SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Dr. Manhattan seemed to completely detach himself from humanity. His powers seemed to know no bounds, yet we didn't see him do a lot with them. He could have stopped the Comedian from murdering that woman. Could he have changed the overall outcome of the book, without the loss of life, if he had cared enough? Was he the real, unintentional villain of the book?

One thing to consider. Alan Moore's original vision for Watchmen was to tell the story using the traditional DC characters. However, given the nature of the storyline, DC requested Moore create his own characters.

Sooooooooooo....

In a lot of ways, you can see elements of the classic CD heroes in some of the character. The storyline and background of Dr Manhatten parallel that of Superman. It's also interesting to note that in Watchmen, Dr Manhatten is credited with helping the US win the Vietnam War.

So, you do have some Superman parallels. Again, they're two separate characters, but the elements are there...

Ben wrote: "Dr. Manhattan seemed to completely detach himself from humanity. His powers seemed to know no bounds, yet we didn't see him do a lot with them. He could have stopped the Comedian from murdering tha..."

Actually ... I got the impression that Big Blue was completely lacking in free will in that he exists along the timeline in multiple places at once and has already acted/will act/etc. and was not really free to change it (determinism). I thought it was a striking statement about the possible limitations of any omnipotent being, up to and potentially including, G-d himself.

I was disappointed by Dr. Manhattan. The author couldn't commit to either of two versions of his situation. At one point, he seems helpless and lacking in free will, as Kristjan notes.

But at other times he seems to have transcended humanity and no longer felt compelled by the needs of such trivial lives.

Moore didn't explore either of these to any significant extent -- choosing either and fleshing it out would have made the story more interesting, but none of the characters had much depth in my opinion.

I think he was both. It wasn't that he lacked free will, he simply was inable to change what "was". Events were going to happen and by some freak accident, he was now able to "be there" to witness them. But the longer he was Dr. Manhattan, he lost his humanity, and therefore, stopped caring that he couldn't change anything.

It actually made me think of Slaughterhouse-Five and the aliens' belief of how there are thousands of you throughout time so even if you're dead in one part, there's still a you being born, you graduating high school, you turning 50, etc.

"But you'll still be alive in another time!" Not much of a consolation. I'm with Woody Allen on this:

"I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens."

Michael wrote: "One thing to consider. Alan Moore's original vision for Watchmen was to tell the story using the traditional DC characters. However, given the nature of the storyline, DC requested Moore create h..."

Know this is a pretty late reply to your comment but I'm just reading it. I see a lot of parallels between Manhattan and Martian Manhunter - would you agree? Do others think that?

Libby wrote: "Michael wrote: "One thing to consider. Alan Moore's original vision for Watchmen was to tell the story using the traditional DC characters. However, given the nature of the storyline, DC requeste..."

Libby - Nice comparison! One could argue that Dr. M lost his family after he was nuked as it changed him so completely that he no longer can hold onto those relationships. And I got the feeling that the little human part of him that remained was infinitely sad over that. Although I would say that MM actually had more "humanity" in him than Dr. M.