Creature Commandos
Before heading to DC fans ' screens , theCreature Commandosare hitting comic Bible store shelves this October thanks to veteran DC actorDavid Dastmalchian . Dastmalchian , who has get hold of to drop a line repugnance strip with assuredness , sit down with ScreenRant to talk about his first DC committal to writing projection , DC Horror Presents : Creature Commandos .
The Graeco-Roman DChorror squad return to comics this October inDC Horror Presents : Creature Commandosby Dastmalchian and Jesús Hervás . The six - issue miniseries , published under theDC Horror Presentsimprint , asterisk members of the classic Creature Commandos squad , like Lucky Taylor , as well as stigma - new characters - and some surprise cameos .
DC HORROR PRESENTS : CREATURE COMMANDOS # 1 ( 2024 )
Release Date :
October 2nd , 2024
Writers :
Custom Image by Kate O’Donoghue
David Dastmalchian
creative person :
Jesús Hervás
Creature Commandos follows the exploits of a secret team of incarcerated monsters recruited for perilous missions unsuitable for humans. Released in December 2024, the film explores themes of redemption and collaboration as the monstrous squad is tasked with handling threats that present dire challenges beyond human capability.
Cover Artist :
Tirso Cons
Variant Covers :
Charlie Adlard , Jim Lee
A VAMPIRE , A loup-garou , A GORGON , AND AN UNDEAD SOLDIER WALK INTO A GROCERY STORE … AND ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE ! This is the Creature Unit , a squad of misfits gather by a mad … ly gifted scientist for a dangerous military delegacy . In this brand - new era of Creature Commandos penned by Count Crowley God Almighty David Dastmalchian ( The Suicide Squad and Late Night with the Devil ) , the nipper are out , fangs are strip , and lineage is spill – piles of it !
Dastmalchian spoke with ScreenRant about the new series , which he call " one of the great accomplishments of [ his ] career " - no small feat forum known risible book fan who has already starred in DC undertaking likeThe Suicide Squad . Check out the full , thinly edited conversation - including detail aboutthe new Creature Commandos squad , their military origins , and some cameo tease - and Modern preview Page below .
David Dastmalchian Talks All Things Creature Commandos
Dastmalchian’s Love of DC Started Early
ScreenRant : Correct me if I ’m wrong , but this is your first time pen a DC project , though , of grade , you ’ve been involved in many DC project across your acting career . So what ’s it been like displace from the screen to the amusing book Sir Frederick Handley Page in your work with DC and its characters ?
David Dastmalchian : This is one of the groovy achievement of my calling . The fact that I am now a risible account book Divine and writer for a number of publishing firm that I ’m really proud to be associated with , such as Dark Horse and Image , but that DC has given me this opportunity in DC Horror Presents - it ’s such a special variance of this bequest publishing company , which has shaped my biography .
[ Gestures to comic book short boxes behind him ] The numeral of DC boxes here unfold all the mode across the top dustup . And I opine back … The first comic I ever hold in my helping hand that I buy was - actually , good-for-naught to say it was a Marvel . It was Avengers 249 and I did take up collecting the Avengers . really , I really care unearthly heroes , so I was more privy to the West Coast Avengers as a nestling .
As one outgrowth of the Avengers , the Hawkeye - led West Coast Avengers are a dysfunctional group with a unparalleled spin on teamwork and relationships .
But Red Tornado , Firestorm , JLA , Green Lantern ! These were the in the beginning collectible comedian in my life . And then I bring out the magic that was Detective Comics . I had a local amusing shop class where I grew up in Kansas that was called Clint ’s South . It was the orbiter store of Clint ’s Comics , which is still in existence today in its 55th yr . But Clint ’s South , there was a bona fide Smithsonian of long boxes in the back of that workshop that I would just comb through , and I discovered so many of the horror funnies that I come to dearest , include the Weird War Tales , which featured the Creature Commandos . This was one of the first effigy I think I ever commemorate seeing of the Creature Commandos , was Lucky snap through that wall , kicking so much Nazi ass .
The Creature Commandos Have a Long DC History
First Appearance:Weird War Tales#93 by J. M. DeMatteis, Pat Broderick, John Celardo, Adrienne Roy, Todd Klein, and Ben Oda
SR : Yeah , it ’s a great natural covering .
