The Watchers Appreciation 2019

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Fantastic Four #328 Jul 1989
"Bad Dream!"
With the help of Aron the Rogue Watcher, the Frightful Four have defeated the Fantastic Four.
The Wizard explains to his teammates that while they were fighting their foes, he contacted Aron and his minion the Dragon Man to assist them.
In the heat of the battle, Aron used his mental powers to incapacitate the Fantastic Four, ensuring the villains victory.
Aron explains that although he is a member of the Watchers, a race sworn to only observe other alien races and never interfere, he was intrigued

when Uatu -- the Watcher from Earth -- was put on trial by his peers for his regular interference in the lives of the people who lived there.
After being sentenced to take on Aron as a student and after encountering the Fantastic Four himself, he was intrigued and decided to act instead of watch.
Part of his plan involved collecting tissue samples of the members of the Fantastic Four as part of these goals.
Utilizing a special suit that masks him from Uatu's gaze, Aron secreted away to Earth to carry out his plan.
The Wizard is furious that Aron will not assist in destroying the Fantastic Four, but the Watcher is uninterested in his demands
and collects the DNA samples he needs and is about to leave with them when the Wizard orders his minions to attack.

Aron is protected by Dragon Man who quickly comes to the aid of his master. However the android is no match for the combined
powers of the Frightful Four, who quickly incapacitate it. This forces Aron to use his mental powers against the Frightful Four,

taking them all down with a mere snap of his fingers. Recovering, the Watcher threatens to reveal Aron's plans to the Watcher,
but Aron warns the Wizard that he could be easily killed if he ever tried. With no other choice, the Frightful Four agree to follow Aron's plans,
content that they may yet be able to destroy their foes. Later when Ben Grimm arrives on the scene, he finds no trace of the Fantastic Four or their enemies.
Talking to the authorities he only gets a fragmented account of what transpired there, particularly the inclusion of Dragon Man in the fight.
Without any clues to go on, Ben returns to the Four Freedoms Plaza to report his finding back to Alicia Masters, who is worried sick about her husband the Human Torch.

Recalling Sharon's recent battle with Dragon Man with the She-Hulk, Ben places a call to Jennifer to get the low down on the situation.
She recalls that after that battle she saw the Dragon Man flying toward the Empire State Building.
Going there, Ben and Alicia ask around and finds that people recall seeing some strange creature flying around the area recently and decides to go in and check it out.
Ben and Alicia then begin inspecting the upper levels of the building for clues to the whereabouts of their captured friends.
On the 101st floor, Ben tells Alicia to wait behind while he goes off to explore.
Not even a few feet down the hall, Ben suddenly turns around and returns to Alicia to tell her that this floor is all clear.
When Alicia points out that he hasn't checked, they quickly realize that something has been tampering with his mind to make him think he checked the offices here.
When Ben goes back again, a mental illusion of a man tries to tell him to stop bothering them as he already checked.
When he ignores this "man" it suddenly turns into a creature and attacks him.
Alicia rushes to his side and reminds him that it's all in his head, preventing Ben from strangling himself with his own belt in the process.

Storming down the hall, Ben rams into one of the doors and almost fall down into the lab below where
the Frightful Four are busy placing the other members of the Fantastic Four into suspended animation.
Ben dives down and knocks out the Wizard but is soon attacked by the other members of the Frightful Four.
Grabbing Klaw's blaster arm, he uses it to blast Titania then knocks out Klaw with a single punch.
Hydro-Man attacks, but makes the foolish move of blasting Ben near the control panel and he manages to free his friends.
The Fantastic Four rush out and easily incapacitate the Frightful Four, and take them prisoner.
After Johnny is reunited with Alicia and Ben is congratulated for freeing them even without
any powers they make their way out of the Empire State Building with their prisoners.
However they are suddenly transported to another dimension where they are
confronted by Aron the Rogue Watcher who reveals the culmination of all his schemes:

He has created clones of the Fantastic Four.

Story by John Harkness. Art by Keith Pollard and Romeo Tanghal.

