The titular team that makes up the main cast of Creature Commandos includes mostly very obscure villains and anti-heroes from the pages of DC Comics, but the animated series has surprised and delighted fans by including an assortment of references to, and cameos from more well-known figures from the comics, including some of the company's most famous and beloved superheroes and villains and the latest episode is no exception. Season 1, Episode 6, titled "Priyatel Skelet" continues to flesh out the world of James Gunn and Peter Safran's new shared DC Universe, even including a brief appearance by a certain Dark Knight.
Gotham's Rupert Thorne Comes to 'Creature Commandos'
Episode 6's flashback sequences depict the horrifying origin story of Creature Commando Doctor Phosphorous (Alan Tudyk), previously known as Alexander "Alex" Sartorious. A nuclear scientist, Alex was researching groundbreaking uses of nuclear energy that he believed could potentially cure cancer. His work was funded by Gotham City mobster Rupert Thorne (Benjamin Byron Davis), until a disagreement between the men led to a tragedy that highlighted the extent of Thorne's ruthless depravity and facilitated Alex's own transformation into a supervillain.
Created by Steve Englehart and Walter "Walt" Simonson, Thorne first appeared in Detective Comics #469 in 1977. Creature Commandos' depiction of the character is faithful to most of his comic incarnations, in which he serves as an influential figure in the Gotham underworld, and, consequently, a major enemy of Batman's, despite lacking superhuman powers or one of the more overtly wild kinds of personality that many of the crime fighter's other opponents have. Thorne has been included in various other DC multimedia adaptations, including Batman: The Animated Series, in which he was voiced by John Vernon.
The Bialya Connection in DC Comics and Cinematic Canon
It is revealed that Alex's arrangement with Thorne included a promise to allow the mobster to ship radioactive materials to the government of Bialya, a fictional nation from DC canon, after Alex was done experimenting on them. However, Alex's wife, Parvin (Parisa Fakhri), who grew up in a country with a corrupt government, urged Alex not to go through with this. Alex provided only fake data to Thorne and Bialya, but when the former discovered this, he and his gang murdered both Parvin and her and Alex's young child before framing Alex for doing so. They subsequently attempted to kill Alex with one of his own machines, but this actually transformed him into the skeletal Doctor Phosphorous and gave him the superpowers he would later use to murder the gang members (and, in Thorne's case, his family) and take over Thorne's position in the mob.
First appearing in 1987, Bialya has become one of DC's most frequently used fictional nations, although several of the stories involving the country, which is usually located somewhere in the Middle East, have been interpreted as offensive. Like Thorne, Bialya is also used in an assortment of other DC adaptations, including the DC Extended Universe film Wonder Woman 1984.
Metahumans Are Common in the DCU
In addition to its specific references, Episode 6 also illustrates a more general point about the DC Universe, that being, that it is a world in which superpowers and related phenomena are public knowledge and relatively common. This sets the burgeoning franchise apart from predecessors such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC's own Arrowverse, which started by depicting relatively realistic heroes and villains before introducing their more outlandish peers (though both franchises would go on to reveal that stranger figures had existed in secret before their first projects).
While hiding from Pokolistani security forces, Creature Commandos The Bride (Indira Varma) and Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao) take shelter in a local brothel. Eventually, they come to the aid of one of the sex workers working in the brothel, who is attacked by a pair of abusive customers calling themselves the Craic brothers. The Craics had previously identified themselves as metahumans (a generic term in DC canon for people with superpowers), with the brothel's madam, Gyurov (Shohreh Aghdashloo), being familiar with the term. The Craics are shown to be able to manipulate electricity, but The Bride ultimately still kills them with little difficulty. Also, in one of the flashback sequences, a security guard working at Thorne's residence is shown reading a fictional magazine titled "MetaSleaze," which seems to feature explicit depictions of famous metahumans and/or people dressed to resemble them.
