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    Dr. Manhattan

    Character » Dr. Manhattan appears in 108 issues.

    Dr. Jon Osterman was a lowly lab technician, before he was caught in a radioactive particle test. He returned as a god-like superhuman. He is powerful and highly intelligent, yet he grew to become emotionally distant towards people. He is the only superhero with powers in the Watchmen storyline.

    Who exactly is Dr. Manhattan?

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    LoudCloud

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    #1  Edited By LoudCloud

    I've never read a Watchmen comic ever but others who are into comics seem to. 99.99% of the time Dr Manhattan seems to win the battles on these forums and from what I heard he's an exceptionally powerful reality-warper. So that got me wondering, how is he so powerful but doesn't always automatically solve the problems in the Watchmen comics. I mean, he must have SOME sort of struggle when fighting others or resolving the plot. Does he just go "poof" in the comics and then everything's good again?

    Can someone post a few feats of his power or explain how he is so powerful without the comics being 2 seconds long?

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    no_more_scotch_eggs

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    Dr Manhattan is effectively a God. However, his vast power and ability to perceive all points along his time-line simultaneously, and lack of ability to experience emotions, means he has just lost interest in the human race. The point of the story is not about the characters fighting and winning or losing; its a deconstruction of the whole concept of the 'costumed vigilante' or superhero, and Dr Manhattan is just a plot vehicle to allow Moore to explore what having a de facto God walking among us would be like, what effect it would have on geopolitics (in the story, Dr Manhattan wins america the vietnam war and Richard Nixon gets elected 4 times as a result), and what having that sort of power would actually do to a person (he stops being a human, or caring what happen to us).

    So in the story, (SPOILER ALERT................)

    Dr Manhattan, possibly the most powerful creation in comic book history (he can create human beings- does that sound like someone/thing else we will all be familiar with...?) is effectively defeated by a mere man, and the villain (or is he?) 'wins'. But again, thats not the point of the story, its not really about who beats who- you really should read it, nearly 30 years on there is nothing else like it

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