“Crisis on Infinite Earths”: Who Is the Anti-Monitor?

“Crisis on Infinite Earths” has finally come for The CW‘s Arrowverse. After being teased during the series premiere of The Flash in 2014 and then confirmed at the end of last year’s “Elseworlds” crossover, the comic book story fans have been clamoring for will kick off during tonight’s episode of Supergirl. As the heroes and others come together to fight for the fate of the Multiverse in the epic five-night, two act crossover event they will specifically find themselves going up against a foe unlike any they’ve ever seen before, one that will be making his grand Arrowverse debut as the Multiverse faces its doom: the Anti-Monitor.

Back in July as part of the wave of news that came out of San Diego Comic-Con it was announced that LaMonica Garrett, who made his own Arrowverse debut as The Monitor in “Elseworlds” would be taking on the role of the Anti-Monitor as well. Thus far we have not actually seen the “evil brother” of The Monitor on screen, but we have seen his impact spectacularly when Earth-2 was destroyed in the season premiere of Arrow. After all, you can’t have “Crisis” without the Anti-Monitor.

But if you happen to be a little unfamiliar with not only the classic comic book series the Arrowverse event is based upon, here is what you need to know about the Anti-Monitor. In comics, both the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor were created at the beginning of existence with the Monitor being created on the moon of Oa and the Anti-Monitor on the moon of Qward. The Anti-Monitor ends up being this insanely powerful and equally insanely evil cosmic being who controls something called the Antimatter Universe.

In the Crisis on Infinite Earths comics, a being known as Pariah (played by Tom Cavanagh in “Crisis” — you can read more about the character here) was carrying out some science experiments about the nature of the universe and in the process reawakened both the Monitor and the Anti-Monitor. His experiments also allow the Anti-Monitor to discover the existence of Pariah’s world, leading to the destruction of it. Awake and with his army rebuilt, the Anti-Monitor then released a massive antimatter wave, destroying worlds and absorbing their energies in the process allowing him to grow ever more powerful as his destructive path continues on.

For Garrett, who will bring him to life in the Arrowverse, having the opportunity to play one of “the biggest bads that ever walked the planet” is something of a dream come true.

“The Monitor is an obscure character for a lot people. You know, people hate The Monitor right now because of what he’s doing to the world, but he’s actually trying to do it for the greater good if you know the comic books,” Garrett told ComicBook.com earlier this year. “Anti-Monitor is not obscure. He’s well-known for Marvel fans and DC fans as just one of the biggest bads that ever walked this planet so when they told me that, I kind of got a little misty-eyed. I got a little emotional and I was like ‘are you kidding me?’”

He added, “I’ve always wanted to be in the comic book world and you’re telling me that I could play The Monitor and The Anti-Monitor in the same universe, the same Arrowverse like that? That was a surreal moment when I found out and I just found that out maybe two weeks ago.”

Are you excited to see LaMonica Garrett’s The Anti-Monitor in “Crisis on Infinite Earths”? Let us know in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter @lifeinpolaroid to talk all things Arrowverse and “Crisis”!

“Crisis on Infinite Earths” kicks off on Sunday, December 8 at 8/7c on Supergirl, runs through a Monday episode of Batwoman and continues on Tuesday on The Flash. The event will then pause on a midseason cliffhanger to go on hiatus for the holidays only to return on Tuesday, January 14 with the midseason premiere of Arrow and a “special episode” of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow which will debut its fifth season a week later on Tuesday, January 21. In addition to the official episodes of “Crisis,” Black Lightning‘s midseason finale on Monday, December 9 will have an unofficial “Crisis” tie-in.