Warning: SPOILERS for the Peacemaker episode “One other Rick Up My Sleeve”
The DC Universe franchise isn’t even a 12 months outdated but, and it’s already delving into the multiverse by Peacemaker Season 2’s story. The most recent episode to premiere on the 2025 TV schedule, titled “One other Rick Up My Sleeve,” noticed John Cena’s Christopher Smith lastly exploring the world his deceased counterpart got here from after having solely walked round his massive home. On the floor, it looks like this Earth has much more going for it than Peacemaker’s Earth. Nonetheless, I feel it’s too good to be true, and I’m virtually constructive I do know the darkish secret behind it.
Chris clearly loved getting into his counterpart’s footwear in “One other Rick Up My Sleeve” (which additionally featured two variations of Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag Jr.) He’s a beloved superhero admired by the general public, he will get to battle crime along with his father and his still-alive brother because the High Trio, and by the top of the episode, he’s in a a lot better place with the alternate Emilia Harcourt than the place his different self left off together with her. However together with the Sons of Liberty attempting to explode that DMV, there was one thing else unsettling about “One other Rick Up My Sleeve”: there have been no nonwhite actors proven on this different Earth.
Significantly, return and pay shut consideration to all of the minor and background actors in scenes set on that Earth. In the meantime over on Peacemaker’s essential Earth, we’ve got folks like Leota Adebayo, the hilarious Langston Fleury, Sasha Bordeaux and the returning Judomaster, a.okay.a. Rip Jagger. This will’t simply be mere oversight from Peacemaker creator James Gunn and director Greg Mottola. What’s going on right here?
Nicely, do not forget that on the primary Earth, Auggie Smith, Christopher Smith’s late father, was a white supremacist who led the Aryan Empire and terrorized folks because the Pink Dragon. This different Auggie could also be a lot friendlier than his deceased counterpart, nevertheless it’s nonetheless bizarre to see a blue variation of the Pink Dragon swimsuit getting used for superheroic functions. Now mix that with solely white folks being proven on this different Earth; what if that is an Earth the place white supremacy is the norm and folks of colour have all been imprisoned or, at naked minimal, reside in horrible circumstances distant from these good suburban areas? Going a step additional, what if this Earth is straight up managed by Nazis?
There’s priority for this the DC Comics mythology with Earth-X, the place the Nazis gained World Struggle and the Freedom Fighters battle again towards this regime. The Arrowverse tailored this nook of the multiverse within the “Disaster on Earth-X” crossover, and now I’m questioning if Peacemaker is placing its personal spin on this Earth, too. Or perhaps this isn’t meant to be Earth-X, however merely a world steeped in racism. We gained’t know for positive precisely what this world’s deal is till somebody Adebayo crosses over and sees how folks react to her, assuming that is within the playing cards.
Assuming I’m proper about all this, finally Christopher Smith will study the reality and understand that this Earth isn’t the idyllic setting he thought it was. Extra importantly, it’ll remind him that he can’t run away from his issues, and being disgusted by a world managed by white supremacists is nearly as good a method as any to make him stick with his personal Earth.