James Gunn's first DCU project, Creature Commandos' story centers on a group of, well, monsters, who are enlisted by Amanda Waller to operate as a clandestine strike force.

After years of waiting - that will still take place for Gunn's Superman movie in 2025. With Creature Commandos, the DCU is proving to get off to the start it needed to, accomplishing a feat that it took the former iteration of the franchise - the DCEU - four years and four feature films to achieve.

Creature Commandos Is The DCU’s First Official Project & Receiving Great Reviews

The DCU's Beginning Is A Positive One

Firstly, it is worth exploring the nature of Creature Commandos as the DCU's first project. Many are still finding it difficult to believe that a story as obscure as this is kickstarting a major superhero franchise, as opposed to a Superman or Batman movie, or even Iron Man of the MCU. That said, this is entirely intentional by James Gunn. Gunn has stated that the Superman is the true beginning of the franchise in a story sense and that Creature Commandos is more of an introduction to what will become the wider DCU.

This could have been deemed a risk, but it seems Creature Commandos ed the DCU's first test with flying colors. The reviews for Creature Commandos are excellent, with the show holding a 96% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The reviews praise elements from the animation and voice acting to the story that allows Gunn to write a formula he is good at with a group of misfits on a quest to save the day from a bigger evil. The average rating for Creature Commandos is 8.4/10, proving the DCU's first project to be a successful one critically.

The DCEU Took Four Years & Four Movies To Get The Success Of James Gunn’s First DCU Project

The DCEU's Successor Has Already Outdone It In Barely Any Time At All

What makes Creature Commandos' reception all the more impressive is how long it took the DCEU to achieve this level of critical success. The DCEU began in 2013 with Man of Steel, and while the movie is somewhat beloved among general audiences, it was not a home-run start where critics are concerned. Man of Steel debuted with a 57% Rotten Tomatoes score, which is fairly respectable when comparing it with the reactions to the two immediate movies that followed it in 2016.

Man of Steel was followed by Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016, a film that was panned by critics with a 29% approval rating. 2016's Suicide Squad did not buck this trend, somehow receiving even weaker reviews with a 26% Rotten Tomatoes score. It was four movies and four years into the DCEU that the franchise released its first positively reviewed movie with 2017's Wonder Woman. This film earned a 93% critical rating, as well as a franchise-high 83% audience score at the time.

This puts into perspective how important it is that Creature Commandos has debuted with such strong reviews at the first time of asking for the DCU. Already, the franchise has bettered the first four movies in the DCEU and proven DC's many comic book characters to be in good hands. Hopefully, this means that DCU's future projects can ride Creature Commandos' positive wave, so to speak, starting with Superman in 2025.

The DCU Is Off To A Strong Start, But It Needs To Overcome The DCEU’s Other Big Critical Problem

Consistency Is Key

All of this is proof of how well the DCU is starting, but it needs to continue this streak long after Creature Commandos if the franchise is to overcome the DCEU's biggest issue: inconsistency. In 2017, many hoped that Wonder Woman would be the first in a long line of DCEU movies that resonated positively with fans and critics alike. Unfortunately, this proved not to be the case. Immediately after Wonder Woman was Justice League, a movie that should have been excellent but started the DCEU down a creatively unfocused path, resulting in four different versions of the same movie.

Justice League's theatrical version did not fare much better than Suicide Squad or Batman v Superman, splitting the franchise in half between those who wanted Zack Snyder's vision to continue and the executives of Warner Bros. who tried to make the DCEU somewhat of an anthology series. What followed were Aquaman, Shazam!, Birds of Prey, and Wonder Woman 1984, possessing 65%, 90%, 78%, and 57% critical scores on Rotten Tomatoes respectively. Evidently, Wonder Woman's overt success was only emulated by Shazam!, proving the DCEU to be a franchise riddled with inconsistency in more ways than one.

As evident, this inconsistency continued long after Wonder Woman 1984 too. The DCEU continued to fail to craft enjoyable movies on a mass scale, mostly driven by the overwhelming lack of creative vision regarding the franchise overall. With all that in mind, the DCU must overcome this. Creature Commandos ed the first step by being better received than the first four DCEU projects, but its successors must do the same. If the DCU is to succeed where the DCEU failed, it needs consistency across each project and the translation of a cohesive vision of a connected universe.

Creature Commandos’ Reviews Are Great, But The DCU’s First Movie Needs To Outdo The DCEU’s First

Superman Faces A Lot Of Pressure

Now that Creature Commandos has premiered to great reviews, all eyes turn to the DCU's true beginning, in Gunn's eyes: Superman. Creature Commandos' characters will undoubtedly feed into the DCU's future, but Gunn has made it no secret that Superman is where the true story of the franchise begins. This emulates the DCEU, with the first movie installment of both franchises centering around DC's most iconic hero. To prove it is here to stay as a creative, consistent franchise, the DCU's Superman needs to outdo the DCEU's Man of Steel.

James Gunn's Superman will be released worldwide on July 11, 2025.

Man of Steel is certainly not a bad movie and is actually often classed as one of the stronger projects in the entire DCEU, but it certainly did not resonate with everyone. Given the relatively un-divisive nature of Superman as a character, the DCU's movie needs to rectify this. If Gunn's Superman can appeal to everyone as it seems Creature Commandos is doing, the DCU will have taken another step forward in fixing the DCEU's mistakes, providing audiences with cause for optimism as the new-look universe based on DC Comics continues to expand.

DC Movie Releases

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  Superman

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  Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

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  The Batman Part II

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