We are a product of our environment. Our actions, speech, and ideologies are guided by instincts that are in turn shaped by the kind of world we live in. DCU’s debut venture, Creature Commandos, featured a recurrent question throughout its first season, consisting of seven episodes: whether or not it is possible to betray this ingrained instinct at the core of our being. Viewers got to know about the eponymous team of monstrous misfits and learned about their traumatic origins and their tragic past experiences of being treated as dreaded outcasts by the rest of humanity. The way their worldview was shaped as a result, it was easy for them to not get sentimental and turn their back on the world that has ostracized them. However, as the series comes to an end, their perseverance and willingness to betray that instinct to become better than what is expected of them truly made the Creature Commandos heroic; at least in my book, that is.
Despite learning about Circe’s deceit of portraying Princess Ilana as a major threat, a grievously injured Rick Flag Sr. was unable to inform Waller about the truth, and Eric Frankenstein ventured to Pokolistan to find Bride and possibly also to share Flag’s warning with the team. On the other hand, in Pokolistan, Bride leads the Creature Commandos to find and reach Princess Ilana and eliminate her to fulfill Waller’s mission. The first season finale brings the first volume of the adventures of Creature Commandos to a fitting end, echoing the series’ tragi-comedy tone all the while promising further expansion in the near future.
Spoilers Ahead
Nina Mazurksy’s Tragic Past
Like clockwork, the season finale opens with a flashback sequence to bring the tragic past of Nina Mazursky, the only mentally sound member of the titular team, to light. Nina, daughter of renowned scientist Edward Mazursky, was born with a troubling condition, which resulted in her extreme difficulty in breathing and her lungs almost sticking out of her body. While her mother, Lily, found it impossible to bear the sight of Nina’s disfigured condition and considered her to be a monstrosity, Edward always showered their daughter with love and care. Unable to cope with the reality, Lily left the family, leaving Edward as the sole guardian of Nina. It should be mentioned that, unlike his comics counterpart Myron Mazursky, who played a crucial role in the creation of Creature Commandos, in the series, Edward Mazursky isn’t connected with the team in any capacity—ot at least if he is then it isn’t highlighted in this season.
Since her infancy, Nina had to wear a bulky apparatus that provided her with a continual oxygen supply, and on one occasion, Edward decided to get rid of it by using an experimental procedure on Nina to cure her of her condition and allow her to live freely. Edward used the DNA of aquatic creatures in the experiment, which triggered a mutation in Nina and turned her into an aquatic-humanoid creature with gills and fins. Even though Nina no longer needed the apparatus, she had to wear a specialized aqua suit to breathe. Although Nina had proven herself to be quite a genius at an early age, due to her transformed appearance, she faced great difficulty fitting in among the humans. Throughout her academic career, Nina was bullied and tormented by her peers, and one day, she decided to leave her home forever to settle in the submarine depths, leaving a farewell note for her father.
However, a distraught Edward got another chance to meet his daughter after Nina was spotted near the waterways of Metropolis, Bludhaven, and Star City and eventually got captured. Edward desperately tried to reach Nina and managed to convey his love for her daughter before getting shot to death by the security present at the location. A helpless Nina writhed in agony over the loss of losing the only person who loved and cared for her as she was forcibly taken away by the securities to be kept in Belle Reeve penitentiary.
Did Nina Breathe Her Last?
In the present, Bride and the Commandos reach the surveillance room of the royal castle, where they see footage of Clayface with Princess Ilana. Eric, who has been tailing Bride after reaching the castle, decides to surprise her by sneaking up on the team, and seeing him, Phosphorus passes a snarky comment, to which Bride retorts with a cheeky ‘Ghost Rider’ reference. Anyway, Bride is in no mood to entertain Eric’s hopeless love tantrums, and she ends up shooting him to death. Rest assured, Eric is alive, as the mid-credits scene of the finale shows him patched up and enjoying a meal with the gypsy woman who appeared in the very first episode of the season.
