James Gunnhas yet another hit on his hands, withPeacemakersurprising audiences not only with its outrageous humor but with its heart and raw emotion too. It was so well received that HBO Max hasrenewed it for a second season, much to the surprise of many. While there are many praiseworthy aspects to the show, one of its more subtle strengths was its ability to world-build casually and realistically.
RELATED:James Gunn Reveals ‘The Suicide Squad’ Moment That Led to the Creation of ‘Peacemaker
From casual superhero name-drops, to subtle tributes to Peacemaker’s comic book origins, the show was littered with references and details that may have been lost on the casual viewer.
Charlton County/Charlton News — A Nod to Peacemaker’s Original Publishers
While Peacemaker has made his bold entrance into theDC Extended Universe, before he shared a universe with the likes ofBatmanand Wonder Woman, Christopher Smith (as well as Judomaster) belonged to a completely different publisher — Charlton Comics. Peacemaker made his debut in Charlton’sFightin’ 5No. 40 in 1966, but when Charlton folded in the ’80s,DCbought the rights to many of their characters and integrated them into their shared universe.
It looks like James Gunn chose to pay tribute to those origins though, by having his version of Peacemaker hail from Charlton County and featuring reporters from Charlton News in the final episode.
Doll Man — The Creepy Homunculus
In the third episode of the series, Peacemaker reveals that he’s creeped out by homunculi, i.e. miniature people, citing Doll Man as an example. One of the first shrinking superheroes, Doll Man, a.k.a. Darrel Dane is a pretty obscure superhero. Debuting in 1939, he was published by Quality Comics until they closed down, after which, DC bought the rights to him and several of Quality’s other characters. Sound familiar?
RELATED:Peacemaker: 10 Obscure DC Characters James Gunn Should Tackle Next
Years later, DC reintroduced Doll Man and his compatriots as a team known as The Freedom Fighters — heroes from a parallel universe where the Nazis won WWII, known as Earth X. Sadly, poor Doll Man wasn’t includedwhen Earth X was adapted for theArrowverse.
Probably the hero with the most literal and descriptive name ever, Matter-Eater-Lad, a.k.a. Tenzil Kem has the ability to… eat matter. Specifically, he’s an alien whose species evolved to be able to eat essentially anything, including solid metal and stone. Peacemaker mentions him in episode four, saying describing a horrifying experience in which he saw the Lad eat an entire restaurant.
In the comics, he’s a member of The Legion of Superheroes, who hail from the 31st century, so who knows what he was doing in 2022. However,Nathan Fillion’sThe Suicide Squadcharacter, TDK bares a strong resemblance to the Legion reject, Arm-Fall-Off-Boy, so could they have both been on a mission for the team?
The DEO — Just Who Did Harcourt Use to Work For?
In the third episode, “Better Goff Dead,” Harcourt details her career history before she came to work for ARGUS. In addition to mentioning the CIA, she also says that she used to work for the DEO. You could be forgiven for assuming that this is just another real-world American intelligence agency, but like ARGUS, it’s actually a fictional agency straight out of DC comics.
The Department of Extranormal Operations debuted in 1998 and is a government agency tasked with monitoring superpowered threats, with prominent agents including Cameron Chase and Mr. Bones. The agency appeared prominently in theSupergirlTV series, but it’s interesting to know that they exist in the DCEU too.
The Riddler — Expanding Batfleck’s Rogues' Gallery
In episode four, “The Choad Less Traveled,” Peacemaker gets into an argument with his father’s neighbor, who tries to compare him to Batman. The whole thing starts when the elderly neighbor mentions Batman’s “coterie of super-villains,” asking Peacemaker whether he has his own villains. One of the villains that the neighbor mentions is the iconic connoisseur of green suits and brain-teasers,The Riddler.
RELATED:‘The Batman’: Paul Dano to Write ‘Riddler: Year One’ Comic
This is a perfect bit of casual world-building since we’ve seen so few of Batman’s enemies in the DCEU so far. It could also be a nice little nod to the villain’sappearance inMatt Reeve’sThe Batman.
Speaking of that “coterie of super-villains,” another one of Batman’s enemies mentioned in episode four was The Mad Hatter. This is the alter ego of Jervis Tetch, a scientist with a penchant for mind-control technology. As you might have guessed, he also has a bit of a thing forAlice’s Adventures in Wonderlandand models his appearance after the Hatter/Mad Hatter character from that story.
This is even more interesting than the Riddler’s mention since the Mad Hatter has never appeared in a live-action movie. The mind boggles at the possibility that he could face off againstBen Affleck’sBatman someday.
Kite-Man - The Most Beloved Joke Villain
In Peacemaker’s trailer, we see a newspaper clipping with the following headline: “New Hero Peacemaker Apprehends Kite-Man”. This is further elaborated in Episode 6, “Murn After Reading,” in which Peacemaker discusses this fight with a classroom full of kids. For those not in the know, Kite-Man is a Batman villain who debuted in the ’60s and, as you may have guessed uses kites to commit crimes. That’s his whole gimmick.
Over the years, he’s gone from being ridiculed as a joke villain, to becoming a bit of a meme and even gaining some depth in Tom King’s recent Batman comic book run. He’s gained even more popularity thanks to theHarley Quinnanimated series, with him evenset to get his spin-off.
Bat-Mite - Batman’s Inter-Dimensional Fanboy
Speaking of joke Batman characters,Peacemaker’s second episode gave audiences a truly unexpected and kind of hilarious reveal: Bat-Mite exists in the DCEU. Bat-Mite is another one of those wonderfully silly characters from the Silver Age of Comics, a magical imp from another dimension who’s a huge Batman villain. Unlike Superman’s inter-dimensional stalker, Mr. Mxyzptlyk, Bat-Mite is less of a villain and more of a nuisance who would show up cause mischief, despite having the best intentions.
He’s been seldom seen in comics since the ’60s and has never appeared in a live-action adaptation, so it’s just brilliant to think that he’s out there, running around in the ultra-serious DCEU.
The Justice League — The Team Finally Has a Name
Bouncing from the realm of obscure DC characters, we now come to their most recognizable heroes. Yes, everybody watchingPeacemakerwould know full well who the League is and wouldn’t need an explanation forthose surprise cameos in the finale. However, did you catch on to the fact that this marks the first time this rag-tag group of heroes has been called “The Justice League” in the DCEU?
RELATED:James Gunn Confirms a ‘Peacemaker’ Character Will Return for a “Future Big DC Movie”
That’s right, Peacemaker suggests calling the League in to help with the big showdown against the Butterflies, mentioning them by name. It’s nice to know that despite their unclear cinematic future, the League is still evolving in their cinematic universe.
Green Arrow — Could the Emerald Archer Be Joining the League?
In addition to some already established members of the DCEU Justice League, the Peacemaker finale also name-dropped another hero associated with the team — Green Arrow. The character reached new levels of popularity thanks to theCWshow,Arrow, however, this is the first time he’s been confirmed to exist in the DCEU. This raises some exciting possibilities regarding future appearances.
Naturally, it would be nice to see the Emerald Archer get his solo movie, or appear in a futureJustice Leaguefilm. However, with a soloBlack Canary movie currently in the works, starringJurnee Smollett, it would make an ideal place to debut the character, given the characters are romantically linked in the comics.
KEEP READING:James Gunn Reveals He’s Involved in Another DC TV Project
