Peacemaker: Season One

"I made a vow to have peace. No matter how many people I have to kill to get it."

Season one of Peacemaker is a surprisingly effective story of a group of losers who manage to save the world. It is also a sequel to a pseudo-sequel of a defunct franchise and this season is not entirely canon... and you know what, all of that is very confusing, so I'm going to start by explaining the weird and wonderful continuity of Peacemaker.

So you're James Gunn and you've been put in charge of the relaunch of the DC movie universe reboot, which has to be both a strange and intimidating project to even try to wrap your head around. Thankfully you've already done two projects for the previous iteration of the franchise (the DC Extended Universe), and are well versed in comic book lore. In fact, those two projects were the best of the DCEU and you kind of want to use some of the actors and plotlines from those projects. What would you do?

That's a question that has quite a few answers. You could throw up your hands and say everything is in continuity. You could go, it was an alternate universe and that's why characters are a bit different now. You could handwave and say, sure, continuity is a bit funky in places but this project is canon. Or you could scratch it all and start over completely. But that's a lot of wasted work put into those other movies, and good casting for a lot of fun roles.

Well, James Gunn kind of did all of those things at once. Let me explain... actually it's far too much. Let me sum up.

While the DCEU consists of quite a few movies, the first movie that's actually relevant to this show is Suicide Squad (2016), which featured the introduction of two important characters: Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) and Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman). I won't go into any details about that film, other than to say it isn't really worth watching. In short Waller is a monster and Flag is a company man and a bit of a boy scout with a bad attitude. The characters go through some stuff and come out a bit closer as a group. That's really all you need to know. Don't bother with it unless you are a completionist.

Next, jump forward ignoring almost the entirety of the DCEU to The Suicide Squad (2021) which is a pseudo-sequel/soft reboot of the 2016 film. This brings back Waller and Flag and adds three more relevant characters. While Waller does show up in other films, her actions in those films are not important to what we're talking about here.

The first new relevant character we meet is John Economos (Steve Agee), a somewhat lazy government employee who really hates his job but is also quite good at it, so he does it with a lot of complaining. Next and arguably more important is Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), a tough as nails agent of ARGUS (the shady black budget government organization that backs the Suicide Squad). Both Economos and Harcourt are secondary characters in The Suicide Squad, but they are both quite memorable and funny.

Lastly is Peacemaker (John Cena) himself, a quasi-villain or wannabe hero named Chris Smith, whose self imposed vow, "To achieve peace by any means necessary, even if it requires killing men, women, and children" is quite violent and really just an excuse to kill people. He has almost no redeeming value in the first film, and even has a rather distinct heel turn in the last act that serves as the emotional core of his journey through the first season of Peacemaker. The Suicide Squad is a surprisingly good and oddly endearing movie that is also super violent and crude. It should serve as your entry point into this journey (or not, which I will get into later).

Now onto season one of Peacemaker. We pick up right from the end of The Suicide Squad with Chris in the hospital recovering from injuries sustained during the events of that film. He has been mostly forgotten and is angry about what happened, but manages to get back into his life. The first thing we learn about Chris is that his father Auggie (Robert Patrick) is a genius, and also a white supremacist. He is the one that creates Peacemaker's iconic and very silly helmets and has a folding pocket dimension accessed from the closet in his bedroom.

To be clear, Chris is not a white supremacist. While a bully and a functioning idiot who reads all the wrong things, he is oddly progressive in his opinions. We do learn that something in their shared past has created a schism between them to the point where Auggie actively hates Chris and on more than one occasion threatens to kill him. Chris picks up a new helmet from Dad because his last one was lost during the events of The Suicide Squad. Then he heads back home to his trailer and pet eagle (Eagly). Yes, he has a somewhat trained pet eagle who is featured throughout the season in important ways. Chris also has a friend named Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) who is a sociopath but tries to be a hero about it (think Dexter with a costume and no ritual killings) who drops in to hang out. Turns out Vigilante is a local kid named Adrian whom Chris knows separately from his alter-ego.

Enter Waller, who has gathered a team of ARGUS agents led by Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji), a lifelong government agent and hardass, Emilia Harcourt and John Economos reprised by the same actors from the film, and Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) who was added to the team by Amanda Waller at the last minute. They are tasked with stopping something called the Butterflies, which is left vague for the first few episodes.

