Ahead of the release of DC Studios’ Creature Commandos, catch up on everything you need to know ahead of the series, including a recap of the events of 2021’s The Suicide Squad and 2022’s Peacemaker season 1. Find our full The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker recap below.
Before we break into a full recap of the story so far, a few terms and premises must be explained. Task Force X is a black ops team founded by Amanda Waller as a measure to control and execute missions in a secretive manner. The idea revolved around using lives that are ‘irredeemable’ to remove the humanity from inhumane acts.
Task Force M serves on a similar basis. Task Force X is based out of Belle Reve prison, a superhuman prison facility used to house metahumans and other super powered individuals at the hands of ARGUS. ARGUS stands for Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans and is a US government division headed by Amanda Waller.
‘Suicide Squad’ (2016) Recap
Before we get into James Gunn’s takes on the ARGUS side of DC, we must go back to 2016, to the release of David Ayer’s highly criticized Suicide Squad film. Whilst the film is controversial for many reasons regarding its quality and eccentric take on Joker, the film set the stage for essentially a new take on DC.
The film was the third film in the DC Extended Universe (not to be confused with the new DC Universe, Chapter One: Gods & Monsters), and is currently not clear how canon it is to the new era of DC films and television besides a few plot threads continued on in sequels.
Suicide Squad followed Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) as she assembled a team of black ops operatives known as Task Force X, led by Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). The catch is? The team consists of some of the biggest villains in the DC catalogue. On the roster of this colloquially named Suicide Squad was Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Deadshot (Will Smith), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Katana (Karen Fukuhara), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), and Slipknot (Adam Beach).
While on their mission to unknowingly rescue Waller in Midway, not every member of the team survived, with Slipknot dying due to not following orders. After deserting the mission the team become friends with each other and attempt to save the world from the villainous Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), and in doing so El Diablo is killed, sacrificing his life.
The film was poorly received but set the stage for what is now one of DC’s most popular live-action heroes, Harley Quinn, who would go on to appear as a lead in Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). There, she breaks up with the Joker (Jared Leto) off-screen and makes alliances with Huntress, Cassandra Cain, and Renee Montoya against Black Mask and Victor Zsasz.
‘The Suicide Squad’ (2021) Recap
As a follow-up to Suicide Squad, James Gunn took the reigns from David Ayer for 2021’s The Suicide Squad and released an R-rated take on the characters set in the DC Extended Universe. The film shares some canon with the DC Universe, particularly the fates of Rick Flag, Peacemaker, Weasel and the events that conspired on Corto Maltese.
The Suicide Squad again follows Amanda Waller as she assembles Task Force X. There actually was two teams in the film, the first led by Rick Flag and consisting of Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, Savant (Michael Rooker), Weasel (Sean Gunn), Blackguard (Pete Davidson), The Detachable Kid (Nathan Fillion), Javelin (Flula Borg), and Mongul (Mayling Ng). The second team was led by Bloodsport (Idris Elba), and featured a roster consisting of Peacemaker (John Cena), Ratcatcher II (Daniela Melchior), Polka Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), and King Shark (Sylvester Stallone).
The first team is sent to Corto Maltese to investigate Project Starfish, a lab experimenting with mind control, but is quickly wiped out when Blackguard betrays the team. As a result, Captain Boomerang, Savant, The Detachable Kid, Javelin, and Mongul die, with Weasel presumed dead. The remaining members, Flag and Quinn are split up, with the former joining a rebel group and the former going with the dictator of the island. The second team aims to rescue Quinn and soon reunite with the two.
More events transpire, with Peacemaker forced to kill Rick Flag to maintain America’s peace at the orders of Waller. Bloodsport sees this and leaves Peacemaker for dead after a brief fight. Now, the remaining members of the team join forces yet again and try to bring down the main villain of the story, Starro. In doing this, Polka Dot Man dies after being squashed by the kaiju.
This leaves the team with information found in Project Starfish that would be at the detriment of the American government so Task Force X uses the information as a failsafe against Waller, leading to Bloodsport, Harley, Ratcatcher II, and King Shark to go free.
In a post credit scene, Peacemaker is rescued and held in an ICU ward as he recovers. John Economos (Steve Agee) and Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) visit his bedside and mutter about saving the world in a tease at the next project, Peacemaker.
‘Peacemaker’ Recap
The third project relevant to Creature Commandos is the first and final series of the DC Extended Universe, which was released on HBO Max back in 2022. The show served as a spin-off of The Suicide Squad and followed up on Christopher Smith / Peacemaker’s story whilst expanding on the behind-the-scenes of ARGUS as a department and organisation.
Peacemaker followed the titular character as he is forced into yet another Task Force X situation, but instead working alongside operatives that aren’t typical villains or heroes in the comics. The team, which consisted of Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji), Emilia Harcourt, John Economos, Adrian Chase / Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), and Peacemaker, were tasked with taking out an alien invasion of Butterflies, who furthered themes of mind control present in The Suicide Squad.
While the specific details of Peacemaker season 1 aren’t too relevant to Creature Commandos, Peacemaker set the stage for the series, and is the reason why Task Force M exists, with the events at the end of the series causing the creation. At the end of the first season of Peacemaker season 1, the 11th Street Kids (what the team calls themselves) expose Waller’s illegal usage of humans as pawns at her exposal, to the public. This leads to her later creating Task Force M, or the Creature Commandos, in the upcoming DC Studios series.
It’s worth noting that a cameo from The Justice League (Superman, Wonder Woman, Ezra Miller’s Flash, and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman) in the season finale will not be canon to the DC Universe, but the rest of the series is confirmed to be canon. Another plot point that connects The Suicide Squad to Peacemaker and to Creature Commandos is Peacemaker dealing with killing Rick Flag, an act he regrets, which serves as part of his arc in the series.
Rick Flag’s father, Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) will be featured in Creature Commandos as the lead operative of Task Force M, and is expected to reference some of these events if not, then in Peacemaker season 2.
The second season of the show will pick up after the events of Creature Commandos and Superman, and will be the third project in the DC Universe, discounting the first season. It’s been confirmed that Rick Flag’s father, played by Frank Grillo, will feature in the series and is sure to face off against Peacemaker regarding the murder of his son in Corto Maltese.
How Does ‘Creature Commandos’ Tie Into The DCU?
That brings us to Creature Commandos, the first DC Studios produced DC Universe project. The series is the first project to be 100% canon to the universe and continues on the larger story from Peacemaker season 1, but works as its own project and is ultimately standalone with no required watching.
Creature Commandos follows Amanda Waller as she assembles a fourth team of operatives, this time a group of monsters known as Task Force M. The team is led by Rick Flag Sr. and consists of The Bride (Indira Varma), Nina Mazursky (Zoe Chao), Dr Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk), GI Robot and Weasel (both played by Sean Gunn). The only characters here reprising roles from previous projects in the story are Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Steve Agee as John Economos and Sean Gunn as Weasel.
The show sees the team travel to a foreign country on a mission to protect the ruling monarch Ilana Rostovic from the villainous Themysciran Circe (Anya Chalotra). Not everything goes to plan with interruptions from Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour) and all sorts of twists and turns. While it’s not known how the series ties into Superman and Peacemaker season 2, expect the series to, with James Gunn guaranteeing connectivity through these standalone projects.
Creature Commandos starts streaming on Max on December 5 with a 2 episode premiere. 5 more episodes will release weekly until January 9.
Thanks for reading this The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker recap. For more breakdowns and articles like this, stay tuned here at Feature First.
