"The Suicide Squad" brings a whole bunch of fascinating, little-known DC characters to
the silver screen.
One of them is Peacemaker, a warrior who loves peace so much, he'll kill to protect it.
His story only gets weirder from there -- and we're here to break it down for you.
First things first: Who is Peacemaker?.
The central idea of Peacemaker is that he's an incredibly devoted pacifist — so committed
to the cause, in fact, that he's willing to hurt countless people to achieve it.
That's right: He will wage war to win peace.
"He loves peace.
And he's willing to kill to get it.
And that's pretty much it."
Though there are a few different incarnations of the character, Christopher Smith, his original
incarnation, is the Peacemaker most fans know, and the one relevant to "The Suicide Squad."
Smith was once a spy who worked to promote the cause of world peace by sneaking into
various countries to fight warlords and dictators.
He debuted in issue number 40 of "The Fightin' 5" way back in 1966, as the back-up story,
and then continued in his own comic ... which lasted all of five issues.
Peacemaker was created by Charlton Comics' heavy hitters Joe Gill and Pat Boyette.
Though many of their other characters have gone on to fame and fortune, Peacemaker hasn't
been quite so lucky.
Though some undoubtedly loved him, he ended up being a lesser-known superhero from a lesser-known
comic book publisher ... until DC Comics purchased a huge swath of Charlton Comics characters
in the early 1980s.
While it's incorrect to say that the DC purchase brought Peacemaker out of obscurity, it did
save him from a totally trivial fate.
Having purchased Charlton's characters, DC began to incorporate them into their expansive
and frequently rebooted universe.
While characters like Blue Beetle and Captain Atom gained a new lease on life in DC's pages,
DC's attempt to revive Peacemaker wasn't terribly successful on its own terms.
DC's 1988 reboot took Peacemaker out of the sparkling Silver Age of comics and into the
grit and grime of the late '80s.
The short series pitches Peacemaker's absolute commitment to peace as a mental illness.
He suffers from extreme trauma and guilt, as his father was a Nazi concentration camp
commander.
To make matters worse, Peacemaker's father committed suicide in front of him when he
was just a child, and the moment has stuck with him ever since.
Carrying his father's guilt and traumatized by his death, Peacemaker is committed to stopping
the next Hitler by any means necessary.
If that's not enough darkness for you, consider this: This Peacemaker is haunted by the people
he's killed.
Their ghosts, including his father's, speak to him from inside his space-age bubble helmet.
Combined with his new backstory, it's heavily implied that the ghosts are nothing more than
a manifestation of his mental illness — but this fact doesn't really lessen the grim shadow
they cast over this reboot.
The 1988 "Peacemaker" reboot didn't make much of a splash.
Far and away the most likely reason comic book readers today might have heard of the
Peacemaker, in fact, is a comic book that doesn't even involve him.
We're talking about "Watchmen," the legendary comic series that is almost single-handedly
responsible for an entire generation of cynical, bubble-popping takes on the superhero.
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' inversion of comic book myth-making didn't spring fully
formed from anyone's head, though.
They used the DC-owned Charlton Comics characters as their basis for Watchmen's super-powered
fascists, degenerates and madmen.
Originally, the plan was to use the Charlton characters directly, and Alan Moore's earliest
vision of the series revolved around the mystery of Peacemaker's death.
Uncomfortable with sending the Charlton characters to such a dark fate, DC persuaded Moore into
swapping them out with original creations.
Thus, the Watchmen cast was born, with their Charlton heritage still very much intact.
The Question morphed into the deranged Rorschach.
Silk Spectre is a combination of Nightshade and Phantom Lady.
And Peacemaker became the Comedian, one of the most well-known characters of the entire
series.
Stripping away even the thinnest pretense on Peacemaker's part, Moore built a terrible
attack dog who can be sicced on anyone threatening American supremacy.
Comic creators weren't content to let Peacemaker become a footnote in future hardback editions
of "Watchmen."
The character reappeared in the late '80s, joining the DC catch-all spy outfit Checkmate,
appearing in that book and "Suicide Squad" as part of the late '80s "Janus Directive"
crossover event.
This storyline sees DC's various intelligence organizations manipulated into fighting each
other.
It's a twist-filled storyline, and Peacemaker is right in the middle of it.
Yet again, however, his run in the comics proved to be short-lived, even if he survived
that particular Suicide Squad adventure.
That said, at least he goes out in dramatic fashion this time, which is more than we can
say for his earlier runs.
