Marvel's Watchers Accidentally Created The Universe's Next Big Threat
The Watcher's attempt to share their technology and improve a civilization ended up creating the newest, deadly threat in the Marvel Universe.
Warning! Spoilers for Fantastic Four: Reckoning War Alpha #1 by Marvel Comics
The Watchers' greatest mistake is coming back to bite them in a big way, as the Reckoning unleashes chaos and calamity across the Marvel Universe. In Fantastic Four: Reckoning War Alpha #1 by Marvel Comics, it's revealed that before the cosmic beings became The Watchers, they shared great gifts with a group of aliens in hopes the technology would turn them into a prosperous civilization. Now, the Reckoning is using those weapons to destroy the universe.
Marvel's newest Reckoning War event has just begun as a new story sets the stage for a story that's been decades in the making. In the debut issue, Fantastic Four: Reckoning War Alpha #1, The Watcher Uatu learns that a group of aliens have been traveling across the universe and providing the likes of the Badoon, Morani, Xantha, and other races with warlike weapons from the First War. Uatu recognizes the weapons, as they are Watcher technology. As Earth is attacked by the Badoon (who have advanced weapons) The Watcher seeks answers among his kind.
In Fantastic Four: Reckoning War Alpha #1 by Dan Slott, Rafael Fonteriz, Carlos Pacheco, Carlos Magno, Guru-eFx, and VC's Joe Caramagna, Uatu reveals that The Watchers have blood on their hands from the First War. However, as he's about to meet with the other Watchers across the universe and intentionally intervene, the Badoon destroy the moon - leaving Uatu's fate up in the air. Meanwhile, Nick Fury, who's currently the Herald of Uatu, ends up coming face-to-face with the Fantastic Four. He tells them of The Watcher attack and shares a device showcasing the history of the Reckoning with the team. The story of The Watchers' biggest mistake is told.
The Fantastic Four learn that during a time when the universe was still young, The Watchers hadn't yet taken on that role. Instead, they were known as The Luminous, who used their powers to make the universe a better place. However, after sharing their gifts and technology with the planet Prosilicus, the inhabitants eventually turned them into weapons. The Prosilicans changed into the Reckoning and used The Watcher technology to conquer and destroy the universe. The Watchers mistake accidentally created the biggest Marvel threat yet.
After realizing the Reckoning were sharing the technology with other planets to cause widespread war across the universe, The Watchers banished the Reckoning and decides to never interferer again - becoming the observational cosmic force they are known as today. The Watchers biggest mistake is tearing the current Marvel Universe apart, as the Reckoning are using their technology and putting it into the hands of warring races to cause unimaginable damage. The Watchers were trying to make the universe a better place, but by gifting the Prosilicans advanced technology, they accidentally created not just one war, but a new one currently exploding across the cosmos.