Posted in: HBO, TV | Tagged: HBO, james gunn, peacemaker, space invaders, suicide squad

Anyone Notice Peacemaker's Opening Dance Number Is Space Invaders?

Sometimes you watch something and notice a detail that seems obvious. Fun, entertaining – and you are entertained – but you don't make mention of it, because everyone must have also noticed, right? But you don't see anyone mention it. Maybe it's too obvious? And then five episodes into Peacemaker on HBO, based on the DC Comics character, you google for anything linking Peacemaker and the video arcade game classic Space Invaders, and there are no social media mentions, no clickbait headlines, not even a mention in the many, many articles about the opening credits dance number.

We see the cast performing in groups, moving side to side, with choreographed two-dimensional arm movements, in a staccato fashion. And then advancing further down the screen. Those weird hand movements that the White Dragon makes by his hips as he thrusts his groin? Those are the blasters from the Space Invaders. The whole dance number is a recreation of the arcade game – and it is for a TV show that, it is revealed, is about invaders from space, masquerading as humans. You know, before Disney+ does it with Secret Invasion.

So if were are looking for a clickbait article about Peacekeeper dance number and its similarities to Space Invaders, well, congratulations, there is now at least one. And, as a result, in half an hour there will probably a second one on ScreenRant.

Peacemaker first appeared in Fightin' 5 #40 in 1966 published by Charlton Comics and was created by writer Joe Gill and artist Pat Boyette. He received his own title lasting five issues in 1967. Following Charlton Comics' demise in the mid-1980s, DC Comics acquired Charlton Comics in the eighties and released a four-issue mini-series in 1988. The Comedian in Watchmen was originally inspired by the character.

The Peacemaker is Christopher Smith, a pacifist diplomat so committed to peace that he was willing to use force as a superhero to advance the cause. He uses an array of special non-lethal weapons, and also founded the Pax Institute. Most of the villains he goes up against are dictators and warlords. His peace-through-violence efforts were later revealed to be the result of a serious mental illness brought on by the shame of having a Nazi death camp commandant for a father. He believes his father's spirit haunts him continually and criticizes his every move, even as he tries to live down his past. Becoming a particularly deadly vigilante who would kill at the slightest notice, he begins to believe that the ghosts of the people he killed, or who were killed in his vicinity, are collected inside his helmet and can offer him advice and commentary. For a time, the Peacemaker serves as a U.S. government agent under the auspices of Checkmate, a special-forces unit, hunting down terrorists until his own behaviour becomes too extreme. Peacemaker plays a part in the Janus Directive. Although he is seen as a helpful ally, some of the other heroes think that he is too extreme to be helping them out.

His appearance as played by John Cena in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad movie, span off into the current HBO TV series, Peacemaker, fighting butterflies – or Space Invaders. Probably.

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