James Gunn’s ‘Creature Commandos’ Puts Modern Audience Spin On Comic Book Canon, Turns Sons Of Themyscira From Tribe Of Exiled Amazon Men Into Anti-Woke Militia
In starting off the new cinematic universe on an embarrassing and admittedly worrying foot, the opening moments of the DCU’s first entry, Creature Commandos, sees James Gunn take a concept from the original comic books and, as he is wont to do, turn it into a subversive joke.
From portraying Vigilante as a bumbling and autistic crime-fighting enthusiast rather than a dedicated justice crusader in Peacemaker, to turning Adam Warlock from an all-powerful cosmic entity into little more than a child-like Superman analogue in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, to having Peacemaker carry himself as a “douchey, bro-y Captain America” instead of a mentally-insane and murderous anti-hero in The Suicide Squad (and subsequently his own series), when it comes to is comic book adaptations, ‘goofy character subversion’ is one of Gunn’s favorite writing techniques.
This time around, the DC Studios head’s subversive eye has landed on the fictional group of Amazon men known as the Sons of Themyscira.
Introduced by writer Brian Azarello and artist Cliff Chiang in the seventh issue of their run on Wonder Woman Vol. 4 – the first of the Amazing Amazon’s New 52 era – the Sons of Themyscira is the name given to the many, many male children born to the Amazons following their regular ‘forced mating raids’ (for lack of a better term) on unsuspecting sailors from the ‘world of man’.
As the Amazon culture only allows for women to live on Paradise Island, those children unlucky enough to be born male would be taken away from their mothers and subsequently disposed of by having their newly-breathing bodies thrown into the sea.
And though the Amazons came to accept this regular infanticide as a necessary evil, the Greek god Hephaestus did not.
Seeking to save the young boys from their fates, the blacksmith proceeded to strike a bargain with the all-female society, agreeing to craft them regular shipments of his legendary weaponry in exchange for their ‘failed’ offspring, all of whom he would proceed to give a home and a purpose within his forge.
Unfortunately, neither the actual Sons of Themyscira nor the general concept of their existence would be long for this world, as a little over 20 issues later in writer Meredith Finch and artist David Finch’s Wonder Woman Vol. 4 #39, the entire of the group – save one survivor – would be slaughtered at the hands of their mothers and sisters, themselves egged into doing so by the ‘Amazon nationalist’ Donna Troy.
From there, following a single meeting between Diana and the aforementioned survivor in Wonder Woman Vol. 4 #47 and a handful of appearances by the Amazon’s long-lost brother Jason across several issues of Wonder Woman Vol. 5, his membership in the group confirmed during his clash with his sister, the Sons of Themyscira would fade into obscurity, with no mention of them having been made in any DC media since 2020’s Wonder Woman Vol. 1 #758 (and even then, their ‘mention’ was simply by way of Jason’s presence in the issue, with the group never being explicitly named).
That was until December 5th, at which time the group received the twin honors of being the very first established DC creation to both be mentioned by name and receive exposition in the new DCU courtesy of the premiere episode of Creature Commandos, ‘The Collywobbles’.
Or rather, these honors belong to a group with the same name, as the one who shows up on screen bears very little resemblance to the one described above.
Opening on a shot of Belle Reeve, the episode cuts to find Amanda Waller and Rick Flag Sr. watching a news report, as narrated by CNN lad anchor Jake Tapper (really), regarding an ongoing terrorist attack.
“The battalion, calling themselves the Sons of Themyscira, violently crossed the border into [the fictional DC nation] Pokolistan,” recounts Tapper’s unnamed anchor character. “The Sons are said to be working at the behest of the rogue Amazonian and reputed sorceress, Circe. Circe claims to be the rightful heir to the throne of the perhaps mythical, perhaps real, all-female island nation of Themyscira. Inside sources claim Circe has promised the Sons that once the downfall of Pokolistan is achieved, she will lead them to conquer Themyscira.”
The feed then cuts to an interview with one of the group’s members, who proceeds to tell the network’s on-the-ground reporter, “I mean, seriously, Themyscira is the sickest place ever. And then you tell me, ‘Oh, dude, only women can live there’?”
“They’re so sexist bro,” he scoffs before continuing his ranting. “Word is they have the most incredible waterfalls.”
This observation is then interjected by another Son of Themyscira, who angrily asserts, “I have this question for all the woke feminists out there, why do only girls get such cool waterfalls? All over the world, our rights as men are being denigrated.”
Ultimately, this, along with a brief, straight-forward status update exchanged between the two members, is all the audience has thus far heard from the Sons of Themyscira across the series’ thus-far-released two episodes.
However, given the group’s apparent victory at the end of the second episode, The Tourmaline Necklace, there’s a good chance they’ll get another on-screen chance to spout off.
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