The team reluctantly recruits Chris to be their hired gun and assassin after he survives an encounter with a Butterfly, who has enhanced strength and speed. He signs on, and is mostly antagonistic to the team at first, although he almost immediately bonds with Adebayo, who is a bit of an unknown. What we do know about her at first is she doesn't really want to be working on the team, is very green but competent, and is a lesbian with a wife and a dog that she loves and wants to get back to more than anything.

The first couple of episodes are a bit rough; at least they were for me. I didn't want to watch this show in the first place, and the characters, especially Peacemaker, come off as kind of horrible people. But something strange starts happening with Episode Three: those character flaws and bad behaviors start being addressed. While they aren't erased by any means, each character goes through some changes. In the process I almost reluctantly found myself growing quite attached to all of them. By the end of the first season I actually cared whether they made it out of the events of the season in one piece. I flinched when they got hurt and rooted for them to make the right calls (which they didn't always do).

It shows real skill as a writer to pull off that kind of characterization, and some major acting chops from the entire cast to form these rather rough characters into people. Sure, it is crude and foul mouthed, uber-violent and offensive to pretty much everyone. But that's kind of the point. It is irreverent like a Mel Brooks comedy, and violent like Robocop where that visceral punch of gore is meant to be shocking. The juvenile humor doesn't always land, but it is not really supposed to, because it is stupid on purpose. This is a deliberately crafted experience, and one I'm glad I finally took the time to watch.

So there is one big giant catch to all of this: season one is no longer considered entirely canon to season two. You read that right. Season one takes place within the now defunct DCEU (which is the continuity that started with Man of Steel and ended with Aquaman 2) along with The Suicide Squad, which means they are no longer fully relevant as they happened. Yet at the same time, some events from both The Suicide Squad and season one of Peacemaker do actually happen in continuity for the new DCU which officially starts with Creature Commandos and Superman (2025). It's a bit confusing, but if you don't want to deal with any of that stuff, and just want to skip to season two of Peacemaker, all you need to watch is Superman (2025) which takes place before season two. There is also a recap of the first season which touches on all the relevant points, including a new version of the coda of season one which I think is even better than the original.

Bits:

The opening credits and theme song for this show are both absurd and incredibly catchy. Season two does a new version of it with different music.

Every episode has an after credits scene. Most are just short gags relevant to the episode.

I don't know how Gunn manages to coax such great special effects out of his people, but Eagly is just as incredibly realized as Krypto.

Harley Quinn is the other important continuing character from the Suicide Squad movies that may show up later on in Gunn's rebooted DCU, but she has not been confirmed yet. Margot Robbie has gone on record saying she would love to come back at some point down the line.

We have reviews of nearly all of the DCEU and for Superman 2025. We might do a season review of Creature Commandos down the line.

Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) is a character introduced in Creature Commandos and Superman (2025), the first two projects in the new DCU. He is the father of Rick Flag Jr. who appeared in the Suicide Squad movies. Rick Flag Sr. will also feature in season two of Peacemaker.

Quotes:

Chris: "What? I'm a fuckin' ally."
Adebayo: "Having a lesbian haircut doesn't make you an ally."
Chris: "You haven't seen my porn folder, 400 gigs of alliance."

Murn: "In fact, I'm a little chilly right now."
Economos: "You are?"
Murn: "No. But I saw it as an opportunity for growth to say I was."

Auggie's neighbor: "Batman doesn't kill people."
Chris: "Because he's a pussy!"
Auggie's neighbor: "He's a dark creature of the night."
Chris: "He's a jackass! Who wrestles with murderers dressed like clowns and throws them in prison, so they can break out of prison and then murder more people!"

Chris: "Hey, I got bullied, too."
Adebayo: "How?"
Chris: "By kids calling me a bully all the time, and telling me I was abusive. Hey, that hurt my feelings!"

Economos: "So, you're compassionate about tape but not brutally murdering people?"
Adrian: "Yes."

Adrian: "There's no wrong time to rock."

Adebayo: "I'm getting so many moral judgments from people who regularly kill people."

Adrian: "Well, if you're going to be sarcastic, you should really warn people so there's no confusion."

Peacemaker is probably not for everyone. It is a hard R rated, offensive, uber-violent, crude and occasionally meanspirited show based on a character who is an anti-hero on his best day. However, it is also a show that understands that character and allows him to grow. I was genuinely surprized by how much I ended up liking both this show and the main character and I do recommend it.

3 out of 4 Shiny Helmets that do Wacky Stuff

Samantha M. Quinn spends most of her time in front of a computer typing away at one thing or another; when she has free time, she enjoys pretty much anything science fiction or fantasy-related.