No, I did not. I am enjoying it, though, because it does bring an extra level of goodies and worry to this event. Its is crafted with that in mind.

I did not imagine the hysteria. I'm still a little surprised by it. Here's a perfect example of everything that's wrong with the Internet. I've posted this before, but I'd like to talk about it here too. Somebody on Tumblr posted the image from "Steve Rogers" #1 and said, "Fucking Bendis did it again." I have nothing to do with this book! I was told the story, which means I have as much to do with what Nick is doing in "Captain America" as I have with what Jason Aaron is doing in "Star Wars."

I heard that story. It doesn't make me responsible for that story. It was on one of those days when I was not online goofing around like I am today, and I hopped online because there were like 95 questions on my Tumblr. It was all these people letting me have it about Captain America because that guy said it was me. It was a lot of, "As a Jew, how could you allow this?" So someone must have started the "As a Jew" thing somewhere.

Having been the focal point of Internet hysteria a couple times in my life, I do know sometimes you'll find it funny, and sometimes you'll go, "Jesus!" I know Nick, but we're not best buds or anything. So I wrote him and asked, "Are you okay?" Because even if it's just 40 people, it can feel like the whole world is pounding on you. He said, "Yeah, I am." I was like, "I've been there. I know how it can feel. And I think I have some of your mail." [Laughs]

Getting mad at me about Captain America is like getting mad at Jimmy Fallon for something you didn't like on "The Blacklist." I'm at the company, but I'm not in charge of everything. If my name is on a book though, scream away.

Earlier you talked about how the death of Rhodey emotionally impacted your two generals, and in "Civil War II" #2, Tony talks about how he's having a nervous breakdown. That makes me wonder about Carol as well, since she just lost the man she loves, and one of her good friends is in critical condition, if not dead.

Yeah, they're both suffering.

When people talk about what Robert Downey Jr brought to the character of Iron Man, the usual answer is that whip smart persona. But his Tony Stark wears his heart on his sleeve and doesn't shy away from expressing that. I kind of love that, and I do that for some characters, but with Tony, it really fits.

When he says, "I may be having a nervous breakdown," that's probably him dealing with that, and he's not. People having a nervous breakdown can't usually say the words. There's something coming up in another issue where a character says, "There's something wrong with you." And he goes, "I know!" That's it. That's Tony in a nutshell. You don't have to tell him that he's not normal. He knows that he's not normal.

Carol is a woman of profound duty. I have found in talking with people who have served, and have served for a long time, that there's a religious feel to it; like, this is their religion. That is how I've always felt about Carol, and when you believe in something, it's easy when no one is testing you. When you're being tested, though, which is what a story like this will do, you find out who you really are.

I have a lot of really juicy stuff coming up between her and Tony. I have an issue coming up where they both go to a different AA meeting than the one they normally go to in order to try and avoid each other, but they end up at the same one. They then have it out in the parking lot.

I think it's going to be very rewarding for people who think of these events in one way. We'll see. It may make them hate it even more -- But! [Laughs] It offered that other thing that Tony and Carol have in common: Their recovery and their sponsorship of each other.

It's funny, particularly because Matt Fraction did such an excellent job with the recovery elements of Tony's life because he had experienced similar ones in his life. I thought, "I'm only going to go there if there's a special thing that I haven't seen done as well as what David Michelinie and what Matt did." This storyline gave me that. I probably would not have gone to a meeting unless Rhodey died and all this happened.

The final page of book two suggests that you're going to get a chance to play around with a character you have written before, but I don't think you've written a whole lot of: Bruce Banner.

I've actually written the Ultimate version of Bruce more than I've written Bruce.

The continuity for this story has been this series of little gifts instead of an obstacle course. The Inhumans fit so lovely, Captain America has a secret that, if you know it, it adds to the story, and if you don't know, it's fine. And no one has even seen Bruce Banner in a year. I've done stories where continuity is just an obstacle course, no matter where you go, and yes, I'm aware of continuity in other people's books. When things are like butter, though, and everything is just landing into place, it feels like what Tom Brevoort said: "This story was inevitable."

Banner was one of those great things, and I'm sure we'll talk more about him when we discuss the fallout from issue #3, which I think might be the issue that I'm most proud of because I've never seen the structure of the issue in an event. We'll see what other people think.


What's it been like for you, watching your friend and long time collaborator David Marquez bring your "Civil War II" scripts to life?

David earned this by sheer force of will. When we were in the early stages of putting this together, I fucked myself over because I wanted to do a long run on "Iron Man" with David, and we had made a pinky pact to do that. When we were talking about artists for this, though, the only name I could think of was David's. It was clear he was the guy.

I said to everybody, "David Marquez, right?" And they went, "Oh, yeah!" So I called David and I was like, "Here's something out of left field and the opposite of what we have been talking about for the last three months." It's the brass ring, though! It's center stage! It's the be-all end-all. I did tell him, though, that it's hard. It's much harder than just a normal Iron Man or Spider-Man book because It Is Everybody.

I try to temper crowd scenes. If it's just constant crowd scenes, things get boring. Those crowd scenes are the buy-in, though. People want to see all their heroes on panel at the same time. Whether they know it or not, that's what they're looking for. I have a profound sense of guilt though every time I write a laundry list of characters for a spread. When I get up to name #50 I'm like, "I'm so sorry." [Laughs] Because I know.

