A Watcher Is Born
Uatu the Watcher returns repeatedly, primarily to the pages of the Fantastic Four, but eventually to a wide range of Marvel comics over the next six decades. Soon we even learn why his people came to a conclusion about intervention that is antithetical to the Marvel superhero ethos in general, and to the code of Spider-Man in particular. Just 9 months after his first appearance in the Fantastic Four, Uatu debuted as the narrator of a feature called "Tales of the Watcher" in Tales of Suspense 49 (January 1964). Written by Stan Lee with art by his brother, Larry Lieber, most of these are standalone short stories about Earth's future or alien planets; the only difference between them and the many forgettable science fiction short stories published by Marvel in the 1950s and 1960s is the role of the Watcher himself, who addresses the reader directly and appears on the first and last pages. The fifth installment in the series, "The Way it Began..." gave the "origin" story for the Watchers. Curiously, this same story is told again when "Tales of the Watcher" is revived in the first issue of The Silver Surfer (August 1968) as a "Marvel Cameo-Classic Recreated by Stan Lee and Gene Colan." It is this version that has achieved canonical status, and is reprinted more often. A comparison of the two makes the case for preferring the second. Though only four years have passed, the first looks far more old-fashioned, following the conventions of the early Marvel throw-away sci-fi story. It runs five pages, as opposed to the newer versions thirteen. The page count, along with the larger and roomier panels of Gene Colan, gives the story room to breathe. So it is this version we will discuss here.
Like the original, "The Wonder of the Watcher" (as the retelling is called) introduces its story with a smaller-scale ethical dilemma: Uatu observes an unsuccessful operation on a dying patient: "With but a single gesture, I could savethe fading life below!/ But I dare not intrude! I am forbidden to act!" Uatu must face this problem thousands of times a day, but its presentation here renders it the Watcher equivalent of Spider-Man's refusal to stop the burglar who goes on to kill Uncle Ben. Salvation, or simply doing good, is presented as an individual choice. Even the surgeon seems to sense his abandonment by a higher power: "I cannot shake the feeling that--we were not alone here!" and laments "How many might be saved --if more of the secrets of the universe --might be revealed to use?/ But man must struggle on alone--slowly gaining scraps of knowledge--bit by bit!"
Worst. Medical Drama. Ever.
But this story will serve to justify the decision to leave humanity to its ignorance (despite that fact that the Watcher asserts that "within their souls lie the seeds of greatness!"). Where Peter Parker resolves never to stand by while bad things are happening, Uatu's people learn the opposite lesson: they are letting countless Uncle Bens die every day. Lee and Colan devote a full page to a resolute Uatu explaining his code, this time in terms of "defeats" and "folly," before introducing us to the race that would eventually take the name "Watchers." [1] These nearly-identically, toga clad bald men were virtually immortal thanks to their "life-giving delta rays," yet even while bathing in the Watcher equivalent of a solarium, they could not stop talking about how much better the could make things: "We could be like gods, bringing the gifts of health and wealth to other races!" says one of the naked bald men. Another replies: "And thruout <sic> the universe, all who live will pay homage to our names!"
Uatu and his father each argue for intervention, opposed by a man named Emnu, who does not see the point. Emnu loses the vote, and the Watchers travel to the "primitive planet of Prosilicus." The lizard-like natives are suspicious at first, but when the Watchers give them the gift of atomic power, they are intrigued. Eventually, the Watchers leave the Prosilicans to their own devices; unfortunately, those devices are now nuclear. The result is total warfare with a nearby world, ending in the destruction of not one, but two planets. When the Watchers return, they find only one survivor, who berates them:
You are to blame! You did this to us!
We would still be living in peace--had you not brought us your deadly secret of atomic energy--before we were readyfor it!
May you and your race be cursed--till the end of all your days!
Uatu's faction is chastened, and resolves "so long as memory endures--we do solemnly vow--it will never occur again!"
So now the readers know why the Watchers will only watch. It's a maximalist story typical of 1960s comics--was there really no middle ground between bumbling interference and complete nonintervention? But, like the Prime Directive on Star Trek (the prohibition on interfering with civilizations that have yet to develop warp drive technology), it is also particularly poignant within the context of Sixties politics: when the United States is still bogged down in a war in Vietnam that has no end in sight, noninterference looks like a firm moral stand. But both the Watchers and the Prime Directive consider intervention through a framework that is based not only on "morality"; for them, getting involved in the affairs of others must be considered in terms of anthropology and local politics.
This is one of the reasons the Watchers can so easily co-exist in a comic book universe that more prominently features Spider-Man: Peter Parker's choices are made in a much simpler context, one that has no room for considerations of cultural relativism, structural inequality, or systemic injustice. If someone is pointing a gun, it does not matter why they are doing so, or what external forces have conditioned their actions: superhero morality demands that the gunman be disarmed and apprehended.
Uatu's problem is different. He has learned the lessons of the Prosilican debacle (revisited decades later in a Fantastic Four storyline called "The Reckoning War"), but his spectatorship is not dispassionate. In fact, we might say that he is an excellent Watcher precisely because his sympathies are aligned with the genre in which the action so often unfolds: he watches like a superhero reader. But this is also his downfall. Sometimes, he cannot simply stand aside and watch.
Again and again, the Watcher declares that, just this one time, he must make an exception to his vow of non-interference. Sometimes it is a matter of stopping cosmic threats, like that of Galactus (Fantastic Four 48-50), when he warns the Earth with signs and portents, gives the Fantastic Four Galactus's backstory, engages in futile debate with the giant world-eater, and transports the Human Torch to Galactus's ship in order to obtain the one weapon that can force Galactus to retreat. Uatu's violation of his code in this single storyline are multiple, but at least no one can doubt that the stakes are high. But helping Reed ensure that his wedding to Sue will take place despite attacks by most of the supervillains he has ever encountered? Uatu has gone from saving the world to acting as an amateur wedding planner. But why?
Next: The Trial of the Watcher
Note
[1] Though they are not Watchers yet, I will use this term for the sake of consistency.