Monitor (comics)
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The Monitor was a character created by comic book writer Marv Wolfman and comics artist George Pérez as one of the main characters of DC Comics' Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series.
The character began appearing, along with his assistant Lyla, in numerous DC Comics titles beginning in 1982, three years before the Crisis began in July 1985; these appearances made it seem that he was some sort of weapons dealer for supervillains. This was all part of the setup Wolfman and the staff of DC Comics planned for the Crisis. The Monitor was depicted in the shadows for all of his appearances in DC's mainstream superhero titles, and his face was first revealed in one of their few remaining non-superhero titles, the war comic G.I. Combat issue #274.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
Thirteen billion years ago, the multiverse was born due to tampering with the creation of the universe by Krona, a scientist from the planet Oa; as a result, an infinite number of parallel universes existed side by side, separated only by minuscule vibrational differences, none of them as strong as the single universe that existed earlier would have been. The Monitor was born on Oa's moon, apparently as the living embodiment of all positive matter universes. But one of these universes was composed entirely of antimatter, and on the moon of Oa's counterpart, Qward, a hideous mockery of life was born from its very soil, a being that would come to be known as The Anti-Monitor.
[edit] The Long War
As the evil Anti-Monitor conquered his universe, the Monitor watched him, and when the Anti-Monitor sensed his presence, they began battling across the dimensional barrier in a war that lasted one million years. A simultaneous attack rendered them both unconscious, and they lay unmoving for more than nine billion years, until the Monitor felt his evil counterpart awaken, as a result of another experiment on the creation of the universe by another scientist, that resulted in the destruction of the scientist's universe. He found this scientist, a man who would become known as Pariah, and used him to follow the Anti-Monitor's path of destruction in his newly-created spaceship. As the Anti-Monitor consumed worlds with his destructive antimatter, thus increasing his power as his antimatter universe expanded to fill the 'gap' that had been left by the loss of the universe, the Monitor grew weaker. He studied every universe for the means to fight the Anti-Monitor, but even though countless universes were threatened, he took the time to save an orphaned girl, the only survivor of a shipwreck, and raised her on his ship. That girl, Lyla, grew up to become Harbinger, having been granted great powers by the Monitor. (They cared for each other, but whether it was a romantic relationship or simply a father/daughter relationship was not made clear).
The Monitor went so far as to provide supervillains with technology, supposedly for money but in reality as a way to test the heroes and villains of Earth and find out which ones might help his cause.
[edit] Crisis
When the Anti-Monitor's anti-matter wave began approaching the main Earths of the Multiverse, the Monitor directed Harbinger to track down an initial force of fifteen specific heroes and villains the Monitor needed to fight his foe (This initial group included Kal-L, Doctor Polaris, Dawnstar, Killer Frost, Firestorm, Solovar, and Arion). He explained to them what was going on, and sent them to protect giant tower-like devices that he had created on several places across space and time; his plan was to merge the surviving Earths into a single one that could resist the Anti-Monitor's attack. He also sent Harbinger to recover the infant Alexander Luthor, Jr., whom he believed would be of invaluable assistance.
When Harbinger returned, one of her incarnations had been attacked by one of the Anti-Monitor's shadow demons, and that corruption caused her combined self to attack and kill the Monitor. However, he had foreseen the attack, and used his death to power the machines that would pull Earth-One and Earth-Two into a netherverse created from the energies liberated by his own death, saving them from the Anti-Monitor's unstoppable antimatter wall. He left Lyla a recorded message explaining this, trusting that she and the Multiverse's heroes would complete the job and preserve the worlds before their vibration slowed down to an extent where they would destroy each other.
Harbinger followed the Monitor's legacy, using up her powers to draw the last three Earths (Earth-Four, Earth-S, and Earth-X) into the Netherverse. With help from Pariah, Alexander and all the surviving heroes and villains from the various Earths, she eventually defeated the Anti-Monitor at the dawn of time (rebooting the multiverse as a single universe, an amalgam of the five surviving Earths, possessing the strength to resist the Anti-Monitor's attack), and then in his own antimatter universe, saving the reborn universe from his predations.
Ironically, the existence of the scheming but benevolent Monitor has apparently been forgotten by everyone except his closest associates as a result of the change in history.
[edit] Brave New World
The Monitor appears in shadow on the cover of the DCU: Brave New World Special; in the final pages of the comic, five Monitors are revealed. One of them names the group the "Monitors." One of the five is noticeably different from the others; although his back is turned, he resembles the Anti-Monitor. In Ion #9, the Monitors are shown to be a society of many different Monitors. At least thirteen have been seen.
The Monitors have made the following additional appearances:
- In the final installment of the History of the DCU (52 #11; July 2006), one of the Monitors confronts Donna Troy and informs her that she should have died during the Crisis. Jade, a member of the team of heroes that Donna recruited to operate in deep space, was killed during Infinite Crisis in her place.
- In Nightwing #125, a Monitor stalks Dick Grayson, informing him that he is supposed to be dead, and the Monitors will fix the fact that he is not.
- A Monitor makes a cameo appearance in "The Secret Origin of Nightwing" backup in 52 #25.
- In Ion #6, a Monitor appears in Kyle Rayner's apartment and tells him that "[he's] supposed to be dead."
- In Ion #7, the Monitor indicates that "[Kyle] will require continued monitoring...[Kyle] and the others".
- In Ion #8, the Monitors decide that "it remains unclear...whether Kyle Rayner must live or die."
- In Ion #9, after the Green Lantern of the Tangent Universe breaches the boundaries of the Multiverse to the New Earth of the DCU, the Monitors conclude that "for the survival of the universe...Kyle Rayner must be eliminated."
- In Ion #10, Captain Atom indicates that the Monitors have been keeping tabs on him as well, necessitating his use of a region known as the Bleed to conduct activities away from their reach.
- In Ion #11, the Monitors plan an intervention after two of their quarries — Kyle Rayner and Donna Troy—team up.
- It is revealed in Wildstorm's Stormwatch: PHD #5 that four heroes killed in action in 1999 are actually alive due to the intervention of a Monitor, who allowed their resurrections.
[edit] Powers and abilities
- The Monitor's vast powers were never well defined, but he was able to sense his counterpart's existence in the Anti-Matter Universe and fight with him from Oa's moon using energy powers (though the feedback of the attack placed him in suspended animation for eons).
- He was able to save Pariah (and possibly empower him) and create an entire satellite headquarters out of nothingness.
- Apparently, he could not create the protective netherverse without dying first, although this may have been because he did not have the time to come up with a less lethal plan.
