Is Dr. Manhattan the most powerful superhero?

quora.com

Mar 20, 2018 4:04 PM

Emmanuel Akinola

Read 900+ comics in DC & Marvel for 10 years, superhero fan

92w ago

Thanks for the A2A.

In answering your question, “Is Dr. Manhattan the most powerful superhero?”, I would have to say yes.

In the sense of the alternate timeline thatWatchmen is set in, he IS the most powerful superhero in the world or maybe even the universe.

His abilities are almost unlimited. They include the following:

Super-human strengthFull control of matter at sub-atomic levelTeleportationDuplication of himselfForce field creationFlightChange his physical sizeAbility to create life or animationHealing factorTelekinesis

The list goes on and on to things like density control, living outside space and time, speaking all known languages, phasing, and projecting destructive energy.

Apart from God (The Presence), there are some others that have abilities that can match the ones Dr. Manhattan has in the main DC universe.

In the mainstream continuity, you have theAngels, The Spectre, Sandman’s family The Endless, the Anti-Monitor, and Nekron to name a few.

Martin Tišajev

Years of reading DC comic books.

93w ago

No, Dr. Manhattan is pretty mediocre Superhero, he is below planetary level. We do know that Manhattan has limits on his powers because it was stated that if Europe and USSR would launch a nuclear attack on US he could disarm only 60% of nukes.

Best offensive feat I remember from Manhattan was taking a tank apart. I don’t remember him having any better feats in the comic books. Best ability that works for Manhattan is being able to see the future constantly, but he has never shown being able to use it in an intense battle.

Manhattan is pretty much a poor man’s New 52 Captain Atom.

EDIT: This answer might chance with DC Rebirth as DC wants to make Manhattan somehow responsible with New 52 and make him some high tier reality warper.

I can already sense Alan Moore crying.

Josh Barker

Parking Specialist at University of Washington (2017-present)

38w ago

No, Dr. Manhattan lacks any ability to actually act on his own. Despite all of his perceived power he is bound by determinism, not doing anything that he wasn’t going to do. Only doing the things he knows he will.

“Everything is preordained. Even my responses.” He never truly acts in any meaningful way. Just bound by the things that he knows will happen. Could he put out a building on fire? Technically, yes. He has the power to do that. But only if he actually does it. If he does not view himself putting out the fire, he won’t. Even if he wants to. A perfect example of this is when The Comedian kills a pregnant woman in front of Dr. Manhattan.

He is completely capable of stopping him if he wanted to. We know that he is capable of at least dismantling a gun… without even touching it.

Even The Comedian comments on what he could have done had he wished.

“You watched me. You coulda changed the gun into steam or the bullets into mercury or the bottle into snowflakes! you coulda teleported either of us to goddamn Australia… but you didn’t lift a finger!”

But it isn’t because he doesn’t care. Not really. He is clearly angry that The Comedian shot her, and concerned when entering the room. No. It’s because he did not see himself stopping The Comedian. And no matter how much he could have wanted to, he cannot deviate from what he knows will happen. As Laurie points out in the first image he is “just a puppet following a script”. Quite possibly the most “powerful thing in the universe” and most definitely the most powerful thing on Earth… yet all he can do is watch.

Why do you think he is so excited during the attack created by Ozymandias?

Because for for the first time in a long time he does not know what will happen. He is uncertain. And that, for the briefest of moments sets him free. He is able to live life, and not simply view it.

He quiet possibly the most tragic character in the whole story. All that power seemingly at his disposal, but no way to actually use it in a meaningful way. Making him both, seemingly the most powerful man in the universe, but actually the weakest. He just does what he is supposed to do. Nothing more, nothing less.

He is not the most powerful superhero, because he lacks the power to change his own circumstances… unlike others. He is just an actor playing out the same scenes over and over again. He is Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill at the start of everyday, knowing that it is just going to fall back down at the end.

-“We're all puppets, Laurie. I'm just a puppet who can see the strings.”

Abdullah Mesfer

Read a lot of Marvel and DC comics.

58w ago

He's not a superhero, but if he counts as a superhero, then HELL YES.

“He hasn't destroyed a planet” is a faulty argument.

Anti-Monitor is a universe-destroyer:

And this is him trying to blast Metron:

As you can see, he wasn't even fazed, right? AND THAT BLAST CAME FROM A GUY WHO’S CAPABLE OF DESTROYING A UNIVERSE!

Dr Manhattan, on the other hand….

He turned him to dust.

So, if a guy who's capable of destroying entire universes can't faze him, what does that say about a guy who turned him to dust?

Oh, and he created a multiverse and wiped everyone’s memory. Read Rebirth #1.

