Creature Commandos Proves Nobody Is Safe in James Gunn’s DCU

If you were worried there wouldn’t be real stakes in the new DC Universe, you can put those fears to rest. With big franchises and comic book fare, there is a notion that certain characters will always be safe, or that these stories tend to shy away from killing characters off. Gunn showed in The Suicide Squad that this type of storytelling wasn’t his style. Now that he’s in charge of the new DCU, he’s bringing those ideals along with him.

Creature Commandos, the Gunn-created animated series that launched the DCU, saw its first season come to an end on Thursday. By the end of the season finale, it was made very clear that nobody in this franchise is safe, and that story will always be put first in the DCU, even if it comes at the cost of a fan-favorite protagonist.

WARNING: Spoilers below for Creature Commandos

The final moments of Creature Commandos Season 1 saw Nina Mazursky die at the ends of Princess Ilana. While Nina isn’t exactly a franchise icon (like Batman or Wonder Woman), she was very clearly the beating heart of Creature Commandos. In fact, the creative team behind Creature Commandos treated her as such.

In an exclusive interview with ComicBook ahead of the series premiere, showrunner Dean Lorey told us that Nina was not only the heart of Creature Commandos, but also the point of view for the fans.

“But what’s nice about it is when you take away part of the trappings of the characters there’s a real clean drive and direction for each of the characters. Like Nina is really the heart of the show. She’s the sweetest of the characters,” Lorey explained.

“She is, I think, the point of view character for the audience. And then we get into her backstory and you’ll see she’s really gone through a lot.”

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Throughout the season, Nina was built up to be the moral compass of the Commandos, the person needed to keep the team moving in the general direction of what’s right. She was also crafted to be the key character of the whole team, essentially acting as the glue holding everyone together. And that’s what makes her death so fascinating from a story perspective.

Yes, seeing Nina die creates a truly gut-wrenching moment to cap off an incredible season of television, but it also acts as a massive launching pad for Season 2. The good person of the group is gone. The member of the team that arguably learned the most from Nina — The Bride — is now in charge of the Commandos moving forward. By losing Nina, and learning from her heart, the Bride is in a place where she will be questioning her own decision-making and empathy. It completely changes her dynamic moving forward.

Losing Nina is absolutely brutal, both for the viewers and the other characters on the show. But that loss opens Creature Commandos up for many possibilities moving forward. And that’s the whole point of this headline’s article.

Nina being a beloved and wonderful character wasn’t more important than the story itself. If she’s able to be taken off the board after just one season of Creature Commandos, it’s clear that the characters of the DCU aren’t safe, no matter how important you may think they are.

That’s great news for this budding franchise.