There have been nearly a dozen live-action movies starring Batman since Tim Burton rebooted the character in 1989, yet only two of them feature a costumed Robin. We’ve had two live-action Aquaman movies without Aqualad, and across Henry Cavill and David Corenswet’s Superman movies, Jimmy Olsen is either killed off or barely connected to Superman at all. By default, that leaves Peacemaker’s best friend Eagly as one of the few active sidekicks in the DCU, new or old, apart from Superman’s recently revived buddy Krypto.
With Peacemaker season 2 giving the beautiful bird a full-blown action showcase in episode 2, it seems like the only sidekicks who’ve gotten a proper spotlight in DC’s superhero stories over the past few decades are the pets.
[Ed. note: Mild spoiler ahead for an action scene in Peacemaker season 2, episode 2.]
As I watched Langston Fleury (Tim Meadows) lead his squad, “Mexicali, Encino Man, Ponyboy, Barely Legal, Kewpie Doll, and Titties,” to Peacemaker’s house for a break-in, and instead get torn to shreds by his well-trained eagle, I had an epiphany. The first inspired this article, and the other was about how far CGI has come. The scene really evoked a bird attack, and activated my very real fear of large birds; it felt like I was watching Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds all over again.
It reminded me of an earlier moment in the episode when Fleury admits he has “bird-blindness.” At first, I assumed that was just a gag — until the scene paid it off, with him completely unable to identify what kind of bird was attacking his team, or even how big it was. That lit up a neuron in my brain: Could bird-blindness actually be a real condition? Turns out, no. I Googled it so you don’t have to; it’s not real. Don’t feel bad, I half-believed it for a second, too.
Eagly dismantles the trained killers with ease, strutting off to Ida Maria’s “Dirty Money” after gouging out Encino Man’s eye under the pale moonlight. It’s one of the most badass things I’ve seen a sidekick do in live action, and that’s because so few of them are ever present in live-action shows or movies. Krypto similarly has several moments in Superman that got me hype, like when he saves Superman from Ultraman, or comes in and bites Lex Luthor. Both moments from these pets are equally cool and hilarious — even though Superman and Peacemaker have contrasting senses of humor, writer-director James Gunn clearly loves his heroes’ animal companions.
Krypto in Gunn’s Superman is another case that shows how far CGI has come, because in some moments, it really feels like the superdog is real. (Partially thanks to being mo-capped by Gunn’s own doggie.) Far be it from me to sound like I’m complaining about pets being the only representation of sidekicks, because I find both of these animals compelling in their own ways. Audiences never want to see a puppy get hurt, even if it’s CGI. And if the reactions to the trailer for Good Boy say anything, it’s that when you put a doggo in danger, people want to make sure they make it out safely.
Pets are the true sidekicks in these superhero stories because they’re the sidekicks of our everyday lives, which makes these hero/pet duos instantly relatable. There are a lot of heroic pets in the DC Comics universe (there’s actually an entire League of Super-Pets to pull from), so maybe Gunn could lean into people’s instincts in attaching themselves to animals, and use it to his advantage. Here’s hoping that instead of chasing a Young Justice League in the new DCU, the way the MCU is building toward Young Avengers, Gunn just gives the pets their shot with a Homeward Bound-style superhero movie.
