Peacemaker (comics)

Peacemaker
Peacemaker from Blue Beetle (vol. 7) #7 (November 2006), art by Cully Hamner.
Publication information
Publisher	Originally Charlton Comics, now DC Comics
First appearance	(Smith) Fightin' 5 #40 (November 1966)
Created by	(Smith) Joe Gill (writer) Pat Boyette (artist)
In-story information
Full name	- Christopher Smith - Unknown - Mitchell Black
Team affiliations	(Smith) Checkmate Shadow Fighters (Unknown) League-Busters (Black) LAW
Abilities	(All) Peak of human physical condition, body armor, flight pack, communications helmet, advanced military weapons

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 (Nov. 1966), and was created by writer Joe Gill and artist Pat Boyette.

The Peacemaker first appeared as a backup series in Charlton Comics' espionage-team title Fightin' 5 #40 (Nov. 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 the 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).

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.