The following contains spoilers forPeacemakerEpisode 4, “The Choad Less Traveled.”Picking up nearly immediately from wherePeacemakerEpisode 3left off, “The Choad Less Traveled” runs the audience through the consequences of the team’s actions against the family of Butterflies. Not only do they have to contend with an injured Vigilante, but a rattled Adebayo, an unconscious Judomaster, and a Peacemaker who refuses to be honest about the reasons for him not wanting to take out his targets.
With all of the character development going on in the episode, some fans might have thought there wouldn’t be room for Easter eggs. There are plenty of Easter eggs from the comics for fans to spot throughout the hour. There are also a few fun meta references to boot.
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Matter-Eater Lad
When Peacemaker gets distracted during a conversation with Murn, he makes mention of Matter-Eater Lad, someone who he says once ate an entire fast food restaurant. That’s likely not an exaggeration.
Matter-Eater Lad made his comic book debut in 1962. While Peacemaker might not particularly care for him, he is a member of the future superhero team the Legion of Superheroes. He’s from the planet Bismoll, adding another alien nod to the series. Though the character has appeared in animated seriesbased on DC comic book characters, he’s never appeared in a live-action series.
Charlie The Gorilla
Peacemaker makes a stop by his father’s house to pick up a replacement helmet (or five) for himself. When he walks in, the television is still playing the same news program his father was watching when he was arrested. This time around, however, the news mentions Charlie the gorilla having escaped the local zoo.
While Charlie is actually a pretty common name given to gorillas in captivity (the Toronto Zoo in Ontario, Canada houses a gorilla named Charlie, for example), it’s also a cheeky comic book nod. Charlie the Gorilla, also known as Sergeant Gorilla, appeared in a volume of World War II themed comics calledStar-Spangled War Stories. He wanted to be a soldier, and actually taught himself how to salute, wore a uniform, and participated in a show entertaining the troops.
The White Dragon
The previous episode ofPeacemakerconfirmed that Chris Smith’s father was the villain known as the White Dragon, but it’s not only mentioned again in Episode 4, but the audience actually gets to see his costume.
The red and white color scheme, as well as the angled mask, is a spot-on recreation of the comic book version of the costume.
Batman’s Philosophy On Killing
While visiting his father’s house, Peacemaker gets into a slight argument with a neighbor who claims to want to “make conversation” with him about Batman. He compares Peacemaker’s willingness to kill people to Batman’s firm anti-killing villains stance.
The argument, in which Peacemaker asserts thatBatman would actually keep villains off the streetsand save more lives if he used lethal force, is one that comic book fans have been having for years. There are plenty of comic book stories that see Batman break his vow not to kill, and even HBO Max’sTitansaddressed it as he sought revenge against the Joker for the death of Jason Todd.
The conversation also includes a mention of Jervis Tetch’s Mad Hatterand Edward Nygma’s Riddler; neither comic book villain has appeared in the DC Extended Universe so far.
Vigilante’s Dashboard Decoration
Up until now, the imagesreferencing Rick Flagg’sThe Suicide Squadshirt have been a little difficult to see. This episode, however, puts Ultra Bunny, the creation of James Gunn that looks like a mouse with rabbit ears, front and center.
Episode 2 ofPeacemakersees a supporting character wear a shirt featuring the character, but Vigilante has an Ultra Bunny figure sitting on the dashboard of his car. While Peacemaker doesn’t flashback to Rick Flagg’s death until later in the episode, it’s likely the dashboard figure jogged his memory.
The Atomic Age
When Peacemaker and Judomaster fight in a parking lot, fans might want to keep an eye on the truck they fight in front of it. Its logo includes the words “Atomic Age.”
While there is a miniseries of the same name in Marvel Comics, the term actually corresponds to a specific time period in comics. It’s a reference to the 1950s and 1960s in comic book history. As the Golden Age of comics ended and comic book publishers moved away from stories focused on World War II, science fiction stories increased in frequency. Many of those included atomic power or characters who gained power from radioactive contamination.
Peacemaker Gets A Superhero Landing
Deadpoolcalled audience’s attention to the fact that superheroes have a very specific landing pose. TheBlack Widowmovie only further solidified the pose in pop culture when Yelena Belova called Natasha Romanoff a “poser.” Fans might have thought thatPeacemaker didn’t qualify for the superhero posewhen he fell from balcony to balcony in the second episode of the series. That’s not the case.
When he goes to fight Judomaster in Episode 4, he finally gets to make his own superhero landing, which might signal that he really is one of the good guys.