As the team struggles to find an opening to infiltrate the heavily fortified castle, Princess Ilana ends up making things easier for them by deciding to take a dive into the lake inside the castle courtyard. Bride decides to hand Nina the monumental task of killing Ilana, as she will have an advantage sneaking up on her by moving from beneath the lake. Nina appears unwilling to shoulder such a dreadful responsibility; she has been the unwavering moral compass of the team and really isn’t cut out for the job. Still, Phosphorus and Bride manage to convince her by instilling her with courage. Weasel appears to be in duress, as the poor guy had found a connection with Ilana—likening her to the little girl he’d failed to save all those years ago, and knowing that his teammates are planning to kill Ilana, he starts feeling anxious and nervous all of a sudden.
Moments before Nina is about to deliver the deathblow to Ilana, Weasel, unable to control himself, creates a distraction, resulting in Bride and Phosphorus’ cover getting blown. Alerted, Ilana is able to stop Nina’s assault, and after overpowering her, she stabs Nina to death, much to Bride and her team’s shock and horror. In the meanwhile, Waller learns about Circe’s deceit after Flag Sr. somehow conveys to her the Macpherson situation. Taking Economos with her, the A.R.G.U.S. chief goes to check up on Professor Macpherson’s place and realizes how Clayface had impersonated her to befool Waller and co. Waller hurriedly shares the truth with Ilana and Bride to clear up the misunderstanding, and a distraught Bride has no option other than to call off the mission.
Did Bride Kill Princess Ilana at the End?
However, from the footage of Clayface being present with Ilana, Bride has surmised that Circe was right all along about Ilana being a mischievous, ambitious, villainous figure, planning to conquer the world in the near future. Ilana has been playing the long game with them, seducing Rick Flag Sr. to win his trust, and double-crossing Waller by letting Clayface impersonate the Amazon expert professor. Now that Bride has caught onto her ruse, she remarks that Ilana will meet her end, but not because Bride is motivated by some heroic purpose. But because she killed Nina, the only friend Bride ever had, the only one with a soul among the ragtag bunch of freaky misfits. Bride sneakily dispatches Ilana by putting a bullet in her head, and returns to the States with Phosphorus and Weasel—thereby averting a major crisis in the most grounded way possible. It should be mentioned that in Ilana’s library, Bride is seen taking Mary Shelley’s novel, Mathilda, in her hand, which acts as a nod to the legendary author who brought Frankenstein’s monster to life.
Bride Is The Leader of An Updated Creature Commandos
After learning about Bride’s heroics and quick wittedness, which essentially helped Waller and her company of shady bureaucrats to save face, Bride is given the role of leading a new batch of Creature Commandos, with King Shark, She-Bat/Nosferata, and Aten joining her existing teammates, Phosphorus and Weasel. Bride has made peace with this new life, and with the promise that the team will be treated with more respect from now on, she is ready to take part in new misadventures. I am glad that replacing Flag, who is too fickle-minded and easygoing, an actual monster will be leading the team—and there are no human members left in the team any longer.
As mentioned earlier as well, in a mid-credits scene, Eric Frankenstein is shown to be alive and well, taking refuge at the home of the old gypsy woman who was previously working as his informant. Which means, in the already greenlit second season of Creature Commandos, we will once again meet Eric, Bride, and the Commandos, and I am sure fans will be eager to see their live-action appearance soon enough as well.
Speaking of future appearances in live-action ventures, Rick Flag Sr., who is still recuperating from his injuries after the battle with Clayface, will appear in Superman in a supporting role. Also, with Mike Flanagan’s script, a Clayface solo movie set in the DCU has reached the pre-production stage, which might refer to his appearance in the series and larger DCU connections as well. Overall, DCU is off to a great start with the first season of Creature Commandos, and hopefully, later this year, the cinematic universe will reach new heights as Superman soars high and above.
