Description

She says I am like a god now. I tell her I don't think there is a god. And if there is I'm nothing like him. -Jonathan Osterman

Full Name: Jonathan Osterman
Name at birth (if different): Same
Aliases (if any): Dr. Manhattan, Manhattan, The Superman, God
Title: Dr.Osterman
Preferred name: Jon
Age/DOB:56/1929
Gender: Male
Orientation: Heterosexual
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Skin Tone: Blue/Variable
Height: Variable
Weight: Variable
Build (slim, linebacker, etc.): Slim Linebacker, variable
Eyes: White
Hair: Bald
Clothes: Usually he does not require clothes, but in public events such as Interviews and Funerals he will wear suits. When on patrol he will sometimes wear G strings.
Appearance:

Personality

Religion: Atheist
Political Affiliation: American Government.
Education: Has a Ph.D. in nuclear physics, possesses advanced knowledge of the universe on a level higher than human beings can comprehend. He's also skilled at watch repair.
Languages spoken: English, however he can learn any language easily.
Weapons: Nothing notable
Citizenship: American
Nationality: Caucasian
Born: Brooklyn, New York
Now lives: Mars
Lives with: No one
Relationship Status: Single

Equipment

Occupation: Superhero/Nuclear Physicist/Watchmaker
Special Abilities/Skills:

"The world's smartest man means no more to me than its smartest termite" -Jon Osterman

on is the only character in the Watchmen series to explicitly possess superhuman abilities (although the details of the plot presuppose the existence of genuine human psychics). Throughout Watchmen, he is shown to be immensely powerful and seemingly invulnerable to all harm; even when his body is disintegrated, he can reconstruct it from atoms (in less than a minute the second time this happened). Jon has complete awareness of and control over atomic and subatomic particles. He can alter his body's size, coloration, density, and strength. He does not age or need food, water, or air, and is, for all intents and purposes, immortal. He can teleport himself and others over great (even interplanetary and perhaps intergalactic) distances.

Jon's near-limitless powers are further amplified in comparison to the apparent lack of any other "super-powered" individuals. Although Veidt is obviously the second-most dangerous character in the series, as Jon himself observes, "...the world's smartest man means no more to me than its smartest termite."

In addition to these powers, Jon is able to phase any part of his body through solid objects without damaging them, produce multiple copies of himself which function independently of each other, project destructive energy, disintegrate people (possibly by removing their intrinsic fields) create force fields, transmute and create matter, move objects without physically touching them (telekinesis), reverse entropy, and, he suggests, create life and walk on the surface of the sun. At one point it is stated that, in the event of a nuclear war, he would be capable of destroying upwards of 99% of all Soviet nuclear missiles while at the same time 'destroying' large areas of Russia. As a result of these capabilities, Jon becomes central to the United States' Cold War strategy of deterrence.

Due to his non-linear perception of time, he sees the past, present and future simultaneously.


Hobbies: Fixing Watches, Science, Dating, Traveling,
Interests: Life, Creating life, Variable's, Evolution, Science, His abilities, Girls,
Favorite Types of Music: Classical
Favorite Types of Reading Material: Science Fiction
Serious Problems: Jon Osterman is becoming very disinterested with humans, and only somewhat recently has he begun to recognize this potential issue.

Personality:

"Human affairs cannot be my concern. I'm leaving this galaxy for one less complicated." -Jon Osterman.

Due to his powers, Dr. Manhattan is slowly losing touch with humanity. As time progresses his "costume" gets smaller and smaller, till he abandons clothing altogether (unless needed for some public appearance). He can see the future, and in fact, seems to live at all times simultaneously, but his actions are predetermined. He knows Kennedy is going to die in Dallas, but cannot prevent it. He knows it is going to happen, but is still surprised when it does happen. He precog abilities come in useful a few times, and at least twice in the pages of Watchmen he informs another character they will perform a set action (or actions) before they actually do so. Basically, Dr. Manhattan's "All Actions Are Predetermined" Physical Limitation makes him the ultimate GMPC, allowing the GM to add or remove him as needed without having Dr. Manhattan overshadow anyone else.

