Ch. 261Anti-Monitor
Chapter Summary: “Anti-Monitor”
Key Plot Points and Events
- In the Antimatter Universe, the Anti-Monitor’s waves of antimatter are destroying the remaining material universes, bringing all life toward extinction.
- Lu Heng arrives with a large alliance of heroes, including Cage Superman, Kara, Barry Allen, the Green Arrow Team, Earth-38 heroes, Wolf Superman, Martian Manhunter, and the Legends.
- The Anti-Monitor creates an army from sand and soil to oppose them. Lu Heng counters by summoning Earth-2’s gorilla army, granting them the Speed Force, and protecting them with energy shields.
- Lu Heng orders the heroes to handle the Anti-Monitor’s forces while he confronts the Anti-Monitor personally. Cage Superman quickly destroys several powerful enemies, while Wolf Superman demonstrates great strength but inferior combat ability.
- When the Anti-Monitor unleashes star-crushing power against the alliance, Lu Heng decapitates him with a single attack. However, the Anti-Monitor regenerates from the surrounding sand, proving that ordinary physical destruction cannot defeat him.
- Lu Heng transports the battle away from the Antimatter Universe and reveals his enormous sixth-dimensional form, wielding multiple laws and Omega Energy. The Anti-Monitor is shocked that Lu Heng possesses several powers capable of threatening him.
- Their fight carries them through different regions of space and across multiple universes. They eventually encounter the Source Wall, whose presence terrifies the Anti-Monitor.
- Lu Heng explains that the Anti-Monitor’s original purpose may have been to guard the entrance beyond the Source Wall. Since the Wall has appeared in the Antimatter Universe, the Anti-Monitor may be destroying the material universe because his former purpose has become meaningless.
- The Anti-Monitor refuses to confirm Lu Heng’s theory and questions Lu Heng’s origins. Lu Heng claims he rose from a three-dimensional being into a higher-dimensional existence, but the Anti-Monitor dismisses this as impossible.
- Lu Heng attacks again, driving the Anti-Monitor through the Source Wall’s surrounding space and into other universes. Their battle becomes so powerful that every exchange destroys galaxies, despite both combatants deliberately restraining themselves.
Character Developments
- Lu Heng demonstrates overwhelming confidence and increasing mastery of sixth-dimensional powers. He is eager to fight the Anti-Monitor because few opponents can challenge him.
- Lu Heng’s abilities have evolved beyond their lower-dimensional origins: his Infinite Laws and Omega Energy have adapted into sixth-dimensional forces.
- The Anti-Monitor is established as an immensely powerful, regenerating entity whose true nature is tied to destruction and the Antimatter Universe. Seeing the Source Wall causes him to remember his ancient origins and question Lu Heng’s identity.
- Cage Superman is portrayed as the most experienced fighter among the heroes, having survived alone in a world of despair. He quickly proves his superiority in battle.
- Wolf Superman possesses extraordinary physical strength, possibly greater than Cage Superman’s, but lacks comparable combat skill and is vulnerable to being overwhelmed.
- Parallax Jordan witnesses only a fragment of Lu Heng and the Anti-Monitor’s power and is nearly incapacitated by their presence, emphasizing the massive gap between ordinary cosmic heroes and sixth-dimensional beings.
- The Anti-Monitor’s background is clarified: he, the Monitor, and the World Forger were created as three sixth-dimensional beings and once worked together to seal their mother, Perpetua.
Significant Themes
- Dimensional transcendence: Lu Heng’s rise from a lower-dimensional existence challenges the Anti-Monitor’s belief that beings must be born into their level of power.
- The limits of destruction: The Anti-Monitor’s ability to regenerate shows that overwhelming physical force alone cannot permanently defeat higher-dimensional entities.
- Purpose and obsolescence: The Anti-Monitor may be destroying universes because the Source Wall has eliminated or displaced his original function as a guardian.
- Cosmic scale and collateral damage: The heroes’ battle occurs on a multiversal level, with each clash threatening galaxies and countless lives.
- Power versus experience: Wolf Superman’s greater raw strength contrasts with Cage Superman’s superior combat experience, suggesting that skill can matter as much as power.
- Unstable cosmic history: Lu Heng recognizes that the details of the DC cosmology may vary across versions, making truth difficult to determine and forcing him to test the Anti-Monitor through observation.
Character Interactions
- Lu Heng leads and protects the assembled heroes, assigning them to fight the Anti-Monitor’s army while he takes responsibility for the main threat.
- Cage Superman and Wolf Superman are implicitly contrasted through Lu Heng’s assessment of their combat abilities.
- Lu Heng repeatedly provokes the Anti-Monitor, demanding that he fight rather than retreat and mocking his refusal to explain himself.
- The Anti-Monitor questions Lu Heng’s identity and doubts his claim of dimensional ascension, revealing both suspicion and insecurity.
- Lu Heng uses the Source Wall to confront the Anti-Monitor with his forgotten purpose and ancient history.
- Parallax Jordan becomes an unwilling witness to the battle, experiencing the two combatants as incomprehensible beings whose power vastly exceeds her own.