Doctor Manhattan
Doctor Manhattan is a male comic character who features in Watchmen.
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Biography
Watchmen
Jon Osterman
Jonathan Osterman was born in 1929 Germany to Jewish watchmaker Josef Osterman and his wife Inge. When Jon was nine years old, Hitler's men began weeding out Jews, chasing his parents out of the country. On the way out, however, Jon witnessed his mother being shot. As a child in America, he planned to follow in his father's footsteps and practiced diligently on one of his father's watches. He was sixteen when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Confronted with the undeniable facts of the theory of relativity, Josef declared his profession outdated and threw the parts of the watch that Jon was working on out the window. He urged his son to instead pursue a career studying nuclear physics. Osterman attended Princeton University from 1948 to 1958 and graduated with a Ph.D. in atomic physics. In early 1959, he moved to a research base at Gila Flats, where experiments were being performed concerning the 'intrinsic fields" of physical objects which, if tampered with, resulted in their disintegration. There he met Janey Slater, a fellow researcher, and they eventually became lovers.
On August 20, 1959, shortly after his thirtieth birthday, Jon planned to give Janey her repaired watch, only to discover he had left it in his lab coat. He remembered that he had left the coat inside the test chamber where they conducted the intrinsic field experiments. While he was inside the chamber retrieving it, the door closed, automatically locking as a safety feature. Unable to open the door or override the countdown, his colleagues—save for Janey, who could not bear to see his last moments—could only watch in horror as Jon had his 'intrinsic field' removed. Bathed in the radiant light, he was torn to pieces by the force of the generator. Instantly he was vaporized and was officially declared dead. Over the following months, Jon's consciousness began to progressively attempt to retake material form. This progression took the form of partial bodily reappearances as he slowly reassembled his physical form, first as a disembodied nervous system, including the brain and eyes, then as a circulatory system, and later as a partially muscled skeleton. Each time the appearance only lasted for a few seconds. Finally, he fully reappeared on November 22 as a tall, hairless, naked, blue-skinned man.
Doomsday Clock
Overview
Personality and attributes
Powers and abilities
Jon perceives time in a non-linear fashion. This means that he sees the past, present, and the future simultaneously. Likewise, he can grant others with this "atemporal" vision. While originally limited to only his perception of time, Jon later learned to view the timelines of others, as well as possible timelines that never happened. He was able to see the entire timeline of the metaverse when reconstructing the changes he made to it. (Doomsday Clock v1 #12) However, this power can be blocked by tachyons, restricting him to only the present as the only facet of time that he can see and actively experience, blocking his atemporal vision from probing far enough to perceive the future. (Watchmen v1 #12)
Notes
- Doctor Manhattan was created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons where he made his first appearance in Watchmen v1 #1 (September, 1986).
- The character was based on Captain Atom from Quality Comics.
- In an interview, it was stated that Gibbons had created the blue character Rogue Trooper, and reused the blue skin motif for Doctor Manhattan as it visualised electrical or atomic energy while still resembling human skin tonally and "reading as Jon Osterman’s skin would’ve read, but in a different hue." Moore incorporated color into the story, and Gibbons noted the rest of the comic's color scheme made Manhattan unique.
In other media
Television
- In Watchmen, Doctor Manhattan appeared in the setting of the 2019 limited television series where his original form was portrayed by actor Darrell Snedeger whilst he was later portrayed by actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. onathan Osterman was born on February 14, 1929 in Heidelberg, Germany, where he was raised. His father, Hans, was a Jewish watchmaker who left Germany with his son in 1936 after Jon's mother abandoned them for an SS officer. Fearing for his family's well-being, Hans took Jon to Gwynedd, Wales and stayed at Cartwithen Castle. While there, Jon saw a young couple about to have sex while peeking from a wardrobe. They spotted him, and while he ran away, the couple caught up with him later. They explained they were creating a life because their son died young, and handed Jon a bible, asking him in return to make something beautiful when he got older. He agreed, and left the manor sometime later for America. When the United States drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Jon was just sixteen and living with his father in Brooklyn. The summer morning after the event he was studying the pocket watch belonging to his father in their kitchen, presumably in training to follow into his profession. His father, confronted with the undeniable facts of the theory of relativity and the advance of military science, declares his profession outdated and throws the clocks out the windows, urging him to instead pursue a career studying atomic science. The incident represents the turning point in Jon's potential future and foreshadows Doctor Manhattan's 'exterior' perception of time as predetermined and all things within it as so determined, including Doctor Manhattan's own reactions and emotions. Osterman attended Princeton University from 1948 to 1958 where he watched Albert Einstein in a lecture. Always fascinated with clocks, he had the reputation among his fellow students that he was too stuffy and narrow and casually ignored him in their activities. Nonetheless, an attractive girl was interested in him and once she attempted to invite him to hike down the lake with the others, hoping to offer him a chance to be surprised by life. Jon, however, preferred to finish his job. Despite his stuffiness, however, he forms friendships with several students from New Jersey. As a PhD student, Osterman chose to do his dissertation on the neutrino theory of light involving C waves. Once completed, he submitted his doctoral dissertation to Dr. Michael Florence, the chairman of Princeton University's Department of Physics. On May 6, 1958, Osterman is informed by Florence that his dissertation was accepted by the department. Osterman graduates and is awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy in Nuclear Physics.
Films
- In Watchmen, Doctor Manhattan appeared in the setting of the 2009 live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Billy Crudup.
Appearances
- Watchmen v1: (1986)
- Before Watchmen v1:
- Doomsday Clock v1:
External Links
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