Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Pre-modern era)

Occupation: Invader

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Paul Marshall

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "Monster at My Window" (in story title)

Base of Operations: Mobile in an unidentified American city;
   originally from the Sixth Dimension

First Appearance: Tales to Astonish I#34/1 (August, 1962)

Powers/Abilities: The physically large Monster had great strength (Class 10 or higher), but appeared to possess no other paranormal abilities (see comments).

Despite his bulk, the Monster was somehow able to quickly vanish from sight while on Earth -- possibly he transported himself back to his home-dimension, but it was unrevealed if this was an innate ability, or if he achieved it by technological means.

Height: Unrevealed (9'; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: None

History:
(Tales to Astonish I#34/1 (fb) - BTS) - A race of beings in the Sixth Dimension plotted to invade Earth; they planned to fool mankind into believing that they were kind, friendly, and charitable, hoping to lull humans into a false sense of security when they eventually came to attack  -- to achieve this end, they sent the Monster to Earth, so he could force famous science-fiction author Paul Marshall into helping them with their conquest.

(Tales to Astonish I#34/1) - After arriving on Earth, the Monster began to stalk Marshall -- he first appeared outside Marshall's apartment window, after the writer had retired for the evening. But when Marshall suddenly awoke and glanced out the window, he caught a glimpse of the Monster looking in at him, just before the creature vanished -- Marshall nonchalantly discounted the unearthly sighting  ("I must be imagining things!").

   The next evening, while Marshall was walking his date back to her apartment, he experienced a vague feeling of uneasiness, as if he were being watched; but his date told him that it was probably just a case of nerves from his working too hard -- unbeknownst to Marshall, the Monster really was watching him, concealed under a manhole in the street.

   Later, when the jittery Marshall returned to his own apartment, he was too tense to sleep, so he tried finishing the final chapter of a story he was working on. But even as he sat at his typewriter, Marshall was again overwhelmed by the feeling that he was being watched... then he turned around and saw the hideous Monster at his window! However, when Marshall opened the window and looked outside, the Monster was gone, and he began to doubt his own sanity.

   Unable to think straight, Marshall went to his bathroom medicine cabinet to grab some sleeping pills, so he could calm down and get some rest, and maybe things would make sense in the morning. But when he heard a crash and found the window broken, he knew that someone--or something--was in his apartment. Suddenly, there was the sound of incredibly heavy footsteps approaching him in the darkness -- Paul Marshall turned and beheld the Monster, and came to the horrifying realization that it was real!

   Marshall fled from his apartment, locking the door behind him as he rushed out; but the Monster easily broke through and continued to pursue him throughout the apartment complex, so Marshall ran up the stairs and ascended to the building's roof, where he locked the steel fire door, hoping that it was strong enough to stop the Monster. But the Monster burst through the reinforced door, and Marshall found himself trapped on the rooftop.

   Then the Monster told the cornered Marshall that he had nothing to fear if he obeyed the alien creature's commands. The Monster explained the role that Marshall would play in his race's invasion plan, and how he would write stories about friendly visitors that resembled the Monster's own race.

   After hearing the explanation, Marshall willingly agreed to do as the Monster ordered; but the Monster was surprised when Marshall drew him a picture of the huge creatures he intended to write about, for they didn't resemble the Monster's race at all.

   The Monster was angered at the human for defying his command, but Marshall confessed he had only pretended to be frightened, so he could lure the alien invader to the roof and learn what the Monster's plan was, and where no one would witness what was about to happen next. Then "Paul Marshall" transformed into his true form (the same as the picture of the creature he had drawn), and admitted that his own extradimensional race was also planning to invade Earth.

   And so, high above the midnight city, the two fantastic creatures engaged in mortal combat, with the outcome of their battle unrevealed...

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Dick Ayers.

    Since he came from the Sixth Dimension, I wonder if the Monster had any affiliation to Tiboro? --John Kaminski

Considering the shape of his word-balloons, perhaps the Monster communicated telepathically.

The appearance of the Monster's head reminds me of the Kanamit alien from the old Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man" -- since that episode first aired a few months before this story was originally published, maybe Kirby was "inspired" by it when he drew the Monster. And certain aspects of this story also remind me a little of the later episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". -- Ron Fredricks

Profile by Madison Carter. Expansion by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Monster (at My Window) has no known connections to:

Paul Marshall has no known connections to:

Paul Marshall

He was an author who wrote highly popular science-fiction stories about "aliens, time machines, and outer space"; he also maintained a dating relationship with an unidentified woman. But in truth, Paul Marshall was a monstrous being from another dimension, who took the form of a human because his home-dimension was planning to invade Earth.

He was working on a time-travel story when he found himself being stalked by the Monster from the Sixth Dimension.

Pretending to be frightened, he eventually lured the Monster to the rooftop of his apartment building, where he revealed his true nature in an effort to kill his rival, so that his own race could invade Earth first.

(Comment: It seems likely that he would have had to have been stationed on Earth for several years, in order to become a popular writer, and to develop a social life; or another possibility is that he was a recent arrival, and that he just  replaced the real Paul Marshall and took over his life.)

--Tales to Astonish I#34/1

images: (without ads)
Tales to Astonish I#34/1, p1, pan1 (Main Image - Monster, at Paul Marshall's window)
Tales to Astonish I#34/1, p6, pan4 (Headshot - Monster, speaking to Paul Marshall)
Tales to Astonish I#34/1, p5, pan4 (Monster smashes out of Paul Marshall's apartment)
Tales to Astonish I#34/1, p6, pan7 (Monster on rooftop of apartment building; Paul Marshall (foreground))
Tales to Astonish I#34/1, p3, pan5 (Paul Marshall)
Tales to Astonish I#34/1, p4, pan2 (Paul Marshall, looking for Monster from his apartment window)
Tales to Astonish I#34/1, p7, pan5 (Paul Marshall begins to assume his true form)
Tales to Astonish I#34/1, p7, pan6 (Paul Marshall assumes his true form)

Appearances:
Tales to Astonish I#34/1 (August, 1962) - Stan Lee (plot/editor), Larry Lieber (script), Jack Kirby (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks), Stan Goldberg (colors), Artie Simek (letters)

First Posted: 02/21/2006
Last updated: 07/02/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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