Marvel Comics’ landmark comic book event Civil War pits a massive contingent of the Marvel Universe into a conflict by longtime Avengers leaders Iron Man and Captain America, but one of Marvel’s famous superhero teams the Uncanny X-Men were supposed to be the stars of the crossover. Ultimately, the X-Men mostly sat out the event. But they were not only meant to play a larger role in the narrative, but receive a standalone X-Men: Civil War event of their own without the support of the wider Marvel Universe.
Following a series of escalating catastrophes involving superheroes, the U.S. government passes the Superhero Registration Act, requiring costumed heroes to register themselves and reveal their secret identities. As expected, not every hero agrees with this, as Iron Man and Captain America part ways to lead their own factions of pro and anti-registration superhero groups. While Civil War proved to be a massive financial success for Marvel, original Civil War writer Mark Millar had a very different idea for how his story should unfold and which heroes would be included.
While working on Marvel’s Ultimate line of comics, Millar teamed up with artist Bryan Hitch on the modern Avengers retelling The Ultimates and its subsequent sequel Ultimates 2. In an interview with GamesRadar, Millar revealed that he and Hitch planned to follow up Ultimates with a story about civil war among the X-Men. After Hitch’s departure from the event, Millar found himself turning to artist Steve McNiven, who would work with Millar on future Marvel comics such as Old Man Logan and the miniseries Nemesis from Marvel’s creator-owned imprint Icon Comics. Unfortunately, Millar’s focus on the self-aware superhero comic Kick-Ass, made in conjunction with Icon, derailed any future plans of a Civil War event starring the X-Men. The X-Men would end up taking a backseat, while the formerly mutant comic quickly spiraled into an affair starring the entire Marvel Universe catalog of Earthbound heroes and villains.
“I’d had this idea for a civil war among the X-Men, which Bryan Hitch and I were going to follow up Ultimates with…
Bryan was taking longer on Ultimates than expected and he wasn’t going to be ready until around 2007, but I still wanted him to draw it, so I said ‘why don’t we leave the X-Men out of this and do Civil War as a big summer event?’ [Fellow Marvel writer] Jeph Loeb then came up with this really great catchphrase, which was ‘Whose side are you on?’ and Civil War ended up becoming a more Avengers-centred event, although I never ended up doing that X-Men crossover, as I then went off and did Kick-Ass.”
Civil War Could Have Been Cyclops vs. Wolverine
Given that the X-Men were largely absent from the main Civil War conflict, it’s quite ironic that mutants were once the headliners. Though members of the X-Men make cameo appearances, the team of mutants themselves choose not to take part in Captain America and Iron Man’s ongoing conflict. According to Millar, the scrapped X-Men-centric Civil War would have seen fan favorite X-Men members Wolverine and Cyclops “falling out over the future direction of mutantkind,” which was undergoing major changes during the early to mid-2000s. Following the team’s relaunch in Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men, the X-Men quickly found themselves embroiled in the 2005 Avengers/X-Men crossover House of M, which culminated with former mutant sorceress Scarlet Witch depowering a large section of the mutant population. While the few X-Men with powers remained in operation, House of M was an event that would shift the status quo of the X-Men property for years to come, which may have laid the groundwork for Millar’s proposed crossover. Wolverine and Cyclops would eventually have a falling out over the future of mutantkind in the 2011 event X-Men: Schism.
With such a concentration on the Marvel Multiverse in recent years, it’s fun to think that there may exist an alternate universe where Civil War is not a Marvel Universe event but a smaller storyline consisting of X-Men characters. It’s a prospect that some fans would chomp at the bit to read, but the X-Men have no shortage of memorable events thanks to a host of talented creative teams and will likely have even more noteworthy stories to come in Marvel Comics.
