My main thesis while reviewing this series is that Rorschach is not a hero. But he’s not really in this issue, so I won’t have anything to say on that front. However, I still want to keep going through this page-by-page because it is so fun and interesting.
This issue focuses completely on Dr. Manhattan and his unique perception of time. Honestly, it’s quite exhausting and probably didn’t need to last a whole issue. But … Moore had to stretch his six-issue story out to 12 somehow …
Dr. Manhattan is moping. His girlfriend just dumped him and he found out that he has (allegedly) been giving cancer to everyone close to him. Instead of proactively trying to solve or investigate these problems, he retreats to Mars, where he quickly becomes distracted by insignificant details.
Surprisingly, Jon’s personality didn’t change that much after becoming Dr. Manhattan. Even at the age of 16, he still spoke in an unusually precise manner, while hyperfixating on inconsequential matters.
At age 30, Jon understood perfectly how his entire life was dictated by others. But he never once broke free from that. Even his retreat to Mars was carefully orchestrated by someone else.
I think Jon hates being Dr. Manhattan. And he blames everyone in his life for the accident that transformed him. But at the end of the day, he was the one who carelessly left the watch in the vault, which he knew how dangerous it was from his very first day on the job.
Jon’s relationship with Janey could be romantically described as pieces of a watch fitting together because they were always meant to be. But Dr. Manhattan uses that analogy in cold, inevitable terms.
This is one of the most haunting moments of the entire Watchmen story. It’s amazing that Dr. Manhattan got together with Janey after she abandoned him like this.
Dr. Manhattan is the only super-powered individual in this story. So Moore and Gibbons went all out with his origin. And it’s fantastic.
It took Dr. Manhattan a long time to put himself back together. And I guess the question will always remain: Did he willingly do this? Or was it just inevitable?
The religious imagery is quite powerful. However, Dr. Manhattan doesn’t really act like a god — at least not like any god we want.
Dr. Manhattan’s admission of this lie is intriguing. Why does he choose to lie? And what else is he lying about?
He makes this comment after remembering his argument with the government about his costume and symbol. But everything was always out of his hands from the very beginning.
It’s fun to see Sally eagerly agree to be on TV, even though she has nothing interesting to say.
Dr. Manhattan started losing his sense of right and wrong fairly quickly. And everyone just sort of went along with it because they didn’t have any other choice.
I actually think Dr. Manhattan does have a dark sense of humor. At least a little bit. Here he’s actually reaching out, putting his hand on Hollis’ shoulder to lay it on as thick as possible that the now obsolete hero will be entering an obsolete profession. It’s that shoulder touch that convinces me Dr. Manhattan knows exactly what he’s doing here.
“Why didn’t you do something?” is the question that will always be asked of Dr. Manhattan. And it’s hard to come up with a more valid answer than: He just doesn’t care.
Dr. Manhattan is disgustingly shallow. If Laurie hadn’t broken up with him, he would have eventually dumped her for growing too old, as well.
Those are pretty cool earrings, with the little ball hovering in the middle. But they’re also Dr. Manhattan’s symbol — a reminder that Janey is essentially his property.
I think Dr. Manhattan sees a bit of himself in the Comedian, as one who understands everything but doesn’t care. However, Dr. Manhattan is wrong. The Comedian will eventually encounter something that he won’t understand, yet will care deeply about.
I’m a little surprised that it took more than two months for Dr. Manhattan to win the Vietnam War. But then again, we don’t know exactly what his role was. Note how he is not causing soldiers to explode in this panel.
Intentional or not, this is perhaps the funniest thing Dr. Manhattan has ever said. Do you mean to tell me that the guy who failed to see the immorality of exploding people’s heads is suddenly concerned about consciences?
And now for some physical humor, too. Dr. Manhattan’s butt cheeks hanging out like that in front of a group of protesters that is hilariously absurd.
Finally a reference to Rorschach. Unfortunately, there are some people who would applaud the brutal murder of an accused rapist, especially when combined with a defiant, ant-government attitude. Moore is trying to demonstrate the dangers of taking chivalry and independence to the extreme, but for some people, there’s no such thing as taking those ideals too far.
Another demonstration of Dr. Manhattan’s lack of understanding. He remembers how Laurie bemoaned her lack of privacy living in a government facility and he idiotically thinks she’d enjoy living on lifeless Mars. Had he been paying attention, he would have known that she needed more human interaction, not less.
Well, at least he acknowledged that her mood seemed restless. I guess that’s better than nothing, right?
It’s redundant to lay out everything Dr. Manhattan could have done, but chose not to. But I want to say some, anyway. Instead of investigating the claims against him, instead of trying to patch things up with Lauri, instead of — I don’t know, curing cancer! — he decides to build sand castles on Mars.
One of the scariest things about Dr. Manhattan is he doesn’t even know how his powers work. Or if he’s even actively causing things to happen. If everything’s predetermined, then what’s the point of caring?
Dr. Manhattan gained all the power in the world, and yet he still wishes he could have been a watchmaker. Depressingly, even his one true dream wasn’t originally his. It was his dad’s.
We have new supplemental material with this issue: a brief paper on Dr. Manhattan and the Cold War.
It’s a true testament to Moore’s writing that we can find absolute gems buried in these forgotten back pages. “We have labored long to build a heaven, only to find it populated with horrors” is just an incredible line. And that’s probably why Moore did these backup stories. He had all these great lines and ideas he just couldn’t work into the main narrative otherwise.
Of course, the main purpose of Professor Glass’ paper here is to explain why Dr. Manhattan hasn’t ended the Cold War.
Glass ultimately concludes that not even Dr. Manhattan could stop all of the Soviet Union’s nuclear missiles had they launched a full-scale attack. I find that reasoning unsatisfactory. If he can teleport a large group of people back into their individual homes all at once, surely he could have found a way to disarm all the nukes. I believe the true answer is because Dr. Manhattan didn’t care and the people pulling his strings, namely President Nixon, didn’t want the Cold War to end.
Both Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan dream of abandoning humanity. But while Dr. Manhattan’s departure from Earth was largely inspired by his indifference, Rorschach’s fantasies of whispering “no” come from darker delusions of self righteousness and misguided principles.
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