It’s been over three years since Season 1 of Peacemaker came out. Back then, the DCU was still the DCEU and James Gunn wasn’t the boss of DC’s film division yet. The Season 1 finale aired on February 17th, 2022. Eight months later, The Rock’s Black Adam would hit theaters . . . and flop miserably.
Thus ended the DCEU and any hope of a return for most of its cast, including The Rock who was unceremoniously shoved aside as James Gunn and Peter Safran were given the reins, handed the keys to the proverbial kingdom. Perhaps the most controversial and tragic part of this transition of power was the brief return of Henry Cavill as Superman, in a Black Adam end-credits scene. This was an exciting moment, easily the best moment of the entire wretched film, but it was a false promise. The Rock was so sure Black Adam would be a hit and he’d have a bigger say over the next phase of the DCEU, that he pushed to bring Cavill back unilaterally. This backfired rather spectacularly when Warner Bros. brought Gunn onboard.
Peacemaker was a hit. Black Adam was not. And Gunn had three Guardians of the Galaxy hits under his belt, though his Suicide Squad was a box office failure. The shakeup began and fast-forward to 2025 and we get James Gunn’s Superman, a film that featured a cameo from none other than Peacemaker (John Cena) himself. Only a tiny bit of what came before survived the culling, and it’s no surprise that it was Gunn’s creation that made the cut. Spoilers ahead.
Superman trickles into the first episode of Peacemaker Season 2. There are references to the pocket universe calamity that almost destroyed Metropolis. Gunn edits out the Justice League from the “previously on” recap segment and edits in the Justice Gang from Superman. This actually confused me for a second, since you rarely see a “previously on” segment that includes scenes that were not, in fact, previously on.
I love Nathan Fillion, so I’m fully onboard with these edits just because we get more Green Lantern goofiness.
I didn’t like Superman. I wanted a more straight-laced story with less of Gunn’s signature humor and quirkiness. I like David Corenswet in the role, but I thought the story was a hot mess and not at all the kind of triumphant return to form that DC needed. (You can read my review here).
On the other hand, I liked most of Peacemaker’s first season, warts and all. And so far, Season 2 seems to be a return to form. Mostly.
Toxic Harcourt
There’s a scene where Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) is trying to get a new job at one of the security agencies, and the psychiatrist screening her tells her that she exhibits signs of “toxic masculinity.” This cracked me up because I wrote a whole thing during Season 1 about how much I disliked her bar fight scene and how I’m sick of strong female characters being written as, basically, toxic dudebros. It’s weird that the “girlboss” caricature has taken root in modern cinema and that it essentially just makes “strong women” exhibit all the same traits as the worst kind of men.
I didn’t like that scene in Season 1 for lots of reasons. She disses a creep at the bar who tries to hit on her by telling him he has bad breath. Later, his friend rushes over aggressively and confronts her about this. He grabs at her neck and she proceeds to beat him mercilessly.
It’s a bizarre scene because this is not how men act, not even toxic jerks. A man who is shot down by a woman at a bar won’t go tell his friends about it, and certainly won’t tell them that she insulted his breath. He might harass her and cajole his friends into harassing her, but he won’t open himself up to potential mockery by complaining about what she told him. It’s all very heavy-handed. That she responds with brutal violence only makes her seem every bit as toxic as the creeps at the bar. At the time I wrote that it was “a boring, predictable and ultimately silly idea of what a “strong woman” looks like, let alone what toxic masculinity looks like.”
In a way, I feel like Gunn is responding – if not to me, then to other similar criticisms he received over this scene. I’m delighted that Harcourt was called out for her “toxic masculinity”. That her response was aggressive, defensive and petulant is even better. She continues to do the thing she’s called out for. Gunn does not give her a pass. She doubles down, embraces all that toxicity and resorts to violence. In a way, she returns to the scene of the crime.
After an argument with Peacemaker, Harcourt goes to another bar, and this time she’s looking for a fight. When a scumbag takes things too far, she beats him much like she beat the scumbags in Season 1. But when other men try to break up the fight, she takes things too far, attacking anyone and everyone, even guys just trying to calm the situation down. It goes badly for her. After she throws a pool ball into a man’s forehead (a potentially lethal assault) they gang up on her, throw her to the ground, kicking her until she’s down. Then they toss her out of the bar.
It’s a rough scene to watch, but it hones in directly on the matter at hand. When the psychiatrist tells her that it’s sexist to say only men can display toxic masculinity, it’s a funny line but it’s not wrong. Hollywood has been all but obsessed with creating this trope in modern films and TV, mistaking toxic and violent behavior for “strength.” I’m glad to see Gunn tackle the subject and hopefully it gives Harcourt an interesting arc and room for growth throughout the rest of the season. By taking her toxic behavior seriously, instead of just making her a badass girlboss, Gunn has made her a far, far more interesting and complex character. Imagine that!
The Dimensional Closet
In Season 1, we learned that Peacemaker’s father, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick) aka the racist supervillain the White Dragon, had a secret interdimensional closet – the Quantum Unfolding Chamber — where he built all sorts of high-tech gadgets, including Peacemaker’s helmets. This time around, we discover that the closet is much more than met the eye. There are other doors, and through one of these our hero wanders.
He finds himself in a mansion that could not be more different from the rundown house his father left him. Polished wood and a wall of trophies and news articles line the room he finds himself in. Then his father walks around the corner and Peacemaker freaks out, hightailing it back through the closet. But he returns (after a rather absurdly over-the-top orgy scene designed, I guess, to just throw as much nudity at the audience as possible in as short a time as possible) and when he does, he stays for a visit.
