For the past eight weeks, audiences have watched every episode of Peacemaker Season 2 with anticipation.
After Creature Commandos and Superman kicked off the DCU with a bang, James Gunn stated the second season of the HBO Max series would influence the future of the franchise. Now that it has come to an end, the significant questions about how have been answered, and we are ready to break it all down for you!
What happened in this season of Peacemaker?
Before we break down the universe-changing ramifications from this season of Peacemaker, we should recap what happened in this season first. For Christopher Smith (John Cena), the road has been rough, since the first season ended. His self loathing and trauma over killing his white supremacist father, killing Rick Flag Jr., and getting rejected from the Justice Gang is at an all time high. To make matters worse, Rick Flag Sr. has allocated all ARGUS resources and formed a close partnership with Lex Luthor, to hunt him down.
So once Chris discovers an alternate dimension through his father’s old Quantum Unfolding Chamber, where everything he ever wanted is there for him, he decides to sacrifice all he has to go live in it. Thankfully, the 11th Street Kids (Adebayo, Harcourt, Ginger Cool Economos, and Vigilante) go in after him, only for all of them to discover, unbeknownst to Chris, the world is actually a racist, Nazi dominated hellscape where Hitler won WWII!
After a nightmare of an escape, Flag Sr. is finally able to arrest Chris, once Chris turns himself in. Flag decides to use the Quantum Unfolding Chamber to explore some of the dimensions in the DC multiverse with Lex Luthor. He discovers a seemingly inhabitable one that he dubs “Salvation.”
Meanwhile, the 11th Street Kids bail Chris out of jail and can get him to begin healing internally through their emotional support. After falling out with Flag Sr. over his policies and partnership with Luthor, Sasha Bordeaux, Judomaster, and Langston Fleury quit ARGUS, and join the 11th Street Kids, to form the DC organization Checkmate. All seems fine, until Flag Sr. and Luthor’s forces jump Chris at his home, and send him into Salvation (now intended to be used as a prison dimension for Metahumans) with no means of escape and dangers all around him.
Chris is stranded in Salvation. But what is Salvation?
Much of the season finale of of the second season of Peacemaker is inspired by a 2008 arc in DC Comics called Salvation Run, by author Bill Willingham. In that story, Amanda Waller and Rick Flag use their Checkmate and Suicide Squad teams to find an uncharted territory lightyears away from Earth and use it as a prison for which to deport the most dangerous villains in the DC Universe. They won’t be incarcerated or killed, merely exhiled with resources to allow them to start their own civilizations if they wish. The goal is to ensure they cause no further harm to anyone on Earth.
The arc begins with The Flash’s villains arriving on the planet, and devolves even further as more villains arrive. Camps are formed with Joker, Lex Luthor, and the immortal Vandal Savage becoming the leaders of their own respective camps. However, what they discover is the planet, called Cygnus 4019, aka “Salvation,” is actually a mechanical world filled with dangerous monsters and beasts of every sort. This is because, Desaad, one of the servants of Darkseid, uses this planet as a training ground for the Parademons of Apokolips, and ends up planning to use the villains as their new chew toys.
Salvation Run naturally occurred during a very mature time in the DC Universe. The interesting aspect about bringing it to life in the DCU through Peacemaker is that this cinematic universe is still very much in its infancy (at least for fans). We’re still discovering a lot about it, even though in Gunn’s mythos, metahumans have existed for 300 years. We know Lex exists, obviously. However we have yet to meet Joker, Vandal Savage, Grodd, Desaad, or any of the key players that existed in the Salvation Run comics.
What is Checkmate?
In the comics Checkmate was a covert organization formed as a way to restructure another organization created by Amanda Waller called “The Agency”. The point of the organization was, of course, to protect and maintain the security of the American people on a worldwide scale. At various points in the history of the comics, Sasha Bordeaux, Peacemaker, and Vigilante were members of the organization. It was organized into a structure consisting of one “king,” one “queen,” and several “rooks” overseeing several “pawns.”
One of the biggest storylines in the mid-00s comics, leading up to a massive DC crossover called Infinite Crisis was called “The OMAC Project.” This storyline saw Maxwell Lord taking over the “king” role within Checkmate, and utilizing the organization to destroy all metahumans on Earth using a satellite built by Batman called “Brother Eye.” He kills the Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), which leads to Kord’s replacement by Jaime Reyes. It also leads to Wonder Woman killing Lord for the death of Ted Kord and mind-controlling Superman.
