‘Peacemaker’ Season 2 Review: John Cena Shines in James Gunn’s Wonky Multiverse of Sadness [C+]
The superhero genre has been a problem for Warner Bros. for some time now. Since director Christopher Nolan’s celebrated The Dark Knight trilogy, their property has run through the mud with failing, inconsistent filmmaking found within the DCEU, also known as the Snyderverse. For every Wonder Woman or Aquaman that tied together fascinating world building, superb casting, and engaging spectacles, there was Man of Steel, The Flash, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Justice League (both versions), Shazam!, mediocre films that frustrated audiences not just with their quality, but inaccurate depiction of the beloved DC comics characters, as well as suffering for being inadequate competition to the Marvel films. Towards the end of its run, the DCEU did produce its best project to date (Matt Reeves’ The Batman excluded as it doesn’t tie into this universe); a television show called Peacemaker, a darkly comedic-drama that was a continuation of the jingoistic mercenary Chris Smith, aka Peacemaker (John Cena), from James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. With Gunn as the showrunner and main writer, the first season of Peacemaker was a hilarious, refreshing addition to the superhero genre, combining Gunn’s notable goofy humor found while examining the flawed, physiological issues found in our main protagonist. Since the first season released back in 2022, the world of DC comics on the big screen has changed, as the DCEU is no longer the status quo at Warner Brothers, with James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over as co-chairmen and co-CEOs of DC Studios (DCU). With this massive change of focus for the DC slate of characters, the only real carry over from the DCEU is Peacemaker, thus creating an interesting opportunity for Gunn to continue the world building of his expanded universe after the success of Superman just last month.
And right as the second season of Peacemaker begins, Gunn thrusts us into a recap, retconning the ending of season one, taking out the cast members connected to the DCEU with the members of the Justice League (known as the Justice Gang for now), with the brief return of Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), as they arrive to clean up the mess of Project Butterfly, the main threat facing Peacemaker and his team last season. From this recap, we flash forward in time, as Chris is still dealing with the aftermath of killing his father in the previous season finale, as well as his role as a superhero, even taking on an audition from the Justice League to see if he can be a new addition to the group. In an interview from hell, as Chris is stilling in an interrogation room, explaining his reasons as to why he should be their newest member, the mic isn’t turned off and he can hear was the two superheroes and Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), the CEO of LordTech and sponsor of the Justice Gang, talking about how pathetic of a hero Chris/Peacemaker is, and how he wouldn’t fit in at all with the team because of his past history of being a merciless killer. Upon hearing this, Chris storms out of the meeting, back into the car of his friend, fellow 11th Street Kids team member Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), and has her drive him home, where he gets drunk, does some drugs, and sits on his couch while a massive orgy takes place in his home, featuring dozens of people.
Chris isn’t the only one facing the rejection of the world following the aftermath of saving the planet from being taken over by an alien, insect army, as Adebayo is mostly hanging around, being friends with Chris, as she starts her own business as hired assassin, estranged from her wife following her decision to out former A.R.G.U.S. director Amanda Waller (her mother) for the monster’s intentions she’s always had. Her struggles are also in line with Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), a former A.R.G.U.S. agent that has been blacklisted by Waller on her way out the door, thus forcing Harcourt to fly on the outside for the first time in her career since no intelligence agency will come anywhere near hiring her. Much like we saw in last season, when she gets low, she goes to local bars, looking to pick fights with sketchy guys trying to hit on her, and she takes out her frustrations of life on them, one punch at a time. But in two separate moments this season, we see what happens when the world fights back, leaving her on the floor, in a pool of her own blood and regret for how she ended up here. But it’s not only the regret she has for her actions against Waller and the intelligence establishment, it’s also for having a one-night stand with Chris, who is not only her teammate in the field, but also someone who killed someone she was once close with, Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman in The Suicide Squad). While Brooks and Holland are great in their roles, Gunn’s writing pretty much repeats their storylines over and over throughout the first five episodes given to critics of the eight episode season, turning these richly flawed characters into vessels that only service Chris and his storyline. In making the focus of this season solely on Peacemaker’s journey so far, it takes away from the rest of the ensemble on the whole.
