Dr. Manhattan
| Doctor Manhattan | |
|---|---|
Doctor Manhattan
Art by Neal Adams |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| Created by |
Alan Moore Dave Gibbons |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Dr. Jonathan 'Jon' Osterman |
| Place of origin | Earth |
| Team affiliations | The Crimebusters/Watchmen United States Department of Defense |
| Partnerships | Silk Spectre II |
| Abilities |
Vast array of powers that includes:
|
| Doctor Manhattan | |
Vast array of powers that includes:
Doctor Manhattan is a fictional character who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. He debuted in the graphic novel miniseries Watchmen, published in 1986 and 1987. Doctor Manhattan was created by writer Alan Moore with artist Dave Gibbons.
He was originally Dr. Jonathan Osterman, a nuclear physicist who in 1959 was transformed into one of the Most Supreme Beings of DC Comics, after initially being disintegrated in an Intrinsic Field Subtractor and later reconstructing himself. Following his reanimation, he was immediately pressed into service by the United States government, who gave him the name Doctor Manhattan, after the Manhattan Project. He is the only character in the story that possesses actual superpowers.
The Watchmen series has been noted for addressing metaphysical issues and questions, Doctor Manhattan being the primary recipient. He is often used as an example of a posthuman god. Reception towards the character is positive, and he has appeared and has been mentioned in various forms of media. Billy Crudup portrays Doctor Manhattan in the 2009 film adaptation directed by Zack Snyder. Doctor Manhattan later appears in the Before Watchmen comic book prequel, with his own individual issue miniseries.
In 2016, Doctor Manhattan became the first Watchmen character to be included in the main DC continuity, during the DC Rebirth event, serving as an antagonist.
Doctor Manhattan was partly based on DC Comics' Captain Atom who in Moore's original proposal was surrounded by the shadow of nuclear threat. However, the writer found he could do more with Manhattan as a "a supreme super-hero" than he ever could have with Captain Atom. Moore sought to delve into nuclear physics and quantum physics in constructing the character of Dr. Manhattan. The writer believed that a character living in a quantum universe would not perceive time with a linear perspective, which would influence the character's perception of human affairs. Moore also wanted to avoid creating an emotionless character like Spock from Star Trek, so he sought for Dr. Manhattan to retain "human habits" and to grow away from them and humanity in general. Gibbons had created the blue character Rogue Trooper, and explained he reused the blue skin motif for Doctor Manhattan as it resembles skin tonally, but has a different hue. Moore incorporated the color into the story, and Gibbons noted the rest of the comic's color scheme made Manhattan unique. Moore recalled that he was unsure if DC would allow the creators to depict the character as fully nude, which partially influenced how they portrayed the character. Gibbons wanted to tastefully depict Manhattan's nudity, selecting carefully when full frontal shots would occur and giving him "understated" genitals—like a classical sculpture—so the reader would not initially notice it. Dr. Manhattan's forehead is marked with the atomic structure of hydrogen, which he put on himself, declining a helmet with the atom symbol.
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Wikipedia