Creature Commandos: DC’s Supernatural Soldiers

The Axis’ Worst Nightmares

A robot fires machine guns at advancing soldiers. His allies fight all around him. An overgrown weasel charges enemy combatants alongside a snarky flaming figure. Two green-skinned women lay down covering fire. Their commanding officer yells a warning to an undead behemoth. The robot’s memory files activate without a command.

The robot sees another battlefield and soldiers wearing red armbands. His commanding officer yells at an undead soldier. An overgrown wolf and a snarky, pallid figure charge the enemy. A woman covers their attack, her hissing heard over the roar of gunfire. 

The file stops and the robot realizes his foes are dead. Looking back, G.I. Robot considers the past and how the Creature Commandos remain the same.

The Creature Commandos are a forgotten superhero team. Vampires, zombies, and other Universal Movie horror staples unite to fight real monsters: Nazis. So who are the Creature Commandos? How were they recruited? Which monsters appear in Max’s new 2024 show? Let’s find out.

Weird War Tales: The Creature Commandos Backstory

The Creature Commandos debuted in Weird War Tales #93 in 1980. They were created by Pat Broderick and J.M DeMatteis.

Project M was founded during WWII to create super soldiers. The organization reanimated Private “Lucky” Taylor as a Frankenstein’s monster. Country boy Warren Griffith was transformed into a werewolf while Sgt. Vincent Velcro escaped a prison sentence by becoming a vampire. The three soldiers were dubbed the Creature Commandos and placed under the command of cruel Lt. Shrieve.

The Creature Commandos were deployed to perform sabotage, assassinations, and terrorize the Nazis. They were soon joined by the gorgon-like Dr. Medusa, who became the team’s spokemonster and second-in-command.

Flagging comic sales led to the Creature Commandos’ retirement. In universe, the U.S. military sentenced the team to death for being “too human”, but commuted the sentence to send them on a suicide mission. The rocket carrying them malfunctioned and flew into space and an uncertain fate.

Made in the S.H.A.D.E.: The Creature Commando’s History

The Creature Commandos were MIA for 26 years, but eventually turned up as prisoners of Brainiac. They were freed by Superman and helped him fight the mad alien before returning to Earth. 

The team was reintroduced during DC’s New 52 reboot, now under the command of the Super-Human Advanced Defense Executive: S.H.A.D.E. The unit was placed under the command of Father Time and new field leader Eric Frankenstein. The Creature Commandos now fought supernatural threats with only the occasional break for Nazi killing.

Max’s Animated Monster Mash: The TV Line-Up

Eric Frankenstein: Leader of the Creature Commandos

Played By: David Harbour

It’s a tale as old as time. A mad scientist robs graves and stitches corpses together to create an artificial human. He is assisted by a fairy king from the end of time and tortures his creation for months. Okay, perhaps we’ve diverged from Mary Shelley’s tale a bit. Frankenstein was released by Victor Frankenstein’s wife and slaughtered everyone in the castle.

Frankenstein named himself Eric and faked his death. He spent centuries fighting a shadow war against the fairy court that helped create him. Eric joined the Creature Commandos after learning that his old flame, The Bride, was part of the team. They helped Frankenstein assassinate the fairy royal family and end the eternal war.

Frankenstein is super strong and nearly immortal. He can replace damaged body parts by sewing on new ones. A brain implant allows Frankenstein to remotely access SHADE’s database. He also wields the Archangel Michael’s flaming sword, because what else is Frankenstein’s Monster going to use while fighting evil future fairies?

The Bride 

Played By: Indara Varma

Eric wasn’t the only zombie that Frankenstein cooked up. He created a bride for his monster, but she rejected Eric because she’s only into living men. The Bride escaped the castle before Eric’s rampage and washed her hands of him after hearing about his reported death in the Arctic.

Centuries later, The Bride was captured by the villain Red Swami. He brainwashed her, grafted a second pair of arms onto her, and passed the result off as the Hindu goddess Kali. The Bride was freed by SHADE and joined them in thanks. 

The Bride is a marksman and infiltrator. Four arms give her an advantage in hand-to-hand combat and lets her wield bulky weapons by herself or multiple weapons at once. She has a no-nonsense personality and acts reserved around the team.

Nina Mazursky: Creator of the Creature Commandos

Played By: Zoe Chao

Nina Mazursky was a Project M scientist who worked on the first group of Creature Commandos. That team was created from scratch and went mad trying to understand their emotions. They were sentenced to death, but Nina saved them with help from The Atom, shrinking the monsters and confining them to a microscopic prison.

