PEACEMAKER BEFORE D.C. COMICS OWNED THE CHARACTER

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog will look at the Charlton Comics hero Peacemaker BEFORE DC Comics bought him and changed him. 

PEACEMAKER

Secret Identity: Christopher Smith

First Appearance: Fightin’ 5 #40 (November 1966)

Origin: American diplomat and scientist Christopher Smith was a noted pacifist in his public persona but was secretly affiliated with the Pax Institute’s covert operations arm in Geneva, Switzerland.

When peaceful solutions to an international situation hit a dead end, Smith donned the costume of his alter ego Peacemaker, who used violence against global dictators and other aggressors to nip potentially larger conflicts in the bud. 

This hero’s adventures were every bit as focused on Cold War situations as early Marvel Comics stories were in Iron Man and the The Hulk. 

Powers: Peacemaker was in peak physical condition and was a master of armed and unarmed combat. He designed and tested his own weapons in his secret “Peace Palace” lair in the Swiss Alps. Peacemaker’s action outfit included body armor, a jetpack for flight, plus a helmet for protection AND for radio communication. This hero’s weapons included his powered laser gun and the sonic beams shot from his helmet.

Comment: Peacemaker was the model for the Comedian in Watchmen, but the original Charlton version was neither the violent maniac of Watchmen nor the buffoonish character from recent movies and television shows.

FIGHTIN’ FIVE Vol 1 #40 (Nov 1966)

Title: Introducing the Peacemaker

Villain: Emil Bork, Arms Dealer

Synopsis: Diplomat Christopher Smith is in his car in Geneva, Switzerland being briefed about international arms dealer Emil Bork by his secretary Miss Blair. The weapons merchant has agents in two fictional South American countries egging on their war so that Bork can make more and more money. Two agents of Bork try to kill Smith and Blair but fail.   

The following day Christopher attends an embassy dinner in Geneva, at which Bork and Smith needle each other. Smith dons his Peacemaker outfit and assembles his weapons, then flies out to Bork’s mansion in the Alps. Bork’s private army tries to kill Peacemaker but he outfights them all.

He then interrogates a defeated mercenary and learns that Emil has just flown off for South America to exacerbate the war between the two nations he is profiting from. Our hero flies off after Bork’s overhead jet but the villain fires a missile at him. Peacemaker damages it with his laser but the missile still goes off with him in the blast range.   

FIGHTIN’ FIVE Vol 1 #41 (Jan 1967)

Title: The War Peddler

Villain: Emil Bork, Arms Dealer

Synopsis: Peacemaker was close enough when the missile went off that he is stunned and plummeting from the sky.

He recovers just in time to avoid splatting into the ground and flies off back to his HQ. Once there he pilots his U-X Jet to South America. Eventually he arrives in the Andean country that Bork flew to.

Turning back into Christopher Smith, our hero uses his Pax Institute pull to attend a U.S. Embassy function that night where Emil Bork and his agent General Lecoyo are guests. Before long he must again become Peacemaker to stop Bork and his men from setting off a bomb in the embassy and framing the other warring country for it.

Bork escapes in an attack helicopter and flies for the latest battlefield between the two countries. Peacemaker flies after him and manages to immobilize both armies. Emil fires four missiles at our hero, three of which he takes care of and the last one hits Bork’s copter, killing him. The war ends in peace.

PEACEMAKER Vol 1 #1 (Mar 1967)

Title: The Killer on the Reef

Villain: The Commodore

Synopsis: Christopher Smith is sent to cool tensions among ships from several nations. They are fishing in the same waters and all the ships are suffering escalating acts of sabotage putting their home nations  on the verge of war. When the ship that Chris is on suffers from explosions he becomes Peacemaker and follows the scuba diving saboteur.

The scuba diver works for a villainous marine biologist calling himself the Commodore. He considers himself the owner of the seas and says nations must now deal with him for maritime and fishing rights. He can also control sharks, but Peacemaker defeats them. On board the Commodore’s nuclear sub our hero takes down the crew and captures the Commodore.

Title: The Hidden Power

Villain: Comrade Marshall

Synopsis: At a diplomatic party, Christopher Smith is insulted by the ambassador from a Soviet Puppet State in the Balkans. Smith learns from his superiors that the Balkan country is getting belligerent with NATO nations and he is sent to investigate. As Peacemaker he pilots his aircraft to the Balkan state.

Our hero uncovers a network transporting enough uranium to the small country to enable their vast nuclear weapons facilities hidden from aerial recon. Peacemaker traces the uranium smuggling operation to its originating end – a secret Antarctic base and uranium mine run by the Balkan state’s Comrade Marshal. Peacemaker attacks the illegal base, defeats the soldiers, destroys the facility and captures the Comrade Marshal.

PEACEMAKER Vol 1 #2 (May 1967)

Title: The Survivors

Villains: The Survivors

Synopsis: Christopher Smith’s inspection of a Soviet nuclear base seems to discover that the USSR is cheating on its arms limitation treaties. As Peacemaker he investigates further and instead learns that workers whom the Soviets were using as slave labor to mine uranium were mutated into shape-shifting monsters calling themselves the Survivors.

The Survivors have allied themselves with a subterranean race which possesses futuristic weaponry and plan to jointly conquer the entire surface world. Peacemaker thwarts those plans and seemingly destroys the weapons and buries the tunnels in a massive cave-in.