It’s here that he meets his brother, Keith (David Denman). In this alternate reality, Chris (Peacemaker) never killed his brother. Indeed, nothing here is at all the same as Peacemaker’s world. Keith is alive. Their father dotes on them. They have money. Auggie is Blue Dragon here, a superhero making headlines along with his two sons.
The Quantum Unfolding Chamber sets off alarms with the security services and Rick Flag Sr (Frank Grillo), another connection to Superman, is understandably concerned after the pocket universe disaster. They send John Economos (Steve Agee) to check it out, but don’t trust his response (which is wise, since he lies to them).
Things are going pretty well for Peacemaker in this new, Utopian version of his life, until that dimension’s Peacemaker shows up and tries to kill him. Peacemaker flees back into the QUC and alternate Peacemaker follows. They grapple and our Peacemaker accidentally kills . . . himself. This means that he has now killed his brother, his father and himself, pretty much his entire family except . . .
Well, we really don’t know what happened to Peacemaker’s mom. She’s not around in his world and she doesn’t appear to be around in this alternate dimension, either. There’s a mystery here, though the show hasn’t really explored it yet. The other big mystery is whether there’s something far more sinister at play. It’s entirely possible that Auggie is still a very bad man in this world, but perhaps the world itself is radically different than our own. Perhaps in this dimension, the racists have taken over. The Nazis – Blue Dragon rather than White Dragon in this case – are the heroes, beloved by the people. This is the kind of nightmare scenario would certainly make for a compelling plot twist.
We’ll also have to see how Peacemaker handles this new turn of events. Will he try to pretend to be himself in the other dimension, joining his brother and father on their superhero missions only to discover that they’re monsters? We shall see.
What I’m Skeptical About
A few things didn’t work quite as well for me in the Peacemaker Season 2 premiere. First of all, if there are all these doors in the QUC leading to all these dimensions, then surely Auggie knows about this and knows there are other versions of himself and his sons out there. It really makes no sense otherwise. Surely he’d be on the lookout for this kind of thing, and when his son just appears out of nowhere when he’s supposed to be somewhere else, maybe alarm bells go off, especially when he’s acting so strange.
I’m also not sure about the tone of the show this episode. It seems a lot darker and more dour and a lot less funny than Season 1. Maybe that’s just so we can get our heroes set to overcome new obstacles, but it all felt a little bleak. Peacemaker’s interview with the Justice Gang, including Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) was played for laughs, but I just found it kind of sad. I wanted to give Peacemaker a hug.
I’ve already mentioned the orgy scene. I’m no prude. I don’t mind nudity in shows. But the whole scene felt very tryhard to me. Oooh, see how edgy we are! Look at all the sex and nudity we crammed into this episode! Look at all the genitalia swinging around! Is Gunn trying to top The Boys or something? Is that a goal worth having?
Finally, I’m still a little unsure that Peacemaker ought to have made the DCEU to DCU transition in the first place. I like John Cena and I like having a very adult DC series like this, but does it really fit with the new vision for the DCU? Sure, there’s the same James Gunn humor in Superman, but I think that humor is all wrong for that character and his movies. I like Gunn’s stated goal of making a more upbeat and optimistic DC cinematic universe, but Superman felt weirdly cynical to me and far too jokey. Cynical and jokey fits with Peacemaker, but I’m not sure it or this show fit with the promise of a new DCU.
What I think ought to have happened is that Gunn continued making Peacemaker as a series unconnected to the rest of the new DC universe. Superman should have had no connection to the show and the show should have had no connection to Superman. Gunn could keep his fun little project as a sidepiece while focusing on actually starting fresh with everything else. After all, he got rid of basically every other cast member, from Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to Aquaman (Jason Momoa). Why should Peacemaker avoid the purge? “Because he’s James Gunn’s baby” isn’t a good enough reason. It lacks conviction and smacks of favoritism.
I’m still looking forward to the rest of the season. It’s off to a reasonably decent start. I doubt it will rank as high as The Penguin, however. Then again, I’m a Gotham kid. I’ll take Batman over Superman any day of the week. As for Peacemaker? We shall see.
Scattered Thoughts:
- The digs at 30 Seconds To Mars were funny and telling. For those who don’t know, that’s Jared Leto’s band. Leto played The Joker in a couple previous DCEU films. I was not a fan of his portrayal and clearly neither was Gunn.
- I like the new opening dance segment but the Season 1 song was much, much better and fit the tone of the show perfectly. So I took made an edit of the dance that has Wig Wam’s “Do You Wanna Taste It?” from the season 1 dance segment and put that over the new title sequence. Check it out:
- I think the dogpile at the end is also foreshadowing. We’re gonna see some big deaths this season.
- If you haven’t gathered by now, this is not a show for children. This is not a show to watch with your parents, either. Well, I wouldn’t watch it with my parents.
- Jennifer Holland, who plays Harcourt, is the wife of none other than James Gunn, by the way. No wonder she’s always fighting men off and kicking their butts when they hit on her for being so hot. This is a kind of “self insert” in a sense.
- You know who else used to be married to James Gunn? Jenna Fischer, who played Pam on The Office, who was engaged to Roy, who was played by David Denman, now Keith Smith, Peacemaker’s brother. It’s a small world, after all. It’s a small world, after all.
- The Top Trio (the name of the Smith family superhero group) defeated The Rainbow Creature in the alternate universe. That . . . has to be a clue. I’m 99% sure they’re bad guys at this point and their world is run by Nazis.
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