Peacemaker And Superman Prove That The DC Universe Can Avoid Marvel's Biggest Mistake

Fly, Eagly! This article contains spoilers for "Peacemaker" season 2, episode 1, "The Ties That Grind."

"Peacemaker" season 2 continues its predecessor's activity in the post-credits scene game. Based on the sophomore season's first episode, titled "The Ties That Grind," it also continues to keep its tongue firmly in cheek. Instead of the grand schemes and shocking developments the Marvel Cinematic Universe tends to fire off in its stingers, "The Ties That Grind" simply revisits Peacemaker (John Cena) and Harcourt's (Jennifer Holland) discussion about the questionable merits of DC Extended Universe Joker actor Jared Leto's band, 30 Seconds to Mars. It's fun, unserious stuff, and it's nothing new; "Peacemaker" post-credits scenes have always been passing moments of levity that range from scabies helmets to Vigilante's (Freddie Stroma) musings on ducks and Locke's (Christopher Heyerdahl) reliably outlandish behavior.

The thing is, this approach isn't exclusive to "Peacemaker." The post-credits scenes for James Gunn's "Superman" are deliberately pointless yet fun moments where Superman (David Corenswet) gets on Mister Terrific's (Edi Gathegi) nerves and hangs out on the Moon with Krypto. Rather than setting anything important up, they merely humanize the characters and maybe offer the audience an additional chuckle (which, honestly, feels very nice).

I find myself hoping that this becomes the overall modus operandi in Gunn and Peter Safran's DC Universe. After all, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has saturated the superhero market with constant high-stakes stingers that effectively hold the viewer hostage if they want to see the latest plot development that may or may not amount to anything. This worked fine back in the day, but now, the overload is such that it's hard to care. Because of this, "Peacemaker" season 2 is a promising sign that the DCU intends to buck this trend and embrace post-credits scenes as fun little bonus moments instead of all-important cliffhangers.

It's no accident that "Superman" and "Peacemaker" – both projects that Gunn personally oversaw — take a comparatively unserious approach when it comes to post-credits scenes. This was already a part of Gunn's tool kit during his "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy era. There, his post-credits scenes often feature joke moments with characters like Howard the Duck (Seth Green). As Gunn told ScreenRant, his MCU experience specifically contributed to his preference for a lighter touch:

"I found in my time at Marvel that, first of all, the post-credit scenes of mine at Marvel that people liked the best were the stupid ones."

While Gunn also noted that he'd be open to more traditional stinger teases if they fit in the situation at hand and their payoff can be guaranteed, his DC work so far speaks for itself. More importantly, it simply works like a charm. As anyone who has witnessed Peacemaker furiously listing famous figures who are better shots than Steve Agee's John Economos in "Peacemaker" season 1 and then returning in the same episode's post-credits scene to continue his rant can attest, this approach can be marvelous ... especially for those who know that John Cena improvised this hilarious "Peacemaker" rat.

Meanwhile, Marvel can wheel out someone like Charlize Theron as a surprise post-credits scene character in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" or get "Ted Lasso" standout Brett Goldstein to cameo as Hercules in "Thor: Love and Thunder," only to lose them in its ever-expanding multiversal mix. Here's hoping the DCU continues to hold the levity fort and doesn't succumb to the cliffhanger stinger mistakes of its Marvel counterpart.

New episodes of "Peacemaker" start streaming on HBO Max every Thursday.