The DCU is here, and it’s off to quite a monstrous start. The Creature Commandos appetizer has been served and fans are getting just a taste of what Gunn and company have in store for this budding new cinematic universe. The two-episode premiere has just hit HBO Max kicks off the seven episode run that gives a whole lot of new characters and lore from within the library of the DC universe.
Things kick off fast, wasting no time setting up the mission. The Amazonian sorceress Circe has rallied a militia of incels, branding themselves the Sons of Themyscira, fighting against the sexist rules that bar them from paradise island and proudly serving their rightful queen, we even get a glimpse at some Amazons and the island, which is publicly known about. Circe and her militia have set their sights on Pokolistan, specifically its reigning princess, Ilana Rostovic, who Circe seeks to kill and topple the nation and from there setting her sights on the island of the Amazons.
With Pokolistan being a friend of the United States and currently in negotiations to allow oil drilling with America, of course Amanda Waller has to get involved. We very quickly meet Rick Flag Sr. for the first time and definitely not the last, Waller is filling him in on the situation and very quickly assigns him to the best special ops task force following the public exposing of Task Force X, aka the Suicide Squad.
Flag asks how a team like this could exist as congress now prohibits the government from using incarcerated humans as cannon fodder. Flag is then taken aback when the entire team consists of nonhuman assets. Enter The Bride, GI Robot, Nina Mazursky, Dr.Phosphorous, and The Weasel, who is referenced as one of the few surviving members of Project Starfish. There isn’t much time for chitchat as Flag and the time are immediately packed onto an Osprey, the very same one from project starfish, and are off to Pokolistan.
Landing in Pokolistan, the Creature Commandos are greeted by the royal guard, made up by the amethyst knights, who wear some insanely high tech armor, led by, who escorts them to the castle. When they get to the castle they make their introductions to the Princess, who invites them to a lavish feast. Flag has a chance to sit down with the Princess, bringing up his son, the late colonel Rick Flag.
Flag Sr. reveals he and his wife had Rick when they were only 18 and he joined the military to support them. Flag calls his son “better than himself in everyway” as seen in his actions in ‘THE SUICIDE SQUAD’ that lead to his untimely death. It will be interesting to see how this plays out across mediums as Flag Sr. Is set to show up quite a bit in the next few DCU projects and how his character transitions between projects.
Later that night, the jailbirds that make up this team feel the need to stretch their legs a bit, I mean who wouldn’t when you’re cooped up in Belle Reve? However some are bolder than others. If you’re the Bride you just slip out the window and slide down the roof and boom, you’re out! And if you’re not extra as hell you just walk downstairs and through the front door like Nina.
If you’re really stupid, you sneak into Flag Sr’s room and try to steal the chip control dice but of course that wakes Rick up and you have to fight throughout the castle. That would make you Dr.Phosphorous. While Rick and Phos battle throughout the house, causing the most damage possible as an opponent that can melt through anything might do that.
The Bride has a very different idea, you could call it a tourist sight-seeing but what this trip reveals would prove that wrong. The Bride and Nina make their exit from the castle, briefly robbing a guard for some per diem, and venture into the European country to stumble another castle, a much more decrepit and abandoned castle that seemingly reveals the birthplace of the mysterious bride.
However their arrival is noticed by a mysterious old lady, with a familiar face as her Lock Screen. The old lady begins to make a call before it is revealed to be going to none other than Frankenstein, partying it up on a yacht with some ladies, but makes it known that he only has eyes for one woman, and she just came home.
The first two episodes of Creature Commandos are streaming now! Tune in to Popped for weekly coverage of the Dawn of James Gunn’s DCU and see what else he’s got in store for us here in this comic book world.
Check out the trailer for Creature Commandos below!
Fancy reading something else? Why not check out: ‘What If… the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?’ Review
