Peacemaker Season 2 has come and gone, and while we have every right to be moaning about the way John Cena’s character has gone about his business, there are more important things to consider.
I mean sure, did Peacemaker give the biggest set of evidence pertaining to his lack of mental presence and the tendency to act purely out of emotions?
Yes, he did.
It took Emilia Harcourt minutes to tear apart Peacemaker’s lack of foresight, and viewers on social media had for the longest pointed out obvious problems with the “ideal planet” that he thought he found himself on.
And well, in perfect Peacemaker fashion, the fantasy came to a gory end.
To make matters worse, Peacemaker now finds himself on an alien planet filled with growling monsters. However, there is much more to unpack.
What is Planet Salvation?
ARGUS, now fronted by Rick Flag Sr., uses a multiversal “doorway” to scout a habitable exile world for metahumans. They name it Salvation, which in itself hints at a range of possibilities.
DC’s Salvation Run (2007–08) saw Amanda Waller dump a who’s who of villains onto a world nicknamed Salvation.
The problem? Salvation is an Apokoliptian training ground overseen by DeSaad, one of Darkseid’s most feared followers.
In a recent interview with The Rolling Stone, James Gunn did claim that the ending of Season 2 will tie in with The Man of Tomorrow.
However, does it mean it hints at the arrival of Darkseid as the new DCU’s first big bad?
According to Gunn, this war between the government, fueled by Flag Sr. and Lex Luthor, and the metahumans will play a major role in stories going forward.
How it all ties to the Man of Tomorrow
Man of Tomorrow places Lex Luthor in a central, even protagonist-leaning role.
Pair that with Flag’s crusade and the metahuman crackdown, and you have a clean on-ramp: Lex engineering, profiting from, or reversing a policy he helped birth.
If Gunn shades Salvation like the comic’s twist, DeSaad becomes a logical big bad.
He’s the kind of sadist-strategist who forces enemies into uneasy alliances.
This not only gives us Superman’s first major villain, but also hints at the potential introduction of Darkseid himself.
On the other hand, this also opens the door to a potential team-up between Superman and Lex.
A Lex-Clark detente against a common threat is classic, and well, completely logical considering the events of the first movie.
Season 2 doesn’t just set a cliffhanger, and throwing around the term “Salvation” is too big of a hint for things to go in a different direction.
The obvious problem with this, of course, is that the current DCU has simply not introduced enough metahuman villains who can be sent to Planet Salvation just yet.
However, given the current trajectory, it’s clear that Gunn is out there building a DCU, which is a much slower burn.
That suggests a long, ongoing war between metahumans and the government.
An X-Men style culling attempt that not only gives us several new characters and villains, but also introduces at least DeSaad in The Man of Tomorrow.
As a matter of fact, I expect things to be slow and steady, and don’t even see Darkseid being the major villain in Man of Tomorrow.
What does it mean for Peacemaker?
Further, this hints at a troubling fate for Peacemaker himself.
He is trapped on a planet with no help and will have to fight alien beings just to survive.
Peacemaker’s friends won’t just mount a rescue; they’ll be dragged into the broader metahuman purge.
And because I do not expect them to be a significant part, if any, of Man of Tomorrow, the lack of a third season does raise some questions.
Still, expect the rescue to intersect the policy fight, not precede it.
Man of Tomorrow can stage the breakout, but the thematic endgame is the same: Clark vs. containment, Lex recalculating in public, and DeSaad lurking as the escalation path.
What do you think?
Will Peacemaker be a significant part of Man of Tomorrow, or just a background character who shows up in a cameo, if he does show up at all? Let’s talk about it in the comments below.
Peacemaker Season 2 has done a lot to create the perfect segue to the Man of Tomorrow, despite the fate of John Cena’s character.
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