TOP 10 DOCTOR MANHATTAN SURPRISING FACTS
Doctor Manhattan facts.
Super stoked about this one guys.
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s big blue creation is one of the most iconic characters in the
history of comic books, having spawned a many an existential dialogue about the super hero
genre and the philosophy that comes with it.
He’s a beautifully crafted character that really evoked a response in readers.
So its about damn time we did a list on him!
So here’s our top 10 doctor manhattan surprising facts list!
10 Named After The Manhattan Project Starting off this list with a fact most of
you already know, Dr Manhattan was named after the real life Manhattan project.
For those of you who don’t know, the manhattan project was a research and development undertaking
lead by the US during WW2 that lead to the production of the very first nuclear weapons.
9 Unproduced Watchmen Film Back in the 90’s, a Watchmen film was almost
produced, with Terry Gilliam as the director and Joel Silver as a producer on the project.
And guess who was suppose to play Doctor Manhattan?
Arnold Schwarzengger.
Considering his portrayal of Mr Freeze, well, I’m quite glad that didn’t happen.
That’s enough Blue Arnold for my liking.
8 His Colour When designing Doctor Manhattan, Dave Gibbons
suggested riffing off of his blue character, Rogue Trooper, and the blue skin motif, except
use a different hue.
Alan Moore was down for this, and Gibbons actually commented that the rest of the comics’
colour scheme really helped make Manhattan look unique when juxtaposed.
7 His Nudity While during his first several years as Manhattan,
Jon decides to wear a black leotard to help normalize him with the rest of society, but
he eventually ditches it, going with what felt more comfortable.
Which is nudity.
Alan Moore wasn’t sure if this nudity was going to fly with DC though, but they did,
partially to Gibbons being very selective when using full frontal nudity in panels.
Gibbons also gave Manhattan ‘understated’ genitals in order to make his dick less of
an eye grabber.
6 the origin of Intrinsic Field Subtractor The Intrinsic field subtractor that Jon Osterman
gets stuck in that spawns his transformation into Doctor Manhattan is based off of real
science, not just fiction.
‘Intrinsic field’ isn’t a term used in science, but there is another way to describe
a field holding everything together aside from gravity - electromagnetism.
The force that holds your atoms together, along with a strong nuclear force and a weak
nuclear force that work on the inside of your nuclei inside your atoms.
To recreate that unification, you would need an extremely powerful particle accelerator,
something that would have to be a trillion times stronger than any mankind has invented.
Something like that intrinsic field subtractor chamber.
5 His Voice In the graphic novel, Doctor Manhattan’s
speech bubbles are blue, while other characters are the regular white.
When creating the 2009 Watchmen film, director Zack Synder and actor Billy Crudup discussed
whether or not he’d have some sort of god-like voice, in tangent with what was implied with
those speech bubbles.
But instead the opted out and decided an “un god like” voice would be more effective,
being a voice that he would have selected himself, with a tone that would put others
at ease when in his presence.
4 Inspired by Captain Atom Alan Moore has stated that Doctor Manhattan
was based on DC’s Captain Atom, but in the writing process he delved in much further
than he initially thought he would, exploring nuclear and quantum physics.
He believed that a character living in a quantum universe wouldn’t perceive time with a linear
perspective, influencing Manhattan’s perception of human affairs and ultimately causing his
indifference towards humanity.
He also used Spock from Star Trek as an influence, too.
3 The Physics of Superheroes James Kakalios (ka-kale-e-is), a physics professor
at the university of minnesota, wrote a book called The Physics of Superheroes where he
discusses the physics behind a lot of your favourites, from how Spider-man’s webbing
failed to save Gwen Stacey, to how Krypton exploded, and he touches on the quantum physics
of Doctor Manhattan.
He’s been known to discuss the science behind the idea quantum physics behind the character.
His video Science of Watchmen has been viewed over 1.6 million times and won a regional
emmy in the advanced media:arts/entertainment category.
While there’s a whole lot to get into, from how the accident could have realistically
contributed to John’s powers, to his teleportation and molecular reassembling abilities, we just
don’t have enough time in this video to dive fully in.
but hey if you want us to do a science behind superheroes list, let us know in those comments
below!
2 Scientifically Accurate Speaking of James Kakalios, The Watchmen film
and the science behind Doctor Manhattan is pretty accurate.
Or at least as accurate as it can be for an omnipotent god-like fictional character.
Kakalios was a science consultant on the film, and gave advice on multiple aspects of the
film, from the way the physics labs were set decc-ed to the quantum mechanics to how Doctor
Manhattan would interact with his surroundings, informing a lot of the film’s aesthetics
and mise en scene.
1 DC Rebirth Spoiler alert here guys in case you haven’t
been in the loop with some of the more recent stuff DC has been releasing.
DC Rebirth has begun to introduce a new plot with Doctor Manhattan being a key part to
re-establishing the DC universe - or perhaps shuffling it around.
His blue energy has made several appearances so far, and it’s heavily implied that he
killed The Reverse Flash, who, moments before his death, claims he had seen god.
The New 52 reboot was the work of Doctor Manhattan in an attempt to fix Barry Allen’s timeline
goof, bringing it back to normal, now removing a decade from it and resetting a bunch of
stuff.
So does that make him an antagonist?
Guess we’ll have to keep reading to find out.
There we have it friends!
Any facts about Jon Osterman that we shoud’ve included?
Do you guys want more Watchmen lists on this channel?
Let us know in those comments below!
And if you dug this video make sure you hit those like and subscribe buttons!
I’ve been Kelly Paoli for top 10 nerd and I’ll catch you all in the next one.