It really does seem like 2025 is the year that the superhero’s greatest foe is depression and untreated mental issues. Obviously Thunderbolts* set us up nicely as a motley team of Marvel also-rans square up to a villain whose superpower basically is weaponised PTSD, but as we cruise into the second episode of Peacemaker Season 2, it seems that James Gunn is dead set of leaving it in the dust.
Gunn’s obviously dealt with unprocessed trauma before with the tragic backstory of Rocket Racoon standing as his most obvious example, but with the continuing misadventures of Christopher Smith, the head honcho behind DC’s second coming looks to be going for some sort of record. I mean, both the protagonists of Guardians Of The Galaxy and 2010’s indie oddity, Super may have had their troubles, but at least they’ve never accidently killed themselves in a drug fueled attempt to tease a better life out of a different universe… right?
Chris Smith is in quite the pickle. After using his late father’s Quantum Unfolding Chamber to visit another universe where Peacemaker is not only a respected hero but his father and brother are still alive (and not racist assholes), our depressed hero does something of a multiversal faux par and murders his alternate self in self defense. While that’s traumatic enough in itself, the fact that Chris now has to dispose of his own body can’t do much for his peace of mind – but unbeknownst to him matters are far worse.
A handy flashback reveals that after Amanda Waller was removed from ARGUS, the first thing Rick Flagg Sr. requested when he took her place was to study the file of Project Starfish and discover who exactly murdered his son. Obviously, as we’ve all seen The Suicide Squad, we know it was Chris, but as he now no longer trusts his former teammate, Economos, to spy on him, he’s now been partnered with Agent Langston Fleury who plans to raid Chris’ house when the flawed “hero” is out.
A prime time would be the upcoming reunion of the 11th Street Kids which sees all of the remaining survivors of Project Butterfly come together and get raging drunk, but while the gang get nice and boozy, Fleury discovers that you don’t need a guard dog when you have a bald eagle waiting at home. However, while Eagly is tearing a bunch of ARGUS mercs a new ARGUS-hole, the strain that’s been occurring between Chris and Harcourt gets ever closer to breaking point after she rebuffs his concern about some fresh injuries she’s picked up as she deals with her rage in the most self destructive ways possible.
Lovesick and still freaking out about disposing of his own corpse, Chris figures that there is one way to find a Harcourt who’ll be more receptive to his feelings and it means yet more misuse of a Quantum Unfolding Chamber.
The misery that’s positively dripping off every character present in this show is actually somewhat impressive seeing as the memory of the super-positive Superman still rings fresh in our memories. While John Cena’s Peacemaker is obviously bearing the brunt of it as the act of killing an alternate self has visibly thrown off his judgement into insane territory, all the other members of the 11th Street Gang seem to be all still going through their own, personal Hells. Harcourt is still spiralling as her rage and frustration about bring shit-canned is making her put up walls faster than her friends can tear them down. Economos is continuing to feel the pressure of being miserable in his work place with the added pressure of knowing exactly how the son of his boss was murdered and even the upbeat Adebayo is suffering through a breakup with her wife. In fact, only the unflappable Adrian and literally flapping Eagly are seemingly unaffected which is highlighted by the fact that the former seems to not pick up on how disturbing helping Chris dispose of his body should be and the latter takes on an entire team of agents by himself.
It really seems that this season is putting in a concerted effort to really drill down into the themes of depression and so forth to the point that the entire episode almost seems to be covering the exact same ground as last weeks installment. Sure, we find that the Chris from the other universe also had a romantic relationship with an Emilia Harcourt which makes our hero even more receptive to the idea of a literal “better world” that’s accessible through his wardrobe, but it really seems that Gunn’s script is hammering all the points home in order to justify all the incredibly inadvisable decisions that everyone seems primed to make.
Of course, not everyone is having their face rubbed into the injustice of life. The aforementioned action sequence that sees Eagly cut loose and further earn his wings (sorry) as one of the best animal sidekicks going is just what the doctor ordered and I can’t help but compare all the more extreme moments with the fact that it shares space with the far more family friendly Superman. Last week was an orgy (which we also get the aftermath of here), this week it’s the sight of Eagly ripping out an eyeball in majestic slo-mo. Elsewhere we get more of Adrian just being his fucking weird self as he continues to was lyrical about such subjects as sex, fire escapes and general human interactions while blatently having no clue about any of them.
However, addind to this is the debut of Tim Meadows’ exceeding off kilter Agent Fleury whose blunt statements manage to score some surreal laughs. The agent bemoaning the fact that he suffers from “bird blindness” and has no idea what kind of fluttering animal Eagly actually is the exact form of idiotic genius that James Gunn excels at and his habit of labeling his co-workers with exceedingly inappropriate nick-names such as Ginger Cool, Barely Legal and Titties is probably a running joke to watch out for as closely as that alien who Chris thinks is fucking rude for not returning his greetings everything he ventures into the Quantum Unfolding Chamber.
With the second episode in the bag, Peacemaker needs to be saluted for zeroing in more on the character’s various states of mind than just forging on with yet another wacky adventure. However, there is a feeling that maybe the show could benefit from a bit more forward motion because as good as season 2 has been thus far, there’s a weird, nagging sense that it hasn’t fully started yet as there’s so much more potential to Chris’ growing multiversal addiction that what we’ve already seen. But with booze, drugs, regret and the haunting sight of his own severed head roasting on a pyre of his own making flowing through his body, I feel that the the season just about on the verge of opening up on just how messed up things can possibly get.
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