SERIES REVIEW: PEACEMAKER

 

SERIES REVIEW - PEACEMAKER  

Wild.  Crazy.  Crude.  Rude.  Silly.  Campy.  Funny. But what a fun ride!  I don't know if I can FIND anymore adjectives to describe the 8 episode rollercoaster that HBO-Max  provided us in the DC show Peacemaker.  John Cena returns from his stint in The Suicide Squad to once more take up the role of Christopher Smith...the man who loves peace with all his heart, and doesn't matter HOW many men, women, or children have to DIE for freedom.  And when we last saw Peacemaker....he was in the hospital after the Starro affair on Corto Maltese, where...after killing Col. Rick Flag, got hurt himself by Bloodsport, and then getting nearly crushed by Starro.  So, when this series picks up, we get to see Peacemaker in the hospital, finally waking up, and getting back to doing whatever it is he does best---being a superhero...at least how HE sees it.  

We pick things up 5 months later after the Suicide Squad's latest mission in Corto Maltese, where Peacemaker was in the hospital recovering from his injuries.  He then bails the hospital, and heads home, where he's eventually met my Emelia Harcourt, and Jon Economos, who'd been a part of Amanda Waller's Task Force X team, which was there for the Suicide Squad's mission, and were ordered to get Smith, along with former merc Clemson Murn, and newcomer Leota Adebayo, who is secretly Waller's daughter, from ARGUS for a mission called "Project Butterfly".  He reluctantly accepts the mission, then goes to see his dad, Auggie.  He grabs his pet eagle, Eagly, and then meets up with the team at a pub to discuss the mission.  He tries to hit on Harcourt, but gets shot down.  He then picks up a gal named Annie Sturphausen, and ends up having sex with her in a motel.  However, she turns out to be a gal with superpowers, and he ends up having to fight her.  He ends up killing Annie by using a sonic boom device in his helmet.  

He calls Harcourt, and they have to perform a rescue before the authorities arrive at the Evergreen apartment where he had sex and then destroyed Sturphausen.  He comes across a weird device in Sturphausen's apartment, and then takes a married couple hostage, but manages to escape the complex before the police arrive with Harcourt's help.  Police detectives Sophie Song and Larry Fitzgibbon arrive on the scene, and start trying to put the case together.  They end up arresting Smith's father Auggie after Economos had switched the ownership of Smith's car from him to his father, thus keeping his record clean (or as clean as it can be), and that Auggie was the one who caused Sturphausen's death.  In jail, Auggie is hailed by many white supremecists in there as "White Dragon".  Smith realizes that the only reason he was attacked by Sturphausen, is that he left the dossier he was given open for her to openly read, and she was in it.  They were pissed off, and shun him, so he heads home, where he's met by his old friend Adrian Chase, who also romps around as a so-called "superhero" named Vigilante.  When they open the  device that Smith plucked from Sturphausen's apartment, it turns out to be a mini spaceship. They also capture Judomaster in the process. 

Burn tells Peacemaker his first mission, is to assassinate Royland Goff, a suspected butterfly.  Harcourt and Smith stakeout the Goff household, and are soon joined by Vigilante.  Murn orders Peacemaker to assassinate them, but he hesitates.  Vigilante takes over and then assassinates Goff's wife and children, but misses Goff himself.  Goff's bodyguard Judomaster shows up and takes out Peacemaker and Vigilante.  Goff tries to get information out of Smith by unmasking and torturing Adrian Chase, but he doesn't give up anything.  Economous, Harcourt, and Murn come in and save him, and Smith kills Goff...where they see a butterfly creature eminate from him.  They then see the ARGUS computer showing that the Butterflies have spread all over the globe.  

With Judomaster now in the custody of the team, where Smith claims he killed the butterfly, Chase drives him to his dad's to get new gear, only to find out Auggie had been arrested and framed.  And against Murn's and Abedayo's wishes, he goes to visit his dad in prison, where Auggie threatens to expose Project Butterfly to the cops.  Abedayo says Peacemaker would be better off without his dad.  When they get back to HQ, Judomaster has escaped, and after some fighting, Abedayo shoots Judomaster before he can reveal the secret of the butterflies.  Smith returns to his trailer where he's got a butterfly captured in a jar.  Meanwhile, Vigilante gets himself captured so that he can silence Auggie before he spills Project Butterfly to the cops.  He tries to provoke Auggie's cronies in prison to fight him, but it doesn't impress Auggie.  Harcourt ends up bailing him out.  Smith reflects on killing Flag, and being trained by his dad, and the death of his brother.  Abedayo gets a lead on the butterflies, and tells Murn, whom we find out is a butterfly himself. 

