Құпия Король: 2001 жылғы Армагеддон оқиғасы

"Armageddon 2001" was a 1991 crossover event storyline published by DC Comics. It ran through a self titled, two issue limited series and most of the annuals DC published that year from May through October (Legion of Super Heroes Annual #2 did not tie in to the storyline). After the event, there were two limited series, Armageddon: The Alien Agenda #1 4 (which was a direct sequel) and Armageddon: Inferno #1 4 (which was only tangentially related). Each participating annual explored potential possible futures for its main characters. The guiding hands behind the series were editor and writer Dennis O'Neil, writer Archie Goodwin and artist Dan Jurgens.

Monarch was an oppressive tyrant from a bleak, dystopian Earth 50 years in the future. The people were unhappy with his rule, particularly a scientist named Matthew Ryder, an expert on temporal studies, who was convinced he could use his technology to travel back in time and prevent the maniacal ruler from ever coming to power. He learned that in the late 20th century one of Earth's superheroes had become evil. In the year 2001 this hero had killed all of his comrades, assumed the identity of Monarch, and began his rise to global domination. Because Monarch always appeared in a suit of full body armor his prior identity was unknown. Chosen by Monarch to take part in a time travel experiment, Ryder traveled back to 1991, the year in which the series was published, and 10 years before Monarch's massacre of Earth's heroes. Ryder was determined to find out who the Monarch really was and, if possible, kill him before he could rise to power. As he travelled through the rift, his body mutated into a form of living temporal energy, and upon arriving at his destination, he took the name Waverider.

Waverider used the superhuman abilities he gained during his transformation to peer into several possible futures of different members of various superheroes in the DC Universe, seeing where they would be in the year 2001, when Monarch's rise to power began, but he was unable to pinpoint exactly who would become Monarch. After several attempts, he began to rethink his approach. However, Waverider accidentally came in physical contact with Captain Atom, unleashing a storm of temporal energy that opened a gate to the future through which Monarch emerged. Monarch, it seems, had been monitoring Waverider's every move in the past ever since he left the future and merely waited for the perfect time to travel back and stop him from erasing his existence.

In Hawk and Dove Annual #2, Waverider looked into Hank Hall's future to see him fight and die at the hands of Monarch in 2001. The Dove's power interacts with Waverider's, allowing him to see a multitude of futures to the point Waverider comments "No matter the future they fought him but never became him"; Waverider finally touches both Hawk and Dove to see their daughter Unity alter Monarch's mind. In Armageddon 2001 #2, in a subsequent battle with the Justice League, Monarch retreated, taking Dawn Granger, the current Dove, with him. Hank Hall (the Hawk), who was also a captive, watched as Monarch killed the Dove in front of his own eyes. Being created as two beings whose natures were supposed to be in balance, Hank became enraged when his partner's pacifist nature could no longer contain his warlike spirit. He beat Monarch to death, only to learn the horrible truth: he was the one who would be the Monarch of the future. Upon seeing Monarch's dead body and the device he was building to enslave humanity, he mused that Earth would need someone to keep the balance, so he put on Monarch's armor and continued building his machine. Eventually, the Justice League found him, and Captain Atom, feeling guilty he let Monarch slip through the timestream in the first place, decided to fight him one on one. The battle caused Atom's energy and Monarch's suit to clash, creating a portal that sent both of them back in time to the Age of Dinosaurs.

When hostile aliens encounter Monarch and Atom in the past (sometime between 230 and 65 million years ago), they attempted to enlist both (without either's knowledge) to assist them in creating a wormhole. The wormhole's creation would destroy the universe in which the primitive Earth existed, but would allow the aliens to freely travel. The creation of the wormhole hinged on a sophisticated, bowling ball shaped "trigger". Captain Atom next causes an explosion on the primitive Earth, which propels both him and the trigger forward in time to Emperor Nero (A. D. 54 68) era Rome. Monarch strikes a bargain to retrieve the trigger if the aliens agree to place him back in his own time. Monarch allows the aliens to place him in stasis with an alien companion and a device that will awaken them when it senses Captain Atom. Once awake, Monarch follows Atom through Nero's Rome, the "Old West" (approx. late 1890s), and finally into World War II (estimated near 1945 as they are testing atomic power). In the World War II era, they stumble onto an atomic test (which Atom is aware of, but Monarch is not) and Atom is blasted into the present, while Monarch's fate is left unknown.

At some point during the crossover it was revealed Captain Atom would be the hero who became Monarch. The conclusion of the Annual for Justice League Europe, the final crossover issue before the conclusion of the story, seemed to confirm this leak. Waverider had seen the futures of various Justice League Europe members but had not scanned Captain Atom, who was away at the time. The final panel of the issue showed Waverider about to touch Captain Atom, who had just returned, and a text box stated that the story would be concluded in the second issue of Armageddon 2001. In response to the leak, the originally intended ending was changed at the last minute: Monarch was revealed to be, not Captain Atom, but rather the Hawk. The problem with this reveal, as many fans pointed out, is that Waverider had seen Hank Hall fight and die against Monarch

This revelation was extremely unpopular among both fans and professionals , in part because of the continuity issue mentioned above and the disregard for the clues placed in previous issues. Additionally, it required Hawk to behave in ways that many felt to be out of character This also made it impossible to continue using either Hawk or Dove as they had in the past and necessitated the cancellation of the Hawk & Dove series. Karl Kesel, the writer of Hawk & Dove, commented that "Hawk and Dove was always a love story. Then one day, Hawk went insane and murdered Dove". A storyline in JSA later revealed that the ending of Armageddon 2001 had been faked by Mordru. He had created an illusion of the Dove being murdered by a future Hawk/Monarch in order to drive the current Hawk insane. He then took control of Hawk and used him to impregnate Dove so she would give birth to a child that would inherit all the powers of the Lords of Chaos and Order. Mordru cast a spell on Dove that kept her in a comatose state for years. She did give birth to a child, but before Mordru could possess the child's body, it was instead inhabited by a reincarnated Hector Hall who aged the body to adulthood and thus caused it to become the new Doctor Fate. Much later, while searching for his wife Lyta, Hector would discover Dove and bring her out of Mordru's spell, revealing the truth of these events. She would then discover that her sister had inherited Hawk's powers after the death of Hank Hall .