'Peacemaker' Season 2 May Have Introduced the DCU's Most Terrifying Universe Actorsvaultpro

Something is wrong with Peacemaker Season 2. It’s not the quality of the series; it is still just as great as ever. No, what is wrong with it is that the seemingly perfect reality that Christopher Smith/Peacemaker (John Cena) has found himself in might not be so ideal. In fact, it might be hiding a dark secret. Audiences have certainly been trained over the years to read a perfect world as coded for something dark and sinister underneath, largely thanks to the films of director David Lynch. One look at the other reality that Peacemaker has found himself in, where his brother is alive, his family is together, and he is a beloved superhero, makes it clear that something is off.

With the first two episodes of Peacemaker Season 2, many of the alternate reality events were confined to the Smith family home. The most noticeable hints of this alternate reality were subtle changes, such as different spellings of band names. Yet in Episode 3, “Another Rick Up My Sleeve,” Peacemaker goes to explore this new reality, and something becomes apparent: all the actors, from speaking roles to background extras, are white. This clashes significantly with the diverse DCU, which reflects the real world.

Given that in the DCU, Peacemaker’s father, Augie Smith, was a member of the KKK, and the villain White Dragon, all signs point to Peacemaker Season 2 introducing a dark part of the DC multiverse into the DCU: Earth-X. If not that, it might be the DCU’s spin on a reality teased in Superman.

What Is Earth-X in DC Comics?

DC Comics

Earth-X was introduced in Justice League #107 in October 1973 by writer Len Wein and artist Dick Dillin. The basic setup is an alternate reality where Germany won World War II, and the Nazis conquered the Earth. The reality is in a constant state of war as there is a small group of heroes, known as The Freedom Fighters, trying to overthrow the Nazi regime. It is easily one of the darkest realities in the DC multiverse. The universe was destroyed following Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986, but in 2006, following Infinite Crisis, the concept was revisited and called Earth-10.

Earth-10 has Superman’s pod crash-landing in Czechoslovakia in 1938, resulting in him being raised to become Overman, the perfect Aryan soldier, and leading the Nazis to victory. Still alive in the present day, Overman is ashamed of the Nazis’ brutal methods. Nevertheless, he reluctantly leads the Nazis and a super-team called the New Reichsmen to battle The Freedom Fighters, convinced he is bringing peace through unity.

Earth-X was featured in the 2017 Arrowverse crossover “Crisis on Earth-X.” It featured an evil version of Supergirl filling in for the Overman role (here called Overwoman), and with the Nazis being led by an evil version of Oliver Queen, assisted by the speedster supervillain Eobard Thawne/The Reverse Flash. The Arrowverse established that, within that franchise’s multiverse, Earth-X got its label for being so horrible that multiversal travel was shut off to it entirely. Now, eight years after that Arrowverse crossover, Peacemaker Season 2 might be revisiting the concept of Earth-X with its own unique spin.

Is ‘Peacemaker Season 2’ Set on Earth X?

John Cena in Peacemaker Season 2 giving a thumbs up

It appears that Peacemaker Season 2 is reimagining the Earth-X concept in its own way. While it may not explore the Nazis’ victory in World War II — since there’s no apparent German influence — it still imagines what would happen if a fascist, bigoted ideology came to power. This is most evident in the fact that the three big heroes of this reality appear to be Peacemaker, his brother Captain Triumphant, and their father, who in this reality is known as the Blue Dragon.

In Peacemaker Season 1, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick) was a white supremacist supervillain known as the White Dragon. White Dragon is clearly coded as a Grand Wizard of a KKK type, with his followers wearing bags over their heads and even doing the hand gesture associated with the Nazi party. With the KKK and Nazis both sharing bigoted beliefs, it is easy to see how this universe spin on the Earth-X concept could be built on what would happen if the KKK’s belief systems won out, and movements like the Civil Rights Act never happened.

Every actor shown in this new reality is white, and notably, Peacemaker has not considered looking for this universe’s version of Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks). It feels like the shoe is about to drop, and Christopher Smith is about to discover a dark secret about this reality he finds so perfect. It is perfect for him, and people like him, but that seemingly perfect world is built on the suffering (and sadly, deaths) of others that people choose to ignore, or know about and just don’t care. Peacemaker Season 2’s ideal world, revealed as a bigoted, racist police state, feels like a meta-commentary on the Make America Great Again movement.

