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Heist Guide: Creature Commandos

Creature Commandos?! Sounds scary! What do I need to know to stay safe?! TJ Dietsch walks you through all you need to know to get on board with Max's new DC show.

creature-commandos-cast
Photo: Max

Our Heist Guides introduce new fans to something we think is seriously cool, and they may even provide some behind-the-scenes knowledge to longtime diehards. It's everything you need to know to plan your own heist.

James Gunn hopes wildly popular weirdo lightning will strike thrice. The writer-director who introduced the wider world to the Guardians of the Galaxy by way of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and then made a Suicide Squad movie that was actually entertaining — THE Suicide Squad if you're nasty — hopes that he'll have equal success with DC Comics' Creature Commandos.

Warners tapped Gunn to launch the DC Universe, a mostly new shared universe initiative that will run across both the big and small screens. The first era, dubbed Gods and Monsters, kicks off with Max's animated Creature Commandos series beginning on December 5. Considering that this band of oddballs — who will be played by the same actors across animation and live action — is even more obscure than the Guardians or Suicide Squad, we know there will be a lot of questions. Fortunately, we have answers.

What are the Creature Commandos?

The short answer is: a group of monsters sent on black ops missions by the government. In the case of the upcoming series, the team has been put together in the wake of Max's Peacemaker's first season by Amanda Waller. Yep, they're yet another squad that no one will miss if they get killed in action.

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Photo: Max

Who are the Creature Commandos?

Frank Grillo will lead the group as Rick Flag Sr., the father of Joel Kinnaman's character from the previous Suicide Squad installments. He will oversee the misadventures of aquatic scientist Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao), the radioactive Doctor Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk), Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour), the Bride (Indira Varma), mechanical soldier G.I. Robot (Sean Gunn), and crazy animal guy Weasel (also Sean Gunn), another carryover from Gunn's previous DC outing.

A few other familiar faces — er, voices — like Viola Davis as Amanda Waller and Steve Agee's A.R.G.U.S. agent John Economos will also appear alongside newcomers Circe (Anya Chalotra), the all-new character Princess Ilana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova) and plenty of others. Expect this series to lay a lot of groundwork for the new DCU, especially in its more eccentric corners.

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Photo: Max

What should I watch before Creature Commandos?

To get prepped for Creature Commandos, be sure to give The Suicide Squad a watch. That's the one from 2021. Watch 2016's Suicide Squad at your own risk. Not only will the more recent film give you a good idea of what Gunn plans to do with another batch of oddballs, but some of the characters will transfer over. That film also led directly into the Peacemaker series on Max which itself set the stage for Creature Commandos.

Where did the Commandos come from?

The idea for Creature Commandos came from an anthology comic called Weird War Tales that ran from 1971 to 1983. The series wove horror and sci-fi elements into battles throughout history. In #93, the world met a trio of soldiers who had been scientifically turned into monsters in an attempt to play off of the world's fears
 fears which seem to fully revolve around the Universal Monsters.

You've got Sgt. Vincent Velcro who agreed to be turned into a vampire — complete with widow's peak, thirst for blood, and ability to turn into a bat — to get out of military jail. He fought alongside the emotionally complex but silent Pvt. Elliot "Lucky" Taylor, who was blown apart while serving and sewn back together.

The initial crew was rounded out with Warren Griffith, a kid who couldn't make it into the Army but was turned into a werewolf through
science? They were led by general garbage person Lt. Matthew Shrieve who never missed an opportunity to call his people "freaks." Eventually they were joined by Dr. Myrna Rhodes, a surgeon whose hair was turned to snakes in an accident. Again, because of science.

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Photo: Max

How come none of those people are in the Creature Commandos show?

Like a lot of comic book concepts, this one has evolved over the years. The group went on a few adventures with Weird War Tales co-star G.I. Robot, so that connection makes sense. Much later on down the line, Grant Morrison developed a sprawling story called Seven Soldiers Of Victory that introduced a new version of Frankenstein (or Frankenstein's Monster depending on how pedantic you feel like being — also cut it out, it doesn't matter).

He and the Bride became central characters when DC relaunched its comics line with the New 52. They starred in a book called Frankenstein and The Agents of S.H.A.D.E. that incorporated new versions of the Creature Commandos as well as Dr. Nina Mazursky. Oh, and Doctor Phosphorous, usually a Batman villain, was a member during the continuity-transmogrifying Flashpoint event.

