James Gunn took lesser-known characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy and Peacemaker and gave them incredible projects to headline, turning them into stars. He’s also responsible for making people forget how bad the DCEU's first Suicide Squad movie was. Now that he’s DC Studios’ co-CEO and co-chairman of the film, TV, and animation division with Peter Safran, it was time to get the ball rolling with their brand new DC Universe.
Instead of coming out of the gates with a major well-known character, they started with animated series Creature Commandos. And like both the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise and Peacemaker, Creature Commandos has no business being this good. But it is.
Thanks to the characters, Creature Commandos is incredibly entertaining. The Bride, Doctor Phosphorous, and Frankenstein are sarcastic and brutal. There’s also the G.I. robot and Weasel who are naïve when it comes to what they are doing and they both added some welcome goofiness to the show. Balancing them out is Nina who had no business being on this team. Yes, she looked like a monster, but she’s more human than most of the people in the DCU. And they all made for quite the unique ensemble of characters.
However, as fun as the show is, every episode had a gut punch courtesy of the team members' origin stories. Each of the members of the team codenamed Task Force M had a disheartening backstory. It showed that they weren’t always the monsters that Amanda Waller and others made them out to be. The love of the Bride’s life was killed, Weasel was falsely accused of slaughtering children, and Nina was branded something for how she looked. It doesn’t even appear that she killed anyone.
Doctor Phosperous’ story may have been the most tragic and the results of the unfortunate event are understandable. All he wanted to do was heal the sick. Sadly, he hooked up with the wrong people and it got his wife and son killed. It makes sense that he went on a killing spree and doesn’t take anything seriously.
On top of the fact that both the story and characters are great, the show drops hints to the things going on in the wider DC Universe, and all that is to come from Gunn and Safran's franchise. We know that Superman and Batman exist in this world thanks to their brief appearances on the show. In the season finale, Bludhaven was mentioned. That could have been a subtle hint that Nightwing is already protecting it. At the very least, there may be plans to use him in the future. Otherwise, Bludhaven likely wouldn’t have been mentioned.
It’s not surprising Creature Commandos has already been renewed for a second season. The show has everything you need to keep people wanting more and it's a title that fans will undoubtedly revisit throughout the year. It has more replay value than a lot of projects that have been released so don't be shocked when it's on Max's top ten for the foreseeable future.
What did you think of Creature Commandos? Would you recommend it to others? Are you ready for season 2? Let us know on the Bam Smack Pow Bluesky, Instagram, and Twitter.