While the early days of Marvel Comics were explosive and ultimately game-changing for the field, on a conceptual level they were not always quite as revolutionary as they sometimes seemed. A lot of the appeal of the line came down to the manner in which familiar ideas were executed, rather than the ideas themselves being totally novel. As an example of this, let’s take the case of the Watcher, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in FANTASTC FOUR #13 in 1963. In that first story, he was an oversized bald-headed alien, one of a race of Watchers who were dedicated to observing all the events that transpired across the galaxy, but never to interfere. He was pretty cool, albeit a bit passive for a lead character, and within a year or so, he had his own series in TALES OF SUSPENSE. But he wasn’t an entirely novel creation at all.
In fact, the concept of the Watcher had been popping up elsewhere across popular culture for a while at that point. Take exhibit A here, issue #18 of Charlton’s science fiction/suspense series MYSTERIES OF UNEXPLORED WORLDS. In the lead position is this anthology issue is the story “The Forbidden Formula” by Joe Gill and Bill Montes. And right in the opening splash panel, it introduces its own version of the Watcher–one who is conceptually very close to the version that Lee and Kirby would put forth three years later.
Now, I’m not suggesting for a moment that Lee or Kirby swiped the concept of the Watcher from this obscure Charlton story. They were being influenced by the world around them, just like everybody at the time was, and there are only so many concepts and super-powers that can reasonably be invented. Rather, I think there was a common source somewhere across the landscape–whether in film, on television, in prose, or whatever–that inspired the simultaneous expression of this idea in a couple of different places. (When looked at through a certain lens, the Guardians of the Universe introduced in the revival of GREEN LANTERN in 1959 also resemble this concept–except in their case, they recruit operatives to act in their place.)
This story by Gill and Montes is almost entirely unremarkable. If not for its connection to the better work done by Lee and Kirby later, it would deserve no more revisitation than the other stories in this issue do. It was intended as throwaway entertainment for children, nothing of lasting value. So good enough was good enough in this case.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
There is a water like character in Adventures into Weird Worlds#23 ( October 1953 ) 4th story –Bok-Tok Makes A Boo-Boo: A bigheaded bald alien watches the earth… no, it’s not the watcher. It’s Bok-Tok and he is from Jupiter and can’t understand why there is so much violence on our planet. He decides to spray everyone with a special truth spray ( according to atlastales.com ). Another Atlas Age story I wish I had in my collection ( on USB ) of Atlas Comics stories.
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Tales of Suspense#35 ( November 1962 ) 1st story ” I Accepted the Deadly Challenge of Zarkorr!” ( Overstreet Price Guide says is a watcher prototype ). Zarkorr is a fake alien created by a veteran space pilot named Dave Bartlett because he is forced to retire because of his lack of experience with newer equipment, but an alien visitor gives Earth a challenge that only he can pass. After succeeding, he is appointed to command the space patrol, but the alien visitor was really the pilot in disguise ( comics.org ) — Stan Lee (?), Larry Lieber (?) & Jack Kirby story.
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There is a green reptilian shape-changing alien called a watcher in Amazing Adventures vol. 1 #5 ( October 1961 ) second story – “The Watcher” by Stan Lee & Don Heck. See his profile on marvunapp.com.
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“one of a race of Watchers” I was under the impression that’s something they added later and that Kirby’s original concept was that the Watcher was unique. When Hulk arrives on the Watcher’s planet in one story, for instance, it appears completely unoccupied except for the one Watcher.
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The Kirby/Ditko visuals for the first Watcher appearance are striking. He appears to be a giant featus with glowing eyes.
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I’ve read Joe Gill, one of the most proliffic writers in comics history, up there with people like Paul S, Newman and Garner F. Fox, made more most years on playing cards for money with the guys from the print plant at lunch than he did writing comics.
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Aliens who are bald/big head/robe is a common science-fiction image, see e.g. the aliens in the Star Trek pilot “The Cage” (Talosians). A bald big head signifies “more evolved” and I guess the robe is both exotic and easy to draw. The Guardians actually deviate a little from this – they have the big head and robe, but they aren’t completely bald, rather older-man balding. I suppose (as gestured towards in the post) that’s to indicate they aren’t complete removed, they’re more like senior military – they don’t personally go out in the field, but rather assess the overall battle status and command troops (hmm, I wonder if one of them ever thought “I’m bored being stuck on Oa monitoring everything – I want to put on a ring and go fight some monster up close and personal”).
However, these Watchers are more like watchmen (not the heroes, the common sense of the word). They are checking for events, and their function is to take action against the event if the event occurs. The completely passive sense, more like “observer”, is what makes the Marvel Watchers a different case. That’s not unknown elsewhere, but it’s much rarer. Because then the point of the story is usually why just this one time the observer can’t stay passive.
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I believe the Guardians’ look was based on David Ben-Gurion, then Prime Minister of Israel.
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I’ve read that also. Gil Kane was known to use actors to use actors as models for charactors, like David Niven being the model for Sinestro . . . .
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Yes, “The Guardians of the Universe were modeled after David Ben-Gurion.”
http://www.cbr.com/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-148/
But David Ben-Gurion wore typical business suits, and his head was not of abnormally large size relative to the rest of his body. The idea is I think it’s artistically meaningful that the Guardians have some hair, rather than it being only an artifact of the person used a model. If they were more like Marvel Watchers, they might have been modelled on Yul Brynner or someone like that.
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Don’t forget these original Star Trek series aliens the Vians ( The Empath — December 6, 1968 ).
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