Warning: Contains spoilers for Peacemaker episode 3.
In Peacemaker episode 1, a background joke makes a reference to Alex Jones’ show InfoWars, and in turn, risks setting up the worst hero that it possibly could. James Gunn’s Peacemaker often slides between serious and irreverent with plenty of political messages nestled in among the jokes and violence. While most of these make fun of alt-right and racist ideologies, one attempt at this might have wildly missed the mark.
In Peacemaker episode 1, “A Whole New Whirled,” Christopher Smith (John Cena) goes to visit his father, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick). From the off, Auggie is clearly extremely right-wing and spouts off about “commies” and is openly racist and homophobic. In episode 2, Auggie is revealed to be White Dragon, a DC comics character who was a white supremacist, founded the Aryan Empire, and went on to join the Fourth Reich. When Peacemaker enters the house a TV is playing the show “Fact Attack” where a host is angrily explaining “below their lying liberal human faces lurk extraterrestrial beings who want nothing other than our civilization to fail.”
The angry host of Peacemaker’s “Fact Attack” is clearly intended to be a parody of Alex Jones and his internet show InfoWars. Alex Jones’ website and TV show have repeatedly published false stories, been linked to the harassment of individuals, and pushed multiple conspiracy theories including false flag claims about everything from 9/11 to the Sandy Hook shootings. However, the host of “Fact Attack” (played by Brent Chapman) is actually right with the claim heard in Peacemaker episode 1 as what he is (potentially unwittingly) describing are the Butterflies that Peacemaker and the Argus team are hunting. In Peacemaker episode 3, “Better Goff Dead,” Peacemaker kills United States senator Goff, a proponent of anti-climate change legislation, and he is revealed to have been a Butterfly with the strange creature emerging after his human face is blown off. All of this risks portraying an Alex Jones figure as a form of hero for the DCEU.
This background joke was likely intended to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the idea that many of the conspiracy theories peddled by such platforms are patently ridiculous. So ridiculous, that for them to be real they would have to exist within a superhero universe with extraterrestrial threats and metahumans. However, in including this background character as someone who has become a strange sort of truth-speaker, with the Peacemaker joke, Gunn risks suggesting that maybe figures like Alex Jones, while dismissed by many, might have a point, and that message could ultimately be dangerous.
While the layout and tone of the “Fact Attack” show speak heavily towards the setup for Alex Jones and Info Wars, the actor playing the host looks to be made up to look similar to the late Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh pre-dated Alex Jones and became a major voice on conservative radio and TV. Limbaugh used his outlets to push his own conspiracy theories and became the subject of an extensive list of controversies for his views and false reporting. While he has been more widely accepted by the right-wing political groups than Alex Jones, the DCEU’s Peacemaker TV show suggesting that either Alex Jones or Rush Limbaugh might have been right about conspiracies is dangerous and runs counter to the other messaging included in the show.
Peacemaker releases new episodes on Thursdays on HBO Max.
