DC Database
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Monarch is an oppressive evil overlord from ten years into the future, where he has turned the entire world into an authoritarian police state.

His origins were kept a dark secret, although it was known that at one time he had been a powerful superhero and had betrayed his peers to their deaths, murdering them all and taking their power.

During Armageddon 2001, a single man, the hero Waverider was able to travel back in time with the intention of defeating Monarch before he ever came to power. It was discovered that he was in fact originally the hero Hawk, but Monarch exploited the portal in time to come back and visit his past self, triggering his origins many years early. His plan backfired. He killed Dove, and his past self flew into a deadly rage murdering Monarch where he stood, and then usurping his position and his armor, completely altering the timestream so that the actual Monarch and his future would never exist.

  • Hank was not supposed to be Monarch, originally, Captain Atom was supposed to be Monarch, however, this information was leaked, and to try and retain the surprise, it was changed to Hawk at the last minute even through Hawk and Dove Annual (Volume 3) #2 had firmly established that Hawk and Dove fought Monarch "but never became him." This was met with heavy criticism from fans as not only did most of the facts point towards Atom being Monarch but DC had chosen a character they had established it could not be.
    • This was later retconned in JSA #14 where Mordru faked Dove's death.

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