During the NYCC, James Gunn went on stage to excite comic book fans about Creature Commandos, the first chapter in his ambitious DCU plan. In addition to a new trailer featuring an A-list Batman villain, Gunn explained how the TV show fits within the broader DCU canon.
As the new trailer underlines, Creature Commandos follows Rick Flag Sr. (voiced by Frank Grillo), who joins forces with Amanda Waller (voiced by Viola Davis) to lead a team of strange creatures on a dangerous mission against Circe (voiced by Anya Chalotra). But why use monsters to do the job? Well, as Waller explains, since her Task Force X operations were made public, she’s forbidden to endanger the lives of human prisoners, which is why she takes her pick on inhuman ones.
The premise of Creature Commandos raises some obvious questions about the DCU canon. Waller’s secrets were released to the press by her daughter, Leota (Danielle Brooks), during the events of season one of Peacemaker.
Peacemaker, in its turn, is a direct sequel to Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. However, The Suicide Squad and season one of Peacemaker preceded the DCU, which is sold as a total reboot. It’s confusing, so Gunn used his NYCC appearance to explain his strategy.
According to Gunn, the DCU is indeed a reboot and nothing that came before should be considered canon unless it’s mentioned in the new projects. So, when Creature Commandos explains that Waller is in hot water due to her actions with Task Force X, that retroactively makes what happened before become canon. It’s a clever way to include his critically acclaimed movie and TV show into canon while still having enough liberty to change details of how the story went, in case they don’t fit the DCU plans.
By the looks of it, Gunn will keep most of The Suicide Squad and season one of Peacemaker intact. During the NYCC, Gunn also confirmed Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) is still dead, a fact that will play into Creature Commandos’ storyline, which features his father. Since Grillo will reprise his role as Rick Flag Sr. in season 2 of Peacemaker, this confirmation means John Cena’s antihero can expect some awkward conversations with the father of the man he killed.
The Creature Commandos trailer introduces Clayface and a bunch of obscure villains
While explaining that the DCU canon is quite helpful for nerds – this writer included – the main attraction of Gunn’s Creature Commando panel at the NYCC was a new, delicious trailer. The trailer shows how Gunn will keep his signature mix of ultra-violence and fun with the show, which resembles what the filmmaker did with The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker.
However, the most curious aspect of the trailer is the many cameos Gunn managed to add to Creature Commandos. In one scene, we see the Bride (voiced by Indira Varma) smashing the face of an orange ape who is probably Congorilla.
In a blink-and-you-might-miss-it frame, we can also spot Chemo’s head. As for the winged female villain in Belle Reve prison, she’s probably a version of Nosferara. As for the humanoid duck, that’s most definitely Rubberduck.
Amidst so many obscure cameos, the new Creature Commandos trailer also shows that the team will fight none other than Clayface, Batman’s shape-shifting enemy. That’s huge because Clayface is a fan-favorite Batman rogue who’s one of the more fantastic villains in Gotham. If Clayface is canon in the DCU, we can expect this universe Batman to go toe-on-toe with aliens and wizards, too.
Don’t get me wrong. We all love Matt Revees’ realistic Batman (Robert Pattison). But it’s been too many decades since the Dark Knight tapped into more comic-booky foes on the silver screen. So, if Creature Commandos is already willing to hit this hard, we can have high hopes for the entirety of the DCU.
Published: Oct 21, 2024 01:28 am