Chris Smith is back.... and is still an asshole.
Alright, let’s cover Peacemaker
season 1. Peacemaker stars John Cena returning as Christopher Smith aka
Peacemaker, a DC anti-hero and villain that often serves as a member of groups
like the Suicide Squad. He’s extremely patriotic, and an efficient killer. He
served alongside Bloodsport, Harley Quinn, Polka-Dot Man, Ratcatcher 2, and
Rick Flag Jr. as part of the B-Team squad that actually survives. Weasel was
brought with them too, but he seemingly drowned on the way there. He was fine
though. Smith had a secret secondary mission from the others, his job was to
destroy any evidence that the US government had worked with the Corto Maltese
Government in their experiments on Starro, a giant psychic alien starfish. He
faced off against Rick Flag Jr, who believed all this info needed to get out.
Smith kills Flag, but the other Squad members release the data, making his
mission a failure. Oh, and Bloodsport shot him in the neck in retaliation for
killing Flag. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
We open with Smith getting a
medical checkup. His doctor says she’s shocked he survived a neck wound and a
building falling on him only to need a replacement clavicle. Smith asks if they
can’t increase the contrast on the X-ray to show off his muscles a bit more. He
feels like the way they have it makes him look like he’s all bulk when he works
really hard on his small muscle groups too. The doctor says that this isn’t for
his tinder profile and tells him that so long as he keeps up with physical
therapy and tries not to lift his right elbow above his shoulder he should be
fine. She discharges him, and he seems very confused by that. Smith calls over
Jamil, the janitor that he’s apparently smoked weed with a few times. He asks
if Jamil is trustworthy, which Jamil says he definitely isn’t. They banter back
and forth for a bit before Smith decides to just tell him that he’s supposed to
be in jail, for Superhero shit. Jamil doesn’t believe him, hasn’t heard of
“Peacemaker,” and says that Smith is too bulky to be a superhero. They have
like gymnast bodies. Jamil says he’s a fan of Aquaman and in his smug anger
Smith starts an obviously fake rumor that Aquaman has sex with fish. When Smith
mentions that he made a vow to have peace, regardless of how many people he has
to kill to get it, Jamil remembers him, calling him the racist superhero. Smith
denies this, saying he’s killed an awful lot of white people too, but Jamil
says that the ratio is suspicious. Smith promises to trust white people less
and get that number closer to even, and then asks Jamil if he’s noticed any law
enforcement types waiting around to nab him as he’s supposed to go back to
prison. Jamil says no. He asks if he can just… go, and Jamil shrugs and says
why not.
Smith gets his Peacemaker gear out
and dons it before walking off. As he walks out, one of the nurses calls him a
total douchebag. Another nurse pulls out her phone and texts someone named ‘Mr.
Murn’ in her contacts to say that he’s on the move. Peacemaker gets into a cab
and tells the guy to drive, ultimately celebrating that he’s seemingly gotten
away Scott free.
Chapter 1: A Whole New Whirled
After the opening credits we cut to
Keeya (Elizabeht Ludlow) and Leota (Danielle Brooks) Adebayo as they get set up
in their new apartment. They make some jokes about being into some spy stuff,
to defuse the tension that Keeya is feeling about Leota’s new job. Leota
promises that she’s just filing paperwork and office stuff. She’s just doing
this job long enough for them to stock up some cash in their accounts and then
moving on. Her promise of no risk might be a lie as Mr. Murn texts her to get
moving and she runs off.
Smith gets dropped off at his
trailer and tries to barter with the driver to give him some Corto Maltese cash
for the ride. He says that it might be worth only fifty sense, but it could be
worth a million bucks. The driver isn’t into it and instead takes Smith’s
helmet as payment. Gotta justify why Cena doesn’t wear it somehow, I guess. Ha.
Smith looks for his hidden key but can’t find it, so breaks into the back
window. The house is in disarray, clearly neglected and full of garbage. Smith
finds his phone and sees he’s got dozens of missed calls. He curse his dad, for
some reason, and starts going through it. Most of the messages seem to be from
a Vigilante (Freddie Storma), his self-proclaimed BFF that just wants to
hangout. Smith seems mostly annoyed that Vigilante kept asking him to obviously
commit crimes on his phone, no code or anything. Smith suddenly finds himself
at gun point. Leota, along with John Economos (Steve Agee) and Emilia Harcourt
(Jennifer Holland) get him in a triangle pattern for Mr. Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji)
to speak with him.