Dr. Manhattan's two psych lims are pretty easy to understand. He is highly curious with the physical world and scientific discovery. He'd rather stay in his lab, looking for new subatomic particles than worry about any sort of "super-villain" threat. Dr. Manhattan is also highly logical, and doesn't tend to get emotional. He's even more logical and restrained than Mr. Spock, and tends to react in a reserved and efficient matter to situations around him. He doesn't go in for fancy displays of power, but instead uses direct simple methods to solve a problem (for example, teleporting all the members of an unruly mob back to their homes)


Other: Jon Osterman shared his first drink with Janey.

History

Doctor Manhattan was born Jonathan Osterman in 1929. His father was a watchmaker, and Jon planned to follow in his footsteps. When the US drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Jon is sixteen. His father, confronted with the undeniable facts of the theory of relativity, declares his profession outdated and throws his son's watch-making parts out the windows, urging him to instead pursue a career studying nuclear physics. The incident represents the turning point in Jon's potential future from watchmaker to nuclear physicist 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.

Jon Osterman attends Princeton University from 1948-58 and graduates with a Ph.D. in atomic physics. In early 1959, he moves to a research base at Gila Flats, where experiments are being performed concerning the 'intrinsic fields' of physical objects which, if tampered with, result in their disintegration. Here he meets Janey Slater, a fellow researcher; they eventually become lovers.

During a trip to New Jersey in July 1959, Jon and Janey visit an amusement park. Janey's watchband breaks, and the watch is damaged when a fat man steps on it. Jon decides that he can repair the watch, and tells Janey so. That night they sleep together.

One month later, in August, 1959, shortly after his thirtieth birthday, Jon plans to give Janey the repaired watch, only to discover he has left it in his lab coat which is inside the intrinsic field experiment test chamber. While Jon is inside the test chamber retrieving his coat the door closes, automatically locking as a safety feature. Unable to open the door or override the countdown, Osterman's colleagues - save for Janey, who cannot bear to see the last moment and flees the room - can only watch, horrified, as the countdown for the current experiment shortly reaches zero, and Jon has his 'intrinsic field' removed. Bathed in the radiant light, he is torn to pieces from the force of the generator, instantly vaporized and officially declared dead.

The following months see a series of strange events and apparitions at the research base, leading residents to speculate the area is now haunted. It becomes plain that Jon has been progressively reforming himself during this time. This progression being indicated by a series of partial bodily reappearances: first as a disembodied nervous system, including the brain and eyes; then as a circulatory system (November 10); then a screaming partially muscled skeleton (November 14). Each time, the appearance only lasts for a few seconds. Jon fully reappears on November 22 as a tall, hairless, naked, blue-skinned figure.

After his transformation, Jon begins to experience time in a non-linear, "quantum" fashion, and it is implied that he is aware of and experiencing all the moments of his life simultaneously. Jon is not omniscient; he remains reliant on his intellect and sensory experience to reach conclusions, but his range of sensory data has been abruptly extended, in proportion to the lessening of his emotional capacities. This often leads him to arrive at conclusions greatly different from those available to normal humans. However, during the course of Watchmen he displays powerful emotion several times. His apparent lack of sentiment is more a matter of radically altered priorities, owing to a colossal, unbridgeable gap of perception between Jon and the rest of humanity.

He subscribes to a deterministic view of events. During the period in which Doctor Manhattan is a crime-fighter (at the behest of the government), he states that the morality of such activities escapes him. From his radically altered perspective, almost all human concerns appear pointless and without obvious merit.

