I'm re-reading COIE and I really don't think the AM is nearly as amazing as everyone makes him out to be.
First, destroying universes in DC using anti-matter is not that impressive, for 2 reasons.
1) Anti-Matter is the opposite of matter. When it is introduced into a new positive matter universe, it very quickly spreads on its own and destroys the entire universe. Before the Anti-Monitor ever began his conquest, a random scientist who eventually became the Pariah accidentally destroyed an entire universe using an anti-matter lens not much larger than a human being. Of course the anti-monitor can easily destroy a universe as well! He could introduce just a little bit of anti-matter from his universe and it would destroy a positive matter universe. He doesn't just do it on his own power. He is the antithesis of all that our universe represents, it's like saying water is all-powerful because it can put out a fire. But clearly water isn't all-powerful, it's just the antithesis of fire.
2) In DC, universes aren't that big. In COIE one is stated to have millions of stars and to be 20 zillion lightyears (IIRC). That's really not that many stars. Our galaxies have hundreds of billions in reality. If you read Superman Final Crisis, you see that the Monitors from each universe are actually each much larger than the universe they oversee. A universe is about a tenth the size of the Thought Robot.
Second, In our reality, there were equal amounts of both matter and anti-matter balancing each other prior to the big bang, and then something happened (I don't know if anyone is quite sure of what exactly happened) that created an imbalance between matter and anti-matter. There was suddenly slightly more matter than anti-matter and thus a gigantic explosion of matter coalesced into the universe we live in today. In DC, the opposite is happening. The universes were perfectly balanced and the Monitor and Anti-Monitor had equal power. But Pariah created an imbalance with his experiment that killed his universe, and suddenly the anti-matter universe had more power than the DC positive matter universes. The Anti-Monitor had an inherent advantage in his conquest. He is an allegory for the way that our universe expanded from nothing into an infinitely large mass. He is the antithesis of this, taking an infinitely large mass and paring it down to only 1 universe. He isn't all-powerful, he is a force of nature, like gravity. This wasn't the Anti-Monitor doing anything special. His machines simply had to introduce anti-matter into our universe to destroy the whole thing (the anti-matter cannon for example) At this point, of course COIE happened. It was DC's version of the Big Bang. It was inevitable, anti-matter and matter annihilate each other, and if there is somehow more anti-matter than matter then eventually anti-matter will win out.
My final point, the Anti-Monitor was an amped version of the Monitor, and the Monitor could still be destroyed by a physical being (Harbinger) relatively easily. Even the Anti-Monitor, at this point having absorbed thousands of universes with only 5 left, was almost destroyed by Supergirl in easy fashion via punches. Punches. Do I even need to mention that for some reason Kyrptonians had no durability in his fortress in the anti-matter universe? AM smashed Supes with one punch, but a weakened Supergirl still wrecked him. Even at basically full strength his entire shell was destroyed and he had to retreat, he later admits he was dangerously close to being destroyed completely in his own realm by a single weakened Kryptonian.
Seriously, why would an all-powerful being like the AM need Psycho Pirate to control his enemies? He couldn't necessarily beat them in a battle or else he wouldn't have relied on Pyscho Pirate. Why would he need to remove Flash from the entire COIE just to have a chance at victory of he is so powerful? And Flash still smoked him in the end. Facepalm.
Just can't believe people think the AM takes Galactus or Eternity after reading COIE again.
of other cosmic abstracts have ever been mentioned. Generally, multiversal issues are handled by the Living Tribunal and most regard the concept of a Multi-Eternity as an erroneous statement, as can happen from time to time within continuity."
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