Action-Hero Figures!

The success of the Peacemaker TV show did yield some positive results for me in the toy department. I'm not a big collector of dolls, but I never thought I'd see an action figure for Peacemaker. 

The Peacemaker figure came as part of trio which also featured the purely DC hero Vigilante and the Charlton version of Judomaster. 

The Charlton Comics "Action Heroes" were purchased by DC as a present of sorts for then editor Dick Giordano who had overseen their creation (for the most part) while at Charlton. 

(Note that neither Nightshade nor Judomaster are mentioned by name on this poster.)

DC was in the midst of the infamous "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and while dusting and ordering the DCU, they decided to add in Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, Nightshade, Peacemaker, Thunderbolt (for a time until they realized Pete Morisi actually owned the rights), and Judomaster. Well, Judomaster was the hardest to fit since his adventures had taken place in WWII alongside his partner Tiger. Possibly it's the costume, which is the Japanese Rising Sun, but for whatever reason Rip Jagger didn't get much play. 

(Nhut Le as Judomaster)

Then Peacemaker got a TV show and who should show up but Judomaster. He is named Rip Jagger but is not as far as I know a WWII veteran and that makes sense since the Peacemaker is a far cry from Pat Boyette's original as well. The "Judomaster" in the TV show was small in stature and wore green. Curious character and interesting enough save for the tag. 

This is the classic Judomaster as McLaughlin envisioned him. I'm not aware that this likeness has been done as a toy before. I had to snap the trio up and they rest now on my wall safely ensconced in their original packaging. (Of course.) Why they made this change (likely lack of communication) but the Dojo approves. Though the irony that it happens in a line dubbed "Super Powers" since the classic Judomaster famously has none. More on Judomaster next month. 

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Peacemaker - Kill For Peace!

I'm very happy to see DC putting out reprints of the Charlton Comics material they inherited when they absorbed most of the Action Heroes way back in the 1980's. They've reprinted most all of the relevant Steve Ditko material, but other artists have been largely ignored. A prime example is the great Pat Boyette, who co-creation with Joe Gill, the Peacemaker finally finds a modern audience. The reputation of the Peacemaker was sullied when first Alan Moore mocked the character with the creation of the Comedian in the pages of Watchmen. Later DC took the actual Peacemaker and made him insane. The Charlton Peacemaker might be unusual and provocative, but he's far from insane. 

The Peacemaker appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths, but it was in the pages of Vigilante that DC really broke the character, so much so that I really had little interest at the time. 

Above are Peacemaker's two cover appearances in the magazine, though he featured in many more stories. In all of them he's so off his nut that he makes the bloodthirsty Vigilante seem rather tame by comparison. Perhaps that was the point. The gritty heroes of the era were often hard to root for. Peacemaker in these issues is fully off his rocker and imagines that the ghosts of those he willfully and gleefully kills are nesting in his over-sized helmet. 

When he finally gets a limited series of his own, the madness is changed some, and he's presented as still crazy but more functional. I'll have more to say on this in a later post. 

Checkmate was the series most closely linked to Peacemaker as he became an operative for the outfit. He was more of an independent contractor but did get drawn into the larger plotlines for a time, including a period when the series crossed over with Suicide Squad. 

In the pages of Showcase 93 Peacemaker joined forces with Deathstroke and others to combat the forces of Kobra. 

It was in the pages of Eclipso that Peacemaker joined forces with other marginal DC characters to battle the dark menace. It was in these pages that he, for a time, died. But as we know death in comics is far less certain than in the real world. 

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The Peacemaker - The Golden Pharoah!

The Peacemaker #6 was never published. The Action-Hero line folded, its architect Dick Giordano move on over to DC, and Charlton returned to its focus on genre comics like ghosts, romance, and war.

But the Peacemaker story for issue #6 was written by Joe Gill and fully illustrated by Pat Boyette with Dick Giordano credited as editor. And those completed pages have been floating around the internet for several years. Here are those pages. Enjoy the "final" issue of Peacemaker.

 

And that wraps up the Peacemaker saga as it might've been at Charlton Comics. That we have this story in any form is a real treat. The artwork by Boyette looks especially crisp and you can really detect where the presses at Charlton somewhat muddied his work.


These reports have been a real joy to put together. They make me really read the stories closely with a real attention to detail. I'll have some comments to make on DC's handling of the character soon.

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