In the 2021 film The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker claims he loves peace so much he’s willing to kill every man, woman and child to ensure it. This hypocritical attitude is played for laughs in the movie, but the character’s original comic book origins justify his sometimes extreme approach.

Peacemaker began life as a superhero for the now-defunct Charlton Comics, as a part of its Action Heroes line meant to capitalize on the success of Marvel Comics’ superhero success in the 1960s. Peacemaker was just one of many superhero characters introduced by Charlton at this time, in addition to Blue Beetle, Captain Atom and the Question. Later on, Charlton went out of business, and its superhero characters were acquired by DC Comics. Peacemaker has been a part of the DCU ever since, although largely on the periphery until very recently. Before being portrayed by John Cena in The Suicide Squad movie and his eponymous TV show, Peacemaker was perhaps best known to most comics fans as the inspiration for the Watchmen character Comedian.

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Peacemaker’s first appearance was in 1966's Fightin’ Five #40. Written by Joe Gill and drawn by Pat Boyette, the story introduces readers to Christopher Smith,  a character quite different from the Peacemaker of today. A diplomat described as “an envoy to the Geneva arms conference... a man dedicated to peace,” Smith arrives in an unnamed South American country being ravaged by a senseless war. There he discovers that it’s all the result of arms dealer and war profiteer Emil Bork making a fortune selling weapons to the locals. Seeing no diplomatic solution with such a man, Smith dons the garb of the Peacemaker, resorting to violence to prevent further violence, and stopping the war by killing Bork.

It may seem counterintuitive for a self-described lover of peace to resort to violent tactics, but Peacemaker’s methods do make a kind of sense when looking at this original story. By eliminating one war profiteer, Peacemaker successfully prevents a war that would have resulted in the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, more. Before he joined the Suicide Squad, Peacemaker's initial origin presents “the dreadful waste of human life in senseless conflicts between nations.” When taken in the context of when the story was originally published - during the height of the Vietnam War - it’s easy to see the logic behind the original character’s philosophy. His peace-loving ways also made more sense given that Peacemaker mainly used nonlethal weaponry in his adventures, as opposed to his modern incarnation as a gun-toting vigilante.

Peacemaker may be hypocritical in his attitude of committing acts of violence to preserve peace, but his first appearance in the comics presented it in a way that made sense, considering the context of the times.

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