When the announcement of a Peacemaker series starring John Cena was announced by Warner Brothers and HBO Max. It was a huge head scratcher, because nobody was asking for a Peacemaker spinoff series from James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad movie. Even the trailer didn’t do enough to get fans and general audience excited. When the first three episodes hit almost two weeks ago that’s when word to mouth says to DC fans and audience it’s a show worth watching.
PROS
The writing from James Gunn who wrote the entire series during the lockdown. Might be one of the best things he’s written since Gaurdians of the Galaxy vol One. He writes with a balanced and not water cooler jokes like in Gaurdians of Galaxy vol two. In this he is writing a balanced of serious and sense of humor. It’s a great blend of both.
I think John Cena will have a better career in TV or stream TV than films because his performance is better in a long storied series compared to his movies. The witty dialog between him and Vigilante is one of the best parts of the series. James Gunn does a great character dive with Peacemaker as we learned more about him.
The standout performance in the series is Danielle Brooks who plays Leota Adebayo who is one of the hearts of the series and is new to A.R.G.U.S as her first assignment is with Peacemaker. We learned she is related to another big character from DC Comics as it will be another attraction point for DC fans to watch the series.
My favorite character of the series is Adrian Chase/Vigilante. He is played by Freedie Stroma who plays a different characterization of Vigilante compared to how his creator Marv Wolfman wrote him from the comic books. James Gunn reimages the character in what he might think a real life Vigilante would be like. Which is a trigger happy sociopath. It works great for the series as he’s a combination of Deadpool with Black Noir killer instincts.
The choice of music and the fight scenes have been fun to watch. All four episodes have shown a lot of good action scenes with Peacemaker, Vigilante, and Judomaster who is another low level character from DC Comics.
CONS
My biggest criticism of the series is no comic book creater acknowledgement to the creators of Peacemaker. The creators are Joe Gill, and Pat Boyette. No creator acknowledgement of Marv Wolfman and George Perez for their creation of Adrian Chase/Vigilante. That’s something Warner Brothers needs to be included as James Gunn did not create these characters.
The story isn’t strong yet but it does feel like James Gunn is setting up something big for the finale. I’m only four episodes in as I will have to wait each episode to come out every Thursday.
OVERALL 8.5/10
So far Warner Brothers has found another hit series with Peacemaker. James Gunn once again gave new life to unknown characters who nobody would care about and gave them personalities to connect with the audiences. This time he presents it in a different way where he has more control at Warner Brothers compared to Marvel Studio. Peacemaker is a blend of Amazon’s The Boys with Gaurdians of the Galaxy Vol One.
My Comic Book Opinion 