In an era where hit movies and TV shows are routinely adapted from comic books, it only makes sense that we’d eventually get a comic book based on a hit TV show based on a comic book. To help promote the second season of James Gunn’s Peacemaker series in 2025, DC Comics released a five-issue limited series titled Peacemaker Presents: The Vigilante / Eagly Double Feature!, written by Tim Seeley, Rex Ogle, and Vigilante actor Freddie Stroma.
The title may be a mouthful, but much like Garth Ennis’s Peacemaker: Disturbing the Peace, released to promote Season 1, and Kyle Starks’ Peacemaker Tries Hard!, published to capitalize on the show’s surprise success, the Vigilante / Eagly Double Feature! offers fans two brand-new stories centered on Peacemaker’s most beloved supporting characters. In doing so, it helped make the long wait leading up to Season 2 a little more bearable.
Despite being a tie-in comic and crediting James Gunn as a story consultant, the series is confirmed to be non-canon to Peacemaker and the wider DCU. It’s best read as an alternate take on the show, similar to Disturbing the Peace and Tries Hard!.
Spoilers Below!
Vigilante Story – A Time for Fables
The Vigilante portion of the comic is written by Tim Seeley, with Freddie Stroma contributing Adrian Chase’s diary entries. Right away, Seeley proves he understood the assignment. His writing is consistently funny and captures James Gunn’s voice for Vigilante almost perfectly.
Adrian’s childish inner monologues and genuinely bizarre dialogue make this half of the comic a blast from start to finish. Artist Mitch Gerads also nails the look and feel of the Peacemaker TV series, blending gritty realism with comic book exaggeration and cartoonishly gory violence. Adrian Chase looks strikingly similar to Freddie Stroma, and his costume is a near-perfect match to the show. Other characters are just as expressive in their designs, body language, and facial expressions, making it easy to imagine the story playing out as an episode of Peacemaker.
The story is set in Evergreen, where Adrian Chase, the self-proclaimed “Living Symbol of Justice,” continues his one-man crusade against local criminal gangs. After stopping by Peacemaker’s trailer to hang out for the night, Adrian discovers that his best bro isn’t home. A quick phone call reveals that Peacemaker and Eagly are on a plane to Alaska for a much-needed vacation… which Peacemaker forgot to tell Adrian about.
Rather than telling the truth, Peacemaker lies. What could possibly go wrong? Right?
Using his incredible powers of assumption, Vigilante concludes that Peacemaker has been kidnapped by a shadowy supervillain known as The Controller, who runs all the local crime syndicates and commands an army of robots in disguise. Totally reasonable.
Despite Peacemaker’s desperate fake pleadings for Adrian not to rescue him, Vigilante launches a one-man rescue mission that only a complete moron or a total lunatic (or both in Vigilante’s case) would attempt, which quickly devolves into a spectacularly violent and unhinged rampage through Evergreen’s criminal underworld, filled with escalating chaos, absurd twists, and hilariously misplaced confidence.
MONTY PYTHON THEMSELVES WOULD BE PROUD OF VIGILANTE’S SENSE OF REASONING.
Deep Cuts for Vigilante Fans
One of the biggest surprises is the inclusion of Cannon and Saber, bodyguards to rival crime bosses Withers and Scarapelli. Their designs are intentionally ridiculous—one looks like a knockoff Power Ranger, the other like a rejected G.I. Joe figure—and their names don’t even match their weapons. But surprisingly, both characters are canon Vigilante villains from the character’s original 1980s run by Marv Wolfman and Paul Kupperberg. Their inclusion is a great deep cut for longtime fans.
Withers and Scarapelli themselves are also classic Vigilante adversaries, reimagined here as more pathetic and quirky than genuinely threatening. Several other obscure foes pop up throughout the story, making A Time for Fables feel like both a loving tribute to Vigilante’s cult-classic comic history and an accessible introduction for new readers. Even The Controller—who never physically appears—is a real Vigilante villain, complete with his robot army.
Freddie Stroma’s diary pages are the cherry on top, offering hilarious insights into Adrian’s mindset, including how he finances crime-fighting with a limited budget, why he works as a busboy, and what he believes makes a “good sidekick.”
Overall, Seeley’s Vigilante story is funny, violent, and deeply affectionate toward the character, and it should more than satisfy fans of the show.
Eagly Story – Peaceful Vacation
Rex Ogle’s Eagly story follows Chris Smith/Peacemaker and his beloved eagle companion as they vacation in Alaska, hoping to reconnect as partners after a rough mission fighting some Nazi Lizards. That plan quickly derails when their plane is gassed, and the passengers wake up in the wilderness—only to be hunted by members of the League of Assassins in a twisted survival exercise inspired by The Most Dangerous Game.
The assassins are a legitimate threat to the rapidly shrinking band of unarmed civilians… at least until they’re forced to contend with a semi-competent anti-hero in a bright red suit and his hyper-intelligent eagle sidekick with really sharp talons. Peacemaker and Eagly step into the role of protectors, turning the hunters into the hunted.
The story is fun and fast-paced, with raunchy dialogue and a lighter visual tone thanks to Matteo Lolli and John Kalisz’s brighter, softer art style. However, it’s hard not to feel a bit underwhelmed by the premise. Despite the title, this is less an Eagly story and more a standard Peacemaker adventure with Eagly in a supporting role, helping out by clawing bad guys’ faces off.
Unlike the Vigilante story, this one is never told from Eagly’s perspective, nor does it meaningfully explore his character. There are no deep-cut cameos from the wider DCU other than the League, nor any expansions to Eagly’s backstory and mythos. Just generic ninja assassins and a fairly straightforward plot, despite starting off with the heroes fighting a bunch of Nazi Lizard men. That’s peak comic book craziness right there!
It’s possible Ogle avoided doing anything too bold knowing Season 2 would expand on Eagly’s role, especially with Gunn serving as a consultant. Even the continuity connection to the Vigilante story, Chris and Eagly’s Alaska trip, is loose at best, likely due to different creative teams and minimal coordination.
That said, Peaceful Vacation is still an enjoyable read from start to finish. It just doesn’t live up to the promise of being a true Eagly-centric story.
THIS IS WHERE THE EAGLY STORY PEAKED FOR ME IN TERMS OF CRAZINESS. BUT EVERYTHING ELSE AFTER WAS STILL GOOD FUN.
Final Verdict
Peacemaker Presents: The Vigilante / Eagly Double Feature! is a very fun five-issue limited series that successfully captures the crude humor, hyper-violence, and chaotic energy of the HBO Max series. While the Vigilante half is clearly the stronger and more character-driven of the two, both stories offer entertaining additions to the Peacemaker corner of DC Comics.
Here’s hoping this isn’t the last time DC gives characters from Peacemaker the comic spotlight.
