Introduction
James Gunn has debuted his vision for the future of DC televised and cinematic entertainment in the first seven-episode season of Creature Commandos. Based on the DC Comics team originally led by Sgt. Rock and featuring classic monsters, Gunn has updated the roster to contemporize the team to fit into continuity after his feature film The Suicide Squad, this time led by Rick Flag, Sr.
The Setup
Since the dawn of time, man has told Beast tales. Fables featuring anthropomorphic animals to tackle big ideas and overarching lessons. From Greek Myths to Aesop to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Creature Commandos is no different. Gunn uses the creatures The Bride, Weasel, G.I. Robot, Dr. Phosphorus, and Nina Mazursky (a fish woman) to tell us a bit about ourselves and what we’re capable of when pushed past the breaking point.
After the events of Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, Amanda Waller’s (Viola Davis) Task Force X was deemed unconstitutional. As a result, this caused her to circumvent restrictions by using “not quite human” operatives on her new task force. No mention is made of exploding heads but it seems unreasonable to assume that Waller has become more sympathetic.
In the first episode, she demonstrates that she can shock the team into submission at the push of a button. However, as the series progresses and we see this particular team’s full power, it’s a wonder several of them were successfully incarcerated.
The team is assembled to protect a “backwoods country” and its leader from invading forces from a splinter group of Themyscira, led by Circe. The fictional country, Pokolistan, appears anything but backwoods when the Commandos arrive and find their royal guard wearing armor that generates energy blasts and allows them to fly. But this revelation is never discussed. Rick Flag, Sr. (Frank Grillo) takes a liking to Princess Ilana (Maria Bakalova), and she to him. By the end of the first episode, the drama is set for us to be off to the races.
The Team
Gunn’s creatures have varying degrees of relatability, empathy, and terror. Every character gets the full benefit of a backstory, so we’re allowed a glimpse into what humanity they may have once had and possibly still hold. The Bride and Dr. Phosphorus are easily the most far gone, though the former shows hints of redemption. Weasel is revealed to be something of an innocent, and G.I. Robot is sincere in his prime directive to kill Nazis. Nina Mazursky rounds out the group as a monster in visage alone; she’s perhaps the most human of all.
The episodes are short and fast-paced, ricocheting between past and present so that the season whips by at a breakneck pace. The Pokolistan plot is augmented when the Bride is pursued by “Eric” Frankenstein, the creature for whom she was made. Voiced by David Harbour, the character provides the funniest and most disturbing player of the series.
The series’ middle section unveils a mystery, creating an opportunity for investigation and team separation. Consequently, this fully allows the characters to breathe and occupy space of their own. Gunn understands, as demonstrated in The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, how to separate the parts from the whole to give the most accurate portrait of his characters and allow the audience to connect with the larger story.
Conclusion
Creature Commandos is, in a word, good. Further, it’s James Gunn as we know him. Brash, profane, hyper-violent, and oddly endearing and emotional. It’s another home run from the guy who makes us fall in love with villains and anti-heroes. However, is it a solid start to DC Studios’ productions? That is still up for debate. My initial response would be no. It’s too self-contained and told in its own vernacular to, I think, be a preamble for the larger DC universe.
To be clear, efforts are made to allude to the larger universe. There are allusions to the Justice League, Gotham City, Star City, and references to the previous exploits of Task Force X. At the same time, it doesn’t appear to be able to tonally match what is yet to come from DC Studios. Particularly on the big screen. Based on the recent trailer, I have trouble shoring this adventure alongside Gunn’s Superman, due this July.
I suppose James Gunn is asking us, as viewers, to bring all of ourselves to the celebration of DC storytelling. The hopeful parts we share with friends and family and the more obscene parts we share with the people we really trust. Maybe James Gunn wants to remind us that there’s a terrifying creature in all of us before he reveals that we all hold a hero within us as well. As is the case in Creature Commandos, they’re often the same.
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