Peacemaker Season 2 Fixes the DCU Canon Before the Opening Credits Roll

This article contains spoilers for Peacemaker season 2 episode 1.

How is he going to deal with the Justice League?

That question is usually reserved for Lex Luthor or Braniac, big baddies in the DC Universe. But as we head into the second season of Peacemaker, that question has increasingly been directed at James Gunn. Back when he was just working in the world established by Zack Snyder, Gunn included a JL cameo in the 2022 finale of Peacemaker‘s first season. But since Gunn joined producer Peter Safran as the co-head of DC Studios, he’s rebooted the universe while continuing Peacemaker. And that raises questions.

How can Gunn build on the story from the first season, in which John Cena‘s Christopher Smith a.k.a. the Peacemaker and his friends stop an invasion of alien butterflies, without addressing the old Justice League’s too-late arrival? Turns out, the answer is pretty simple. Gunn builds on that first season by remembering that Peacemaker is fundamentally a television show.

Like many TV shows with a continuing story, the premiere of Peacemaker season 2 opens with a series of flashbacks form the previous season, reminding viewers how Chris formed a friendship with fellow oddballs in the 11th Street Kids, killed his abusive white supremacist father, and defeated the butterflies. Tellingly, this section comes with a title card that reads, “Previously in the DCU.”

But instead of the Justice League arriving too soon, it’s the Justice Gang seen in Superman: Hawkgirl, Guy Gardner, and Mister Terrific, with Superman and Supergirl in tow. As with the original version, only two of the characters are fully visible and interact with Chris, as we see Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner grouch about being called a “meathead,” and Isabela Merced cackles at him as Hawkgirl.

Some will certainly leap to the conclusion that we’re seeing the line-up of the new Justice League, complete with David Corenswet’s Superman and Milly Alcock’s Supergirl as members, but that would be way too premature, especially as the first episode finds Chris trying out for the Justice Gang. Others will complain that Gunn hand waved something so huge. The entire universe changed! This deserves an entire Crisis on Infinite Earths-style event! It can’t be just a couple seconds in the intro!

Turns out, no you don’t. And Gunn knows this well because he knows how comic book universes work.

The DC Universe has been a continuing storyline since 1938. The Marvel Universe has been a continuing storyline since 1961—longer if you count pre-Marvel comics starring Namor and Captain America. While DC has rebooted its universe several times, with the aforementioned Crisis and others, and Marvel had a pseudo-reboot in Secret Wars, even those events are part of ongoing stories.

The ongoing story can be wonderful, as it’s fun to see Flash pop up in a Batman adventure or Spider-Man try to join the Fantastic Four. But when writers have to spend too much time explaining how Flash can be in Gotham City when readers know he was trapped on Earth-2 that same month, then they’re spending too much time on exposition, telling instead of showing. And when they’re doing exposition, creators can’t do the thing that fans really want in a story: character development and action.

Gunn provides plenty of both in Peacemaker. Although positioned at a crucial point coming right off of Superman, this show keeps focus on the compelling and flawed person of Christopher Smith. Even the much-vaunted Quantum Folding Chamber, which allows Smith to enter alternate realities, mostly functions to explore Smith’s guilt and desires, not explain the differences between Gunn and Snyder’s universes.

Those really worried about how the past DCU connects to the current DCU can come up with their own headcanon. Stan Lee used to hand out “No Prizes” to readers who wrote in with the best explanation for continuity errors in Marvel Comics. But it’s much better to let Gunn and other creatives focus on the stuff that matters, the characters and the emotions they experience as they kill alien butterflies and travel across realities.

Peacemaker season 2 episode 1 is available to stream on HBO Max now. New episodes premiere Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO Max, culminating with the finale on October 9.