Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01 delves into the man who will one day retire Batman

Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01 excerpt
Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01 excerpt (Image credit: DC)

The dark origin of Batman's Future State adversary, Peacekeeper-01, will be explored in the upcoming one-shot Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01

Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01 will fill in the gaps from the Arkham Asylum guard readers met in March's Infinite Frontier #0 to become the sinister superhero hunter named Peacekeeper-01 who rules Gotham City in the near-future storyline 'Future State.'

Peacekeeper-01 is really Sean Mahoney, who following the attack on Arkham Asylum was enlisted for a new Gotham private security force. In one of his early missions however, he was dosed with the Scarecrow's Fear Toxin which led him into a tailspin that has him going rogue from his organization - and running wild in Gotham City.

Check out this preview of Batman Secret Files: Peacemaker-01:

But unless there's a twist in the story, we already know Peacekeeper-01 will takeover Gotham eventually as part of the organization known as the Magistrate. In the 'Future State' event, Peacekeeper-01 kills Batman - or so he thinks, as Bruce Wayne survived but decides to leave the mantle of Batman behind and instead become a vigilante known as the Dark Detective.

Future State's Peacekeeper-01 is known to have a deep and personal hatred for Batman, so the seeds of that may become evident during this Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01 one-shot.

James Tynion IV and Ed Brisson are co-writing Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01, with art by Joshua Hixson - who's also drawing the upcoming Batman/Fortnite: Foundation.

Batman Secret Files: Peacekeeper-01 goes on sale on October 19 with a primary cover (and a variant) by Rafael Sarmento, along with an additional variant by Tyler Kirkham. Check those covers out here:

Peacekeeper-01 sounds like he has the makings to one day be one of our 50 greatest Batman villains. 

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)