Dr. Manhattan and Crisis Energy - Why he's so powerful in Doomsday Clock and Dark Nights: Death Metal (December 2020)

This is a theory I made tying together Doomsday Clock, Flash Forward, Death Metal and Joshua Williamson's Flash.

Link to the original from Reddit

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How was Doctor Manhattan so powerful in Doomsday Clock and Death Metal?

SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING: Rebirth, Doomsday Clock, Flash Forward and Dart Nights Death Metal

INTRODUCTION

The power of Dr. Manhattan has been very significant in deciding the fate of the DC Universe.

He himself has altered reality, intimidated or overshadowed other cosmic beings, and defeated nearly even major superhero. Only “losing” due to Superman inspiring him.

A common question since then and until now is

How is Dr. Manhattan so powerful?

He wasn’t this powerful in the original Watchmen and in the HBO series.

I’ve even seen some people separate these versions of Manhattan. u/tari101190 (who’s made multiple well-done tier lists detailing the hierarchy in DC comics) at one point in one of our older conversations, did just that.

In the past I’ve talked to him and others on this topic, at one point even making an older post on this.

To sum up my old points:

1. Even in the original Watchmen, his nature as a scientist allowed him to constantly learn and grow in power, to the point that he was able to reform himself from intrinsic field subtraction much faster (seconds) than when he originally did. In his spare time, he preferred performing his research experiments over Laurie and later left Earth to study the universe.

2. Doomsday Clock implies it’s less his own power that allows him to change reality so much, but how the DC Universe (or “Metaverse”) and Multiverse works. He had studied how everything worked and all he needed to do was push one domino down for the rest to fall. Furthermore, it’s his experiences here that allowed him to learn and change.

3. The true reason he normally can’t alter a timeline is because of personal beliefs and the static nature of his home universe. Before Watchmen also delved deep into his power to manipulate quantum states and how he relates to concepts in quantum physics.

I’ll expand on each as briefly as I can.

We see the first point in action in his fight on Mars.

“It feels good to still learn.”

He studies the nature of a Green Lantern power ring (which he admits is difficult to affect), then learns how to use magic as they’re used against him. He has no idea how these things work, and as a scientist, he’s loving it. Even more so when he figures it out.

For the second point

We only really see him mess with one, special universe.

The DC Universe or what he dubbed “the Metaverse”.

“It is the Metaverse”

The deciding factor in his deterministic beliefs, apathy and constant state of inaction is because of his perception of time in a static and cynical universe.

Here is a universe with real heroes and as a timeline that constantly shifts. Fate is not predetermined in this constantly changing of world of hope.

He also sees time travelers, universe eaters and reality wrappers, making those changes. He just had to wait until one of these people messed things up (Flashpoint)and take advantage of it (which is how Wally originally described it). It was only later that inspiration from Superman that he decided to follow them and do it himself but for good.

He just had to change 1 universe. Due to it being the center of the Multiverse, the rest followed.

The third point

Explains how he can do that. That one you might want to check the post I mentioned earlier.

Essentially, I concluded that due to the nature of his powers, the real reason he can’t change anything is because he won’t. As I said above it’s mostly his beliefs and experiences. His behavior even before getting his powers as Jon Osterman implies inactivity is just who he is naturally.

In the view of some concepts in Quantum Physics, he alters reality without even knowing it.

(Or in Before Watchmen’s case, he does know it.)

It doesn’t necessarily take raw power. He simply manipulates probabilities and possibilities.

Even in HBO, Jon unknowingly created a time loop by letting one character in the past know a future event that leads that person to create that in the first place.

Jon can alter the timeline. He just won’t do it because he doesn’t think it’ll work or even matter.

That changed with Superman.

BUT WAIT

It’s stated and/or heavily implied that he’s still more powerful than Anti-Monitor, Darkseid and even Mr. Mxyzptlk!

THEN

Flash Forward and Death Metal come in. Two characters got Dr. M powers and rose to the top.

One attempted and nearly succeeded in completing his repair of reality.

The other is now powerful enough to become the number 1 cosmic being inside the current Multiverse (The Presence/Source exists outside in the Omniverse).

So it turns out, Dr. Manhattan is or at least can be Multiversal in power. Even if he never used it to that extent.

How?

Well, I think Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV and Joshua Williamson gave a new answer that ties everything together very neatly.

ENTER: CRISIS ENERGY

In the first issue of Dark Nights Death Metal, Wally tells us that Osterman was

“brimming with connective energy”

The series would go into detail on what this “connective energy” is and its opposite counterpart “crisis energy”.

To sum it up:

• Crisis/Direct-Crisis Energy – Resets the Multiverse and is generated by Crisis events and causes reboots that seemingly erase history. Made up of the Forces of Doom among other “evil” energies. Used by Perpetua the Super-Celestial to create her vampiric everlasting multiverse. This energy is her main power source, being dependent on it in both Doom War and Death Metal to maintain her power.

• Connective/Anti-Crisis Energy – Connects the Multiverse and history together. Made of the natural powers of existence (such as the Forces of Justice) and originates from the Source/Presence. The God and true creator of the DC Multiverse and Omniverse Himself. Is used by Super-Celestials to create multiverses and later used to recreate Perpetua’s multiverse into what it was supposed to be.

I believe Dr. Manhattan is a special conduit of both.

But wait, this only says his power is connective energy.

To further my point, lets go back. To when Crisis Energy actually first appeared.

ENTER: PARADOX

Joshua Williamson just ended his huge run on the Flash, with both a great final issue on the book itself and one of the best tie-ins of this event: Speed Metal.

He’s written many stories tying into both the Snyder-Tynion Metal saga (Flash War, Metal and Death Metal tie-ins) AND the main Rebirth-Doomsday Clock saga (Button). One of his final arcs, concluded before Death Metal released, on the Flash involved a new villain: Paradox, and this potentially tied both threads together.

To keep it short, Paradox was a scientist who discovered the Multiverse and the constantly changing past of their timeline.

In his study, he also had a strange fascination with the Hydrogen symbol:

familiar?

He turned into Paradox because of an event in Flash Year One that gave him a...strange relationship with time, untethered from it while seeing the truth about how it constantly changes.

“…time is in a constant state of change. Manipulated by outside forces. Played like a game for years. Pieces moved in ways that hurt people.”

His obsession with Barry is because his relationship to these changes. As a time traveling speedster, he’s responsible for Flashpoint. Now, the truth about who really is responsible behind the New 52 reboot (in-universe) is complicated and could use a post on its own. But really Flashpoint was what opened the door to it. Even it alone caused the timeline to shatter and nearly destroyed the world.

But back to the topic at hand.

After that, he gained a symbol for himself:

Look similar to something?

Now, I’m not saying he’s identical to Dr. Manhattan. He has plenty of differences in how he became who he is and what he can do. But there are clear similarities and I think some of his traits hint at what this explanation to Manhattan’s power is.

“Paradox” is named that because every time a paradox or change in time occurs, he becomes more powerful by absorbing energy from it.

Gee, I wonder what name he gave this energy. Time-change energy? Paradox energy? No.

Crisis Energy

“Whenever a Change in time happens, it releases a bit of Crisis Energy. Which I can absorb to become a god within the Multiverse!”

Crises are the most dangerous changes in time, the biggest paradoxes. It makes sense.

Which leads me to my theory.

THEORY TIME

When Jon Osterman’s material composition was unmade up to the fundamental level (all the forces keeping him together negated) and then recreated to become in tune with space and time, he did so the sum of all natural forces: the power of the Source.

When he witnessed all the iterations of the Metaverse’s history and how it’s altered by those causing paradoxes and crises, he absorbed the Crisis Energy in each one. Without knowing it, he gained the power of every Crises.

This would in theory, potentially make him more powerful than all those who caused those Crises. Anti-Monitor, Extant, Parallax, Godhead Darkseid, maybe even Mandrakk the Dark Monitor.

Of course since he wasn’t doing it consciously, he might not have absorbed everything. Still that’s a lot of energy. Enough for him to create the Post-Flashpoint timeline.

And then

when he was inspired by Superman, he chose to reverse his actions and fix the timeline. From there all the Crisis Energy he absorbed was converted into its opposite: Anti-Crisis Energy!

Note: Perpetua similarly did the same thing. She was given this energy from the Source to make her multiverse but instead she turned it into its opposite.

BUT it was not enough apparently.

ENTER: WALLY WEST

“Time no longer aligns?”

Wally West gained Jon’s power through the Mobius Chair, which Manhattan shared it with.

With the Chair’s nigh-omniscient knowledge of history and nature of the universe AND a non-linear perception of time, he was able to see the faults of reality. Even with the JSA and Legion returned, time was broken. Events no longer aligned.

Good news is, he had the ability to shape reality on a fundamental level, and the power to do so.

(for more on how this went and how it relates to Doomdsay Clock, I recommend reading this post by u/NomadicJaguar64t)

Bad news is someone stopped him, stole the chair and turned the Metaverse into a Metalverse.

This Being

This same being transferred his mind into a Batman from the Dark Multiverse who attempted to gain Manhattan’s energy. He was the Batman Who Laughs. Now…

ENTER: THE DARKEST KNIGHT

The Darkest Knight

Initially TDK wasn’t as powerful. He went after Wally for his remaining power and needed the Crisis energy he was giving Perpetua. Long story short, his plan works out.

He currently has the Crisis Energy generated from 3 Nightmare Worlds simulating each great Crisis, but where the villains won and they went on forever.

With all that, he can now challenge the severely weakened Perpetua and from solicits it seems he’ll actually kill her. He’s become so powerful that all of Creation fears him. Their battle even catching the attention of the Omniverse.

These all pretty much suggest that Manhattan is so powerful because of witnessing all these crises after all. The DC Universe literally made him that strong.

Conclusion

Going to have to end this post here, but I do have an idea for something in the future. Maybe after Death Metal ends. Already have a lot of ideas but no time to write a real post on for now. But in short, Manhattan is far from the only conduit of Crisis and Anti-Crisis energy and that there are other Crisis villains that might’ve used it. I might make it just an image post instead, or maybe a long text post like this discussing each character like Wally and BWL.