Dr. Mazursky’s second attempt involved changing adult humans into monsters to create the WWII team. She performed the same procedure on herself, becoming an amphibian woman who breathes water.

Mazursky is more Creature From the Black Lagoon than mermaid. She is a skilled geneticist and the most emotional member of the Creature Commandos. Nina uses knives and handguns in combat, but occasionally breaks out a ray gun.

The Weasel

Played By: Sean Gunn

John Monroe returned to teach at the college where he had been bullied. When several of his tormenters were also hired by the college, he feared that he would lose his tenure because of them. Monroe disguised himself as a weasel based on his old nickname and began killing his classmates.

The Weasel’s rampage was stopped by Firestorm, and he was recruited for the Suicide Squad. He also failed there, went berserk on a mission and was killed by the Squad’s commander. The Weasel returned in the New 52, now a feral human-weasel hybrid.

The human Weasel was an expert in acrobatics and hand-to-hand combat. The hybrid Weasel has razor-sharp fangs and claws. He’s also too moronic for telepaths to manipulate, making The Weasel functionally immune to psychic attacks.

Rick Flag Sr.: Handler of the Creature Commandos

Played By: Frank Grillo

Colonel Rick Flag was a U.S. Air Force pilot during WWII who led a battalion of convicts called the Suicide Squadron on dangerous missions. After the war, Flag was tapped by President Truman to be part of the Squadron’s successor: Task Force X.

Flag had a son while leading the Task Force and trained him. Following his wife’s death, Flag participated in a suicide mission and sacrificed himself to destroy a superweapon. His son, Rick Flag Jr., became the Suicide Squad’s new leader.

Rick Flag Sr. is a skilled soldier, tactician, martial artist, and an expert pilot. He has no superpowers or special weapons, but grit lets him compete against supervillains.

Dr. Phosphorus

Played By: Alan Tudyk, Sherman Howard

Dr. Alexander Sartorious wanted to build a nuclear power plant in Gotham City. Despite public opposition, he got funding and political backing from crime boss Rupert Thorne. Sartorious was trapped in the reactor core during a meltdown and mutated by the radiation. He emerged as a glowing skeleton calling himself Dr. Phosphorous.

Dr. P tried to poison Gotham’s water supply with his phosphorus body, but was stopped by Batman. He’s since become a recurring hitman for other crime bosses. He murdered Hawkman and gave the first Starman terminal, fast-acting cancer.

Dr. Phosphorous’ body is made of his namesake. He can incinerate anything near him and release toxic fumes. He also sold his soul to the demon Neron to increase his power and gain control over the temperature. He’s a tough customer, but is in constant pain and is vulnerable to neutralizing agents like baking soda.

G.I. Robot: Two-Time Creature Commando

Played By: Sean Gunn

This robotic soldier took a few tries to get running. Built by Dr. Zurin, the robot was nicknamed Joe and ordered to fight alongside a soldier to test if mass production was worthwhile. G.I. Robot completed several missions before going MIA. A replacement named J.A.K.E. fought alongside the Creature Commandos and died while stopping an army of Atlantean robots.

A third iteration named J.A.K.E. 2 was a recurring ally of the Commandos, quickly developing sapience that he struggled to express without vocal components. This G.I. Robot proved the program’s worth and multiple J.A.K.E.s have been manufactured since, including one working for SHADE.

G.I. Robots are super strong and durable, with the ability to learn and make decisions for themselves. Their arms contain machine guns, torpedo launchers, and surface-to-air missiles. Some models also have rocket boots allowing them to fly.

Circe: Foe of the Creature Commandos

Played By: Anya Chalotra

We’ve got a dossier on the Creature Commando’s first target. Circe is a legendary Greek sorceress with a penchant for turning men into animals. She was both friend and enemy to Superman and Supergirl during the Silver Age before becoming one of Wonder Woman’s archenemies.

Circe wanted to kill Wonder Woman because of a grudge against her mother, Hippolyta. She split her time between making Wonder Woman miserable, trying to kill her, and seeking more power. At one point, Circe befriended Wondy in a human guise. That scheme backfired when she got lost in character and grew to care for her enemy. Circe is now less murderous, but still petty and cruel.

Magic is Circe’s greatest weapon. She specializes in transmutation, but also has skills in necromancy, teleportation, illusions, and a Siren-like entrancing voice. Circe gives herself the standard physical boosts with magic and is skilled in Pankration wrestling, so closing the distance isn’t a useful tactic.

Didya Get All That?

Monsters ready to mash marauding militaries into the mud.

Photograph by Courtesy of Max

Jared Bounacos

Jared Bounacos has written for Movie Rewind since 2016.