The Creature Commandos! Part 5 (Weird War Tales #105)

This is the last CC story before they hit the big time as WWT's headliner in #108, if that's a fact anyone but me finds interesting.

The story opens with the CCs facing off against a tank -- unarmed and without any outside help. Even Shrieve is nowhere to be seen. The tank's markings indicate it as American, and, as revealed in the captions, this scene takes place on a Midwestern army base.

Everyone manages to contribute to toppling the tank, with Velcro seeping inside it in mist form and Griffith snapping its machine gun right off, but Lucky does all the work by simply pushing it on its side. Shrieve emerges from its hatch, barking at the CCs for taking too long to defeat the tank. Their time was 30 seconds longer than projected, and he'd make them do the drill again if they didn't have a mission to get to... stateside, in the tiny NY town of Freedom. There, they find what I'm guessing is its entire population of 67 gathered in the town hall, singing.

Yeah, Freedom's population is made up solely of Nazi sympathizers from around the country, out to subvert the war effort with a fascist newspaper (...uh, sure). Army Intelligence also thinks they're harboring German spies. The CCs have to take action against Freedom, a prospect Griffith is excited about, but their mission isn't killing -- it's terror. 

At first, this takes the form of having Griffith massacre the townspeople's livestock and even pets, but one night Shrieve cuts the town's power and has Velcro threaten them, calling himself an envoy of the devil.

As the terrified townsfolk run from him, Velcro laments the things he does for his country -- and his blood rations. As they run to the town hall, the people see Lucky standing between two of its pillars. Lucky decides to go for symbolism, snapping the pillars to bring the building down before smashing the giant swastika and Hitler portrait inside. I'm surprised the giant swastika on the cover was actually in the issue, I (funnily enough) thought that a symbolic thing.

Griffith leaps out at the people of Freedom from the rooftops, showing restraint and not harming anyone due to his respect for Shrieve's orders. That's a side of Griffith we rarely see, and I don't think it's out of character at all -- he's a giant attack dog, of course he obeys his master. Shrieve firebombs the fascist newspaper's press while the townspeople are busy being scared witless.

The fire spreads across the town rapidly, pretty much eradicating the whole town. However, a little girl is trapped on the second story of her home. Lucky, being a real stand-up guy, saves her. She leaves her doll with Lucky, seemingly so afraid or rattled she forgot about it. As the CCs watch the tiny town burn, Shrieve congratulates everyone on a job well done. Velcro, as usual, is disgusted by Shrieve's attitude, and Shrieve naturally has no idea what he means. Shrieve says Velcro must have manure for brains, and touts all the positives of the mission's success. Lucky hands him the doll and points him towards the little girl and her family, who weep as their home burns; Velcro says he thinks Lucky's trying to say "I think YOU're the one who's full of it, Shrieve."

Again, Shrieve is totally wrong; I don't see what threat Freedom could have possibly posed. Intelligence about spies looked to be false, that's the big one. And place that small, I mean, how much circulation could their paper have gotten in even the best case scenario? If Freedom had been left alone, then after the war it would just be a microscopic town full of racists -- unpleasant, but hardly unusual no matter where you are in the world.

The Creature Commandos Continue to Continue (Weird War Tales #102)

Back with more of your favorite monster soldiers (although there aren't many others, really)! Strangely, despite their position on the cover, the CC story this issue takes a backseat to "the Dogtag Lottery". Also of note is that in this issue J.M. DeMatteis returns to the feature after being replaced by Bob Kanigher and Mike W. Barr for the last few stories.

If Hitler has a guy throw that hand grenade so close to him, I bet nobody wins out here. Oh, and since I write this part before I actually read the comic, I'm gonna guess that the real Hitler doesn't show up at all.

The story opens, for once, with the CCs nowhere in sight. Instead, we're treated to a scene inside a German boarding school, where concerned parents demand to see their children, having been disallowed any contact with them for weeks. When the children are brought out, they attack and kill their parents for "betraying the Fuhrer and all of Germany"! Afterwards, they are congratulated by their teacher, who reveals himself to be none other than Hitler himself.

Outside, and evidently at that very moment, the Shrieve, Velcro, and human form Griffith arrive at the school disguised as Nazi officers. As they're about to pass security, however, Griffith turns into werewolf mode and attacks a guard at the gate. 

 As a sidenote, I think the imperfection in Griffith's formula is kind of a neat way to make the otherwise flat "blood-crazed berserker" Griffith a little more interesting. Obviously it helps that his changes occur at the most dramatically appropriate times.

Lucky emerges from that tarp in the back of their Jeep (as if anything else would have been back there), and a skirmish erupts between the CCs and the remaining guards. As this happens, Shrieve thinks back 24 hours to the mission briefing in London. Shrieve tells the Commandos, including human Griffith, about brainwashing; Velcro sardonically notes that Shrieve will probably try it on them the first chance he gets. Shrieve, naturally doesn't deny this, only saying that brainwashing in adults isn't 100% effective due to the amount of conditioning involved -- children on the other hand...