[marshal88]

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Fantastic Four #329 Aug 1989
"And You Can't Wake Up!"
At the Four Freedoms Plaza, the clones of the Fantastic Four created by Aron the Rogue Watcher have taken the places of the originals.
As the clone of Reed begins working in his lab, the clone of Ben scoffs at everything he does.
They are soon joined by Alicia Masters who is unaware that they are really clones,
regardless of her confusion that Ben is now back in his Thing form after last seeing him in human form.
"Ben" explains that to defeat the Frightful Four, he had to stop a doomsday weapon, and the radiation had turned him back into the Thing.
Alicia buys this story being fed to her and is more interested in hearing about their next mission when Ben brings it up.
Reed informs the rest of the group that they are going to capture the Mole Man.
Alicia is still uneasy when she considers that Reed is taking orders from the computer, and that none of them
seem aware that the Mole Man was last seen as a prisoner of the Lava Men or that Monster Island had been sunk.
The clones quell Alicia, explaining that Reed can use a device to raise Monster Island from the
ocean floor so they can complete their task. "Johnny" then convinces his "wife" that she should go.
After she leaves, the clones realize that Alicia is getting close to discovering
the truth about them, and that they may have to kill her in order to keep their secret.

Meanwhile, in the Canadian Rockies Aron the Rogue Watcher scans the wilderness before returning to the cave that serves as his hideout.

He reiterates to his minion, the android Dragon Man, of his desire to not only observe events like his fellow Watchers, but play a part in
molding them to his whims, thus having captured the Fantastic Four and placing them in suspended animation after creating clones of their foes.
With the Frightful Four aware of what happened, they too had been placed in suspended animation so that Aron's secret could be kept safe.
This also allows Aron to create new clones in the event any of them die while on a mission.

While out in the south Pacific, the cloned Fantastic Four pilot their Fantasti-Car over the location
where Monster Island used to stand and use a powerful magnetic device to raise it out of the ocean.
As they land, "Ben" and "Sharon" race ahead ignoring "Reed's" demands that the wait to avoid any potential dangers found on Monster Island.
Deep in the tunnels these cloned Fantastic Four members run into a two headed creature in the tunnels and attack it.
The inexperienced clones are ill prepared for an actual battle, and they find themselves knocked deeper into the realm of Subterranea.
Recovering from the fall, the faux Fantastic Four continue to search for the Mole Man, as Aron monitors their progress from afar.

As Aron continues to watch his creations, inside one of the cryogenic suspension units Ben Grimm begins to dream.
In this dream, Ben replays the moment when he and Sharon discussed his recent return to human form.

Instead of accepting each other as they are as it happened in real life, in Ben's dream, Sharon rejects Ben for reverting back to human form
-- telling him that this recent reversion spoiled what she saw as a good thing between the two of them.
At that very moment, Sharon is having a very similar dream. In her version Ben is the one rejecting her, telling Sharon that
now that he is human again he can have his pick of any woman he wants and would rather that than be dating a monster.
This angers Sharon to the point where she tries to strike Ben....

... Meanwhile, back in the waking world, the phony Fantastic Four have come
across the Valley of Diamonds and eventually cross paths with the Mole Man.
Unaware that he is dealing with clones, the Mole Man warmly welcomes the Thing back to his domain.
He tells them how he escaped the Lava Men and after his encounter with the Fantastic Four
he has been striving for peace between the various underground species that live in Subterranea.
Mole Man's shocked when the "Fantastic Four" suddenly turn on him and attack.
The Mole Man counter attacks by unleashing his Moloids and various monsters against the heroes,
but they easily fight off this first wave of attackers and chase after the fleeing Mole Man.
The Mole Man gets reinforcements and the battle rages on. However as the clones of the FF begin losing their edge, "Reed"
activates a device that fires a ray down on Monster Island, causing it to destabilize, causing the tunnels to begin to collapse.
The fake Fantastic Four rush back to the surface, leaving the Mole Man and his minions to be buried alive and flee in their Fantasti-Car.
As they leave, the Mole Man vows that he will get revenge against the Fantastic Four for betraying his trust.
Just as the "Fantastic Four" fly safely away, Monster Island explodes.

