WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #25, by Dan Slott, Paco Medina, Marcio Menyz and VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
While the main story in Fantastic Four #25 introduces a mysterious new cosmic threat and a highly-coveted Forever Gate, a backup story featuring the original Nick Fury and a revived Uatu the Watcher is equally important. "Sight Unseen" picks up the story threads from Empyre Fallout: Fantastic Four #1 by updating Fury's job status yet again, as he transitions from being known as "The Unseen" back to his militaristic roots as a soldier in what the Watcher calls the "first war."
When we last saw Fury as the Unseen, Uatu was popping out of his eye in the Empyre Fallout one-shot with a dire warning: "There shall be a reckoning." Fury assassinated the Watcher in 2014's Original Sin event series, but the appearance of some ancient weapons prompts Watcher to finally make his return to the land of the living. Watcher then forces Fury to show him everything that has transpired in the Marvel Universe since his death. Though an Unseen and a Watcher are forbidden from interfering in Earthly affairs, Fury still influenced the actions of his former allies.
Watcher's final memory is of Fury killing him, though the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't sorry for what he's done. Fury will make the tough choices, even if that means murdering a cosmic god. To his credit, Watcher seems to admire this particular skill set, which is why he enlists Fury as his secret agent for this impending reckoning. With his vision restored, Fury loses his Unseen chains and robe as Watcher transforms him back to a uniform from Fury's Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. days.
Fury specifically told Watcher that he is a man that can "get the job done," so he is the perfect candidate to be Watcher's new herald. The technology in the weapons believed to be the property of the Cotati actually belongs to the Watcher's people. One of the Marvel Universe's oldest races is abusing this technology for unknown reasons, and it is up to Nick Fury and the Watcher to crack the cosmic case. Fury has arguably one of the greatest militaristic minds in the Marvel Universe and is quite adept at conducting a top-secret mission. He was the mastermind behind the Secret War miniseries by Brian Michael Bendis and Gabriele Dell'Otto that saw a collection of heroes raging a hidden war against Latveria's then-ruler, Lucia von Bardas.
There are many avenues that the Watcher and Fury can take for this new mission. With their investigation being of the utmost importance, they can choose to either work alone or recruit other Marvel characters to help them. There are many galactic heroes available that would probably be willing to help, whether they be the Guardians of the Galaxy or the newly-reformed S.W.O.R.D., which also spins out of the events of Empyre. Of course, Fury can always go back to his old contacts with the Avengers for another team-up with Captain America.
Nick Fury's days as an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. may be over, but his new role as the Watcher's secret agent should introduce him to even more adventures than what he experienced as the Unseen.