Before heading to DC fans' screens, theCreature Commandosare hitting comic book store shelves this October thanks to veteran DC actorDavid Dastmalchian.Dastmalchian, who has taken to writing horror comics with aplomb, sat down with ScreenRant to discuss his first DC writing project,DC Horror Presents: Creature Commandos.
The classic DChorror team returns to comics this October inDC Horror Presents: Creature Commandosby Dastmalchian and Jesús Hervás. The six-issue miniseries, published under theDC Horror Presentsimprint, stars members of the classic Creature Commandos team, like Lucky Taylor, as well as brand-new characters - and some surprise cameos.
October 2nd, 2024
Variant Covers:
Charlie Adlard, Jim Lee
A VAMPIRE, A WEREWOLF, A GORGON, AND AN UNDEAD SOLDIER WALK INTO A GROCERY STORE…AND ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE! This is the Creature Unit, a team of misfits assembled by a mad…ly talented scientist for a dangerous military mission. In this brand-new era of Creature Commandos penned by Count Crowley creator David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad and Late Night with the Devil), the claws are out, fangs are bared, and blood is spilled–lots of it!
Dastmalchian spoke with ScreenRant about the new series, which he calls “one of the greatest accomplishments of [his] career” - no small feat fora known comic book fan who has already starred in DC projects likeThe Suicide Squad. Check out the full, lightly edited conversation - including details aboutthe new Creature Commandos team, their military origins, and some cameo teases - and new preview pages 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 writing a DC project, though, of course, you’ve been involved in many DC projects across your acting career. So what’s it been like moving from the screen to the comic book page in your work with DC and its characters?
David Dastmalchian: This is one of the greatest accomplishments of my career. The fact that I am now a comic book creator and writer for a number of publishers 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 division of this legacy publishing company, which has shaped my life.
[Gestures to comic book short boxes behind him] The number of DC boxes here extends all the way across the top row. And I think back… The first comic I ever held in my hands that I bought was - actually, sorry to say it was a Marvel. It was Avengers 249 and I did start collecting the Avengers. Actually, I really liked weirder heroes, so I was more privy to the West Coast Avengers as a kid.
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But Red Tornado, Firestorm, JLA, Green Lantern! These were the earlier collectible comics in my life. And then I uncovered the magic that was Detective Comics. I had a local comic shop where I grew up in Kansas that was called Clint’s South. It was the satellite store of Clint’s Comics, which is still in existence today in its 55th year. But Clint’s South, there was a veritable Smithsonian of long boxes in the back of that shop that I would just comb through, and I discovered so many of the horror comics that I came to love, including the Weird War Tales, which featured the Creature Commandos. This was one of the first images I think I ever remember seeing of the Creature Commandos, was Lucky busting through that wall, kicking so much Nazi ass.
SR: Yeah, it’s a great cover.
DD: And now I’m a grown up! And I get to tell stories that are part of this world with these characters who are my favorite characters that have existed in comic books. It’s really hard to quantify how surreal my journey has been as an actor and as a storyteller, because if you know me and you know the things that I love, the fact that I get to be a part of all of this storytelling is like - my friend calls it Nerd-vana. It’s pretty great.
SR: There really is something about working with the things that informed our childhood, right, that to have that be fulfilled in adulthood - it’s a strange feeling. A good feeling! Getting to talk about comic books all day, it’s really great.
I actually saw you speak at the Dark Horse horror panel at New York Comic Con last fall, which was a real treat, and if I remember right, you spoke a lot there about horror as a genre, as something that’s really special 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 available now in a collected edition from Dark Horse Comics.
DD: When I first pitched my idea for Creature Commandos, it was directly to the master himself, Jim Lee. I was shooting Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania [in London]. Jim was there doing some DC work, and I saw, because I follow him on social media, that he was there and I just sent a message. I said “thanks for your support of The Suicide Squad and glad you like Polka-Dot Man and I hope you have a good time in London, I’m here too.” And he said “great! We should meet up!” So I jumped out of bed and I ran, got dressed and went over, and I sat with him for the whole night.
