Featuring: The Watcher
Release: October 8, 1963
Cover: January 1964
12 cents
Story plot: Stan Lee
Script and art: Larry Lieber
Inking: G. Bell
5 pages
“The Saga of the Sneepers” is the type of story that’s occupied this title since before Iron Man showed up, and has continued to exist in the form of backups to the main Iron Man stories. The difference between this and the ones we’ve opted not to read is that the Watcher is narrating it. That is the format of the first of these “Tales of the Watcher” stories.
The same format showed up this month in Tales to Astonish with “The Wonderful Wasp Tells a Tale“. The Watcher seems a more natural narrator of science fiction tales than the Wasp. The Wasp seems like she should be living adventures. The Watcher is forbidden to interfere in events, so narrating the events he observes is a more sensible use for the character than what he’s done in his two Fantastic Four appearances: interfering in events.
A notable difference between the two is that Wasp was presumably spinning a fictional story about the future to entertain, whereas the Watcher is narrating actual events. So the Sneepers are an actual alien race within the Marvel Universe; the Wobbows likely are not.
The Watcher is perhaps our first breakout star. He was introduced as a side character appearing in two issues of Fantastic Four. And now he has his own solo adventures.
It’s not clear who the Watcher is talking to. He says, “You would do well to heed my words.” At first I thought he might be speaking to whoever comes across his recordings. But then he gets more specific. He says, “you of earth”. Perhaps this story is meant for the Fantastic Four to hear. Or perhaps he is speaking directly to us, the reader. Maybe his vast powers to observe extend to the ability to see us in our universe, where we are reading about the adventures of those in his universe.
The Watcher tells the tale of the Sneepers. It is a cautionary tale. They are a ruthless alien race that has been monitoring Earth for millennia. At first, we are too primitive to even be worth conquering. Then, we began to develop technologies of interest. Then, our technology development became so rapid that we might even soon pose a threat. However, the Sneepers take comfort that the most likely outcome of our advances in technology is that we will destroy ourselves with our own weapons before we spread too far into the galaxy.
The Watcher intends this story as a warning to us here on earth. We must change our ways or we are doomed. “For you are free to act,” he tells us.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 55/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
The scans are taken from Marvel Collector’s Item Classics #3.
You can find this story through Kindle.
Characters:
- The Watcher
Story notes:
- Note about “special arrangement” with Fantastic Four magazine.
- Watcher located in outermost reaches of space.
- Watcher’s race almost as old as time.
- Watcher not permitted to interfere.
- Sneepers are oldest rivals of earth; they have monitored earth since the stone age. Ruthless conquerors, enslaving other worlds.
- Headlines refer to crisis in Cuba, fighting in Vietnam, and Communist super-bomb tests.
#128 story in reading order
Next: Fantastic Four #22
Previous: Tales of Suspense #49
