Writer: Kyle Starks / Penciller: Steve Pugh / Colour Artist: Jordie Bellaire / Letterer: Becca Carey / Design: Darran Robinson / Editors: Matthew Levine, Chris Conroy / Collects: Peacemaker Tries Hard! (2023) #1-#6 / HC / DC Comics (Black Label)
Review by Paul Dunne
26th April 2024 (Released: 6th February 2024)
The Pitch: Having earned his release from the Suicide Squad, Peacemaker wants to try to do normal superhero stuff for a change. Unfortunately, everyone - including the bad guys, thinks he sucks at superhero stuff. But when busting up a terrorist ring introduces Christopher Smith to the cutest puppy to ever walk (awkwardly) on four legs, he finds the unconditional love he's been denied his whole life...until the dog is kidnapped by a super-villain with some very un-super-heroic plans for Peacemaker's brand of ultraviolence. Will he help an unstable criminal steal the world's most valuable--and dangerous-- DNA? Honestly, Christopher's pretty lonely, so it probably just depends on how nicely they ask...
We seem to want to have our cake and eat it with right-wing patriots and political parties that lean right. On one hand, we want to lampoon them and Treat them like idiots, on the other, we want them considered very real threats to humanity and freedoms. Also, within this, we may also have to accept that what we're calling humanity is just a coded term for 'Western Civilisation'. And that in itself also has more than one meaning. America seems to want to view itself as a Frontier nation even now, so the nature of the Western as an art form that has informed so much of our entertainment must also be questioned. American heroes want to be outlaws, but they want to wear white hats and be applauded for it.
Applause is important to a character like Peacemaker. And that makes him the perfect way to comment on these politics and movements that have probably been with us, unnamed for years, but all feel like a product of the Social Media age. Although he wears a helmet, he's not content being a masked man. He wants you to know when he saves the world, even if he does it by mistake. It might seem strange to be talking about right-wing politics and national identity when discussing a book that is an obvious and outright comedy. But I don't write the books, I just write about 'em and I'll be damned if this laugh-riot doesn't also have things to say. Peacemaker is the classic 'Free Thinker' who can't really think for himself except to follow his own impulses and desires. The reality is that he needs a mission, a purpose given to him by others, a boss, a commander-in-chief. Deep down, he's thrilled this French brain-in-a-jar and his heavy machine gun-toting talking Gorilla have kidnapped his new canine BFF. It gives him something to do and somewhere to point his anger. John Wick? More like John Dick, amirite? Sorry, low-blow. But if you read the comic, you'll understand why even that is a high-water mark for humour as far as Christopher Smith is concerned.
This is very much Cena's Peacemaker. Starks finds the HBO show’s tone sits well with his own and plays that to the (no pun intended) max. The character lives in the whirlwind, whilst the writer points us to it and says ‘Look how insane this is! Of course, you should laugh at it!’. Starks and Pugh cover a lot of ground beyond the absurdity of blind patriotism. Ageism, sexism, and Incel culture all get a look-in. Starks and Pugh want our empathy here as much as our judgment. They seem to be pointing out the loneliness that lies at the core of society. But they also point out that there needs to be responsibility for one’s actions. And that can’t be a bad thing. If all this sounds too weighty, don’t worry. Starks and Pugh don’t forget they’re making an entertaining DC Comic. I last remember seeing The Brain and Monsieur Mallah in the Silver Age Doom Patrol reprints, so I felt an absolute joy seeing the world’s most inadequate villains appear as the central bad guys in this, along with another Doom Patrol villain, one whom the term ‘Old School’ could be aptly applied to… Ah, you’ll get there. Suffice it to say it’s not long before the whole thing turns into The Boys From Brazil, written by Ira Levin's idiot brother. And that is a beautifully funny thing to see.
Asshole dads.
Starks and Pugh use the bonkers DC Silver Age as a mirror for Peacemaker's nonsensical credos and politics. But Starks never forgets to put the heart in. He reminds us that Christopher Smith was made this way by his asshole Dad and underneath it all, there's a sensitive little boy with no friends who could actually do with some attention. But also, there's no end of people to remind Smith that he is a dickhead. Pugh's art is clean and comical. Something of a chameleon, art-wise, Pugh's painted style gets put on hold here, replaced with a more expressive cartoon look that plays off Starks' script nicely. Bellaire's colours embrace this, keeping bright and fun, but getting deep into that newsprint, silver-age look where needed. Becca Carey's letters play the humour out perfectly, really selling the lines and genuine surprise of Christopher Smith that things aren't going his way. He may seem hapless, but underneath it all, we can't forget there's a highly competent killer. Even if he does love dogs.
Peacemaker Tries Hard HC is available now.
