When Peacemaker slaps himself and says that nobody likes him, there’s something more raw there than you might expect. Yes, the emotions are so heightened that the scene is a little ridiculous, but both Cena and director James Gunn play this moment as sincere.
The ironic gloss falls away the more you look at it. This is … supposed to be funny, right? Like the scene from the 2018 comedy Blockers in which the same actor sobs as he butt chugs? Because of pop culture’s longstanding ambivalence toward the idea of a man of Cena’s size and stature openly weeping, it’s hard to watch this Peacemaker scene and not think there’s meant to be an ironic gloss on it. Maybe he and Rick could have been friends? But he didn’t even give them a shot.Ĭena, who plays the complicated hero, is a former wrestler built like an extremely buff, smooth version of Gossamer, the big monster covered in red hair who was always threatening Bugs Bunny. In that film, he killed government agent and nominally good guy Rick Flag.
He’s finally processing the events of the 2021 film The Suicide Squad, which introduced John Cena as Peacemaker. Part of the May 2022 issue of The Highlight, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world.Įarly in the first season of HBO Max’s 2022 series Peacemaker, the titular antihero collapses on the bed in his tiny trailer and breaks down sobbing.
