Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the Creature Commandos Season 1 finale.
The seventh episode of Creature Commandos is also the DC Universe series’ first season finale. As such, it is quite eventful, charged with concluding most of the season’s main storylines. Despite this, there are still a few Easter eggs and references to DC history and other media spread throughout the final half hour.
‘Creature Commandos’ References Marvel’s Ghost Rider
Creature Commandos Doctor Phosphorous (Alan Tudyk) and The Bride (Indira Varma) continue to exchange sarcastic jokes at one another’s expense, with one of the latter’s final jibes at the former making a telling reference to a Marvel Comics character. When The Bride’s immortal stalker, Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour), confronts the team during their mission to kill Pokolistan’s Princess Ilana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova), The Bride promptly shoots him in the chest several times, knocking him out a window. Phosphorous sardonically asks if Erik is a, “Paramour of yours?” to which The Bride replies, “Oh, can it, Ghost Rider.”
For those that don’t know, the Ghost Riders are antiheroes in the Marvel universe, usually humans possessed by demonic spirits that pursue violent vengeance against vicious criminals. When a Rider’s full power is in use, its host’s body is transformed into a flaming skeleton, hence the resemblance to the skeletal, irradiated Phosphorous. The Riders are a staple group of characters in Marvel history, with Nicolas Cage and Gabriel Luna having played live-action versions in a pair of films and the Marvel Cinematic Universe television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., respectively. In addition to being a simply amusing reference to a more famous group of characters that Phosphorous looks like, the name-drop also establishes a small but important detail about the world of the DCU. Marvel and DC Comics frequently reference one another, with each company often being shown to exist in the fictional universes of the other so that the characters can make appropriate references to their famous counterparts, which in one another’s realities, are fictional. The MCU and the DCU’s predecessor, the DC Extended Universe, have replicated this dynamic, and it makes sense for the new franchise to follow suit, given how prominent the MCU has made many aspects of Marvel canon in modern pop culture.
‘Creature Commandos’ Introduces Nina’s Father From the Comics
Episode 7, titled “A Very Funny Monster,” features flashback sequences depicting the heartbreaking backstory of Commando member Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao), which also introduces the character’s father, Edward (Gregg Henry). Although, in the comics, Nina’s father is named Myron, Edward plays a role nearly identical to his counterpart’s. A brilliant scientist, Edward performs a risky procedure on Nina to repair a lung condition she suffers from, but, as in one version of her comic book story, this results in her transforming into her distinctive, fish-like form and only being able to breathe underwater.
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Harbour also spills on working on the final season of ‘Stranger Things’ and filming ‘Thunderbolts.’
‘Creature Commandos’ Fills Out the DCU Map With Metropolis and Blüdhaven
The flashbacks to Nina’s past also continue Creature Commandos’ work of introducing many of the fictional locations from DC Comics into the DCU. Nina grew up in Star City, known as the hometown of superhero Oliver Queen/Green Arrow and related characters. After running away from Edward’s home to live in the city’s bodies of water, Nina is captured by frightened citizens and law enforcement agents, with a television news reporter mentioning how animal control experts from Metropolis and Blüdhaven assisted in the apprehension. Metropolis, of course, is the home of Clark Kent/Superman, who will be played in the DCU by David Corenswet. Introduced to the comics universe in 1996, Blüdhaven is a neighboring city to Gotham from the Batman mythology. After leaving his role as Batman’s partner, the original Robin, Dick Grayson, takes on the new superhero moniker Nightwing and eventually moves to Blüdhaven in the hopes of ridding it of corruption, which is often shown as being even more rampant in the new city than it is in Gotham.
During her final confrontation with Ilana, The Bride initially feigns casualness by perusing the princess’ personal library while speaking. Several famous books, including Don Quixote and Wuthering Heights, are shown among the collection, but most significant is the moment in which The Bride briefly takes hold of Mary Shelley’s Mathilda. Shelley is the novelist who created the initial literary iterations of Eric and The Bride. The father of the titular character in Mathilda also harbors incestuous feelings for his daughter, recalling the incestuous relationship Creature Commandos’ version of The Bride’s creator, Victor Frankenstein (Peter Serafinowicz), had with her. During this scene, The Bride also calls Ilana “a power-mad, sadistic, narcissistic, Disney princess,” though this is seemingly just a general description of the latter’s innocent, almost childish façade rather than an intended reference to any specific piece of Disney media.
Task Force M Gets Some New Familiar Faces
In the episode’s final scene before the credits roll, John Economos (Steve Agee) explains to The Bride that, on Amanda Waller’s (Viola Davis) orders, part of the non-human interment wing of Belle Reve Penitentiary has been given refurbishments so that the members of Task Force M/the Creature Commandos can live more comfortably in their downtime, implying that A.R.G.U.S. will continue employing the group for covert missions. Relaxing in the quarters are Phosphorous and another surviving Commando, Weasel (Sean Gunn), a rebuilt and upgraded G.I. Robot (also Gunn), and a trio of new recruits for the team. The first of the latter is Nanue/King Shark (Diedrich Bader), who previously served on the titular team in the 2021 DC film The Suicide Squad (in which the character was played by Agee and Sylvester Stallone), while the other two, who make only wordless cameos, appear to be DC characters Nosferata and the mummy known as Khalis. The implied addition of the latter to the series’ cast is especially telling, as a version of Khalis heals Nina at one point in the comics, suggesting that the latter’s presumed death at the hands of Ilana could be reversed in the future.
Frankenstein Refuses To Take the Hint
Speaking of reversing deaths, the finale has a post-credits scene that confirms that Eric survived The Bride’s attack and still remains obsessed with her. Eric is shown sharing a meal of soup with the female operative of his, referred to in the credits simply as “Old Woman” (Bakalova), who informed him that The Bride was in Pokolistan in the season premiere.
The first season of Creature Commandos is available to stream on Max.
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
, Sean Gunn
, Alan Tudyk
, Zoe Chao
, David Harbour
, Viola Davis
, Maria Bakalova
, Peter Serafinowicz
, Jake Tapper
, Tony Cavalero
, Anya Chalotra
, Flula Borg
, Michael Rooker
, Robbie Daymond
, Keith Ferguson
, Piotr Michael
, Derek Phillips
, Maury Sterling
, Paul Ben-Victor
, Joe Zieja
, Steve Agee
, Julian Kostov
, Nickolai Stoilov
, Stephanie Beatriz - Seasons
-
1
- Producers
-
Dean Lorey
, James Gunn
, Peter Safran
, Sam Register
, Rick Morales - Network
-
Max
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