PEACEMAKER Introduces a Notorious World into the DCU

The name Salvation for a prison planet is a relatively recent DC Comics creation, debuting in the series Salvation Run by Bill Willingham, Lilah Sturged, and Sean Chen. In fact, the entire concept for Salvation originated from an Elseworlds pitch by Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin. Part of the larger line-wide event Final Crisis, it ran seven issues between 2007 and 2008. The basic premise of the story is that Rick Flag and Amanda Waller decide that Earth’s supervillains are out of control, and keep getting out of their respective prisons. So they decided to exile dozens (maybe hundreds) of Earth’s worst villains to the planet. Flag and Waller leave them there with no weapons, and no tools for survival.

The hope was that the many DC villains might find a way to work together and build a society, the way a British penal colony became the foundation of Australia. Or the preferred outcome might occur, and they’d simply kill each other off. They send them to this world with no due process, and several anti-heroes like Catwoman are sent along with cold-blooded murderers. Waller and Flag don’t make the distinction. Needless to say, things do not go smoothly on Salvation. As if having hundreds of superpowered criminals together could be anything but a nightmare.

Team Luthor vs. Team Joker

Once the villains realize they are stranded on this planet with no way to escape, they split into factions. One is led by Lex Luthor, and the other, the Joker. Luthor and the immortal despot Vandal Savage join forces to try to create a portal to take them off-world. Not long after, they discover their remote planet is actually a training ground for Darkseid’s forces, complicating matters further. Eventually, of course, the villains find a way off the planet, and head back to Earth. And just in time for the big Final Crisis crossover event.

Salvation in the DCU

Already, many elements of the comic book series are in play. We have a planet named Salvation, with planned metahuman exiles. However, it doesn’t seem Flag has only criminals in mind for Salvation, he just says “metahumans.” Or in the case of Peacemaker, any costumed vigilante Flag doesn’t like. In a way, the planet Salvation is set to become a personal dumping ground for Rick Flag. We already know Flag abandoned Peacemaker there. How much longer will it take his friends to realize what really happened to him? And should we expect metahuman heroes to all get the same treatment as villains? We have a feeling that this relatively obscure element from the 2000s era DC Comics is going to shape Gunn’s DCU in very unexpected ways. Not just in James Gunn’s Man of Tomorrow, but in other projects going forward.