What’s A Monitor With You?

So the Fraternal Order of Monitors is up to something, something fiendish, something Megaverse saving, maybe both. I’m going to take some time to chart the actions of these enigmatic characters since their return to the DCU.

Last summer Brave New World re-introduced the Monitors.


The writing here is brilliant, it gave away all the mysteries of 52 but you only realize it retroactively. The Multiverse is dead with only the Megaverse left. There aren’t infinite possibilities just a few planets left. If you look even closer you see some hint towards the Third Act. When the Monitor says, “…this planet’s survival” we can assume he is referring to New Earth, thus for the 52 planets to continue in their existence New Earth must survive. So we’re left thinking, “Holy crap! The Monitor is back.” But it’s not just one monitor but a whole slew.


Look who are up front, the two most prominent Monitor characters: Monitor Muttonchops and Monitor Lincoln-beard. Right in the beginning the writers are saying that these two guys are going to be important. Of course, the Monitor is only one side of a coin, the other being the Anti-Monitor. Well look in the background. Whose armor does this look like?


Yeah, it looks like that to me as well.

So, for the last year the Monitors have been popping up here and there, with the characterization staying constant. Monitor Muttonchops is the violent one, Monitor Lincoln-beard being the voice of reason.

Here are some panels from Ion.



We have some others getting panel time; Monitor No Beard is a good example.


Then comes Countdown #51 where the roles of Muttonchops and Lincoln-beard are reversed. Lincoln-beard kills and Muttonchops broods and it seems that their dichotomy will be one of the heaviest threads through the series. See that’s what I think what we’re counting down to, a Monitor War.


In Countdown #49, these new roles are even further cemented.


Why is Muttonchops the angry accuser and Lincoln-beard the violent murderer? Is reality changing at all times or somewhere along the way did an artist make a mistake?

Finally, I just want to say that we should have seen before that Monitor Muttonchops was going to be a big deal; his facial hair was a total tip off. It is the same style that the original Monitor sported.