The Peace Monger

PEACE MONGER

Real Name: Dr. Talmadge Cobleskill

Identity/Class: Human mutant

Occupation: Rights activist

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Knights of Saint Virgil, John and Aaron (his bodyguards), Luis (gang-banger)

Enemies: American Eagle (Jason Strongbow), Joanna Cargill, US Agent (John Walker), reasonable people

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Peacemonger, Peace-Monger (cover spelling)

Base of Operations: Washington D.C.

First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents I#27 (Early September, 1989)

Powers/Abilities: As he put it, the Peace Monger can "use [his] mutant ability to siphon off [people's] hatred and turn it into physical power!" to increase his height and muscle mass. Attempts to absorb hate from those who have no hate in them will cause the Peace-Monger to lose all his power.

It is unkown how he seemingly regained his youth.

Height: Unrevealed (5'10" (original form); variable by using mutant ability (up to 7'5"); by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (185 lbs.; variable by using mutant ability (up to 350 lbs.); by approximation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown; formerly white and balding

Dr. Cobleskill

History:
(Marvel Comics Presents I#27 (fb)) - Civil rights activist Dr. Cobleskill was secretly a mutant with the power to increase his physical strength by absorbing hate. He was an influential part of the civil rights movement, but secretly sought more power. He hired four men to pose as the extremist assassins Knights of Saint Virgil.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#27) - During a fund-raising dinner, Dr. Cobleskill was attacked by a group calling themselves "the Knights of Saint Virgil". They meant to kill him, yet he stopped his bodyguards from acting. Jason Strongbow, the American Eagle pulled the rug from under the knights. Cobleskill wanted to punish the men himself, but American Eagle stopped him and his men and left with the newspaper columnist Joanna Cargill.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#27 - BTS) - Cobleskill paid the bail of the Knights of Saint Virgil and had them back in his service guarding his car.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#27) - Later, at a rally in front of the Washington Monument, Cobleskill led the crowd's emotions to a "fever pitch". Cargill appeared, revealing Cobleskill's forgery of the attack by the Knights of Saint Virgil (the American Eagle had revealed it to her); Cobleskill attacked her physically. When the American Eagle showed up, Cobleskill had fully transformed into the Peace Monger. A physical dispute followed, which the Peace Monger lost (the crowd's hatred turned to "betrayal and confusion", as the Eagle put it), as well as an intellectual debate on fighting prejudice and oppression. Cobleskill's powers depleted, the American Eagle carried him to the police.

The Peace Monger

(Marvel Comics Presents I#104) - Years later, the Peace-Monger incited riots in Brooklyn, employing gang members to stir up trouble against other ethnic groups, so he could feed off the hate they would generate amongst one another. An assault upon Korean shop-owners was broken up by the US Agent, who followed gang-member Luis back to the Peace-Monger, and fought him. The Peace-Monger attempted to feed off the hate of the US Agent himself in order to power-up, but to his horror, found the US Agent was "above something as trivial as hate"! His own power vanished, leaving him a small, weak man, who the US Agent easily clocked with a single punch.

Comments: Created by Scott Lobdell and Ron Wilson.

Peace-Monger looked considerably younger in his second appearance, sporting a full head of light-colored hair.

...Since when is US Agent above hate? He's quite the bitter man, and usually chock full of anger. Maybe he doesn't hate everyone, but try naming five people he actually, genuinely likes!--Snood.
I think what they mean is his hate is so much that you can't even call it hate, because it's so much more.--Sammy7D
--I doubt that's what they meant, but it makes a lot more sense than trying to make him all about peace and love--Snood.

His first name was revealed in American Eagle's profile in OHotMU A-Z Update 2010#2.

Additional sub-profiles and new images by Markus Raymond.

Profile by Cisco with Prime Eternal. Expansion by Markus Raymond.

Clarifications: Peace-Monger should not be confused with:

The Knights of Saint Virgil have no known connection to:

Knights of Saint Virgil

Knights of Saint Virgil

They were four men hired by Dr. Cobleskill for the sole purpose to pose as extremist assassins out to kill Cobleskill at a fund-raising dinner. Their guns weren't actually loaded during their attack, which went nowhere when American Eagle pulled the rug out from underneath their feet and knocked them out. Cobleskill was ready to have his bodyguards punish the four men, but American Eagle prevented that and the Knights were arrested by the police.

Cobleskill paid the bail for the Knights and had them back working for him as guards for his car at a rally near the Washington Monument where journalist Joanna Cargill exposed their true nature and Cobleskill's connection to them.

--Marvel Comics Presents I#27

bodyguards

John, Aaron and a third man were the bodyguards of Dr. Cobleskill. When the Knights of Saint Virgil attacked the fund-raising event, Cobleskill told them not to reach for their weapons. They pulled their guns after the alleged assassins were knocked out by American Eagle. Cobleskill assured American Eagle that his men would see to the Knights of Saint Virgil's punishment, but American Eagle rather wanted to wait for the police to take care of the villains.

John and Aaron were guarding Cobleskill later at a rally near the Washington Monument were he was exposed as a hate-mongerer by Joanna Cargill and then defeated by American Eagle.

--Marvel Comics Presents I#27

 John, Aaron & third guy

images: (without ads)
Marvel Comics Presents I#27, p30, pan5 (main)
Marvel Comics Presents I#27, p26, pan5 (head shot)
Marvel Comics Presents I#104/flipside, p13, pan1 (younger? stronger? badder?)
Marvel Comics Presents I#27, p25 (Knights of Saint Virgil)

Appearances:
Marvel Comics Presents I#27 (early September, 1989) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Ron Wilson (pencils), Jeff Albrecht (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents I#104 (1992) - Scott Lobdell & Paula Foye (writers), Paul Abrams (pencils), Tim Tuohy (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)

First Posted: 07/09/2002
Last updated: 09/21/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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