Naturally, the Checkmate we’re seeing at the end of Peacemaker Season 2 is very different from the one in the comics, despite characters from the show being part of the organization. Again, the organization here is at its very early stages, just like the DCU. So how things play out with Bordeaux, Judomaster, Flurry, and the 11th Street Kids remains a mystery.
What does all this mean for the future of the DCU?
All this leads me to believe a few things are in play. As far as adapting Salvation Run goes, Chris Smith will be our guide through Salvation. Through this character, who is arguably an antihero moreso than a villain at this juncture, we’ll likely meet a lot of the worst villains the DCU will have to offer. We hear the faint sounds of beasts roaring at the end of Peacemaker Season 2, teasing the true origins of the planet (or dimension) he’s stranded on.
We can see Gunn going one of two ways here. If this is truly meant to be a setup for Man of Tomorrow, there’s a chance that he could substitute Desaad’s role from the comics for Brainiac’s, if (per rumors and speculation) Brainiac is the antagonist of that film. It’s not a stretch to think that a character like Brainiac would use a place like Salvation to run experiments and observe battles between organisms from all over the multiverse for data collection purposes.
Alternately, let’s say Gunn sticks closely to the Salvation Run comics, and the planet is overseen by Desaad. If that’s the case, Gunn is clearly setting up the introduction of Darkseid and Apokolips. This would absolutely be a perfect antagonist for the future of the DCU, or even the first chapter of the DCU (aka “Gods and Monsters”).
The use of Salvation as a prison dimension by ARGUS and Luthor also sets up the potential for new villains to be introduced into the DCU, if they’re sent there to interact with Peacemaker. How crazy would it be if our first introduction to the DCU’s Joker is in some sort of scene where a door opens up, Peacemaker is watching someone come through, and we see a purple pinstriped suit emerge and a laugh? Gunn knows the villains of the DC Universe are every bit as iconic as the heroes. So getting to see them introduced one by one through the door to Salvation would make a lot of sense.
Now as far as Checkmate goes, we have a new organization alongside ARGUS and the Justice Gang as a potential player in the DCU. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that events surrounding “The OMAC Project” storyline could be possible. Maxwell Lord exists in this universe and knows Peacemaker. We also don’t know much about him yet, other than he’s rich, and has formed his own Justice Gang. The version of Lord in the comics does at first defend and support metahumans, before readers found out he wanted to erradicate them all. So at this stage, him forming the Justice Gang would be consistent with the early days of this character in the comics.
Checkmate in Peacemaker has been put together by the 11th Street Kids, thanks to millions of dollars in “blood money” collected by Vigilante over the years. However that money is finite. So if the team runs out of funds and needs to be bought out by a billionaire like Lord eventually, he could take control of Checkmate. This is especially possible given that, since Chris is missing, and Checkmate could turn to Luthor’s competition, LordTech, and its resources to try and set up their own dimensional portals to try and get him back from Salvation.
As far as Brother Eye goes, we know Batman does exist in the DCU at this point, but we just haven’t met him yet. Additionally, we’ve heard Gunn discuss his fondness for the Blue Beetle movie and Xolo Maridueña’s portrayal of Jaime Reyes. Since that film ended with a post-credit featuring the possible return or audio message from Ted Kord, it’s very possible that Kord could exist or could have been murdered by Maxwell Lord at some point.
In other words, it’s very possible for the future of Checkmate to follow the potential storyline of Lord assuming control, killing (or having killed) Ted Kord, and eventually mind-controlling Superman, awaiting his fate to be sealed by the DCU’s Wonder Woman. All of that is feasible to think, given Gunn is rumored to be fast tracking Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Wonder Woman, as well as revisiting Blue Beetle.
A lot of the reaction following the finale of Peacemaker was that of disappointment by those who didn’t understand how the season finale would lead into Man of Tomorrow. Those reactions, in my opinion, are disappointing, given folks aren’t attempting to connect the bigger storylines and the notes Gunn has hit on in the finale with the larger potential for major events to happen in the DCU, such as The OMAC Project, Infinite Crisis, or Final Crisis.
Thankfully, that’s what the Geeks of Color are here to do! I, for one, am very pleased with the fact that Gunn is knowledgable of DC’s storylines throughout history – especially beyond The Dark Knight Returns and The Death of Superman. So with that, I hope that some of the above helps folks who aren’t seeing the potential for bigger stories coming soon, and we hope it continues to fuel further speculation to the future of the DC Cinematic Universe and beyond!
In the meantime, in the words of Foxy Shazam, “keep on keepin’ on, folks!”
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