Velcro thinks Shrieve is actually talking about Army Intelligence brainwashing kids, and even I think Shrieve wouldn't stoop that low. But Shrieve is talking about a German experiment where schoolkids were indoctrinated and injected with some chemical that gave them incredible strength -- Hitler's growing super soldiers whose only loyalty lies with him. As Creature Commandos missions go, this one's especially grim.

In the present, the CCs are dropped down a trap door activated by Hitler from a console inside the school. They're knocked out by gas and wake up in an area surrounded by barbed wire fences, where Hitler greets them personally and says they're to serve as his students' "final exam"

Velcro notices that Lucky's body language says he doesn't buy it's really Hitler; Shrieve is positive it isn't, and that it's just one of Hitler's various body doubles (told you). The kids are sicced on the CCs, and the realities of having to fight little kids start to sink in as Lucky can't bring himself to harm them, even as they're about to tear him apart.

Much as I hate to admit it, I think Shrieve is right, though I don't agree with deliberately killing the girl -- if they're young enough to get superbrainwashed they can be super-unbrainwashed.  Velcro is having trouble fighting back himself, as he identifies with them -- he's just like them, turned into a monster for an unfeeling war machine. But in the heat of the moment, his empathy evaporates after catching a vicious punch from one of the little ones, and he adopts a menacing pose, baring his fangs. The child recoils in horror, and in his fear, he finds clarity and understanding. He remembers killing his mother, and he remembers "Hitler" made him do it. He rushes at "Hitler", wrestling him to the ground and strangling the life from him before guards can stop him. "Hitler"s hairpiece falls off, revealing a bald head underneath so as to prove conclusively that he's not the ral deal.

Also, it looks like Griffith is actually not fighting back either, which strikes me as out of character. That's pretty much his only appearance in this scene -- obviously because the alternative to more or less writing him out of the story is showing him claw through dozens of cute kids. Anyway, inspired by their "brother", the other kids rebel against their captors, until what I feel is a dumb last-minute plot twist that you have to see to believe occurs.

What was that? That was probably for the sake of code approval, they couldn't have Shrieve's explosives kill all the kids even off-panel. Oh, and nice of Shrieve to sneak in one of his trademark expressions of bitter contempt towards the monsters he created in the second panel above. Griffith's in human form without explanation, so it's safe to assume he changed back sometime while he was being assaulted by those kids.

The Creature Commandos continue (Weird War Tales #100)

This is the big one -- the CCs aren't quite permanent headliners yet, but they were a big enough deal that they starred in the cover story of WWT's 100th issue. This is something of a crossover between the CCs and "the War that Time Forgot", a feature that chronicled the numerous attempts made by Allied forces to capture Dinosaur Island, which is exactly what it sounds like.

This episode was also adapted into the Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon, which added Myrra Rhodes and Batman himself to the team and featured the Ultra-Humanite (in a T-Rex body) as the villain.

So, despite last being seen in occupied France, this story takes the CCs to the Pacific, where they ambush a Japanese landing party at the edge of a jungle. There's a whole page dedicated to summing up who the Creature Commandos are and how they got that way, but if you've been reading along with me you basically know that already. As usual, despite being greatly outnumbered the CC have the upper hand, but as the battle is nearly over, even more bizarre creatures emerge from the jungle -- dinosaurs drawn without any reference or scale! 

The CCs escape the dinosaur, uh, stampede, regrouping in the jungle. Shrieve fiddles with a camera as he recalls their mission.

Shrieve and Velcro discuss how the discovery of the dinosaurs has screwed up everything. Shrieve, for his part, thinks they can be an asset to the mission. Later, as Shrieve forages for food, they run afoul of a massive, hostile, fakey dinosaur.

This is a tough fight for all involved (except the dinosaur I guess). As Shrieve frantically takes pictures of the beast, Velcro tries to distract it in his nimble bat form, but can't hold its attention while Griffith claws at its back. The dinosaur bucks, sending Griffith hurtling "hundreds of yards" away. When he lands, he's involuntarily turned human, and even worse, is captured by a Japanese patrol. Lucky ends up climbing up its neck, which he manages to snap in two. 

Griffith remains captured for about one page; he's tortured in human form by a Japanese officer, but the session is cut short by the other CCs arriving and wrecking the place. Griffith turns back into his werewolf form to take revenge on his tormentor. Shrieve is about to use a stolen Japanese radio to inform HQ about the situation when he sees the convoy they'd been sent to stop passing by. Thinking quickly, Shrieve scales a rock face to reach a pteranodon's nest, and basically does exactly what you would expect Shrieve to do: shoot helpless baby animals.

