In the first season of the HBO Max series Peacemaker, the show’s titular character and antihero, Christopher Smith, found himself trying to save the world from a race of alien butterflies. The creatures sought to take over Earth by possessing people’s bodies and controlling them. This is a theme that can be found often in the work of series creator, James Gunn.
Throughout his career, Gunn has focused on the idea of alien parasites taking over human hosts. However, instead of it feeling like a case of an artist returning to the well, something interesting happened to Gunn’s villainous parasites over the years: they evolved. They became more relatable and sympathetic, despite their villainous natures. This reached its peak in Peacemaker‘s season finale, where even Smith felt sorry for having to go against the butterflies and their motives.
Gunn’s first work with alien parasites was Slither, a 2006 horror/comedy that he wrote and directed. It also teamed him for the first time with Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Michael Rooker, who played Grant Grant, a well-to-do man in a small town who became infected with a parasite. As it mutated his body, Grant spread the parasite to others who shared its consciousness. In a surprising turn, the alien also adopted Grant’s love for his wife Starla, but took it to dangerously obsessive levels.
Unlike Gunn’s future parasites, there was nothing sympathetic about the alien in Slither. Through a brief psychic link, teenage Kylie learned that the parasite had a past history of going to worlds and feeding off their populations before moving on to another. The alien also turned the town residents into violent zombies who act like creepy stalkers to Starla. It also made Grant violent against her, which made the film’s climax more satisfying when she blew up the alien, instead of giving into any feelings she had left for Grant.
Gunn returned to alien parasites again with The Suicide Squad, which featured giant alien, Starro the Conquerer. When the large starfish broke free from a laboratory in South America, it spread smaller starfish-like creatures that took possession of anyone nearby and forced them to adopt Starro’s consciousness. What distinguished Starro from the parasite in Slither, however, was that his motivations felt more relatable.
It is revealed in The Suicide Squad that Starro was discovered in space and brought to a lab where he underwent 30 years of torturous testing. When he finally broke free and wreaked destruction to the island of Corto Maltese, he came off a being who was turned into a monster instead of one that was evil at birth. His very last words before death expressed longing for the life he had enjoyed before coming to Earth: “I was happy, floating, staring at the stars.”
Gunn further blurred the line between “hero” and “villain” with parasitic butterflies on Peacemaker. Although Smith’s boss Amanda Waller wanted him to destroy the insects, he had an ally in Clemson Murn, a member of his own team who was possessed by a butterfly that went against his own race. Smith also found himself morally torn when he realized that the overall goal of the butterflies was to create peace and prevent humans from destroying themselves.
Although their intentions echoed Smith’s own personal goals, he instead chose to stop them because he could not bear to see any more harm come to his human friends. Whether the butterflies or any other parasites will emerge again in future Gunn/DC projects remains to be seen. However, fans can be certain that the writer/director will continue bringing his unique perspective to superheroes and their antagonists, where things are not always so cut and dry.
Season 1 of Peacemaker is available to stream on HBO Max.