Link to the n*de photos
The HBO MAX Instagram posted some photos of an extremely handsome and muscular guy with an impressive bulge: waving as he arrives, dressed in the uniform of a fast-food worker, being criticized by John Cena, and spurting water in his underwear. Since he's being advertised, he must be a new character in second season of The Peacemaker, a dark comedy about a squad of misfit superheroes in the DC Comics Universe. To find out, I'll review Episode 2.1: "The Ties that Grind."
Scene 1: Early in the morning, Peacemaker's semi-sentient pet eagle needs to do his business. It's too cold to let him outside, so Peacemaker takes him to his interdimensional vortex. Wandering around, he finds his Dad's old office...and his Dad, who says "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." This horrifies him.
Scene 2: Peacemaker is living in his late Dad's horrible house in a run-down suburban neighborhood. He is picked up by his friend Leota Adebayo.
DC Universe: A member of the Peacemaker's team in Season 1, Leota is the estranged daughter of Amanda Walker, an ARGUS agent who founded the Suicide Squad (inept superheroes, including Peacemaker, assigned to missions that were sure to result in their deaths).
Leota shows Peacemaker the business cards for her new private security agency, and complains about her girlfriend. Lesbian representation!
Peacemaker complains about being bullied by other metahumans (beings with super powers): "Why you wearing a disco ball on your head? Did you take a vow to be a douchebag?"
"I don't want to be a joke anymore," he tells her. "I want to be a real hero." You're in a dark comedy, so....
Scene 3: They arrive at a deserted toy store in a mini-mall, which turns out to be the secret headquarters of the Justice Gang. Peacemaker is applying to join. Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Maxwell Lord interview him.
Left: Maxwell Lord is played by Sean Gunn, who is gay but married to a woman.
First question: "What skills could you bring to the Gang...besides (doing stuff with ) dudes?" Is that a homophobic slur, or is Peacemaker bi, or both?
Next question: "Metahumans try to avoid violence. Why have you murdered so many people?"
"Well, some of them deserved it."
Peacemaker talks about childhood traumas and the culture of violence instilled by his supervillain father, but they're discussing whether their backsides are big enough and ignoring him. When they get back to the interview, they call him a sociopath, too violent to work for the Justice Squad. He angrily storms out.
Back in the car, he tells Leota: "Apparently one of my skills is (doing stuff with guys)...that's not a put-down, it's a compliment." Either gay stuff is reprehensible or it's not, dude. You can't have it both ways.
Scene 4: Peacemaker's Girlfriend is applying for a job at the NSA (National Security Agency). But the psychiatrist evaluating her complains that she is suffering from a virulent form of toxic masculinity. She calls him a bad word and threatens to beat him up, but that only makes him more certain that she is too violent to work for the NSA. She storms out, screams, and attacks her car.
DC Universe: Emilia Harcourt, a member of Peacemaker's team in Season 1, has appeared in "Suicide Squad," "Black Adam," and "Shazam." She worked with Amanda Walker (see Leota, above), but became the Suicide Squad's ally, and was blackballed. The episode recap shows Peacemaker holding her hand as she is dying, but apparently it was just a tease.
She drives home to her shabby apartment. Peacemaker meets her. Close up of the pile of past-due notices on her kitchen table, as she complains that because she has been blackballed by ARGUS, she can't find a job with the CIA, the FBI, the DIA, the DHS, the NSA, or Athlete's Foot.
Next they discuss what happened "on the party boat": she was drunk, it was a mistake, she doesn't want to be his girlfriend. (I just assumed that they were dating. Looks like it was just a hookup).
And when are we going to get to the hot guy introduced on the HBO MAX Instagram?
Scene 5: Rejected by the Justice Gang and dumped by his sort-of-girlfriend on the same day, Peacemaker gets high and invites some people over for n*de dancing and bedroom stuff. It's 90% ladies, but there are a few guys here and there. Almost all of the bedroom stuff is male-female, but there's a closeup of two women kissing, and two guys starting to kiss in the background.
Uh-oh, Economos (James Agee) has him under surveillance.
