James Gunn has always been a storyteller who gravitates toward outsiders. From the scrappy, irreverent heart of Guardians of the Galaxy to the gloomy, chaotic hallways of The Suicide Squad, his work feels like a love letter to the misfits—characters that are too strange, flawed, or deadly to fit cleanly into the environments they inhabit.
Gunn takes this attitude to a new level in Creature Commandos, which feels deeply personal and weirdly defiant. In an animated series about monsters struggling for their place in a morally bankrupt world, Gunn appears to ask: What does it mean to belong, and at what cost?
It is impossible to divorce Creature Commandos from its larger setting. As the first formal project in Gunn’s stint as co-head of DC Studios, it holds a lot of weight—not just for the new DCU but also for Gunn himself, who is now an architect and artist.
Starting this movie world with a hodgepodge team of obscure, grotesque antiheroes rather than a brand character like Superman is almost aggressive. It feels like a statement of artistic purpose, a rejection of typical superhero mythos in favor of something rougher, more human—or perhaps more terrible.
Nonetheless, Gunn’s vision feels familiar. Even in animated form, his trademark blend of humor, pathos, and pulpy extravaganza is recognizable. This familiarity sometimes feels reassuring, like slipping into a well-worn jacket, but it can also lead to repetition. Is Gunn broadening his film vocabulary here, or is he simply remixing the same narrative ingredients that made his Marvel and DC films resonate?
I find myself torn between appreciation for his dedication to these characters—their quirks, their wounds—and a nagging sense that I’ve been here before in terms of emotional intensity. Still, perhaps that is the point: to return to the same themes of alienation and redemption, this time from a place of regeneration rather than redundancy.
Monsters in the Mirror: The Plotting of Creature Commandos
The premise of Creature Commandos feels like it was plucked from a pulp comic fan’s fever dream: a team of misfit monsters, stitched together by Amanda Waller’s brutal pragmatism, sent on dangerous missions to do the dirty labor no one else will do. There’s a radioactive skeleton with a scientist’s brain, a Nazi-killing robot with an unusual sense of humor, and even a reanimated Bride of Frankenstein dealing with her shattered existence.
It’s absurd, grotesque, and strangely tender in James Gunn’s hands. But as I watched these characters stumble through their violent, R-rated adventures, I couldn’t help but wonder how well they fit into Gunn’s arsenal. After all, they are his people—broken, discarded, and misunderstood individuals who find grace in their disorder.
The series spends little time establishing its characters, depending on Gunn’s talent for effective, memorable characterization. Amanda Waller (voiced once more with terrifying power by Viola Davis) is a hovering specter of control, pulling the strings. At the same time, Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) grudgingly leads this band of outcasts. The Bride (Indira Varma) swiftly emerges as the emotional anchor, her sarcastic demeanor concealing a deep well of pain and love. Then there’s Weasel, feral and ridiculous, who surprisingly receives one of the season’s most moving arcs. Gunn’s gift shines most here: his ability to transform the grotesque into something achingly human, if only for a moment.
However, despite its narrative ambition, the tale periodically stumbles under the weight of its chaos. The goal, defending Princess Ilana Rostovic from the sorceress Circe, feels like an afterthought and a MacGuffin. This thread exists only to justify the team’s existence. The series’ real heart rests in its characters and backstories, which are portrayed in flashbacks. But does this emotional excavation come at the expense of narrative coherence?
I am not sure. While I adored spending time delving into The Bride’s terrible past and Doctor Phosphorus’ insane mentality, I found myself yearning for a more focused throughline, something to ground the chaos. Then again, maybe this disorder is the point. The plot mirrors the erratic energy of these characters, who are disorganized and fragmented. I’m still wondering if this is a strength or a weakness.
The Humanity of Monsters: Voices That Haunt and Heal
The Bride, voiced with scorching clarity by Indira Varma, is the kind of character that sticks with you long after the show is over. Her presence is captivating, with piercing humor and calm vulnerability that feels archetypal and intensely personal. After all, she is a stitched-together corpse, a literal patchwork of discarded parts, but her portrayal is genuinely entire.
Gunn constructs her as Creature Commandos’ emotional core, and Varma’s vocal performance elevates every moment she appears onscreen. In one scene—half-flashback, half-confession—The Bride recounts fragments of her life before she became this stitched-together entity. Varma’s delivery is sharp but calculated as if the character is torn between laughing and crying over the absurdity of her existence. This tension, this refusal to lean too heavily on either pathos or cynicism, makes The Bride remarkable. She’s more than a monster; she’s a survivor, and the show finds its heart in her journey.
