First, there’s no question Dr. M could take Superman apart. Superman’s or anythings durability doesn’t matter when Dr. M can remove the intrinsic field holding his atoms together. It’s disassembling him, not attempting to overpower him.
Dr.M is far more powerful than Molecule Man. Dr.M can manipulate subatomic matter and energy and elemental matter such as quarks. There is no limit, physically, to what he *could* do. He’s more on the Beyonder level.
And of course he could create Kryptonite, or red sun energy, he can create anything. He synthesized all the materials for the world’s electric cars by himself. His control of the “intrinsic field” of all things means he has control over all the fundamental forces of the universe.
Just walking around he radically advanced science and technology. He knows what everything is made of. He knows what Superman is made of because he can see everything that composes Superman. He doesn’t “see the future” he’s already there. As soon as he makes contact with Superman, or with anything, he understands everything about the composition of that thing. Weaknesses, strengths, whatever. Although he wouldn’t think of it that way. He would think that Kryptonite interacts with Superman’s atoms in such and such a way. And that there’s no difference between a dead Superman and a live one.
He is supposed to be a completely over the top transhuman being, which is why he has such a hard time relating to not only superhumans, and there are other superhumans in Watchmen, they’re just not shown and/or it’s downplayed, because the Comedian is 70 something years old and still able to be an elite soldier and Ozymandias can catch bullets and throw 300 lbs one armed like a tinker toy and there are clairvoyants, sensitives and telepaths, who, in the GN are the ones who disappear and/or react to the “alien” teleported in to New York, unlike the movie, millions die because of the psychic shockwave. Dr. M can’t relate to humans either.
He’s supposed to be a superman to supermen. Things like speed and strength are irrelevant to him.
For some battles I get how shown feats are useful. But sometimes it’s just an excuse to fanboy or ignore, or hide ignorance about the fundamental existence of what a character is.
We’ve never seen Morpheus (Dream of the Endless) do something like create Kryptonite, but is there some question he would even notice Superman trying to fight him?
Just because the vine system needs concrete feats or can’t understand a character in the abstract, doesn’t mean that a character is defined by that. What if Superman had no powers, does he stop being who he is? Would he ever stop trying to save the planet? No, he’d die trying, whatever his powerset because that’s who he is. We can lay out Superman’s powers, generally, and say he can do “X” and “Y” but not “Z”.
Doctor Manhattan though, he’s meant to be uncategorizable. He’s not a god, he’s an abstract concept force of nature guided by a, slowly less and less, human mind.
Dr. M and his powers are beyond the ability of humans to conceptualize, by design, as written by Moore.
That said, that’s his flaw. He simply wouldn’t care enough to fight Superman because he wouldn’t understand the basis of it any more than you’d take a moral stand over one group of ants fighting another.
Or if he got accidentally involved Dr. M would just give up whatever they were fighting over because again, to him, who cares? Unless leaders in the U.S. told him to atomize Superman, then maybe he would. Or kill him with Kryptonite if that’s what the Defense Dept. asked him to do. Maybe.
If they existed in the same galaxy and Superman wanted to fight him for whatever arbitrary reason, Dr. Manhattan would either atomize him or just leave. And Superman would never find him.
The people saying Dr.M hasn’t fought someone on Superman’s power level or Dr. M doesn’t fight, are right.
Neither does the ocean.
And that’s the proportional equivalent of the “fight” here. Someone like Fedor Emelianenko vs. the ocean. The ocean has never thrown a punch. The ocean has never been in the ring for 12 rounds. The ocean isn’t durable. No, it isn’t. I bet 50 miles out at sea it doesn’t matter how strong or how skilled a fighter Emelianenko is either. He drowns.
Same outcome here.
So again, Dr. M is not a god he’s an abstract concept force of nature along the lines of Eternity or the Endless. His origin just happens to be human. And he’s caring less and less about that. So that even something like the entire Earth being wiped out means nothing to him.
So what would he fight for?
The only conflict I could see happening is Superman gets teleported to the Watchmen universe moments after a full nuclear exchange between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. begins. Dr. Manhattan stops all of the inbound Soviet nukes (because he’s told to) and prepares to lay waste to Russia.
Superman tells Dr. M not to do that because it would kill millions upon millions of people.
And SO…..!
Dr. M doesn’t.
Then the U.S. Dept. of Defense gets on him and tells him to fight Superman and Dr. M gets disenchanted with the whole mess and leaves. Because that’s who and what he is.
So, Superman wins in that sense, I guess. Superman cares. Dr. M doesn’t.
Superman saves the Earth. Dr. M. says “whatever” and goes on observing gluon interactions beyond the source wall.
Superman is a hero. Heroes win or lose. Forces of nature are indifferent regardless of whether they can take human form.
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