Mitchell Black

Peacemaker-02

Mitchell Black

## Biography

### Early Life

Mitchell Black was born of an affair between white supremacist William Heller and nurse Leslie Black. When Mitchell was very young, his mother skipped town on him, leaving him in the care of his abusive father. Mitch grew up in Evergreen, Washington, where his father enjoyed making Mitch and his half-brother Keith spar for the entertainment of other members of his racist group the Aryan Empire.

Outside of their fighting, Keith and Mitch got along very well, both sharing a love of music. However, this would come to an end, when one fight was pushed too far, and Mitch delivered a blow that proved fatal, accidentally killing Keith. Not wanting his son to suffer, William committed the only selfless act ever and took the blame for the killing and was sent to prison.

This forced his mother to come out of hiding, and Leslie came back to collect the boy, carting him off to Central City. While in Central City, he took on his mother’s last name and began living with her new boyfriend Matthew and his half-sister Amunet. Life with his mother was not much better for him, as he was constantly picked on and struggled to fit in due to the lingering effects of his upbringing.

When he turned eighteen, he dropped out of high school and enlisted in the United States Army. While in basic training, he was seen as a top cadet, however, he was caught having sex with a fellow trainee. His commanding officer took sympathy, and suggested he bury that part of himself, and chose not to report it, allowing him to stay in the army.

Upon finishing basic, he moved on to AIT and then got his PCS orders, where he was stationed in Gotham City. He found himself in Gotham City during No Man’s Land, however, he refused to abandon the city with the rest of the U.S army, faking his death to continue helping citizens. He became a close ally of the GCPD and grew close with Christopher Nakano.

### Peacemaker-02

When Nakano succeeded Jim Gordon as commissioner, Mitch was the first name on his list for his proposed Peacemaker Squadron, right in front of officer Sean Mahoney. Christopher Smith, the first Peacemaker, was recruited to the project, so Sean and Mitch were dispatched as his deputies. However, Mahoney’s violence in the field started to wear off on Black. Mahoney eventually convinced Mitch to help him bring down Anarky’s gang.

They were stopped by Smith, who got Black to turn on Mahoney, shooting him in the head. Mitch turned himself into the authorities after that and was arrested. After arriving in Supermax, Amanda Waller met with him, and made him an offer - to act as her liaison for a Task Force X mission and help her with the top-secret Project Last Line.

He accompanied the Suicide Squad on a mission to defeat the Penitente cartel, who were selling a concentrated version of Red Kryptonite. While on the mission, Black was tasked by Waller to secretly scrub evidence of the US Government’s sponsorship of the drug testing. When he was caught by Adam Cray, Black was ordered to kill the man in order to maintain the secret.

Distraught over his actions but unable to escape Waller, he accompanied a group of ARGUS agents to Evergreen to investigate a supposed Imperium Colony. When they eventually uncovered it, the leader of the agents, a privateer named Clemson Murn, revealed himself to be Martian Manhunter in disguise and talked Waller down from destroying the town.

However, the return to Evergreen awakened other demons for Mitch, as his father discovered his return. He visited him in prison, and shortly after, his father broke out, re-assembling an old, armored suit to fight his son, criticizing him for not helping him out before this. Mitch was forced to put a bullet between his own father’s eyes.

He returned to Gotham City where he discovered that his former partner, Sean Mahoney, was still up to his old actions and still sanctioned by the GCPD, now going by the name of Peacekeeper-01. He tracked down Smith and recruited him to expose the man. After getting him fired, Mahoney took the entire GCPD hostage, forcing the two Peacemakers to bring him to justice.

Since then, the two have been working as a team, and rumors are circulating that the Justice League is looking into recruiting one (or both) of them.

## Notes

* Much of Mitchell's backstory is taken from the MAX *Peacemaker* TV Show, in which this backstory is given to the original Peacemaker, Christopher Smith. However, in Earth 76, Smith's backstory is different.