Jon gradually becomes a pawn of the United States government, though the means by which his loyalty is secured are never revealed; he is given the code name 'Doctor Manhattan', a reference to the Manhattan Project that, it is hoped, will defeat America's enemies. He is also provided with a costume which he grudgingly accepts, though he refuses to accept the icon design which is provided for him (this being a stylized orbital model of the atom). Instead, Jon chooses as his emblem a representation of a hydrogen atom, whose simplicity he declares to be something that kindles his respect; accordingly, he painlessly burns the mark into his forehead. This preference for material mechanisms marks the beginning of Jon's declining humanity, which is progressively mirrored by his gradual shedding of the uniform - by the end of the 1970s, he refuses to wear anything at all except for mandatory public appearances.

However, Jon's presence still succeeds in tipping the balance of the Cold War in the West's favor, and the United States consequently becomes more aggressive and adventurist during this period. His abilities also radically alter the world economy, as he can, for example, synthesize the massive amounts of lithium required for all motor vehicles to become electric. At President Richard Nixon's request, he brings America victory in the Vietnam war within three months. This victory distorts the American political process, as the 22nd Amendment is repealed and Nixon is then repeatedly reelected (and is still serving as of 1985, the year in which Watchmen is set, for what is theoretically his fifth term). Moreover, indications in the storyline suggest that, far from solving the problems underlying the international tension, Doctor Manhattan's presence in fact exacerbates them while stifling their expression, which inevitably builds towards disaster; the entire plot of Watchmen occurs during the countdown to a potential nuclear holocaust.

During the first meeting of the Crimebusters superhero group, Laurie Juspeczyk, the second Silk Spectre, catches his eye. His relationship with Janey Slater ends acrimoniously shortly after, and he begins dating Laurie.

During the execution of Adrian Veidt's plot to save the world, Manhattan is accused of giving cancer to those exposed to him over long periods of time. It emerges that this is untrue, for it is rather a careful fabrication of Veidt's, but this revelation is not quick enough to prevent Manhattan from exiling himself to Mars.

Eventually, he brings Laurie to Mars to discuss why he should do anything to aid humanity, an argument Laurie inadvertently wins when she goes through her life and realizes to her shock that her father is the Comedian, a man whom she despised for sexually assaulting her mother. From that revelation, Doctor Manhattan is amazed by the improbable chances that occurred to result in the birth of Laurie, which he sees as a stunning "thermodynamic miracle." By extension, this miracle can apply to any living thing on Earth, and so Doctor Manhattan decides to return to Earth to protect humanity rather than disregarding it as insignificant.

Although they return too late to stop Veidt's plan, they teleport to Antarctica to confront him. Veidt hinders Doctor Manhattan with a tachyon generator that interferes with Doctor Manhattan's ability to see the future, and then disintegrates him by subtracting his intrinsic field. To Veidt's surprise, Doctor Manhattan restores himself much more quickly this time, but when Veidt reveals that his scheme, in which he used his alien monster to kill half of New York City, appears to have averted the looming nuclear war by frightening the world's governments into cooperation, Doctor Manhattan realizes that to expose the scheme would be too dangerous for all life on Earth. Doctor Manhattan and the other superheroes except for Rorschach agree to keep quiet to preserve Veidt's results. Rorschach leaves on his own and is murdered by Doctor Manhattan to prevent him from ever telling the truth. Manhattan does so reluctantly, at Rorschach's own insistence, who asserts that his death is the only thing that will ensure his silence. Doctor Manhattan does not mention Rorschach's death when talking to Veidt not long after, instead telling Veidt he "does not think Rorschach will reach civilization".

At the end of Watchmen, Doctor Manhattan decides to depart Earth again, but he might return one day. Veidt is surprised by his decision, pointing out the apparent contradiction with Doctor Manhattan's renewed interest in human life, to which Doctor Manhattan suggests that he may "create some [human life]" in another galaxy. When Veidt asks if his plan worked out in the end, Jon Osterman smiles and enigmatically replies that "nothing ever ends."