They move to the living room. Murn
points out that he only served 4 of a 30 year sentence, so did he really think
he’d just get to leave? Smith says that he did what he was told, he killed Flag
for them, but Harcourt points out that that wasn’t on his mission objectives.
Smith says he was told to do whatever is necessary, and she points out how
often killing proves necessary for him. Murn says that if Smith plays nice and
works for him, he’ll stay out of jail. Murn works directly under Amanda Waller,
so he seems legit. He tells Smith that Harcourt will be his direct handler,
Economos will handle tactics and logistics, and Leota is the new gal so she’s
basically a gopher. Leota has an awkward speech to the others about how excited
she is to be working with them before just trailing off. Smith asks what the
job is and Murn tells him that he needs help with Project Butterfly. Smith
thinks for a moment that he’s going to be fighting Mothra, as ARGUS is not that
creative with names, but Murn tells him that he’ll be working as a contract
killer, taking out dangerous individuals, they’ve dubbed Butterflies for them.
Murn says that they’ll meet him for dinner at 7:30. Smith says that he’ll be
there, just after he picks up Eagly from his dad’s.
Smith takes another cab to his
dad’s. His father is flying an American flag upside down… which not gonna lie
feels troubling. He knocks and awkwardly waits for him. He has an argument with
one of his dad’s neighbors about whether he’s a ‘real’ superhero or not. His
dad, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick) opens the door and invites him in. Auggie
hears his son’s story about being shot in Corto Maltese and calls him pathetic.
They have a fight about how Auggie didn’t cancel his phone service while in
prison, so he owes a lot of money. They start to yell but Smith backs off. He
asks about Eagly. Auggie shows him to Eagly, who was locked up in his garage.
Eagly hugs him with his wings as Auggie walks off in disgust.
The Project Butterfly team set up
shop in a crappy building, Leota forced to take a desk under a dripping pipe as
Harcourt called the only desk with light. Harcourt asks what Leota did to piss
off Amanda Waller to get this gig, telling the newer agent about how she and
Economos are getting punished for the whole ‘helping Suicide Squad disobey her
at Corto Maltese,’ thing. She doesn’t exactly answer, and they’re distracted by
the thumping in the pipes.
Christopher and Auggie have lunch
while he try to excitedly tell about his team. They have a weirdly intense
laugh about Bloodsport and his rat phobia that he developed from being tortured
by his dad. Auggie laughs so hard that he needs water. Once his coughing
subsides he asks if that… expletive was the one that shot him. That kills the
mood and Auggie calls him a Nancy boy. Christopher asks if he can get a new
helmet.
Auggie takes him to a secret lab in
the house with a bunch of other helmets. They’ve got a bunch of features to
them, one has X-Ray, one has a personal shield and so on. He says that these
are all from before, that he hasn’t thought about his son once since
Christopher was in jail. Christopher asks which one he should take, and Auggie
says he’s not sure he should give him ANY, but if he’s going to go around
taking care of some minorities, he might be able to part with the helmets.
Christopher sheepishly says that he doesn’t target non-white people
specifically, only criminals but Auggie clearly doesn’t buy it.
At the restaurant, the Butterfly
crew eat dinner while waiting for Smith. Harcourt is the first to notice and
she and Economos are shocked to see Smith arrive in full Peacemaker gear. Murn
insists that Waller isn’t screwing them buy giving them Peacemaker… right up
until Harcourt sees Eagly in the backseat. Then he agrees she’s screwing them.
Smith joins them, and it’s super awkward. One of the bus boys seems to be
staring at Smith, and he thinks that’s his friend Gut Chase’s younger brother,
claims he has mental issues. Murn gives him a dossier about his first target,
and Smith is shocked to see his target is a US senator. Adrian goes outside and
does a celebratory dance that Peacemaker is back before having an awkward
conversation with a coworker.
Smith goes to his car and Leota
asks to see Eagly. He lets her see it and she nips his fingers. They bond a
little and Leota asks what he’s heard about Murn. He says that he’s heard that
Murn is a mercenary that has killed a lot of people, not always the right
people. They part on reasonably good terms and Smith takes a drive with Eagly.
He sees Harcourt go into a bar and does an illegal U-turn to follow her.
Harcourt goes for a beer and gets
hit on immediately. She tells the guy to screw off just before Smith walks in.
He’s extremely awkward around Harcourt while trying to be friendly. A friend of
the dude she told to screw off comes to try to fight her, but Harcourt takes
him down in like two seconds. Smith is obviously smitten. She reveals that she
saw him make the U-turn and follow her. She tells him that she’s only interest
his ability to kill people and to screw off. Smith tries to convince her to
have like a no-strings-attached night to help him ‘relieve some stress.’ She
tells him to screw off and walks off. Smith clocks a bar girl looking at him,
and he… takes her back to her place.
We cut to Leota who is having a
video chat with Waller. We learn that Leota has some secret directive that she
wants to clue the others in on, but Waller tells her no, they need to play
things close to the vest. She asks if Leota has Smith’s diary that a forger
made up. She does and Waller tells her to hide it in his trailer somewhere
where Smith won’t find it. Waller asks about Peacemaker. Leota says that he’s
sexist and racist, but there’s something… sad about him. Waller tells her to
not get emotional. Leota says that it won’t be a problem. She’ll finish this
job, she and Keeya will get back on their feet and she’ll look for a job she
likes. Waller tells her that she’d be ignoring her god given talent, but Leota
disagrees. They say goodnight, revealing that Waller is in fact Leota’s mother.
Damn. Keeya asks if Waller was trying to pull her in, and Leota says ‘Always.’
Back at the bargirl’s place Smith
looks through her records while she brushes her teeth. He tries to bond with
her over music but she’s clearly not listening. He puts on the record for
Quireboys, who he says are his favorite. He does a little dance in his
tightie-whities, he thanks her for the hookup and is super awkward still. She
walks past him and grabs a knife as he’s distracted singing. She cuts up his
back and face pretty good and slices him all over. She nearly stabs him in the
head, but he dodges and punches her in the face. She shows off some superhuman
strength kicking and slashing at him with her nails. She gets her hands around
his head and starts to crush it, but he blinds her with perfume. She throws him
through a wall. Realizing he’s screwed, Peacemaker leaps out a window and lands
hard on his shoulder. Bargirl leaps out after him, Smith running off before she
can catch him. She stalks the parking lot for him when she sees Eagly take off.
Smith gets his helmet on and tells it to activate Sonic Boom. The burst of
force totals the cars in the parking lot and turns the bargirl into goo. Eagly
drops a dead opossum at his feet to make him feel better. They sit together
amongst the wreckage as the cop’s race their way. Well, that’s a hell of a
start.
I’ll admit, after seeing Cena as
Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad I was a bit surprised to see how they
played him in Peacemaker. While he’s still full of bravado and general
dick energy he had in the movie, the man is undeniable incredibly lonely and
seems to just want people to like him. He seemed hurt that Jamil wasn’t a
‘real’ friend after they smoked weed together, his daddy issues could be seen
from space, and the way he seemed to immediately try to get on Leota’s good
side makes me think he honestly does just want a friend. A friend that is not
the younger Chase. Yes, I did immediately clock that they’re the same kind of
awkward so it’s ironic that Smith doesn’t see that this kid is also desperately
lonely and wants a friend like him. I’ll be curious to see how his relationship
evolves with the other members of this team, as in my experience guys like
Chris Smith have a tendency to make situations much, much worse before they
start to get better. Leota is a good character. Since I’d seen Creature
Commandos already, I knew that Waller did have a daughter, so the
heretofore unknown Black woman joining a covert ops team did just sort of
scream ‘little Waller.’ I’ll be curious to hear more about her, as it sounds
like she’s a talented spy of some kind in her own right but is rejecting the
lifestyle for some reason. Considering who her mama is, I kind of get it. Can’t
imagine growing up with Amanda “I kill people to make my point” Waller gives
one a… positive view on espionage work. The fight in his underwear was a bit…
out of nowhere. Sure, Chris Smith is a super soldier, big and powerful like a
whole host of impowered soldier types… and yet seeing him in those extremely
small little undies does convey a weakness that I’m just not used to seeing in
John Cena. Whoever or whatever the bargirl is has me curious. She clearly had
powers of some kind, I assume she’ll end up being a Butterfly, whatever that
is. An alien, or cyborg or mutant, I’m sure they’ll explain things a little
more next episode. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes. Have a good
night.
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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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