In an attempt to stop the evil plans of the villain Eclipso, Peacemaker crashes his helicopter
into the villain's tanks, seemingly dying for good in a fiery explosion in 1993's "Eclipso"
#13.
For a while, it looked like someone new would take up the mantle of the late Peacemaker.
A man named Mitchell Black dons a similar costume and swipes the Peacemaker's motives
in 1999's "Living Assault Weapons" #1.
Rather than being haunted by lingering Nazi guilt, Black is a disgraced former doctor
who was stripped of his license after accidentally killing a young patient.
He soon meets the same fate as his bubble-headed predecessor, however, dying during the 2005
"Infinite Crisis" crossover event.
Because comic book logic doesn't hold to our real-world standards, it is later revealed
that Peacemaker number one, Christopher Smith, is actually still alive.
He enjoys quite a bit of spotlight in the 2000s "Blue Beetle" series, becoming a mentor
figure to young Jaime Reyes and a more self-actualized person than he'd ever been before.
Confusingly, there is yet another Peacemaker of uncertain origin running around the modern
era of comics.
This Peacemaker only shows up in 1994's "Justice League International" #65 and "Justice League
America" #90, and appears to be neither Smith nor Black.
So, who is he?
Well, he's a member of the League-Busters, who are apparently backed by the UN, and that's
all we know.
He's never shown up since.
"The Multiversity" was yet another chance for comic book legend Grant Morrison to get
weird as all get-out.
The 2014 series sees a threat from outside of DC's multiverse put the entirety of the
DC canon in danger of destruction.
In a series of one-offs and two collaborative stories, C-list superheroes from all over
the DC universe attempt to band together across parallel timelines to stop these outsiders.
These different planes of reality communicate with one another through comic books, as the
real superheroes of one timeline are fictional in others.
Peacemaker turns up in the "The Multiversity: Pax Americana" #1, set on Earth-4, an Earth
inhabited by the creations of Charlton Comics.
In "Pax Americana," Peacemaker follows his commitment all the way to assassinating the
President of the United States.
It's fair to speculate that John Cena will take Peacemaker in a different direction when
he dons the bubble helmet for "The Suicide Squad."
In a featurette for the film, Cena describes the character as:
"A douchey Captain America."
Given that punchy summation, Cena's comedic acting chops, and the outright ridiculousness
of Peacemaker's core character design, it seems likely that the movie will use his deranged
take on peacekeeping for more than a few laughs.
From a bird's eye view of the DCEU as a whole, we can't say we blame them — "Suicide Squad,"
with its gritty aesthetic and self-righteous baddies, ended up being controversial, to
say the least.
Might as well get a little goofy with the dude who kills for peace, right?
Expect Peacemaker to be the butt of several jokes, and a far cry from the deranged and
guilt-ridden Nazi descendant who chatted with the ghosts of everyone he'd ever killed.
While that Peacemaker was trying to make genuine peace in the world and with his demons, it
seems like Cena's Peacemaker will be using the olive branch mentality as a fig leaf for
heinous actions.
Oh, and you should also expect to see more of him beyond the film.
Cena will get to live on in some form thanks to a new HBO Max spinoff series, written by
the film's director and screenwriter, James Gunn.
Gunn was pretty much given free rein to do whatever he wanted with the Squad characters
for the film, and it's pretty clear DC likes what they've seen.
As part of DC Comics' line-wide event "Infinite Frontier," in 2021 "Suicide Squad" was relaunched
with Christopher Smith — the original Peacemaker — fronting a new version of Task Force X.
Amanda Waller is more ambitious than ever in the new series.
In "Suicide Squad" #5, we learn Waller's using Bloodsport to kidnap metahumans from different
dimensions, bolstering her ranks.
Peacemaker's job in Waller's plans is to help her build a team meant to rival the Justice
League — and he not only seems pleased to help, but he's just as coldblooded as his
new benefactor.
By the end of "Suicide Squad" #2, five of the team members under Peacemaker's command
are dead, and he doesn't seem to care about it any more than if they were insects he didn't
notice he'd stepped on.
He even gets trapped in Arkham Asylum during a deadly gas attack, and makes no attempt
at all to save any of the prisoners, security guards, or other staff.
All he cares about is the mission.
So far, the new comic book series has shown Peacemaker to be a fairly rare member of the
Suicide Squad.
Most Task Force X recruits would do anything to get out from under Waller's boot, but not
Christopher Smith.
In his narration to "Suicide Squad" #2, Peacemaker says he's grateful because he and Waller share,
quote, "the same mission."
Peace at any cost.
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