They grab onto the pteranodon and Shrieve starts steering it towards the convot. As Shrieve had anticipated, the pteranodon doesn't appreciate the Creature Commandos wrangling her, and her screams attract the attention of the other pteranodons on the island, as well as the sea-dwelling creatures that live in the water around it. They ravage the Japanese convoy, enraged by her cries. The CCs even do their part, landing on a Japanese cruiser and doing their thing.

The team escapes on a life raft. As they await extraction, Shrieve is very pleased with the mission's outcome -- especially the pictures he took. Army Intelligence is going to turn those dinosaurs into beasts of battle the second they see the photographic evidence. Man, Shrieve never met a freak he didn't want to exploit, did he? The Creature Commandos share a knowing look, and Lucky grabs the camera from Shrieve's hands, flinging it into the ocean.

This is a great ending to this story because it encapsulates how the team "works". The individual Creature Commandos are extremely different people who rarely get along very well, but they also share a strong sense of brotherhood as Shrieve's "freaks" -- and an even stronger resentment towards Shrieve. And, to be honest, it's pretty well-deserved, there's very little to like about him besides the way he fills out that sweater.

The Creature Commandos continue (Weird War Tales #97)

WWT #97 marks the second appearance of the Creature Commandos, and it's about a year's worth of upcoming issues before they graduate to permanent headliner status along with G.I. Robot.

Having read ahead a little, I feel like the team really is missing something without Myrra Rhodes; shame she's not coming up for a little while. 

Anyway, the story opens with the Commandos still in occupied France after their first mission. Velcro does some aerial recon in bat form before swooping down, turning back into vampire mode, and meeting with the others.

I didn't think Death's opening was interesting enough to mention, but like in the team's last appearance, he's wearing a different uniform in the CC story than he was in the whole comic's introduction.

Again, I think Velcro is really the figure you're meant to identify with the most, and I find that pretty interesting since he's a murderous ex-con turned vampire. Shrieve and Griffith both bark at Velcro to give his report; Velcro inwardly reminds himself that underneath Griffith's furry muzzle is a cowardly weakling, which helps stay any fear he might feel towards the werewolf. Velcro reports that the intelligence they received was right on, and is positive the Germans in the nearby encampment know the location of captured Allied VIP Dr. Frederique. 

Based on the "every issue is someone's first" principle, everybody's origin gets a token mention before the action starts. Oh, and I know Shrieve is the worst of the bunch, but I think we need to be honest with ourselves and admit that Griffith is just barely below him on that hierarchy. Anyway, Shrieve doesn't see any point in waiting and has the team mount an assault. The following page is a really great example of the Creature Commandos in action, their effect on enemy soldiers and all that.

Some of the Germans survive and run for their lives; Shrieve tries to take some credit for that despite having done nothing. Lucky busts open the doors on that armored truck, which Shrieve suspects contains Dr. Frederique. Frederique turns out to be an attractive young woman, who is naturally frightened by the Creature Commandos. Shrieve is all too happy to comfort her. As they trek to the rendezvous point, Frederique and Shrieve discover they disagree on some fundamental issues: Frederique grew to like her captors somewhat after seeing that they are just normal guys. Shrieve thinks every "Nazi pig" is just as bad as Hitler himself, and can't wrap his head around the idea of a good German. Frederique remarks that it's easy to think that way when you see a group as a faceless mass, rather than as individuals, as men.

There's a relatively pointless scene where Griffith saves the group from feral wolves (while, naturally, horrifying Frederique) and Lucky takes care of a huge tree that was in their way.

They reach the rendezvous point, which is heavily fortified and filled with German troops; it turns out Frederique is an impostor, a German spy who was meant to lure them to their dooms. However, at the last second, she sacrifices herself to save them -- she saw the American monsters for the men they are inside.

The commandos clear out the village with incredibly brutality and rapidity. Velcro suggests they bury Frederique, or whoever she was, but Shrieve doesn't see why they should bother.

Is that a tear running down Shrieve's face? Jeez, I had no idea he had emotions besides hatred. He's turning into every bit the tragic monster his "freaks" already are. Am I being too hard on him? Maybe. I guess it's a little ironic that I have trouble seeing Shrieve as human compared to the Creature Commandos themselves.

The Creature Commandos (Weird War Tales #93)

I just recently come into possession of several of the later issues of Weird War Tales, DC's old war/horror anthology series featuring Death himself as the narrator. Understand: most of the things I know about life in general come straight from Who's Who, and that's true of the Creature Commandos specifically as well, however much they interested me. Unless you're like me, you've probably only seen them on that episode of the Brave and the Bold, which adapts WWT #100 and naturally puts Batman in it. Anyway, here we go with Weird War Tales #93, a semi-modern semi-classic starring semi-monsters!

