The Anti-Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) just made his first move against Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) on Arrow. All season, the Anti-Monitor has been an unseen antagonist for the heroes of the Arrowverse. Though he’s confirmed to be the villain of “Crisis on Infinite Earths”, the Arrowverse shows have thus far avoided mentioning him directly.
The 6th annual Arrowverse crossover event brings together Supergirl, Batwoman, The Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow for a five-part event based on the 1985-1986 comic book miniseries, Crisis on Infinite Earths. Like the comic book version was for DC Comics, “Crisis” is the Arrowverse’s biggest and most inclusive story, as it will pull in characters who previously existed outside the Arrowverse, such as Smallville’s Clark Kent (Tom Welling) and Black Lightning’s Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams). Guided into action by the cosmic being known as the Monitor, the heroes will have to band together to defend the multiverse against waves of antimatter.
In Arrow season 8, episode 7, titled “Purgatory”, the Monitor sends Team Arrow and their adult children from the future to Lian Yu, where they’re forced to face off against forgotten foes from Oliver’s past: Edward Fyers and Billy Wintergreen. Fyers and Wintergreen, who were both villains in Oliver’s season 1 flashbacks, were killed years ago, but are now back to stand in Oliver’s way. They were brought back by an unspecified surge of energy present on Lian Yu. A conversation with another resurrected season 1 character, Yao Fei, reveals that it was the work of “forces that oppose” Oliver. It would seem that Yao Fei is referring to the Anti-Monitor.
Apparently, the Anti-Monitor’s goal in resurrecting Fyers and his army was to stop Oliver from building the weapon. His efforts failed to pay off when the weapon was completed and Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson) was transformed into the Harbinger. The fact that he even attempted to prevent this from happening proves that Anti-Monitor takes Oliver seriously, and views his mission as a threat to his plan.
In the “Crisis” comics, the Anti-Monitor’s plan was to erase all of existence, and it appears that this may be his endgame in the Arrowverse as well. The Harbinger, a character whose comic book counterpart was entrusted with gathering an army of heroes to combat the Crisis, may be their best chance of stopping the Anti-Monitor. Since Anti-Monitor couldn’t stop Oliver, the first seven episodes of Arrow’s eighth season may have just set up Anti-Monitor’s defeat in “Crisis on Infinite Earths”.
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