DC Studios Releases 'Creature Commandos' Trailer At Comic-Con, Set To Kick Off DC Universe And New Retro Logo Era
The animated series premieres in December on Max
On the Wednesday before San Diego Comic-Con, Variety published an article about the major pop culture event climbing out of hobblings by the COVID-19 pandemic and last year’s dual strikes to a sense of normalcy. That normalcy comes in a year where DC Studios, the entertainment arm of DC Comics, doesn’t have enough film projects deep enough into production to justify a Hall H panel to rival that of Marvel Studios. A new trailer for Joker: Folie À Deux was released the day before the piece dropped. Instead its individual television series each getting their own panels. However, that Variety article featured a nugget that revealed there would be some news broken, and boy was it. The trailer for Creature Commandos, the seven-episode animated series that kicks off the new DC Universe this December was finally released.
How did they pull this off? Series creator and writer and DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn, days away from wrapping his writing-directing effort of next July’s Superman, at which point he rejoins production on season 2 of Peacemaker, sent a video message played during the Jim Lee & Friends panel, hosted by the President, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics. Creature Commandos picks up with Amanda Waller, voiced by the returning Viola Davis, unable to jeopardize human lives following her secret business with both the Suicide Squad aka Task Force X and Team Peacemaker, so she goes further rogue and builds a new team, Task Force M, the Creature Commandos. They include Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., Sean Gunn reprising as Weasel and playing G.I. Robot, Maria Bakalova as Princess Ilana Rostovic, Indira Varma as The Bride, Zoe Chao as lagoon creature Nina Mazursky, Alan Tudyk as Dr. Phosphorus, and David Harbour as Eric Frankenstein, with Steve Agee reprising his role as John Economos. Captain Rick Flag is brought to the inner prison areas of Belle Reve to meet the team, and pretty much everyone gets to show off themselves.
But the very first thing the trailer showed as Flag’s helicopter descended? The first formal logo for DC Studios, and marking the broader company’s first jump since May 2016. And it’s a logo many are familiar with. The company is bringing back the classic logo, known as the “DC bullet,” that appeared its publications from 1976 to 2005. It was designed by Milton Glaser, the legendary graphic designer behind the “I Love NY” logo, among other works. It is DC’s longest-lasting logo, with only the Superman National Comics one coming close with a 21 year run. One might notice that it also comes just before Superman: The Movie in 1978 and encompasses the Batman film quartet and most of the DCAU, bringing an even bigger audience as Crisis on Infinite Earths and all the subsequent event comics of the 20 years that follow it occur. If you were into Cartoon Network shows and got their licensed comics, they had this logo.
Lee said the logo was “meant to evoke its powerful legacy while ushering in a new era of stories”. He explained that “For me, and many generations of fans, that particular logo defined DC in its heyday. I remember during the renaissance of DC in the 1980s, with Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, The Shadow coming out, that was the DC logo. In the minds of many fans, that is the mark that defined the DC brand. It’s exciting to bring it back.”
Replacing the multi-hero logo sequence that opens the films will be a Joe Shuster style Superman appearing behind the logo busting out of chains. Think what Warner Bros. Animation has been doing. Variants? No word yet. DC Studios’s other co-CEO, Peter Safran actually likened it to the MGM Lion, saying “We love the simplicity… It’s timeless, classic. And we thought, ‘What are the elements that we have for something like that?’ And Superman felt like that for DC.” Gunn explained on Instagram that “when DC Studios needed a logo I knew exactly where the turn. We needed something with respect for the past that looked forward to a wonderful future.” Something unified and recognizable, honoring the comics, its writers and artists, and the fans he thanked for supporting the new regime. Creature Commandos premieres in December on Max, while the new DC Studios logo will premiere in October, which telegraphs a debut with Joker: Folie À Deux and/or the final season of Superman & Lois.
Sources: Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter