VV: Peacemaker (DC Comics) Analysis
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
The Star Spangled Banner
Peacemaker, DC’s loyal patriot willing to do anything for peace.
Peacemaker is one of my favorite comic book characters, and (with his Tournament of Champions appearance awhile back) I don’t think he needs much personal introduction. He’s a badass, gun-wielding anti-hero/villain (depending on the story) who’ll do anything just to make sure the American values stand still against the storm of hate. He stands with every value, and is willing to put his life– and any criminals– on the line for it.
For context, I wanted to rehash my old research on him from another blog into a full-fledged character blog for archive purposes. This is less for any solid research (as I personally think he could be worth a full re-look) but more for contextualizing his capabilities with the research I’ve had in my backpocket for a year or so. With that being said, let’s get right into it.
Before We Begin…
Peacemaker from the Post-Flashpoint storylines especially when he began adapting his DCEU personality which we’ll reference items that parallel between both incarnations later, both in the DCEU and his extended uses in Mortal Kombat DLC. This means that we won’t be referencing from works from before the Flashpoint, meaning the original Charlton Comics Peacemaker, as he is an entirely different guy with an entirely different backstory despite the shared name and Patriot values. That’s about it!
Background
At a young age, Christopher Smith was always intended on being pushed into the face of combat, a lifestyle brought upon by his father. The careless drunkard that Chris grew up with often pushed the boy into solitude, with the only things he’d give him at a young age being the mechanisms of combat. Because of this, the boy never grew up with the right things in life, leaving to a steady decline downwards as he grew up, living in solitude from all of the people he could’ve made friends with as he couldn’t deal with anything else. This all changed, however, as the boy identified himself with the values of war as he grew up, finding a way to easily balance himself in his intentions of fighting, as his father intended, as well as allowing him to progress as a person. This lead to him adopting the idea of becoming a ‘Peacemaker’, if you will.
This Peacemaker identity lead to Christopher becoming a lawful vigilante who aspired to bring down all terrorists, aligning himself with the Spec Ops unit in the Suicide Squad as he progressed as a vigilante. This brought him happiness as he finally found people he thought he could vibe with- becoming an experienced combatant as he spent time taking down terrorists. On one of his missions after pushing away from Amanda Waller’s influence, Peacemaker took down a terrorist squad and encountered an absolutely adorable dog who looked like it had a suit on- giving it the name Bruce Wayne as he adopted it. Peacemaker thought he’d finally reached happiness and tranquility in life having a pet, a best friend accompanying him through all of the struggles he felt like he had making friends- but this hadn’t stayed forever.
After being mysteriously kidnapped when Peacemaker went onto a grocery store trip, he was brought to the Mind who manipulated him- alongside the Mind’s lover Mallah, a hyper-intelligent gorilla- under his wing by faking a friendship with the man. Invading a high-security hidden base alongside Mallah and obtaining powerful DNA that the brain wished to use in his grand villainous scheme, Peacemaker is betrayed and shot right when the two leave. This seemed to leave Peacemaker as good as dead, however he’s able to stand right back up and initiate his plan- to do anything to get back with his pet. However, while Peacemaker is at first opposed by his parole officer, once he reveals his ambition he gets help from Michael- a former superhero known as the Red Bee from the second World War.
Leading alongside the Red Bee, the two opposed the Brain, getting in the way of Colombian supervillain Snowflame along their path, as well as eventually interfering with the Brain’s plan to change his body. Travelling across the state at this rate, the confrontation leads to Red Bee finding out the truth: the Mind was the man who killed all of his comrades. While Peacemaker wanted to keep his friend safe, he takes back his dog from the Brain as Red Bee sacrifices himself to save the world from the Brain who took the form of a Chemo creature, a being of pure toxic waste given conscious thought. With Red Bee sacrificing himself with the giant wheel that the Brain wielded in the same war that killed the golden age superhero’s comrades, he left Peacemaker with a lasting message. Pushing Peacemaker into acknowledging that people were there for him, all across his life, he finally celebrates his birthday alongside all of his comrades, including the people who looked upon him before.
Developed his own lifestyle and beliefs, beyond anyone else’s influence, Peacemaker went right back to working with Amanda Waller and bringing peace no matter the cost. Fighting against people like the Doom Patrol, the Garro invasion, and many others, Peacemaker has dedicated the rest of his life to keeping the peace. After all, the ‘name’ Peacemaker is far more than just a name, it’s his goal and everything he strives for in life, even if that means war or death must come in the way to bring it.