Creature Commandos - Dr Phosphorus
ScreenshotPhoto: Max

Clearly Gunn and company pulled from many different sources and threw in a few favorites and nods back to their previous work, like the elder Flagg and Weasel. Of course, the original CCs might still appear on the show in either flashbacks to World War II or even as modern characters introduced later.

Which Creature Commandos comics should I read?

If you want to go back to the roots, all of the original team's Weird War Tales entries have been collected in 2014's The Creature Commandos. The book includes stories written by the group's creator J.M. DeMatteis along with entries by Mike W. Barr and Robert Kanigher who worked with artists Pat Broderick, Fred Carrillo and others.

Beyond that, Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein nicely sets up that character thanks to Morrison and Doug Mahnke, an artist who was born to draw monsters. Frankenstein Agent Of S.H.A.D.E. — which ran for 16 issues — might also be worth a read. Jeff Lemire launched it and Matt Kindt closed it out with art by Alberto Ponticelli.

DC also just launched a new Creature Commandos comic series written by The Suicide Squad and Ant-Man actor David Dastmalchian and drawn by Jesus Hervas. All of these books are collected in a variety of ways, both physical and digital. Plus, they are available through the DC Universe Infinite app.

Weren't they wiping out all of the old DC movie continuity?

Mostly. Gunn told IGN that Creature Commandos will be the beginning of the new continuity moving forward, though some elements from previous projects — like The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker — will be brought in.   

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Photo: Max

Haven't I seen an animated version of the Creature Commandos before?

Yes! The original team plus Dr. Rhodes appeared in an anthology episode of the fantastic Batman: The Brave and the Bold called "Four Star Spectacular." In it, the Commandos wind up on an island filled with dinosaurs to help the Dark Knight, a tale inspired by the one in Weird War Tales #100. You can watch "Four Star Spectacular" on Max.  

For a time in the early to mid 2010s, Cartoon Network established DC Nation, a block of programming built around shows like Beware The Batman, Green Lantern, and Young Justice. Between those shows, a variety of shorts were played, including a few comedy installments starring the Commandos. More recently in 2019, the team was led by the title character in the DC Showcase: Sgt. Rock short. As of now, these shorts are not streaming on Max.  

Wait, who are the Howling Commandos?

Great question. The Howling Commandos were an elite human military unit overseen by Nick Fury during World War II over at Marvel. They debuted in Nick Fury And The Howling Commandos #1 back in 1963. Various versions have appeared throughout the years, including one dreamed up by DeMatteis' Justice League International co-writer Keith Giffen that featured, you guessed it, Marvel's monsters playing soldier.  

Wasn't there a totally radical version of the Creature Commandos in the 90s?

Close. A new 8-issue Creature Commandos series launched in 2000 from Tim Truman and Scot Eaton. Led by a Captain Hunter, this batch of monsters fought against corruption in a different dimension. They took their cues from the original line-up, but ultimately this Creature Commandos has nothing to do with any other Creature Commandos. Comics! Are! Confusing!

Weren't the Creature Commandos launched into space?

Wow, yes, that's an excellent pull. In the original team's final appearance in Weird War Tales #124 (also the final issues of the series), the Commandos and their pal G.I. Robot were sent before the firing squad. Why? "For rebelliously desplaying [sp] signs of humanity," of course. Instead of winding up on the wrong end of a bullet, they were granted a reprieve and tossed into a rocket aimed at Hitler. Thanks to a malfunction, though, they were instead launched into space.

So, they must have had a lot of cool space adventures, right?

Nope! The Commandos weren't heard from again for a long time until they were eventually snatched up by nefarious space collector Brainiac as revealed in 2009's Action Comics #872. Eventually they were released by Kryptonians and
that was about it, but the cover to that issue is a banger. Other versions have popped up from time to time, but connections to the originals remain unexplored.

creature-commandos-lineup
Photo: Max

Should I let my kids watch Creature Commandos?

Hey, that's up to you, but these episodes will feature a great deal of animated violence and gore.

Will we ever see this motley crew in live action?

As of now, Grillo's Rick Flag Sr. is scheduled to appear in both the second season of Peacemaker and the Gunn-directed Superman film slated for next year. Sean Gunn is set to play Maxwell Lord in that film and Alan Tudyk is listed on the IMDb page with no character attached to his name.

In the IGN interview, Gunn did say that they wanted to see the Creature Commandos again "in one format or another." When asked about the potential of a live action version of the time he said, "it could be a lot of different things" including an animated film as well. 

DC's Creature Commandos premieres on Max on December 5

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