Every Major DCU Cameo, Easter Egg & Shout-Out in Creature Commandos Season 1 (So Far)

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Creature Commandos Season 1, “The Collywobbles,” and Episode 2, “The Tourmaline Necklace.”

Max Original Creature Commandos marks the official start of James Gunn’s new DC Universe; the franchise’s cinematic future starts here! With that in mind, we’ve rounded up every major DCU cameo, Easter egg, and shout-out in Creature Commandos Season 1 (so far).

Pokolistan

Creature Commandos Season 1 doesn’t waste anytime with its worldbuilding. Less than a minute into Episode 1’s runtime, we get our first nod to DC Comics canon: Pokolistan. This small European nation – under attack from Circe and her paramilitary goons – factored prominently in the early 2000s Superman comics, in which it’s conquered by legendary baddie General Zod. But that’s not the case in Creature Commandos, which depicts Pokolistan as ruled by Princess Ilana Rostovic. Oh, and the show also portrays Pokolistan as the “birthplace” of Eric Frankenstein and the Bride – another break from comics lore.

Related: Creature Commandos Season 1 Is a Solid Soft Launch for James Gunn’s New DCU [Review]

Amazons and The Sons of Themyscira

Another major DCU reference during Creature Commandos Season 1, Episode 1’s opening news broadcast is the name of Circe’s forces. They call themselves “The Sons of Themyscira” – a direct nod to the mystical, women-only island Wonder Woman and her fellow Amazons call home. The broadcast later identifies Circe herself as an Amazon, while also confirming that most of the DCU isn’t fully convinced that Themyscira is a real place. Presumably, the island’s full history – including the exact amount of contact its residents have had with the outside world – will get some attention in the upcoming Amazon-centric prequel series Paradise Lost.

GBS News and the Metropolis Police Department

Finally, there are a couple of additional, less obvious DCU Easter eggs in Creature Commandos Season 1’s intro, both tied to the Superman mythos. The first is the channel broadcasting the news about Circe and the Sons of Themyscira’s invasion of Pokolistan, GBS News. Galaxy Broadcasting System (GBS) – and its news station, WGBS-TV – debuted in the comics in 1970, and Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Lana Lang (to name a few) have worked there. The second Easter egg is the jurisdiction Circe’s mugshot comes from: she got busted in Superman’s hometown, Metropolis! Expect to see plenty more of Metropolis and GBS in next year’s big screen Superman reboot.

Related: All Major Actors & Cast List for James Gunn’s Creature Commandos

The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker Are Still Canon

After establishing a bunch of nu-DCU lore, Creature Commandos Season 1, Episode 1 shifts focus to cementing James Gunn’s legacy DC Extended Universe productions, The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, within the franchise’s revamped canon. In short order, Creature Commandos‘ first installment explicitly calls back to the events of Gunn’s 2021 movie and its 2022 spinoff series. It also brings back Viola Davis as Amanda Waller and Sean Gunn as Weasel, and introduces Rick Flag Sr. – the father of The Suicide Squad‘s Rick Flag Jr. Oh, and these scenes take place in Belle Reve, Waller’s maximum security prison base of operations in the DCEU.

The Atomic Knights (Kinda)

Like the medieval-style armored suits sported by Alexei and the rest of Princess Ilana Rostovic’s bodyguards? Thank Silver Age writer/artist team John Broome and artist Murphy Anderson, whose Atomic Knights are seemingly the inspiration for Creature Commandos Season 1’s geared-up grunts. The overlap is purely superficial, though. While the Atomic Knights’ DC Comics backstory has changed over the years, they’re typically tied to dystopian present day or future settings. They also ride around on oversized mutant Dalmatians, something Alexei and his pals sadly lack.

Creature Commandos Season 1 is currently streaming on Max, with new episodes dropping Thursdays.