When the Marvel Universe is thrown into chaos and is in the midst its biggest conflicts and events, one cosmic being is always there, observing from a distance and monitoring the proceedings. While he hasn't been present for a few years, the Watcher has just returned to Marvel Comics with dire news. Who is The Watcher, what are his origins and powers, and what does he know about the future of the Marvel Universe?
Who Is The Watcher? Origins Explained
The Watcher is actually one of several beings, belonging to an entire race known as the Watchers. After providing a race known as the Prosilicans with technologies that they weren't prepared for, that civilization ended up destroying themselves thanks to the Watchers' interventions. As a result, the Watchers, vowed to never interfere again, resolving to only record and observe the proceedings and events of the universe for the beings who will come after it inevitably ends.
The Watcher who monitors Earth and its surrounding galaxy is known by the name of Uatu. Uatu and the Watchers were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963's Fantastic Four #13. Uatu lives on the Blue Area of the Moon, recording and watching all of the major Marvel events as they occur. However, due to his heightened interest and fondness for Earth, Uatu is not very good at the non-interference part of his job. According to the cosmic entity known as the Dreaming Celestial, Uatu has broken his vow and interfered in the dealings of Earth nearly 400 times, in ways both big and small. Naturally, this has often put Uatu at odds with his fellow Watchers. However, Uatu would bond with a fellow Watcher over time named Ulana, and she would move in to live with him on his lunar sanctuary, eventually becoming pregnant.
What Are The Watcher's Powers in Marvel Comics?
As a Watcher, Uatu has an array of psionic and cosmic abilities such as a heightened cosmic awareness, allowing him to observe multiple events happening on Earth at once, giving him a greater scope and perspective. He can also change his appearance at will, should he wish to covertly observe any proceedings on Earth. Uatu also has other standard cosmic powers such as flight, energy projection/manipulation, and force fields. The Watcher also can view alternate realities and Earths across the multiverse if he so chooses, though that is an ability unique to Uatu himself, having received permission from the Timekeepers to possess a portal from which to look into and view said other dimensions.
The Watcher's home on the Blue Area of the Moon holds vast stores of weapons, technologies, and artifacts he's collected across the history of the universe. Not only that, but Uatu is also basically immortal, his longevity allowing him to live in perpetuity until the universe's collapse so that he can continue recording and observing until such a time when that happens. However, just because Uatu the Watcher is immortal doesn't mean that he's invulnerable.
The Watcher Was Recently Resurrected Carrying A Warning
In 2014's Original Sin storyline, it was revealed that Uatu's own father was the one who gave the Prosilicans the technology that ended up destroying them, explaining Uatu's keen interest in other realities, hoping to find the one where his father's choice ended up not ending in disaster. Shortly after this reveal, Uatu was attacked and had his eyes gouged out, as they held all of the information and histories he had collected over the years. Uatu's killer was revealed to be none other than Nick Fury, who had secretly been fighting a one man war against monsters and alien invaders for years as Earth's "Man on the Wall." When Fury tried to use the power of Uatu's eyes, he transformed into a new cosmic observer known as the Unseen, chained and forced to fill out his new role in the wake of Uatu's death.
While this Cosmic Fury has been existing as The Unseen ever since Original Sin, Uatu was just resurrected quite recently in Fantastic Four: Fallout, the one-shot issue detailing the aftermath of Marvel's Empyre event. The Unseen was investigating the ancient and mysterious weaponry the Cotati invasion force had been using when something about them triggered Uatu's return, bursting forth from the Unseen himself. Uatu returned to the land of the living, though instantly began foretelling a reckoning that is yet to come for the Marvel Universe. Additionally, Uatu realizes that he's missed out on 6 years of major events, such as Secret Wars, Secret Empire, War of the Realms, Absolute Carnage, and the most recent Empyre (not to mention the foundation of the first mutant nation of Krakoa). However, Uatu was able to join his mind with the Unseen's, allowing him to catch up on all that he had missed (though he now only has one eye).
Watcher Coming To The Marvel Cinematic Universe
Along with the Watcher's return to Marvel Comics, he'll also be making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in the Marvel's What If...? animated series coming to Disney+ next year in 2021, voiced by actor Jeffery Wright of Westworld fame. Uatu will serve as the series' narrator as he did in the What If...? comic stories, showing viewers alternate realities and dimensions where the events and characters are quite different than the ones in the standard 616 universe they're familiar with.
While this new series will be Uatu's first appearance in the MCU, it won't be the first time viewers have seen the Watcher race. A group of Watchers can be seen both in a quick shot during James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, as well as one of its various post-credit scenes. In that scene, Stan Lee was regaling them with his cameos across the MCU films, indicating that Lee himself might have been a Watcher as well.
While Uatu might not be the best Watcher in the Marvel Universe, it does make him the most heroic of his race. He just has a hard time being passive, as he cares too much for Earth and its heroes. Due to his efforts, Uatu could actually be considered less of a Watcher, and more of Marvel's cosmic guardian angel. However, when and if Uatu decides to step in and assist, the heroes of the Marvel Universe can almost guarantee that things are looking pretty dire and that things are going to get intense. Likewise, while Uatu has yet to reveal the details of the the dark future he's seen in the comics, his worry means it can't be good.