Cena's Peacemaker/Christopher Smith character "reminds me of no one more than Kyle Rittenhouse, and it’s a comparison that smacks me in the face multiple times per episode," says James Field. "Do I mean Rittenhouse is good at heart? Hell no. Kyle Rittenhouse is a murderer. He armed himself and went looking for trouble. He killed two people because he put himself in a situation far beyond his control and understanding. He made those choices. He’s also a product of his environment. He’s a young man programmed by his mother and hometown and then, after he murdered Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, thrust into an adulating conservative media spotlight he’s clearly too dim to see for the manipulative sham it is. Rittenhouse is, as Wayne describes Daryl on Letterkenny, so awkward. The kind of overenthusiastic guy everyone humors because having an actual conversation with him is too damned difficult. If he were a Marvel fan he’d spend hours on message boards arguing the minutiae of character biographies, but he chose to worship law enforcement instead. None of this excuses his actions. He’s still a murderer. And so is Christopher Smith. Peacemaker is who Rittenhouse would grow into given access to heavier weaponry and governmental carte blanche to murder more people. James Gunn — like many authors and filmmakers — takes fictional murderers and turns them into heroes. He did it with the Suicide Squad. He did it with Drax and Gamora. In Brightburn and Super he flipped that script, showing us the monstrous side of superheroes and vigilantes. I don’t think he intends anyone to admire Peacemaker. Quite the opposite. But a substantial percentage of the population will miss the subtext and see in Peacemaker an American hero, just like they do Rittenhouse. Wrapped in the flag and deluded by whitewashed US history classes, confident that whatever they do is the right course of action because they’re the ones doing it. Once I saw the resemblance it became impossible to ignore and colored everything on the screen."
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TOPICS: Peacemaker, HBO Max, James Gunn, Jennifer Holland, John Cena, Kyle Rittenhouse, Opening Credits