Watching this from afar, Aron gloats over his victory and how things have to end the way he wants them to,
while not far away the Fantastic Four and their foes continue to dream on while in suspended animation.

Story by John Harkness. Art by Rich Buckler and Romeo Tanghal.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

I was very pleased when it was revealed that Stan 'The Man' Lee portrayed a character in the MCU, who was revealed to be connected to the Watchers

[PaxHouse]

In case you've missed this; Uatu made an very humourous appearance within MARVEL COMICS #1001.....

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Fantastic Four #333 Nov 1989
"The Dream is Dead" Guest-starring the Avengers and Doctor Strange
The Avengers have come to Four Freedoms Plaza to confront the Fantastic Four
over their new "Fantasti-Tax" they are imposing on the citizens of New York City.
They have brought Doctor Strange along with them as the group
suspects that some sort of outside influence must be affecting the FF.
Demanding an audience with the group, they are met by what are -- unknown to them --
clones of the real Fantastic Four created by Aron the Rogue Watcher.
When Captain America questions the Fantastic Four's recent activities, "Reed" dismisses them
as "Johnny-come-latlies" and has "Sue" eject them from the building with her invisibility powers.
Having had enough insults, Hercules comes crashing back in on the phony Fantastic Four, and soon a fight breaks out.
However as sudden as the fight begins, the fake Fantastic Four are suddenly teleported away by parties unknown.
Confused by this sudden disappearance, the Avengers and Doctor Strange
part company to pursue investigations on where the Fantastic Four might have gone.

The clones themselves have found themselves teleported to the Canadian Rockies just outside of Aron's hideout.
Entering the cavern they are shocked to see that their creator is trapped within a cryogenic suspension
tube while his former prisoners -- the real Fantastic Four and their foes the Frightful Four --
are battling it out with each other, with Dragon Man added to the mix.
The battle takes a brief pause when the clones enter the room, and they suddenly decide to kill the real Fantastic Four.
The real Human Torch listens to the way the clones are talking and tries to explain that they are just as much pawns of Aron as they are.

However Johnny's explanations fall on deaf ears as the clone of Mister Fantastic proclaims himself to be the real Mr. Fantastic.
Suddenly the Wizard and his Frightful Four ambush the clones.
This leads to a three way battle with the clones trying to destroy
the real Fantastic Four, and the Frightful Four trying to kill both parties.
The brawl starts off with mismatched battles between all sides, but eventually each of the members
of the Fantastic Four face off against their clones while the Frightful Four watch from the sidelines.

Eventually it begins to show that the real Fantastic Four are the superior fighters due to their years of
experience and the Wizard decides to end the fight by incapacitating the clones with his anti-gravity discs.
While the Fantastic Four are busy knocking out their clones, the Frightful Four try to make a break for it but are stopped by the heroes.

By this point Aron's failsafe has kicked in and he has been freed from cryogenic suspension.
His experiment coming to an end, Aron has come to a decision on how to resolve matters.
First, he sends the Frightful Four off to the Vault to be imprisoned. He then tells the Fantastic Four

that he was more interested in dreams and plans on using the clones for just that,
then uses his powers to teleport the Fantastic Four back to the Four Freedoms Plaza in Manhattan.
Back home, the group recall having strange dreams that they can hardly remember while they were frozen
and then begin the frantic rush to try to explain to the media and the authorities what really was happening while they were kept prisoner.

They also arrange to have both branches of the Avengers travel to Oakley, California, with Alicia and Franklin
to pay a visit to current Fantastic Four writer "John Harkness" to ask him to set the record straight in the Fantastic Four comics.
Listening to young Franklin's appeals "John" tells the boy he will see what he can do.

Story by John Harkness. Art by Rich Buckler and Romeo Tanghal.

[juan678]