Experience and Skill
Peacemaker is generally a very skilled fighter. Beyond being trained in combat from birth with how to wield guns and fight as well as later military and Suicide Squad work, being capable enough to take on heavily skilled opponents or large groups of enemies with just his bare hands and sheer power. Peacemaker’s experience doesn’t stop at skill, either, having fought people through insane degrees of willpower- covering himself in shit to save his dog Bruce Wayne, taking on the Demolition Crew with his sheer array of skills when he couldn’t fight or harm them, and has even taken on trained fighters like Nightwing matching him with his sheer skill or taking on large numbers of aliens or superopowered humans with his gunfire alone.
Equipment
Hero Costume
Worn by Peacemaker every day, this outfit demonstrates his pure patriotic power- symbolizing the courage of America… not really. It’s got the eagle and everything, at least. Although it offers more protection than otherwise, allowing flexible movement unlike other superhero costumes, and easy access to his weapons, the outfit doesn’t particularly protect Peacemaker’s body which can leave him vulnerable to blows.
Helmets
Peacemaker retains a large arsenal of helmets made by his father which give him several different attributes, allowing him to take on others in combat constantly with the added benefits each helmet gives. As a result of their material, every single helmet is bulletproof, allowing them to withstand gunfire without losing their capabilities of usage. Additionally, Peacemaker’s methods of using these helmets usually come in the form of verbal action or physically tapping them- which can be activated by others, unfortunately. However, with his helmets, they usually give many potent powers that likely wouldn’t hold this as a weakness. This includes helmets like…
Laser Beam
Peacemaker’s most commonly used helmet which shoots out a laser beam that can vaporize objects, destroying the Mind’s various war weapons and vaporizing them when it was first used. This weapon is potent against enemies who aren’t as strong- however, it struggles against larger opponents.
Shrinkage
With this helmet, Peacemaker can shrink down opponents which has allowed him to win every fight it’s been used in. This weapon shrinks in one’s body parts, likely incapacitating them although it hasn’t shown on-screen usage (for good reason).
Fuck Beam
This helmet allows Peacemaker to shoot out a big FUCKED! Beam that hurts opponents, throwing them around, however it doesn’t do particularly well damage to anything around him- granted, it can likely knock around opponents very easily.
X-Ray Vision
This helmet allows Peacemaker to see through one’s body, walls, and skeletons which he can turn off if need be. This allows him to see through stealth-based tactics, essentially, whether that’s hiding through walls or… hiding in a human’s body.
Sonic Boom
With this helmet, Peacemaker can unleash a massive sonic boom around him that destroys the surrounding area- completely destroying anyone around him, making it a very deadly move amidst combat. However, due to its unpredictable area damage, it’s a very unreliable weapon to use extensively in missions.
Anti-Gravity
By using this helmet, Peacemaker can fly around and fly back down to make sneak attacks on opponents. However, this is the one helmet with the big weakness where others can activate it on accident- leaving Peacemaker open to flying in the air unless he deactivates.
Human Torpedo
This helmet covers Peacemaker in an indestructible forcefield before charging him forward- allowing him to (usually) hit opponents with a really heavy blow. Although he hasn’t used much experience with it due to it being prone to accidents, the helmet has displayed immense power when used on opponents, including tougher ones.
Forcefield
This helmet covers Peacemaker in a forcefield which can withstand a few blows before closing out on its own, living a short time. This can be used to react to attacks that Peacemaker can’t dodge, or withstand more damage than he normally can survive. Peacemaker is very cautious when using this helmet- activating it even against the smallest of potential damages.
Shield
Used by Peacemaker, this shield is able to block gunfire and allows Peacemaker to defend his body when he goes into combat. It is sharp enough to cut through people which he can use to his advantage in close quarters combat alongside supportive gunfire.
Automatic Handgun
It’s a gun for his hand… yeah These all-purpose automatic handguns are powerful in many ways, having the ability to rapid-fire bullets, blast through terrorists, and general… peace making things. Peacemaker doesn’t always make use of these handguns because he finds them a bit too easy to take lives with, but they’re just generally really powerful tools amidst combat.
Desert Eagle
With this silenced Desert Eagle, Peacemaker has a weapon he can rely on at a longer range besides his automatic handgun. With this, he can take down enemies without making a sound as well as landing a lethal blow practically anywhere on the body. If Peacemaker has the right magazine, he can equip the Desert Eagle with explosive compression bullets that can blow up a target’s body entirely from the inside despite initially being non-lethal.