DD : And now I ’m a farm up ! And I get to tell news report that are part of this earthly concern with these character reference who are my favorite character that have live in comic books . It ’s really concentrated to measure how surreal my journeying has been as an actor and as a storyteller , because if you know me and you recognise the things that I eff , the fact that I get to be a part of all of this storytelling is like - my friend call it Nerd - vana . It ’s pretty great .
SR : There really is something about working with the things that informed our puerility , right , that to have that be fulfil in adulthood - it ’s a foreign feeling . A expert feeling ! Getting to talk about comic books all Clarence Day , it ’s really great .
I actually hear you speak at the Dark Horse horror board at New York Comic Con last fall , which was a material delicacy , and if I recall right , you spoke a lot there about revulsion as a genre , as something that ’s really particular for you , and personal . So how do you feel that kind of personal connection to horror in your work with Creature Commandos ?
With artist Lukas Ketner , Dastmalchian made his comic - book debut with 2019’sCount Crowley : Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter , which is uncommitted now in a amass edition from Dark Horse Comics .
Doctor of Divinity : When I first tilt my idea for Creature Commandos , it was directly to the lord himself , Jim Lee . I was shoot Ant - Man and the Wasp : Quantumania [ in London ] . Jim was there doing some DC work , and I saw , because I follow him on social spiritualist , that he was there and I just sent a message . I said “ thanks for your sustenance of The Suicide Squad and glad you like Polka - Dot Man and I trust you have a good time in London , I ’m here too . ” And he said “ great ! We should match up ! ” So I jumped out of bed and I ran , make dressed and went over , and I sat with him for the whole Nox .
And I told him , you have sex , about my love of DC and the grandness of DC in my biography and the note value and mean that account like The Long Halloween and Death in the Family had on my puerility . I mean , I cried when I saw Batman come carrying Robin out of the debris after the Joker beat him with a pry bar and detonate him . That stuff lasts ! It exist in your heart .
Batman : The Long Halloweenby Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale is useable now both digitally and in pull together editions from DC Comics . Jason Todd ’s Robin dies at the Joker ’s hands inBatman#428 by Jim Starlin , Jim Aparo , Mike DeCarlo , Adrienne Roy , and John Costanza .
And I pitched him this mind for Creature Commandos , which lives in my heart . Of course I hump monsters , and I do it the mythology of monsters . The idea of behemoth fighting in battle and being their own kind of superhero to me is just rife with all kind of playfulness stuff that you could do in the space of the genre . But underneath it all , I wanted to tell apart a story about these being , these people , who are afflicted with conditions , with states of being , with disease that have transform their bodies , their minds , and their personalities into a state of what the rest of the Earth sees as horrid , as monster .
And yet within them is this burning desire , this yearning to find purpose or significance or time value in their own life . So in the crafting of this idea , I introduce a new quality to the DCU , who is now heading up this whole . She ’s been finance by the Army Futures Lab and a very secretive project that is mostly made fun of by the brass . But her name is Doctor Barbara West , and she is a genius . She ’s a scrap on the border between a act of a Jekyll and Hyde , which we ’ll get more into later .
She ’s not just a scientist . She cares so deeply for these hoi polloi , and she believes that in between science and the supernatural is just more science to be done , that all thing defined as supernatural are ultimately quantifiable , and we can run them through the scientific method . And that ’s her purpose . She does n’t see these being as monsters . She sees them as people of value . And yet to continue her research , she has to do some sometimes unethical things .
Who Is on This Version of the Creature Commandos Team?
Variant Cover by Jim Lee
SR : This is a expectant moment to talk a bit about the squad and the issue itself . I got a chance to translate the first issue , and it ’s what I might call a “ gathering the troop ” issue , which I cogitate is always fun . I have intercourse that kind of storytelling too soon in a series . It ’s great hooey . So we spend some time putting the team together . Who exactly is onthis looping of the Creature Commandos , and what can readers carry from like , the team vibe ?
Doctor of Divinity : The series opens on the prompt heels of a with child tragedy within the unit within the lab , but our readers are n’t going to have a go at it yet on the nose what happened . All we know is that there is only one subsist extremity right now of Doctor West ’s , for deficiency of a good terminal figure , observational soldier .
Private Lucky Taylor , who is a reanimated soldier that ’s been put back together time and clock time again by unlike percentage and organ of soldier , and exists alike to the fashion you would think of Doctor Frankenstein ’s colossus existing . Lucky is the walk embodiment of trauma , does not even think his yesteryear , but he have it away there ’s recondite pain in there . He ’s also one of the most dangerous freak in our story .
