John Cena's Peacemaker Mocks DC Superheroes in HBO Max Promo

Peacemaker (John Cena) is gunning for the DC universe and taking shots at Batman (Ben Affleck), Superman (Henry Cavill), and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot). Recruited to Task Force X by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) in The Suicide Squad, born killer and weapons expert Christopher Smith continues his quest for peace in Peacemaker — no matter how many people he has to kill to get it. Now on a mission from Waller and A.R.G.U.S. to assassinate alien-controlled metahumans under Project Butterfly, Peacemaker is out to show the DC world he's a "super" hero — no matter how many heroes he has to insult to prove it!

Peacemaker mocks the Man of Steel's cape and shames Shazam (Zachary Levi) but shows respect to aquatic superhero Aquaman (Jason Momoa) because "dude looks like he lifts. And making gains underwater? It's gotta be tough. Mad respect."

The helmeted anti-hero is less impressed by The Suicide Squad's T.D.K. (Nathan Fillion), a.k.a. The Detachable Kid, King Shark (voice of Sylvester Stallone), and Weasel (Sean Gunn). Ex-Task Force X teammate Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) "throws polka-dots," scoffs Peacemaker, admitting the colorful superpower is "actually kinda cool." As for Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Peacemaker says she's a swing and a miss: "Big deal, she uses a bat. So do toddlers playing T-ball. I'm way more skilled." 

Director Waller gets a patriotic salute, but Batman's name "makes no sense," Peacemaker remarks. "He can't even echolocate, which is what bats are known for. My name is clearly better." 

Though the safe for work video is friendly fire, Peacemaker takes aim at Batman with a NSFW slur about the Dark Knight in "Chapter 4: The Choad Less Traveled." According to writer and series creator James Gunn, DC was "not too fond of Peacemaker calling Batman a p—y." 

"I'm like, 'But he talks about all these other terrible things about all these other superheroes that are much worse than calling Batman a p—y,'" Gunn said on The Hollywood Reporter's TV's Top 5 podcast. "Not only that, Batman is the only one he makes a fair point about; everybody else he's really just believing stuff that he read on the Internet."

Despite the complaint about the Bats-phemy, DC executives "were great" and "let me get away with what I got away with at the end of the day," Gunn said. 

Starring John Cena, Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, Jennifer Holland, Chukwudi Iwuji, Steve Agee, and Robert Patrick, new episodes of DC's Peacemaker premiere Thursdays on HBO Max. If you haven't signed up for HBO Max yet, you can try it out here.