Christopher Smith (New Earth)

This is my job and I'm damned good at it. If I wasn't, I wouldn't be here risking my life and the lives of all the innocent prey! I'm Peacemaker... And I'll kill to keep the peace!

— Peacemaker ^src

Peacemaker (real name: Christopher Smith) is a peace agent and vigilante driven by an extremist form of pacifism which makes him love peace so much that he would kill for it. Tortured and miserable, the obsessed vigilante worked with various organizations for his mission, including Project: Peacemaker and Checkmate.

History

Early Life

Christopher is the son of Austrian industrialist Wolfgang Schmidt and American author Elizabeth Lewis. He was born in New York City, but raised in Austria.

Raised in a privileged socio-economic class, all his wants and needs were attended to by a loving mother and dedicated household staff. Christopher attended the Augustan Institute, a private preschool outside of Vienna, where he was shown to possess an I.Q. in the top three percent of his peers, and comments from his teachers on school records spoke of a bright, inquisitive, well-adjusted child.

Despite his father's past in the Nazi military being revealed to the public, Christopher was too young to fully understand the seriousness of the situation. On Christopher's 5th birthday, his father committed suicide in front of the boy. which traumatized him. This trauma would go on to define both his life and his relationship with his father.

Unwilling to live with the notoriety surrounding her husband's past, Elizabeth returned to the United States with her son, changing their surname to "Smith". The trauma of separation from familiar surroundings, coupled with the sudden loss of his father, had an immediate and very profound effect on the child. Settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was enrolled in the prestigious Wyman School, where the staff psychologist, aware of his family history, observed him to be "withdrawn and sullen, uncommunicative with the other children, and showing a lack of interest in joining their games or participating in simple socialization," a completely different child to the one enrolled in the Augustan Institute two months prior.

Christopher began to act out his suppressed aggression in this new environment. Physically larger than the other children, he became a bully, provoking fights regularly. By the age of 8, Christopher was considered unmanageable by his teachers. The school's psychologist failed to recognize the boy's deeper difficulties and categorized Christopher as a "problem" child, attributing his emotional difficulties to a lack of discipline, encouraging Elizabeth to take the child more firmly in hand.

At the age of 10, Christopher began seeing Dr. Daniel Billings, a child psychologist, although with little success. Christopher's difficulties would only worsen during his adolescence. His behavior forced his mother to send him to a variety of schools, all of which he attended between suspensions which were inevitably followed by dismissals. He began to have run-ins with the law and it was only through the influence of his mother's family that he avoided prosecution for a series of juvenile crimes. It is also possible that Christopher was a member of a youth gang for a time during this period.

He began to see visions of his father in an SS uniform, speaking directly to him. Wolfgang urged Christopher to excel in academia in order to be worthy of his legacy, and he did.

The Vietnam War

The day he turned 18, Christopher enlisted in the U.S. Army. The Vietnam War was in its final days when Sergeant Smith was assigned for his first tour.

During the 10th month of his tour, Christopher led a scouting mission on a small village that was suspected of harboring North Vietnamese personnel. Christopher followed routine until the villagers were together and then, urged on by the voice of his father, Christopher opened fire upon the defenseless men, women, and children. Several other soldiers, believing that an attack had been launched against them, also shot into the assembled villagers. The massacre took 34 lives. No evidence was ever found to support reports of an enemy base in the village. As he was in charge of the unit, he was made the sole scapegoat. A court-martial sentenced him to 20 years to life in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. His mother died while he was in jail.

Project: Peacemaker

Christopher was given parole, provided that he worked with the U.S. government on Project: Peacemaker, an elite secret police force that fought terrorism. Urged on by the voice of his father, Christopher accepted and excelled in his training. The program was shut down before it could start, but Christopher was freed anyway.