Dr. Manhattan is much more powerful than what people make him out to be. The “"he doesn't have any feats” argument is completely wrong and outdated. These panels prove that he's at least Multiversal and more powerful than Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet.

James Henry

Comics reader for most of my 40 years on earth.

64w ago

Short answer: No. Unless you mean in his universe. In which case, yes.

We’ve seen him take things apart at a molecular level and we’ve seen him manipulate matter to build things (also on a molecular level). We’ve seen him do this with inanimate objects and living beings. Well, the taking things apart anyway.

We’ve also seen some other limited abilities like teleportation, manipulating his own shape and size and creating duplicates of himself. He can also see all of his past, present, and future at the same time. But this last part is both a strength and a weakness as he is almost outside of the time stream.

But, the most important thing to realize is that his power (so far) has always been shown to be local only. We don’t see him manipulating matter around the globe. Omega level mutants like Franklin Richards have shown far greater levels of power than that. Heck, even Iceman has shown a higher degree of possibility.

He could even be killed (in theory) by some different characters. He was able to reform himself when Ozy used the intrinsic field generator on him, but the thing is… that was how he was “created” anyway. That doesn’t mean he can’t die. What would happen if someone like Rogue from the X-men touched him? It’s possible that if she took his powers away, even temporarily, that he would disperse so much that when his powers came back it would be too late and he wouldn’t be able to find himself again.

Or the Phoenix could just completely drain his life force away from him. Professor X could conceivably erase his brain. Heck, Magneto could possibly manipulate the intrinsic field and eliminate him.

Dr. Manhattan gets a lot more credit than he was shown as deserving. He’s sort of like the Boba Fett of the comics world. His overall “feats” don’t match up with what people have tried to say that he’s capable of.

All that said… it’s entirely possible that they’ll make him responsible for DC’s New 52 lineup somehow.

Ugh, unfortunately some of my resources are down right now, but I had a scan where Phoenix just drains the life of the entire planet at one time. If she can do that I think she’s a bit beyond what blue balls can do. Or at least what he’s been shown to be able to do anyway.

Richard Twyman

I like comics and other nerd stuff.

41w ago

EDIT: this answer was originally posted in response to the question “"How powerful is Dr Manhattan really?” which got merged into this question. So it no longer fits completely with the question as it's worded here, but I still feel it's close enough to be worth including.

“Really” is an odd way to put it. Dr Manhattan doesn't “really” exist so his power levels depend entirely on whoever is writing the comics and films he appears in. If you mean “canonically”, in the sense of what has been established in the aforementioned comics etc, then the answer is that he seems to be one of the most powerful beings in the DC universe.

In the Watchmen comics and film, he is depicted as being able to reduce an enemy to their component atoms with a thought, replicate himself multiple times to complete tasks more quickly, stop time, teleport to other planets, create gigantic constructs by manipulating he matter around him, and create life from un-living particles. You know, like God.

In the recent DC Rebirth comics, (SPOILER ALERT if you're reading the new Batman and Flash comics), it's implied that he is even more powerful than this. The suggestion is that Manhattan was able to erase 10 years of history just to basically mess with Earth’s heroes, and to keep a timeline (Flashpoint) going when it had been effectively erased from existence. That's an entire universe and every living being in it, sustained by Dr Manhattan’s sheer mental effort. You know, like God.

He so appears able to command and destroy Reverse Flash - a staggeringly powerful being - with minimal effort. The story is still ongoing so we don't know the full truth of it, but the implication seems to be that Manhattan isn't even really exerting himself in displaying these Godly feats. It looks like he is casually rearranging existence across multiple timelines and universes, easily, just as some kind of experiment.

So in terms of the DC Universe, he seems to be potentially one of the most powerful characters ever, way above Superman, Darkseid etc and probably least on a par with cosmic entities like the Spectre. Even in the Marvel universe, which has a lot more god-level beings than DC, Manhattan would be way up the list - probably stronger than Thanos, somewhere on a par with Living Tribunal.

TL;DR version - his “real” power level is still being established but it's really, REALLY high.

Matthew Putnins

former Scientist at Janssen Pharmaceuticals

59w ago

Nope. Not at all.

If Dr. Manhattan was the most powerful super hero I’d think he’d be able to defeat a human army in days.

Here is Doctor Manhattan hanging out in Vietnam:

Despite his existence it took the USA three months to win the war. Three months. If he was so powerful, why did it take him this long? This is a being capable of creating multiple copies of himself, why is he killing the soldiers one at a time?

DC asked a similar question about Superman.

In four panels Superman neutralizes both Hitler and Stalin and wins World War II.

Here is a pretty shot of Necrom doing battle. It looks like some sort of planet being destroyed there. Nothing Doctor Manhattan does indicates he has the power to anything similar.

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