Creature Commandos: Season 1 – REVIEW

Still from Creature Commandos


There always is some standard with James Gunn now. Maybe it’s because of the quality, mainly because he’s made the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, but even his DC work in The Suicide Squad (and its Peacemaker spin-off series) has shown that there’s a big audience for his work. I’m certainly in that audience, and I’m personally very excited for his Superman movie. However, it’s well known now that he’s the current co-head of DC Studios, with Peter Safran. Creature Commandos, an animated series that’s wrapped up its first season on Max this week, is the soft launch of the DCU, the new established canon. The reset button has been hit. That being said, there’s some things carrying over. Gunn’s previous DC entries are canon, with events from both The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker being implied to have happened here. That being said, I’m still stuck on why this is the beginning of this new canon. Was there something important here that we have to know? The only real thing I could figure out is establishing Rick Flag Sr., the father of Col. Rick Flag, who’s brought in to fill his son’s place after his death in The Suicide Squad. He’s also gonna be in Superman… You know what? I’m gonna stop talking about canon, I’m focusing on it too much. While watching Creature Commandos, I realized something about Gunn’s work. Yes, I know that he’s playing up all of the Guardians tropes, the big one being found family (which I’m a sucker for). As for the positives, like most Gunn-written projects, there was a good balance between each team member and even the supporting characters. I think Nina Mazursky and The Bride ended up being the most interesting characters to watch, but outside of them (and maybe Flag Sr.), I just couldn’t care about the rest of them. That’s not to say that the voice acting here is bad, but it’s just fine. The animation is also very pretty to watch, even if it’s not overly stylized. I’m not expecting that for every single animated project, but it just looked flat as the series continued. What clicked about Creature Commandos was that I much prefer Gunn when he’s being held back to a PG-13 rating. Maybe I’m already becoming a crotchety old man, but the over-the-top violence just grossed me out here. It’s why I can’t watch The Boys, certainly an interesting show, but there isn’t a shred of hope to be found in there. Some of that sentiment echoes in Creature Commandos, as well as The Suicide Squad to an extent, and while I understand that it’s a personal preference of mine, it really undercut my enjoyment of this series. Maybe season 2, which is already confirmed to be in development, could change this, but all I’m thinking is “please, let Superman be good.”


Ryan’s Grade: B-