In ‘Peacemaker’, superhero-director James Gunn is completely unleashed

DC Comics, the great rival of Marvel on the American comic book market for a century, has had a hard time for years. After hit Iron Man (2008) Marvel fully claimed the world of the comic book adaptation, with smooth Disney stories and endless one -liners. DC tried to counter with the vision of film director Zack Snyder: superheroes like distant gods, steeped in Jesus symbolism. Only the audience was not waiting for that.

Strip anti-hero Peacemaker (John Cena) seemed like a strange duck among all those solemn, divine bodies. A fleshy man with a face like a brick, which is regularly found in tight white boxer shorts; His help is an uncontrollable eagle, and he himself, a delicate soul full of scars in a body that only understands violence. Fascinating, but Peacemaker did not just see a conversation at the coffee machine with the samples, growling Batman or stately and superhuman superman from Snyder. No, in the quirky series Peacemaker On the contrary, he is forced to assist an eccentric team of spies in their hunt for malignant aliens, struggling with the psychological torture of his Xenofobe Father.

In 2022, the series, which can be seen on HBO Max, felt primarily as a sweet holder for filmmaker James Gunn. The Guardians of the Galaxy-Maker was temporarily put out on the street by Marvel, and for DC he was allowed to go into the bizarre, comic between Snyders gods movies The Suicide Squad (2021). It turned out to be a click. Gunn received the keys to the entire comic book rich from DC Comics.

We officially see this year with Superman (2025) The first lines of the era Gunn drawn-no longer divine heroes, but a super hero universe that looks a lot like the more grounded DC strips of the 1980s. Writers Keith Giffen and JM Dematteis then transformed the ‘main team’ with Batman and Superman in Justice League International into a gathered mess very human outsiders. The bombast went away from the big promotional story lines – now there was jokes, grewed and cried. For example, after the Snyder bombast, Gunns Superman is also human, nerdy and a bit weird, and the first previews for upcoming films such as Super girl and series as Lanterns promise more of the same.

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Love needed

But film is still bound by a hint of reliability – it must remain fun for the family. If you want to know what really is understood under Gunns bonnet, look at Peacemakerhis original boy-in-a-men’s body for DC. With season two, Gunn emphasizes what he really is about: difficult people who need love, but who are continuously driven through a hard world in the wheels.

For those who missed the first season: Peacemaker follows directly on the film The Suicide Squadin which – spoilers – Chris Smith, aka Peacemaker, commissioned by the US government to change the US secret agent Rick Flag. In vain, because the information that the agent wanted to make the public leaks out. In the series, Smith returns to his caravan, exhausted and without any goal. Eventually he beats a bunch of malignant aliens with the help of an eclectic group of spies – including Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), the daughter of Amanda Waller, the woman who gave him the order to kill flag.

With season two, the series is – understandably – now with much more confidence than before in the film world of DC. The events of Superman lie behind us, the secret services have become nervous. And: again information was announced that Waller would rather not have seen public. AdeBayo and strong woman Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) are fired, anti-social nerd-spy John Economos (Steve Agee) is monitored at work. Smith himself remains at home. They are all searching; They are all stuck. Until Smith finds a special door in the secret room of his newly deceased father. Behind it is a universe in which he is worshiped as a superhero. Running away is very tempting for the troubled Smith – especially when the father of the fallen flag will track him down.

Vulnerability

Peacemaker Above all, it is a series that is not afraid of looking his protagonist deep in the eyes. The tall and highly muscular John Cena gives Peacemaker a sometimes touching, then frightening vulnerability. His eyes kill when he ends up again one after the other; Then his lower lip drops and the same eyes hang, and you suddenly see existential loneliness and craving for company.

Gunn is completely unleashed in this series. He makes no attempt to scrub the filthiness of his work. Eagly De Eagle keeps a bloody house, there are bizarre ayahuasca trips, then there is another scene that starts with an orgy but drizzly deforms into something many saders. Also politically Gunn does not have a magazine: Smith’s father was really racist, homophobic and xenophobic in the first season. In season two, characters are stereotype opposites, the camera does not run away from psychological abuse or torture.

Yet it never becomes too heavy due to humor. In the intro, the cast of Peacemaker also dances with a kind of musical routine in this season. This time to the size of the flamboyant Rockummer Oh Lord from Foxy Shazam. These are all ugly, broken people, yes, there is beauty in it if you dig long enough. But, Gunn says: You only see that when you first dare to see them honestly for who they are.

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