The Creature Commandos are a DC Comics team of military superhumans and supernatural monsters. Originally set in World War II, the original team was created by J. M. DeMatteis and Pat Broderick.
First appearing in Weird War Tales #93 (November, 1980), the Creature Commandos are a special military unit in the U.S. Army designed to protect America during World War II. The unit is made up of supernatural creatures like a vampire, werewolf and a gorgon.
The Creature Commandos have appeared in multiple series, including Batman: The Brave and the Bold, DC Nation, and DC Showcase: Sgt. Rock. Additionaly, Matthew Shrieve appears in flashbacks depicted in the third season of Arrow.
In 2023, it was announced that a animated series based on the Creature Commandos would be made as part of James Gunn's reboot of the DC Cinematic Universe. The series stars a version of the team assembled by Amanda Waller, led by Rick Flag Sr., and consisting of Eric Frankenstein, the Bride, Dr. Nina Mazursky, G.I. Robot, Doctor Phosphorus, and Weasel. See Creature Commandos 2024 for more info.
Creature Commandos provides examples of:
- Blood Knight: Warren Griffith was a werewolf. Though he's a sheepish coward in human form, his wolf form carries with it a primal bloodlust that is never sated. He's always looking forward to the next battle, and never satisfied when it ends.
- Monster Adventurers: The original Creature Commandos were all normal humans at one point, deliberately transformed into monsters by scientific means for the purposes of psychological warfare.
- Frankenstein's Monster: Pvt. Elliot "Lucky" Taylor barely survived stepping on a mine. He was stitched back together against his will, so he resembles the Frankenstein monster and has damaged vocal cords.
- Gainax Ending: The comic had a respectable run in the anthology comic Weird War Tales. It ended abruptly with a one-page story, in which they (and the writer!) are condemned to execution for being too human, the execution is stayed so they can be stuffed into a rocket headed to Berlin instead, and the rocket malfunctions and zooms into outer space.
- Gorgeous Gorgon: Dr. Myrra Rhodes—a.k.a. Dr. Medusa—was a plastic surgeon who was transformed intto a snale-haired freak by a Freak Lab Accident. Apart from the snakes for hair, she reamined a very attractive woman. (And, no, her snakes could not turn people to stone.)
- Horrifying Hero: The Creature Commandos include Frankenstein's monster, a werewolf, a (pseudo)vampire, and a woman with snakes for hair, and occasionally a possibly sapient combat robot. The robot is the least creepy of the lot.
- Ironic Nickname: Pvt. Elliot Taylor was called "Lucky", because he was a big oaf, always clumsily bumping into trouble. Eventually he stepped on a land mine; you might say he was lucky to have survived, but considering he was turned into a slow-witted, mute Frankenstein's Monster for the Creature Commandos, not really.
- Monster Mash: DC has had several groups under the name. The first group (an extreme experiment in psychological warfare during World War II) was made up of Lt. Matthew Shrieve (normal), Warren Griffith (Werewolf), Sgt. Vincent Velcro (Vampire), Pvt. Elliot "Lucky" Taylor (Frankenstein's monster) and Dr. Myrra Rhodes (Medusa). They often teamed up with fellow Weird War Tales headliner GI Robot. Of some note is the fact that though Shrieve was "normal", he was quite explicitly the worst of the bunch. A reboot in 2000 also featured a gillman, and a new crew introduced in 2003 and never seen again finally added a mummy.
- In the Flashpoint timeline, the equivalent group is headed by the Frankenstein monster himself, with Velcoro as the vampire (the spelling of his name changes in modern versions), Griffith as the werewolf, and Nina Mazursky as a gillwoman. Lt. Shrieve fights alongside them in the war.
- DC's 2011 reboot has a modern-day version of the team, featuring Frankenstein, Velcoro, Griffith, Mazursky, Frankenstein's Bride, and Khalis, a mummy.
- Mummy: The Creature Commandos have occasionally had a mummy on the team.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Sgt. Vincent Velcro is a vampire, but an artificial/simulated vampire. This means that while he lacks the supernatural weaknesses of a true vampire, he also lacks many of their more fantastic powers and is much easier to kill (though he can turn into a bat and back).
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Warren Griffith isn't a mythic werewolf, but rather one created by science. He lacks any of your typical werewolf weaknesses, and be can usually transform at will, but he'll also occasionally change at random due to flaws in the procedure that have him his powers. His wolf form also has a markedly different personality than his human form — a berserk Blood Knight versus a meek, stuttering Farm Boy with an inferiority complex.
- Power Incontinence: In the original stories, Warren Griffith was the team's "Wolfman", but due to an imperfection in the formula that gave him his werewolf powers, he would change to human form and back almost randomly, and typically at the most inopportune times.
- Self-Deprecation: The last issue of the "Creature Commandos" feature Robert Kanigher himself being shot into space alongside the Creature Commandos.
- Smurfette Principle: Myrra Rhodes is the only female member of the original Creature Commandos team.
- The Team Normal: Lt. Matthew Shrieve was the leader of the team and the only member not transformed into a monster of some kind.
- Technically-Living Vampire: Sgt. Vincent Velcro is a "scientific vampire", a man experimented on to have all the same powers as a vampire, including bat transformation and super-strength, but none of the weaknesses. He can, however, be killed by normal means.
- Tragic Monster: Pvt. Elliot "Lucky" Taylor. He was blown to pieces by a land mine, but army intelligence decided to use him for their "Project M", sewing him back together — wrong. This left him a mute, hideous Frankenstein's Monster. He attempted suicide once out of disgust for the creature he'd become.
- Wolf Man: Pvt. Warren Griffith suffered from a hallucinatory belief that he at times was transformed into a wolf. He was later experimented on and artificially turned into an almost-actual werewolf. However, unlike a genuine werewolf, Griffith's transformations were completely independent of the phases of the Moon.
