The Creature Commandos started out in 1980 in the pages of Weird War Tales about a black ops team during WWII made up of a vampire, werewolf, gorgon, and a Frankenstein lookalike. This military monster platoon went unused until DC’s New 52 with Frankenstein: Agent Of SHADE which included several different supernatural soldiers, including a young female version of Father Time. Up until now, the Creature Commandos only had a few adaptations outside of the comics including a pair of animated shorts done for DC Nation, an appearance on Batman: The Brave And The Bold, and a team up with Sgt. Rock in one of the DC Showcase one-shots. This new Max series was the first time the Commandos got their own show.
Taking place sometime after Season 1 of Peacemaker, the Suicide Squad has been outlawed by the US Government, so Amanada Waller now has to fall back on using non-human recruits for Task Force X which is now referred to as Task Force M for “monster”, also called the Creature Commandos. Lead by Rick Flag Sr. after his son was killed in The Suicide Squad, this new team consists of the Bride of the actual Frankenstein’s monster, Weasel who survived the events of The Suicide Squad, a leftover WWII android called GI Robot, fish woman Nina Mazursky, and former Batman villain Dr. Phosphorus who is an atomic skeleton that can melt anything.
The first mission for this group is in the fictional country of Pokolistan where the Bride was created centuries ago. The ruling Princess Ilana is under threat by the sorceress Circe from Wonder Woman’s people who is leading a rebellion against the crown. Flag and the Commandos have been brought in to protect Ilana, and manage to capture Circe, but this gains the attention of Eric Frankenstein, the Bride’s intended mate who has been hunting her all this time. Circe reveals to Waller that she started her rebellion to stop Ilana from eventually teaming up with the supervillain Gorilla Grodd and taking over the world which she saw in a vision, but it’s all a ruse cooked up by Ilana working with Clayface who had infiltrated Waller’s staff disguised as an Amazonian expert. Flag gets wrecked by Clayface while the Commandos are sent back to Pokolistan to assassinate Ilana. Nina gets killed by Ilana, but the Bride just shoots the Princess anyway since she killed Nina who she now thinks of as being her only friend. The mess gets cleared up with Flag in a coma, but the Bride gets new members into the Commando including King Shark who somehow got caught by Waller again.
This is where the first part of the planned DCU is supposed to launch from in their Gods And Monsters chapter, which by the way has nothing to do with the similarly titled Justice League animated movie. This will continue in the upcoming live-action Superman movie, although how much is unknown, even though Rick Flag Sr. is supposed to have a part in it. All DCU titles are planned to be tied together, but this doesn’t include other DC Comics franchises like The Batman 2 or The Penguin TV series. Creature Commandos did give hints of the larger DCU landscape with brief appearances by token heroes like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and a few Teen Titans, as well as the members of Easy Company from WWII that GI Robot served in, plus a few incarcerated villains such as Chemo and Shaggy Man.
The cast for Creature Commandos was done with the idea of having the voice actors playing the same characters in live-action projects. Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr. is a good idea, although it’s hard to see him as being Joel Kinnaman’s father as he’s only a little over a decade older than the Rick Flag Jr. actor. Indira Varma makes for a good take on the Bride, even though she’s minus her extra set of arms she normally sports in the comics. James Gunn’s brother Sean pulls double duty as the voices of GI Robot and Weasel, neither of which would be played by an actual person in live-action. Alan Tudyk returns for yet another DC roll as Phosphorus that also probably be animated in live-action. Zoe Chao is the water-breathing Nina who here is like a female version of Abe Sapien from Hellboy, although her death in the show marks her off the list. Finally, David Harbour as Frankenstein is a good fit, but what part he might play in further DCU storylines is unknown as he is not a part of the Commandos like he is in the comics. Viola Davis returns as Waller, so her future in the DCU is pretty solid. Anya Chalotra as Circe was also good casting as she could play the saucy sorceress in a movie.
A good portion of the series is shown in flashbacks similar to how the first few seasons of Arrow were going over the characters’ origins. The plot cuts back and forth from the past to modern day, like when the Bride was learning how to speak and eventually having sex with Dr. Frankenstein which leads to Eric Frankenstein killing his creator out of a jealous rage. We don’t get much on Weasel or GI Robot’s origins, but how they ended up in Task Force M. Phosphorus on the other hand has a tragic backstory as he was mutated by Batman-regular Rupert Thorne who he murders and takes over the criminal empire of. Nina has it worst of all as she was born with her lungs outside her body and her scientist father altered her into being an amphibian who had to spend her whole life wearing a water suit that kept her alive which left her tormented by other teenagers.
The main story is engaging as the Commandos are conflicted between completing their mission while under threat of torture by Waller. This combined with their inhuman nature makes them even more outcasted than the villains used in the Suicide Squad. The Bride and Nina form a working friendship which a lot of fans probably hoped would sprout a budding same-sex romance, but Nina’s death at the end of the season ruins that idea. Season 2 of this show has added a few more faces to the roster, so this will hopefully expand the chance for deeper character relationships.
Creature Commandos has four separate studios behind it including James Gunn’s own Troll Court Entertainment, Peter Safran’s Safran Company who he runs with James Gunn, DC Studios that have handled the DCEU since its inception, and Warner Bros. Animation which has been behind nearly all the company’s production including Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, and some of Adult Swim’s programming. The animation is done in 2D, so the token argument of the uncanny valley is invalid. The action scenes are a hard R-rating, especially with Phosphorus just burning through people’s skulls. As a beginning to the new DCU lineup, Creature Commandos is a good starting point, although this ain’t for the Teen Titans Go! crowd, so keep the kids away.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.