Marvel vs DC · Cosmic
The Anti-Monitor vs The Living Tribunal
The Anti-Monitor has devoured countless universes. The Living Tribunal has judged every one of them.
Tale of the tape
| DC | Universe | Marvel |
|---|---|---|
| Cosmic | Tier | Cosmic |
| Antimatter power that has destroyed countless universes | Strength | Judges entire universes and can unmake any being below the One Above All |
| Hunger for destruction leaves no room for strategy | Weakness | Bound to perfect balance between its three faces |
| 1–1 | Record on Versus | 1–0 |
The Arena
The Anti-Monitor broke through the walls of the DC multiverse into the Marvel one, a towering armoured giant of antimatter, his body glowing with the energy of destroyed universes. He had already consumed a hundred realities. He reached for the next one, and found it guarded.
A giant figure floated in the void before him, three faces on one head: one covered, one calm, one stern. The Living Tribunal looked at the Anti-Monitor with all three. “You have destroyed without judgment,” it said, its voice the voice of balance itself. “You will be judged.”
The Anti-Monitor laughed, a sound that cracked stars. “I am the end of all things. There is no judgment for me.” The Tribunal’s faces did not change. “There is judgment,” it said, “for everything.”
Round One
The Anti-Monitor fired a wave of antimatter, a blast that had erased entire universes, and it swept toward the Tribunal like a black tide. The Tribunal raised one hand, and the wave stopped, balanced perfectly against an equal wave of positive matter, the two cancelling each other out in a silent flash.
The Anti-Monitor attacked again, and again, each wave stronger. The Tribunal balanced every one. It did not attack. It did not need to. It existed to keep the scales level, and every ounce of destruction the Anti-Monitor unleashed was met with exactly the same amount of creation.
For the first time in his existence, the Anti-Monitor found something that his hunger could not eat.
The Turn
Frustrated, the Anti-Monitor turned away from the Tribunal and reached for the universe behind it, billions of lives, ready to be devoured. That was his mistake. The Tribunal’s covered face, the face of vengeance, which almost never shows itself, slowly uncovered.
The Tribunal spoke with all three voices at once, and the void trembled. “Equity. Necessity. Vengeance. You have been weighed, and found wanting.” It reached out with one vast hand and took hold of the Anti-Monitor’s antimatter body, and the destroyer of universes found that he could not move.
The Anti-Monitor struggled with the strength of a hundred dead realities. The Tribunal did not even tighten its grip.
The Finish
The Tribunal judged him. It weighed every universe he had destroyed against the existence of the being who had destroyed them, and the scales tipped. The Anti-Monitor’s antimatter began to dissolve, not into nothing, but back into what it had taken: universe after universe unfolding out of his body, restored, their stars rekindling.
When it was over, the Anti-Monitor was small, a flickering shadow of what he had been, and the void around them was full of reborn worlds. The Tribunal looked down at him with its three faces, two calm and one covered again.
“You will not be destroyed,” the Tribunal said. “Destruction would only be another imbalance. You will wait, at the edge of all things, until you learn why you were made.” It set the Anti-Monitor in the dark between realities and turned away. Behind it, a hundred restored universes began, slowly, to live again.
The verdict
The Living Tribunal wins
The Anti-Monitor has devoured countless universes, but the Living Tribunal exists to keep cosmic balance, cancelling every wave of destruction, and answers only to the One Above All.
- Cosmic balanceThe Tribunal cancels every attack with an equal creation.
- AuthorityIt ranks above almost every being in either multiverse.
- JudgmentIt restores what the Anti-Monitor destroyed.
How the rematch could go differently: An Anti-Monitor who fed on enough universes before the Tribunal noticed could grow beyond the balance it maintains.
Who do you think wins?
Who would win in a fight between The Anti-Monitor and The Living Tribunal?
The Living Tribunal wins. The Anti-Monitor has devoured countless universes, but the Living Tribunal exists to keep cosmic balance, cancelling every wave of destruction, and answers only to the One Above All.