I'm in the process of re-reading Watchmen (in gorgeous Absolute Watchmen format) in preparation for the movie's release later this week, and just finished Chapter IV. It's always been one of my favourite of the twelve issues because it focuses squarely on Doctor Manhattan, the only truly super-powered member of the ensemble cast. I love how you discover in that part of the story that he perceives all events as happening more or less simultaneously, rather than serially as we mere mortals perceive the flow of time. It's a clever device for writer Alan Moore to have introduced because it provides a framework for us to understand why the all-powerful Jon Osterman affects the course of history but only in certain ways. He allows JFK to be shot (and stands idly by while the Comedian brutally murders the Vietnamese woman carrying his child) but ends the Vietnam War. This seemingly-random act/don't act dynamic on Manhattan's part comes about thanks to a combination of drift and belief in pre-determination. The blue doctor is losing touch with his own humanity (and any connection to the rest of the world), all the while comforting himself with the notion that everything happens simply because it's already happened.
Later, when he'll experience his epiphany about the nature of the universe with Laurie on Mars, he'll finally be shaken out of that state. That scene is made all the more powerful because by then we understand just how long of a journey back that actually represents for the man/god. That revelation can only happen on the reader's part because of the amazing job done by Moore and Gibbons here in the 4th chapter.
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