Friday, January 29, 2010

Well, Peacekeepermaker's Helmet was good for something after all.

OK, the other day I mentioned that the Manhunter figure, that I'm never going to get, should come with a Peacekeepermaker mask as an accessory. Why, you may ask? Readers of Eclipso may remember that both Manhunter and Peacekeepermaker were killed in a failed assault on Eclipso; Manhunter turned out to be a sub in over his head, but Peacekeepermaker was dead. (I don't think that's been reversed yet, like a few other deaths there: Creeper was killed there, and had to dig himself out of his own grave.)

In his first storyline, mysterious collector and reclusive actress Olivia Vancroft wants Mark Shaw's Manhunter mask for her wall of masks. Vancroft hires the shapechanging assassin Dumas to get it for her, and hiring an assassin for a basic theft may not have been a great choice, since Dumas proves overzealous and goes after Shaw and his family. To protect them, Shaw offers Vancroft his mask, but she tells him that Dumas' code of honor won't let her cancel a job. Before he leaves, Vancroft asks Shaw to put on his mask, perhaps not realizing the sensors in it would reveal her secret...

Shaw returns later, as Manhunter, to blackmail Vancroft: she and Dumas are one in the same; Dumas being his male identity, and Vancroft his idealized woman. Unfortunately, Shaw forgot one important detail in his plan:

Shaw was already outmatched, but now on Dumas' home turf he doesn't have a chance. Dumas offers him the chance to kill himself, but Shaw declines, deciding to fight it out. He realizes the collection is Dumas' mask, and starts to destroy it, luring Dumas into the open for the kill:

I'm willing to bet Shaw picked the Peacemaker mask because it's a big, metal lump; and not for the irony. Dumas dies, and Shaw leaves both their masks in the collection: unlike a lot of masked heroes, Shaw has no particular attachment to his. It's just a mask. In a nice touch, he leaves his mask with three of DC's prior Manhunters'.

From Manhunter #4, "Through the Mask" Written by John Ostrander and Kim Yale, pencils by Doug Rice, inks by Kelley Jones.

Researching for another post, I realized on this and Peacemaker's other post, I started typing his name as Peacekeeper halfway through. No one appeared to notice, which should tell you all you need to know about him.

6 comments:

Sea-of-Green said...

Ostrander always did have a flair for writing this kind of story. I still think his Spectre stories are among the best stories DC has ever produced.

SallyP said...

Ostrander is an amazing writer. I may have to pick this up.

CalvinPitt said...

Was Peacekeeper the guy with guns, tatoos, and a motorcycle who acted as a mentor to Jaime Reyes in Blue Beetle? I thought I read that somewhere.

Could be a different Peacemaker, though. I don't remember if this fellow mentioned dying, or faking his death.

googum said...

Yeah, I think BB's Peacekeeper is a different guy, than the old one with the helmet. Just as well, the old one was a nutter.

I should've put in the link to the Peacekeeper post, but I'd linked it before, and lazy...

Anonymous said...

Now I want to go back and read those old Ostrander Manhunter issues. Were those ever collected? I know I have some of them, and I remember that exchange with Dumas, but I have no idea where the comics are. A long box in a closet. Ugh.

tlyoung88 said...

I'd love to get a black and white scan of that Olivia Vancroft drawing on the letters' page of number 4. Surprised no one has uploaded it, but I don't have photoshop and can't lighten the image due to newsprint aging.