Reviews for Peacemaker are starting to pour in ahead of its January 13 premiere, and while critics have only been given access to the first three episodes (the norm for shows like these), we can still get a good indication of what to expect from the eight-part series spinning out of The Suicide Squad.
In Rolling Stone's 4* review, it's said that "the series functions as a sincere character study of its flawed hero — and the unfortunate souls who have to work alongside him — just enough for the joke to never quite wear thin. Even in a wildly oversaturated market for tales of hypermuscular men and women punching their way to justice, Peacemaker stands out. You’ll wanna taste it, even the parts that are in incredibly bad taste."
The Daily Beast was similarly impressed, concluding that Peacemaker is "Self-conscious but never smug, sociopathic and yet also sweet, and timely if never preachy, it’s the very sort of no-holds-barred, tongue-in-cheek endeavor that’s become Gunn’s specialty." Collider wasn't quite so keen with a C+ grade, saying the series doesn't quite live up to what we saw from the title character in The Suicide Squad. In fact, they note that "the series choosing to back-pedal on what could be considered his defining traits [as a villain] only makes for an aggressively fine follow-up."
The Hollywood Reporter echoes those thoughts, wrapping up by stating "In its quest to shed new light on a character who came out of his last movie looking dangerously close to outright villainy, Peacemaker loses too much of the darkness that made him compelling in the first place"
On the plus side, ComicBook.com was quite a bit more impressed and wrap up their 4* verdict by explaining, "there are a small number of growing pains, but they are vastly outweighed by the creative and entertaining things that the series does right. Like the countless DC Comics solo series of the 1980s, Peacemaker proves an essential point about the DCEU — that when you showcase the weirdest possible fringes of a fictional universe, it helps the entire universe feel much bigger and more complete."
There are still lots more verdicts to be counted, but these early reviews definitely offer an idea of what's to come in Peacemaker. It's surprising that some critics don't like Christopher Smith's transition from villain to hero, though we do wonder how much attention they were paying to the character's story arc in The Suicide Squad as his motivations there, while certainly wrong, weren't evil.
Keep checking back here for the latest on Peacemaker as we have it.