Comics Explained: The Anti-Monitor

A new crossover is happening between the DC TV shows based off of one of DC's best known stories - Crisis on Infinite Earths. This story featured the debut of the Anti-Monitor - a being so powerful that he destroyed thousands to millions of alternate versions of powered beings across the Multiverse. In DC, there is possibly an infinite number of universes (although this has changed regularly) called the Multiverse, and the Anti-Monitor went from reality to reality destroying them all. The Anti-Monitor was the main antagonist of the event, and today we're looking at him.

Origins

The Anti-Monitor was created by Marv Wolfman, George Perez, and Jerry Ordway, and debuted in Crisis on Infinite Earths #2 as the main antagonist for their story in 1985. By the 1980s DC wanted to reboot its universe for a new generation - they feared that up to fifty years of stories spanning several universes would be too daunting for new readers. As a result, our three authors were brought in to reinvent the DC multiverse, but to create a new reality they had to destroy the old one - and the Anti-Monitor was the one to do this. 

The Anti-Monitor was created through a somewhat convoluted way. Many, many years ago, on the planet Oa, a scientist named Krona performed an illegal experiment in order to see the origins of the universe - instead his machine exploded shattering the universe and forming the multiverse. The denizens of Oa became divided about how to go on, and a civil war broke out. One faction went to one of the new universes called the Anti-Monitor Universe, some of those who remained became the Guardians of the Universe - who themselves formed the Green Lanterns. Those who went to the Anti-Matter Universe settled on the planet Qward where of being of anti-matter was formed called the Anti-Monitor. Gaining consciousness he grew increasingly powerful by absorbing the energy of that universe, and he enslaved the people of Qward forming his army called the Thunderers. However, in the original universe, off of the planet Oa a being a positive matter, called the Monitor, came into being. Sensing his opposite the Anti-Monitor began a million year long campaign to eventually wipe out his opponent. Eventually, both the Anti-Monitor and Monitor went into hibernation for billions of years - both absorbing the energy from their respective universes.

Crisis on Infinite Earths

After billions of years in hibernation a scientist called Kell Mossa hoped to see the origins of everything, and he managed to see a giant hand reaching onto an abyss forming new worlds. This came at a price. His home world was destroyed, and he saw the Anti-Monitor awaken. He was saved last minute by the Monitor who named him the 'Pariah' and given the power to travel across parallel universes. Wanting to destroy the Monitor he began destroying positive matter realities which would bring more energy into the anti-matter universe, and make him more powerful. The Anti-Monitor was unstoppable, so to prevent him from destroying everything the Monitor made preparations to prevent the destruction of five realities - Earth-One (the main reality), Earth-Two (DC's Golden Age reality), Earth-S (Captain Marvel's reality), Earth-X (the Freedom Fighters' reality), and Earth-Four (the reality of Blue Beetle, the Question and a few others). The Anti-Monitor attacked these worlds and even managed to finally kill the Monitor after enlisting the aid of the emotion-manipulating villain Psycho-Pirate, and reconfigured the robotic hero Red Tornado to briefly fight for him. 

Aided by Alex Luthor, the son of Lex Luthor from Earth-Three where he was a hero and not a villain, the heroes went to attack Anti-Monitor at his base. Supergirl almost destroyed the being by breaking his shell, but he killed her by focusing all his energy onto her. He then finished creating his ultimate weapon to destroy the five universes - the anti-matter cannon. Barry Allen, the Flash, then ran faster than the speed of light to destroy both the cannon and himself - he would remain dead for a good thirty years with Wally West taking over as the Flash. Through insane story plots the Anti-Monitor transported all the heroes and villains to the dawn of the multiverse, where it was revealed that it was his hand, and that of God's wrath personified, the Spectre, which Pariah saw. Through various reality and time spanning battles the extra-dimensional villain Darkseid shot the Anti-Monitor into the sun! Even then this did not properly kill him - he shot out of the star as an energy sphere. The Superman of Earth-Two, also overpowered as Kryptonians get more power the closer they are to the sun, shattered him into molecules. In the aftermath of the Crisis almost all the universes were destroyed, the five remaining ones were merged into one forming the New Earth. From 1985 to Flashpoint in 2011 this would be the sole reality, more or less, in the multiverse.

Infinite Crisis and the Return of the Multiverse

Grant Morrison is a fantastic writer and is fond of over-the-top stories, so he wanted to bring back the multiverse. The Infinite Crisis story of 2005 brought back the multiverse in typical Morrison fashion. He established that those who witnessed the final destruction of the Anti-Monitor were not really lost when the old multiverse finally was destroyed - instead they were watching the events of the new universe from a quasi-heaven. In this reality there were Superman and Lois Lane of Earth-Two, Alex Luthor of Earth-Three, and the narcissistic Superboy-Prime of Earth-Prime. The insane Superboy-Prime viewed the heroes of New Earth as false heroes, and managed to punch a hole in reality freeing them from their pocket universe! This punch had ripples across the universe, such as resurrecting the dead second Robin Jason Todd, and it brought back the multiverse. During this the remains of the Anti-Monitor were used as a 'tuning fork' to recreate the frequencies which the previous universes vibrated on, with the intention that this would recreate their universes - even if it meant destroying New Earth. Superboy-Prime ended up messing up their own plan. His battle with Superboy caused them to crash into the tower they were using wrecking the tuning fork with it.

Return

As the events of Infinite Crisis brought back the multiverse it also brought back the energy which Anti-Monitor fed on. This resurrected him, and one of the worst people possible took advantage of this. Sinestro had broken off from the Green Lanterns and harnessed the power of fear forming the new Sinestro Corps. Rebuilding Anti-Monitor's body he became Sinestro's 'Guardian of Fear', and by default one of the most powerful beings in the universe. The fear the universe had of him became a way to power the rings of the Sinestro Corps permanently. However, after battling the Green Lanterns he crashed landed on the planet Ryut in Sector 666 of the universe - the Green Lanterns had divided the entire universe into different sectors, and 666 had long been abandoned. Krona had used the precursors of the Green Lanterns, the Manhunters, to commit a genocide on Ryut, and this set the stage for one of the oldest prophecies in the universe. The Green Lanterns knew that one day an event known as 'Blackest Night' would come along, and the crashed Anti-Monitor provided the energy for this.

A voice commanded him to rise and he did so becoming trapped in a lantern power battery - the object which grants lanterns the energy for them to function. This was the Black Lantern Power Battery, and it would prove the springboard for the Black Night. The battery was brought to Earth where it was used to power the Black Lanterns - their power rings resurrected the dead to destroy the living. The bolster their power their leader, Nekron, sent out rings to turn the resurrected into Black Lanterns - including the Anti-Monitor. However, by doing this to such a powerful being it allowed him to break out from the Lantern Battery. During the Brightest Day he was resurrected, but has rarely appeared since then. One of the times was at the end of the Forever Evil story where he tried to enslave the New Gods and finally killed Darkseid. 

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