Bold statement: George Perez is good at art.
THE ANTI-MONITOR
Created By: Marv Wolfman & George Perez
First Appearance: Crisis on Infinite Earths #2 (May 1985)
Role: Universe-Ender
PL 20 (609)
STRENGTH 23 STAMINA 22 AGILITY -1
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 20 AWARENESS 8 PRESENCE 6
Skills:
Close Combat (Unarmed) 4 (+12)
Deception 2 (+10)
Expertise (Science) 12 (+32)
Expertise (Cosmic Lore) 10 (+30)
Expertise (Space Traveller) 10 (+30)
Intimidation 14 (+22)
Investigation 4 (+14)
Perception 4 (+12)
Persuasion 4 (+12)
Technology 12 (+32)
Vehicles 10 (+10)
Advantages:
Beginner's Luck, Daze (Intimidation), Eidetic Memory, Equipment 40 (Super Spaceship, World-Devouring Gear), Fast Grab, Fearless, Great Endurance, Improved Critical 3 (Cosmic Blast), Improved Grab, Improved Initiative, Inventor, Jack-of-All-Trades, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 12, Skill Mastery (Technology), Startle, Ultimate Science Skill, Ultimate Technology Skill, Withstand Damage
Powers:
"Cosmic Being"
Immunity 12 (Aging, Life Support, Sleep) [12]
Flight 5 (10 mph) [20]
Movement 1 (Space Travel 1) [2]
Protection 4 (Extras: Impervious 31) [35]
Regeneration 12 [12]
"Cosmic Mind"
Comprehend 4 (Languages 4) [8]
Movement 1 (Environmental Adaptation- Space) [2]
Immunity 20 (Mental Effects) (Flaws: Limited to Half-Effect) [10]
"Cosmic Sight" Senses 4 (Extended Vision 4) [4]
"Empower Others" Variable (Others' Powers) 8 (Extras: Affects Others Only +0, Continuous) [64]
"Huge Size" Growth 8 (Str & Sta +8, +8 Mass, +4 Intimidation, -4 Dodge/Parry, +1 Speed, -8 Stealth) -- (24 feet) (Feats: Innate) (Extras: Permanent +0) [17]
"Weaken Others" Weaken 16 (Extras: Area- 500ft. Burst +5, Broad, Simultaneous) (128) -- [138]
- AE: "Anti-Matter Wave" Damage 19 (Feats: Penetrating 10, Variable 2) (Extras: Area- 500ft. Cone +4) (107)
- AE: "Anti-Matter Stream" Damage 19 (Feats: Penetrating 10, Variable 2) (Extras: Area- 250ft. Line +4) (107)
- AE: "Anti-Matter Burst" Damage 19 (Feats: Penetrating 10, Variable 2) (Extras: Area- 250ft. Burst +4) (107)
- AE: Anti-Matter Blast 26 (Feats: Accurate, Affects Insubstantial, Penetrating 14, Extended Range 7- x12,800 ft., Split, Variable Descriptor 2) (78)
- AE: Force Field 2 (Extras: Affects Others 18, Ranged 18) (38)
- AE: Move Object 20 (Feats: Subtle, Precise) (Extras: Perception Range) (62)
- AE: Movement 5 (Dimensional Travel 3) (Extras: Portal +2) (9)
- AE: Teleport 20 (Feats: Increased Mass 10- 25 tons) (Extras: Extended, Accurate) (90)
- AE: "Sense Energy" Senses 22 (Detect Energy- Ranged 17- 1,600 trillion miles, Acute & Analytical, Tracking) (22)
- AE: "Sense Life" Senses 22 (Detect Life- Ranged 17- 1,600 trillion miles, Tracking) (22)
Unarmed +12 (+23 Damage, DC 38)
Cosmic Blast +14 (+26 Ranged Damage, DC 41)
Cosmic Waves +19 Area (+19 Damage, DC 34)
Initiative +3
Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +26 (+28 Force Field, +16 Impervious), Fortitude +22, Will +16
Complications:
Motivation (Power)- The Anti-Monitor seeks to destroy the positive matter universe, thus empowering his own.
Vulnerable (Power Leaks)- The Anti-Monitor is prone to power drains- if his armor is ruptured, his energies may leak out, leaving him less powerful. Qward's sun also empowers him, and draining it weakens him.
Power Loss (Full Power)- The Anti-Monitor needs to drain energy to be at maximum power- until most of the Earths in the universe have been destroyed, he is much more vulnerable, with only Toughness 22 or so. He is often more vulnerable without having used his Weaken on others.
