Creature Commandos Ep 1-2: WBD Enters its DCU Era
WBD drops the E and starts the All New and Not So Different DCU under the creative organizing of James Gunn with Creature Commandos
Episode 1: "The Collywobbles" Directed by Matt Peters Written by James Gunn
Episode 2: "The Tourmaline Necklace" Directed by Sam Liu Written by James Gunn
As the copy at the top of the poster states Creature Commandos is the start of the “new DCU” as Warner Bros. Discover sheds the DCEU*, the set of films from Man of Steel to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and enters this new James Gunn (& Peter Safran) led era. The circumstances facing Warner Bros. Discovery in this new era, like the slight acronymic alteration indicates, are not all that different from the previous era. They are only slightly more urgent fore WBD who continues to navigate the streaming transition, try and produce a successful slate of theatrical films, among other things as it attempts to pay down loads of transactional debt that go back to the early 2010s. And so James Gunn, along with showrunner Dean Lorey (Harley Quinn 2019 - ), begin to try and save WBD from itself not by looking up in the sky for a savior (that comes next year) but down in the pulpy mud with Creature Commandos a seven episode adult animated series based on the comic of the same name that focuses on Rick Flag Sr.**
For his part Gunn in statements to the press has described Commandos as a “soft intro” into this new universe where “metahumans exist, monsters exist, magic exists and incredibly complicated political situations exist.” Commandos being the start of this era of Gods and Monsters is more a product of happenstance than careful corporate planning; Gunn was asked by Casey Bloys at Max after the success of Peacemaker in 2022 if he had another series pitch, which turned into the seven scripts for Commandos. During that period, he also agreed to become the co-head of DC Studios, along with Peter Safran. Commandos, which is effectively a continuation of his work in The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, just happened to come to the finish line first.
I lead with this meta textual state of Warner Bros. and how this monster forward show came to be in the world because this context has been inexorably tied to the online discussion, from both fandom and trades to this Gunn led effort since it was announced in 2023. It is also, perhaps, one of the more interesting angles to take with Commandos after seeing the first two episodes on Max with new episodes coming out on Thursdays for the next 5 weeks. The opening of the first episode "The Collywobbles" deftly shows us a world where the DC Universe frankly exists in all of its weird glory. The DCU with its new Superman (David Corenswet) does represent a distinct shift to a new continuity away from the DCEU … but don’t let that be a hang up for you. Commandos isn’t here to be an act of world building in and of itself, it has a story to tell and builds what it needs to. Commandos will be an interesting test case for this kind of continuity resetting by not really pointing it out, a very un-DC like move considering pointing it out means there’s an opportunity for a new Crisis, Flashpoint, or Rebirth, to be bought and sold.
Gunn describes the events of The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker season 1 as “light canon” meaning they largely happened. Rick Flag jr. (Joel Kinnaman) did die in Jötunheim during operation Star Fish, which is referenced in the first episode of Commandos. “Peacemaker is pretty straightforward, with the exception of the appearance by a certain group [the former DCEU’s Justice League] at the end. (Laughs.) They don’t exist yet. But the rule is: If we mention [something from the past] in one of the new DCU shows [and movies], then it happened. So that’s the way we’re dealing with it.” Hopefully this approach to contonuity/canon is kept going forward. One of the main detriments to The Flash in terms of perception was the unending fan discourse metextually trying to get ahead of the film and understand how it was going to “reset” things … it didn’t help they shot like 5 different endings for that film either. That sort of meta narrative discourse of trying to get ahead (or one might say paranoid reading ahead) is similarly what has consumed the MCU after Endgame with COVID induced shutdowns fracturing the veneer of a plan that Feige and co. worked for a decade to produce. It shifted commodifiable fan interest on social media away from selling the normies that these films and television series were good and worth watching in and of themselves and not homework. Audiences want to know that the object in question is good or enjoyable not that Quantumania is the start of a new “era” so you have to see it or else you won’t know what’s going to happen in Avengers: Secret Wars! Oh look over there Secret Wars isn’t happening anymore anyways sooo. Does Creature Commandos tease something in the weeks ahead preview that portends for the larger narrative of the DCU? Yes, but you have to ask yourself now and when that moment happens: is this a reliable narrator?
Commandos enters the DCU with the Wonder Woman villain Crice (Anya Chalotra) leading a band of Boogaloo Boy dressed incels leading a guerilla war against the state of Pokolistan, with Gunn making good use of DC’s many cheesy squint-and-you-get-it State stand-ins. This action has drawn the ire of Amanda Waller and the US Government because they are in negotiations with the royal family about leasing the nations untapped oil reserves. After the events of Peacemaker Congress said Waller could no longer use human prisoners for Task Force X aka the Suicide Squad. Well, ever the fascist, she just so happens to have been capturing and hoarding her own brand of monsters for decades in the name of national security. Task Force M: The Bride (Indira Varma), G.I. Robot (Sean Gunn), the Weasel (Sean Gunn), Doctor Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk), and Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao), under the leadership of Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) is sent to protect Pokolistan Princess Ilana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova). By the end of the first episode, the plan is already starting to fall apart.
