Here’s an interesting video featuring the Watchmen technical advisor-whiz giving some backstory to Doctor Manhattan, the glowing blue character in the movie. Watchmen author Alan Moore’s original graphic novel creation was a ‘quantum superhero’ that perceives time in a non-linear way, giving him a different outlook to us mud-crawling highly linear birth-until-death humans. To add an exotic note, the supremely talented illustrator Dave Gibbons gave Doctor Manhattan glowing blue skin - and the Cherenkov radiation effect is one of the best translations from the printed page to movie screen.
Two other blue-skin characters spring to mind - Dave Gibbons’ own Rogue Trooper, and Frank Hampson’s Dan Dare, who was treated to a special ray bath in an early adventure, so that he could blend in with Venusian tribespeople called Atlantines.
Quite how ‘real’ the explanation on the video is probably depends on how credulous you are, but - much like articles and books on the science of Star Trek - it sounds ‘sort of’ convincing, and is great fun into the bargain.
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