I've told this story before, but I truly blink and see this in my eyes every time I write a scene that is much harder to draw than it is to write. Years ago, I was working on an "Ultimate Spider-Man" script for Mark Bagley, and in one scene I had written, "School is out. All the busses are here. All the parents are here. Kids are pouring out of school; the crosswalk, the teachers, the students. The whole high school is out on the front lawn." Mark drew all of it! Every single person, car, and tire; and then, in the panel border he wrote, "Fuck you, Bendis." He was joking -- kind of. I love him. We're still working together, but I know that says everything about my responsibility to the artist. My responsibility to the audience has to come first, though.

If you turn the page and all the heroes are crashing into each other, you want to see it. You don't want any shortcuts, and David doesn't want to do any shortcuts. I still feel guilty, though, because I was born that way.

I knew David and [inker] Justin Posner would kill on this, and they have. We're right in the middle of it. I'm alone in my basement working on this. David is a mile away alone in his basement working on this. We did a signing together last week, and it was lovely to see person after person from every walk of life come up to David and go, "Holy shit! You're great!" Because you don't get that alone in your room, even with the Internet. It's not the same thing as when someone looks you in the eye and says, "Wow! Thank you!"

That was really good to watch, and I do know that, David being David, what he would accomplish here would turn him into one of the uncontested greats of all time; like many have before him. I'm just thrilled as a friend to watch that happen to him.

Any final teases you want to leave us with for "Civil War II" #3?

It's more than issue #3. A lot is going to happen over the next few months. The good news is, the next four issues all ship bi-weekly, so you're getting a lot of the story right away. Then it will slow down. 1) So David can draw, and 2) So the tie-ins can all have their fun. It's issue #3 where the tie-ins can really roll up their sleeves and express what is is unique about their book in relation to this story, and that's very exciting.

A lot happens in the first issue, but a lot happens in issues #3-4 as well; a lot more. As excited as I was for the reaction -- and boy, as events go, the reaction to this has been absolutely fabulous -- of course there are people who are like, "Stop it! Don't do any of this! I want them to play poker and eat Shawarma! No fighting!" For those who have bought in, though, it's been great. Every 10 minutes on my Tumblr, someone is like, "This story is so stressful! I love it!" Either people love that stress, or they don't, and I'm writing it for people who love the stress.

Eventually, our heroes will be happy, and things will find their place. New things will birth out of this as well. As sad as it is to take things away, it's doubly exciting to add new things into it. That is part of the journey of an event like this. New characters and status quos will come out of this! Characters who we've loved for a long time will have a new lease on life and a new agenda. Some of that has been the best stuff Marvel has ever done. I think "Secret Invasion" is one of the best examples of the fallout being more exciting than the event. That very well could happen here.

You can pitch all kinds of ideas, but when you get "Dark Reign" as your fallout, it's really the result of 40 writers all saying they love the idea and going nuts with it. That makes it special for the audience, and I think we may be in a similar situation after this event. Having lived through that, I know it's the, "What do you get after this?" that is most exciting. There's a lot of books that are going to be affected by the fallout from this; my books in particular. I'm actually super-nervous and excited about what I'll be doing afterwards.

Again, we're at issue #2 of 7. You haven't even seen the stuff you're going to be mad about, yet! [Laughs] There are people who are currently on Team Carol or Team Tony who may find themselves thinking differently at the end of next issue, or the issue after that. That was very purposeful on our part.

I got hashtags for the teams the second we announced this from people who had already decided what side they were on. That's exciting, but what I would like is for people to remember that I'm a real human being, and if you're worried about what's going to happen to your fictional character in a story, you don't have to say nasty shit directed at me, personally. You can wait to find out what happens. Some people are mad about stuff that they heard rumors of. There's a lot of rumors, and one website is flat out making up rumors. They're posting them as headlines and pointing at me. You will see down the line what was true and what was not, and I'm completely offended by this.

I'll take criticism all day long. I put my work out, and you can critique it. If you make up a story, you publish it, and then people think it's true, I can't go around saying what's true and what's not true. Because that's a trap as well. If I say one thing is not true, then the other thing must be true. So I can't say anything, but it is annoying that I'm being called on the carpet for stuff that I'm not doing any of! That's not fair. Hit me for the shit I do? Absolutely. I've got it all coming to me, fair and square. That guy made up something? That's not me. That's not fair. Because I didn't write Captain America, and I didn't write what that guy wrote, either. [Laughs]

I'm grateful that so many people bought in to this story. I think it's a mixture of a few things. I think the "Civil War" movie being such a winning experience, and people being in the mood for more of it certainly helped us a lot. David and Justin's wonderful art, and the whole of editorial helped as well.


That's another thing, too, for people who think I get to do whatever I want. That's absolutely not the case. Tom Brevoort will never admit all the heavy lifting he does for these events. He keeps a lot of nonsense away from me, and does an immense amount of heavy lifting to make sure that all the threads work. Some of it can be so many writers and their whimsy all coming at him with different things and him having to bat things away that won't work, or cultivate things that will work. He works so tirelessly and really thanklessly so often, I would be remiss not to tell you that when it comes down to people watching all the continuity lay perfectly from tie-in to tie-in, from seven different offices and the cosmic all the way to the street level, that's Tom, and all the editors that work with him.

He's sometimes done that from event to event to event. You'd think if anyone was going to have event fatigue, it's him! But he finds that special thing that makes it special for himself, which means if he can make it special for himself, he can make it special for anybody. I think what he does is wonderful, and I think he does it with style and grace. I don't think he gets enough credit. If you knew how hard he worked, and how much he cared about all these characters, you would throw flowers at him, every day. He protects them with so much charisma.

He's been a very big part of my mainstream success. He's been with me since "Avengers" #500. I know if Tom says, "That's a good idea," it's a good idea, and if he says it's a bad idea, I can guarantee you, it's a bad idea.

"Civil War II" #3 arrives in stores July 6.