Total: Abilities: 142 / Skills: 86--43 / Advantages: 71 / Powers: 324 / Defenses: 29 (609)
The Event That Actually DID Change Everything:
-So in 1985, a combination of falling sales and Marv Wolfman & George Perez's Teen Titans being DC's biggest moneymaker netted the two the power to call the biggest event in comic book history- one so large it actually DID change everything. And so the two combined their efforts to use every single character they had access to (combinging DC's characters with those of Charlton, Fawcett & Quality, all now owned by DC) and forged a Super-Event to combine them all into one Earth instead of several. And the means to do this was to create this epic villain- a remorseless being of pure evil, with an inhuman face and no showcased emotions. It was a truly epic design- he looked enough like a dessicated corpse to set off the Uncanny Valley effect (the unnatural wires everywhere helped), but had that big armor to make him look bulky and powerful. It made his rare outbursts of anger mean a lot more, too.
-So the Anti-Monitor was created when the Oan scientist Krona broke the laws and looked back to the origin of the universe- this blasphemous act resulted in a huge explosion that split the Universe into a Multiverse, creating scores of parallel worlds. As well, Oa itself was duplicated with the planet of Anti-Matter itself- Qward. And The Monitor, a powerful being meant to watch over the universe, was also doubled, creating the Anti-Monitor- a being of pure oblivion and evil. The two battled for a million years, but neither was the victor- both were stunned, and layed dormant for nine billion years, awakening only recently when the scientist Pariah performed a similar experiment to Krona. The Anti-Monitor's goal became to destroy all the universes and create total entropy. Crisis on Infinite Earths opens with the destruction of Earth-Three, home of the Crime Syndicate of America since a 1964 comic introduced them- we now knew the stakes.
The Crisis Destroys the Earths:
-So anti-matter waves were forged, creating chaos throughout the Multiverse as countless Earths died. Pariah, for his crime, is forced to watch as each Earth dies, mourning his actions in agony (he would learn only later that he wasn't responsible for unleashing the creature). The Anti-Monitor rebuilt his army on Qward, forming an army out of the Thunderers (goofy-dressed guys who throw lightning) and Shadow Demons (icy-black creatures that disintegrate with a touch). He manipulated events to force Monitor's student/daughter Harbinger into killing him, but miscalculated his foe's cleverness, as the Monitor used the energies of his death to save the remaining five Earths from destruction. In two of comics' greatest moments, the Anti-Monitor's plans are foiled- the Barry "The Flash" Allen, the hero who began the Silver Age, is imprisoned on Qward, but breaks free and uses the Psycho-Pirate's emotion-control powers to force the Thunderers to blast the Anti-Monitor ("Death to the Anti-Monitor!"), buying himself time for the ultimate sacrifice play, reversing the anti-matter at the cost of his own life ("we must always... save... the... world"). And then, all of the powerhouse heroes of history team up to fight the Anti-Monitor himself- a who's who of super-heavies (Superman I, Superman II, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman II, The Marvel Family, Firestorm, Alan Scott, Jade, The Ray, Mon-El, Wildfire, Supergirl, Captain Atom, Doctor Light II, Lady Quark, etc.). But there, Superman is weaker than normal thanks to the rules of the anti-matter universe and is bludgeoned down, and only Supergirl manages to break through, fighting to the death to shatter the Anti-Monitor's armor and badly hurting him. She dies in Superman's arms, her cousin grieving and stating his desire to kill the monster.
-In any case, the Anti-Monitor is slow to recover, and the heroes have the time they need- Alexander Luthor Jr. leads a redoubled effort. The hand that appears below the Big Bang turns out to be the Anti-Monitor's himself in a great bit of business, and the Spectre appears to combat him. Losing in his goal, the Anti-Monitor sends his Shadow Demons to Earth to kill everyone, resulting in the deaths of dozens of named characters (Green Arrow I, Robin I & Huntress are killed because they're out of continuity now; Dove was killed to give Hawk a new partner; Kole was Wolfman's own sacrifice; the Bug-Eyed Bandit is killed because Wolfman hated him). Again and again, a seemingly fatal attack defeats him, only for the monster to return, looking more and more like living energy. Ultimately, a combination attack kills him- Doctor Light was empowered solely for this moment by draining the sun of Qward to weaken him, then launch a blast into him, Negative Woman wraps her radioactive self around him to hold him off, and every powerful blaster in the DCU fires off their energies at once (including Quark, two Supermen, Power Girl, Manhunter, Firestorm and others) to bring him down. The heroes escape, leaving only a few- Superman I and Superboy-Prime fight him to the last, Alexander Luthor becomes the means by which Darkseid throws out his Omega Beams at the exact right moment to stun the creature, and the Golden Age Superman appropriately scores the final blow, sending the Anti-Monitor into a star, which explodes. The remaining heroes are saved by Alexander and the villain dies, mostly for good.