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Posts Bat-Mite Gets Another DCU Reference
When John Economos (Steve Agee) and Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) go to see the hospitalized Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo), a doctor informs them that he was dropped off at the hospital by a monster. Before realizing that he is referring to Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour), Economos asks the doctor if he knows what kind of monster it was, rattling off a list of classifications including "a mite," alluding to the existence of a bizarre group of DC characters. Bat-Mite is a being known as an imp from the 5th dimension, like the character Mister Mxyzptlk from the Superman franchise. A huge fan of Batman, Bat-Mite uses his immense, reality-altering magical powers to participate in adventures with his idol, though he usually does more harm than good. The character was previously referenced, also by Economos, in the series Peacemaker, which is mostly canon to the DCU.
Is That The Iceberg Lounge?
After Phosphorous kills Thorne, a montage depicts him replacing the latter as a mob kingpin, during which he is shown exiting a nightclub called "The Ice Lounge." In many versions of the DC mythos, including Matt Reeves' 2022 film The Batman and its recent television spin-off The Penguin, The Iceberg Lounge is a central location in the Gotham underworld, usually owned and/or managed by Oswald "Oz" Cobblepott, the supervillain better known as The Penguin. With Thorne dead and Phosphorous incarcerated sometime after this scene, it's entirely possible that a DCU version of Oz could have taken over the club and modified its name.
'Creature Commandos' Delivers Another Look at DCU Batman
The Gotham-related Easter eggs culminate in another brief look at the city's most famous resident. The montage of Phosphorous' life of crime ends with a scene in which the lights in The Ice Lounge abruptly shut off, after which Phosphorous looks up to see Batman perched directly below the building's skylight, likely leading to a battle that ends in Phosphorous' arrest and imprisonment in Belle Reve. Although, unlike the depiction of a deceased Batman from Episode 4's cameo-packed flashforward sequence, this scene shows the Caped Crusader in action, most of the character's body is obscured from sight by shadow, with Gunn having subsequently explained to Rotten Tomatoes TV that he requested that the Creature Commandos team depict the character mostly in silhouette so that future projects would not feel obligated to replicate many specific aspects of his appearance.
Gunn confirmed that, "This is the DCU Batman," before laughing at how the vagueness of his own comment allows him to avoid addressing speculation that Robert Pattinson's version of the character from Reeves' franchise will be integrated into the DCU, which continues to run rampant among fans despite previous indications this will not be the case. The next DCU project in which Batman is officially confirmed to appear is a film titled The Brave and the Bold, which will also feature the character's biological son, Damian Wayne, although the character's versatility and importance to DC means other appearances in any number of intervening projects would not be especially surprising. Gunn ended the discussion of the cameo by noting his excitement for viewers to see more of Batman and Superman in the DCU, individually and alongside one another.
The Bride Makes a Perfect Tim Burton Joke
Episode 6 was light on references to non-DC media, with the only overt name-drop coming when The Bride compares Phosphorous to a Tim Burton character. When the remaining Creature Commandos reassemble at the end of the episode, Phosphorous comments on how scantily-clad The Bride (who, unbeknownst to him, lost her identifiable trench coat during her fight with the Craics) is, saying that she looks hot, to which she replies, "Now can it, Jack Skellington," referring to the monstrous protagonist of Burton's 1993 animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas, who like Phosphorous has a visible skeleton.
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8 10 Creature Commandos TV-MA
In "Creature Commandos," Amanda Waller assembles a covert team of monstrous operatives, including a werewolf, vampire, and gorgon, to undertake high-risk missions deemed too perilous for human agents.
Release Date December 5, 2024 Cast Indira Varma , Frank Grillo , Zoe Chao , David Harbour , Sean Gunn , Alan Tudyk , Anya Chalotra , Maria Bakalova , Viola Davis , Steve Agee , Benjamin Byron Davis Main Genre Animation Seasons 1 Creator(s) James Gunn Franchise(s) DC Expand
New episodes of Creature Commandos premiere Thursdays on Max.
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