00:00Warning! This video contains spoilers for Season 2 of Peacemaker.
00:03If you haven't watched the show, please watch that and then watch this video, or just watch at your own
00:07discretion.
00:13And now, Season 2 of Peacemaker has come to an end.
00:17And watching it has made me think of something, especially after seeing Superman,
00:21is that Peacemaker and Superman are kind of the same character.
00:24It's an interesting dichotomy, as Superman and Peacemaker are two different types of heroes.
00:28Superman is, well, Superman, the archetypal superhero, which has had many variations based on him.
00:34Superman if he's a kid.
00:35Superman if he was a teenager.
00:37Superman if he was your dad.
00:38Superman but at Marvel.
00:40Superman if he was black.
00:41Superman but Batman's boyfriend.
00:44Superman but washed up.
00:45Superman but evil.
00:47Superman but evil but also at Marvel.
00:49Superman if he's a kid and also evil.
00:51Well, this version of Peacemaker's variation on various antiheroes that have shown up in the comics.
00:55This one takes cues from the 80s version, who changed from his more espionage route to a more darker and
01:01edgy vigilante,
01:02who's haunted by his past as part of a trend in comics,
01:06trend towards more antiheroes inspired by the likes of Punisher Wolverine,
01:09and most importantly Watchmen, which in turn had the Comedian,
01:12a character inspired by the original child in comics, Peacemaker.
01:15Superman has been pastiche, and the other one has become a pastiche.
01:18But James Gunn gives both Superman and Peacemaker the same type of hurdles,
01:22despite their difference in status.
01:23In Peacemaker, Chris Smith is a man who's trying to reconcile his upbringing by an abusive white supremacist father
01:29and tries to move on from it.
01:30In Superman, Clark Kent, or Kal-El,
01:32learns that his space parents were not the ideal figures he believed them to be.
01:36Parental figures have always been part of James Gunn's work.
01:38But it's interesting that the same arc of having to deal with imperfect, to say the least,
01:43parental figures has been given both to Superman and Peacemaker.
01:46Another interesting aspect is that both characters are defined by music,
01:49as you expect from a James Gunn production.
01:50In the episode where the 11th Street Kids and Judo Master rescue Chris from Earth-X,
01:55Adebayo and Judo Master discuss Chris and his love of hair metal,
01:58with Adebayo comparing Chris to the music genre, saying,
02:01I just had to open my mind a little and get past parts that were cheesy,
02:05but that's what Chris is like.
02:06You just got to open your mind up a little bit and get past the parts that are cheesy.
02:09To me, this scene felt similar to a scene in Gunn's Superman film,
02:12where Clark and Lois discuss a message from his space parents,
02:15and the tangent about Clark's taste in punk bands,
02:17and how Clark's more trust and attitude is the real punk rock.
02:20The two characters have musical tastes that are genres that aren't exactly highly praised.
02:24It's another interesting comparison between the two characters.
02:27Also, both characters' relationship to the wider superhero community is also comparable.
02:32Superman's relationship with the Justice Gang isn't exactly on the up and up,
02:35while they do work with each other and see themselves as a colleague.
02:38Clark, even diverging his secret identities to them,
02:41he doesn't like their methods.
02:42Peacemaker is not respected at all.
02:44His frustrations, as shown from his endless conspiracies about the heroes
02:47he spouts in Season 1, back when he was set in the DCEU,
02:51is proof positive of that,
02:52and he's rejected by Maxwell Lord, Guy Gardner, and Hawkgirl at the beginning of Season 2,
02:56which also brings me to another comparison.
02:57Both of them find comfort in what they thought were the ideal versions of their parental figures.
03:01Gary, Superman's robot, keeps mentioning that the Kryptonian message soothes him,
03:04and Peacemaker initially finds Earth-X a perfect world for him,
03:07but both end up in a rug pulled out under them,
03:09and in the end, they both find solace in their found families.
03:11Now, there's some key differences between the heroes as well.
03:14For instance, they have a different work-life balance.
03:16Superman, as always, keeps up the whole secret identity,
03:18which the only person who knows about his heroic side gig at the day planet is Lois Lane,
03:22but it was implied that maybe Perry Wright and Jimmy Olsen are also privy to it,
03:25compared to Peacemaker, who doesn't really have a normal job or life,
03:28and only does government work,
03:29but still maintains a social life with his co-workers,
03:32who now Peacemaker is Christopher Smith.
03:33Also, one kills and the other doesn't.
03:35That's another important detail.
03:37But it's all about the work-life balance for me.
03:38James Gunn manages to give one of the most well-known superheroes
03:41and one of the most obscure ones similar character beats
03:43to create an interesting juxtaposition between them,
03:45showing that while there are differences on some levels,
03:47they are still dealing with the same stuff.
03:49It'll be interesting to see how the rest of DC Universe will play along with this idea.
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