Peacemaker Season 2 Review — John Cena is Outstanding in James Gunn's Wildly Entertaining Follow-Up
- M.N. Miller
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
James Gunn continues his assault on pop culture in Peacemaker's second season with blistering meta jokes, lovable misfits, buckets of blood, a scene-stealing Tim Meadows, and a pitch-perfect mix of irreverent humor, heartfelt characters, and genre-bending tonal whiplash that will have any Gunn masochist begging for more.
Are you not a believer? How many writers and directors would unleash a murderous American bald eagle, drop deep-cut references, flip DC Comics canon on its head with deeply layered social commentary, masterful needle-drops, or those surreal opening dance numbers that break the fourth wall, and reinvent Vigilante into one of today’s great deadpan comic book characters?
However, like all James Gunn series—feverishly funny and devilishly cool—this is a show that thrives in its intentionally saturated moral gray areas, where heroes and villains blur together, and Peacemaker’s wicked sense of humor makes you question your cognitive dissonance, which is a wild and thrilling ride.
HBO Max's Peacemaker Season 2 Review & Synopsis
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This season of Peacemaker comes after Gunn’s Superman and his HBO Max animated series Creature Commandos. Now, what’s left of the Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans (A.R.G.U.S.) is looking for work, blackballed by both society and government agencies. Even Chris Smith, a.k.a. Peacemaker, can’t find a job, getting turned down by Justice Gang members Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) and Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders).
Harcourt (The Suicide Squad's Jennifer Holland) has hit rock bottom after Amanda Waller blackballed her from all government work before suspending her. Rick Flag Sr. (Tulsa King's Frank Grillo) has taken over A.R.G.U.S. and is still mourning the loss of his son, who happened to be Emilia’s best friend. This puts her in a predicament, as she has grown closer to Chris, stirring a wave of complicated grief.
Then there’s Leota (The Color Purple’s Danielle Brooks), Waller’s daughter, who was kicked out of her home by her fiancé. The only one to find steady work is Chase, a.k.a. Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), still a busboy at a Chinese restaurant. He calls Economos (Steve Agee) every night, asking about Peacemaker’s whereabouts and demanding that John quiz him on nocturnal birds of prey and generic arachnids.
HBO Max's Peacemaker Season 2 is Full of Glorious Carnage and Darkly Funny!
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Of course, it’s Chris’s past that begins to catch up with him in more ways than one. Flag still has it out for him, which tends to happen when you murder someone’s son. Also, Smith discovers a door to a dimension in his father’s "Quantum Fold" that leads him to an alternate reality, where Peacemaker not only reconciles with his past but also begins to look towards a brighter future.
Besides rejuvenating DC Comics’ filmography with the Man of Steel film this past summer, most of Gunn’s work as the new head of DC Studios is excessively violent. However, it calls to mind something the late, great Roger Ebert said about Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction — that it’s "amusement park violence." Here, the Peacemaker franchise is highly stylized, self-aware, and exaggerated comic book fare.
Yes, Gunn’s vision for the jingoistic vigilante bubble is violent, but more like playground carnage taken to the third degree — darkly twisted, ominously funny, and full of technicolor mayhem that’s visceral, wild, and entertaining, yet with more heart than you could possibly imagine.
Is HBO Max's Peacemaker Season 2 Worth Watching?
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While I enjoy Gunn’s knack for genre-bending and tonal whiplash, we can admit that his uncompromising style isn’t for everyone. The result of his creative process is akin to Hot Ones, many can’t handle the heat and prefer their television to be middle-of-the-road. The show can also be overly reliant on the creator’s overwrought humor, and the carnage sometimes overshadows the deeper layers of humanity, as well as the political and social commentary.
Still, Peacemaker is worth watching because it’s refreshingly bombastic. The cast is stellar — Holland balances comic chops with toughness and vulnerability, while Stroma delivers one of the funniest performances of the year with his mastery of awkward humor. The entire ensemble clicks with great chemistry when they share the screen, and Gunn’s sharp writing ensures each character has a strong contrast.
However, John Cena, whom I’ve often criticized for his awful taste in scripts, has finally found a role that utilizes his talents and shows real growth as a performer. He displays emotional vulnerability and is incredibly adept at humor, perfectly balancing absurdity and heart. He helms the second season of Peacemaker and expertly sets up Gunn's DCU, creating a cohesive, interconnected DC Universe for years to come.
Summary: James Gunn continues his assault on pop culture with blistering meta jokes, lovable misfits, buckets of blood, a scene-stealing Tim Meadows, and a perfect mix of irreverent humor, heartfelt characters, and genre-bending tonal whiplash that will have any Gunn masochist begging for more. Grade: 8/10 |
You can stream Peacemaker season 2 starting August 21st on HBO Max! The episodes will come out weekly until October 9th!
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