From Hugh Verheylewegen

On December 5th, Task Force M aka the Creature Commandos will be deployed on their first mission introducing audiences to a whole new team of DC characters from the pages of comics that will kick off the new DCU. But who are the Creature Commandos? Where did they come from? What should be expected from this team of freaky characters? Find out more below!

Origin

As with most comic book characters there are multiple origins, identities, incarnations and adaptations of certain characters across comics and various media. For this overview we will be looking at the team’s initial origins and some of their brief history across various eras. In 1941, Europe had already been fiercely embroiled in the Second World War. It was only a matter of time before America would be forced to recognize the atrocities of Nazi Germany and commit itself to the Allied cause. The United States government collaborated with all branches of the armed forces to create a special program specializing in psychological warfare. Their program became known in covert circles as Project M, M standing for Monsters. In the spring of that same year, Project M established itself in a secret laboratory annex beneath the Statue of Liberty. One of Project M's most eminent scientists, Professor Mazursky, realized that psychologically, all humans were viscerally frightened by images of ghoulish, ghastly monsters. Taking advantage of such a paradigm, he labored to create a team of super-powered soldiers whose physical visage would inspire terror in enemy forces. At first, Mazursky recruited soldiers on a strictly volunteer basis. Three army officers named Warren Griffith, Vincent Velcoro and Elliot Taylor were transformed into horrifying warriors that resembled a werewolf, a vampire and the Frankenstein Monster, respectively. Later joined by a fourth female member, Dr. Myrra Rhodes a.k.a. Dr. Medusa, these monstrosities became known as the Creature Commandos. Led by the only human in their group, Lieutenant Matthew Shrieve, their first mission was in France, where they destroyed Nazi androids duplicates of world leaders that the Nazis built in an attempt to replace the originals and therefore manipulate the war in their favor.

They often based themselves out of London, as in their next mission to France to free scientist Dr. Renee Frederique. They found she'd been captured and replaced by a Nazi agent. The Commandos ultimately found her in a death camp, but were given orders to kill Frederique as her knowledge of a chemical nerve gas was too risky to fall into Axis hands. For his part in such a senseless killing, Taylor attempted suicide. When the doctors "repaired" him, he was left with rudimentary vocal cords. In another morally dubious mission, Shrieve impersonated Nazi Colonel Emil Kruger and they sacrificed the lives of dozens of super-soldier children. They redeemed themselves and won Metals of Honor when they saved a group of blind French children from the Nazis. Shrieve ultimately decided that his personality clashed too much with the Commandos, but he was assigned to a desk job and no one else would volunteer to lead the Commandos. They were brought back together and saved a gathering of French civilians. The Commandos were later given broader assignments across the globe.

In 1943, the Commandos ventured to the mythical Dinosaur Island in the South Pacific, where they were supposed to solve the disappearance of several Allied spotter planes. They discovered a Japanese naval fleet near the island and were able to turn the dinosaurs on the Japanese ships. Shrieve took pictures for his commanders as proof of the island's existence. However, Velcoro destroyed them as he reasoned that the war could only bring destruction to the dinosaurs. The Commandos would later return to Dinosaur Island, where they met J.A.K.E. I, the first G.I. Robot. J.A.K.E. I had been left in the ocean after attacking an enemy ship. It was there he met the Commandos when their plane was attacked by a dinosaur and crash landed. Together, the Commandos and J.A.K.E. I discovered a supposedly lost colony of Atlantis that was situated in the Pacific. The lost colony had created a group of robots to carry on the work of Atlantean conquest, and these androids took control of the G.I. Robot's mind. J.A.K.E. I ultimately overrode their commands and sacrificed itself to destroy the colony. The Commandos soon met J.A.K.E. I's successor, J.A.K.E. II in which, together, they saved a Scottish princess from the Blitz and J.A.K.E. II became an unofficial member of the Commandos. At the end of the war, the fate of the Commandos and J.A.K.E. II were spared from a government-directed death sentence to man a rocket aimed at Berlin. Instead, the rocket went radically off course and headed deep into outer space, its destination unknown. Later though it was revealed that they had survived but were captured by the cosmic supervillain Brainiac. They eventually are freed from the confines of Brainiac's ship and end up teaming up with Superman to join in with a fight against the threat that freed them in order to survive.

The team later returned to Earth and to Project M, where they continued to serve as a special operations force. To keep pace with their aging physiology, Mazursky, the doctor who had originally mutated them, continued to perform a series of body modifications on them. This process extended their lives, but at the cost of their humanity. Project M continued to grow in size, and the original team came to form the core field team codenamed M-Team Alpha. M-Team Alpha was sporadically infused with new operatives as attrition took its toll on the older members. Presumably, Lt. Shrieve died or retired along the way and in his place came Capt. Lucius Hunter, formerly of Hunter's Hellcats. Hunter was said to be 74 years old, and a recipient of extensive body modifications and rejuvenation therapies that gave him numerous enhanced abilities. Other new members that joined the group included Aten, a mummy-like communications specialist; the Bogman, a humanoid amphibian grunt resembling the Gill-man; and recently-revived cyborg Gunner Mackey, who — along with his partner "Sarge" — died during World War II. The group would go on to continue doing various missions and battle various villains over time until the team got revamped in The New 52 reboot of DC's continuity. In this incarnation of the team they work as field agents for the secretive organization S.H.A.D.E. and are led by Frankenstein. The rest of the team consists of the Bride (Frankenstein's estranged wife), Khalis (who appears to be an Egyptian mummy), Warren Griffith (a werewolf), and Vincent Velcoro (given vampiric powers through a modified version of the Man-Bat formula). Griffith and Velcoro were both originally humans who volunteered to be mutated by Dr. Nina Mazursky, who later mutated herself into an amphibious creature resembling a hybrid between the Gill-man and a mermaid in order to fight alongside the team.

What to expect?

The DCU’s version of the team is created in modern day by Amanda Waller as a classified task force to complete black ops missions for the US government as a replacement for the Suicide Squad following its shut down by Congress as a result of the the group’s exposure in Peacemaker Season 1. This incarnation of the team consists of several members from the various comic eras as well as new individuals that have never been on the team in comics but fit into the group due to being non-human. The team members so far include General Rick Flag Sr., the Bride, Eric Frankenstein, Doctor Phosphorus, Weasel, Nina Mazursky and G.I. Robot. Details about their mission in this series are currently unknown but based on the information provided by trailers the team is likely on an high stakes international mission that involves them crossing paths with the supervillain Circe. The team is also clearly forced to be on this dangerous mission by Amanda Waller and it can be assumed that each member is being offered reduced sentences for completing the mission much like the Suicide Squad members before them. James Gunn has hinted that certain members of the group are set to appear in future DCU projects that are set after the events of this series but the only confirmed character so far is Rick Flag Sr. who will be appearing in both Superman and Peacemaker season 2. The future of the other characters entirely depends on the events of this series but given the history of the group’s predecessor, Task Force X, there is a high possibility that not every character will survive the mission.

Creature Commandos launches on Max December 5th, 2024.

Follow Hugh