Today, we look at the first meeting in the comics between the TV gun buddies, Peacemaker and Vigilante.
In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.
As I assume you know (but obviously, what do I know about what you know?), Peacemaker was not originally a DC character. He debuted at Charlton Comics, along with other notable characters like Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, The Question, Nightshade and Judomaster.
The heroes made their DC debut in Crisis on Infinite Earths #6 (by Marv Wolfman, George Perez and Dick Giordano), as the other heroes ran into the heroes of this new Earth...
But obviously, at the end of Crisis, there was just one Earth and the Charlton characters were merged in with everyone else. So what happened next?
HOW PEACEMAKER DEBUTED IN THE POST-CRISIS DC UNIVERSE
People didn't have to wait long for the Post-Crisis Peacemaker to take his first bow, as it occurred in the Summer of 1986 in Vigilante #36 (by Paul Kupperberg, Denys Cowan and Kyle Baker) , featuring this stunning Mike Grell cover that I just had to spotlight...
One way to look at the last couple of years or so of Vigilante is that writer Paul Kupperberg, whether intentionally or not (and I assume it was just happenstance) was setting up his next series at DC, the spy book, Checkmate. You see, in Vigilante Annual #2, which came out right before this issue, murder charges against Adrian Chase (for the killing of a cop) were dropped. Adrian and his lawyer, Marcia King, were ready to fly off into the sunset together while Chase's former bailiff, Dave Winston, would continue the Vigilante legacy in Chase's honor (even though Chase thinks Winston is a loose cannon, which is sort of the pot calling the kettle black, but still). As part of the trial, Harry Stein, who was involved in this case as well as being the detective in charge of a task force devoted to bringing Vigilante to justice, decided to testify that he had tampered with evidence in Chase's trial because Stein figured out that Chase WAS Vigilante and he ultimately decided that Chase was needed out there.
Anyhow, Chase and Marcia are on a plane for a post-trial vacation when, of course, their plane is hijacked by terrorists (Chase is just a trouble magnet, huh?)...
Valentina Vostok was a member of the Doom Patrol in Kupperberg's late 1970s reboot of the team and in the 1980s, she became a high-level spy for the United States government. Here, we see her debating the idea of sending the superhero Peacemaker into this hostage situation, as Christopher Smith, Peacemaker, is a bit unhinged...
Peacemaker sneaks on to the plane and starts taking out terrorists....
Dave Winston heard about the hijacking and headed out to the airport and also snuck aboard the plane. The main terrorist got away, leaving Winston and Peacemaker and Adrian behind on the plane. Adrian can tell that Peacemaker is a lunatic, but Winston doesn't realize it and when Winston grabs Peacemaker's arm...
Peacemaker murders him...
Adrian then attacks Peacemaker, totally weirding Peacemaker out, as Adrian was a hostage that he just saved, so why would he be attacking him? Peacemaker wins the fight and leaves. Adrian takes Dave's mask and vows to avenge his death, even as a distraught Marcia realizes that she has lost Adrian for good to his quest for revenge...
Dark stuff.
DID VIGILANTE GET REVENGE ON PEACEMAKER?
In the next issue (art by Tod Smith and Rick Magyar, they also do the art on the following issue), Vostok is not happy about the likelihood that if Chase hunts down the Peacemaker, the fact that Peacemaker was working as agent of the U.S. government would come out and that'd be bad news, especially since this is in the middle of the Legends event where superheroes were banned by the government...
The government also tries to take in the unhinged Peacemaker and he doesn't take too kindly to that...
Meanwhile, Stein is now out of a job for, you know, admitting to tampering with evidence, so Vostok offers him a gig working with her trying to control Chase and keep him from going crazy while they direct him to the leader of the terrorists who hijacked the plane. Stein, Vostok and Chase track the terrorist to his ship, but as they arrive there, so, too, does the Peacemaker!
Stein bravely puts himself between Chase and Peacemaker, insisting that their grudge can wait until the terrorist is taken out. They begrudgingly agree...
Chase and Peacemaker make an effective killing team together (just like in James Gunn's excellent HBO Max series about the pair)...
Chase even saves Peacemaker's life at one point. However, the terrorist leader escapes, but he is soon surrounded by Peacemaker and Vigilante, who then promptly argue over who gets to kill him!
Vigilante enrages Peacemaker by just shooting the terrorist himself. This leads to a huge brawl between the two and the news media arrives on the scene while they're fighting and Chase is unmasked on live TV in the fight!!
In the end, with the cops also arriving, Chase decides it is best that he gets revenge on Peacemaker some other time.
As you may or may not know (and which I'll be spotlighting in a future story, Vigilante never gets to make good on that threat). Stein goes to work for the spy organization known as Checkmate and actually ends up working with Peacemaker a few more times over the years.
If anyone has a suggestion for a notable comic book first, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!