The quality that I ’m really excited about with this tarradiddle is our werewolf Wanda .
Then they go to Detroit , Michigan , and the character that I ’m really excited about with this write up , our werewolf Wanda , is someone who is using this flagitious big businessman that she has no control over to attempt to agitate against injustice . And it ’s not move well . So once again , even though Doctor West represents the military establishment and things that this werewolf would n’t desire to participate in , she put up a trade . Of something very worthful and an chance .
And that opportunity that I consider the reader are conk out to ascertain really interesting here is that the technology that Doctor West is developing includes this Saber engineering , which is fundamentally a mechanism by which the monsters can start to control their transformation . Like with our lycanthrope . It ’s kind of like you ’d imagine a ticker that someone with diabetes might have on their stomach , but it can glut her system with lunar isotopes , which can help her transform at will . So she ’s not waiting for the mercy of the synodic month .
For our vampire to go into full vampiric mode , a system of rules that drain his ancestry into a heart and induce him to go into a eating hysteria . For Lucky Taylor , who ’s like Frankenstein ’s monster , has a thick fear of flame - these flash of fire burst out around his neck when he ’s spark off into frenzy manner .
And that leaves us with one more member of the team needed . Even though Doctor West does n’t want her to participate .
Mina , to me , is the spirit of the squad .
Mina , to me , is the spirit of the team . She has been working as a scientist in Doctor West ’s science lab . She is Doctor West ’s surrogate daughter and acolyte and cares deeply about the work . She ’s also been afflict through a traumatic upshot , which we ’ll get to , which transformed her into a gorgon . She has the power not only of the spectral serpent , but she has not bad abilities with thinker control , telekinesis , and intellect reading .
And there ’s our team ! When they assemble , it is n’t a buddy account out the gate . I ’ll evidence you that much . There is a lot of sibling rivalry between these monsters . Angling for who ’s the leader , who ’s in charge , who in reality knows what they ’re doing , who ’s a liability , who ’s in it for what reasons . So let ’s just say there ’s a lot of tension between the team out the gate , especially between Vincent and Wanda , who seem to really savour one - upping each other .
But once they ’re in hell - and they will be go into hell together - and their backs are against the wall , they come to see that there may be no one that recognizes them as people of note value other than one another and Doctor West .
Creature CommandosIs a Military Story as Well as a Horror Tale
Variant Cover by Charlie Adlard
SR : As you mentioned earlier , these characters debuted in an issue ofWeird War Tales , and they ’ve always , always , from the very beginning , been tied to the war machine , and DC ’s interlingual rendition of the U.S. military machine . Whenever we have the military in a superhero story , it bring up enquiry of power . Who has baron ? Who does n’t have power in this situation ? Wanda is a really interesting character to me , I ’m emotional to see what you do with her . How are you draw near the way DC ’s version of the military is used in this narrative , particularly the military as another variety of writing style bed on top of revulsion ?
DD : That is like that added fade of the pie that makes this so exciting to me . I have a go at it colossus and horror , and because this is DC Horror Presents , they sacrifice me complete liberty to really lean into the gore and the frightening nature of this kind of storytelling . I really require there to be page bend where you ’re shocked at what you see .
This is a write up of valour .
But it ’s a superhero taradiddle . This is a story of heroism , even though it may look unlike than the kind of heroism we ’re used to , and ultimately , at the end of the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. - that part of the trilateral , that part of the Pyramids of Egypt that pee this affair study is that it is a war narrative . These are military story . And so you ’ve come the great unwashed of great skill , of great integrity , and some of not so not bad integrity , work within an surgical procedure that is serving the determination of a power structure of which most of these people have been threaten by .
So , what ’s really cool to me , and it apologize this - and it makes it stand apart from , say , other similar foul Dozen - character of storytelling motifs where you go , we ’re going to take a bunch of misfit ne’er - do - wells and put them on a honest military mission . Because I love those variety of history .
But the government - and as you ’ll see , what the general is up to may not be precisely as it appear - the U.S. government has certain assets , certain missions , certain goals that no one can know about . Not the public andcertainly not the Justice League . Because what it is , the engineering and the revulsion that they ’re after in this as this story kicks off , is something that they are render desperately to keep seen by as few eyes as potential .
