In what might be the ultimate example of life imitating art, various Marvel writers and editors met in secret to determine the future of their story lines and what major character is going to die. It’s all oddly reminiscent of Marvel’s “Illuminati” where major characters ultimately decided the fate of the Hulk and therefore resulting stories. The massive semi-annual brainstorming retreat is usually a completely closed-door affair, but this year a New York Daily News reporter was allowed in to witness but with strict “no spoiler” guidelines. Imagine the conversations that reporter can’t have with friends now!

The success of 2007’s Civil War series and the fact it’s been adapted to film with the upcoming Captain America: Civil War proves it’s an obvious choice to follow it up with the aptly named “Civil War II” that hits shelves this summer. But how do you follow such an act where a line in the sand is drawn so deep that it rips superhero teams and friendships apart so brutally? Well, the Marvel retreat’s answer is simple: they’re going to kill off one of their major beloved characters. 

Fleshing out the story for “Civil War II” is undoubtedly a tall order as the first was already cranked to eleven having Iron Man and Captain America leading opposite sides of a fight between the importance of national security versus the sanctity of personal liberties. Marvel publisher Dan Buckley may have said it best when he told the Daily News, “You want it to be The Godfather, Part II, but for every Godfather II, there’s a Godfather III’’

The synopsis of “Civil War II” so far was broken down by Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso and writer Brian Michael Bendis:

“A mysterious new Marvel character comes to the attention of the world, one who has the power to calculate the outcome of future events with a high degree of accuracy. This predictive power divides the Marvel heroes on how best to capitalize on this aggregated information, with Captain Marvel leading the charge to profile future crimes and attacks before they occur, and Iron Man adopting the position that the punishment cannot come before the crime.”

All this will eventually result in the death of a major character, much like the original Civil War series resulted in the death of *SPOILER REDACTED*. According to the Daily News article, Bendis kept referring to Peter Parker as the doomed character (which has been done and undone before) but attention soon shifted to other ideas that included the Human Torch meeting his end and a character killing his or herself from the stress of being a hero. Both ideas were shot down as they are just a bit too gruesome.

The retreat was a success and the Daily News reporter explains that the Marvel team “came up with the perfect superhero to sacrifice and an even better candidate to murder him,” leaving some of the writers genuinely shocked at the decision. So we’ve probably got some major Marvel comic “feels” headed our way this summer when “Civil War II” hits shelves.

Who do you think will meet their end? Let us know in the comments below!

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HT: NY Daily News
Images: Marvel