VISITORSVISITORS
Classification: Extraterrestrial race
Location/Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
at least formerly established an annual presence in
the New Jersey Pine Barrens, New Jersey USA;
(active on Earth for most of the 20th
Century -- presumably including at least the latter part of 1900-1929,
all of 1930-1945,
1946-1960, the pre-modern era
-- and into the modern/heroic age)
Known Members: None identified
Affiliations: The people of New
Jersey
Pine Barrens (aka the Pineys, notably Mr. Williams) at least formerly
worked with the Visitors, supplying them with victims, and they
continued to both tolerate and somewhat protect against knowledge of
their existence
Enemies: Freddie Battle, Fantastic Four (Invisible
Woman/Sue Richards, Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards, Thing/Ben Grimm),
Jacob, Jeff, Marcus, Franklin Richards
Aliases: The
Visitor's existence allegedly gave rise to the legend of the Jersey
Devil (aka the Leeds Devil)
First Appearance: Marvel Knights 4#5 (June, 2004)
Powers/Abilities: The Visitors are large bipedal
creatures. They have a digitigrade stance, standing on the plantar
surface of their metatarsophalangeal joints and the phalanges. They have
long fingers (long enough to wrap them around a child's chest) ending in
sharp points, and their toes end in sharp points, as well.
They are likely superhumanly strong,
perhaps lifting 1000 pounds or more.
They have sharp teeth, and they are
carnivorous, at least.
They have large eyes and are accustomed
to seeing in darkness, likely indicating a higher number of rods in
their retinae (or equivalent structures), but their color vision is poor
(likely indicating a fewer number of cones in the retinae
(or equivalent structures).
They have a large tail, likely used for
balance and perhaps as a weapon.
Exothermically, they are dependent on
the ambient temperature to maintain their body temperatures. They are
sensitive to cold, and they depart Earth at the first sign of snow.
The can leap high into the air (perhaps 20'), and they sometimes do this as a means of attack, landing on top of and surprising their prey.
Their ships can enter and exit
atmospheres, and they can have the capability to travel interstellar
distances, perhaps via warp drives, accessing stargates, etc. The
propulsion system is such that it may explode if overloaded (attempting
to fly against something holding it in place). The ships' chambers can
be closed such that there are not any tiny openings though which Reed
Richards might be able to escape. 
They can understand English
sufficiently to comprehend general meetings and deal with humans.
Traits: Carnivorous, the Visitors are not content to feed on animals alone, and they are apparently man-eaters.
Although apparently exquisitely
sensitive to cold, for unrevealed reasons, they only arrive on Earth
only a few weeks before the first snow, and they depart at the first
sign of snow.
Type: Bilaterally symmetric bipeds (I'm not
really sure whether they're insectoid, reptilian or what)
Eyes: Two (on head; solid yellow and orange colors seen)
Fingers: Three (plus opposing thumb)
Toes: Two (with a prominent and pointed posteriorly
located structure that may have functioned as an opposing digit/toe)
Skin color: Red-brown (a lot of the comic was either in darkness,
shadow, alien lighting, etc., but Ben described them as red)
Average height: Approximately 10'
Other Distinguishing Features: Above the equivalent of maxillary incisors, where there might
be a nasal sinus, it is instead somewhat open, showing individual nasal
passages. Their forehead regions extend into large horn-like structures,
and they appear to have prominent scapulae, which look somewhat
like small wings. Their spine is visible, extending from behind their
horns, down their necks and backs.
History:
(Marvel Knights 4#7 (fb) - BTS) - At some point in the early 20th
Century, a group of apparent extraterrestrials came to Earth, landing in
the New Jersey Pine Barrens. They encountered a group of local human
residents who found that creatures, whom they would come to call the
Visitors, could at least understand English sufficiently that they could
communicate with them somewhat.
Under unrevealed circumstances, an arrangement was made that the Visitors would maintain the Barrens more or less at its status quo, keeping them safe from people who wanted to change things and destroy the woods, and in exchange, the locals allowed them to hunt in the Barrens.
The hunting season of the Visitors was short, a few
weeks before the first snow of the year.
Earlier on, the locals handed over "Pineys who'd gone bad": Thieves, rapists, murderers, etc. As there were not any police out in the Barrens, this was their system of justice. Eventually, there weren't enough criminals left, so the locals turned a blind eye when the Visitors started going after outsiders. The Pineys were satisfied with the preservation of the Barrens, and at least some of them rationalized the people slain by the Visitors, feeling that no one was truly innocent.
