On January 9, the first season of the animated adventure superhero series mixed with dark comedy «Creature Commandos» concluded on the Max platform, based on the eponymous team of characters from DC Comics. This project marks a new chapter in the DC cinematic universe rebooted by James Gunn and Peter Safran, and it does so successfully. Viewer ratings and extremely positive reviews from various media critics confirm this, prompting the studio to renew the animated series for a second season. In the review below, we delve into how Gunn manages to step into the same river again and still produce quality trash content.
Genre Animated Adventure Superhero
Creator James Gunn
Voice Cast Indira Varma, Frank Grillo, Sean Gunn, Alan Tudyk, David Harbour,Zoe Chao, Maria Bakalova, Anya Chalotra, Julian Kostov, Viola Davis, Peter Serafinowicz, Michael Rooker, Linda Cardellini, Paul Ben-Victor, Morey Sterling, Steve Agee, Benjamin Byron Davis
Premiere Max
Release Year 2024
Website IMDb, official site
After the events of the series «Peacemaker» (2022), the leader of the secret government organization A.R.G.U.S., Amanda Waller, was prohibited from recruiting people for suicide missions, thereby putting their lives at risk. Therefore, to carry out the next task, the iron lady decides to create a new squad, consisting solely of creatures imprisoned in Belle Reve. The circus of monsters was entrusted to General Rick Flag Sr.
The team, named «Task Force M», includes: a monster assembled like Frankenstein’s Bride, who, like the eponymous warrior from «Kill Bill», rises from the dead; a tin can G.I. Robot, created to destroy Nazis during World War II and resembling the Iron Giant; the anthropomorphic beast Weasel, already known to audiences from «The Suicide Squad» (2021); the fiery skeleton Doctor Phosphorus — a radioactive version of the Ghost Rider; and the amphibious woman Nina Mazurski, who seems to have emerged from Guillermo del Toro’s fantastical fantasy worlds. Later, the eternal «romantic» Eric Frankenstein also joins them.
This diverse society is set to travel to the Eastern European hole of Pokolistаn and protect the local princess Ilana Rostovich from her hostile compatriot Wonder Woman Circe. The fate of the entire world, in good comic book tradition, depends on the success of the mission.
Paradoxically, the formula perfected by Gunn over the last 10 years is now both an advantage, as here he feels like Nina Mazurski in water, and a drawback, because in essence, it offers nothing new. Except that the action has moved to an animation format, compromising on script conventions.
Each episode of the animated series is partially dedicated to a separate character, when the main narrative is interrupted by flashbacks, and this approach seems successful, as it adds new interesting details and prevents the story from sinking into monotony and boredom.
«Creature Commandos» is nothing but another, signature Gunn, prime trash fest with charming monsters, generously splattered blood, and familiar humor, multiplied by somewhat clumsy pseudo drama.
The tragic past of the characters is not shied away by the scriptwriter using manipulative, sometimes blatantly silly twists. For example, the backstory of Weasel, which was positioned by showrunner Dean Lorey as «insane, touching, and emotional», is nothing but surprising. The same goes for the amphibian’s passions, which resemble scenes from a non-demanding soap opera.
However, let us repeat, in the format of animation, by the way, quite high quality, these absurdities do not catch much attention. Especially considering Gunn’s ability to make compelling, fun, and shameless guilty pleasure from blatantly cringy material on paper, which literally flaunts its own permissiveness in superheroics.
«Creature Commandos» should hardly be considered a full-fledged start to the newest universe, as it is still linked to previous projects, follows their established formula, and wasn’t initially conceived as such. Rather, it’s an appetizer before the main course, namely, the blockbuster «Superman», planned for release in the summer, which will answer the question of how viable this whole venture looks.
Overall, the animated series turned out to be an animated version of Gunn’s «Suicide Squad», a fine uncompromising movie comics, whose creators revel in creative freedom and convince to take it as yet another delightful caper with eccentric villains on screen.