John Cena plays rough with his model airplanes.
The Peacemaker #2
Charlton Comics Group (May, 1967)
“The Survivors”
“The Ultimatum”
Pat Boyette is the only credit, probably the artist signing the big panel on the first story page. Even then I had to go to the Grand Comics Database to full read it. Boyette is also credited as the letter, with Joe Gill as writer and no colorist according to the GCD, but Charlton really sucked at getting the credits of their creators out there sometimes. I don’t know how accurate this info is, though this source I usually trust.
The Fighting Five: “The Canadian Caper”
Montes & Bache, Bill & Ernie respectively according to the GCD.
The link goes to a corrected scan of the book as one of the story pages was damaged. I don’t know why they have both copies still up there, but this is the fixed one.
Somewhere in Eastern Europe, Christopher Smith is investigating a supposedly no longer used mine, that for some reason is at gunpoint. Christopher goes to investigate and finds the miners have turned into shapeshifters from all the uranium and now have a plan to start a worldwide war. There is nothing about this story that makes sense. They found an underground city and somehow were able to keep the slavemasters unaware of it (no proof the soldiers are part of the shapeshifting miners), then all got the same power from uranium radiation, and I can’t even wrap my head around just how Peacemaker stops them. There are some potentials with this plot, but that requires the story to make sense. Maybe with more time, but I kind of doubt it. And what kind of name is Beel By-The By?
On to the second adventure. Another would-be dictator allows our peace envoy to see his weapons of war, convinced that he has the force necessary to take over the world if his demands aren’t met. Then Peacemaker shows his how wrong he is by blowing the whole thing up. The narration really wants you to know how much the hero hates doing this stuff…but he keeps doing it.
As for the Fighting Fi…Three, they’re at least about to balance out to four as a replacement for Irv The Nerve (really?) is chosen, and it’s Sonya, the Russian agent from the last story. Can she be trusted when the members who have both arms and eyes and aren’t dead (why not replace him as well and promote “FF2”?) find Russians operating in Canada? It’s the only story that both makes good use of the short run time and actually makes sense.
Overall, this might be a historically important six issue comic, but I don’t know if I want to make the whole thing. Peacemaker is lame and I can only assume DC had to take him with the other Charlton heroes. As for the Fighting Five…I certainly don’t mind them not being a part of the DC Universe in any capacity I’m aware of. They’re kind of bland, like the rest of the comic.
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