{"id":301261,"date":"2025-11-23T07:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T07:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/301261\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T07:26:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T07:26:12","slug":"today-is-a-major-day-for-watchmen-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/301261\/","title":{"rendered":"Today Is A Major Day for Watchmen Fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been almost 40 years since it was first released, but Watchmen<\/a> remains one of the most iconic and influential comics ever written. Written by Alan Moore<\/a> with art by Dave Gibbons, Watchmen presented a tale that is both a dark, twisty detective tale as well as a deconstruction of superheroes as we know and understand them and has continued to loom large over the comics landscape over the decades. It\u2019s a story that has seen multiple adaptations and even various sequels \u2014 though those come from other creators.<\/p>\n

Given how important Watchmen is<\/a>, it\u2019s no surprise that the series also has some major and iconic moments over the course of its run as well, but there\u2019s one that is particularly important. It\u2019s a moment in the comics that changes everything for the Watchmen story, Doctor Manhattan, and comics forever \u2014 and today\u2019s its canonical anniversary.<\/p>\n

Today Is The Day Dr. Jonathan Osterman Fully Reassembled As Doctor Manhattan<\/p>\n

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Doctor Manhattan is possibly one of the most fascinating and tragic figures in Watchmen.\u00a0 A nuclear physicist working at the research base at Gila Flats performing experiments on the intrinsic fields of objects, things take a shocking turn shortly after Jon\u2019s thirtieth birthday. On August 20, 1959, Jon plans to give fellow researcher and his lover, Janey Slater, her watch that he had repaired for her but discovered that he had left it in his lab coat. When he went to retrieve the coat from inside the test chamber, the door closed and automatically locked behind him. With the door\u2019s locking being a safety mechanism, there was no way to override the countdown so Jon\u2019s fellow scientists could only watch in horror was Jon was torn to pieces, vaporized as his own intrinsic field was removed and he was declared to be dead.<\/p>\n

However, that was not the end of Jon\u2019s story. Over the next few months, Jon started to reassemble in a physical form. He first appears as a disembodied nervous system \u2014 which somewhat hilariously looked like a floating brain and eyes \u2014 then a circulatory system, then a skeleton. Eventually, Jon would fully return, fully reassembled as a naked, blue-skinned hairless man on November 22nd.<\/p>\n

Jon\u2019s Transformation Is Far More Than Physical<\/p>\n

\"watchmen-animated-series.jpg\"<\/p>\n

While Jon comes back in a physical form, that\u2019s not the only thing has changed. He also starts to exhibit some unique powers and experiences, including that he now experiences time in a non-linear fashion. What this means is that he is both aware of and experiences the various moments of his life all at the same time. At any given moment, it\u2019s 1959, 1966, or even 1985 for him. It\u2019s not exactly that he knows the future, just that he\u2019s living everything at once. He also begins to become more and more detached from his emotions.<\/p>\n

The transformation and its impact also radically changed the course of the world. Jon ends up working with the government as Doctor Manhattan and it\u2019s his presence that turns the Cold War in the U.S.\u2019s favor. His influence also had economic impacts and President Richard Nixon had him end the Vietnam War with a victory for America, something that had the consequences of even changing the political process to result in Nixon being repeated re-elected following the repeal of the 22nd Amendment.<\/p>\n

Doctor Manhattan Is Simultaneously The Most Straightforward and Complex DC Character<\/p>\n

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Doctor Manhattan is one of DC\u2019s most interesting characters and he is also their most straightforward and complex one, which contributes to his lasting appeal. He has near-godlike powers, but he is not infallible. He also, despite being detached from human emotion and seemingly indifferent, does still seem to have some interest in understanding and being understood himself. That is perhaps most evident when, on Mars, he tells Laurie Juspeczyk that she had never tried to see things through his eyes. While it is an observation based on logic, as she had frequently asked him to see things through the human view, it also suggests that he finds some value in the larger idea of understanding and being understood. He\u2019s a character with many layers and, in terms of his canonical history, that all started on November 22nd.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the\u00a0ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been almost 40 years since it was first released, but Watchmen remains one of the most iconic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,74416,135295,75,337,10215,118264],"class_list":{"0":"post-301261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-dc-comics","11":"tag-doctor-manhattan","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-regular-feature","15":"tag-watchmen"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}