How can Dr. Manhattan be beaten?

[colonyofcells]

The dc heroes will probably have a very difficult time lifting the balls of Dr Manhattan.

[king of hybrids]

I expect manhattan will be a more philosophical threat that is talked down, while Oz constitutes the direct fight-y threat

[Black Manta]

Is the Spectre around? He's probably the only one who could fight Manhattan.

[armlessphelan]

Someone mentioned philosophy. That's likely to be what will be his weakness: he comes from a world full of awful, terrible people. And while they are flawed, the heroes of the DC universe are often GOOD people. Someone like Wonder Woman or possibly even Batman might reason him into defeat. Also, Dr. Manhattan went out of his way to kill Pandora so it's likely Phantom Stranger and The Question have a role to play in the broader rebirth story.

[colonyofcells]

My impression is that Dr Manhattan is better at philosophy than Batman, better than Wonder Woman and definitely better than Superman. With violent batman and killer Wonder Woman, it is probably debatable if they are gooder than Dr Manhattan. Superman has not killed lots of people but he is probably less intelligent than Dr Manhattan. I seem to remember Dr Manhattan used to be a physicist. Some physicists are polymaths and can be quite good in philosophy too.

[Rikdad]

I should have mentioned this before, but in Watchmen itself, Veidt essentially beats him by convincing him that his plan was correct. This, despite having tried, originally, at much greater risk and expense (and loss of his beloved pet) to kill Dr. Manhattan with a massive physics gizmo. If Veidt had known that merely arguing would work, he would have tried that first.

Dr. Manhattan's pre-accident status as a nuclear physicist doesn't make him uniquely intelligent. Ray Palmer, for example, probably ties him there, and most versions of Luthor, Michael Holt, Brainiac, Brainiac 5, etc., could beat him in pure intellect. His status, post-powers, might make him much harder to match intellectually, but if you combined several DCU entities –*the telepathy of J'onn J'onzz, the speed of Barry Allen, the magic of Zatanna, the intelligence of Brainiac 5, etc. –*he could be out-thought.

It's also worth noting that the Captain Atom of Multiversity's Earth 4 essentially is Dr. Manhattan, so that's another version of the same guy with the same powers (but perhaps posing a similar threat).

Yet another outcome is that Dr. Manhattan could simply win! We don't even know what he wants. We're assuming that all Crisis events have a Big Bad Villain who loses. Maybe altering the DCU in some random way is what he wants to do and what he will do. He doesn't have to lose.

[Fairyprincess]

Spectre vs. Manhattan. Religion vs. Science, for the soul of the universe....

[Lightning Rider]

My impression is that Dr Manhattan is better at philosophy than Batman, better than Wonder Woman and definitely better than Superman. With violent batman and killer Wonder Woman, it is probably debatable if they are gooder than Dr Manhattan. Superman has not killed lots of people but he is probably less intelligent than Dr Manhattan. I seem to remember Dr Manhattan used to be a physicist. Some physicists are polymaths and can be quite good in philosophy too.

Dr. Manhattan has a philosophical blindspot though because he's so nihilistic. He acknowledges it himself when he realizes he's gotten so lost in the grandeur of the universe that he failed to acknowledge the spontaneous and improbably unique phenomenon that is human life, and the subjective beauty in recognizing that.

And no way is he morally superior to Superman. He blows up Vietnamese rebels and doesn't stop The Comedian from killing a Vietnamese woman he slept with, then leaves Earth at its most apocalyptic edge because he's so bored with it all.

[Buried Alien]

Zatanna: nattahnaM rotcoD, og emoh!

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Slaughter]

"Why don't you put the WHOLE WORLD in a BOTTLE, Dr. Manhattan?"

[Troian]

EDIT: I'm gonna reread everything.. I probably got stuff wrong haha.

[Lightning Rider]

"Why don't you put the WHOLE WORLD in a BOTTLE, Dr. Manhattan?"

Hehe, nice.

[Black Angel]

When the Presence gets tired of his foolishness and slaps him down.

[Jim Kelly]

Show Doctor Manhattan a copy of WATCHMEN and blow his mind.

[Carabas]

Show Doctor Manhattan a copy of WATCHMEN and blow his mind.

He's just going to go "This is awesome. It's proof of everything I belief in. It validates everything I have ever done. Thank you."