“Peacemaker” is the best superhero show I’ve seen in a long time. 

These past few years have had a mostly mediocre selection of comic book shows. Every CW DC show besides “Superman and Lois” is just simply awful. Marvel’s selection has gone downhill since the cancellation of “Daredevil” and some of the other Netflix shows. 

Sure they have the recent Disney+ shows, but really only one or two of them ended up being good. Since 2018 the only really solid superhero television to come out has been Amazon’s “The Boys” and “Invincible”. Simply, Peacemaker is one of the best superhero shows out there so long as you can handle some admittedly bad jokes.

Following the events of 2021’s “The Suicide Squad,” James Gunn picks up here multiple months after the film’s climax. I won’t spoil anything but the start of this show immediately is able to start deconstructing who was a mostly one-note character in “The Suicide Squad”.

“Peacemaker” does have a lot of goofy elements just like writer and producer, James Gunn’s, previous work, but at its core, it’s about a broken man who’s been abused and used his entire life. His father is a cold and distant figure (with even more shocking revelations about him occurring in the 2nd episode), he’s used as a government hitman under the threat of death, and every one of his friends have left or turned their backs on him (except his pet eagle, Eagly). 

You see a broken man trying to hide it from his team and the rest of the world which you see in him treating everyone around him exceptionally poorly such as consistently calling one character a nickname he hates.

Much like Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “The Suicide Squad”, this at its core is about a ragtag band of losers trying to move on from their difficult pasts and this kind of empathetic core is something that I’m always a huge sucker for because it provides a lot of room for great character development and helps to ground this as an emotional story rather than a goofy comic book show.

The action in this show is mostly great but some fights are definitely better than others. Specifically, the Judo Master fights I thought were relatively weak to some of the later fights in the show. I certainly liked that they were relatively sparingly used because it allows for more character work but it also makes when they do happen more exciting. 

Particularly, the climactic final battle in episode 8 is fantastic and is honestly one of the best fights in a DC movie or show. It’s hard to explain without spoilers but they turn the somewhat cliche triumphant stand against the bad guys with the heroes walking in line and turned on its head in the best possible way.

The comedy is where this show starts to falter a little bit. The jokes here are inconsistent because some are genuinely funny and others are just complete duds. 

It doesn’t necessarily get in the way of the story and I definitely am less distracted from bad jokes than many but it’s not hard to say the humor can be pretty hit or miss. It feels like Gunn made the first draft and didn’t ask anyone to proofread it and DC just went with it because of the success of “The Suicide Squad”.

When I watch a movie or show first and foremost I want a good story but I also want personality in it, too. I don’t want some bland ugly looking mess churned out of a corporate meat grinder and “Peacemaker” certainly avoids this. 

In this show, Gunn leaves such a firm imprint of his style and voice that it makes it so much better just like how Sam Raimi did with his Spider-Man movies and Matt Reeves with “The Batman”. He brings such a strong ethos to this show and it shows. 

The fact that a random character like peacemaker who originally had a total of less than maybe 20 comic appearances is now the best-developed character in the entire DC Extended Universe is a testament to how good of a writer Gunn has become. 

“Peacemaker” was a massive breath of fresh air in a year of mostly mediocre and disappointing superhero shows.

Score: 8/10