While Peacemaker’s first season technically existed in the DC Extended Universe rather than the DC Universe, so far, it and The Suicide Squad appear to be getting grandfathered into the new DCU status quo. As of this writing, the approach seems to be that everything in those two James Gunn projects is explicitly canon to the DCU unless there’s a direct retcon, such as the Peacemaker Season 1 finale’s Justice League cameo getting retconned as a Justice Gang appearance. This gives DC Studios heads Gunn and Peter Safran flexibility to change whatever they want in these two projects at any time, but also allows to not completely disregard these two acclaimed productions.
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This means one throwaway line in Peacemaker’s first season remains canon and indicates that the next major live-action incarnation of Bruce Wayne/Batman won’t repeat a major mistake of the DCEU version of the character. It’s a very important facet of the character, and the DCEU straying from this previously killed a lot of enthusiasm people had for Ben Affleck’s Batman.
Live-Action Batman Is Back to No Killing
Throughout Peacemaker’s inaugural season, Christopher Smith/Peacemaker is constantly rambling about his intimate knowledge of other DC superheroes despite clearly being a Z-grade crime-fighter. Among these rants is his critique of Batman, which includes Peacemaker mocking the guy for his no-killing rule. It’s an observation that foreshadows his lambasting of Superman and similar violence-avoidance superheroes in Superman. It’s also a line that, in the context of the DC Universe, confirms this new Batman will not be a killer.
That’s a sharp contrast to the Ben Affleck incarnation of the character introduced in the DC Extended Universe in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. All throughout this film, this hardened version of Batman (who has apparently become bitter after the death of Robin, Superman’s fight with Zod in Man of Steel, and just the general moral corruption of the world) has no problem slaughtering people or branding them with a Bat insignia so they can get murdered in prison. Even in the film’s finale, this Batman has no qualms about viciously taking down criminals in a warehouse. Necks get snapped, corpses are left on the ground.
Granted, the live-action Batman version of Batman has often been loosey-goosey with the “no killing” principle, as seen by Michael Keaton’s Batman violently dispatching his foes. However, titles like Batman Returns occupy a more heightened reality than Dawn of Justice’s more “realistic” ambiance. That makes the bone-crunching sensibilities of the DCEU’s Batman, not to mention the grimmer consequences of this approach, hit harder. While narratively an attempt to show how far Batman had fallen in his morals, in execution, this just made the DCEU Batman a bit too removed from the classic Batman for its own good.
The DC Universe Isn’t Interested in Repeating Yesteryear’s Mistakes
Part of the problem was that this trigger-happy Batman was such a radical idea that it couldn’t just exist in a standard blockbuster. Affleck’s bloodthirsty vigilante needed to inhabit a transgressive, form-shattering title where the ramifications of this Batman forgoing his moral code could really be felt. Dawn of Justice, meanwhile, still wants to be a PG-13 superhero blockbuster that sells toys, as seen by Batman’s climactic killing of various henchmen being quickly followed up by his “I’m of a friend of your son” line to Martha Kent. The dissonance didn’t work.
An ill match between characterization and cinematic aesthetic created a DCEU Batman that left Affleck and moviegoers with little to work with. Now, the next shared universe version of Batman is clearly going for a more classical vision of the character, which sounds just dandy for both a PG-13 blockbuster and a world where Superman exists. Gunn’s commitment to classic and comics-accurate versions of characters ranging from Superman to Metamorpho would already make a killing-free DC Universe version of Batman (first glimpsed at in silhouette in Creature Commandos) a foregone conclusion.
Peacemaker’s jab at the character in his first season of adventures (at least retroactively) confirms this intent, which should provide audiences something radically different from the DCEU’s Batman. Ben Affleck was game for the role, but the decision to have Batman go on a killing and branding spree just alienated audiences in all the wrong ways. No-killing is a core principle for Batman, a superhero forged in the fires of his parents getting shot down in an alleyway. Through one of Peacemaker’s many raunchy quips about DC Comics legends, it’s now clear the DC Universe Batman won’t forget that important part of the character.
New episodes of Peacemaker Season 2 drop Thursdays on HBO Max. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is also streaming on HBO Max.
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