Peacemaker Season 2 Review: James Gunn's Colorful Superhero Series Is Reborn in a New DC Universe

At this stage of global superhero supremacy in pop culture, everyone should know where they stand on James Gunn. To call the writer-director divisive might be something of an understatement: Whether you take umbrage with his history of deeply weird and sometimes offensive tweets (which famously cost him his gig at Marvel, helming the Guardians of the Galaxy saga) or his juvenile, irreverent pen, he's definitely an acquired taste. But he's also now the steward of his own cinematic universe, a privilege bestowed after his ousting from Marvel Studios and his subsequent jump to its competitors at DC. 

Anyone with a passing interest in comic book movies knows that Gunn basically saved the dying DCEU with The Suicide Squad, then Peacemaker, which spun out John Cena's alt-right-coded manchild into his own corner of the universe. The first season of Peacemaker brought us even deeper into the recesses of Gunn's depraved, wildly empathetic mind, boasting colorful comic book visuals and jokes that ran the gamut between blindsiding comedy and the lowest hanging fruit imaginable. It was, in other words, the filmmaker unleashed: With the family-friendly shackles of the Disney brand and the righteously indignant Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in the rear view, Gunn was free to take his vision in new directions. We got the first taste of that with this year's Superman, a phantasmagorical love letter to comic books that reestablished Gunn as the tastemaker of the new DCU. Next comes the second season of Peacemaker, which exists on the other side of Gunn's creative rebirth… and is genuinely all the better for it.

Now that he's co-chair of DC Studios, Gunn is not the kind of filmmaker who has to compromise for anything. Canon-wise, that can be annoying: In his efforts to reshape the franchise in his own image, Gunn has been cherry-picking from the old timeline, bringing a choice selection of characters and plot points into the new one. Peacemaker Season 2 doesn't try to justify his changes so much as it gaslights us into thinking this was the status quo all along. (Peacemaker did already pop up in Superman, the first of many coy attempts to merge two universes into one.) In a cheeky "previously on…" segment designed to bring Peacemaker fans up to speed, Zack Snyder's Justice League is replaced by the Justice Gang, with Nathan Fillion's scurvy Guy Gardner and Isabela Merced's subdued Hawkgirl making cameos. It's not that confusing if you don't think about it too hard, and fortunately Peacemaker gives us plenty to chew on otherwise.

7.5

Peacemaker Season 2

at HBO Max

Like

• Much more emotionally mature
• Another killer soundtrack
• Another super-fun ensemble

Dislike

• Some distracting plot points
• Occasionally struggles to balance its big ideas with intimate emotions

The new season's premiere works particularly hard to reconcile Cena and the gang into a post-Superman world, but Peacemaker still revolves around the events of The Suicide Squad otherwise — arguably way more than its first season ever did. Despite all the work he did to atone for his sins, the hero otherwise known as Christopher Smith is still haunted by his misadventures on Corto Maltese. With his former boss, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), facing congressional hearings for her role in last season's Project Butterfly, it now falls to Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) to run the top-secret bureau known as A.R.G.U.S. That's inconvenient for Chris, since he killed Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) in The Suicide Squad. Chris more or less confronted the hypocrisy inherent in his former M.O., "killing in the name of peace," in Season 1, becoming a much kinder (and much less irritating!) hero. But Rick Sr. doesn't give a damn about character growth. He was the last to learn that his son died by Peacemaker's hand, and with the power and resources of A.R.G.U.S. behind him, he'll stop at nothing to avenge his son's death.

Peacemaker, notably, isn't the only one on the back foot this go-round. Despite saving the world from body-snatching bug-aliens in Season 1, none of our heroes are doing all that well. Nepo baby Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) finds herself estranged from her mother, Waller herself; Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), A.R.G.U.S.'s most loyal soldier, is blacklisted and left utterly adrift; and Adrian Chase (Freddie Stroma), aka Vigilante, is stuck in his dead-end job as a busboy. Only John Economos (Steve Agee) has retained his post at the agency, but he's struggling to reconcile his new duties — and the whims of his new superior — with his loyalties to his friends.

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It doesn't help that Peacemaker has been keeping the total opposite of a low profile. After the world was nearly destroyed by a dimensional rift in Superman, A.R.G.U.S. is monitoring similar threats. That makes Peacemaker, who happens to have a dimensional portal in his childhood home, public enemy No. 1 — even more so once he stumbles into a parallel world where his life is completely perfect. Where Peacemaker was forced to kill his father (Robert Patrick), a literal Klan leader hell-bent on "purifying" him through violence, in Season 1, his dear ol' dad is alive and well (and mercifully progressive) in this parallel world. The Harcourt of his universe, meanwhile, seemed allergic to any form of outright affection for Peacemaker, despite their mutual attraction. But she's completely different in this new timeline, willing and even eager to explore their emotional bond. Greater men than Peacemaker have been enticed by greener pastures, and the series finds a new high point when it allows the character to grapple with the temptation of a fresh start. 

Season 2 is a lot more introspective than its predecessor, and a lot more serious too. Much of the juvenile humor from Gunn's previous superhero fare has dissipated, paving the way for slightly more articulate conversations about emotions and regrets. It's a much-needed break for anyone who couldn't stomach Season 1's constant, meandering soapbox moments or the eye-roll-inducing jokes. The season also gains a boon from more seasoned comedic actors, like Tim Meadows, in whose hands every tedious scene snaps to life. Aside from a handful of sexual gags that would have fit better in a lost season of The Boys, Peacemaker is finally growing up. The only downside: It hasn't quite figured out how to level up every continuing thread.

Gunn is typically a master of ensemble-building, as we've seen with the Guardians films, The Suicide Squad, and parts of Superman. The first season of Peacemaker was also at its best when the "11th Street Kids" (our moniker for the surviving members of Project Butterfly) were working together as a unit. But Season 2 naturally has to find ways to splinter this team, if only to further reinforce just how much this universe sucks for Peacemaker. That leaves the friends that Peacemaker would normally turn to, like Adebayo and Adrian, on the back burner. They in particular are given little to do in the first half of the season. Sure, they listen to Peacemaker as he vents, give him advice, and are at his beck and call whenever he needs a cleanup job, which is often. But each is stuck in neutral otherwise: While the rest of the team are reckoning with their insecurities and fears, they're left to reinforce aspects of the "old" show that didn't work for everyone and certainly gel less with the new regime. 

As good as it is, Peacemaker is still going through growing pains. It's messy and scattershot and occasionally overindulgent at turns, but as we saw with Superman, that's all part and parcel with the new (improved?) Gunn. We can't expect a perfect product when he's left to his own devices — but also, do we really need one?  

Premieres: Thursday, Aug. 21 at 9/8c on HBO Max, followed by a new episode each Thursday
Who's in it: John Cena, Frank Grillo, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland, Freddie Stroma, Steve Agee, Robert Patrick, Tim Meadows
Who's behind it: James Gunn, Peter Safran
For fans of: Peacemaker Season 1
How many episodes we watched: 5 of 8