by James Coulter
James Gunn is the GOAT! He directed the best Marvel movie, Guardians of the Galaxy. The only film better than that was the second, GOTG: Vol. 2. (GOTG: Vol. 3 wasn’t as great, but it was still pretty good.)
The Guardians movies proved so popular that Warner Bros. decided to make their own version for their DC Comics movie franchise: Suicide Squad—which flopped hard! In fact, it was only after Gunn joined Warner Bros. and directed the sequel/reboot, The Suicide Squad, that the formula finally worked for them.
Now Gunn is set to helm the DC Comics Universe (DCU) moving forward. Next year will officially kick off this new series of comic book movies with a Superman reboot. (And if the teaser trailer is any indicator, it looks awesome!)
Until then, DC Comics has released a new animated series created by Gunn for the Max streaming service: Creature Commandos. But will this series be a graveyard smash of a monster mash? Or…oh, who am I kidding? James Freaking Gunn made it. It’s going to be gold!
When a small European kingdom gets invaded by the evil enchantress Circe, Rick Flag Sr. assembles a band of incarcerated monsters on a rescue mission to save the princess. His team includes the Bride (as in the Bride of Frankenstein), GI Robot (a WW2-era robot with a love for killing Nazis), Weasel (who’s literally a giant weasel), Doctor Phosphorus (a flaming irradiated skeleton), and Nina (a gender-swapped version of the Creature from the Black Lagoon)
While this year hasn’t been great for superhero movies—looking at you Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter!—it has undoubtedly been good for animation. The first animated hit, of course, was X-Men ’97. And now Creature Commandos appears to be the next great thing. As of this review, only four of the seven episodes have been released on Max. However, James Gunn’s animated series appears to be so far, so good.
The animation for both this and X-Men ’97 proves that detailed, comic book-like art styles are not dead. While the current trend of simplistic art styles in animated shows like Steven Universeand Owl House is good, nothing beats animation that looks like comic books come to life.
As for the plot, if James Gunn is good at anything, it’s taking a band of misfits, putting them into over-the-top action scenes, having them bounce witty banter off of each other, and giving them a healthy dose of character depth. It’s what made the Guardians movies great. And it’s what makes this series good.
As always, Gunn effortlessly balances blue humor and gratuitous violence and sex that entices the adolescent sensibilities of viewers with plenty of emotion that makes for sincerely heartfelt moments. Each of the characters gets their own backstory which reveals the humanity within these “monsters.”
The Bride was literally created to be the bride of Frankenstein, but ended up having complicated feelings toward her creator which caused tension in their relationship. GI Robot was designed solely for killing Nazis during WW2, and struggled to find purpose after the war when there were no more Nazis to kill. And as for Weasel? Well, no spoilers, but Gunn wasn’tkidding when he explained the episode was the saddest thing he’s written.
I’ve managed to binge-watch all of the episodes so far in one sitting, and I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the remaining episodes to be released. I have not been excited aboutan animated show—or really, any show—in a long time (with the notable exception of Delicious in Dungeon). And if this show is any indicator, the DCU is in capable hands with James Gunn. Godspeed!
