Officially, Creature Commandos is the first show of James Gunn's kind of reboot of the DCU. Technically though, it starts with James Gunn's, The Suicide Squad, and includes his series, Peacemaker, as the events of both are either referenced or felt within the show.
Potentially that means Margot Robbie is Harley Quinn in the DCU, but I'd be surprised if she would even want another crack at it, let alone that James didn't recast the role. However that's a whole other rabbit hole for a character that may not appear again for at least a few more years.
Creature Commandos is Suicide Squad but with monsters, and no real threat of Suicide - well, having your head blown off if you stray from the mission at least. Though I don't recall that being a thing in Gunn's Suicide Squad movie since the team was renamed 'Task Force X'?
Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) somehow still has a job, but is no longer allowed to use humans on her team, so she assembles a team of literal 'monsters' including The Bride (of Frankenstein)(Indira Varma), GI Robot, Weasel (both voiced by Sean Gunn), Doctor Phosphorus (Allan Tudyk), Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao), and Rick Flag (Frank Grillo).
Obviously Rick Flag is not a monster, he's just charged with leading the team.
As usual the team is tasked with saving the world, potentially. It's more of a 'lets nip this problem in the bud now so it doesn't become a bigger problem later' type of deal.
As a series it's pretty strong, though not really anything too different from James Gunn's other team up movies. We're introduced to the team and their mission, and as the series progresses, each team member gets their backstory episode to help you care more about them in the present.
The show is clearly aimed more at adult fans, with a few risque, and fairly violent blood and gore type scenes. Also a little bit of strong language too.
Just like with James Gunn's The Suicide Squad movie the blood and gore factor is a little too graphic for me. Not enough to stop me watching, but I wouldn't miss it if he scaled that back a little in the future.
That aside, I think James Gunn is the one director of comic book content that really appreciates the source material and wants to see that on screen. He's not trying to change things to be more grounded and real world, or even make it all dark and moody.
Even though Creature Commandos is kind of a dark and moody show, dealing with some messed up themes, it's still trying to have some fun with it, even if it's only through the show's title sequence, which always seems upbeat.
Overall I enjoyed it more as a curiosity for Gunn's new DCU. It's possible we could see any of these characters in live action as Gunn has stated that the same actors will play their characters in both live action and animation. Given we've already seen Weasel in live action, non of these characters are off the table for a live action adaptation.
I'm not as interested in all these obscure characters James wants to give attention to but I do appreciate that he's willing to go there, and not just stick with the big hitters (literally). I also trust in his ability to tell a good story overall, even if he sometimes misses in the detail - which for me is usually a joke going too far, or a little too over the top with graphic violence.
At the time I'm writing this, Season 2 has been green lit. I'll likely watch, but again, this isn't really my thing unless you include at least one of DC's big three (that's my jam).
Enjoyable, and worth your time if you want to see the new DCU from its official starting point.
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