As for the rest of the 11th Street Kids, Adrian Chase, aka Vigilante, (Freddie Stroma) is still working his job at the local bar-n-grill in town, waiting for the chance to get back into some action with his old friends, bugging anyone he can with facts about spiders and other animals. A highlight in season one, Vigilante takes a massive step back from being the comic relief he was and close buddy with Peacemaker, and is reduced to a disappointing side character that mostly gets lost within the plot of the second season. Elevated this season is John Economos (Steve Agee), who was mostly the butt of the joke left and right when we last saw him, but is now a trusted, tactical support A.R.G.U.S. agent, who is monitoring every move Peacemaker makes at the request of the new director of A.R.G.U.S., Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo, who reprises his role from Creature Commandos and Superman). He is the only one that was able to stay on the inside, but with his personal relationship with Flag Sr., he is used for personal gains to find a reason for the new director to take down Peacemaker once and for all, making him pay for what he did for killing his son. Economos, who became close to Chris even though he was picked on left and right, sees right through this vendetta and tries his best to delay the witch hunt against Peacemaker as much as he can, tricking A.R.G.U.S. agents Sasha Bordeaux (Sol Rodríguez), a cyborg agent who reports to the director, and agent Langston Fleury (Tim Meadows), a hilarious addition to the cast as a field agent with “bird blindness,” and when he is attacked by Peacemaker’s pet bald eagle, Eagly, can’t tell the difference between being attacked by an eagle or a duck. It’s the type of dumb, fun humor that Gunn has used before in this world, and when the season does bits like Fleury, or brings in Red St. Wild (Michael Rooker), the world’s foremost eagle hunter, into the fold to hunt down and kill Eagly, the show is extremely entertaining. But these moments are far and in-between a main storyline that takes away what makes Peacemaker special outside of the normal superhero releases and turns it into an uninteresting attempt at more multiverse shenanigans.
In the first season of Peacemaker, we are introduced to the idea of another dimension within August Smith’s (Robert Patrick) house, where it contains Peacemaker and White Dragon’s helmets and gear. This idea was then further expanded upon by Lex Luthor in Superman, where he controlled a pocket universe that he used to rip open a hole within the fabric of Earth just so he could take down Superman. Director Flag is under strict orders to make sure events like this never happen again, so when Peacemaker leaves the orgy, and heads into his father’s portal, it sets off an energy signal that alerts A.R.G.U.S. that throws our hero in mortal danger. But while inside the portal, he discovers a door similar to his own, and once he enters the same password on the keypad to get through, Chris is shown another world where he is the hero he’s always wanted to be. In this other place, Peacemaker is the main hero, one where the people of Earth trust him to protect them from the evils of the world. He works for A.R.G.U.S. as their primary agent, has a romantic relationship with their version of Harcourt (they even go on a date to eat hot dogs and pet puppies, which is the complete opposite of how we normally see these characters). The biggest revelation lies within the fact that his father is alive, and even crazier, loves him as well as fights crime alongside him. With the primary focus shift to him, Cena continues to deliver one of the best performances on television, despite the direction his creator is taking the show. His continued struggle to find his place in this new world and his home world is the most fascinating part of season two, as he seems more broken than ever, as the demons of his past have finally caught up with him, and instead of facing them, he is trying to find some form of happiness, even if that means running away to a place that isn’t his because he wants some version of love for the first time in his life. Sure there is still the sex humor, and another killer opening dance number that kicks off every episode, but the core of this show is in the hands of Cena’s work; the defining acting role of his career.
It’s a picturesque world, as all of the trauma and pain we’ve seen Chris go through over the course of the two seasons has been erased, and it opens up the idea of a fresh start for a character. The irony of this blank slate is not lost considering everything that’s happened behind the scenes involving the creation of the new DCU and where these characters would fit in with the grand scheme of what Gunn and company are creating. But instead of just carrying over to its new home, Peacemaker becomes a convoluted, messy shell of itself, with a multiverse angle that feels more like the mistakes that’s slowly caused Marvel to lose the trust and interests of its audiences over the last couple of years. This “soft reboot” that Gunn has described recently feels more like an attempt to show his former employer that he can create a vast, multi-layered universe that’s better than anything the MCU has pulled off.
Peacemaker season two’s quality is lacking from its previous eight episode run because its creator is now not just making this show, but the head of an entire studio that needs to be successful in order to justify handing over the reins of the operation over to him. It’s a crossroads moment for Gunn, who is a great storyteller that might need to step aside in order to make sure his grander vision becomes realized otherwise he’s going to continue to make missteps like this, and the momentum he gains from one project gets lost by the next release, and therefore, he would become no different than the era of DC that came before him. Strong performances and the occasional spark of creative energy aren’t enough to make the second season of Peacemaker feel more or less like an unfortunate exercise of universe expansion with characters that could be used better in other adventures.
Grade: C+
Season two of Peacemaker begins streaming on HBO Max August 21.
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