In Peacemaker: Disturbing the Peace, Peacemaker/Christopher Smith undergoes a psych eval (he’s applying for a spot on a “new team”, whatever that is) in a military cemetery where he relates his bloody life story and warped personal philosophy of justice to a psychiatrist. Disturbing indeed…
I still haven’t seen the James Gunn Suicide Squad movie or read many comics featuring Peacemaker, so I don’t really know much about the character besides picking up through the cultural ether that he’s struck a chord with many people, so now we have more comics featuring the guy, like this one-shot, and he’s got his own HBO series that just started a couple weeks ago.
But I am a Garth Ennis fan and he’s (usually) at his best when writing military comics so I hoped this one would be a banger - and unfortunately it’s not. It’s a snorer.
Death seems to follow old Chris from childhood on: his birth parents, his foster parents, his varied and increasingly secretive roles in the army, right up to wearing the funny helmet (which he doesn’t put on in this comic, except on the cover). It reads quite flat and I don’t see why people seem to respond to this character - he comes off as a second-rate Punisher with a similar but more trite reason for his namesake (he gives people/makes “peace” - durr…).
I’m definitely not a fan of Garry Brown’s sketchy art either. It’s serviceable for the comic but not very appealing and doesn’t elevate Ennis’ uninspired script any either.
My sense of why people like Gunn’s Peacemaker is that he’s a fun and funny chap but you definitely don’t get that here, which is odd because Ennis can write that kind of character but chooses to play it straight here. As it is, the comic is very forgettable and unimpressive. It’s not terrible or totally boring, but I found Peacemaker: Disturbing the Peace to be underwhelming and I’m not sure who it would appeal to.
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