Creature Commandos Confirms One of the Weirdest Batman Characters Exists in the DCU

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Creature Commandos episode 6, “Priyatel Skelet.” The DC Universe continues to expand in Creature Commandos. Recent episodes of the first series in the new DCU canon have featured the Batman villains Clayface (Alan Tudyk) and Rupert Thorne (Benjamin Byron Davis) — and brief cameo appearances by the Dark Knight himself — and everyone from Superman and Sgt. Rock to super-simian Gorilla Grodd and the Wonder Woman villain Circe (Anya Chalotra). That’s in addition to the many inmates of Belle Reve’s Non-Human Interment Division, where A.R.G.U.S. has incarcerated lesser-known supervillains like Congorilla, Nosferata, Orca, and Chemo.

The penultimate episode of the season is packed with Easter eggs and references to the wider DCU, including an indirect mention of the impish inhabitants of the Fifth Dimension.

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When A.R.G.U.S. Director Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) and John Economos (Steve Agee) learn that a comatose Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) has been hospitalized after a knockdown, drag-out fight with Clayface, they’re told that “some type of monster” dropped Flag off at the emergency room doors. “What kind of monster?” Waller asks, but Economos is more specific in identifying the species: “Reptaloid? Amphibious? Simian? Mite? Poltergeist?”

While the monster turns out to be the humanoid Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour), “Mite” is a reference to Bat-Mite: an elf-like Imp from the planet Zrfff in the Fifth Dimension. Last year, Creature Commandos writer and DC Studios co-chief James Gunn professed his fondness for Bat-Mite in a post on Threads.

“Everyone knows I love Bat-Mite. I have statuettes in my house. Imagine having a little imp that dresses up like you and worships you but is creepy as hell and then puts you in jams just to see you get out. Great character,” Gunn wrote on the social media platform. “Fell in love with him through this book when I was in 6th grade or so. I got it and the Superman one for Christmas and I STILL think of these as the best Christmas gifts I ever got.”

Holy Bat-Mite, Batman!

Bat-Mite debuted during the Silver Age in 1959’s Detective Comics #267, from Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff, magically appearing before Batman and Robin in the Bat-Cave.

When the Boy Wonder described the Imp as “an elf dressed in a crazy-looking Batman costume,” the pint-sized creature informed him he’s not an elf — but a being from an alternate dimension where all men are his size. Calling himself Bat-Mite after his hero Batman, the Zrfffian attempted to turn the Dynamic Duo into a crime-fighting trio.

Rejected, Bat-Mite turned invisible and used his strange magical powers to assist Batman and Robin in capturing bandits. The impish pest had his “fun” before returning to his home dimension, but he would continue to pop in on Batman and Robin whenever he’s not with the Justice Mites of America in the Fifth Dimension.

Also hailing from the Fifth Dimension is the gnome-like trickster Mister Mxyzptlk, who regularly wreaks havoc and sows chaos in Metropolis as a tormentor of Superman.

DC’s Creature Commandos is now streaming on Max.