Creature Commandos Reviews: What Critics Are Saying About the First DCU Series

The first chapter of the new DC Universe is a monster hit with critics. Early Creature Commandos reviews were released Monday ahead of the DC Studios series’ Dec. 5 premiere on Max, and it sounds like the James Gunn written adult animated series is a freakishly fun — if familiar — appetizer for next summer’s Superman movie (the “true start” of the DCU, according to Gunn).

“Like both Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad, Creature Commandos uses its group of outcasts to find the tiny pockets of hope littered throughout a dark and scary world,” ComicBook critic Charlie Ridgely wrote in a five-star review, adding that “these monsters can also be terrifying, but they’re often the most human characters in the story.”

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Picking up after the events of the Gunn-directed The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, the new series sees Amanda Waller (voiced by Viola Davis) form Project M — “M” for monster — after Task Force X is disbanded by Congress. Waller recruits Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) to lead the new task force of incarcerated monsters recruited for missions too dangerous for humans: The Bride (Indira Varma), Frankenstein (David Harbour), Nina Mazursky (Zoe Chao), Dr. Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk), and GI Robot and Weasel (Sean Gunn).

Although reviews favorably compared Creature Commandos to Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and his R-rated Suicide Squad movie over its found-family focus on this crew of misfit monsters, several critics agreed that the series is formulaic and retreads familiar ground over the course of its seven episodes. Still, there’s wide praise for the voice cast, which features Steve Agee (Peacemaker) as Economos, Maria Bakalova (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) as Princess Ilana, and Anya Chalotra (The Witcher) as the villain Circe.

The Harbour-voiced Frankenstein and Varma’s Bride are recurring highlights, and there is a consensus that the new DCU is off to a strong start in Gunn’s hands. See what critics are saying in more excerpts from across the web below.

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ComicBook.com: “By the end of its seven-episode run, you’ll fall in love with every single member of this team — and perhaps almost every character on the show. Creature Commandos gives you just enough time to get to know each of them, and hooks you into their story, without ever overstaying its welcome. In other words, it’s exactly what you need to launch a massive franchise like the DCU.”

AV Club: “There are moments in Creature Commandos when Gunn steers all this bedlam and depravity too far afield, and his sweetly calibrated emotional beats clash with the carnage. At seven half-hour episodes, the series can also feel overstuffed with information (it lays more track for the DCU than you might think), and character details are sometimes jammed in seconds before they matter to the story at hand. But even with all these messy feelings and messier body parts flying around, Gunn’s monster mash achieves the level of gravitas it so often seeks. (Steel yourself for the Weasel episode, which will forever change how you look at sleeping pets.) Even when he’s running in circles, the guy still knows how to deliver cheap thrills.”

IGN: “Creature Commandos is not going to be for everyone. It’s violent, lewd, and graphic … What’s obvious from the start is how much of a James Gunn project this is. The writer/director/producer/studio head is known for his ability to give the goofiest, raunchiest characters a bit of heart. He did it with the Guardians of the Galaxy, he did it with The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, and he’s done it here again with the Creature Commandos. Every off-color joke or extremely grisly death is set against a backdrop of sincere character work. Each of the Commandos gets their due thanks to steady pacing and an expert blending of the present-day storyline and backstory for every member of the team.”

GamesRadar: “Creature Commandos, written and created by Gunn, is the vulgar, explosive, and surprisingly heartbreaking fresh start that DC needed. The animated series takes an arguably lesser-known superhero team, which made its debut in a 1980 issue of Weird War Tales, and turns it into a seven-episode epic that’s worthy of comparison to Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski’s almost untouchable Batman: The Animated Series. I’ve spent most of my adult life chasing the high of BAS, wondering when something just as dark and daring would make its way onto my television screen – and Creature Commandos is close enough.”

Looper: “So this is another quirky antihero team-up story operating in much the same vein as The Suicide Squad, which was itself a more violent R-rated spin on what James Gunn was already doing in his Guardians of the Galaxy movies, while sometimes working in some of the more topical satire that distinguished Gunn’s Peacemaker series. Basically, Creature Commandos is the most James Gunn cartoon to have ever James Gunn-ed. This is mostly a good thing — Gunn knows how to keep this material entertainingly twisted while still treating his silly characters with emotional sincerity. The only major downside is that the show is doing almost nothing new, and even its attempts at surprising twists you can mostly see coming a mile away because we’ve seen this schtick before.”

Collider: “Creature Commandos’ animation style perfectly suits the show’s tone. It’s not as cartoonish as Harley Quinn, but it also doesn’t feel as self-serious as many of the direct-to-video DC animated movies. It exists somewhere in the middle, bearing more similarities to the style on display in Prime Video’s Invincible — and yes, that includes a liberal amount of cartoon blood. Those who love Gunn’s past work for both Marvel and DC will feel right at home with Creature Commandos. The new series has all the laughs, emotion, and memorable characters that have already established Gunn as one of the biggest and most reliable names in the genre. If this series is any indication, the future of the DC Universe is in very good hands.”

DiscussingFilm: “Creature Commandos subverts expectations early on, setting the stage for an intriguing mystery that goes nowhere by the time the last episode rolls around. There’s a larger, more sinister plot at play, yet clunky exposition keeps it from hitting as hard as it should and might even leave viewers somewhat confused as the animated show reaches an abrupt end. As it closes the arc of this first 7-episode season, Creature Commandos keeps the door open for more team iterations in future installments. Of course, that’s the point of a cinematic universe like the one DC Studios is currently trying to achieve … Creature Commandos Season 1 has all the James Gunn sensibilities. Even if the animated series skews a little too close to feeling repetitive, as it has some of the exact same beats as The Suicide Squad (2021), it does enough to justify its existence and create excitement for the new DCU. Regardless of its faltering towards the end of the season, Creature Commandos does enough right to warrant a viewing, especially for fans of the lesser-known DC characters who now get a chance to shine.”

Creature Commandos premieres with its first two episodes Dec. 5 on Max.