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[Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for the finale of “Creature Commandos”]
The DC Universe is here. While we wait for Superman to fly onto the big screen again, it is the adult animated series “Creature Commandos” that serves as our first introduction to this new version of the DC world led by James Gunn. And it is very much James Gunn‘s world. “Creature Commandos” is essentially “The Suicide Squad” but with monsters.
Throughout the first season, the Max animated series explored the tragic origin story of each member of its titular team, while also following their investigation of a threat on the fictional country of Pokolistan and their defense of its princess, Ilana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova), from an assassination plot by the Amazonian sorceress Circe (Anya Chalotra). Halfway through the season, however, things changed. After capturing Circe, the team was sent back to Pokolistan to assassinate the princess instead. The mission change was spurred on by the mythical sorceress showing A.R.G.U.S. director Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) a vision of the future in which every DC hero was brutally killed by Rostovic’s forces — some even impaled and crucified. To prevent this from happening, the princess had to die.
The season finale paid off the truth of that vision and the real villain of the season — but not before a tragic death. Like every episode of “Creature Commandos,” the finale focused on one member of the team, showing us how they became who they are. This time, the spotlight was on Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao), born with her lungs outside of her body. Her dad dedicated his life to doing anything he could to ensure she would survive; and “anything” turned out to include mutating her DNA such that she became a Gill-man/mermaid hybrid who breathes underwater.
Like Gunn’s other superhero projects, “Creature Commandos” is not just extremely sympathetic to its monsters, but also to her father, portrayed as a genuinely loving man. Unlike the other members of the Commandos, Nina is not created by a mad scientist, she doesn’t accidentally cause anyone’s death, or do anything wrong except look different. Out of all our heroes, she is the least resentful, hateful, and also the least lethal. She was never even accused of murder and over the course of the season, she doesn’t really kill people — at least not like The Bride (Indira Varma).
So, of course, it is Nina who dies while trying to assassinate the princess. It seems like Ilana’s morning swim would be the perfect opportunity to take her out (Nina is the best one underwater, after all), but just as Nina is about to stab the princess, a regretful Weasel (Sean Gunn) warns Illana because she was kind to him once. So Nina gets stabbed and killed instead. While the palace guards congratulate and pet Weasel and treat him as a hero for saving the country, Nina’s death is pointless and in vain. The Bride, the only one who got close to Nina throughout the season, tried helping her accept her reality as a monster, all seemingly for naught.
‘Creature Commandos’Only team leader Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) refused to believe the vision of the future and tried to disprove it to save the princess (who he had fallen for), with the second half of the season spending a lot of time in this investigation. Indeed, “Creature Commandos” gave Flag a point when he discovered that the professor who made Waller believe in Circe’s vision was actually Clayface (Alan Tudyk) in disguise, seemingly proving that Princess Ilana was innocent. If this were true, then Nina’s death would be even more pointless — Waller even tried to call it off right before it happened.
Turns out, that was but a red herring. In the finale, The Bride recognizes Clayface standing next to the princess on the security tape of the castle and deduces that Circe was right. Princess Ilana knew Circe was right, she tried convincing the Commandos to kill the sorceress when they captured her, and when that failed she sent Clayface to disprove the sorceress. The only problem with this plan was that Clayface arrived too late to keep Waller from believing Circe. We don’t know exactly when Clayface replaced the college professor that led Waller to believe in visions of doom, and it seems it was only by coincidence that Rick Flag Sr. incorrectly deduced that the princess was innocent.
Still, The Bride does figure out that Princess Ilana is exactly the threat to the world that Circe made her out to be, and shoots her in the head. Except she doesn’t kill the princess to save the world, but out of revenge for Ilana murdering the only friend The Bride had and the only member of the team with actual kindness in her heart.
‘Creature Commandos’ After making a prompt escape out of the country before anyone notices the dead monarch, we’re back at Belle Reve prison where The Bride is introduced to her new team and her new headquarters. The surviving members of the Creature Commandos are here — including GI Robot (Sean Gunn), who has an even bigger and stronger robot body, and a new addition, King Shark (Steve Agee). With Season 2 already greenlit, it seems this is the new face of the Creature Commandos, with King Shark replacing Nina as the new aquatic member of the team, and Rick Flag Sr. nowhere to be seen after being left half-dead at the hospital following his fight with Clayface.
Then there’s Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour), who nearly ruined the team’s infiltration of the royal palace in his eternal pursuit of his bride. He is seen in a post-credits scene back in his mansion with the old woman from the first episode, trying to convince himself that The Bride only tried to kill him out of love.
Though the references to the larger DC Universe seem to have been just that — references — the finale does two things. It further cements James Gunn’s “The Suidice Squad” and its place in the new DC Universe by reintroducing King Shark and making him part of the team, and it seems to be establishing Eric Frankenstein as an annoying side character that will pop up every once in a while until eventually Waller realizes his usefulness and assigns him to the squad. One thing is clear, though, the DC Universe is going to be a place for gods and monsters.
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