Peacemaker Finale Sets Up Superman 2 By Referencing a Forgotten DC Comic

This post contains full spoilers for Peacemaker season 2.

By the end of the Peacemaker season 2 finale, Rick Flag Sr. has found what he’s looking for—and it’s nothing anyone had expected. In the final moments of the episode, Flag strands Chris Smith on a distant planet, which he and ARGUS plan to use a prison for the world’s metahumans.

We knew going into the episode that Flag would direct ARGUS agents to use the Quantum Unfolding Chambers seen in the series and in Superman to take a romp through the Multiverse. And we knew that James Gunn would probably include some of his signature deep-cuts from the world of DC Comics. But few would have expected Flag to end his alternate reality search with a seemingly idyllic planet called Salvation, the setting of the 2008 DC miniseries Salvation Run. That’s because Salvation Run is very, very bad.

How bad is it? Salvation Run is so bad that the first few pages, in which Rick Flag and Amanda Waller describe their plan to send the villains of the world to a planet called Salvation, they reference three (then) recent examples of baddies going too far. First, there’s World War III, the incredibly dumb climax to the otherwise excellent series 52, in which Black Adam just decides to wage war on the world. Second, there’s the death of the Flash, in which heretofore honorable thieves just murder a teenager. Finally, there’s Amazons Attack, a storyline best summed up with an oft-memmed image of Batman intoning, “Bees. My god.”

Because of these catastrophes, Flag and Waller send the villains to Salvation, ironically giving the baddies their own world to conquer. Of course, villains being villains, they soon form tribes and start scheming against one another, resulting in all-out chaos. The baddies break into three camps—one led by Lex Luthor, another by the Joker, and a third by the immortal Vandal Savage—and eventually Martian Manhunter and Darkseid’s henchman Desaad gets involved. Also, in one issue, Gorilla Grodd kills fellow intelligent primate Monsieur Mallah by beating him to death with his lover the Brain.

That might sound fun but, sadly, it is not. Despite strong pencils by Sean Chen and the involvement of dependable writers Bill Willingham and Lilah Sturges, Salvation Run feels very much like an editorial mandate in search of a story. Things happen not because they make sense for the character, but because certain plot points need to be in place for future stories.

DC editorial clearly wanted to use Salvation Run to set up the next company event, Final Crisis. But because Final Crisis comes from Grant Morrison, and because Morrison was more interested in telling metatextual stories about the nature of superhero fiction, it did not fit DC editorial’s dreams of crossovers. So while Final Crisis remains an incredible piece of work, all of the various tie-ins—including, and perhaps especially, Salvation Run, have been consigned to the dustbins and dollar bins of comic book history.

Which means it’s the perfect series for James Gunn to revive. Before Gunn put him in the lineup of 2021’s The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker was a terrible character, one who never resonated with fans, despite multiple attempts by DC. Yet, Gunn made Chris Smith into one of the richest and most nuanced figures in superhero fiction, turning his nonsensical motto—”I love peace so much, I’m willing to kill for it”—into an exploration of toxic masculinity and the possibility of redemption.

Moreover, Salvation Run is a good idea for a story, even if the execution of the comic didn’t work. Gunn has worked to earn Flag’s mistrust of metahumans. And though he’s happy to use Lex’s technology and associates Happersen and Otis, Flag would certainly have the right to stick Luthor on Salvation after the near-destruction of Metropolis in Superman.

In short, it’s easy to see how Salvation Run could be fertile ground for the upcoming Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow. Flag sends both Superman and Luthor to Salvation, along with other metahumans. And though Lex hates the metas, Superman can inspire them and him, and the two enemies will work together for the good of all. Of course, that doesn’t explain where Brainiac comes in, the presumed ultimate villain of Man of Tomorrow. Brainaic is one of the few baddies who doesn’t appear in Salvation Run.

But if there’s one thing Gunn knows how to do, it’s surprising us with his comic book takes. The existence of Salvation in the DCU proves that.

Peacemaker seasons one and two are now streaming on HBO Max.