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Fantastic Four #25 excerpt
(Image credit: Paco Medina (Marvel Comics))
Fresh off his return from the dead, Uatu the Watcher will be starring in his own comic book one-shot as part of Marvel Comics’ 2022 event The Reckoning War.
“One of the key players in all of this is Uatu,” The Reckoning War writer Dan Slott tells Newsarama. “Something about this is incredibly tied to something so fundamental in the Marvel universe that the Watchers bore witness to.”
Captain Marvel #36 cover (Image credit: Al Milgrom (Marvel Comics))The title of The Reckoning War’s Watcher one-shot hasn’t been finalized, but internally the working title is ‘The Trial of the Watcher.’ If that sounds familiar, good eye – it’s the same title as the 1974-5 Captain Marvel arc in which Uatu was put on trial by his fellow Watchers for breaking their vow of non-interference several times. He was ultimately found guilty but didn’t receive much in terms of punishment. How many times has he broken that pact? Well in 2008’s Eternals #3, the Dreaming Celestial says Uatu has broken the vow over 400 times.
In 2014’s Original Sin, Nick Fury kills Uatu the Watcher and is held accountable for his actions by his fellow Earth heroes. In an odd turn of events, Fury is cursed to live on the Moon, watching but not interfering as ‘The Unseen.’
Empyre: Fantastic Four #1 excerpt (Image credit: Sean Izaakse (Marvel Comics))Uatu is resurrected in 2020’s Empyre Fallout: Fantastic Four #1, in reaction to the news that the Empyre event’s big bad, the Cotati, received weapons from ‘The First Race.’
“There shall be… a reckoning,” Uatu says upon his resurrection, hinting at a connection to The Reckoning War.
How did Uatu come back from the dead? He eventually learned that he was able to come back to the dead because part of him was merged to Nick Fury by his fellow Watchers when he was cursed to be ‘The Unseen. Fury, still seeking penance for his actions, agrees to act as Uatu’s herald to further investigate these aforementioned weapons of ‘The First Race’ the Cotati used in Empyre, and their apparent connection to the upcoming The Reckoning War.
“[The original secret war] is something the Watchers have been keenly aware of it, and the possible thought of it happening again [as The Reckoning War] brought Uatu back,” says Slott. Maybe it’s time for the Watcher to stop watching and start doing.”
This could all be connected to the brief preview of The Reckoning War that Slott included way back in 2005’s She-Hulk #3 – with She-Hulk traveling into the future to see a portion of The Reckoning War.
She-Hulk #3 excerpt (Image credit: Juan Bobillo (Marvel Comics))In that brief moment, she sees a Watcher named Zoma (and presumably, Uatu) comforting a fallen fellow Watcher named Xavi who was dying due to something relating to an unnamed enemy.
It’s possible the upcoming The Reckoning War: Watcher one-shot could be the story of Uatu once again being put on trial by his fellow Watchers for interference. But given what Slott says, maybe this time Uatu pushes back more to “stop watching and start doing.”
Stay tuned for more on The Reckoning War here at Newsarama.
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