Who is Peacemaker? How and where to see the TV series

After being introduced in The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker returns, again played by the energetic John Cena, with a TV series set after the events of the film but which is in effect a its spin-off.



second official trailer of Peacemaker

Where to see the Peacemaker TV series

Peacemaker premiered in the United States in January 2021 on HBO Max. The series consists of 8 episodes totals. The narrative picks up exactly where it left off in the scene after the credits of The Suicide Squad – Missione Suicida (buy it in the 4K Ultra HD Steelbook version on Amazon) exploring the consequences, but not only, of the mission to Corto Maltese. James Gunn wrote all 8 episodes of the series which also includes in the cast cast Chris Conrad (Adrian Chase/Vigilante), Danielle Brooks (Leota Adebayo), Robert Patrick (Auggie Smith), Jennifer Holland (Emilia Harcourt), Steve Agee (John Treasurer).

The series is available in its entirety in Italy on TimVision starting from December 21, also dubbed into Italian.

Retrieve our article Peacemaker, review: between (gender) stereotypes and empty humor

Who is Peacemaker?

The Origins The Prototype of the Vigilante and Watchmen Peacemaker Powers and Abilities Other Peacemakers Essential Reading

The Origins

Peacemaker was introduced in the appendix at Fightin' 5 #40 (cover date November 1966) and was created by Joe Gill and Bill Montes (series editor was Dick Giordano) . If the name of the character, the title of the register and the name of the authors involved seem obscure to you, it is absolutely legitimate. In fact, the character did not make his debut under the aegis of DC but that of Charlton Comics, a publishing house that gave birth to other characters such as Blue Beetle and The Question, and which was acquired by DC at the beginning of the 80s after the failure.



Peacemaker Peacemaker's alter-ego is Christopher Smith, a diplomat based in Geneva and staunch pacifist. A conviction that will lead him to take up arms to bring peace to the most remote corners of the globe supported by the mysterious Pax Institute.

After just two adventures in the appendix to Fightin' 5, Peacemaker obtained his own regular series lasting only 5 numbers (a constant that of the brevity of many of the Charlton Comics series) then disappearing into the limbo of forgotten characters. DC will first revive the character in Crisis on Infinite Earths and then relaunch him, after some fleeting appearances in other magazines, in 1988 with a 4-issue miniseries in which his origins were also reworked. It was in fact revealed that Smith had undergone a special army program in exchange for a discount on a combined sentence after some war crimes committed in Vietnam. The cause of these crimes was dictated by a psychological breakdown caused by having seen his father commit suicide as a child after his past as a Nazi hierarch had been made public.

The prototype of the vigilante and Watchmen

The character of Peacemaker, like many of his "colleagues" at Charlton, represented, at the time of his debut, a novelty in the already vast production of American comics. In fact, borrowing certain stylistic elements from European comics (especially French), his first adventures were set in contemporary and real scenarios that took into consideration the Cold War and the growing tension between the two superpowers.

The character was from fact built on this impossible dichotomy between pacifism and violent interventionism. A dichotomy that was then taken to extremes, by inserting the psychological component, when Peacemaker was re-launched in the 80s taking as a starting point a certain war film production of the 70s and early 80s, that is, the one that wanted to explore the consequences of conflicts on soldiers especially after the tragic experience of Vietnam. It is no coincidence that Christopher Smith begins to be haunted by the "ghost" of his father and subsequently by the many people he will kill who will begin to populate his peculiar helmet or, more simply, his mind.



Peacemaker Peacemaker is in practice the outline for the archetype of the vigilante in comics. Just think of Marvel's Punisher but also other DC characters such as Deadshot (after his relaunch in the late 70s), Vigilante (again after his relaunch in the 80s) or Deathstroke. But that's not all because Peacemaker is actually the canvas for one of the most imitated characters in all of pop culture: Comedian of the Watchmen masterpiece.

All the characters in the seminal graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons are in fact based on characters from the fu-Charlton Comics and Comedian is no exception. The idea of ​​a character who, in order to bring peace and order, reaches the extreme consequences by shouldering a rifle remains in fact the link between the two characters who, however, evidently developed in a diametrically different way.



