CREATURE COMMANDOS: SEASON ONE
Starring: Frank Grillo, Alan Tudyk, Indira Varma, Zoë Chao, Sean Gunn, David Harbour, Maria Bakalova, Steve Agee, and Viola Davis
Creator: James Gunn
NICK
As much as I enjoyed James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, Creature Commandos may be the best version of a reluctant villain team-up we’ve seen. In just seven episodes, Gunn made me care about each individual character by using a portion of every episode to explore their tragic backstories, which adds devastating weight to the main timeline. While it can be incredibly violent, much like Gunn’s Guardians series, at its core is a connecting thread of heart realized by some excellent voice-over performances from Frank Grillo, Alan Tudyk, Indira Varma, and the rest of the cast. Gunn's DCU is off to a tremendous start.
AMARÚ
James Gunn has an uncanny ability to fill freakishly outlandish tales with a shit ton of heart, and that’s how a show like Creature Commandos, with it’s gratuitous violence and adult themes, can endear you to a chaotically untethered motley crew of characters in the short span of seven, 20-minute episodes. Gunn’s writing efficiently provides authentic depth to a wildly eccentric world, making this introduction to the DCU feel lived in and real. Packing so much into such small packages does leave a few odd characters and side stories undercooked, but Gunn has more than succeeded in making me believe in his new comic universe.
QUENTIN
Considering James Gunn's The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy are essentially live-action cartoons with their bi-pedal sharks and talking trees, it shouldn't be surprising that he absolutely killed it when going full animation with Creature Commandos. The very bingeable series features excellent vocal performances (especially from David Harbour as Eric Frankenstein), neat DC easter eggs, plenty of bloody action, a bop of a soundtrack, and a compelling “A" story paired with nuanced, character-developing flashbacks. Commandos could have easily been a half-hearted introduction to Gunn's DC Universe, but he has instead delivered an exciting first offering that conjures a lot of excitement for what’s ahead.
