SPOILERS FOR PEACEMAKER EPISODE 2

“Best Friends, For Never”

“Can’t house train an eagle, dud, without stealing its soul.” -Peacemaker, while in the back seat of a car with Eagley and being told that the eagle had better not shit back there.

It really is poetry.

However, there is an absolute correlation between Eagley and Peacemaker and the words of Chris Smith could easily be taken as a comment about himself.

Peacemaker found himself trapped at the hotel where he had the huge fight with the Butterfly at the end of episode one (although he still does not know what a Butterfly is). Thanks to Harcourt and Leota, he was able to escape, but not after he stole several things, including the record albums that he was impressed by last episode.

However, the team meeting that followed was not the most positive one. After this, Chris went back to his home and had a good cry.

John Cena is great here. You can see into the soul of Peacemaker, someone who definitely wants to do something different with his life, but is not sure what that is. Plus, nobody likes him because he is a dick.

Vigilante showed up this episode.

Yes, the lower level DC character makes a perfect foil for Peacemaker and the two bonded over the use of some guns, arrows, explosives in the woods.

Because Peacemaker had left his car at the scene of the murder of the Butterfly he had had sex with, the team, specifically John Economos (Steve Agee), had to change the name on the car registration. He switches it to Auggie Smith, Peacemaker’s father. The comedy in this is just hilarious, but it also leads to a huge reveal in the episode. And that is that Auggie Smith, Peacemaker’s father, holds the mantel of the White Dragon, a white supremacist with a crew ready to follow him along. So when he was brought to jail because the team’s frame job, he was shown to be more powerful than we imagined.

This is going to be a major storyline this season, clearly. It is another way to take the humor of the series and turn it on its ear, making a much more serious situation.

We have one more episode to go this week before we have to wait until next Thursday to see the next one. Peacemaker has been tremendous so far and James Gunn is clearly having a blast.

SPOILERS FOR PEACEMAKER E1

“Chapter 1: A Whole New Whirled”

James Gunn is at it again and he may have found a character that works perfectly for his brand of humor and storytelling. John Cena has always embraced the cheese and he has found a role that allows him to do so with a wild abandon. Peacemaker debuted with the first three episodes dropped on HBO Max with a new episode every week to follow.

To begin with, the opening credits are absolutely off the charts. A dance routine with the whole cast involved, especially with John Cena leading the way. It was truly a James Gunn master stroke to kick off the series. I wonder if it will be the opening credits for every episode and if that joke will get old? Either way, it was fantastic at this moment.

And They introduced what is sure to become the most popular character on the show, if not in the entire DC Universe, Peacemaker’s erstwhile sidekick, Eagley. The scene where Peacemaker, aka Chris Smith, returned from his near death in The Suicide Squad and five years in prison to his father’s house where Eagley was at and the eagle hugged him was maybe one of the best moments in super hero shows ever.

I was under the impression that this series was intended to be a prequel to The Suicide Squad, but perhaps that was done just to make people think that he could have died in the movie.

Peacemaker gets approached by a group of people who were working for Amanda Waller in the film, and who were involved in the revolt to help stop Starro, against Waller’s wishes. Amanda Waller, still played by the exquisite Viola Davis, has planted a mole on the team to keep an eye on everyone, a mole who just happened to be her daughter, played by Danielle Brooks from Orange is the New Black.

Another part of the team was Harcourt, played by Jennifer Holland, and she is there to handle the situations. She showed that she was very capable of dealing with threats during a scene in the bar. Peacemaker wanted to talk with her, but Harcourt was anything but interested.

Instead, Peacemaker picked up another woman at the bar, which led to a rousing night of sex, singing and knife fighting.

The scene where John Cena sang along in his tighty-whiteys with the song by The Quireboys called “I Don’t Love You Anymore.” Apparently, this was shot on day one of filming and it is completely off the wall.

So was the vicious fight that followed this dance/singing scene. It was so brutal that Peacemaker barely survived.

Another standout is Robert Patrick appearing as Auggie Smith, Peacemaker’s mean, racist, cruel father. You can see where Chris gained some of his attitude from, but Auggie did not seem to care much for his son, calling him terrible names and wondering how his own semen could create someone like Chris. Auggie has a bigger role to play here as he was referenced by the government workers too.

This was a great pilot episode and I am really looking forward to continuing this as we go. And I love Eagley!.