Every Peacemaker Helmet In Season 1 (Ranked From Most To Least Useful)

The first season of James Gunn's "Peacemaker" series has come to a close, and over the course of its eight episodes, we learned that Peacemaker doesn't have just one weird-looking chrome helmet, but more like a dozen of the things. Peacemaker's father, Auggie (Robert Patrick), is a super scientist who designed his son's helmets, and in episode 1, he shows Peacemaker (John Cena) all of the various head coverings he's been tinkering with. Throughout the season Peacemaker had a chance to use several of the helmets and explained the potential for several others. 

One of the main themes of "Peacemaker" is reserving judgment until you get to know someone (or something) a bit better, and these helmets are no exception. One helmet, the Human Torpedo, sounds like it would be the most useless of all, but it turns out to be pretty useful in the end, and something as cool as an Anti-Gravity helmet can be a total bust. To celebrate the end of the first season of this fabulous, funny show, I've ranked all of the helmets from most to least useful, in case you ever get the chance to raid Auggie's dimension-breaking closet. 

Spoilers for season 1 of "Peacemaker" from here on out. 

The most useful of all of Peacemaker's helmets in season 1 is the Sonic Boom helmet, which encases its wearer in a blue force-field and then emits a sonic boom powerful enough to crush metal and explode flesh. After he hooks up with the butterfly rocker chick in episode 1 and she attacks him, Peacemaker uses the sonic boom to protect himself, though it does totally destroy his American flag car and turns his one-night stand into a pile of goo. The team later has John Economos (Steve Agee) take the helmet down into the butterfly lair in an attempt to kill their food source, the Cow, but things don't quite go as planned. The helmet has 3-4 bursts per charge, and they manage to set off a few before the charge goes out, killing dozens of butterflies and caving in the lair. The first boom distracts the butterflies from Economos, whom they've all leaped upon like crazed zombies, which gives him a chance to get away. 

The Sonic Boom helmet worked as a hail Mary not just once, but twice, and it was instrumental in taking out the butterfly hive. Imagine how fun it would be to set off in a cornfield. This helmet is a solid 10 out of 10, because it does what it's supposed to and saved the day several times. 

The Human Torpedo helmet is only a prototype, but Peacemaker brings it to the final battle anyway just in case. The helmet covers the user in a force-field similar to that of the Sonic Boom helmet, then flings them at high velocity toward a target, as if the helmet and its wearer were just shot out of a cannon. It was totally untested, and Peacemaker even warns that it would be cool if it wasn't likely to break every bone in the wearer's body. After things go wrong in the attack on the butterfly hive and Peacemaker is trapped in the debris, Economos gives Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) the helmet and tells her to go save Peacemaker. Her first attempt to save him ends with her hitting the cave wall at high speed and being knocked unconscious, but once she gets back up and drags herself over to the action, Peacemaker launches her right into the Cow. Adebayo becomes a human torpedo, punching through the alien's squishy center and killing it before falling out of the writhing beast with a whole mess of its guts. The Human Torpedo helmet saved the world but only because of a bit of dumb luck (and Adebayo's willingness to potentially die), which gives the Sonic Boom helmet the edge, but just barely. 

The very first helmet that Auggie points out to Peacemaker in episode 1 is a Force Field helmet, which does exactly what it says: creates a force field around the user. The force fields of both the Human Torpedo and the Sonic Boom helmets work pretty well in protecting the wearer, and it's probably the same technology. While it doesn't have any attack powers, having full-body defenses that don't hinder movement is pretty helpful. We never see Peacemaker use this helmet, likely because it would cross over with the other two force-field-having helmets too much and doesn't have any fun attack options, and it was one that he just didn't grab when he stole the helmets from dear old Dad in episode 4. There was only so much room in his duffel bag, after all, and he apparently needed space for some of the weirder helmets. The Force Field helmet looks a lot like the standard Peacemaker helmet, though the toilet seat-shaped ridge is larger and more defined. 