Dartgun
With this tranq gun, Peacemaker used it to nullify Chester Runk by knocking him out who threatened to absorb Chris into his pocket dimension before dragging him away. This allowed him to put Chester to sleep enough in order to use him for Lex Luthor’s teleportation plan in order to kill Beast Boy Starro. Peacemaker has alternatively used literal blowdarts to take down enemies, incapacitating opponents nigh-instantly with them.
Bastons
Detonation Button
For a short time, Peacemaker had his own little program while working with the Suicide Squad... I think. Waller didn’t really give me much information. When he was locking up the Doom Patrol, explosives were planted in the neck of supposed metahumans which he could detonate, most particularly Worm. This allowed him to create a detonation that was implied to have threatened Robotman, having to throw Worm into the distance before his explosion went off.
Peacehammers
Although they do literally nothing, these giant robots were used by Peacemaker alongside the military when he went all-out against the Doom Patrol. Being giant robots, they’re… big. And strong. And they didn’t do anything besides appear for a few panels to get one-shot, although it was implied that Degenerate had to be forced into an all-out aggressive rage via Beast Girl’s powers in order to take all three on and destroy them.
Car
Peacemaker (somehow) got a drivers license- where he can drive around. While his car is rather basic, it has a special detail representing his hero logo which makes it pretty easy to differentiate.
Abilities
Patriotism
One of Peacemaker’s greatest attributes is his sheer patriotism- his conviction for this country. Not only has this led to Peacemaker taking offers to fight for his country over defending his entire multiverse, pulling through intense injuries and wounds just to express his love for this country, but it has even lead to Peacemaker being recognized for his patriotism to run the US military in the Doom Patrol run. Truly, a wonderful American patriot… with nothing going bad behind the scenes. Absolutely not.
Weaknesses
Peacemaker
At the surface, Peacemaker is a very hot-headed fighter who’ll barge into any conflict willy-nilly which would naturally serve as a weakness… but he’s got a bit more besides that. Peacemaker in his early years held many issues with his attributes because he felt he was a toxic person no one liked, thus he saw himself as a lonely and incompetent person with no worthy attributes. This later changed as Peacemaker joined up with his friends in the Suicide Squad and into conflict, but with the conflict brought across the world and past experimentations it drove Peacemaker into insanity, constantly bringing flashbacks when he was reminded of the past when aliens attempted to convert his body into their own weapon. Plus, Peacemaker’s massive ego is just a gigantic exploitable weakness- such as him going out of his way to bring terrorism to the Doom Patrol because he saw himself as bringing peace by ending them. Even if Peacemaker holds the greatest of intentions, he’ll stop at nothing to bring peace. Like, stopping at literally nothing.
Feats
Overall
Became a vigilante willing to bring peace at any cost. Even eating a bucket of poop just so he can bring peace…
Participated in a galactic war alongside the Justice League and has worked under Amanda Waller in the Suicide Squad.
Has even taken on the Doom Patrol, initiating a government-controlling plot against them.
Overcame Amanda Waller and became a hero on his own time.
Has fought against the Mind, Snowflame, cults, aliens, terrorists, mutated humans, etc.
Cool helmet.
Power
Can easily take down aliens, armed terrorists, and humanoid sharks with his guns or even hand-to-hand.
Cut open a part of Swamp Thing, although Swamp Thing did not intend on fighting him. When weakened with a bio-agent and using special batons, Peacemaker could keep up with and knock around Swamp Thing
Should be comparable to other youth combatants, such as Nightwing or Red Arrow.
Peacemaker fought Deathstroke’s teen clone, although he was physically overwhelmed.
His gun could hurt Princess Nubia who fought against Medusa who should be relative to her siblings that could fight and even harm Batwoman and those adjacent.
Speed
Was able to shoot Chester Runk with his dartgun before he was sucked into his void which is stated to be a black hole which are so dense that not even light can escape their grasp.
Dodged Snowflame’s attacks with his acrobatics who was amplified by cocaine at the time (seen above).
Fought with Black Canary and outright reacted to her blows who can perceive a nanosecond interval of time and arguably move in it (3.3 - 4.3c)
Durability
Gets humiliated by Nightwing, as pictured above.
As you can tell, Peacemaker is a pretty interesting character for the context of a Death Battle given his general "average guy with equipment" status, but one I’ve always really enjoyed. I won’t dive too much into my preferred matchups or whatnot in this conclusion like I intend on in future character blogs, as I only really like Sarge and Soldier Boy and I'm just not sure if I can give an honest word to others without noting how much I dislike them. In general, though, I hope this blog reaches the right audience, since I just wanted to bring together an archive of my research on him from awhile back.
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