TV Review: ‘Creature Commandos’ Episode 1 — This Show Bangs Out Of Control

Welcome to the table,

I don’t often get the opportunity to write about animation here at Comicon.com. This is not because I don’t love it or my lack of something to say. It’s honestly quite the opposite. I have a large collection of animated films and series, I was also in an animation program in school, studied animation in college, and a handful of my Dungeons & Dragons players work or have worked on animated series that are probably shows you not only know but love. I’m the gaming and collector guy, and there are others here who write about such things most of the time. However, most does not mean all, and when it was announced that Creature Commandos was coming out, I had to be the one who covered it.

The reason for this departure from my normal focus is not random. Fundamentally, this show checks almost every box I have as far as fandoms go.

I love monsters… and this is a show about monsters! The cast features some of the coolest creatures from across the DC Universe. The team consists of a constructed humanoid named The Bride, voiced by Indira Varma; a glowing radioactive fire skeleton named Doctor Phosphorus, voiced by Alan Tudyk; a gill-woman named Nina Mazurky, voiced by Zoë Chao; a Nazi killing robot named G.I. Robot, voiced by Sean Gunn; and whatever the hell Weasel is, also voiced by Gunn.

I love animation… and this is a Warner Bros. Animated series that streams on MAX created and written by James Gunn, the guy who has worked on just about anything fresh and fun in the comic film space over the last ten years.

Amanda Waller is my favorite female DC Comics character… and this show’s setup features the always dubious Amanda Waller pulls a team together of “disposable” monsters — much like the Suicide Squad’s villains — to go up against the man-baby morons called the “Sons of Themyscira.” They are mad they can’t go to an all-women island, so they team up under Circe, a sorceress voiced by Anya Chalotra.

The reason Waller is using monsters this go around is because Congress has stopped her from being able to use humans for her Suicide Squad … but they never said anything about non-humans, so along with Rick Flag Sr. (voiced by Frank Grillo), she creates Taskforce M also known as the Creature Commandos.

I love when music I enjoy is used in ways I did not expect… the music on this show is nothing short of spectacular! The team of Kevin Kiner and Clint Mansell, previously responsible for scoring the first season of Peacemaker, pulled the score for the series together. I’m a huge fan of Gogol Bordello and their songs and vibe feature heavily in the music of the show.

All of the above to say… I love this goofy, violent, monster filled, show.

Creature Commandos Episode 1 : “The Collywobbles”… The information provided above is the setup for what proves to be one of the most amusing DC Comics-related animated episodes I have ever seen. This is coming from someone who watched Batman: The Animated Series, The Batman/Superman Adventures, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Static Shock, The Zeta Project (yep, that as well), Justice League, Teen Titans, Justice League Unlimited, The Batman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and Green Lantern: The Animated Series as their premiered.

I’m deeply entrenched in the DCU animated universe, and I can say that aside from Brave and the Bold‘s Aquaman, there has not been a show I have laughed at harder than Creature Commandos. Not because it is a silly slap tick show with an annoying dolphin or anything, but because it just strikes this beautiful balance between being this bad ass compelling story of “rag tag monsters” dealing with powerful villains and nonsense in a world where super-powered entities are a thing.

I have always wanted this exact kind of story on the screen, and from start to finish, Episode 1 does not drop the ball or disappoint. The dialog is delivered in a lived way that you would expect these characters to actually speak. The animation is bright and colorful, but has this grimey grit to it that does not come off as “Let’s look edgy and dark” as much as it comes off as “Someone is tired and everything has some dirt on it and is slightly sticky and weird but that is okay, just brush it off, five second rule or something.”

It just works. The music works, the art works, the story works, the whole thing just works and it comes together to be the exact show I wanted. Thomas Perkins himself would have to send me a direct message and say “Hey my lad, we are putting the band back together and more The Batman is coming.” for me to be any more excited about a show from the DC Universe.

Then we get Frankenstein’s Monster — and he is a monster, but in the way a jerk boyfriend is a monster … David Harbor shows up at the end of the first episode voicing Frankenstein’s Monster and is a total jerky boyfriend who does not know when to let it go and puts the cherry on this entire premier episode, setting us up for more nonsense in Episode 2.

GAHHHH!!!! I love this show so much. You can check it out over on Max or watch the first episode for free over at YouTube.

Until next time, I have watched the available episodes of this show six times now … it’s only Dec. 18th. You do the math … it’s excessive and I don’t even care.