James Gunn is a beloved cult director in part for the outstanding quality of his work, and in part for its unique consistency of message. There are a handful of tropes and themes that the director loves to incorporate into every project, and one of his best is starting to become central to his ongoing project.
Peacemakerhas been incredibly well-received so far, with fans of Gunn’s work and newcomers flocking to praise the irreverent series. Its main characters are a ragtag team of government agents and unhinged anti-heroes who have slowly begun to overcome their initial hatred of each other, and behave something like a family.
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The found family trope is not uncommon to genre fiction. From Star Wars to Marvel,to Scooby-Doo, tonsof ensemble pieces see their central team gradually shift from coworkers into fire-forged friends. It’s a time-honored concept in storytelling, so many narratives about teams are centered around the loose group coming together as one. When the members of the group lack a home of their own or feel all alone in the world, the team becomes their family. Look totheFast & Furiousfranchiseto see the concept in action or to hear it explained ad nauseam. James Gunn takes a slightly different approach at the trope, however, and one of his works, in particular, shows that off.
Guardians of the Galaxyand its sequelare about a ragtag team of space criminals slowly coming together for the common goal of saving various worlds. It’s about laser fights, spaceship chases, and duels with powerful alien monsters. But for all of its thrilling action and beloved pop hits, the narrative is, on all sides, about the individual team members' ruinous families and the new family they find in each other. The second film really puts that subtext into the text. Yondu’s speech to Rocket both exemplifies the emotional weight of this trope and completely devastates the audience with its impact.
Each of the Guardians comes from a terrible struggle, either losing their original family or never having one, to begin with. Star-Lord lost his mother when he was young and when he finally met his dad, it didn’t work out. Gamora lost her real parents to Thanos and was abused her entire life. Drax lost his wife and daughter, also to Thanos, and spent his entire adult life trying to avenge them.Rocket Raccoon was a lab experimentwho escaped to pursue a life of crime and Groot’s backstory is unknown, but he too is a longtime criminal. These misfits find their way together, and, after some interpersonal storming, forge a tighter bond with each other than they’ve ever had elsewhere.
WhileGuardiansare definitely the work where Gunn’s love of the found family trope is most front and center, it is hugely prominent in the work that spawnedPeacemaker.The Suicide Squad, likeGuardians, is about a bunch of criminals brought together through venomous fate to face a common enemy. Though the team is bigger and a bit snarkier, the handful of Task Force X members who get the bulk of the screen-time seem to form some crucial relationships. Ratcatcher 2 and Bloodsport bond over their parents,Harley Quinn seems genuinely elatedthat the team comes to rescue her, even King Shark learns to make friends. It isn’t as central to the narrative as it is inGuardians of the Galaxy, but it’s still a story about people without a real family finding their home in this ragtag group. Aside from the host of characters who don’t make it out alive, the biggest outlier when it comes to joining the family is Peacemaker. Thankfully, with his self-titled new show, he’s finally getting his chance.
A ton ofPeacemaker’s narrative focuses on the man that turned Christopher Smith into the dim-witted, tone-deaf, mildly bigoted killing machine that he is today.Auggie Smith, AKA The White Dragon, is a violent white supremacist with an eliminationist take on politics. Peacemaker’s dad is the only family he’s had, which explains all of his horrific impulses and worst aspects. Peacemaker lacks a proper family, abused and despised by his real father, even the one friend he has isn’t much. Vigilante, Peacemaker’s only apparent friend and co-worker in violent crime-fighting, would do anything for Smith, but he does so against his own best interest. Episode three of the series sees Smith letting Vigilante be tortured. Peacemaker has nobody, partially due to his upbringing and partially due to his own action.
When the military group tasked with handlingPeacemaker on Project Butterflymeets the peace-obsessed anti-hero, their first impression is not good. Aside from Adebayo, the group mocks and berates him. Now, over their do-or-die adventures, the group has begun to warm to Peacemaker. Adebayo banters playfully with him, Harcourt has begun to despise him less, even Economos has earned his respect. As the story keeps growing bigger and the stakes keep rising, Peacemaker and his handlers have gradually shifted from hate to friendship, and are beginning to show signs of full-on family.
