Is PEACEMAKER Hinting at DC Comics’ Darkest Universe?

Peacemaker reached its penultimate episode of season two, which saw Christopher Smith’s friends rescue him from the Nazi-ruled alternate dimension. When he arrived back on his Earth, he turned over the Quantum Unfolding Chamber to Rick Flag and Argus. This ensures the United States government now has access to this powerful alien tech. And the preview for the final episode of the season suggests they absolutely plan to use it, as we see several doors opening in different, bizarre dimensions. Does this mean that the DCU is heading toward its very own Multiverse Saga? Or is Peacemaker hinting that something even darker is on the horizon for the DCU?

We honestly thought that James Gunn would want to steer clear of any alternate Earths so soon in establishing his DCU, which is just two projects in, especially with Marvel Studios knee-deep in their own Multiverse Saga. But Gunn has also stressed that season two of Peacemaker is going to lead to very big things in the DCU. And with the season ending with the U.S. government now having unlimited access to a portal to endless worlds, we can’t help but think that DC may be gearing up for its own Multiversal epic. But what could such a thing look like? Well, the comics give us plenty of examples.

DC established its Multiverse in the early ’60s, in the pages of The Flash, which introduced Earth-2 as home of the Golden Age DC heroes. It was soon followed by Earth-3, home of the evil Crime Syndicate, Earth-S, the home of the Shazam heroes, and on and on and on. Eventually, it got out of hand, and DC consolidated all these Earths together in the epic Crisis on Infinite Earths event series in 1985. In the forty years since, DC has expanded and contracted and reinvented the Multiverse multiple times since then. And they’ve used it in live-action in the CW Arrowverse, and in 2023’s The Flash film. So can Gunn really be banging that drum again for the DCU? We actually think he has something different in store.

While we think Gunn is going to use Peacemaker‘s Quantum Unfolding Chamber in his DCU, we don’t think we’re getting more variants (to use MCU terminology) of known heroes. So, no DCEU heroes meeting their DCU counterparts or anything like that. That is, no Corenswet Superman meets Cavill Superman moment. Our hunch is that one of those doors leads to a world not accessible via regular space travel—Apokolips, lorded over by Darkseid. In fact, we think in Gunn’s interpretation, Apokolips and New Genesis might just be variations of “our” Earth. Jack Kirby’s Fourth World uses English and Earth names and iconography. So in Gunn’s view, maybe they take the place of Earth in another dimension? In the comics, Darkseid often wants to unleash his fire pits on Earth, transforming it into a new Apokolips. Maybe in another dimension, he did just that.

The loud booming sound that the portals make in the Quantum Unfolding Chamber might indicate they are based on Boom Tubes. That’s the technology that Kirby’s Fourth World characters use to get around space and time. Was the Quantum Unfolding Chamber created by these characters, or did someone appropriate and reverse engineer their technology? Zack Snyder teased Darkseid in his version of Justice League, but he barely spoke. James Gunn has carte blanche to do his version of Darkseid and really introduce a major DC villain his way. Also, Darkseid will certainly be a part of the upcoming Mister Miracle animated series, so we know he’s coming. And the Quantum Unfolding Chamber might be the way Earth accesses this dark dimension. We’ll have a better idea when the season finale of Peacemaker arrives on HBO Max next week.