If you tried to guess how James Gunn could kick off his DC Universe, it’s possible you might have guessed it would tie into The Suicide Squad. But you would probably be lying if you told us you had Creature Commandos on your Bingo card. The animated series, which was completely written by Gunn, will be stocked with actors who can perform both in animation and live-action, so that any future appearances by the Creature Commandos will have consistency in the tone and performances. No word yet on who has been cast, but according to Gunn, at least some of the actors are in place, and the series is currently in production.
The series will center on a team led by Rick Flag’s father, and including Nina Mazursky, Dr. Phosphorus, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, G.I. Robot, and Weasel. It seems as though this will give background as to how Weasel came to be in the possession of Amanda Waller at the start of The Suicide Squad.
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“Creature Commandos is based on the great team from DC,” Gunn explained. “What we’re doing with the DCU is, we are having animation tied directly into live action. Television, movies, and games all intertwine within the same universe. We’re going to cast actors that are going to be able to play the characters in this as well as in other things, some of which we’ve already cast. I’ve written all seven episodes of the show, and it’s in production. So that’s the first thing, and I love it.”
You can see the art in question here:
Created by Jeff Lemire and Ibraim Roberson, Nina Mazursky was a scientist for S.H.A.D.E. whose life and marriage fell apart after losing her young daughter to a terminal illness. She created the Creature Commandos, and at first ended up squaring off against The Atom. That first generation of creatures was unstable, and had to be imprisoned in a microscopic prison called The Zoo, but Nina created a second generation of Creature Commandos, which turned out to be the heroes she fights alongside now. Including herself in the experiment, she was transformed into an amphibious genius in a special suit.
Frankenstein and his wife are…well, exactly what they sound like, although they have a specific role in the DC Universe as the brutal and effective enforcers of the Creature Commandos.
G.I. Robot is the name of a series of robots created by the U.S. military to fight for the Allies during World War II. It isn’t clear which one this guy will be, but he has the benign facial expression of one of the early robots, like Mac or Joe. Later iterations, like the one briefly seen on The CW’s Stargirl, were designed to look a lot more menacing.
Weasel needs no introduction; he is likely to be voiced by Sean Gunn, and will likely be a slightly less useless version of his character from The Suicide Squad.
Last but not least, Doctor Phosphorous (another mad scientist!). Created by Steve Englehart, Doctor Phosphorus is a radioactive super-villain whose main enemy is Batman. A nuclear accident transformed his body chemistry to phosphorus, so that his skin became a grotesque and agonizing eternal flame.
As a team, the concept of the Creature Commandos might seem like it goes way back, but not as far as you might think. The team was created by J.M. DeMatteis and Pat Broderick, and first appeared in 1980’s Weird War Tales #93. They have only appeared in a few different iterations, but since 2011’s Flashpoint, have appeared in a few different big crossover stories and even had a batch of animated shorts on Cartoon Network’s DC Nation block in 2014.
