Those Who Can
At Marvel during the Silver Age, Uatu embodies the philosophical dilemma of the superhero, but at a remove. His mandated distance from the actual action allows for the basic superhero question of involvement and intervention to play out longer than typically budgeted for in Silver Age comics. Uatu first appeared in Fantastic Four 13 in January 1963, eight months after the introduction of Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy 15. In the architecture of the Marvel Universe, Uatu and Peter Parker are about as far from each other as they can be: Uatu arrives on the scene for precisely the sort of stories that have little room for Spider-Man. [1] Yet they are worth thinking about together, because each is the philosophical antithesis of the other
The Buddy Cop Movie nobody asked for
As we will discuss shortly, the original sin of the Watcher's race is hubristic intervention: thinking they could uplift an underdeveloped culture, they inadvertently provided the tools for its self-destruction. Spider-Man's original sin, on the other hand, is the failure to act. When a police officer chases a criminal who is running right towards him, Peter Parker (in Spider-Man costume) ignores his call to block the man's path. The criminal escapes into an elevator ("Lucky that goon in a costume didn't stop me!"), leaving the cop to remonstrate with the apathetic Spider-Man:
Cop: What's with you, Mister? All you hadda do was trip him, or hold him just for a minute!
Spider-Man: Sorry, pal. That's your job! I'm thru being pushed around—by anyone! From now on I just look out for number one --that means--me!
Cop: I oughtta run you in--
Spider-Man: Save your breath, buddy! I've got things to do!
At this point, is there anyone left on Earth who does not know just how much Peter Parker is going to regret this? Just a few days later, a burglar shoots and kills Peter's Uncle Ben. Spider-Man catches him, only to discover that the burglar is the criminal he let get away: "My fault--all my fault! If only I had stopped him when I could have! But I didn't--and now --Uncle Ben --is dead..." As a devastated Spider-Man walks off into the distance, the narrative caption tells us that Peter is "aware at last that in this world, with great power there must also come--great responsibility!"
Rarely has a superhero's raison d'etre been summed up so precisely in an origin story; it took years for Superman to be fighting for "truth, justice, and the American way." Batman, whose traumatic past is an obvious antecedent for Spider-Man's, has an origin story that lends itself more to a psychological diagnosis than to a pithy statement of purpose. Spider-Man will always be motivated by his intense guilt over his role in his uncle's death, never sparing himself even when offered the chance (when J. Michael Straczynski has Aunt May find out Peter's secret identity, she reveals that she has always blamed herself for Ben's death, because they had just had a fight before he left the house and got shot). After J Jonah Jameson's wife Marla dies, Spider-Man's unrealistic reaction is to declare that "as long as [I'm] around no one dies" (Amazing Spider-Man 655-656). Of course Peter can't possibly make good on his promise, but the sheer neurotic obsession that motivates it points back to Peter's motivation for being a super-hero. After failing to act during one crucial moment, Peter will always choose to intervene. [2]
The superhero genre's predilection for intervention, as exemplified by Spider-Man's tragic origin, makes the appearance of Uatu the Watcher just a few months later seem almost perverse. I do not mean to suggest that this was part of a grand plan on the part of Stan Lee (co-creator of both Spider-Man and The Watcher, with Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby, respectively); one of the charms of early Marvel comics is the speed with which new story ideas and characters appeared, as well as their variety. Marvel in the 1960s maintained a thrilling sense of improvisation. Anything could happen from month to month, since the Marvel creators were reacting to the unrelenting imperatives of a backbreaking publishing schedule (which Lee handled by shifting more and more of the responsibility for plotting onto the artists while retaining most of the credit for himself). Uatu's first appearance was bracketed by the Fantastic Four's first encounter with the Hulk and fourth with Namor the Sub-Mariner. Moreover, Uatu was not even the main attraction; he was a wild card element in a story that happened to involve a race to the moon between the Fantastic Four and a Soviet scientist accompanied by evolved super-apes dedicated to their master's communist cause. Nothing about this looks like the product of deliberate, careful planning.
Yet Uatu plays a pivotal role in "The Fantastic Four versus the Red Ghost and His Indescribable Super-Apes!" (yes, this is the actual title of the issue). Though Marvel comics had yet to take significant steps away from it's postwar tradition of commie-bashing, Fantastic Four 13 is a gesture in the direction of the anti-war humanism that would come to prominence at Marvel just a few years later. The choice of the moon as the site of the story's conflict is doubly, if not triply, significant. First, it is a reminder of the heroes' own Cold War origins (they stole Reed Richard's prototype spaceship to fly to the moon "unless we want the commies to beat us to it!") Second, at this point in history, the moon had yet to be reached by humanity, making the trip particularly exciting and relevant, and third, the fight between the Fantastic Four and the Red Ghost on the moon is a small-scale recapitulation of the superpower conflict that shaped the postwar era.
Thus when Uatu first appears, he commands both the Fantastic Four and the Red Ghost to "cease this useless conflict!" Not only is this conflict useless, it is familiar: "And, worst of all, we have seen once-noble races turn savage and warlike with the passing of time! A fate which your own foolish breed seems headed for!" He laments having to break "the silence of centuries, in order to save your people from savagery": Sooner or later, both your nations may engage in a way which might devastate your entire planet. That is not my concern!"
In his first appearance, Uatu manages to achieve two apparently contradictory goals at the same time. On the one hand, his brief involvement (which he admits is a break with his people's custom) helps move the story along and resolve the fight between the Red Ghost and the Fantastic Four. On the other hand, through both his words and his overall aloofness, he tells both the characters and the reader that the conflict itself should not be happening in the first place. If the Watcher had his way (at least, the Watcher as we know him in Fantastic Four 13), there would be no Fantastic Four comic at all.
Next: A Watcher Is Born
Notes
[1] Spider-Man's incongruity in "cosmic" storylines is played up to great effect by Jim Starlin in the climax of his original Adam Warlock Saga, Marvel Two-in-One Annual 2 (released in September 1977). The reader knows that Spider-Man has a crucial role to play, but only because two watcher figures (Chaos and Order) are shown repeatedly nattering at each other about his importance. So out of his depth is Spider-Man that he uncharacteristically flees the scene, before finally taking the step that releases the spirit of Adam Warlock and thereby ensuring Thanos's defeat.
[2] J.M. DeMatteis cleverly exploits the contrast between the two characters in "Small Miracles" (Marvel Team-Up127, March 1983, with art by Kerry Gammill and Mike Esposito). A mawkish Very Special Christmas Episode, "Small Miracles" has Uatu guide Spider-Man to help save the life of a young woman. Since he is, at this point, following the Watcher's code to the letter (if not in spirit), he does not speak a word; Spider-Man, of course, cannot stop talking. The issue ends with the familiar trop of a Watch monologue from the Blue Area of the moon, this time cementing Uatu's status as cosmic fanboy: not only does he love humanity from afar, but he has used Spider-Man in his own little Christmas fan-fiction of heroism and salvation.