Peacemaker: Season 2 - Review 

Rating: 4 out of 5

IF THE first season of James Gunn’s Peacemaker turned out to be an unexpected surprise in terms of quality and emotional investment, then the second confirmed the character as one of the more interesting ‘heroes’ of Gunn’s DCU.

Sure, it was still prone to moments of crass vulgarity - whether in the trash talk of most characters or the extreme violence and occasionally graphic sex.

But the emotional subtext remained strong: these were characters you genuinely cared about.

And the story was even stronger than the first season, taking the central character into a “grass is always greener” alternative universe, while leaning into a fan favourite comic book story (that was one of the season’s best secrets to unpick) and setting things up for the future direction of the DCU.

If the first season established Peacemaker’s back story of abuse (at the hands of Robert Patrick’s despicable Auggie Smith/White Dragon) and humiliation, coupled with his deep-seated trauma and regret at the killing of both his own brother as a child and Rick Flag Jr at the end of The Suicide Squad, the second furthered his descent into self-loathing and depression.

Here was a character who just wanted to find some kind of redemption and happiness: who pines for love in the arms of Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland). But whose chances of finding it are increasingly at odds with reality and the fact that a vengeful Rick Flag Sr (Frank Grillo) is the new acting director of A.R.G.U.S.

Instead, Peacemaker (John Cena) finds solace and the chance of a fresh start in the alternative reality he can access via a portal his father inherited (currently located in his house), which takes him to a world in which his brother is still alive, and his family is seen as heroes (even his father is more accepting and less offensive).

What’s more, he’s actually in a relationship with Emilia.

As with ‘grass is always greener’ scenarios, however, the truth is somewhat more complicated - yet here’s where season two really has fun toying with expectation and throwing in all manner of surprises and cameos.

Given that Gunn has since revealed that the season acted as a prequel to Superman's follow-up film, Man of Tomorrow, it’s little wonder than some of the groundwork is laid for that. But it also establishes what is and isn’t canon from Zack Snyder’s DCEU and what is: an early sequence which flashes back to an appearance of the DCEU's Justice League, is niftily replaced by an appearance from several Superman characters (such as Isabel Merced’s Hawk Girl).

While Rick Flag Jr (Joel Kinnaman) unexpectedly re-appears in both realities: revealing himself to be Emilia’s boyfriend prior to setting off on his fateful Suicide Squad mission, yet very much alive and well in the alternate reality.

Kinnaman’s uncredited cameos were the type of which made you sit up and take notice. They added a surge of excitement.

Likewise, the surprise arrival of Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor to assist Rick Flag Sr in his fight against Peacemaker (and to locate the portal device): another genuine crowd pleaser.

Also high on the list of season two highlights was the third episode, Another Rick Up My Sleeve, in which Peacemaker finally has a day where everything goes his way, including a rousing encounter against The Sons of Liberty in which Peacemaker foils a hostage situation and emerges a hero, reigniting his romance with Emilia in the process.

But this also cleverly and discreetly served to set up one of the season’s other big reveals: that the alternate reality was, in fact, part-based on Earth-X from the DC comics (in which the Nazis had won World War II) as well as on Philip K. Dick's novel The Man in the High Castle.

The one regret, perhaps, was that having dropped the reveal for the penultimate episode, there wasn’t more time spent in it - although an additional reveal surrounding Auggie and his subsequent death ensured the episode carried a hefty emotional fallout.

But then the finale we primed towards yet another twist and set-up for Man of Tomorrow: the establishment of Salvation by Flag Sr, a prison for metahumans. The season ends with Peacemaker being trapped in Paradise, just days after he has won over Emilia’s feelings.

It is a sucker punch style blow from Gunn that leaves you thirsting for more, while maintaining the emotional complexity of Peacemaker’s journey.

But then this is a set of characters defined by the mess that constitutes their lives. And while the series deftly mixes drama with moments of outlandish and absurdist comedy (such as Tim Meadows’ agent who suffers from bird blindness or Michael Rooker’s pantomime style eagle hunter Red St Wild), it never trivialises the trauma of its central players, taking time to dissect the moral and ethical choices they have made.

Hence, there are also strong performances from Holland as Emilia Harcourt and Steve Agee as John Economos, whose own problems with self-esteem management continue to be explored.

Gunn has long proven he can take a rabble-rousing group of misfits and turn them into something fun, loveable and unexpectedly endearing (see the Guardians of the Galaxy), but here he also gets to indulge his wilder, more violent inclinations without sacrificing the investment.

And in Cena, he has also found a leading man who is fully prepared to put himself through the wringer, both emotionally and physically - taking a character who was very much the butt of the joke when he first appeared and making him one of the most complex and intriguing in the current DCU line-up.

The hope is that he will get a third season - although by Gunn’s own admittance, this isn’t a priority. So, it says a lot about the success of the first two seasons of Peacemaker that this revelation feels disappointing.