Well, well, well. The DC Films universe has officially kicked off with Creature Commandos. Normally it would be a bit strange to kick off your massive multimedia superhero franchise restart with an animated show; but it actually shows off what DC is going for perfectly. It shows their commitment to ensuring that projects are quality before heading out the door to be announced. It also shows their strategy of keeping continuity across animation, video games, live-action, and more. The voice cast for Creature Commandos will reprise their roles in any future projects with the characters. We can already see that in action with Frank Grillo playing Rick Flag Sr. in the upcoming Peacemaker season two.

Speaking of the voice cast for Creature Commandos, it’s excellent. Across the seven episodes for this first season we have Alan Tudyk, Frank Grillo, Indira Varma, Sean Gunn, David Harbour, Maria Bakalova, Zoe Chao, and Viola Davis. The team here consists of Rick Flag Sr. (Grillo). Doctor Phosphorus (Tudyk), G.I. Robot (Gunn), Weasel (Also Gunn), The Bride (Varma), Nina Mazursky (Chao), and Frankenstein’s Monster (Harbour). They all take on the tasks and duties that other super teams would not, so yes, it does sound like DC’s own Suicide Squad, but think of this more as the supernatural squad.

For those wondering if James Gunn (who wrote the series and Executive Produced it) would tone down any sort of violence or more mature content, he doesn’t. Creature Commandos is a festival of blood, gore, violence, all wrapped up in a show that celebrates the misfits of the DC Universe. It’s likely that mainstream audiences haven’t heard of Doctor Phosphorus or G.I. Robot before and like his previous works with Marvel, Gunn makes you care about characters you didn’t think you would.

The only thing that stutters a bit in Creature Commandos is that each episode does feel a bit like a “your story, my story” tag. The episodes have the A plot focusing on whatever character it is, to give you their backstory. Sometimes the main mission of the season gets lost a bit. Other than that, it’s really just personal quibble stuff like me not enjoying whatever music track that was picked for a specific episode. The animation is stunning, showing all the detail and touches of these characters like Phosphorus’ green glow or The Bride’s abilities beyond just being a bunch of body parts stitched together.

If you’re wondering about DC holding back some of the more unsavory portions of these characters, it doesn’t. G.I. Robot in particular gets a stunning backstory about his time in WW2 and the time after that he spends before he gets to the team. The story of The Bride is also tragic, reminiscent of how women are treated in marriages that they don’t want. Overall, it’s a successful story for the characters that will just make you love these “losers” even more.

It might not be Superman, but Creature Commandos kicks off the new era of DC in a way that’s violent, bombastic, and sets the tone for what to expect in the future.

Creature Commandos releases on Max on December 5th, with new episodes each week.

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