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Shang-Chi has been on a journey to right his family’s horrific legacy, and in doing so has come face-to-face with the inheritors of Uatu’s legacy.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for “What Is Vs. What If” from the pages of Marvel Voices: Identity #1, available now from Marvel.
While Shang-Chi is poised to make his heroic introduction in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his life in the comics has been going down a slightly different path. Following the death of his father, Shang-Chi inherited his family’s criminal organization, the Five Weapons Society. Having dedicated himself to reforming the organization, the Master of Kung Fu is currently on the hunt for the artifacts which his father created. Now, the latest artifact has brought Shang-Chi face-to-face with a new version of the Watchers in “What Is Vs. What If” by Gene Luen Yang, Marcus To, Sunny Gho and VC’s Joe Sabino.
Shang-Chi’s journey brings him high into the mountains where he finds a secluded temple. Through the trees and fog, its inhabitants, the Order of Uatu, watched their visitor trek up the mountain. Much like their namesake, the Order of Uatu have tasked themselves with being silent observers.
Part of what might be the oldest living race in the universe, the Watchers have kept records of all events across reality as they transpire. Uatu the Watcher was assigned to watch to Earth, and he proved to be less suited to staying out of mortal affairs than his brethren as early as his first appearance in 1963’s Fantastic Four #13 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. In a way, this group appears to be a direct result of Uatu’s infamous interventions. As its apparent leader says, the Order of Uatu was formed after its founder had a memorable encounter centuries earlier.
While the short story doesn’t offer any further details about the Order’s founding, the Rungo Coin enables the Order to see beyond the terrestrial world.
The Ruguo Coin is one of the powerful, mystical items which Shang-Chi has been hunting down. As a monk explains to him, the coin is his for the taking, so long as he can overcome its powers. When the monk asks Shang-Chi to think about his defining moments, the hero thinks back to the day he defied his father and stood side-by-side with the Avengers in an act of violent rebellion against his own criminal legacy. This is what is, but the monk is just as interested in what could’ve happened. The other side of the coin reveals a world in which Shang-Chi chose to pledge his loyalty to his father and fight against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and in an instant, the realities of what is and what if have collided. It’s no surprise that Shang-Chi is able to defeat his evil self, claiming the Ruguo Coin in the process.
The Ruguo Coin is a powerful artifact, and for the Order of Uatu, it would have certainly been a powerful tool in their mission to observe. As Shang-Chi departs the temple, however, the monk’s eyes glow a bright blue reminiscent of Uatu, implying that they have achieved or been granted a sort of omniscience or cosmic awareness of their very own. Whatever the case might be, everything about them adds up to the Order of Uatu being a legitimate offshoot of the Watchers in their own right and not just in name.
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