The 2023 DC comics miniseries Peacemaker Tries Hard opens with a meta-gag that has so many layers, you may get a nose-bleed before you manage to dig down to the bottom of it. The initial scene of the first issue, written by Kyle Higgins, sees a young hipster couple in a supermarket, discussing their disappointment in the news that their favourite comic, Tales of the Black Freighter, is going to be adapted into a movie. They discuss how writers often mistranslate core characteristics when jumping from page to screen; while simultaneously at the checkout, the musclebound Peacemaker, in full costume, argues with a cashier who doesn’t recognise him.
The first level of this gag is that until James Gunn plucked Peacemaker from obscurity for one of the lead spots in the 2021 DC anti-hero movie The Suicide Squad, most folks really didn’t have a clue who he was, including most of the comics-reading audience. The character first appeared in titles published by Charleston Comics in the 1960’s, alongside the likes of Blue Beetle, Captain Atom and The Question. When DC bought Charleston in the 1980’s, many of those characters achieved success across solo titles and as members of the fan favourite Justice League International, but Peacemaker remained largely on the sidelines, only making a small number of appearances over the following 3 decades, all of which I managed to completely miss.
This was a gift to James Gunn in 2021, who was able to take the core concept of an obscure character (a man who is prepared to do anything for peace, even kill) and mould brand new characteristics on top which would showcase the physical and comedic skills of the action superstar John Cena. The result is a satirical jab at the alpha-male; a steroid pumped jock with low intelligence and even lower self-awareness, and with a moral compass so overpowering that he can be manipulated to cross the line into villainy in the name of the Greater Good. Even for all the liberties taken by the filmmakers, it’s doubtful that there was any fanbase of the original that was overly disappointed by the translation, and the end results worked spectacularly well.
The subsequent TV show in 2022 provided Peacemaker (aka Christopher Smith) a redemption arc for his previous misdeeds; maintaining the adult humour and hyper-violence of the movie, but balancing it with a poignant back story and genuinely sympathetic supporting cast, to thoroughly entertaining and satisfying effect. A year later, DC comics closed out the circle by lifting this new characterisation and tone for Peacemaker, and publishing an out-of-continuity 6-issue miniseries, Peacemaker Tries Hard; packed with laughs, action, and no small amount of heart. Even the depiction of Christopher by veteran artist Steve Pugh is a spot-on recreation of the musclebound appearance of Cena (to the extent that I’d suspect likeness rights had to be signed-off).
It’s a really entertaining read, managing to be both childish and adult, obscene and poignant, while celebrating and subverting a number of classic DC characters. Speaking of which, it’s an open secret that when Alan Moore initially approached DC comics in the 1980’s with his pitch for the seminal mini-series Watchmen, it was originally intended to star the recently acquired characters from Charleston. When DC refused permission to use them, Moore translated the characters to thinly disguised analogues; Blue Beetle became Nite Owl, Captain Atom became Doctor Manhattan, The Question became Rorschach, and Peacemaker became the ill-fated Comedian. A core narrative device within the Watchmen series was that it included extracts from a pulp Pirate-Horror comic that existed only within that universe; and the name of that comic was… Tales of the Black Freighter. Like I said at the start, it’s a heck of a gag.