Jack Kirby, with Inks and Colors by Al Williamson.
This is awesome. Is that The Watcher?
Yes.
Unpublished sketch by Kirby of Uatu, before he took up residence on the Moon.
Kirby had a lot of ideas for Uatu, and a lot of them never saw publication because he went to DC in the 70s and he was pissed at Stan.
TLDR explanation: Stan was being… Stan.
Also, Jack Kirby was obviously a creative genius… BUT he NEEDED an editor.
Think of Jack Kirby like a fire hydrant on a hot day, with a couple of kids twisting one of the ends off of the nozzle: EVERYBODY in the neighborhood has fun in the water. And there is plenty of water for all of the kids in the neighborhood to get a chance play.
But… the water is not exactly drinkable. Some of the water is crystal clear. Some of it… not so much: Kirby.
Jack needed an editor, but that does not mean that he shared all of his ideas.
this pencil drawing of Uatu is a crystal clear glass of pure Kirby Gold.
I wonder what he had planned for him?
for one thing, Uatu was kind of bad at the whole “Sworn to not Interfere” Schtick. he was quite fond of interfering, actually.
I wonder what his end game was?
and why protect the Earth?
Uatu was supposed to watch the entirety of the Milky Way Galaxy, but he spent the entirety of his tenure as the Watcher on Earth’s Moon.
So, again: WHY?
not the obvious “because the comics take place on Earth” answer. seriously, an in story-answer. does anybody know? because I sure as shit don’t, and I would like to have that knowledge.
Earth X got pretty close to answering my question, but Marvel decided that it is not canon. so… I will continue to wonder.
One more thing, anybody else notice that Jack’s Fourth World had one sizable difference from his Marvel Cosmic work:
DC’s Fourth World has boundaries.
The source wall is the edge of existence. It is also where the Gods are sent to die. when the Fourth World Ended (Final Crisis), all of the New Gods rejoined with the Source. They were then reborn in new forms, but their older forms became part of the source wall.
Darkseid kinda looks like one of the Easter Island Statues, right? The Prevailing Theory is that the Easter Island statues were created as memorials for loved ones that passed. Tombstones. Darkseid is a Tombstone. His entire goal in existence is to end all of existence. Fitting, isn’t it? That Darkseid would want to end the Fourth World.
So… What happened to the First, Second, or Third? The Source Wall is where the relics of those Worlds are kept. A Wall.
A wall around existence. Meaning that it is finite. Maybe Jack was feeling sad when he made the New Gods, or maybe he just came to grips with his own mortality. I dunno.
But, Marvel does not have a wall around it. Just an endless expanse of questions and wonder.
I am not saying these things to give answers.
I am saying them to provoke questions for which I do not have answers.
If you want the answers, a good place to start would be to read some more comics.
Come on in, the water feels awesome.
…
Technically speaking, the Source Wall was a post-Kirby addition to the mythos?
Pretty sure Jack’s version of it was just a wall out in space, but later writers took the ball and ran with it to expand its significance. I think you’re right that Jack didn’t intend it to be a boundary, but that’s really the purpose that it serves.
“The source wall is a solid barrier surrounding the multiverse, beyond which lies the source.”
It’s the wall at the end of the New Gods’ existence. So, maybe Jack meant it as giving his New Gods a sense of mortality.
Regardless of Jack’s intent, it does raise the same question. Why does DC have a boundary wall around its existence?
I’m…pretty sure Kirby’s version didn’t have a wall, just the Promethean Galaxy, a vast reach of space filled with folks who’ve tried to cross it bound to the remains of their equipment:
Metron notes that he has no idea what’s beyond it, and WANTS to give it a shot someday, but he hasn’t the guts.
“This one tried to engulf the Barrier… …beyond it lies the source.”
So the Promethean tried to eat his way through the source wall, and wound up chained to a rock and floating through space. A barrier at the edge of all space and time, beyond which lies the source.
