The surprise hit show, Peacemaker, has concluded with a wild first season! I know that I’ve missed some episode reviews, and that’s my bad. And there’s been some discord with the appearance of a certain superhero team from some fans. But I’ll address that later. For now, allow me to recap.
So, Leyota Adebayo is the daughter of Amanda Waller, and she’s working with her mother’s associates in A.R.G.U.S to handle Peacemaker’s mission to hunt down the aliens known as the “Butterflies”. Meanwhile, Peacemaker’s father, who oversees some white supremacist group, decides to kill his son, which leads him to get out of prison. He dons the supersuit we saw in the first episodes, calling himself the “White Dragon”. The team manager, Murn, is also a Butterfly in disguise, but unlike the rest of his cadre, he wants mankind to be free from his kin’s rule. Peacemaker and the crew connect in the wackiest of ways, as they take down the Butterflies and their leader, Goff. After some brutal and gory battles, Peacemaker ends up killing his father for making him kill his younger brother, but from there Chris begins to see visions of his dad haunting him. The team discovers that Goff and her army has taken over the town they operate in and are planning to move their “cow”, which is an ugly-ass alien bug that supplies them with their only food source that the Butterflies can eat. Realizing this opportunity, Peacemaker and A.R.G.U.S take them out. As most of the team, including Vigilante, are too injured to continue, it's up to Peacemaker and Leyota to end the Butterflies’ occupation on Earth. In a hilarious and gross manner (true to James Gunn’s style of filmmaking) they eventually take out the Cow, which leaves all the Butterflies with no food source. In the aftermath of the battle, viewers are surprised to members of the Justice League arrive! (And we see Peacemaker roast Aquaman, in the process.) The end of season one leaves us with Leyota outing her mother’s illegal dealings with Task Force X aka The Suicide Squad, Harcourt recovering from her injuries, Epecanos going to work at Belle Reve (where the criminals from the Suicide Squad are imprisoned,) and Peacemaker trying to find peace with his own inner demons.
OK, so this series literally came out of nowhere for a lot of fans. With the moderate success of Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, I really wasn’t hyped for the show about a D-List superhero. But after the first episode, I must give credit where credit is due. This show is a pleasant surprise and a win for the DC Extended Universe! Perhaps with another season, we can get more series that are not afraid to tell their own stories without the studio interfering. This leads me to some of the fans being offended using certain members of the Justice League. Actors Jason Momoa and Ezra Miller made a guest appearance, and while the DC Fan in me enjoyed this brief cameo, I immediately knew what would come of this. Fans being toxic about the Snyder Cut not being canon, or that these characters being used solely for comedic fodder, or that Warner Bros just keeps making the same mistakes when handling these iconic characters. It was reported that they tried to get Batman and Cyborg in the cameo as well, but they scrapped the idea. It also feeds fuel to the fire, that stand-ins played Superman and Wonder Woman, instead of the actual actors. With Marvel pretty much dominating the movie scene, it’s hard to be a DC fan. Harder still, to convince fans to give DC and Warner Bros a chance when the company makes error after error. All us fans can do is to hope that we’ll get quality in the DC Extended Universe. It really does have the potential to be great, like the MCU. And with projects like Peacemaker, The Flash, Black Adam, and Aquaman 2, things may be looking up. All the studio really needs to do is t avoid interfering with the directors, and let their unique styles come to the big and small screen. Sorry for the rant and thank you for coming to my TEDTalk! I give Peacemaker an 8 out of 10. Post your thoughts below and till next time, fellow blerds!
Episode 4 of Peacemaker is out on HBO MAX, and the insanity doesn’t stop! A mild SPOILER ALERT before we go ahead for new fans. With that, let’s go!