HOME | DD

Description

Uatu the Watcher

First Appearance: The Fantastic Four #13 (April 1963)

The former herald of Galactus named Norrin Radd claimed that for every planet the he had led the world eater to that it consumed, there was always an accompanying Watcher. The true nature of these beings was perhaps even more mysterious than Galactus itself. The people of Norrin's home planet had two prevailing theories to their origins: they were either golems created by an incredibly ancient race or they were themselves ancient beings transfigured into immobile constructs. They seemed to be nigh indestructible and of immense cosmic might, but they did not interact with anything nor did they respond to any physical or mental stimuli. Their hands were bound in chains, as if symbolic of their station to only observe. And observe they did, their two tremendous eyes being the only active part of their bodies, recording information for reasons unknown.

It was only through Norrin Radd's cosmic senses imbued to him by his former master was he able to even know the names of the individual Watchers. Each was indicated by a different designation, and the one for Earth was designated "UATU." Or at least, it should have been, but Norrin found no trace of UATU. In truth, SHIELD had discovered the Earth's designated Watcher on the Moon during the Apollo missions during the seventies, and had transported it to a secret base on Earth for study. It was thought lost when the Zodiac Cartel infiltrated SHIELD, and rumors of the Watcher's reclamation being Nick Fury's true aim as director of SHIELD have not abated.

----

Basically, UATU's missing! And that's probably a bad thing!

I wanted Uatu to be less of a deus ex machina who's constantly breaking his vow of never interfering to help out the heroes with other stories and more of a central figure in and of himself, and all without ripping his eyes out and murdering him a la Original Sin. So I decided to make what became of Uatu into a kind of running piece of intrigue here.

In his design you can definitely see my continuing attempts to make the alien characters more unusual and alien looking. In this design I put a lot of emphasis into his eyes to the point that basically all of his other facial features were removed. No mouth, no nose, no ears. Just really big mothman-esque eyes. To push this even further he has no neck, his entire head just being this floating vision organ or something. There's definitely a lot of ambiguity to the exact nature of what he even is, if he's artificial or organic. And then I had his hands bound as I felt it sold the role of the Watchers as observers that don't interfere even further. Maybe a little on the nose but I think it does a good job of selling it.

As for his size, the official stated height of Uatu is "varies," so I kind of guessed based on how large he's usually drawn. So he's pretty big.

Description

Uatu the Watcher

First Appearance: The Fantastic Four #13 (April 1963)

The former herald of Galactus named Norrin Radd claimed that for every planet the he had led the world eater to that it consumed, there was always an accompanying Watcher. The true nature of these beings was perhaps even more mysterious than Galactus itself. The people of Norrin's home planet had two prevailing theories to their origins: they were either golems created by an incredibly ancient race or they were themselves ancient beings transfigured into immobile constructs. They seemed to be nigh indestructible and of immense cosmic might, but they did not interact with anything nor did they respond to any physical or mental stimuli. Their hands were bound in chains, as if symbolic of their station to only observe. And observe they did, their two tremendous eyes being the only active part of their bodies, recording information for reasons unknown.

It was only through Norrin Radd's cosmic senses imbued to him by his former master was he able to even know the names of the individual Watchers. Each was indicated by a different designation, and the one for Earth was designated "UATU." Or at least, it should have been, but Norrin found no trace of UATU. In truth, SHIELD had discovered the Earth's designated Watcher on the Moon during the Apollo missions during the seventies, and had transported it to a secret base on Earth for study. It was thought lost when the Zodiac Cartel infiltrated SHIELD, and rumors of the Watcher's reclamation being Nick Fury's true aim as director of SHIELD have not abated.

----

Basically, UATU's missing! And that's probably a bad thing!

I wanted Uatu to be less of a deus ex machina who's constantly breaking his vow of never interfering to help out the heroes with other stories and more of a central figure in and of himself, and all without ripping his eyes out and murdering him a la Original Sin. So I decided to make what became of Uatu into a kind of running piece of intrigue here.

In his design you can definitely see my continuing attempts to make the alien characters more unusual and alien looking. In this design I put a lot of emphasis into his eyes to the point that basically all of his other facial features were removed. No mouth, no nose, no ears. Just really big mothman-esque eyes. To push this even further he has no neck, his entire head just being this floating vision organ or something. There's definitely a lot of ambiguity to the exact nature of what he even is, if he's artificial or organic. And then I had his hands bound as I felt it sold the role of the Watchers as observers that don't interfere even further. Maybe a little on the nose but I think it does a good job of selling it.

As for his size, the official stated height of Uatu is "varies," so I kind of guessed based on how large he's usually drawn. So he's pretty big.