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. Response and last-minute changes 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 and that the Dove had allowed him to see so many futures as to conclude "No matter the future they fought him but never became him", making Hank Hall and Dawn Granger the only two heroes Monarch could not be. They were the only characters shown in this situation, and thus any of the other major characters could have been Monarch without creating a continuity issue. 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".