Warning: SPOILERS for the Peacemaker episode “Another Rick Up My Sleeve”
The DC Universe franchise isn’t even a year old yet, and it’s already delving into the multiverse through Peacemaker Season 2’s story. The latest episode to premiere on the 2025 TV schedule, titled “Another Rick Up My Sleeve,” saw John Cena’s Christopher Smith finally exploring the world his deceased counterpart came from after having only walked around his big house. On the surface, it seems like this Earth has a lot more going for it than Peacemaker’s Earth. However, I think it’s too good to be true, and I’m almost positive I know the dark secret behind it.
Chris clearly enjoyed stepping into his counterpart’s shoes in “Another Rick Up My Sleeve” (which also featured two versions of Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag Jr.) He’s a beloved superhero admired by the public, he gets to fight crime with his father and his still-alive brother as the Top Trio, and by the end of the episode, he’s in a much better place with the alternate Emilia Harcourt than where his other self left off with her. But along with the Sons of Liberty trying to blow up that DMV, there was something else unsettling about “Another Rick Up My Sleeve”: there were no nonwhite actors shown in this other Earth.
Seriously, go back and pay close attention to all the minor and background actors in scenes set on that Earth. Meanwhile over on Peacemaker’s main Earth, we have people like Leota Adebayo, the hilarious Langston Fleury, Sasha Bordeaux and the returning Judomaster, a.k.a. Rip Jagger. This can’t just be mere oversight from Peacemaker creator James Gunn and director Greg Mottola. What is going on here?
Well, remember that on the main Earth, Auggie Smith, Christopher Smith’s late father, was a white supremacist who led the Aryan Empire and terrorized people as the Red Dragon. This other Auggie may be much friendlier than his deceased counterpart, but it’s still weird to see a blue variation of the Red Dragon suit being used for superheroic purposes. Now combine that with only white people being shown on this other Earth; what if this is an Earth where white supremacy is the norm and people of color have all been imprisoned or, at bare minimum, live in horrible conditions far away from these nice suburban areas? Going a step further, what if this Earth is straight up controlled by Nazis?
There is precedence for this the DC Comics mythology with Earth-X, where the Nazis won World War and the Freedom Fighters fight back against this regime. The Arrowverse adapted this corner of the multiverse in the “Crisis on Earth-X” crossover, and now I’m wondering if Peacemaker is putting its own spin on this Earth, too. Or maybe this isn’t meant to be Earth-X, but simply a world steeped in racism. We won’t know for sure exactly what this world’s deal is until someone Adebayo crosses over and sees how people react to her, assuming this is in the cards.
Assuming I’m right about all this, eventually Christopher Smith will learn the truth and realize that this Earth isn’t the idyllic setting he thought it was. More importantly, it’ll remind him that he can’t run away from his problems, and being disgusted by a world controlled by white supremacists is as good a way as any to make him stick to his own Earth.
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