In comparison, Rick Flag Sr. is more marked by restraint. Frank Grillo plays the part with a gruff stability and no-nonsense appeal, making him a natural counterpoint to his team’s chaos. However, I can’t help but feel that Flag Sr. is less a fully realized character and more of a cipher—an anchor for the audience amidst the swirling absurdity of Task Force M.
There are glimpses of deeper complexity, particularly in his moments of reflection about his son. Still, these are fleeting, and I found myself wanting more. Perhaps that’s the point: Flag’s stoicism serves as armor, allowing him to navigate a world that asks so much while providing so little. Still, I wonder if the show could have peeled back a few more layers, even if it meant disturbing his well-created façade.
Nina Mazursky, voiced by Zoë Chao, is portrayed with such honesty that I couldn’t help but care for her despite her arc feeling rather undercooked. Her story—an amphibious scientist coping with losing her humanity—has all the ingredients of tragedy. Still, it’s delivered in fragments, glimpses that never quite coalesce into something fully realized. On the other hand, Chao imbues Nina with a gentle elegance that feels at odds with the violence of her circumstances.
Her moments of connection with the team, particularly with The Bride, are among the show’s most emotional, providing fleeting moments of tenderness in an otherwise cruel narrative. But I still yearned for more time with her, more room for her story to breathe. Nina has a fragility that feels like it could break at any moment and the possibility of something remarkable lies in those fissures.
Drawing Chaos: The Texture of Violence and Vulnerability
Creature Commandos’ animation lives in a strange, appealing liminal space—not as irreverently cartoonish as Harley Quinn, nor as grimly operatic as Invincible. It feels more like the latter, with bold, clear lines and a tangible sense of weight to its violence.
Blood splatters with almost artistic precision, and the characters, despite their grotesque appearances, move with a grace that belies their terrible bodies. There’s a confidence here, a willingness to embrace the strange and the wild without devolving into mockery, and it makes the show visually compelling in ways that are difficult to explain but impossible to ignore.
The character designs reflect this concept. The Bride’s stitched-together limbs and hauntingly hollow eyes possess a tragic beauty. At the same time, Doctor Phosphorus’s radioactive light feels frightening and strangely fascinating. Even Weasel is presented with a rawness that makes him more than just comedic relief despite his feral, almost slapstick energy. These designs don’t just represent the characters; they also develop them, bringing out nuances that would otherwise be lost in language.
The action parts, however, are when the animation shines brightest. Gunn’s penchant for chaos finds an ideal match in the medium, where physics bends, and blood flows as freely as the imagination permits. These situations have a kinetic poetry, a sense that anything may and frequently does happen.
Yet, it is never gratuitous. Instead, the violence becomes a kind of visual language, representing the fragmented psyches of the characters and the world’s disregard for their pain. Watching Creature Commandos, I was struck by how much the animation felt like an extension of the story: colorful, uncompromising, and, in its strange way, painfully beautiful.
Laughter in the Void: The Fragile Humanity of Creature Commandos
Creature Commandos’ tone is on a knife’s edge, alternating between grotesque humor and heartbreaking vulnerability as if it can’t decide whether to laugh at or grieve the absurdity of existence. Perhaps it’s the duality that makes it so appealing. James Gunn has always been able to find humor in adversity, and his irreverence feels sharper, darker, and more uninhibited here.
The quips land hard and fast, frequently undermining moments that would otherwise be unbearable. However, this fun never reduces the emotional weight but increases it. The humor becomes a survival mechanism, allowing these characters—and possibly even the audience—to bear the unrelenting cruelty of their world.
Underneath the blood-soaked chaos is a story about acceptance and redemption, albeit not in the clean, triumphant sense that is generally associated with superhero narratives. These characters aren’t attempting to improve themselves; they’re just trying to survive and make sense of their brokenness.
The Bride’s journey, in particular, is a study of opposites, with her sharp tongue and frigid appearance concealing a genuine need for connection. Her flashbacks, woven gently into the present, show a woman who has been torn apart, literally and metaphorically and is still attempting to piece herself back together. It’s a theme throughout the series: the yearning for belonging in a world that won’t make space for you.
