WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Season 1 of Peacemaker.
Peacemaker ended its first season with a bang for DC Extended Universe superhero fans. The Justice League (or most of it anyway) made their second DCEU appearance in the aftermath of Peacemaker's battle with the Butterflies. Not only that, but Peacemaker and his support team verbally confirmed the existence of Green Arrow in the same episode. It's clear the DCEU is already filled with more superheroes than one would expect. But exactly how many does the universe currently have?
The answer isn't immediately obvious because of the random way the characters have been introduced. Unlike its rival, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which introduces characters with great fanfare and actors already cast, the DCEU will unexpectedly name-drop characters or set up half the Justice League through an email attachment. This unpredictability allows them to introduce almost any character or elements the directors feel like mentioning, but it also makes it hard to keep track of them all.
To qualify as a superhero for this article, they must be people who have superpowers and/or have adopted an alias and costume to fight evildoers in an official DCEU-related property. This eliminates borderline cases, such as Renee Montoya, Cassandra Cain or Ryan Choi who adopted superheroic identities in the comics but have not done so in the DCEU. It also eliminates characters such as Lex Luthor, Enchantress and Deathstroke, who might have fought on the side of the good guys in the comics but have only been malevolent on the big screen. This article will also limit itself to officially released media set in the DCEU. Deleted scenes and projects that have only had casting announcements or are in development will not be counted. Neither will characters, such as Grant Gustin's Flash, who have interacted with the DCEU but did not originate from there. Characters that have only appeared in media related to 2022's The Flash also will not be counted as that upcoming film will likely play around with parallel timelines and universes.
The Justice League Brought In All The Expected A-Listers
As in the comic book DC Universe, the DCEU's Justice League are the big guns of the superheroic community. Peacemaker might not like it, but it's true. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg are the big-name superheroes that formed the team to stop Steppenwolf. If counting Zack Snyder's Justice League, then Martian Manhunter and Kilowog are glimpsed having been aligned with the League. One might want to count Deathstroke and Joker as League members, as they appear in Batman's Knightmare team. However, that parallel timeline's League is explicitly described as a motley crew of heroes and villains thrown together by necessity. The main timeline versions of those two are certainly not heroic. Luckily, their superpowered teammate Mera is, so let's add her to the list. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Green Lantern, aka John Stewart, who was supposed to appear in the film but was replaced by the aforementioned Martian Manhunter and Kilowog at Warner Bros.' insistence. Hopefully, the big seven will get to unite on the big screen one day.
Looking into the Leaguers' supporting cast, there are some interesting characters that one might not expect. Yalan Gur qualifies both as the first Green Lantern of Sector 2814 and the first superhero to die in the line of duty. Other ancient superpowered heroes include Lynda Carter's Amazon warrior Asteria, who still subtly saves mankind in the present day and, surprisingly enough, Kara Zor-El. She first appeared in a Man of Steel tie-in comic as having lived millennia before Superman and demonstrated superpowers as she crash-landed on Earth. Only time will tell if she will be replaced by Sasha Calle's Supergirl in The Flash. However, we can confirm the existence of one tragically deceased Robin. While Zack Snyder and Warner Bros. differ on if he was Dick Grayson or Jason Todd, both would agree that his existence brings the hero total to 12.
Shazam and the Justice Society Brought Magic Into The Equation
Shazam may have been marketed as a solo superhero movie, but the end result brought in Shazam and his whole family. Freddy Freeman, Mary Bromfield, Darla Dudley, Eugene Choi and Pedro Peña all Shazam'd up in its final act to help their foster brother Billy Batson fight against Thaddeus Sivana. What they lack in legally useable superhero names, they make up for in numbers. Shazam! Fury of the Gods doesn't seem to be introducing any new superheroes, but audiences will have to wait and see to find out. The wizard who gave Billy his name seems to have only picked champions and never was one himself in the DCEU, so he doesn't meet superhero criteria any more than Alfred Pennyworth does.
Shazam also gave fans their first glimpse at Black Adam, whose own movie promises to introduce another super-team to the DCEU. The Justice Society of America, consisting of Doctor Fate, Hawkman, Atom Smasher and Cyclone, will hopefully try to steer a resurrected Black Adam toward the side of the angels. So far, there hasn't been any footage of Sarah Shahi's Adrianna Tomaz, but it's highly possible she'll power up as Isis, which would bring the total to 24.
