James Gunn Reveals How One Superman Death Sets Off a Chain Reaction and Fuels Rick Flag's Salvation Plan
Chaos in the skies, wreckage on the streets, and a single name on everyone’s lips: Hawkgirl. As officials probe the fallout, allies fall silent and a towering reputation teeters.
Hawkgirl turning a head of state into a punchline in Superman looked like a gag. It is not. That moment is already reverberating across the new DCU, and James Gunn just connected some of the dots himself.
Gunn explains Rick Flag, metahumans, and why 'Salvation' exists
A fan on Threads asked Gunn why Rick Flag suddenly seems so anti-meta, especially when he runs with a bunch of them in Creature Commandos. Gunn pushed back on the idea that Flag 'hates' metahumans and drew a straight line from Superman and his super-friends to real-world politics.
"Rick doesn't hate metahumans. He's afraid of the power some metahumans have dictating world politics (as started by Superman and the Justice Gang - especially Hawkgirl) and mostly afraid of how difficult it is to contain metahuman criminals."
That frames Flag less as 'I hate superpowers' and more as 'I do not want gods rewriting foreign policy.' Which brings us to Salvation, the DCU's very cheery name for an Earth-like alternate dimension used as a dumping ground for metahumans. Gunn said Flag is pushing that plan out of a blunt, protect-the-homeland mindset. It is not warm and fuzzy, but it tracks with the character. Also important: his grudge against Peacemaker is personal, because, well, Peacemaker killed his son. If you are piecing together the family tree, that is Rick Flag Sr. furious about Rick Flag Jr.'s death in The Suicide Squad.
- Flag's stance: fear of metahuman power steering global politics and frustration with how hard super-criminals are to contain, not blanket hatred of metas.
- Salvation: an Earth-like pocket dimension proposed as an exile zone for metahumans, pitched by Flag as a hard-nosed way to keep Americans safe.
- The spark: Hawkgirl publicly took out the Boravian president in Superman, a laugh-in-the-theater moment that is now a geopolitical problem.
- The personal angle: Flag Sr. also loathes Peacemaker because Peacemaker killed his son.
Where this is headed
Reading between the lines, the Man of Tomorrow is going to be stuck dealing with the mess created by his own spotlight: the ethics and logistics of living gods, the fallout from Hawkgirl's kill, and the rise of Salvation as a brutal 'solution.' It is the kind of worldbuilding wrinkle that starts as a joke and then forces everyone to live with the consequences.
And about Peacemaker season 2...
Gunn has also been doing vibe checks online and said it is totally fine if the Peacemaker season 2 finale did not land for you. He loved it, for the record. He even pops up with a cameo in the episode, because of course he does. Peacemaker season 2 is now streaming on Max (you know, the HBO Max one).