Wherefore Anti-Monitor?

I just checked out the preview for the latest issue of Brightest Day, and I've got to say... I really dig the "new" Anti-Monitor.

The Anti-Monitor is a strange beast. He was created as the antagonist of the original Crisis and really only made sense in opposition to the Monitor. But the Monitor died, and the Anti-Monitor endured. He keeps showing up, and he continues to be important to many aspects of the DCU, from the Hand of Creation to the Black Power Battery.

How exactly does that happen? How does a character created solely to be the antithesis of another character become the star? Nobody cares about the Monitor, and he's barely relevant without the Monitor. But the Anti-Monitor doesn't seem to want to go away.

I mean, he's even gotten a costume redesign! It combines elements of the first two Anti-Monitor outfits, but streamlines them into something that doesn't look as silly as either of them.

And make no mistake: the Anti-Monitor is silly. He's a bit ridiculous (okay, maybe more than a bit). The concept is utterly ridiculous, but for whatever reason he continues to endure. He's become a starring player with central role in the history of the DC Universe -- and he doesn't seem to want to go away.

For the life of me, I can't figure out how it happened. The Anti-Monitor just keeps coming back. And nobody seems to understand why.