The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker Muddied The Waters
If Black Adam seems to straddle the line between hero and villain, then the Suicide Squad takes that line and blows it sky-high. These self-labeled "bad guys" only go up against other super-villains because of an explosive inserted inside their heads. While the crew of 2016's Suicide Squad might have saved the day from Enchantress, they only did so because they were forced to. The way they all went back to their selfish pursuits suggests they didn't consider themselves superheroes afterward.
One exception might be the government agent Katana, who had Rick Flag's back, a soul-sucking sword and no criminal record to speak of. El Diablo was introduced in the comics as a possible superhero and died heroically in the film but just didn't verbally demonstrate the strong commitment to selfless superhero vigilantism audiences need to see in their spandex-clad aliens, speedsters and magically aged-up children. However, the prop used for Waller's team profiles reveals he made in-universe contact with the original El Diablo, Lazarus Lane, who was a "spirit of vengeance" just like in DC's comics. Of course, any resemblance to a certain Marvel character is unintentional.
The cast of The Suicide Squad is a different story. Bloodsport, Harley Quinn, Ratcatcher II, Polka-Dot Man and King Shark all disobey direct orders when they decide to save Corto Maltese from Starro The Conqueror. Polka-Dot Man yelling, "I'm a superhero," right before he's crushed is the exact commitment to the bit needed to include this band of misfits in the DCEU hero count. Looking at the other characters introduced in the movie, it gets a little tougher. The comic versions of Savant and Blackguard went back-and-forth in their morality, but both seem to have been firmly villains during their brief time in the DCEU. However, The Detachable Kid gives no indication that he is any more of a criminal than say Peacemaker was.
Speaking of Peacemaker, his TV Show firmly establishes him as a superhero... in his own way. The same can be said of his surprisingly close friend, Vigilante. Their erstwhile foe, Judomaster, is a bit more debatable as he sided against the human race, but his personal sense of ethics and his heroic comics pedigree make him a borderline enough case to count. However, where they really grew the universe was in their throwaway dialogue. Of the characters mentioned in the show, Doll Man, Matter-Eater Lad and Green Arrow all seem to be just as heroic in the DCEU as they are in the comics. There's a poster for a film called The Privateer, though its fictional nature makes it unlikely for the DC hero of that name to be operating in-universe. Bat-Mite is confirmed to exist, but he might be too morally chaotic to add to the current total of 38.
Don't Forget The Birds of Prey And Gotham's Heroes On The Rise
Peacemaker also features a refrigerator magnet that's a shout-out to Huntress. That Gotham superheroine made her first appearance in 2020's Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn alongside Harley and Dinah Lance, aka Black Canary. A discussion during the film revealed that Dinah Lance's mother previously fought crime with her own Canary Cry as the first Black Canary. Unfortunately, neither Renee Montoya nor Cassandra Cain takes on a superheroic mantle in the film, so they again do not count. If Cain wants to become Batgirl, though, she'll have to get in line as Barbara Gordon is donning the cowl in the post-The Flash DCEU. The disruption that movie's going to cause to the universe is so massive that there is no sense counting the upcoming Blue Beetle movie as DCEU canon until it's fully affirmed that's the case.
A Time Out tie-in centered on Metropolis and Gotham City for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice reveals that boxer Ted Grant has already taken on the name Wildcat in this universe and that Zatanna has an active magic career. Some might say this is bending the rules to include them since they're not stated to be crimefighters, but remember that having their comic book alias and/or superpowers was a major requirement.
This brings the count to a whopping 44 superheroes in total to come out of the DCEU's first nine years. It may not match the over 75 Marvel superheroes that have appeared in the MCU, but it's impressive for a universe with as checkered of a behind-the-scenes history as this one has. Despite the odds, the creatives behind it have assembled a universe where all these characters could team up in live-action. While The Flash will certainly disrupt some aspects of this timeline, one can hope that all the hard work placed into building up this funny, terrifying and inspiring DC Universe doesn't go to waste.