The Anti-Monitor Returns! In... Someone Else's Story!:
-Shockingly enough, this huge character remains dead for the next 22 years, missing tons of stories. For whatever reason, no writer had the gumption, nor the power, to resurrect him. In Infinite Crisis, written by new DC super-writer Geoff Johns, his corpse is found by Alexander, who uses it to bring the Multiverse back into existence. Shockingly, however, the villain returns properly in The Sinestro Corps War, a massive "Holy Shit!" moment of Holy Shit Moments... only to be a subordinate character in Sinestro's massive army, alongside Cyborg Superman & Superboy-Prime. This was a really weird twist, as the character should be the end of nearly everything, but he's just kinda THERE. He tortures the "Ion" entity and murders GL Ke'Haan, and is held off by a band of Guardians, scarring one of them. Weakened, he even ends up defeated by Superboy-Prime, again going psychotic and still carrying a grudge for Earth-Prime's destruction. The Anti-Monitor ends up rising, imprisoned in a Black Lantern Power Battery at the hands of Scar, a Guardian of Oa mutated by the monster's powers. The Anti-Monitor is reanimated as a Black Lantern controlled by the demon lord Nekron, but when he rises from the Battery, he is attacked by hundreds of Lanterns from the various new Corps, who combined their energy into Dove (a holder of the "White" energy) and use her as a human bullet, blasting through the Anti-Monitor's head. Later, he is resurrected by a White Power Ring (hoo boy is that an unfortunate name, lol) and fights Nekron in revenge for the control, but is banished back to the anti-matter universe, where he resides as continuity ends with him still alive.
-Ultimately, the character was perfect for what he was- a one-off super-monster who threatened all reality for the sake of pure evil. Hugely lofty ambitions and no personality of his own beyond cold indifference and utter rage, and that could only be created by his many defeats. Barry Allen and Supergirl died enraging him in perfect moments, and his open-mouthed fury at Earth's heroes constantly beating him was fantastic. Geoff Johns, having a lot of "sizzle" and very little "steak", didn't know what to do with his big villain, stopping him way more casually than Earth's heroes had during the Crisis, and did so TWICE, and then the character just kinda farted around doing a Resurrection Congo. In so doing, it cost the character a lot of dignity.
The Anti-Monitor's Powers:
-The Anti-Monitor is an interesting one, in that he's a Cosmic Menace, but lacks the raw power of Galactus or other types, as he can't just insta-kill tons of heroes in huge waves of power. DC's heroes were way more powerful than Marvel's at this point, but he's still capable of being damaged by many of them, and can't simply beat Superman one-on-one easily (especially in the middle of the crossover, when he's not quite as powerful as at the end- there, Supergirl fights him to a standstill, breaking his armor and nearly killing him). What happens is that he's just an absolute TANK, eating tons of punishment from everybody until something finally cracks through. His final death happened by means of like four different huge things happening in a row- all the heroes fighting him at once, Doctor Light using a specific weakness of his, Darkseid doing a "run-in", and Superman using all his strength for one final punch.
-He's a bit tricky, as his power level varies quite a bit over the course of the series- when he battles Supergirl, he is nearly killed a solo fight (albeit fatally wounding her in the process). Against all the heroes at once, he shows the ability to drain them, and later feeds on his own Shadow Demons to redouble his strength! In these forms, he's much larger and take take on dozens of high-powered superheroes at once. And his regenerative powers are extreme, allowing him to come back from certain death three or four times in a single issue until Superman I finally destroys him. Ultimately, he just kind of has a "Power Loss" Complication tacked on to explain it. It would also justify the weaker showings Post-Crisis.
-The Anti-Monitor can also empower others, like he does to the Psycho-Pirate (enabling him to use his powers to affects three EARTHS simultaneously!). He doesn't move as quickly as many Cosmic Beings, and even has to build gear to accomplish much of whe he wants (the Flash dies destroying his Anti-Matter Cannon), but he's still a PL 20, 600+ point creature.