Title: The Ultimatum

Villain: Premier Gekk

Synopsis: Smith and his new secretary (no name given) are on hand when Gekk, the premier of a fictional nation, threatens to invade the U.S. with his advanced jets, missiles, etc. He gives America an ultimatum to surrender or he will start a nuclear war.

In the days before the ultimatum expires, Peacemaker goes John McClane behind the scenes, sabotaging Premier Gekk’s forces to the extent that Gekk completely backs off and surrenders to avoid any more loss of face than he has already suffered.  

PEACEMAKER Vol 1 #3 (Jul 1967)

Title: Our Future World

Villains: Dr. Lucetti and his Fishmen 

Synopsis: Christopher Smith is enjoying a beach vacation with his new girlfriend, brilliant scientist Gerda Hain. She is abducted by Fishmen on two legs. Chris becomes Peacemaker and follows them all to a futuristic underwater city. Gerda is the latest brilliant person to be seized by the city’s creator – Dr. Enrico Lucetti.

He is a mad scientist who is convinced a nuclear war is inevitable and he is forcing great minds to join him in this underwater lair to survive the war. He also turned human prisoners into his army of Fishmen.

Peacemaker saves Gerda and the other captives, wipes out the Fishmen and thwarts Dr. Lucetti’s imminent launch of missiles to provoke war between the U.S. and Soviet Union. Lucetti kills himself rather than be captured. 

PEACEMAKER Vol 1 #4 (Sep 1967)

Title: The Hostage

Villain: Colonel Uz

Synopsis: Christopher Smith hires the beautiful blonde Nora O’Rourke, former FBI agent, as his new secretary.

She proves she is capable of handling herself by defeating a thug sent by international arms merchant Colonel Uz to kill Smith. He tells her about his father being a military officer and his mother being a brilliant scientist. 

They hit if off so well, in fact, that he shares his double identity as Peacemaker with her.

When they go up against Colonel Uz again our hero and Nora prove to be quite a duo and successfully defeat the colonel, then go on to destroy his enormous cache of weapons.

PEACEMAKER Vol 1 #5 (Nov 1967)

Title: The Fire World

Villains: The Lavamen

Synopsis: Nora O’Rourke is on hand doing secretarial work this issue but does not get to see any action, unfortunately. An underground race of volcanic monsters called the Lavamen, no relation to the Avengers foes of the same name, begin attacking the surface world in an attempt to take over.

Peacemaker tries to help stop the invasion, but armies fall before the Lavamen’s advance. Ultimately, Washington D.C. itself is under attack. Our hero leads U.S. forces in at last stopping the creatures, driving them back underground and blocking their entrances.

PEACEMAKER Vol 1 #6 (Jan 1968)

NOTE: This issue was scheduled for January ’68 but the series was canceled first. It saw print years later in black & white only.

Title: The Golden Pharaoh

Villain: The Golden Pharaoh

Synopsis: A modern-day Egyptian supervillain is convinced that he is an ancient pharaoh reincarnated. He has an army of thousands and a gold pyramid headquarters in the Sahara Desert. He has invented individual flying devices with high-tech weapons which his men have been using to steal gold from the U.S. and other nations.

Now his flying squadrons have attacked the Ural Mountains hiding place of the Soviet Union’s gold reserves. Peacemaker arrives in time to help fight the aerial legion but they still make off with much gold. While Peacemaker attacks the villain’s Gold Pyramid HQ, Nora O’Rourke gets kidnapped by the Golden Pharaoh’s forces and our hero’s “Peace Palace” is destroyed by them.

Peacemaker fights his way inside the Gold Pyramid and while confronting the Golden Pharaoh learns that the villain has caused chaos in the international gold market with his massive thefts. War is on the verge of breaking out among the nuclear powers and the Golden Pharaoh plans to lead his forces in conquering the post-nuke world. He will run a global empire held at the level of ancient Egypt.

Peacemaker turns the tables and thwarts the villain’s plan. He tries to kill his hostage Nora but she uses judo to take him down. He goes on trial and Christopher Smith contemplates rebuilding the Peace Palace.    

CHARLTON PREMIER #3 (Jan 1968)

Title: Too Many Happy Endings

Villain: Sinistro the Boy Fiend

Synopsis: Muscular Jack Biceps, a teenage prodigy, decides to use the incredible genius he gained due to electric shocks to help organized crime leader Hymie Schultz battle superheroes.

Sinistro uses his inventions to distract heroes from a really big heist that Hymie’s gang is pulling off.

Peacemaker, Blue Beetle, the new superhero Green Spider and others fall to the Boy Fiend’s technology only for the Schultz gang’s caper to be thwarted anyway. 

CHARLTON PORTFOLIO (Jun 1974)

NOTE: This black & white item collected assorted stories and artwork from unpublished tales of the Charlton Comics superheroes. Peacemaker, Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, E-Man and others were included.

The untitled Peacemaker material was very short and started out with hostile X-Forces attacking Geneva, Switzerland from the air.

Conveniently, it happened right after our hero was flying around testing his improved, much faster jetpack and more powerful laser & sonic weaponry. Peacemaker single-handedly turned the tide of battle against the aerial invaders.