Charlton 〉Peacemaker, The
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.
PUBLICATION HISTORY
The Peacemaker first appeared as a backup series in Charlton Comics’ espionage-team title Fightin’ 5 #40 (November 1966). When that series was canceled with issue #41, the Peacemaker received his own title that lasted five issues cover-dated March to November 1967, with Fightin’ 5 as a backup series. Some of penciler-inker Pat Boyette’s artwork for a projected sixth issue later appeared online.
Following Charlton Comics’ demise in the mid-1980s, DC Comics acquired The Peacemaker and released a four-issue mini-series (January–April 1988).
FICTIONAL CHARACTER BIOGRAPHY
The 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. He uses an array of special non-lethal weapons, and also founds the Pax Institute. Most of the villains he goes up against are dictators and warlords.
Smith later learns that his 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. He believes his father’s spirit haunts him continually and criticizes his every move, even as he tries to live down his past.
Becoming a particularly deadly vigilante who would kill at the slightest notice, he begins to believe 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. 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.
His soul shows up in the realm of Purgatory in the Day of Judgment series. A team of heroes has shown up to recruit the soul of Hal Jordan. The guardians of Purgatory do not like this and Peacemaker, along with other dead vigilantes, rally and provide enough of a distraction so the group can return to Earth.
Peacemaker later appears in the Doomsday Clock series, partaking in the battle on Mars against Dr. Manhattan.
