James Gunn Hits Another Homerun With ‘Peacemaker’ Series

Ulises Duenas

 

Last year’s Suicide Squad movie was a refreshing change of pace for DC. It was upbeat, wacky and funny and incorporated humor throughout its runtime. Now James Gunn is back with a spinoff show starring Peacemaker, played by John Cena, and it might be even better than the movie.

 

This series starts a few months after the end of the movie, and Peacemaker is still under the government's thumb and forced to carry out another dangerous mission in exchange for life outside prison. The events that transpire are ridiculous, but it feels like a good comic book story in the sense that despite having an inane plot, there are interesting characters and engrossing action that make for a great popcorn-chomping experience. 

 

The violence is bloody and gory; the script is vulgar and idiotic at times; but that’s exactly what one should want from a show written and directed by Gunn. It ended up being a lot funnier than I expected, which is thanks to the cast’s chemistry. John Cena, Chukwudi Iwuji and Jennifer Holland are among the standouts of the cast, and their characters really grow on you after a few episodes.

 

 

The character of Peacemaker himself is given a lot of depth and ends up being more sympathetic than he was in the movie. You slowly see how his upbringing made him into an insecure and needy man-child with huge muscles and an obsession with weapons. His moments of weakness are both funny and sad when you realize that he must be dealing with deep trauma only to be exploited by the government as a killing machine. That being said, the comedy still comes first, and Gunn seems to have hit a golden ratio when it comes to balancing the laughs and the drama.

 

While this is part of the wider DC universe that has been building up for years now, the writers have done a good job of making this show feel more self-contained. Watching The Suicide Squad is necessary to understand the show’s characters, but beyond that, the viewer doesn’t have to do any background research to fully enjoy this show.

 

 

It’s also worth noting that Gunn’s style of mixing in popular songs with certain scenes really shines here. The intro alone proves that he has a great eye and ear for using music.

 

Peacemaker isn’t a show for everyone, but it’s a unique and thoroughly entertaining work that shows the strength of DC’s characters and what can be done with them when in the right hands.

 

Author Bio:

Ulises Duenas is a contributing writer at Highbrow Magazine.

 

For Highbrow Magazine

 

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