When the highly anticipated DC movie The Suicide Squad debuted in early August 2021, it did not disappoint. The superhero-comedy is loaded with action, some shocking violence, and plenty of humor. One of the movie’s standout characters is Peacemaker, played by John Cena. Peacemaker was introduced to the Suicide Squad comic in 1989 ready to fight in the name of, well, peace.

While The Suicide Squad has been generating positive reviews, Scoop talked to comic artist and writer John K. Snyder III about the character. Snyder, who provided the Suicide Squad art when Peacemaker was introduced, recounted what he enjoyed about the title and his impression of Peacemaker. (Early Peacemaker art and modern covers below.)

Scoop: How did you get involved in working on Suicide Squad?
John K. Snyder III (JKS): It started with a phone call from writer John Ostrander asking if I would be interested in drawing Suicide Squad, and it sounded like fun. I had been happily working for independent comic companies for about four years at this point, it was my first work for DC Comics.

Scoop: What did you like about creating the art for that title?
JKS: It was great to have the opportunity to work with John Ostrander and Kim Yale. I had met John along with Tim Truman back when they worked together on Grimjack, and I loved that title. John was a great writer and Kim was clearly having a blast on Suicide Squad. The concept of the book with these lower tier supervillains sent on these action-packed Dirty Dozen-style missions offered to me a freedom to go wild with layouts and design. I wanted the characters to go flying all over the page even bounding outside of the borders, to accompany the far-reaching storylines. It was great fun. And I got to work with really talented guys, Pablo Marcos, Karl Kesel, and Geoff Isherwood, along with my editors Robert Greenberger and Dan Raspler.

Scoop: What was your first impression of Peacemaker?
JKS: John had a funny take on him, John Cena called it when he describes Peacemaker as a “douchey Captain America.” That’s pretty much how I thought of him, this one-track mind juggernaut, a one-man wrecking machine, but with John’s sense of humor.

Scoop: What artistic choices did you make for the character that you’d say had the strongest impression?
JKS: I wanted him to bust out of the page as much as possible, just wreaking havoc as he went along, he was always going full steam. And that helmet! 

Scoop: How does the art style and tone differ from what you did with Peacemaker and the Suicide Squad versus now?
JKS: Oh, I was still new to it all and still learning. The scripts were packed with so much action and so many characters, and the production schedule went so quickly, that I had this kind of uninhibited approach to go wild with the layouts and proportions. For the recent covers I did, it was more of capturing the look of the new movie, the details of the actors and costumes, but I still tried to get that feeling of fun that I had with my time on the series.

Scoop: What’s it like to see a character you contributed to in his earliest days translated to the big screen?
JKS: First off, I want to say it looks like James Gunn has clearly tapped into what John was doing with the series and it is a blast to see that same sense of fun and dark humor played out in such spectacular fashion. I’ve worked on a number of characters and projects over the years, and I guarantee you that Peacemaker was one that I never dreamed would become a bid screen star, and I love it. And I love that he and the Squad are up there on the big screen complete with John in a cool cameo, it brings back all the fun and it’s a joy to see. And it was a pleasure to have the opportunity to do a couple of new Squad movie-related covers for DC, too.