Today Is A Major Day for Watchmen Fans

November 22, 2025, 5:00pm

It’s been almost 40 years since it was first released, but Watchmen remains one of the most iconic and influential comics ever written. Written by Alan Moore with art by Dave Gibbons, Watchmen presented a tale that is both a dark, twisty detective tale as well as a deconstruction of superheroes as we know and understand them and has continued to loom large over the comics landscape over the decades. It’s a story that has seen multiple adaptations and even various sequels — though those come from other creators.

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Given how important Watchmen is, it’s no surprise that the series also has some major and iconic moments over the course of its run as well, but there’s one that is particularly important. It’s a moment in the comics that changes everything for the Watchmen story, Doctor Manhattan, and comics forever — and today’s its canonical anniversary.

Today Is The Day Dr. Jonathan Osterman Fully Reassembled As Doctor Manhattan

Doctor Manhattan is possibly one of the most fascinating and tragic figures in Watchmen. A nuclear physicist working at the research base at Gila Flats performing experiments on the intrinsic fields of objects, things take a shocking turn shortly after Jon’s thirtieth birthday. On August 20, 1959, Jon plans to give fellow researcher and his lover, Janey Slater, her watch that he had repaired for her but discovered that he had left it in his lab coat. When he went to retrieve the coat from inside the test chamber, the door closed and automatically locked behind him. With the door’s locking being a safety mechanism, there was no way to override the countdown so Jon’s fellow scientists could only watch in horror was Jon was torn to pieces, vaporized as his own intrinsic field was removed and he was declared to be dead.

However, that was not the end of Jon’s story. Over the next few months, Jon started to reassemble in a physical form. He first appears as a disembodied nervous system — which somewhat hilariously looked like a floating brain and eyes — then a circulatory system, then a skeleton. Eventually, Jon would fully return, fully reassembled as a naked, blue-skinned hairless man on November 22nd.

Jon’s Transformation Is Far More Than Physical

While Jon comes back in a physical form, that’s not the only thing has changed. He also starts to exhibit some unique powers and experiences, including that he now experiences time in a non-linear fashion. What this means is that he is both aware of and experiences the various moments of his life all at the same time. At any given moment, it’s 1959, 1966, or even 1985 for him. It’s not exactly that he knows the future, just that he’s living everything at once. He also begins to become more and more detached from his emotions.

The transformation and its impact also radically changed the course of the world. Jon ends up working with the government as Doctor Manhattan and it’s his presence that turns the Cold War in the U.S.’s favor. His influence also had economic impacts and President Richard Nixon had him end the Vietnam War with a victory for America, something that had the consequences of even changing the political process to result in Nixon being repeated re-elected following the repeal of the 22nd Amendment.

Doctor Manhattan Is Simultaneously The Most Straightforward and Complex DC Character

Doctor Manhattan is one of DC’s most interesting characters and he is also their most straightforward and complex one, which contributes to his lasting appeal. He has near-godlike powers, but he is not infallible. He also, despite being detached from human emotion and seemingly indifferent, does still seem to have some interest in understanding and being understood himself. That is perhaps most evident when, on Mars, he tells Laurie Juspeczyk that she had never tried to see things through his eyes. While it is an observation based on logic, as she had frequently asked him to see things through the human view, it also suggests that he finds some value in the larger idea of understanding and being understood. He’s a character with many layers and, in terms of his canonical history, that all started on November 22nd.

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