Peacemaker's X-Ray Vision helmet is not only extremely useful, but it's also the coolest-looking helmet of the bunch. The distinctive lines that surround the dove of peace and the bottom of the helmet are a slightly darker shade of chrome, making them stand out more against the rest of its shiny metal exterior. When they're activated, two red lenses slide down over the eye sockets, giving the viewer x-ray vision. The helmet comes in handy when the Project Butterfly team investigates possible alien activity at a laboratory, as Peacemaker is able to see through their skulls and spot the aliens inside. The helmet also leads to Adebayo discovering that Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) is possessed by a butterfly as well, though it turns out that he was a dissenter and still very much on humanity's side. The helmet shows right through walls, skin, metal, and more, and the scenes where we can see what the wearer sees are a lot of fun. 

We don't get to see Peacemaker use the Underwater World helmet, but it's impossible to deny its usefulness. The helmet, which has a giant fin on it (pictured above, right, next to the Scabies-for-All helmet), allows its wearer to breathe underwater. Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Peacemaker aren't exactly buddies, so it would be fun to see Peacemaker use the helmet to travel to Atlantis and cause a ruckus. There are more practical uses, too, like scuba-diving or offering pool-cleaning services. There's also the potential for him to visit King Shark in his home! About 71% of the planet is covered in water, so it's likely that a superhero would need to be able to breathe under it at some point. Just imagine how useful that would have been when they landed on Corto Maltese — he wouldn't have even had to hold his breath while he swam to shore. 

There are two "standard" Peacemaker helmets, because he lost his first one when he couldn't pay the cabbie who drove him home after the events of "The Suicide Squad" put him in the hospital. They're both bulletproof, which I assume all of the helmets are, and they "strike fear into the hearts of men." The helmets save Peacemaker from bullets in both "The Suicide Squad" and "Peacemaker," and since they're the original design helmets, you've got to have some respect for them. This is the helmet you're going to see people trying to buy replicas of for cosplay and display, and the bullet-proof thing is useful even if it still kind of looks like a chrome toilet seat with an upside-down dove engraved on the forehead. 

While the Anti-Gravity helmet sounds pretty useful, it's actually kind of ridiculous. The helmet, which features an extra ring on the ridge, allows the wearer to ignore the effects of gravity. When Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) asks if there's any control or if you just float aimlessly, Peacemaker reveals that it's pretty much aimless, even joking that he brought a little fan to propel himself around. Adebayo ends up activating the helmet while talking about it, and it floats away like a child's birthday balloon that slipped through their fingers. Even if Peacemaker had tried to use the thing in order to get the Sonic Boom helmet onto the roof of the barn, does anyone think he would have managed to steer it? It's more likely that he would have floated off as well, maybe grabbing a tree branch before yanking the helmet off and falling back to the ground. Anti-gravity without steering is pretty much always dangerous. Does no one remember Charlie and his grandpa in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"?

The Scabies-for-All helmet is pretty useless unless you're really just trying to irritate some people. Scabies is a skin condition caused by tiny mites that burrow into skin to make their home and reproduce. (Gunn really has a thing for parasites, doesn't he?) In the post-credits scene at the end of the first episode, Peacemaker asks his father what he could possibly ever use the scabies helmet for, and Auggie says it's just a challenge. While the helmet is essentially pointless, it does feature a fin that looks like a mohawk, making this the most punk-looking of all of the helmets, except for maybe Itchy Dan. 

What is Itchy Dan? I'm not really sure what it does, but the helmet features a broader overall shape and a whole bunch of spikes across the forehead. It's pretty cool-looking, even if the name keeps its purpose a mystery. There's also a Bound for Good helmet, which could be any number of things. Maybe it makes the wearer behave in a way that the helmet views as morally "good," which seems terrifying given Auggie's beliefs. My theory is that it makes the wearer capable of jumping leaps and bounds, and the name is just a pun, because all fathers like Dad jokes, even supervillain ones. There are a couple of other helmets that aren't named or described in any way, but I'm curious to see if any of them appear in season 2. With Auggie gone, the helmets he has are the only ones he's ever going to have, so maybe he'll find a use for the Scabies-for-All helmet after all. 

The first full season of "Peacemaker" is streaming on HBO Max.