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“Creature Commandos” is a confusing, but nonetheless entertaining soft reboot in James Gunn’s new DC universe. The plot centers around Amanda Waller voiced by Viola Davis and Rick Flag Sr, voiced by Frank Grillo who are putting together a new team to work for the government after the events of “The Suicide Squad” and “Peacemaker” caused their operations to get shut down. This leads to Waller using monsters as a loophole for their new team dubbed “Task Force M” and sends the group reluctantly on a life or death mission.

To start off, an animated Creature Commandos show was such an odd choice when it was first announced as the project Gunn wanted to be the first for his DC universe. At first Gunn announced that both animated and real life projects would be occurring in his universe; it was a weird decision. However, it was a welcome addition since it allows more creative liberties to make the characters and scenes more expressive. Even so, Creature Commandos feels random where instead of focusing on the biggest heroes in DC Comics first, Gunn chose to do what he always does. Gunn takes a group of unknown comic book characters, forcing them into a life or death situation that they want no part in whatsoever, with a 80s and 90s soundtrack, and some crude humor. So that’s what made Creature Commandos more interesting being more about how Gunn can make this show different from his other works. Along with how he can avoid those same stereotypes he used with the “Guardians of the Galaxy” Franchise, “Peacemaker”, and “The Suicide Squad”. 

Continuity as well is such a mess with Gunn aiming for a DC reboot, but only keeping his project’s cannon. It’s a smart idea to get rid of the projects deemed a failure by fans and critics, except it just creates problems with continuity when a project deemed a failure affects one his canon projects. A prime example is the Justice League not existing yet in his universe, but they appear at the end of Peacemaker. This leads to a rabbit hole for fans finding more errors when looking back into other projects deemed canon. It makes his universe feel already messy when it’s barely started while also making him look stuck up like he’s playing favorites with actors and projects.

“One of the weird things to me is none of this is real,” Gunn said on IGN. “It may be alarming to people, but none of it is real. It’s all just stories that we’re telling about characters.”

So when it came to episode one it was a bit of a mix bag with him mostly sticking to his formula. We meet the Creature Commandos, a group of unknown comic characters who mostly hate each other similar to “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014). They are reluctantly forced on a gruesome life or death mission by Waller who threatens their lives similar to “Peacemaker” and “The Suicide Squad”. The humor as well is a bit of hit or miss and lands between funny to overuse. 

For instance G.I. Robot who is a relic from WW2 and has a character trait of hating and hunting Nazis. While he was funny at first in one scene where the team was asleep, and he’s giving random WW2 facts about D-Day, the character just runs the joke into the ground with all his dialogue being about hunting or killing Nazis. It made his lines feel so random or plain, distracting from what the characters were doing or talking about. 

Another issue as well comes in the form of 2 characters, Weasel from “The Suicide Squad” and newcomer Nina Mazursky. Both barely get any development out of the 2 episodes thus far with Weasel barely speaking and at most grunting. Nina on the other hand is just there so far to react to others, she is stuck in the ‘goodie two shoes’ trope. It contradicts what Gunn wants, which is to pick comic characters that are obscure to the viewer, but what’s the point of picking them if you add nothing to them. To be fair, only 2/7 of the episodes have premiered, so fingers crossed they get some form of development.

Aside from those minor instances, the acting is incredible. The actors really know how to portray heart and put effort into their acting, almost making viewers forget this is an animated show. Everyone from Viola Davis being able to perfectly embody Amanda Waller’s demeanor nearly 10 years later, to even the newcomers bringing such life to these characters making them ironically feel more human when the show portrays them as monsters and freaks.

Doctor Phosphorus was such a cool character showing off his radiation powers in a pretty nasty fight scene with Rick Flag Sr over the detonator for their collars. Each scene was spectacular, from the voice acting to the good animation detail on leaving minor bruises and burns every time they landed a punch. The viewer could almost feel the hits and the show really makes a good use of the show’s R rating. 

The Bride as well is a big favorite after her development in episode two. Starting from episode one she has so much hate in her heart leaving the viewer to wonder what got her there in the first place. Only for her backstory to be revealed in episode two that adapts “The Bride of Frankenstein” film, but does a twist where she falls in love with the doctor instead of Frankenstein. Through cleverly written moments there are hints throughout the episode with one line being about how his love makes her feel more human when he gives her a necklace. This makes the viewer understand where she’s coming from, but keeps them on edge knowing something is going to happen. All this tension culminated when it’s revealed Frankenstein killed him out of jealousy leaving viewers jaw dropped on the floor. It makes her being cold and ruthless understandable since the only thing that made her feel human was taken away from her.

Rick Flag Sr was also a pretty great character with him being more distinguishable from the military man stereotype his son was associated with. In “Suicide Squad” (2016) his son Rick Flag was such a nothing character only being there for exposition and his lines feeling so forced.

“This is Katana,” Flag said in the film. “She’s got my back. I would advise not getting killed by her. Her sword traps the souls of its victims.” 

So with the announcement that his father would be replacing him in the soft reboot it was a curious choice. Then came the episodes where he is shown to actually feel more human than his son in “Suicide Squad”. It’s revealed to the viewer that his son died on a previous mission and the reactions shown through the animation were heart-wrenching. As well as the acting from Frank Grillo portraying him as a father who is ready to die out of grief to being such a tough guy being able to fight characters who could kill him with ease. Phosphorus literally has radiation powers so it was shocking to see Flag Sr not care and immediately go to punch him, but reveal he was holding back in their fight adding more to his character than military guy.

The sorceress Circe is also a pretty fun villain and a nice foil for the Commandos. In her first meeting against the Commandos viewers could feel the tension with the Commandos feeling so powerful at first only to be scared and hesitant coming face to face with her. It makes the viewer wonder how they can even fight her. And it shows in a pretty creative fight where she turns their bullets into butterflies and turns Bride’s arms into inflatable tube men. She was just playing with her food the whole fight, but showed she meant business when they landed a hit on her making Circe one shot Bride and Nina. 

Overall “Creature Commandos” has a repetitive pilot that follows the  Gunn formula and messy continuity. However, the show is carried through its characters and constant action that keeps the viewer engaged. With an amazing cast, attention to detail, and nice world building the doors are wide open for a bright future in the new DCU.

The first couple episodes of “Creature Commandos” are now streaming on Max.

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