James Gunn says the Creature Commandos — the subject of the first project in the newly-relaunched DC Universe — bear at least a little resemblance to his old Marvel buddies in the Guardians of the Galaxy. The big difference? These violent antiheroes aren’t exactly the good-hearted rogues that populated the Milano. Instead, the Creature Commandos are nasty pieces of work — the Guardians “without the sentimentality,” he explained. That means, for all intents and purposes, that Gunn’s take on this classic DC team is fairly similar to how the Ravagers wanted people to see them in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
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The Creature Commandos series will center on a team led by Rick Flag’s father, and including Nina Mazursky, Dr. Phosphorus, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, G.I. Robot, and Weasel. It seems as though this will give background as to how Weasel came to be in the possession of Amanda Waller at the start of The Suicide Squad (although exactly how much of The Suicide Squad is canon is still not clear). You can see the new art below.
“I’m used to dealing with oddballs and irregular types and weirdos,” Gunn told EW. “That’s what Guardians is, and Creature Commandos is kind of like Guardians without the sentimentality. The Guardians are all really good characters at their heart, and that just isn’t necessarily the case with the creatures.”
As a team, the concept of the Creature Commandos might seem like it goes way back, but not as far as you might think. The team was created by J.M. DeMatteis and Pat Broderick, and first appeared in 1980’s Weird War Tales #93. They have only appeared in a few different iterations, but since 2011’s Flashpoint, have appeared in a few different big crossover stories and even had a batch of animated shorts on Cartoon Network’s DC Nation block in 2014.
Creature Commandos stars Sean Gunn as Weasel, Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., Maria Bakalova as Princess Ilana Rostovic, Indira Varma as The Bride, Zoe Chao as Nina Mazursky, Alan Tudyk as Dr. Phosphorus, David Harbour as Eric Frankenstein, Sean Gunn as G.I. Robot, and Steve Agee (Peacemaker) reprising his role as John Economos.
Creature Commandos will debut on Max on Thursday, December 5th, and air each of its seven episodes weekly until it wraps up on January 16th.
