Creature Commandos Review: The Promising Start of the New DCU
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Creature Commandos Review: The Promising Start of the New DCU

Posted on by Amelia Pressman

Creature Commandos premieres with its two episodes on December 5, 2024 on Max. New episodes will be streamed on Thursdays until January 16, 2025.

Creature Commandos isn’t for everyone. It is violent, raunchy and graphic. To top it off, it’s animated, which might put off some potential viewers (much to my dismay – and also Guillermo Del Toros). It seems like a surprising direction for the first project under the new DC Universe banner led by James Gunn and Peter Safran, but it says a lot about how the DCU will work. While Gunn and Safran did a number of projects with bigger names are coming upHer management style appears to be more laissez-faire than that of her competitors at Marvel. They’ve also decided which parts of the now-defunct DC Extended Universe overlap with the DCU, which will no doubt be at least a little confusing. With that in mind, Creature Commandos does a great job of bridging the old and new eras of DC television and films, while also being a truly great series in its own right.

It’s clear from the start how much this is a James Gunn project. The writer/director/producer/studio head is known for his ability to inject a little heart into the silliest and raunchiest of characters. He did it with that Guardians of the Galaxyhe did it too The Suicide Squad And Peacemakerand he’s done it again here with the Creature Commandos. Every inappropriate joke or utterly grisly death is set against a backdrop of sincere character work. Thanks to the even pace and an expert mix of current action and backstory for each team member, each of the commandos gets what they deserve. Even Task Force X’s fierce survivor Weasel has a tragic flashback! At the end of these seven episodes, I was absolutely loved by the entire group, which made the finale’s emotions even stronger.

Ensemble casts can be fun, especially in a series like Creature Commandos where you’re not entirely sure who the protagonist is until the end of the story. The focus shifts as each commando takes their time in the spotlight – but this is television, so there has to be someone carrying the series’ arc on their back. After watching the two-part premiere, you might think it’s Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) – but that changes over time. The Bride (Indira Varma) quickly takes the lead as the breakout character, and many of the best action and emotional scenes revolve around her personal journey. She is the reinvigorated heart of Creature Commandos and Indira Varma does a fantastic job pumping blood into the role.

The performances here are a highlight across the board, even if they come from actors more familiar with live-action films. Grillo and Varma are the standout characters, but Zoë Chao and Viola Davis do great work as Nina Mazursky and Amanda Waller, respectively, and Alan Tudyk and Sean Gunn are well suited to their various roles. David Harbor doesn’t always hit the spot as the gruff and distant, yet irrationally immature Eric Frankenstein, but that may have more to do with the script for the amorous monster. But if it works, it works, and it will be interesting to see how these characters translate into live-action – according to Gunn, the actors will reprise their roles in other corners of the DCU.

Creature Commandos also features the carefully curated soundtrack you’d expect from a Gunn project: the next evolution from the oldies radio mixtapes that give Guardians so much of his personality, or the ’80s hair metal exploits that give the support Peacemaker’s greatest triumphs. With “Creature Commandos,” Gunn combines the Old World setting and strong focus on “The Bride” and “Frankenstein” with the fusion of European folk music and punk rock, played by bands like Gogol Bordello. The soundtrack is as strange and crazy as its cast, giving the entire enterprise a playful, immature, and single-minded attitude.

The only thing that doesn’t always work about Creature Commandos is its sense of sexuality. It is a extremely Awesome Show: The characters are eager to get it on with each other, and they seem designed to fulfill the wildest fantasies of the hyper straight guys at home. Although Gunn and company attempt to critique this hyper-masculine point of view – and the obsession and disregard for personal boundaries that can come with it – through Eric Frankenstein’s plot, this outlook colors the entire show in a way that can be off-putting. It certainly makes for a few moments of truly immature laughter, but it also feels like something we in the entertainment industry want to leave behind in 2024.

Creature Commandos creates a solid bridge between the old and new eras of DC television and films, while also being a truly great series in its own right.

While it often feels like it’s teasing us with little details about what’s going on in the wider world of this young DCU, Creature Commandos is never too preoccupied with world-building to focus on creating one to tell a self-contained story. It’s reinforced by a sense of cohesion: everything comes together so satisfyingly and every little detail seems genuinely important to the bigger picture – and the episodes remain light-hearted, funny and entertaining. If this is the quality we can expect from the new DCU, the future looks bright. It’ll be interesting to see what DC Studios can offer when a project isn’t entirely helmed by Gunn, but I’m immediately excited to see anything that comes out of this shared universe with his name in the writer/director’s name.