Regardless of the legends, there was not external
evidence of the deaths or the Visitors; "people
believe what they wanted to believe, and the rest washes away in the
river each spring with the thaw."
The Pineys made up a story about a monster that lived
in the Barrens, which they called the Leeds Devil, but which became known
more so to outsiders as the Jersey Devil.
Many such disappearances were reported in the Piney
newspaper until the newspaper stopped being produced. A number of
clippings of such newspaper articles were kept in a scrapbook that
eventually came into the possession of Mr. Williams.
(Marvel Knights 4#5 - BTS) - As Reed and Sue Richards and Ben Grimm
accompanied Franklin Richards, Freddie Battle, Mark Garrett, Marcus and
one other friend of Franklin on a camping trip to the Pine Barrens, Ben
frightened the kids with the legend of the Jersey Devil (see
comments). When they stopped to ask directions, Ben encountered
Mr. Williams who advised him and his friends to turn back, as the Barrens
were not safe this late in the season.
They soon after encountered Jeff and Jacob, a pair of
amateur would-be film makers making a documentary about the legend of the
Jersey Devil.
As they arrived at a site where they intended to camp,
they saw a sign announcing that the Jersey Devil was no hoax and that 132
people had been taken (the second "1" in 131 had been replaced by a "2").
(Marvel Knights 4#5) - Ben and Reed headed toward the river for some water, and they instead found a spaceship or two with monstrous creatures entering it.
Meanwhile, Sue had stayed with the kids and set up a campfire, at which point they were confronted by a number of the Visitors.
(Marvel Knights 4#6) - After reassuring a frightened Franklin, Sue asked
the closest creature if it could understand her. When Freddie told her to
just squash the creature, Sue turned to silence him, but Franklin alerted
her that the creature had leapt into the air, and she formed a force field
around herself and the kids into which the creature crashed.
As she cast the Visitor away, Marcus feared that the
creatures were going to kill them, but Sue assured him that they would
not, after which she told the kids to take some deep breaths and not speak
while she turned them invisible. However, once they were invisible, Freddy
threw a burning stick at one of the creatures, which then grabbed Freddie.
Sue used a force field thrust to knock the creature back and to drop
Freddie, after which she led the kids to run into the woods. The creatures
pursued them until they found a cabin; although it was locked, Sue smashed
the door open. After she and the kids had entered the cabin, she began to
seal it with a force field, but the owner, Mr. Williams told them that the
creatures would not come into his cabin as they knew better. 
Mr. Williams subsequently shared that hunting season
for the creatures did not stop until the first snowfall of the season.
After Franklin told her that Mark Garrett hadn't made it into the cabin
with them, Williams told her that it was best to forget about him, as the
creatures likely had him and anyone else "thick enough" to be out in the
woods that night.
As Ben and Reed observed the aliens, speculating on
their intent, Jacob and Jeff sneaked into the ship. Confidant that Sue
could take care of herself and following up on his promise to her to
always help innocents first, Reed mimicked the appearance of one of the
aliens and entered the vehicle; although Ben noted that Reed's form did
not match their color, Reed had speculated that their large eyes likely
meant that they had poor vision, probably being able to recognize shapes
but not necessarily to distinguish color. Reed further told Ben to get
involved if anything happened or if he (Reed) did not come back out in 15
minutes. Reed's speculation proved accurate as he entered the ship and
passed aliens without any reaction.
Meanwhile, Jeff and Jacob, who had found a room
containing the presumed corpses of numerous animals, captured by the
creature, hanging from the roof. Reed found them as they were filming,
momentarily panicking them with his appearance, but he restored his human
face to calm them. However, observing aliens noticed the three invaders on
their ship.
(Marvel Knights 4#7) - Aliens carrying Mark Garrett threw him in with
Reed, Jeff and Jacob before sealing the room around them. While there were
not any openings that Reed could use to escape, the Thing, who was not
comfortable waiting the whole length of time soon approached the ship.
Finding it sealed, he began pounding on it.
After Sue pressured Mr. Williams to give him information to save the boy the creatures had captured, Williams told her about the "arrangement" between the Pineys and the Visitors.
Taking his rifle, Sue urged Mr. Williams to take her
to where the Visitors were located. He warned her that she didn't know
anything about the Visitors, but she countered that she knew they didn't
like cold, that they must understand English and that they had never met
anyone like her family.
