Creature Commandos has officially launched the new DC Universe franchise, and true to his word, showrunner/DC Studios head James Gunn plunged us into a superhero universe that is already fully established. From the very first news broadcast in the show, it was made clear that we are in a world where the Amazons and their mystical island are as much a part of the geopolitical landscape as oil prices or foreign border wars. The first two episodes of Creature Commandos also confirm that the events of Gunn’s previous DC projects – The Suicide Squad movie and Peacemaker TV series – are part of this new DCU canon.
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In taking this approach, Gunn cleverly manages to build out the corners of the DCU (and its history) that the various Creature Commandos characters each connect to. Of course, for DC fans who are keeping careful notes on the DCU’s timeline, there also may be a big hint as to how Gunn is setting the stage for his upcoming Superman reboot film…
Creature Commandos Confirms DCU Superman Has Nearly Been Killed
As stated at the start: Creature Commandos confirms that the events of The Suicide Squad are official DCU canon. Well, one of the main characters of The Suicide Squad was Idris Elba’s Robert DuBois – aka the mercenary Bloodsport. Gunn introduced his version of Bloodsport with the backstory that the hi-tech merc landed in Bell Reve penitentiary after shooting Superman with a Kryptonite bullet. While the full details are never revealed, the assassination attempt was serious enough that Superman had to be rushed to the ICU, while DuBois was put away in the worst of prisons.
The Near-Death of Superman
If Bloodsport’s backstory is now DCU canon, that’s a natural starting place for Gunn’s Superman to build off of, and may even be a key insight into why the project was originally titled Superman: Legacy.
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Superman’s near-assassination, the desperate measures needed to save him, and the process of recovery afterward would likely be the first time the Man of Steel has felt vulnerable on a mortal level. After suddenly becoming aware that he could indeed be killed by one of his many foes, Superman would understandably have some new preoccupations about what he has (or has not) accomplished in the world; if Earth’s superheroes could carry on after him; how Lois and those close to “Clark Kent” would feel when he didn’t show up again – and of course, how foes like Lex, Brainiac, Maxwell Lord, and so many other villains would start moving in a world without Superman. That’s also an organic story angle for “borrowing” some of the better parts of Grant Morrison and Frank Quigley’s All-Star Superman limited series, which Gunn has cited as a major influence on this Superman reboot.
In a larger shared universe scale, the “Near-Death of Superman” would be a major game-changing milestone, which could arguably usher in a new era of would-be successor heroes (like a Maxwell Lord-sponsored Justice League International, or The Authority?), as well as some meta-level discourse about if the world is ready to go on without Superman having a presence in it.
That’s all speculation, but if it pans out, it would just be another early example of how James Gunn and DC Studios aren’t letting any of the dialogue and developments in these DCU projects exist without purpose – and the potential to lead to other corners of the franchise. It would be a full-circle moment if Superman opens with a sequence that shows Bloodsport shooting the hero (with a cameo from Ebla), and how traumatic that experience was. It would instantly remove one of the biggest criticisms about Superman: the idea that he’s too invulnerable (in any sense of the world) to face any real stakes. We will know the DCU Man of Steel can be killed – and his knowing it too would create mental/emotional stakes we’ve never seen for the character, onscreen.
Creature Commandos is now streaming on Max. Superman has a theatrical release date of July 11, 2025.
