James Gunn’s Peacemaker has all the hallmarks of the director’s work, from the music choices (incredible) to the morally complex characters and some of the most organic team-building you can find. But because of his tendency to “go there,” I was a little worried that some people might find the White Dragon cool. Thankfully, Gunn found ways to subvert that.
**Spoilers for Peacemaker’s “Stop Dragon My Heart Around.”**
Aesthetics and time can weaken the intent of an image. When we look at how Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers have become pop culture iconography, it can sometimes be hard to remember that their images were inspired by Nazi Germany. Now, the look is just another piece of a larger cult of media owned by Disney.
When we are introduced to Peacemaker’s father, August “Auggie” Smith (Robert Patrick), he is a racist piece of garbage who has abused his son physically and emotionally. He is both a stereotype of the right-wing racist extremist and also, through Patrick’s acting, someone who embodies authority. Plus, he is responsible for creating the Peacemaker tech.
He was once known as the White Dragon, a racist supervillain, who was the leader of a Neo-Nazi group. This is a combination of two identities of the White Dragon in the comics: William Heller, a Neo-Nazi and white supremacist who formed the Aryan Empire, and Daniel Ducannon, another white supremacist.
Nazis are not uncommon in the superhero genre, Hydra being one of the most glaring longstanding examples, and early comics had both Captain America and Superman punch Hitler. Yet, despite that, white supremacy, anti-Semitism, and anti-progressive ideology can so often take root in comic communities.
The scene of the White Dragon costume being put on August, surrounded by his racist scum group, had an air of gravitas to it that made me uncomfortable—not because I felt like it was attempting to make him look like anything more than a threat, but a part of me was thinking, “Will the wrong person see this and think it looks cool?”
Gunn made his thoughts clear. He thinks August is a piece of crap.
“He is really a piece of shit,” Gunn said in an interview with Newsweek. “It’s a real thing in our world, it’s a real thing in our life. And to, kind of, do these sort of McDonald’s versions of white supremacy that happen in these types of tales seems inauthentic to me. So I decided to just let him be what he is, which is a racist piece of shit.”
In the latest episode of Peacemaker, that became even clearer not just in the action of the episode, but in the subtitles/closed captions. When the White Hoods tried to track Peacemaker, the subtitles identified them as “Skinhead Girl,” “Racist Thug,” and “White Hood Wanker.”
That warmed my cold dark heart because I’m glad that it was being made so explicit in the dialogue that these people are exactly what they appear to be on the tin: racist assholes.
When we see the truth about the circumstance as to why Chris’ brother died, it only further shows what a pathetic POS August is. He took bets on his sons fighting each other and then shifted the blame to someone else. That’s all his ideology is: pushing the blame onto someone else, even if it is just a child.
He’s pathetic, and so are his minions, and I’m glad Gunn made it explicit in every way.
Also … please don’t cosplay as the White Dragon. I beg of you.
(image: HBO)