Even though Peacemaker Season 2 began filming before Donald Trump took office, it was being written during his election campaign. The Trump administration has made no secret that it is pushing against racial diversity, targeting DEI efforts and claiming “reverse” racism against white people. The administration has increased the funding of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to perform raids in major cities to expel those they classify as criminals, but typically only follow one skin type, while also cutting back federal grants to universities that do life-saving studies in the field of medicine, cutting free school lunches, and targeting transgender rights.

Peacemaker Season 2 is a series about a white guy realizing that while things might be easier for him in one reality, it isn’t worth it if that universe is built on racist beliefs where others are persecuted for their race, gender, or religion. Peacemaker’s reality might not be perfect, and it has many flaws, but at least he and his friends are allowed to be themselves. That’s better than a world where only one type of person is allowed to thrive.

If Not Earth-X, Maybe This Is a New Spin on Bizarro World

It is also entirely possible this universe might not be Earth-X. However, one other potential theory is that the “perfect” universe in Peacemaker Season 2 is, in fact, the DCU’s spin on Bizarro World. While not as thematically rich as the Earth-X reveal, there are plenty of clues that Peacemaker Season 2 could potentially be building off what was seemingly a small background detail in Superman earlier this summer.

In DC Comics, the Bizarro World is the home of Superman’s foe, Bizarro. Bizarro World (also called Htrae, which is Earth backwards) was created by writer Otto Binder and artist Wayne Boring in Action Comics #263 in April 1960. Bizarro World is typically classified as being the opposite of Earth. It is a cube-shaped planet in contrast to Earth’s circular sphere (so technically, Bizarro World is a flat Earth). Bizarro World tends to have everything be the opposite, with “I love you” meaning hate and “I hate you” being a loving sign. If Peacemaker Season 2 takes place in Bizarro World, it would be devastating for him to find out that these loving words of affirmation from his father, brother, and Harcourt have been them expressing their hatred of him.

The seeds for Bizarro World were planted in Superman, which opened one month before Peacemaker Season 2 debuted. In the climactic mid-action scene, Superman is being pulled through an anti-matter river into a black hole that he barely manages to escape from. The anti-matter material in the river takes the shape of cubes, and if it were to enter the black hole, it could potentially leave them as the building blocks for Bizarro World.

Then, later in the film, it is revealed that Lex Luthor’s superpowered henchman, Ultraman, is in fact a clone of Superman, albeit an imperfect clone who struggles with speaking, and Lex claims he is “dumber” than he perceives Superman to be. In some versions of the comics, Bizarro is introduced as an imperfect clone of Superman, created by Lex Luthor. At the end of Superman, Ultraman is knocked into the same black hole that the anti-matter river was leading into, apparently killing him.

Yet many don’t expect Ultraman to be dead; in fact, they think he will return in the classic Bizarro form. Instead of appearing in the upcoming Man of Tomorrow film that James Gunn announced, Bizarro might actually appear in Peacemaker Season 2. While the idea of this second universe being Bizarro World seems like a stretch, given how different it is from the version in the comics, it is worth noting that a lot of the production design in this alternate reality features a lot of squares in the architecture and even fashion designs, including patterns on the alternate Peacemaker’s wardrobe.

Yet the biggest clue that Peacemaker Season 2 might be set in Bizarro World is the fact that Superman actor David Corenswet posted a photo on his Instagram with John Cena. Corenswet is wearing his Superman costume while Cena is wearing a shirt from his dimensional doppleganger’s wardrobe. DC Comics’ official Instagram account even posted the suspicious eyes emoji, seemingly confirming that Corenswet will appear in Peacemaker for a cameo role. However, what if, instead of cameoing as Superman, he is actually playing Ultraman/Bizarro?

Critics were only sent the first five episodes of Peacemaker Season 2, with James Gunn saying that the final three episodes would have some major reveals he didn’t want spoiled. There is a good chance those spoilers will either be that Peacemaker Season 2 is set on Earth-X or even Bizarro World. Either one is a significant draw for the DCU this early on, but both would be thematically interesting for this particular story and open up numerous possibilities for the franchise’s future. Peacemaker is streaming on HBO Max.