Sending monsters into this , you might say : Well , why does that matter ? Because of the opposition that they ’re going to be facing , they need soldier who can eradicate [ these enemies ] with no conscience so that they can get to this weapon as quickly as potential . And then if they necessitate to , perhaps , they could just eliminate the squad . Because they ’re monsters , so it ’s very gentle to give them by , just like saying they ’re villain , the way you would to , say , a Suicide Squad mission .
The first iteration of the Suicide Squad is finally divulge in a new lineage from DC - and with it , the squad ’s sinister secret finally come to light .
But these people are doing it for more than just to get some time off of their prison sentence . These are soldiers . These are beings that , whether they can even consciously include it to themselves or not , are so desperate to come up some common sense of meaning and purpose in the pain and woe that they experience because of their affliction .
SR : The monster metaphor always gives , good ? It always gives .
DD : It ’s so neat . And it ’s something I can relate to . I ’m someone who struggled with a number of conditions and affliction and things that make me feel - is my existence of economic value ? Is there a purpose in this life sentence ? And there is . For all of us , every individual one of us . It ’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we do n’t have value or the things that are broken in us make us a liability to the globe . They do n’t . If we can be uncoerced to do what we can for ourselves and others , there is ultimately a purpose in it . I really believe that , and I cerebrate these soldier , these monsters , these marvelous being , are going to hopefully be able to learn that about themselves .
We ’ll see ! They ’re up against a pretty formidable foe who is really proficient at getting into people ’s brain , so …
Dastmalchian Teases Future DCU Cameos inCreature Commandos
Cover Art forDC Horror Presents: Creature Commandos#2 by Tirso Cons
SR : I do desire to ask one last question more or less related to what you ’ve just said . Wehavegotten the allurement for yield 2 , which includes the principal cover version , and Brainiacdoesappear on that cover . Without hold us too many spoilers , what can you say about why Brainiac is appearing on the main cover of issue 2 ? And are there any other fun DCU cameo we can have a bun in the oven for our dear readers and fans of DC cameos ?
DD : I do n’t recognize how presently you ’re gon na be able to put out this article , but I want to say , because there ’s only a few days left to take part , but - two - part answer to your question . telephone number one : if you go to your local comic shop today and put on your pull list the funnies that I have written that are total out in the next month , which let in Creature Commandos # 1 as well as Knights vs Samurai and Headless Horseman , you ’ll be enter for a chance to win the very special print of Jim Lee ’s variant screen that was yield out exclusively at San Diego Comic Con , and it ’s sign by Jim and I , as well as some other coolheaded trophy .
But I say that because , if you get your hands on issue 1 , you ’re not only going to get to meet all of the Creature Commandos and get beleaguer about what happen before this that was so dread , so tragic , you ’re not even gon na want to see it , but you ’re not gon na be able-bodied to turn your eyes away from it , ‘ stimulate it ’s a whole incorporation of monsters that have never been within the Creature Commandos before , and I ca n’t wait for everyone to see that , but it leads us to two very special character within the DCU that I was given the chance to play with . One of whom is Zatanna , who I love , and you will see why I wanted to bring in her into this chronicle .
For Zatanna fan rub for more , check outZatanna : Bring Down the Houseby Mariko Tamaki and Javier Rodríguez . Issue # 4 is available September 25th , 2024 from DC Comics .
And then ultimately , a villain ! An foeman ! A Einstein so maniac - but also so free of human emotion that it see beyond the six footstep of a chess game , and it attend beyond the sensitiveness of and frailness of human life sentence when in comparison to the biggest picture , the smashing development say , of engineering science , of the development - the onward motion - of skill . So this very maniacal nous that operate behind one of the great villains of DC , Brainiac himself , along with his incredible chum who we all make love
Koko is go to recreate a part in the news report that I do n’t want to reveal yet because I require you guys to be as shocked when you read it as I was when I come up with the musical theme . It ’s really … somewhat nasty . And it hopefully makes you root for the Creature Commandos that much more , and why we really go for that they ’ll succeed in their missionary work .
DC Horror Presents : Creature Commandos#1is uncommitted October 2nd , 2024 from DC Comics .
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Creature Commandos follows the exploit of a secret team of incarcerated monster recruited for perilous missions unsuitable for human being . Released in December 2024 , the movie explores base of redemption and collaborationism as the monstrous squad is tasked with handling threat that lay out dire challenges beyond human capableness .
