Well, here we are. Over two years since James Gunn and Peter Safran were announced as helming the latest iterations of big-screen DC Comics continuity, the first project in the fledgling DC Universe (DCU) has arrived. That said, Creature Commandos isn’t the cape-donning, superheroic debut many might expect. Instead we’ve got a smaller but no less entertaining animated TV show to kick things off.
Well, that’s if you can really call Creature Commandos the true beginning of the DCU. After all, you only need to watch the first five minutes of its premiere, The Collywobbles, to see that Gunn’s previous DC effort, 2021’s The Suicide Squad, is all but required viewing. Viola Davis’ now-ubiquitous Amanda Waller returns for the fifth time, and former Squad member Weasel (played by Gunn’s brother Sean) also returns.
But in many ways, Creature Commandos is both a sequel to The Suicide Squad and something of a soft retelling. The setup is eerily similar: a member of the Flagg family (previously Rick Jr., now Rick Sr.) teams up with Waller to hire a shabby cast of immoral mercenaries to carry out the government’s dirty work. Last time it was a mission to stop Starro on Corto Maltese—referenced heavily and often here—but this time it’s a trip to the fictional nation of Pokolistan to protect its princess from Themysciran extremists.
That final sentence should give you a clue on how Creature Commandos aims to gradually but definitively set up this new iteration of the DC Universe. The lost city of Themyscira, known best as the birthplace of Wonder Woman, has a background role to play, but one that causes the pilot’s key complicating action. It’s likely the kind of creative liberty Gunn couldn’t have taken on The Suicide Squad, considering we’d already seen Themyscira with the likes of Gal Gadot, Robin Wright, et al. populating it.
That said, Creature Commandos still seems far more interested in telling a smaller, less flashy story compared to what many may have expected from the DCU’s debut. There aren’t any jaw-dropping cameos (so far), and it mostly plays as a structural retelling of The Suicide Squad with different characters, sure, but a wildly similar concept.
It leads to one main question: why is this the beginning project of the DCU? Looking back to the genesis of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008, it made perfect sense to begin with Iron Man for two reasons. Not only would Robert Downey Jr.’s version of Tony Stark become the emotional lynchpin of the MCU’s core narrative for a decade to follow, but Kevin Feige was also limited on the characters to whom the newly formed Marvel Studios had the cinematic rights. Gunn isn’t beholden to that caveat—he and Safran have got the whole DC roster at their fingertips—so it’s intriguing, if confusing, to see such a niche selection of characters used to kick things off.
Of course, there’s one Kryptonian-sized elephant in the room: David Corenswet’s Superman, due to arrive in cinemas in the summer of 2025 with the first teaser trailer expected before the turn of the year. That’s obviously when the DCU will capture the minds of the general public for the first time, and is arguably the logical starting point for the series given Supes’ status as the first bona fide DC hero. Any DCU media that comes before may feel essential for dedicated fans, but to the moviegoing public all of that is background fluff until the main event really kicks off.
So why has Gunn chosen Creature Commandos, a high-octane, fast-paced action animation, to introduce the world to his version of DC? Well, it’s ultimately hard to tell. Perhaps its narrative similarity to The Suicide Squad makes it a more palatable jumping-in point for the uninitiated: a way of spoon feeding niche characters like the Bride and G.I. Robot to audiences already familiar with Gunn’s way of making household names out of anything (just look at what he did with Guardians of the Galaxy).
If I had to put money down, though, I’d just say he sees this as a bit of low-stakes fun. As a straight-to-streaming show there’s no pressure to hit box office or viewership metrics. Instead, it’s more a case of wanting to feed those dedicated DC fans an appetiser before their main course—and likely the mainstream audience’s three-course meal—lands on the big screen next summer.
It’s also a clever way of taking Gunn’s previous DC work, namely The Suicide Squad and the first season of the Peacemaker TV show, and using them as backdoor introductions to his continuity and the kind of things you can expect going forward. Creature Commandos very clearly references the events of the 2021 movie, which may create granular continuity questions but does give audiences some homework to do before things get underway properly next summer.
Whether it’s a case of easing audiences in or giving fans a palate-cleanser to kick things off, Creature Commandos is definitely not what many will have expected for the first official DCU project. That’s not a bad thing, though: it’s more acerbic and hastily paced than the likes of Batman: Caped Crusader, and takes itself nowhere near as seriously as The Penguin. It shows off a very different side of the DC lore, one that clearly has Gunn’s fingerprints all over it, so it makes sense as a proof of concept for the types of characters and tones he and Peter Safran want to imbue their DCU with.
You may not have expected things to start like Creature Commandos does, but that’s exactly why the DCU is putting its weirdest foot forward first.
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