I have something of an embarrassing fanboy confession: I love Peacemaker, and I especially love James Gunn’s R-rated take on superhero stories. The vulgarity, nudity, and ultraviolence have made this show insanely popular.
That leads to an obvious question: why did the public (myself included) embrace this dark approach to superhero stories when everyone rejected Zack Snyder’s grim and gritty DC superhero movies? The blunt answer to that question is that James Gunn is creating mature stories intended for smart adults, and the Snyder era focused almost entirely on appealing to teenage edgelords.
The Art Of Darkness
Before Zack Snyder fans start throwing things, hear me out: the DCEU started out as a darker alternative to the MCU, which sounds fine on paper because some of the best comic stories ever told (from Watchmen to The Dark Knight Returns) are remarkably dark. But those stories were only dark because the writers wanted to tackle adult themes such as authoritarianism, hero worship, and the razor-thin line between good and evil.
The DCEU never really did that, though, instead presenting a series of really stupid moments created just for shock value, like Superman killing someone in his very first film. Or Lex Luthor blowing up Congress after mailing a woman a jar of his own piss. Or Batman, the character who famously doesn’t kill, just executing foe after foe in Batman v. Superman.
An Audience of Edgelords
Let’s be honest with ourselves: none of this stuff was done to advance the characters or deliver a satisfying story. Instead, all of this was written to shock audiences into thinking they were watching something mature…or at least, a ‘90s edgelord teenager’s idea of mature. But what James Gunn effortlessly demonstrates with Peacemaker is that it takes far more than shock value to create a mature story.
Obviously, Peacemaker is full of its own shocking moments that range from naked orgies at our hero’s house to him murdering his own interdimensional doppleganger. Oh, and the absolutely wild revelation that Peacemaker’s new favorite dimension is filled with almost nothing but racist Nazis. But even at its stupidest, Peacemaker doesn’t present these moments simply to shock or titillate the viewer; instead, they are all tied to the development of our titular main character.
Zack Snyder Ruined Your Childhood
For example, Peacemaker throws a drug-fueled orgy because Harcourt isn’t interested in him, and this leads to the discovery of a new dimension where he has to fight and kill a version of himself that, incidentally, also has a drug problem. The Nazi world revelation helps demonstrate our main character’s stupidity (he doesn’t notice major things like everyone at ARGUS having copies of Mein Kampf and the building having a huge Hitler mural) and the bittersweet decision he must face. Ultimately, Peacemaker realizes it’s better to be a depressed hero in his own world than live in a dimension where his happiness is contingent on the suffering of millions.
Simply put, every shocking moment in Peacemaker moves the story and characters forward in every way. For example, Peacemaker’s Justice Gang interview is filled with vulgar jokes, but it helps to further reveal what a jerk Guy Gardner is while explaining why Peacemaker doesn’t join the world’s most famous hero squad.
In the DCEU, the shocking moments come at the expense of our favorite characters. Can we all agree having Batman and Superman both become murderers makes fans like them less, not more.
And having Superman commit like a hundred 9/11s while fighting Zod doesn’t make him seem like a hero. In fact, it just makes us more sympathetic to Lex Luthor for wanting to kill this reckless alien demigod before he accidentally breaks the world in half. And when DC’s attempts to make its heroes grim and gritty make the supervillains look like the good guys, it’s clear that this attempt at creating a dark cinematic universe is a complete failure.
James Gunn: Head of the Crass
Peacemaker isn’t a perfect show, but it proves that it’s possible to create R-rated comic stories without ruining the characters and sabotaging the universe like the DCEU did. There’s nothing wrong with creating grim and gritty tales, but what’s the point if you’re just going to try to make something only idiotic teenagers would ever think is cool? The DCEU collapsed because it gambled everything on shocking moments that almost fatally poisoned the brand, leaving James Gunn to build a new cinematic universe from scratch.
In a final irony, it’s going to take a man obsessed with d*ck jokes to create the most surprisingly mature cinematic universe in Hollywood history. This maturity hasn’t kept him from making a lighter, funnier world, one that has been so successful in large part because the DCEU tried so hard to be dark. Ultimately, James Gunn keeps winning because he makes movies and shows for actual adults, while Zack Snyder focuses almost entirely on pleasing teenage internet trolls.
Maybe Snyder will finally learn that it’s never too late to grow up. And if his fans could learn that same lesson, they might finally stop celebrating the DCEU, which will (I’m gonna say this pretty loud for those cheap seats in the back) go down in history as the worst cinematic universe ever made.