Peacemaker is the name of a series of superheroes originally owned by Charlton Comics and later acquired by DC Comics. The original Peacemaker first appeared in Fightin' 5 #40 (November 1966) and was created by writer Joe Gill and artist Pat Boyette.
The original Peacemaker is Christopher Smith, a pacifist diplomat so committed to peace that he was willing to use force as a superhero to advance the cause. For a time, the Peacemaker serves as a U.S. government agent under the auspices of Checkmate, a special-forces unit, hunting down terrorists until his own behavior becomes too extreme. He eventually crashes a helicopter to destroy tanks controlled by the supervillain Eclipso and is reported dead.
An unnamed man took up the mantle of Peacemaker as a member of a U.N. sanctioned group put together to take down Justice League International called the League Busters. This Peacemaker only appeared for a couple of issues before disappearing entirely.
The third Peacemaker was Mitchell Black, a surgeon, who was recruited by the "Peacemaker Project", an organization unaffiliated with the Pax Institute and the US government's "Project Peacemaker". Black would reappear in the miniseries titled The L.A.W., reunited with the other Charlton Heroes.
He was the inspiration for The Comedian from Watchmen.
He made his live-action debut in the DC Extended Universe in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad portrayed by John Cena, followed by his own series titled Peacemaker (also created by Gunn) on HBO Max. The character also appears in video game Mortal Kombat 1 as a Guest Fighter and will next appear in the anime Suicide Squad ISEKAI.
Peacemaker provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Christopher Smith's peace-through-violence efforts were the result of a serious mental illness brought on by the shame of having a Nazi death camp commandant for a father.
- Accidental Child-Killer Backstory: Mitchell Black was once a surgeon who performed a risky surgery on a seven-year-old boy against the objections of the boy's parents. When the boy died from complications from the surgery, Mitchell had his medical license revoked. He joined the Peacemaker Corps to atone for his actions.
- Anti-Hero: He grew so committed to peace, he eventually decided to enforce it by becoming a vigilante and killing those who stand in its way.
- Arsenal Attire: In the original Charlton incarnation at least, almost every element of his costume was some kind of explosive or incendiary, though he was never shown actually using these.
- Boxed Crook: When he served in the Vietnam War and participated in killing a civilian village, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He earned early release by participating in the Peacemaker project.
- Chest Insignia: A dove in front of a yellow shield.
- Cool Helmet: That he believes holds ghosts within it.
- Cool Plane: Owns a fighter jet to get around with.
- Hearing Voices: He hears the ghost of his Nazi father urging him to violence.
- Hypocrite: He's so dedicated to achieving peace that he'll kill people to get it. Think about that.
- Knight Templar: He's so committed to peace he was willing to use force.
- Legacy Character: There have been three people to use to the Peacemaker name, Christopher Smith, an unnamed member of the League Busters, and Mitchell Black.
- Nazi Grandpa: The '80s revival of Peacemaker rewrote the lead character's backstory so that his father was a Nazi war criminal who escaped prosecution and lived for decades under an assumed name. He (the father) killed himself the moment his secret came to light, and his family changed their name from Schmidt to Smith to distance themselves from him.
- Noodle Incident: Chris has had a lot of offscreen adventures between his series and when he showed up as a Blue Beetle supporting character, and often makes offhand references to them.
- Sanity Strengthening: Between Chris Smith being presumed dead and reappearing in the Blue Beetle book, he's mellowed out and is in a much better headspace.
- Seen It All: A Running Gag in Blue Beetle is all the Noodle Incidents he's been involved in.
- The Mentally Disturbed: Chris Smith is a mentally unstable pacifist who believes that the ghosts of the people he killed, or who were killed in his vicinity, are collected inside his helmet and can offer him advice and commentary.