One thing that grabbed my attention right away is that the Creature Commandos were created by none other than J.M. DeMatteis, whom most people know for his work with Keith Giffen on the various incarnations of the JLI (though I'm personally more a fan of his Hal-Jordan-as-the-Spirit). The copyright information dates this comic to Nov. 1980, and I had no idea DeMatteis was doing comics then. In fact, I expressed my incredulity on twitter, only for the man himself to explain that this was one of his first gigs, DC having put him on an anthology book much like an MLB team might sign a fresh face to their minor league affiliate. 

Anyway, moving on. As I said, Death is the star of the show, besides the Creature Commandos and later G.I. Robot, I guess. If you've ever read House of Mystery or House of Secrets, Death's role is very similar to that of Cain and Abel in those comics -- he introduces the stories at the beginning, then closes the book out in the end. In this case, each time he's wearing a different uniform, though this is one of fairly few times I've seen him with hair. He's wearing a helmet all of a sudden on the next page.

Our "heroes" -- Left to right, they're Sgt. Vincent Velcro, Lt. Matthew Shrieve, Pvt. Elliot "Lucky" Taylor, and Warren Griffith. Missing is Dr. Myrra Rhodes, a woman with living snakes for hair; she joins the group in  WWT #110 (which is only like five CC stories from now).

Not to spoil it right now, but while Shrieve is the ranking officer and leading man, the "hero" of the feature is probably Velcro or maybe even Lucky. In any case, the story opens in a Midwestern US Army base in 1942, where Shrieve, an agent of US Intelligence, presents some VIPs with the fruits of secret project "M." He claims, and this is going to get mentioned in every DeMatteis CC story, that the idea was to personify primal, archetypical fears that dwell within every human being. I find this a little silly -- the primal fear of Universal movie monsters? I get that they can be construed as representing primal fears of, uh, nasty killers, wild animals, and big scary guys, maybe, but just face it, they're just plain monsters, that's the psychological effect they have.

I have to stress that this is my one complaint about an otherwise really solid feature. Moving on, Shrieve profiles three individuals: Pvt. "Lucky" Taylor, a bumbler who was stitched back together after stepping on a land mine, Sgt. Vincent Velcro, who was looking at 30 years in prison if he didn't cooperate and basically had his every cell soaked with vampire bat blood, and Warren Griffith, a 4F farmboy who thought himself a wolf and was turned into one by scientists. The guys Shrieve is presenting to don't buy it one bit, thinking Shrieve is playing a sick joke on them, but they clam up pretty quick when he calls the boys in.

Things get off to a bad start when Velcro assaults a general for calling him a "Hollywood hoax", turning into a bat and back as he does so. Velcro now needs to ingest human (or animal) blood to survive, and thinks the general's will do nicely. That's when Shrieve sics Griffith on him. Griffith is the berzerker of the group, constantly itching for the chance to kill and never tiring of the sight of blood. However, the serum that gave him his wolf powers is unstable, and he'll randomly change back to his timid weakling human form. This is exactly what happens as he leaps at Velcro. Sorry if I'm kind of novelizing here, but this IS their first appearance, you can take all this stuff for granted later. Anyway, Lucky, who has no vocal cords ever since his accident, grabs Velcro and throws him clear across the room, defusing the situation. The general Velcro accosted is disgusted by the team's brutality -- which is why he thinks they're the perfect weapon.

So, blah, blah, shipped immediately to take a French castle from the Germans. Their plane gets kerblooeyed by German air patrols seconds after they jump out; Lucky cries for his fallen comrades. One thing I want to get out of the way: it's not clear just how intelligent Lucky is or isn't, but he's pretty much definitely not in the "mentally challenged" range like Shrieve thinks he is. Anyway, Griffith and Velcro scale the walls of the castle and take out the watchmen.

Then, with no explanation, all four men are together and it's not entirely clear just where they are. Okay, two complaints so far, still like this comic, eat me. So they barrel through a huge gaggle of guards and have Lucky smash open a reinforced door to find, and I'm serious, robot duplicates of Allied heads of state and military leaders. Then more German soldiers show up, along with the guy who spearheaded the "robot duplicate" thing. Naturally, the CCs take care of them with little trouble, though Lucky starts to cry again and Griffith eventually changes back to human form. Everyone makes a death-defying leap from a castle wall on Shrieve's order, and sees the castle explode behind them after running a bit. Turns out Shrieve had planted a bomb just in case things went sour -- a time bomb.

This is a common theme throughout the stories -- Shrieve represents humanity in the menagerie of monsters, and he's the most vile by far. He's the real monster, we're the real monsters. He's an insulting bully who hates the freaks he helped create. Velcro and Griffith aren't shy about the fact that they hate him, with Velcro being constantly thiiis close to killing him. 

Alright, stay tuned for more Creature Commandos!