Peacemaker’s Sasha Bordeaux Reveal Could Point to a Darker Batman in the New DCU

This article contains spoilers for Peacemaker season 2 episode 5.

James Gunn hasn’t even fully revealed the Batman of his rebooted DCU, but we’re already feeling the presence of the Dark Knight. First, there was the silhouetted cameo in Creature Commandos. Then there was the reference to Gotham City in Superman. Now, Peacemaker season 2 has added a new wrinkle, one that suggests that the next Batman will be more dangerous than those seen in live action before.

A.R.G.U.S. agent Sasha Bordeaux (Sol Rodríguez) has been a mainstay throughout Peacemaker‘s second season, serving alongside new director Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo). But for the most part, she’s been restrained to the office, sending others out in the field. That changes when she joins Flag, Langston Fleury (Tim Meadows), and other agents to arrest Chris Smith (John Cena). As the agents advance, a close-up reveals that Bordeaux has an electronic eye that allows her to analyze her quarry. And if anyone misses that, Economos (Steve Agee) states directly that she’s a cyborg.

Bordeaux’s powers may be a shock to Peacemaker viewers, but not to comic book readers. Although she just worked private security for Bruce Wayne when she first appeared in 2000’s Detective Comics #751, written by Greg Rucka and penciled by Shawn Martinbrough, Bordeaux is best known for becoming a cyborg during the 2005 DC Comics event Infinite Crisis.

Spearheaded by writer Geoff Johns, Infinite Crisis was a psuedo-sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths that saw the survivors of the famed 1985 crossover—the Golden Age Superman and Lois Lane, a young and benevolent Lex Luthor from an alternate reality, and a variation of young Clark Kent called Superboy Prime—return to the mainline reality to put things right. In a myopic bit of meta-commentary, Johns uses these characters to condemn the dark and violent quality of the then-current DC Universe. Even though Johns himself wrote (and would continue to write) many of these dark, violent stories, the Crisis survivors find evidence for the unpleasant state of the DC Universe in two stories written by Rucka, both of which involve Bordeaux.

In a oft-referenced moment during Rucka’s acclaimed run on Wonder Woman, one-time Justice League ally Maxwell Lord uses his now-amplified mind-control powers to take control of intelligence agency Checkmate, kill Blue Beetle, and turn Superman into his own personal weapon. To stop him and free Superman, Wonder Woman must break the neck of Maxwell Lord.

Before his death, Lord also gained control over Brother Eye, a highly-intelligent AI surveillance program that Batman designed in his most paranoid state—think the climax of The Dark Knight times 100. Because of her connection to Wayne, Bordeaux, now a Checkmate agent unknowingly doing Lord’s dirty work, becomes the means by which Lord accesses Brother Eye. Soon, Lord starts using Brother Eye to envelope innocent people in nanobots and turn them into mindless soldiers called OMACs (One Man Army Corps—don’t laugh, OMAC and Brother Eye are Jack Kirby concepts and they rule … at least when Kirby’s the one working with them). Bordeaux becomes the most notable victim.

After the events of Infinite Crisis are settled and everything’s good again, Bordeaux is cured, but only partially. She retains her OMAC abilities, even as she returns to her more or less human form. With those powers, Bordeaux serves on the reconstituted Checkmate, alongside other Gunn favorites such as Mister Terrific and Amanda Waller.

Given the espionage qualities of the character, it’s easy to see why Gunn would have added Bordeaux to Peacemaker‘s line-up. Yet, one cannot help but think that Gunn isn’t going to completely repeat the Infinite Crisis beats, if only because he’s cast his brother Sean as Maxwell Lord and seems to be drawing inspiration from portrayals of the character in the sitcom-like Justice League America by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire. Then again, anyone who saw Tromeo and Juliet knows that Gunn has no problem visiting horrific on-screen violence on characters played by his brother, so maybe we will see Wonder Woman twist Lord’s neck.

Whatever direction they go, it is clear that Gunn is following elements of Bordeaux’s comic book origin. And if he follows that plot all the way to Gotham, then we’re going to get a grouchy, paranoid Batman, someone far more unpleasant than any other live-action take on the Dark Knight.

Still, Boredaux does have cybernetic abilities in Peacemaker, and specifically abilities focused on her eye. It’s not hard to imagine that Brother Eye exists in this universe and, possibly, a paranoid Batman involved in its creation.

Peacemaker season 2 airs new episodes every Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO Max.