James Gunn’s DC Universe isn’t tiptoeing around the Dark Knight. In Creature Commandos, Doctor Phosphorus reveals that Batman was the one to take him down, busting the crime operation that he took over in Gotham City. The second project in the DCU, Superman, doesn’t name-drop the Caped Crusader directly, but it does reference his hometown on a road sign during the evacuation of Metropolis. While it might be some time before Batman shares the screen with anyone in the DCU, since Matt Reeves is hard at work on the sequel to his 2022 movie, the reality is that he’s out there, helping keep the world safe.
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Well, he might be protecting the Earth that the main DCU stories take place on, but not the rest of them. Peacemaker Season 2 visits a different reality, one where circumstances are similar to the original, with a few major differences. For starters, someone has seemingly taken Batman’s place, and while it seems like it would be easy for him to knock some heads and reclaim his rightful place in the world, that may not be an option.
Peacemaker Season 2 Shows Chris Smith What Life Could’ve Been
Despite saving the world from the Butterfly invasion at the end of Peacemaker Season 1, Christopher Smith is in a bad spot when the events of his sophomore outing kick off. Emilia Harcourt wants nothing to do with him despite their recent hook-up, and people aren’t taking him seriously as a hero. Landing an interview with the Justice Gang lifts Chris’ spirits, but the meeting doesn’t go well because Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, and Maxwell Lord spend their few minutes with him cracking jokes. With no shoulder to cry on, Chris throws a party at his house and does drugs, which gives him the push he needs to walk through the door in his dad’s pocket universe that leads to another Peacemaker’s home.
Once he’s walking around the alternate dimension, Chris realizes that his brother, Keith, is still alive and that he’s part of a superhero team called the Top Trio. The family’s home is filled with mementos from their adventures, and it’s clear that the world regards them as being on the same level as the Justice Gang, or maybe even higher. When Keith gets home, Chris sits down with his brother and dad and soaks it all in, realizing what life could’ve been like if his father had been less of a maniac. However, it’s sure to hit him eventually that he’s living a lie and, more than that, stealing the life of another major DC hero.
The Top Trio Is The Bat-Family of Their Reality
Unlike the original Chris, the version of Peacemaker who fights crime alongside his brother and father lives in a massive mansion and has access to a wide range of technology. The setup feels a lot like Wayne Manor, where the Bat-Family sets up shop in most DC media. The main difference between the two is that the Top Trio is more public-facing than Batman and Co., accepting awards and making sure they end up on the front page of the newspaper. However, they run in the same circles, with one newspaper clipping mentioning that the Top Trio took down Ultra-Humanite in Gotham. Keith also mentions that he thought Chris was in Blüdhaven, the town Nightwing watches over, when he first sees them.
If the Bat-Family were around, they probably wouldn’t take kindly to another hero group showing up in their territory and demanding the spotlight. The most likely scenario is that the Dark Knight doesn’t exist on the Earth Chris finds himself on in Season 2, with Auggie Smith taking his place as the rich hero with a thing for putting his children through crime-fighting school. It remains to be seen whether the swap is a good or bad thing because, while the Top Trio puts on a solid show, there may be skeletons in their closet that force Chris to make a choice near the end of the season.
Peacemaker is streaming on HBO Max.
How do you feel about the Top Trio in Peacemaker Season 2? Do you think they replaced the Bat-Family on their Earth? Let us know in the comments below!
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