CREATURE COMMANDOS EPISODES 1 & 2 REVIEW

The first new edition of James Gunn's DCU has arrived. The first two episodes of "Creature Commandos" have dropped exclusively on Max and as a huge nerd, I stayed up a little too late to watch the premiere. Gunn is calling Chapter One of the DCU "Gods and Monsters", so it makes sense that the very first installment deals with monsters. Before recapping the episodes and my thoughts on them let's look at the characters and cast. One thing to note is despite being animated, Gunn cast people who would also play these characters in live-action which is genius on his part.

• Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr.

  • A general and assigned to be the leader of the Creature Commandos by Amanda Waller (who Viola Davis returns as), he's the father of Rick Flag whom we saw in the two live-action Suicide Squad movies.

• Indira Varma as The Bride

  • Quite literally the Bride of Frankenstein

• Sean Gunn as both G.I. Robot and Weasel

  • G.I. Robot is a robot from World War II who has a desire to kill Nazis as that's all he talks about

  • Weasel is back from the 2nd Suicide Squad movie and he's quite literally a giant weasel-human-like creature

• Alan Tudyk as Dr. Phosphorous

  • A glowing radioactive skeleton that can shoot fire and energy

• David Harbour as Frankenstein

  • Yep that's right Hopper from Stranger Things is Frankenstein's monster

• Zoe Chao as Nina Mazursky

  • A human with amphibious qualities who walks around with a helmet and suit filled with water

• Anya Chalotra as Circe

  • The sorceress from Greek mythology who wants to take over Themyscira aka Wonder Woman's homeland

• Maria Bakalova as Princess Ilana Rostovic

  • The princess of the country that Circe is infiltrating

EPISODE 1 AND 2 RECAP AND THOUGHTS:

So first of all we are introduced to Flag Sr., who is escorted through Belle Reve by Amanda Waller after they view a news report of Circe taking over a country with the help of soy-boys who resemble and are making fun of Q-Anon members. She explains to him that Congress put a stop to Task Force X but for humans, so they go down to the non-human division. After being introduced to these monsters they had to Pokolistan. They meet Princess Ilana who is an absolute ROCKET by the way. She wasted no time trying to get into Flag's pants either which I don't blame her the guy is a silver fox. After just chilling at the castle, Bride dips out followed by Nina as they go to the place where both she and Frankenstein were made/created. At the house as they're looking for a necklace given to Bride we see flashbacks of her and the doctor teaching her English and Frankenstein just being a simp trying to force her into loving him. Flag eventually does end up banging Ilana after a fight with Dr. Phosphorous left him with some bad burns. Phosphorous was trying to burn the phone that controls the implants in the monsters. We later learn that THE DOCTOR BANGED BRIDE (WHO IS QUITE LITERALLY AN AMALGAMATION OF DISMEMBERED BODY PARTS AND IS BASICALLY HIS "DAUGHTER"). Like I get it she's lowkey bad but she's also a walking corpse. So naturally Frankenstein beats the Doctor into a pulp. Circe pulls up after getting intel that Bride and Nina are there and the episode ends with Flag, G.I. Robot, Phosphorous, and Weasel on their way to them, Nina's water containment suit leaking after being shot, and Bride severely injured after Circe laid down some serious beating on her with the help of magic.

Ok so right away, the first thing I noticed is I am a huge fan of this animation style. It's smooth and detailed. The voice cast really does a great job bringing emotion to the characters and you can tell Gunn was very selective in his casting as he also plans to bring the same people that voice them into live action. Flag Sr. is literally just grey-haired Frank Grillo. It doesn't hold back in its vulgarness either. The F-bomb is dropped, crude jokes galore, and we've already had 2 sex scenes including one involving Bride, who is as I mentioned, a literal walking corpse. Does it count as necrophilia if she's technically alive? I don't know but that was a CRAZY scene. She lowkey got groomed by the Doctor. And don't even get me started on Frankenstein who was shown chasing after her from the 1830s to the modern day. He really is an incel just trying to force her into loving him as she after all was created for him. We first see him on a yacht getting a call from an old woman (who hilariously had shirtless Zac Efron as her background) calling him to let him know that Bride showed up at the house. It's really interesting seeing the dynamic of the team as they struggle with being out in the open after being in prison for a while but also having to take orders from Flag Sr. Considering we got a flashback/breakdown of Bride's origin, I'm sure we'll see one for every character to ground them and make them more understandable. According to James Gunn even the Weasel's is supposed to be "heartbreaking". Circe is being built up as a good villain and I love the mention of Themyscira from the jump! For those that don't know that's the place where Wonder Woman is from so we're already world-building. I know we're getting Clayface, one of my favorite Batman villains, in this and I'm wondering if he's going to be part of the team or used by Circe or what. Alan Tudyk is also voicing him and for a character that can shapeshift and be anyone, Tudyk is perfect. Just look at his IMDb and his catalog. Overall I think it's great. It is not quite a masterpiece but then again it's the first two episodes of a show that is building an entire universe so it could only get better.