Warning: contains spoilers for Unstoppable Doom Patrol #5!As Peacemaker gains unprecedented power in the DC Universe, fans just got a look at the armor he’d get if he could persuade Iron Man to upgrade his arsenal. Tony Stark may have an ego even Peacemaker would struggle to match, but one area where he’s unfailingly generous is constructing armored suits for his friends. Everyone from Captain America to Spider-Man to Mister Fantastic has rocked their own Iron Man armor at one time or another, and even some DC heroes like Green Lantern has gotten their own versions during Marvel and DC’s rare crossovers. Now, Christopher Smith gets as close to joining that club as is ever likely to be possible.
Unstoppable Doom Patrol #5 (by Dennis Culver, Chris Burnham, Brian Reber, and Pat Brosseau) sees Peacemaker take on the titular team. Now working alongside the US military as Amanda Waller’s agent, Peacemaker takes on the rogue supervillain Metawoman, whose extreme powers are raging out of control. It turns out that cozying up to power has its rewards, as Peacemaker orders in two gigantic mechs to blast his target to pieces. The mechs are impressively customized, with versions of Peacemaker’s helmet and his dove of peace emblem, as well as Iron Man-style palm-blasters.
Peacemaker’s Mechs Turn Him into an Evil Iron Man
Strangely, over at Marvel, Iron Man is currently also facing giant mechs based on his armor. The billionaire human-supremacist Feilong has bought out Tony’s inventions and company, and is now using his tech to attack Iron Man and the X-Men with Stark Sentinels based on the Iron Man armor. As DC’s metahuman population explodes following the Lazarus Planet event, causing random people to manifest unexpected powers due to their genetics, the Doom Patrol has ironically taken on a role similar to the X-Men, running a secret facility where metahumans can safely learn to use their powers.
The similarities between the X-Men and Doom Patrol are unlikely to be a coincidence – Stan Lee was accused of ripping off Doom Patrol to create Marvel’s mutants in the first place, and Unstoppable Doom Patrol seems to be deliberately getting its own back, while adding in a huge dose of the surrealism and body horror that define the DC team. The gigantic Sentinels have long been a part of X-Men lore (though their Iron Man upgrade is new), and it makes sense that Unstoppable Doom Patrol is using the authoritarian Peacemaker to fill that role. However, giving Peacemaker his own mechs will have wider consequences for the DC Universe.
Peacemaker’s Upgrade Serves Amanda Waller’s New Mission
As established in Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths and Dawn of DC Primer, Amanda Waller has an ambitious new plan to kill all DC’s superheroes, with Peacemaker acting as her chief (but not only) agent. While he’s currently occupied going after random metahumans, Peacemaker’s military contacts have vastly expanded his power and potential, and it won’t be long before he’s unleashed on the Justice League and their allies. When that time comes, Peacemaker will need every weapon he can get, and with the introduction of his Iron Man-style mechs, it’s clear nothing is off the table as he continues his grim evolution to become one of DC’s most consequential villains.
Unstoppable Doom Patrol #5 is available now from DC Comics.
