Peacemaker Season 2 Finale Introduces A DC Universe Location With Major Implications

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This article contains Spoilers For “Peacemaker” Season 2, Episode 8 – “Full Nelson”

Since his first appearance in the DC Universe in “Creature Commandos,” Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) has been associated with metahumans and their prison system. However, after effectively taking over Amanda Waller’s (Viola Davis) role in the grand scheme of things, he seems to have become more proactive in containing her. “Full Nelson” reveals the true extent of Endgame: He’s been searching for a more effective way to contain the DCU’s parade of mutant prisoners, and the Peacemaker’s (John Cena) dimension portal technology gives him just that.

After several false starts — including a visit to the mold-infested candy dimension Earth-X Auggie (Robert Patrick) and Keith Smith (David Denman) discussed earlier in the season — the Flag team finally found what they were looking for. Dubbing it the Planet of Redemption, Flagg reveals his plan to use it as an off-world super prison, and even disposes of the Peacemaker there as a guinea pig.

For comic fans, this is both bad news (for Peacemaker) and an excellent development (for DCU in general). As it turns out, salvation is an important location in the comics, serving as the central location for the excellent 2008 miniseries “Salvation Run.” This story features Flag, Waller, and a group called Checkmate (whom “Full Nelson” also introduces) taking down a number of the planet’s most prominent supervillains, who unfortunately also pose a significant threat behind Its perfect interface.

Since “Salvation Run” contains a laundry list of DC’s most notable villains, and James Gunn clearly means to adapt the story in some way, Salvation could easily become the DCU’s go-to location for introducing any supervillain the various universe stories might need.

The “Salvation Run” comic features a huge array of evil metahumans, from the Flash’s Rogues gallery to the Joker and even Lex Luthor (played by Nicholas Hoult in the DCU, who is already connected to the story thanks to his important appearance in Season 2’s “Peacemaker”). These characters struggle to coexist, form factions, and sometimes kill each other as they struggle to survive on the planet — all of which is bread and butter for Gunn, whose superhero resume consists almost entirely of villainous and outcast teams doing such things.

Furthermore, the planet Salvation is also linked to the infamous planet Apokolips, in case Gunn wants to bring the New Gods and DC ube-rvillain Darkseid into play at some point. In other words, “Salvation Run” offers endless storytelling opportunities, and it’s very smart to introduce the prison planet so early in the DCU game.

I’m not sure Gunn will adapt “Salvation Run” to its fullest extent. The Joker will almost certainly not be introduced this way, and Lex Luthor is busy with the sequel to Gunn’s “Superman” movie, “The Man of Tomorrow.” Additionally, the end of “Peacemaker” Season 2 appears to make the planet a major location for Season 3.

At the very least, the DCU’s “Salvation Run” seems destined to send Peacemaker on another chaotic “The Suicide Squad”-style adventure, accompanied by some of the most expendable villains from the comics (here’s looking at you, Psimon), and some of DC’s most outlandish villains like the gorilla/mind-in-a-jar team-up of Monsieur Mallah And The Brain. Who knows? It may even reunite Peacemaker with his old enemy Bloodsport (Idris Elba), who is part of Luthor’s team in the comic.

The entire second season of “Peacemaker” is now streaming on HBO Max.