But, for me, Weasel’s backstory—a grotesque creature with a child’s mind—sticks out the most. Gunn transforms what could have been a meaningless joke into something heartbreakingly sympathetic, a reminder that even the most obviously irredeemable monsters have their private tragedies. Creature Commandos does something wonderful in moments like these when the humor fades just enough to let the grief in. It emphasizes that even monsters need to be understood.
A Universe Reborn: Monsters at the Frontier of the DCU
Creature Commandos feels more like an intimate introduction to the new DC Universe than a loud announcement. Its place in the newly established DCU narrative is intriguing, almost subversive.
The first project under James Gunn’s direction is not a shining Superman remake or a Batman epic but an animated series about grotesque, forgotten monsters. It’s a decision that reflects Gunn’s storytelling tastes rather than the franchise’s future. He’s always been drawn to the outskirts, the unnoticed and discarded, and now he’s asking us to join him.
The series is tonally and narratively similar to Gunn’s previous DC work, particularly The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker. Amanda Waller looms over the proceedings like a shadow, her calculating presence linking Task Force M’s ragged team to the morally ambiguous world established by previous initiatives. Even Rick Flag Sr.’s involvement subtly echoes his son’s tragic path.
This thematic thread heightens the emotional stakes. Aside from these linkages, Creature Commandos hints at the larger DCU in subtle, fascinating ways. Circe’s debut, for example, feels less like an endgame villain and more like a seed, one of many that Gunn is carefully planting.
What fascinates me the most is how this series redefines what a “shared universe” is. It’s more than just continuity or Easter eggs; it’s about tone and texture, about creating a world that feels broad while remaining cohesive. If this is the starting point—a small, strange part of the DCU brought to life with such zeal—then the possibilities for what comes next are limitless. Still, I wonder if the rest of the world will have the same spirit of irreverence and heart, or will it cave to the weight of its ambition?
Fragments of Chaos: The Rhythm of Creature Commandos
There’s an inherent risk in telling a story in bursts—22-minute episodes that barely allow the dust to settle before the next explosion of gore or flashback of anguish. Creature Commandos’ pacing is relentless, almost frantic as if the series is concerned about what could happen if it slows down long enough to catch its breath.
And yet, this frantic beat feels strangely suitable for a show about characters who are constantly running—from their past, pain, and the unavoidable realization that they are expendable. The end product is exciting but inconsistent, a series that feels like it’s rushing toward something it never quite achieves.
The structure—seven tightly packed episodes alternating between present-day missions and flashbacks to the characters’ lives before Waller’s leash—feels both ambitious and restrictive. On the one hand, it’s an engineering marvel; Gunn’s writing ensures that every moment and sentence feels intentional. However, I found myself wanting more breathing room, to linger in the quiet moments when the characters’ compassion (or lack thereof) shines through. The Bride’s storyline, for example, is wonderfully drawn but feels rushed, with her emotional beats colliding with the series’ tumultuous tempo, occasionally diluting their impact.
However, there is no disputing the impact. Even in its clumsier moments, Creature Commandos exudes a visceral, chaotic intensity that is difficult to ignore. It’s a series that embraces its shortcomings with reckless confidence that feels refreshing in a genre so frequently focused on polish. But I couldn’t help but wonder: what would this story have looked like if we had more time? Would it have lost its edge or sharpened it more? Perhaps this is the beauty of it: it refuses to answer those questions, leaving us to battle with them instead.
The Review
Creature Commandos
Creature Commandos marks the new DCU's bold and chaotic launch, combining James Gunn's trademark irreverence with unexpected emotional depth. Its bright animation, excellent character work, and dark humor shine through, even if the pacing and overarching plot flounder at points. The series thrives on its exploration of misfit identities and emotional backstories, delivering a particularly sincere yet grotesque take on the superhero genre. Though incomplete, it's an exciting and hopeful start, demonstrating that even monsters can bear the weight of a new cinematic world.
PROS
- Bold and unique premise focusing on misfit monsters.
- Strong emotional depth in character backstories.
- Sharp and irreverent humor typical of James Gunn’s style.
- Vivid animation with striking character designs.
- Excellent voice performances, particularly from Indira Varma and Frank Grillo.
CONS
- Pacing issues with rushed emotional arcs.
- The overarching plot feels secondary to character development.
- Limited exploration of key themes due to short episode lengths.