Song and Fitzgibbon question Auggie, and he tells them that Smith killed Sturphausen, and after re-checking the facts and questioning the couple Smith held hostage, that things aren't adding up.  Murn informs the team how the butterflies enter humans and become their hosts, and how they eat on unknown amber fluid.  Abedayo's clues lead them to a bottling factory, and Murn enlists an ally, Caspar Locke, as the new police captain to undermine Song's investigation while they take out the bottling factory of the butterflies.  She requests help from her stepfather - a judge - to go after Peacemaker.  While Peacemaker uses his x-ray helmet to discover all the members of the factory are all Butterflies, as well as as an escaped Gorilla named Charlie.  The team raids the factory, and kills the employees, while Ecomomous ears Peacemaker's respect by killing Charlie.  Smith offers Abedayo a drink at his place, and she kind of urges him to be nicer, while she secretly plants a diary at his home at the request of her mother, Amanda Waller.  She then takes off for the office, where she uses his x-ray vision to discover that Murn is really a Butterfly himself.  He attacks her. 

Murn reveals to Abedayo that the Butterflies are an alien race that came from a dying planet, and the Goff Butterfly was going to lead them to world domination, while HE was a deserter to the Goff Butterfly's plan.  Meanwhile, Song releases Auggie much to Locke's dismay, Song gets an arrest warrant for Smith.  At Smith's trailer, the Goff Butterfly he captured tried to communicate with him and Chase, but the cops arrive, with Song looking to arrest Smith and Chase.  Chase accidently breaks the jar the Goff Butterfly was in, as they try to escape from Song and the police.  In the process though, Song is taken possession of by the Goff butterfly, and then amasses her army.  The crew manages to escape, and Locke, who helps them, also finds a way to create a distraction.  Economos then traces the Butterflies' activities to a place called Coverdale Ranch, where they say they have some "cow" that produces the amber fluid they require for sustinence.  Song takes over the Evergreen police, as well as any prisoners in order to gather her forces.  She also uses the diary she found in Smith's trailer and uses it on tv to get an arrest warrant for Peacemaker.   At this time, his father Auggie has gathered his own followers, as he also retrieves his White Dragon suit in order to kill his own son. 

As Smith is pissed off that Leota betrayed him, they have to find a way to get to Coverdale Ranch in order to destroy the cow, and kill off the Butterflies.  Harcourt finds out Leota's mother is Amanda Waller, and calls her out on it.  Murn is killed by Sophie, and Judomaster returns to attack Harcourt and Leota, but they manage to beat him.  Smith eventually confronts his father after he and Adrain tried to escape and avoid them.  Christopher eventually confronts Auggie about the incident that ended up killing his brother Keith.  Then, Smith kills his father.  Economos takes are of his followers.  With Murn dead, Harcourt is named the new leader of the team, and they continue on the mission to Coverdale Ranch.  Smith is pissed off with Leota, and says they're no longer friends.  

Leota, frustrated about everything that's went down, and considering what she's managed to accomplish with Smith, Leota calls upon her mother, and asks her to send the Justice League to help out with the Butterflies....but it may already be too late.  The team DOES eventually get to Coverdale Ranch.  As Economos creates a blast to get a distraction, Chase and Harcourt go on the attack, but are seriously injured.  Peacemaker makes his way towards the cow, but his confronted by the Song-Butterfly.  She says they're actually trying to save the Earth from humans themselves who prioritize profit and personal gain over survival.  She asks Peacemaker to join her, to help.  However, he takes Abedayo, who know has on his torpedo helmet, and tosses her towards the cow.  The cow is destroyed, and Smith shoots Song, thus releasing the Goff Butterfly.  As he collects his team, the Justice League finally arrive, but Smith chastises them for being late, and throws down some nasty remarks towards them.  Leota then decides, as she and Smith make up, to expose Task Force X, Project Butterlfy, and basically ruin her mother's plans and career.  This clears Smith's name in the press, and he heads home as his teammates heal.  But as he an Eagly are resting on his trailer porch...he's still haunted by the memory of his father.  With them is the Goff Butterfly, who is feasting upon the last of the amber fluid.  

This show was wild and crazy, and had some great character development and dynamics.  We see the personal relationships develop between the members of the group, as well as how everyone reacts to whatever it is Peacemaker says and does.  This show also surprisingly uses The Vigilante as another character capable of killing.  However, this is a FAR cry from the Adrian Chase I see in the comics   It's a lot like an even MORE campier version of Deadpool, but the way these two play off each other makes it fun.  Also, how Cena interacts with the rest of the team, and the villains.  We gain insight into what makes Peacemaker tick, as well as how and why he is how he is....mostly because of his racist father who seemed more interested in killing his own son, than wanting to help him.  We then see characters like Leota and Harcourt, breaking down those barriers, and showing him how to be a better person.  We get a great mixture of humor, as well as character evaluation.  The eventual bond that Smith creates with his ARGUS team is phenomenal, and we get to see some growth from them as well.  James Gunn has a knack for weaving in a well crafted story, as well as getting his characters to not only be outrages, but have depth and heart as well.  The jokes were well placed, and I laughed out loud often.  I cannot wait to see how they top Season 1.  Plus....credit due to Gunn for the use of music on this show...giving Peacemaker a love for 80's hair metal bands, as well as the awesome dance intro for the show as well. 

What did YOU all think of this crazy-ass show?  Did you enjoy Cena's performance?  Subscribe to the blog below, and leave me YOUR insights into this show....

Until next time.