The old DC Extended Universe, and the Arrowverse along with it, are officially dead. In their stead a new DC Universe is rising, as James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Studios leaves its mark with the first title in the new cinematic universe. Rather than starting with Superman, another founder of the Justice League, or any character that will be the foundation for this entire endeavor, the DC Universe is beginning with “Creature Commandos.”
The show follows Task Force M (for Monster) — essentially just the Suicide Squad but with Universal Classic Monsters and metahuman outcasts, and other weirdos who don’t fit the category of “human.” The team is sent to a foreign land to stop an international incident from happening, as a militia led by a Themysciran witch and a bunch of incels plot to invade a Eastern European-inspired country. The team is comprised of the “Creature from the Black Lagoon”-inspired Nina Mazursky, the Bride (of Frankenstein), Eric Frankenstein himself, the Nazi-killing-obsessed G.I. Robot, and walking radioactive skeleton Doctor Phosphorus, all led by Rick Flag Sr.
Rounding up the team is Weasel, arguably the most curious member of the Creature Commandos. The character first appeared in “The Suicide Squad” where he was mostly there for comic relief and managed to sit out almost the entire movie by being mistakenly declared KIA before the opening battle. Sean Gunn played the character, who looks absolutely hideous yet hilarious — and who reportedly killed 27 children before he was detained in Belle Reve prison.
Creature Commandos is about empathy
Speaking with Nerdist, Sean Gunn talked about wanting to deliver an emotional performance despite having fewer tools in animation compared to live-action:
“James [Gunn] always described Weasel to me as kind of like a big dog, and if you know anyone who has a dog, you know that a dog experiences a whole range of emotions. They get happy. They get sad. And they get frustrated, they get angry, they get all of those things. So I still have all of those emotions at my disposal when playing Weasel. I’m trying to navigate what Weasel is feeling all the time. It is some of the most challenging acting work that I think I’ve ever done in my career.”
Like a big dog, Weasel faces lots of prejudices for the way he looks, with everyone he comes across treating him as gross and dangerous. Throughout the first four episodes of “Creature Commandos,” we get brief glimpses of flashbacks: shots of Weasel with kids, shots of a fire in a school, and Weasel dragging a small child through a fire.
In episode 4, however, we learn through the flashbacks that Weasel was just a lost creature found by a group of schoolchildren who liked playing with him, and treated him like a pet. They seemed happy, but of course, it didn’t last.
When one of the kids discovers that the door to the school was left open, they start playing inside, with a child accidentally knocking a bottle of alcohol right next to a kid playing with matches. The resulting fire spreads fast, and when a groundskeeper sees Weasel, he grabs his rifle, and starts shooting at the creature, accidentally causing an explosion that kills him and most of the kids. Making matters worse, the cops arrive, shoot Weasel, and take him away — not realizing that they dropped the one surviving kid behind to be crushed by the collapsing building. The episode ends with Weasel asleep, crying out for his friends amidst his nightmares, as the sounds of Kaizers Orchestra’s “Hjerteknuser” play over the end credits.
Weasel continues a James Gunn staple
Speaking to Collider, James Gunn said that “[‘Creature Commandos’], at its core, is really a tragedy.” Indeed, even when going all out on the violence, the sex, and the irreverent humor, the key to the show is that the team is “willing to go there with the tragic nature of it.”
Nowhere is this more evident than with Weasel’s story and the way it recontextualizes his role in “The Suicide Squad” — where he was left for dead after being imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. In “Creature Commandos,” there are not only sad moments, but it’s the emptiness with which these moments arrive, especially the deaths. Characters die for no reason, not as a heroic sacrifice or a shocking betrayal, but simply as another casualty in the battle. It has little consequence for the story at large, or even the team, which the show makes abundantly clear is expendable, and the characters replaceable.
That Weasel is the character that ends up becoming the heart of “Creature Commandos” makes sense. After all, James Gunn has a long history of writing loving and tragic stories about animals. Look no further than the heartwrenching portrayal of animal abuse in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” which is hard to watch, but essential to the story of trauma and abuse the film tells. The DC Universe is here, and so far, its heart lies not in truth or justice, but in a mutated weasel.