I think this is the hot guy advertised on the HBO MAX Instagram.
They discuss owls for awhile, and then Peacemaker: "He seems bummed out lately." Wait -- if he's a new character, how does Vigilante know Peacemaker?
The boss calls him to get back to work. Economos checks out the house and sees Peacemaker going into the interdimensional vortex.
Scene 6: Economos calls the assistant of General Flagg of ARGUS, but just tells them about the party. "Good. I thought it was another interdimensional rift, like the one in Metropolis."
Scene 7: The still-high Peacemaker wanders through the vortex to his dad's old office and looks at the news stories about his superhero team, the Top Trio.
DC Universe: Peacemaker's Dad was never in a superhero team. This is a parallel world.
He wanders out into the ornate living room (Dad lived in a dump), and then into the street. His brother Keith (who died as a boy) arrives, grown-up. "You ok, man?" he asks. "I thought you were in Bludhaven."
DC Universe: A city in New Jersey where superhero Nightwing operates.
Dad appears in his bathrobe and wants to celebrate "The Three Amigos back together again." They discuss the time that Peacemaker was fooling around in the imp dimension, and accidentally let 30 of them into our universe, har har. Dad says "I love you" as he goes up to bed, and then Brother Keith does. Peacemaker is shocked.
Brother Keith asks about Peacemaker's "ex." I'm hoping that he means an ex-boyfriend, but after three sentences of dropped pronouns, he finally gets around to gendering the ex as a lady.
Scene 8: Aching for a fight to prove her masculinity, Not-Really-Girlfriend goes to a straight biker bar. Everybody stares coldly, like every bar on tv and none in real life, except for the dude who wolf-whistles at her. She fails to find his "(evidence of gay stuff) and micrope*nis" attractive. Ok, people always use pe*nis size as a measure of worth, but implying that he does gay stuff to insult him makes you a homophobe.
She clobbers the guy she called "gay," plus the guy who tries to get her to calm down and several bystanders who weren't doing anything. Finally she is overpowered and kicked out of the bar, but she is happy because she has proven herself as tough as straight bikers.
Scene 9: Economos, the one surveilling Peacemaker, meets with Leota (See Scene 2). He complains that the interdimensional vortex could become unstable and destroy the universe, but if he tells General Flagg about it, his good buddy Peacemaker will be annihilated.
"Talk to the Peacemaker, find out his side of the story."
Scene 9: In the alternate world, Peacemaker goes to his old room. Rock band posters, pictures of him with his ex. Suddenly this world's Peacemaker accosts him. With a gun? Superheroes never use guns. He runs back into the vortex, with the other Peacemaker in pursuit. They fight, destroying portals, and our Peacemaker accidentally kills him. The end.
Beefcake: Some of the guys at the party, but they're overwhelmed by the ladies.
Gay Characters: Leota is a lesbian; some kissing at the party; Peacemaker is canonically bi, but only expresses heterosexual interest in this episode.
Heterosexism: His romance with the Not-Really-Girlfriend.
Homophobia: Implying that you do gay stuff is a go-to insult. I guess it's ok to be gay, but you shouldn't actually do anything.
My Grade: Too much mythology, with names and agencies tossed around. To understand what's going on, you need to have seen Superman, Suicide Squad, Shazam, and nearly everything else in the DC Cinematic Universe. B-
The Hot Guy: Vigilante (Freddie Stroma, left and below, backside on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends), appeared in every episode of Season 1. A goofy sociopath who kills without regret, he latches on to Peacemaker as a best buddy. TV Tropes calls him "ambiguously bisexual," with an ex-girlfriend and a crush on Peacemaker, plus a scene where they go to bed together (with a woman).
Sounds cool, but why did HBO MAX present him as a new character?
Freddie Stroma has also appeared in some of the Harry Potter movies, Pitch Perfect, Game of Thrones, Bridgerton, and The Crew.
See also: John Cena: Wrestler, bodybuilder, superhero, Fred's Dad
Nhut Le: Gay activist, potter, model, superhero
"The Suicide Squad": Two Gay Hints, Two Hunks in their Underwear, and 3,234 Corpses
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