He’s the most interesting character in the newly crafted DC Universe.
Peacemaker centers on John Cena’s titular superhero, who goes by Chris in human form. Season 2, which is currently airing on Disney+, has undeniably matured, focusing not on the show’s humor but instead on Chris’ increasingly fragile sense of self. This newfound maturity has transformed the series into one of the best superhero titles in the last decade, but there is one grating aspect of the show that still hasn’t reached its full potential.
It’s robbing the fans of what they truly want—and what Chris needs: to finally get with his friend Adrian (Freddie Stroma).
Oh yeah, a reminder: Chris is queer, and it’s time for the show to actually act on it.
In the penultimate episode of Season 1, as Chris is attempting to defeat his white nationalist father August Smith (Robert Patrick), his father lets it slip that one of the reasons he has never been able to love his son is because Chris is bisexual.
Although it’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it declaration, it’s one that delighted fans. Queer superheros (and super villains) are few and far between in on-screen adaptations, despite the comic book world being chock-full of them. Although Chris hadn’t enacted upon these same-sex feelings physically in Season 1, it still allowed for some form of representation in a genre that continues to feel behind the times
Flash forward three long years, however, to Season 2.
Reeling from the emotional toll of killing his father, Chris attempts to join The Justice Gang, a group of heroes who made their debut in Gunn’s Superman this summer. In the audition, Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) makes a sly comment that Chris’ sole talent is “blowing dudes,” to which Chris has no response. After he charges out of the audition, he tells his friend Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) that although Guy said it with malice, “That’s a f—ing compliment!”
Later, after spiraling into a drug-fueled haze, Chris orchestrates an orgy at his house. Group sex takes place around him, although he is never directly involved—that is until he hazily allows a woman to kiss one side of his neck, and a man to kiss the opposite side. He smiles in what seems like relief, before quickly moving out of the room in search of his father’s old Quantum Storage Unit, where he transports himself to another dimension.
There are only two episodes left in Season 2 of Peacemaker, and those two moments were the sole instances of Chris’ bisexuality being acknowledged in the series so far. The first is a joke poked at his expense, and the second is a brief sexual encounter that isn’t fully realized. With three years between seasons, I hoped that the series would take bigger strides in how it displayed Chris’ sexuality, but instead, it feels like the show has regressed.
What’s more frustrating is that the key to making this storyline more satisfying is right there. But the writers seem to be ignoring it.
Beyond these two instances, Peacemaker does indeed center on a specific romance this season, albeit a heterosexual and unrequited one.
Chris’ affections for his teammate Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) have been known since Season 1, but what seemed like an instance of puppy love has turned into a full-blown obsession. When Season 2 began, it was revealed that the two hooked up on a cruise a few months prior, which to Harcourt was simple fun, but to Chris, meant his feelings were reciprocated.
Shut down by Harcourt for the last time, Chris re-enters the other dimension in Episode 5 that he previously visited. Not only are his father and brother Keith (David Denman) both alive in this universe, Harcourt also returns his affections.
By leaving his reality, Chris abandons his friend Adrian and the rest of their crime-fighting teammates. Since Adrian was introduced in Season 1, his relationship with Chris has teetered the line between friendship and romance, which often seems one-sided on Adrian’s part. Like Chris with Harcourt, Adrian desperately watches Chris’ every move, protecting him on the battlefield and engaging in threesomes with him as a way to strengthen their friendship.
The chemistry that radiates between these two men is stronger than that of Chris and Harcourt. This isn’t to say Cena and Holland don’t work well together, they do: but as friends rather than a romance. Harcourt’s dismissal of Chris’ feelings doesn’t just come from a place of emotional repression. She and Chris have nearly nothing in common.
Adrian, however, is a direct remedy to this stiltedness, devoted to Chris in a way no other character in this show is, desperately attempting to cling onto any attention the man gives him, and looking at him like he holds the sun in his hands.
When Chris leaves for the other dimension, Adrian—whom the show mocks for being borderline sociopathic in his emotionlessness—breaks down in tears. It’s a shocking reaction which emulates an abandoned lover rather than an abandoned friend, and one that if Peacemaker were a show helmed by braver writers, would ignite a spark under the surface of the ship that has been deemed Vigilmaker by fans. Instead, the moment passes, and the episode ends with other-dimensional Harcourt and Chris embracing.
For a series that seems to boast Chris’ bisexuality for clicks, Peacemaker fails to thoroughly engage with it head on. It feels more concerned with forcing Chris into a heteronormative box, abandoning what should be a season dedicated to the exploration of his sexuality, now that his homophobic father doesn’t loom over him like a dark cloud.
Instead we not only have a series that doesn’t know what to do with its protagonist’s lovelife, but a character whose bisexuality feels more like an Easter Egg planet for queer fans to gawk at, rather than an essential piece of Chris’ on-screen history and future.
The post The One Thing Ruining This Season of ‘Peacemaker’ appeared first on The Daily Beast.
