Peacemaker: Season Two – Review
The new DCU has begun. Officially the start of it was Creature Commandos and the new Superman movie. Sort of.
The issue is that James Gunn, who heads the new DCU, had already done some DC work with the Suicide Squad and Peacemaker: Season One. Are they part of the new DCU? Again, sort of.
While the DCU officially began with Creature Commandos and Superman, the Suicide Squad and Peacemaker overlap with both the former DCEU and the new DCU. Somethings are canon and others are not.
This comes to a head with the second season of Peacemaker, which is definitely DCU and helps clarify what went on before and gives direction to what is coming.
One part of this is the retconning of the appearance of the Justice League in season one and replacing that with the Justice Gang, as seen in Superman. With just a few changes, most of season one of Peacemaker is canon.
This season also gives some clarification on the Suicide Squad, the movie in which Peacemaker was introduced. Scenes from that movie are actually used in this season. The mission against the giant starfish and the killing of Rick Flag, Jr. are definitely canon.
So the second season of Peacemaker is important for situating the DCU but how good is the actual season?
First, I want to say that I barely made it through the first episode. There is a notorious scene with gratutitous nudity that just did not need to be there. It almost ruined the series for me.
However, I am glad that I stuck with it because nothing like that appeared again. In fact, I enjoyed the second season much more than the first season.
Back in the first season, it was revealed that Peacemaker’s father had a portal in which he kept the various Peacemaker helmets. This portal basically went to a waiting room in which there were doors to other universes and dimensions.
Peacemaker, who was in a low place in his life, discovers a door that leads to a parallel earth where his father and brother are alive and in which their family close and he is in a relationship with Emilia Harcourt, the woman in his world that he loves.
It seems like this other earth is a paradise, a place where everything is going right while his world is a place where everything has gone wrong. The temptation is for Peacekeeper to move permanently to this other earth. But of course there is a twist.
Meanwhile, Rick Flag, Sr., the father of the man Peacemaker killed in the Suicide Squad has become the head of ARGUS and he is out for revenge. Rick Flag, Sr. has now appeared in Creature Commandos, Superman, and Peacemaker.
I do want to say that Peacemaker is not for everyone. The language is brutal and it can get pretty crude. But this story has heart. It is not pure comedy. It deals with some important themes.
Most of all, Gunn is able to get us to care about all of the main characters. As quirky and at times annoying as they all can get, they have something that is likeable and we want them to succeed.
Peacemaker is by far not one of my favourite DC characters and yet I found myself drawn into this story and wanting to see what was next. I would not want the tone of Peacemaker to be the tone of every DCU project but I am liking what I have seen so far.
One of the things that I liked was the connections to Superman. Some major figures from that movie appear in Peacemaker and their appearances make sense. It was a nice way to draw the DCU together without the confusing interconnections of the MCU.
There was some very interesting twists that I will not spoil here. I will say that the earth that Peacemaker travels to does have a connection to something in the comics, something that I did not see coming.
In terms of the future of the DCU, I believe that the planet discovered in the final episode of Peacemaker is very important and that it points us to some of what Gunn has for the future of the DCU.
To conclude, I did enjoy the second season of Peacemaker. While I prefer a Superman tone to a Peacemaker tone, this is an important step in the building of the DCU and I am excited for the future.
