'Wait... you Pokolistanese have all this cool tech, and you need misfits like us to save you from some incels?' Photos: Handout
In the multiverse of madness that is filmed entertainment, as one universe ends, another begins.The newcomer: that Guardians Of The Galaxy fella James Gunn's much-talked-about franchise the DC Universe, or DCU.
The one bidding us adieu? Not the similar-sounding DCEU (or "Snyderverse"), which more or less ended with... heck, it's kind of confusing when. OK, well that's already ended, full stop.
No, we're talking about television's Arrowverse.
For 12 years, its assorted series thrilled, fascinated and outright infuriated fans with their let's-throw-everything-at-the-screen-and-see-what-sticks approach to superhero TV. Yet it found the light within itself (cue inspiring music) to go out on an incredible high note with the final season of Superman & Lois.
Around the time Tyler Hoechlin's Man of Steel and Elizabeth Tulloch's intrepid reporter bade audiences farewell in a thrill-packed and poignant finale, Gunn's first shot was fired in the DCU.
'I don't like your look, Princess, so I'm going to give you a makeover – good thing is, you don't have to be alive during.'
Creature Commandos, a highly NSFW animated adventure, is his shared universe's first outing, bursting upon our screens with its neon-garish opening credits set to the catchy Venezuelan tune Moliendo Cafe. (And, to symbolically take the weight of the universe upon his shoulders, Gunn himself appears in animated form in the credits.)
While parts of the show are all too familiar, it's still a solid run out of the starting gate.
Picking up from where the Suicide Squad films and Peacemaker Season One left off, Creature rearranges the idea of Task Force X, that shady project where convicted super-villains are given reduced sentences in return for going on unsanctioned do-or-die missions.
Amanda Waller (boo, hiss) (voiced by Viola Davis, of course) can't use humans for these missions after the debacle in Corto Maltese (see Gunn's The Suicide Squad), so... why not use inhumans instead? Not the Marvel ones, with an upper case "I" but, whoa, monsters. OK, creatures, if you insist.
Back from earlier Squad outings is Weasel ("voiced" by Sean Gunn), joined by the super-strong patchwork creature known as The Bride (Indira Varma, possibly the MVP here), the perpetually radioactive Dr Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk), Nazi-killing automaton GI Robot (Sean again), and amphibious scientist Nina Mazursky (Zoe Chao).
The unfortunate individual ("sap", mayhap) tasked with holding the unit together is Rick Flag Sr (Frank Grillo) – yup, the dad of Joel Kinnaman's unfortunate stalwart who couldn't see John Cena's Peacemaker clearly enough to avoid being killed in Corto Maltese.
Animated characters never pass up an opportunity to run straight at the camera.
Their first assignment: keeping rogue Amazonian sorceress Circe (Anya Chalotra) and her army of, er, angry men from taking over the resource-rich (and potential US ally) Eastern European nation of Pokolistan – yes, it's a made-up place but also, a country that has appeared in several DC comics stories before.
The tempo of the initial episodes (as of this writing, three out of a planned eight) seems to involve advancing the Pokolistan plot and Circe's motives while shedding light on the history of individual Commandos.
So far, we've had in-depth looks at The Bride (in case you were unsure, yep, there's an unwritten "of Frankenstein" in the name) and GI Robot, with guest appearances by none other than the original Frankenstein monster (David Harbour), as well as WW2 heroes Sgt Rock and Easy Company (also reported to be on Gunn's DCU slate as a live-action feature with Daniel Craig).
The trailer for the fourth instalment promises a look at Weasel's backstory, and some disturbing images of the DCU's possible future, including glimpses of Superman's tattered cape (right out of The Death of Superman) and an unnerving shot of impaled or crucified heroes, including Supes and the Teen Titans' Starfire.
It's all heading our way in due time as the DCU saga unfolds, and after a long time, it seems that there is finally a plan in place for the whole shebang.
Gunn & Co. have been quoted as saying that you don't have to watch everything to follow individual movies or series, but a unifying and consistent overarching vision is... something that's very welcome after so many disparate ventures.
As much fun as these initial episodes have been, they still roughly amount to only about an hour of the larger, mostly still pending body of work.
As such, it's way too early to tell if Gunn's vision will be received well enough for the DCU (next up: Superman in July) to fully come to fruition.
But after years of hoping, and from his slick handling of this "Task Force X-Files" so far... I want to believe.
New episodes of Creature Commandos arrive on Max every Thursday.
Summary:
Task Force X-Files
