The people are unhappy with his rule, particularly a scientist named Matthew Ryder, an expert on temporal studies, who is convinced he can use his technology to travel back in time and prevent the maniacal ruler from ever coming to power.

Chosen by Monarch to take part in a time-travel experiment, Matthew Ryder travels back to the DC Universe of 1991.

As he travels through the rift, his body mutates into a form of living temporal energy, and upon arriving at his destination, he takes the name Waverider.

Eventually, however, he accidentally comes into physical contact with Captain Atom, unleashing a storm of temporal energy that opens a gate to the future through which Monarch emerges.

Eventually, the Justice League finds him and Captain Atom, feeling guilty that he let Monarch slip through the timestream in the first place, decides to fight him one-on-one.

The battle causes Atom's energy and Monarch's suit to clash, creating a portal that sends them both back in time to the Age of Dinosaurs.

After being thrown back to the middle of the Triassic Era, Monarch and Captain Atom encounter hostile aliens who attempt to enlist each one separately and without the other's knowledge, to assist them in destroying the Milky Way Galaxy for their own ends.

In an experiment in the 1960s, Nathaniel Adam is housed in a shell of alien metal, under which an atomic bomb is detonated, propelling him into the "quantum field".

In the quantum field, the real Adam meets the original Monarch, Hank Hall, who is revealed to have become trapped there after the events of Armageddon: The Alien Agenda.

In return for helping him escape, Hall sends the Monarch armor back to Nathaniel Adam in the quantum field.

miniseries, Monarch joins forces with renegade Green Lantern Hal Jordan (at this time known as Parallax), in a bid to reshape the timeline of the entire universe.

He confronts Waverider and absorbs him and most of his time-warping abilities, giving him the power to travel through time as he pleases, and renames himself Extant.

[1] In the course of the battle against Earth's heroes, Extant kills three veteran members of the Justice Society of America: the Atom (Al Pratt), the Hourman (Rex Tyler), and Doctor Mid-Nite (Charles McNider) by ageing them to death.

It is eventually revealed that Monarch's true plan is to control the world via genetic implants he inserts into people under the guise of healing them.

The Knights fit Atom with an updated version of the Monarch armor in order to contain the radiation leaking from his breached skin.

He then apparently kills the rampaging Major Force by absorbing his energy, and, after the city has been evacuated, triggers a vast explosion, completely obliterating what was left of Blüdhaven.

He approached Lord Havok of Earth-8 to be his second in command, and while the warlord initially said no, he later appeared to change his mind as he was seen leading Monarch's armada.

After Monarch destroys the Captain Atom Brigade, he absorbs their power and takes his newly formed army to war with the Monitors.