Peacemaker Tries Hard #1 – Comic Book Reviews

Introduction

Peacemaker Tries Hard Number one came out this week on DC Black Label and introduced a great new character to the DC Universe. 

Peacemaker is finishing up a job for Amanda Waller, taking out a terrorist cell like you do, and this magnificent French bulldog runs in, having been a stray that had been hanging out with the terrorists. Peacemaker just falls in love. He instantly bonds with this dog. 

Meet Bruce Wayne

The dog has some markings on him that kind of look like a tuxedo shirt, and so he thinks of the fanciest guy he can think of, and that’s Bruce Wayne. So he names him, what do you know? Bruce Wayne. They bond pretty instantly. Even on the car ride home, the dog kind of crawls in his lap and curls up and we sort of see Peacemaker melt. He has this moment where he’s reflecting on like the love he didn’t get as a child and the love he’s getting unconditionally from this dog now. It’s kind of a great moment. It seems like we’re trying to kind of thread the needle between the traditional Peacemaker who’s a bit of a fascist and TV Peacemaker, who is a bit more John Cena, let’s be honest. I think they’re doing a pretty good job of it here.

They get home, the two of them are bonding. Everything is great. Peacemaker comes home from the store one day to find a ransom note and no Bruce Wayne. He’s been instructed to go to the sewage treatment plant, so of course he goes instantly. He’s ready to take out whoever he needs to take out to get Bruce Wayne back.

He gets there and finds out that it’s none other than the Brain and Mallah who have written this ransom note and are trying to get his help. I don’t really have time to go into everything about the Brain and Mallah, but feel free to Google them. It’s kind of a weird, wonderful story that I don’t have time to cover in a Peacemaker comic review. 

We find out that the Brain is looking for a new body. That’s kind of a thing. He’s a disembodied brain right now, uh, kind of always and is always looking for a new body. He wants peacemakers help to do that, and really that’s all peacemaker needed to hear. They say that they need him and he feels wanted and needed.

There’s a great scene that where we sort of figure out that he probably would’ve helped them out for free. And by free I mean like not with under duress, not trying to rescue his dog. He would’ve just helped him out because they made him feel wanted. They instruct him as to whose DNA they need to get to make this body. And I’m gonna leave that as a spoiler because you need to read the book.

Final Thoughts

It’s setting things up spectacularly for the next few issues. I think it’s really gonna be great. I think the confrontation and the fights that are coming are gonna be great. It’s real interesting that they are, you know, I mentioned this earlier, it seems like they’re trying to kind of like rehab the peacemaker a little bit and make him a more likable character.

He’s still kind of a tool and they’re not shying away from that in the book, but they are giving him some redeeming qualities and they’re making him seem likable and at the end of the day, we see he just wants to be loved and really isn’t that all any of us want, it’s very relatable. 

Definitely go pick up Peacemaker Tries Hard. This is the time to jump on, but it’s a great read. It’s gonna be really fun, and you get to read about a dog who doesn’t love reading about a dog. Anyway, if uh, you’ve got any other thoughts on this or anything I’ve missed, feel free to leave comments below.

UPDATE

I wouldn’t normally cover 2 issues of a comic in a row, but after reading Peacemaker Tries Hard #2,, I couldn’t help myself. Poor Chris is just having a tough time. Go read my review to find out why