Ben's battering of the ship led the Visitors to try to
take off before he could seriously damage it. Ben tried futilely to stop
the ship from taking off, but Sue arrived in time -- just as snow started
to fall -- to erect a force field around the ship, holding it in place
while protecting herself and the kids from the ship's exhaust, although
the effort caused her a nosebleed.
Appreciating that the thrusters of their
combustion/propulsion system would overhead and explode unless they shut
them down, the Visitors indeed shut down their engines and sent out a pair
of ambassadors to meet with Sue. She told them that she would rend their
ship like tinfoil and see how quickly they would succumb to the snow and
cold if they did not deliver her husband, her son's friend and anyone else
they had taken immediately.
Although they may not have comprehended her words
exactly, they understood what she wanted, and they opened the chamber
containing Reed and the others, who soon exited the ship. Before departing
one of the Visitors indicated Jeff's video camera and, at Reed's
instruction, Jeff handed it over to the Visitor, who crushed it. After
they returned to their ship, the Visitors took off and apparently headed
out into space
(Marvel Knights 4#7 - BTS) - Mr. Williams shot himself in the head with his rifle soon after.
Comments: Created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Steve McNiven.
Per this story, the Visitors'
abductions are what gave rise to the legend of the Jersey Devil. When
Ben Grimm told the story to the kids, he told the story with the mother
and father of the Jersey Devil being Betsy and James Shroud. I don't
think the Visitors' involvement means that there was not also a Jersey
Devil that directly mirrored the legends.
Per Wikipedia:
The Pine Barrens gave rise to the legend of the Jersey Devil, said to have been born in 1735 to a local woman named Mrs. Leeds in an area known as Leeds Point. It was said that he was her 13th child and, because of the unlucky number, he was cursed. Another story says that the mother gave birth to a hideous monster that attacked her and her nurses, before flying up and out of the chimney and disappearing into the Barrens. The Devil is said to roam the Pine Barrens, with many sharing stories of encounters with the Devil during dark nights in the Pinelands.
Pine Barrens folklore also includes the ghost of the "Black Doctor", the ghost of Captain Kidd, the "Black Dog", and various other ghosts, as well as folklore associated with the Blue Hole and other so-called "blue holes" in the Pine Barrens.
You can look it up on ye olde
interweb if you want more information on that...
Interesting and fun story. Bummer that
Williams wasn't given a first name, that Jeff, Jacob and Marcus didn't
get last names...and that one of Franklin's friends didn't get a name at
all. Jeff was the camera man, Jacob was the one on camera.
Maybe some story -- ideally by Roberto
Aguirre-Sacasa and Steve McNiven -- will re-visit these
characters some day...and maybe we'll get some more information about
the Visitors, such as what their race was actually called, where they
came from, additional history, motivations, etc. It would be gr
Otherwise, I like the name Sidney for Mr. Williams'
first name. Sir Philip Sidney invented the name Pamela for his work The
Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia. Pamela Voorhees was the name of the
mother of Jason from the Friday the 13th movies, and after Mr. Williams
initially warned him to turn back, the Thing described him as the old
coot in the Friday the 13th movies who warned campers to go home because Jason was gonna chop them
up.
He could also be Sean or Victor, after the
director/producer and screenplay writer for the original Friday the 13th
movie. Victor sounds good.
He kind of looks a little like Freddy Krueger, but
Frederick seemed to obvious, and that actor is Robert Englund; Robert
Williams seemed too generic.
While it presumed that the Visitors
were extraterrestrials, it is also possible that their starships
originated from another dimension.
This profile could be expanded to
include more information and images of their ship, but as time was
tight, I focused on the race itself.
This profile was completed 11/07/2025, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the
Appendix 25th anniversary 's celebratory event, representing
the Fantastic Four's 2000s stories and characters.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Visitors and the Jersey Devil should be distinguished from:
images: (without ads)
Marvel Knights 4#5, pg. 20, panel 1 (Visitors entering ship(s));
pg. 22 (Visitors confronting Sue
Richards and kids);
#6, pg. 4, panel 3 (smashing into invisible force
field);
pg. 9, panel 2 (chasing through woods);
#7 cover (large face confronting Sue);
pg. 5, panel 2 (holding Mark Garrett);
pg. 17, panel 1 (meeting with Sue)
Appearances:
Marvel Knights 4#5-6 (June, 2004) - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
(writer), Steve McNiven (penciler), Mark Morales (inker), Warren Simons
(editor)
Marvel Knights 4#7 (September, 2004) - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (writer),
Steve McNiven (penciler), Mark Morales (inker), Warren Simons (editor)
First posted: 09/06/2026
Last updated: 08/14/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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