Creature Commandos

Gallery

Official Team Name

Creature Commandos

Team Aliases

Unknown

Status

Active

Identity

Secret

Universe

Earth-One, New Earth

Base of Operations

Mobile; formerly the European theatre of operations during World War II; Dinosaur Island

Affiliations

Team Leader(s)

Lucius Hunter; Matthew Shrieve

Current Members

Aten; Bogman; Gunner MacKay; Medusa; Patchwork ("Lucky" Taylor); Vincent Velcro; Wolfpack

Former Members

Matthew Shrieve (desceased); G.I. Robot (J.A.K.E. I) (desceased); G.I. Robot (J.A.K.E. II) (decommissioned)

Allies

M-Team Alpha; Project M; Professor Mazursky

Enemies

Lord Saturna; Hyathis; Kromm; Tazzala; Troll King; Sayvar; Kraad; Simon Magus; Xotar

Origin

Place of Formation

Statue of Liberty, Bedloe's Island, New York

Creators

J.M. DeMatteis, Pat Broderick

First appearance

Weird War Tales #93
(November, 1980)

History

By 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.

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 Velcro and Elliot Taylor were transformed into horrifying warriors that resembled a werewolf, a vampire and the Frankenstein Monster. Joined by a fourth female member, Doctor Myrra Rhodes, 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.^[1] They often based themselves out of London, as in their next mission to France to free scientist Dr. Renee Frederique.^[2] 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.^[3] In another morally dubious mission, Shrieve impersonated Nazi Colonel Emil Kruger and they sacrificed the lives of dozens of super-soldier children.^[4] They redeemed themselves and won Metals of Honor when they saved a group of blind French children from the Nazis.^[5] 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 in saving a gathering of French civilians.^[6]

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 an 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, Taylor destroyed them as he reasoned that the war could only bring destruction to the dinosaurs.^[7] The Commandos would later returned to Dinosaur Island, they met J.A.K.E., the first G.I. Robot. J.A.K.E. 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 crashed landed. Together, the Commandos and J.A.K.E. discovered a supposed lost colony of Atlantis 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. ultimately overrode their commands and sacrificed itself to destroy the colony.^[8] The Commandos soon met J.A.K.E.'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 official member of the Commandos.^[9]

At the end of the war, the fate of the Commandos and J.A.K.E. II were (supposedly) 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.^[10]

Flashpoint

This section of the history takes place during Flashpoint, a massive crossover event set in an alternate timeline to the mainstream DCU. History was completely changed when Professor Zoom finally found a way to erase his nemesis the Flash without harming his own legacy.

Following Eobard Thawne's manipulation of history, the Creature Commandos included Frankenstein, after being buried in the North Atlantic until 1942 in which he saved Lt. Shrieve, Prof. Mazursky's own daughter Nina Mazursky, Vincent Velcro, and Warren Griffith. After the end of World War II, however, Project M was deemed obsolete by Robert Crane's government services. Over 65 years later, the Creature Commandos revive and escape from the lab facility where they were imprisoned. In response, General Nathaniel Adam then contacted Shrieve's granddaughter, Miranda to hunt down the Creature Commandos.^[11]

The Creature Commandos then traveled to Gotham City, where Prof. Mazursky last lived and find his cabin, only to learn he has moved to Romania. The group is then ambushed by Miranda, along with the G.I. Robot and a platoon of soldiers. During the battle, Miranda tells them that her grandfather attempted to assemble a second incarnation of the Creature Commandos, consisting of Solomon Grundy, Man-Bat and Doctor Phosphorus, who turned on him and killed him and his family. Miranda blames monsters for ruining her life. Fortunately, the Commandos were saved by Frankenstein's wife, Bride.^[12] After Miranda was taken captive, Bride explains to the Creature Commandos that she is working as an agent of S.H.A.D.E. She then reveals to Miranda that the second Creature Commandos had been working for General Sam Lane, who is truly the one really responsible for the deaths of Miranda's family. The Commandos travel to Romania, where they found a small village populated by monsters. The village is then attacked by a giant G.I. Robot. Frankenstein and Bride combat the G.I. Robot, while Miranda helped Nina attend for Griffith's wounds, and suggest to the nearby castle where Mazursky is alive, who is then reunited with his daughter. Mazursky explained that the village's inhabitants were peaceful, and that they were the basis for creating the Creature Commandos. When Project M was deemed obsolete, Mazursky escaped and returned to the village for eternal life. After Frankenstein and Bride destroyed the G.I. Robot, Velcoro died from the sunrise, Griffith is recovering to being human again and developing a relationship with Nina. Frankenstein, Bride and Miranda depart from the Creature Commandos and participate in the Atlantean/Amazon war.^[13]

DCnU

The DC Universe heavily changed its continuity into the DCnU following the events of Flashpoint in 2011. This was part of an effort to make storylines more accessible to newer readers, beginning with the New 52. This new timeline combines elements from the DCU, Vertigo Universe and Wildstorm Universe while drastically changing the origins and histories of characters.

After the Flash restored yet significantly altered the timeline, the Creature Commandos are the byproducts of S.H.A.D.E. Science Division's project. Initially, there were two generations of the Creature Commandos. The first generation were created by Nina Mazursky, but were incapable of coping with their urges and succumbing to psychopathic tendencies. Instead of having them killed, Mazursky, having been emotionally attached to her creations, had them imprisoned in a microscopic prison designed by Ray Palmer called the Zoo. The second and current generation, however, succeeded the originals by having fully human beings (Mazursky herself included) coping with the transformations to be transformed into super-soldiers that tapped into humanity's irrational fear of the unknown.^[14][15] The Commandos consists of Vincent Velcro, Warren Griffith, Nina Mazursky, and the mummy Khalis.

The Commandos were first deployed in aiding S.H.A.D.E. agents Frankenstein and the Bride in repelling an extra-dimensional invasion.^[14]

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Paraphernalia

Equipment: None known.
Transportation: None known.
Weapons: None known.

Notes

• No special notes.
  

Trivia

• No trivia.

See Also

• 47 Appearances of Creature Commandos
• 16 Images that include Creature Commandos
• Team Gallery: Creature Commandos
• Fan-Art Gallery: Creature Commandos

Links and References

• Discuss Creature Commandos on the forums 
• Creature Commandos at Wikipedia.org
• Creature Commandos at Cosmic Teams
  

Footnotes