Now that Peacemaker has officially launched on HBO Max, audiences are starting to meet some characters that might be a bit more obscure to anyone who isn't a long-standing DC Comics fan. Peacemaker himself isn't likely all that well known by the average movie goer, other than as one of the assorted misfits that appeared in the latest The Suicide Squad movie. The new HBO Max show, which picks up just a few months after the conclusion of that movie involves several different characters that have floated through the world of Peacemaker in the comics.
As is the case with these movies and television shows, there are sometimes some details from the comics that are changed once they hit the big or little screen. When it comes to the Peacemaker show, quite a bit was changed in regard to the backstory of Christopher Smith. What stayed the same is that the character had an overbearing father who helped turn him into the killer that Peacemaker is when audiences are first introduced to him in The Suicide Squad. However, just who his father is has been changed up quite a bit. While there isn't a great deal known about the man played by Robert Patrick yet, what was revealed in the second episode of the season is that he's not just Peacemaker's father but was also a costumed criminal who went by the name White Dragon. That particular character does exist in the DC Comics universe though it appears there's been some big changes to who he is in the television show.
The DC Comics Version Of White Dragon
The DC Comics version of the White Dragon is not related in any way to Peacemaker, though he does share some characteristics with the apparent HBO Max version of the character. The original White Dragon in the comics is a man known as William Heller. As a boy, Heller was a spoiled little kid, but he wasn't a particularly bad person. However, that changed when he and his parents were caught in the middle of a race riot. Both of his parents were killed, and he went to live with his grandfather.
This is where the character takes a hard right turn into quite controversial, though it could be argued he's the DC Comics version of the Red Skull, or at least a similar sort of character. While The White Dragon wasn't a part of the Nazis in World War II like the Marvel character was, he was indoctrinated into the Nazi belief system by his grandfather, who supported the fascists during the great war.
When Heller's wealthy grandfather eventually died, he left his estate to his grandson, who in turn used that money to fund several different neo-nazi and White Supremacist groups. Eventually he went from funding other groups that were already established and decided to start his own gang, called the Aryan Empire. About this time he adopted the alter ego of the White Dragon and started his career as a masked vigilante. As one might expect from a racist vigilante he treated people of color that he caught committing crimes different than he did white people. If he caught a Black or Hispanic criminal, he turned them over to the police. If caught a white person doing a crime he tried to recruit them to his Aryan Empire. It's entirely possible this particular aspect of his personality was borrowed by the HBO Max show as one character points out that Peacemaker seems to treat minorities differently from how he treats white people.
As the DC Comics version of White Dragon, Heller crossed paths with several well-known characters including Hawkman and several original members of the Suicide Squad. In one particularly violent run-in with the Suicide Squad, he managed to kill a few members of the team before a woman by the name of Plastique was able to get a small bomb into White Dragon's helmet and then detonate it, killing him rather gruesomely.
The Peacemaker Version Of White Dragon
It's hard to know exactly how much of the comics version of White Dragon's backstory is being translated over to the HBO Max series at this point, considering the character's alter ego was only briefly revealed in a way that seems to promise more is coming later in the season. This universe's version of the character's alter ego most decidedly not rich. Auggie Smith is Peacemaker's decided horrible father who also appears to be the man who trained him up to be the person he is now, as well as his armorer.
Certainly, there are similarities between Auggie Smith and William Heller in that they are both incredibly racist. The elder Smith makes no bones about what he thinks of the female Asian detective that comes to his house not long after Peacemaker got into a fight with one of the Butterflies. He even refers to her as "chopsticks" as a way to show his disrespect for her specifically because she's Asian.
Though no costume is actually shown in the first three episodes of the show, there are several comments made that he was once a costumed criminal so it's possible the show could eventually roll out a uniform similar to the White Dragon's armor from the comics. Whether or not he sported that armor, it is made clear when Auggie is sent to prison that he led a White Supremacist group as several of his followers recognize him the minute he enters the room. They then begin chanting "Hail the White Dragon" in order to make it clear that he is indeed the HBO Max version of the infamous racist character.
In this new series, Auggie actually apparently does double duty as he's not only a slightly different version of the White Dragon, but he's also an Americanized version of Christopher Smith's father. In the DC Comics version of Peacemaker, Smith's father was a former Nazi prison guard who ended up killing himself when US authorities uncovered his World War 2 atrocities.