Christopher returned to Austria to head his father's business. He changed the main production lines, from ammunition and weaponry to household appliances. Now a millionaire, he lived the life and eventually settled in Switzerland. He founded the Pax Institute in Geneva, a charity dedicated to helping war victims. In the capacity of chairman, he started his own version of Project: Peacemaker. He wished to achieve his goal of peace in two ways: in his civilian guise with the charity, and as the masked hero Peacemaker. Peacemaker, a one-man army with high-tech weapons, became an important part of his life, and his father's spirit kept harassing him to become more and more extreme. His mental illness also became worse, as he thought the souls of those that he could not save lived in his helmet.

During the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Peacemaker battled the Anti-Monitor's Shadow Demons in Philadelphia alongside Cyborg, the Vigilante, Wildcat, and the Son of Vulcan.^[1] During the battle, Peacemaker suffered a debilitating head injury. The damage to his brain may have pushed him over the edge into insanity.^[2]

Government Service

After the Agency figured out his secret identity, Peacemaker was shanghaied into service. Agency chairman Valentina Vostok used his services, and saw to it that he went to therapy with Dr. Bridgette D'Abo to temper his psychological problems.

During this time, Christopher's mental illness reached new lows, beginning to lose touch with the world around him. If no mission were forthcoming, Christopher would invent an enemy in his mind and, regardless of this imagined foe's true loyalties, he would pursue his victim with a frightening single-mindedness. Such victims included Dave Winston, the third Vigilante, whom he gunned down in cold blood, prompting Adrian Chase, the original Vigilante, to redon the mask and avenge his fallen friend. Working alongside Harry Stein and the Agency, the Vigilante was able to help subdue Peacemaker.

Following his capture, Christopher was transferred to Agency facilities. Recommendations suggesting his difficulties as a field operative were ignored, in spite of the overwhelming evidence of his instability, and further psychological reconditioning was performed upon him. Primary among the concerns of his "programmers" was the elimination of the delusions concerning the souls of his victims residing in his helmet. They immediately recognized that it was a hindrance to his work, yet realized that this delusion also served as a self-created "escape valve" for his guilt and fears. Without that, he might well become paralyzed with self-doubt at a moment of crisis. To replace his delusions, the team elected to implant a suggestion in Christopher's mind that enabled him to verbalize his fears when the pressure began to prove too great for him.

After the Agency was dissolved, Peacemaker briefly worked for Checkmate. After that, Amanda Waller recruited him in the Shadow Fighters. Their mission was to rescue a girl in Parador. The Shadow Fighters fared badly against Eclipso, who had taken over the country. While piloting a helicopter, Peacemaker was brought down. The entire team was reported killed in action.^[3] Smith's apparent spirit showed up in Purgatory during the Day of Judgment.

One Year Later

Years later, now much more mentally stable, a somehow resurrected Christopher Smith stumbled upon the tomb of Kha-Ef-Re when he was fighting Intergang. He discovered some alien tech belonging to the Reach. He courageously downloaded the Reach's infiltrator program into his mind. After seeing the horrible images of what an infiltrator could do, he set out to El Paso to see the person that the programming was meant for, Jaime Reyes.

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

Other Characteristics

Mental Disorder: Peacemaker suffered from bipolar disorder and possibly schizophrenia, believing that the souls of the people that he killed inhabited his helmet and spoke to him. He was also plagued by hallucinations of his dead father egging him on to violence. When he resurfaced years later and encountered the Blue Beetle, Peacemaker's mental illness was no longer in evidence.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Body Armor: Peacemaker's uniform is actually highly flexible bulletproof fabric.
Helmet: Peacemaker's bulletproof helmet is able to produce a sonic burst that can leave enemies temporarily deafened.
Jetpack

Transportation

Fighter Jet: Personal fighter jet with missiles, machine guns, and an AI autopilot.

Notes

Peacemaker was created by Joe Gill and Pat Boyette, first appearing in Fightin' 5 #40. However, the New Earth version of Peacemaker first appeared in History of the DC Universe #2 by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez.