How Peacemaker Challenges Its Protagonist’s Credo

Peacemaker, both the TV series and its protagonist, has been full of surprises. Thanks to the creative hand of James Gunn and an ensemble anchored by the tragicomic performance from John Cena as Christopher Smith, what seemed like a raunchy romp through the DC Universe turned out to be a surprisingly heartfelt and well constructed journey for its main hero. The raunchiness is still intact though, and not as intrusive as one might think.

When Peacemaker first appeared in The Suicide Squad, it was easy to write him off as, “a douchebag Captain America” (Cena’s own words.) He boasted about his skills with weaponry, he turned out to be placed on the Squad by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to cover up the U.S. government’s involvement in Project Starfish, and he had a rather dark mission statement: “I cherish peace with all my heart. I don’t care how many men, women, and children I need to kill to get it.”

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Peacemaker starts putting that creed to the test in its very first episode. After surviving his supposedly fatal shootout with Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Smith attempts to return home. However, he is confronted by Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) who coerces him into joining Project: Butterfly, another black ops mission centered around stopping a secret alien invasion. One of the aliens happens to be a prominent U.S. Senator, who Smith is tasked to kill. However, he hesitates when he sees the Senator’s kids, which isn’t the reaction that one would expect from somebody who vowed to kill to keep the peace.

Slowly, it’s revealed that Smith’s experiences in Corto Maltese, especially when he was forced to kill Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman), have changed his outlook on life. Before his death, Flagg uttered a statement that lodged itself into Smith’s brain — “Peacemaker. What a joke.” Smith attempts to mask his insecurities with excuses. He claims that he can’t go into battle unless his weapons are engraved with the Dove of Peace, the same symbol he wears on his chest. Smith later admits to Emilia Hartcourt (Jennifer Holland) that this is a lie; he’s just grown uneasy with his vow. When Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) catches him crying, Smith writes it off as exercising his face muscles.

Another revelation concerns Smith’s father Auggie (Robert Patrick), who was once the white supremacist villain known as the White Dragon. Auggie raised his son to be a killer, even pitting Smith and his brother Keith against each other until one of their fights had Keith suffering a fatal blow. Auggie hated his son ever since, and Smith never recovered from the trauma. When the two finally come to blows, Smith pummels his father, screaming that everything that happened in his life was due to the older Smith’s influence. And though Smith ultimately kills his father, Auggie returns as a ghostly figure that will no doubt haunt his son in future episodes of the show.

What helps Smith overcome his issues with his father is his connection with the members of his team, including Hartcourt, John Economos (Steve Agee) and Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks). They bond during a raid on a Butterfly feeding factory, and manage to overcome multiple obstacles including Adebayo being a spy for her mother Amanda Waller. Hartcourt steps up to be a leader, Adebayo embraces her job. Economos even gets his moments in the spotlight as he takes down Judomaster (Nhut Le) and a Butterfly-possessed gorilla. In a way, Smith’s team is more of a family to him than his father ever was.

Smith is eventually approached by the Butterfly leader, which has taken over the body of detective Sophie Song (Annie Chang). She tells him that the Butterflies escaped their home planet after it was destroyed, and that their end goal is to conquer the Earth to save it from humanity’s self-destructive tendencies. She also reveals that they made a vow to have peace at any cost — which shakes Smith to his core. Smith kills the Butterflies’ cow, a giant larva that secretes the only food they can eat. When Adebayo asks why he did it, he replies that he couldn’t bear to see his team get hurt. In the end, he found a better way to keep the peace.