James Gunn is true to form with this series, it is in the same vein of Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad. Which is to say it is an ensemble piece about a group of outcasts and weirdos who through their own personal trauma will likely come together to form some kind of found family under the under the auspices of Amanda Waller and a tyrannical State. The soundtrack is maybe a little more restrained due to only having 24 minutes an episode, punk band Gogol Bordello make their presence felt in terms of needle drops. Each episode it seems will be showing the backstory of each commando, the second episode focuses on The Bride. Episode 3 "Cheers to the Tin Man" will focus on G.I. Robot. I am curious to see how this structure plays out in the weeks ahead. Is a month’s worth of Rocket Racoon-esque backstory going to make for good TV? To his credit Gunn and his compatriots structure out solid television, the pilot was maybe a little on the plot heavy side but that’s pilots for you. The Bride’s tale though largely effective if a bit obvious when it suddenly jumps to her creator Dr. Frankenstein going to pound town on the Bride and Eric Frankenstein aka The Monster (David Harbour) brutally murdering his creator in cuckolded rage. These are big emotions that fit the pulpy melodramatic aesthetic of the series, I just hope it is earned by the end.
The gory animated violence would push this animated series into the “adult” territory on its own, but a trio of lustful sequences in these episodes push into an “adult” territory most superhero stuff never begins to touch or recognize. From the start Princess Illana is flirtatious with the senior Flag, she prefers men to boys. Rick Flag of course protests about the ethics of a body guard fornicating with his charge, until he doesn’t protest anymore. In the flashbacks there is of course the image of The Bride on the table that birthed her. It’s been, somewhat, interesting seeing the reactions to these relatively tame graphic depictions of sexuality – I don’t think they violate the old three pump rule on the Bride – as viewers call out the apparent age gap between the Princess and Flag Sr. and obvious power imbalance with the Bride ala Poor Things. The latter is a fair comparison to make, the former I’m less inclined for considering they’re both consenting persons of adult age and above. And I’m pretty sure one of them might be Clayface. Which is besides the larger question that these types of sequences should force in the viewer: do you think the presentation of either these incidents was an endorsement or that they were in anyway “good” or “healthy”? Flag is on record multiple times about the ethical lapse giving into his lust would be, before it transitions into Doctor Phosphorus lacing in a series of emasculating jokes at Flag’s expense with the frenzied noises coming from behind the door adding truth to his jabs. The Bride’s experience with the not so good Doctor is traumatic to say the least. After The Monster, Eric, sees them together the Bride’s memory quickly flashes next to her discovery Doctor Frankenstein’s mangled corpse. Eric with Freudian glee proclaims now there is nothing that can get in the way of his love for her. The Bride erupts in terror and fury echoing Elsa Lanchester screams from Bride of Frankenstein and the firey end to the Bride in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)Neither of these sequences feel cheap and exploitative, they fit within the bawdy pulp sensibilities that James Gunn produces even when he’s working PG-13. They depict sex as both a drug for Flag and source of trauma for Bride which helps to estrange both from the world.
As the Bride flees Eric Commandos moves into its most successful sequence in these two episodes, a century spanning montage set to Gogol Bordello’s “American Wedding”. This montage takes full advantage of the animated medium the series exists in both in terms of producing a variety of locales from 1880s German looking farmers market, desert landscape, what appears to be D-Day, and a performance by Gogol Bordello. Eric’s one sided “romance” more like misogynistic sense of ownership fuels a Looney Tunes-esque montage that produces the threat gendered violence but modified through its comedic failure. Much like the use of sex, none of this is shown to actually be “good” or “healthy” with Eric’s advances ending in constant failure beated out through the Bride’s righteous physical rejection of him.
As an animated series overall Commandos is actually pretty good. There’s some stiffness in the framing and movement of a few shots, but that is more due to the 2D style they’re working with. If you have been watching the Tomorrowverse series of films that recently wrapped with Crisis on Infinie Earths it looks about 100x better than that. Gone is the clunky, stilted, feeling of disconnect between sound and image. This isn’t Dandadan levels of quality from Science Saru, but its noticeably better than most of the DC animated stuff that’s been produced in the last 5 years.
At its worst Creature Commandos suffers from being what it says on the tin. This is a very James Gunn-ian narrative about a bunch of outcasts and weirdos, who just so happen to be actual monsters this time. It is pulpy and profane. It is also blessedly low stakes and not interested in establishing a world, and instead telling its own story and building that world as it goes.
* an acronym that never gained much purchase by audiences
** Lt. Matthew Shrieve is the original leader of the commandos in the comics. They are also commanded by Sgt. Rock in the animated short DC Showcase: Sgt. Rock (2019)