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Watchmentions In Action Comics #991 – What's With Dr Manhattan, Fathers And Sons?

Published Wed, 08 Nov 2017 06:34:37 -0600

Okay, so, it does seem that Bleeding Cool speculation that Jor-El was another Kryptonian villain masquerading as Jor-El was off the money. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted. Today's Action Comics #991 seems to underline that this is the real actual Jor-El returned to life, but that his behaviour was amended, influenced, reversed by… well… okay, that still seems to be Dr Manhattan.

Who, for some reason, really has a thing about fathers and sons. In Watchmen, Dr Manhattan's previous human self Jon Osterman did have a strong relationship with his father, who initially taught him in the ways of watchmaking and underlines one of the themes of the stories, control from the micro level reflected in performance at the macro level, and was one of the reasons the comic was called Watchmen. But then made him aband his profession and sent him into the world of science. Atomic research. And eventually the accident that would turn him into a god.His father created Dr Manhattan in more ways than one. And so we have seen two major incursions of Dr Manhattan into the DC Universe. One where he got Bruce Wayne to meet his father, Thomas Wayne, from another version of Batman, and got him to say the following to Bruce.

…and for the Batman to stand, not answering the Bat Signal…

While in Action Comics, Dr Manhattan rescued Superman's father from the destruction of Krypton and used him to try and get Superman to stop being Superman. To leave Earth to its own devices and save his own family. And today we discover it was all a lie.