Peacemaker

Peacemaker powers and abilities

Peacemaker has no superhuman abilities but can count on her special training: she is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant and an infallible marksman. To this is added an incredible arsenal, which also includes some vehicles including jets and combat helicopters, kept in the Peace Palace or its secret base, a chalet perched on the Swiss Alps. In action, Peacemaker wears a bulletproof costume bearing a white dove, the universal symbol of peace, which is combined with various firearms also a jet pack and the characteristic helmet.



Peacemaker Her shape is dictated by the technology contained within. In fact, Peacemaker can activate an ultrasound signal which is used both to stun any opponents and to pulverize small caliber projectiles and missiles.

The other Peacemakers

Also Peacemaker, as often happens in the DC Universe and by its very nature acting in its most "espionistic" corner, it has become a generational hero, that is, other individuals after Christopher Smith have worn the helmet. Indeed Smith will perish during Eclipso #13 (cover date November 1993) then reappearing only in the third issue of the Judgment Day event (1999) as one of the souls trapped in Purgatory.

In June 1994, on Justice League International #65, had meanwhile made its debut a new Peacemaker pinned by the Pax Institute. However, the civilian alter-ego of this Peacemaker is unknown.

In the L.A.W miniseries, also dated 1999, Mitchell Black, the third Peacemaker, will make his debut. He was a surgeon who was recruited for the revived Peacemaker Project. Black, who will appear in the miniseries along with other Charlton characters, will be killed by Prometheus in the seventh issue of the Infinite Crisis event.

In Blue Beetle, the series inaugurated in 2006, another Peacemaker appears who uses both the identity of Christopher Smith and that of Mitchell Black. Even this Peacemaker in the end will not know the true identity even when he appears in the one-shot Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape.

Christopher Smith will officially return first in Pax Americana, a one-shot set on Earth-4 within Grant Morrison's The Multiversity project, and then in Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's Doomsday Clock. With the relaunch of Infinite Frontier, Peacemaker has officially joined Amanda Waller's revamped Suicide Squad.



Peacemaker

Essential Reading

Peacemaker has never enjoyed in modern era of a regular series dedicated to him. Since his official reintroduction into the DC Universe he has appeared regularly in series such as Checkmate!, Vigilante and Suicide Squad. However, it is possible to trace some essential readings to discover the character starting from Vigilante: Christopher Smith in fact appears surprisingly in numbers 36, 37, 38, 41, 42 and 43 of the series.

The first reading to recover is certainly the 1988 4-issue miniseries simply entitled Peacemaker written by Paul Kupperberg with pencils by Tod Smith in which the new origins of the character are retold, albeit in media res. The miniseries is unpublished in Italy and has never been collected in volume even in the United States, so it is advisable to throw yourself into a recovery of digital albums.

Another fundamental reading to recover is Suicide Squad Vol. 4: The Janus Directive (you can easily retrieve it on Amazon in English). This is the crossover that involved John Ostrander's Suicide Squad and numerous other series (including Checkmate!, Vigilante, Firestorm and Atom) and in which Peacemaker plays a fundamental role in the game of mirrors between the various spy organizations of the DC Universe against the terrorist organization Kobra.



Peacemaker From the first series of Checkmate! (lasting a total of 33 numbers) it is necessary to recover the second half of the series (from about number 19) or the one following Janus Directive and in which Peacemaker has a more important and central role in the events.

Doing a not inconsiderable time jump, Peacemaker is also the protagonist of two decidedly particular miniseries. The first is the recent Inferior Five, written by Keith Giffen with pencils by Jeff Lemire: it is an elseworld miniseries set in a world where the attempted invasion of Earth told in the crossover Invasion! it has been successful. The second is Pax Americana which is part of Grant Morrison's majestic The Multiversity project (you can retrieve the deluxe edition published by Panini DC Italia on Amazon) in which Earth-4 is revisited with a decidedly more "political" attitude, i.e. the one where theoretically they have home to the original heroes of Charlton Comics.

We then come to the contemporary production. Building on the wake of his cinematic debut in The Suicide Squad – Mission Suicida, DC places Peacemaker in the most recent lineup of the Suicide Squad comics: don't underestimate the new series written by Robbie Thompson with pencils by Eduardo Pansica that has ramifications for the whole new Infinite DC Multiverse, with the renewed Teen Titans and with the new Swamp Thing. You can recover the first volume on Amazon emphatically entitled Give Peace a Chance.