And I told him, you know, about my love of DC and the importance of DC in my life and the value and meaning that stories like The Long Halloween and Death in the Family had on my childhood. I mean, I cried when I saw Batman come carrying Robin out of the rubble after the Joker beat him with a crowbar and detonated him. That stuff lasts! It lives in your heart.
Batman: The Long Halloweenby Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale is available now both digitally and in collected 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 idea for Creature Commandos, which lives in my heart. Of course I love monsters, and I love the mythology of monsters. The idea of monsters fighting in battle and being their own kind of superhero to me is just rife with all kinds of fun stuff that you can do in the space of the genre. But underneath it all, I wanted to tell a story about these beings, these people, who are afflicted with conditions, with states of being, with diseases that have transformed their bodies, their minds, and their personalities into a state of what the rest of the world sees as horrific, as monster.
And yet within them is this burning desire, this yearning to find purpose or meaning or value in their own lives. So in the crafting of this idea, I introduce a new character to the DCU, who is now heading up this unit. She’s been financed 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 bit on the border between a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde, which we’ll get more into later.
She’s not just a scientist. She cares so deeply for these people, and she believes that in between science and the supernatural is just more science to be done, that all things defined as supernatural are ultimately quantifiable, and we can run them through the scientific method. And that’s her purpose. She doesn’t see these beings as monsters. She sees them as people of value. And yet to continue her research, she has to do some sometimes unethical things.
Variant Cover by Jim Lee
SR: This is a great moment to talk a bit about the team and the issue itself. I got a chance to read the first issue, and it’s what I might call a “gathering the troops” issue, which I think is always fun. I love that kind of storytelling early in a series. It’s great stuff. So we spend some time putting the team together. Who exactly is onthis iteration of the Creature Commandos, and what can readers expect from like, the team vibe?
DD: The series opens on the immediate heels of a great tragedy within the unit within the lab, but our readers aren’t going to know yet exactly what happened. All we know is that there is only one surviving member right now of Doctor West’s, for lack of a better term, experimental soldiers.
Private Lucky Taylor, who is a reanimated soldier that’s been put back together time and time again by different parts and organs of soldiers, and exists similar to the way you would think of Doctor Frankenstein’s monster existing. Lucky is the walking embodiment of trauma, does not even remember his past, but he knows there’s deep pain in there. He’s also one of the most dangerous monsters in our story.
Because [Dr. West] only has one member of the team at this point, and General Eiling, who you may know from previous DC stories, is down her neck saying “we need a squad right now. There is a mission that must happen and I’m bringing in Lieutenant Matt Shrieve. He hates what you do. He hates everything about this project, but he’s the best for it.” So they go on a recruitment mission with some of the the individuals that Doctor West has been tracking through her research, and they find, to add to the team, Vincent Velcro, who is a vampire currently supplementing his income as a hitman working out of Chicago, mostly. And for a secret trade, which our readers will learn more about later, he decides to opt in and help Doctor West with this project.
The character that I’m really excited about with this story is our werewolf Wanda.
Then they go to Detroit, Michigan, and the character that I’m really excited about with this story, our werewolf Wanda, is someone who is using this monstrous power that she has no control over to attempt to fight against injustice. And it’s not going well. So once again, even though Doctor West represents the military establishment and things that this werewolf wouldn’t want to participate in, she offers a trade. Of something very valuable and an opportunity.
And that opportunity that I think the readers are going to find really interesting here is that the technology that Doctor West is developing includes this Saber technology, which is basically a mechanism by which the monsters can start to control their transformations. Like with our werewolf. It’s kind of like you’d imagine a pump that someone with diabetes might have on their belly, but it can flood her system with lunar isotopes, which can help her transform at will. So she’s not waiting for the mercy of the moon.
For our vampire to go into full vampiric mode, a system that drains his blood into a pump and causes him to go into a feeding frenzy. For Lucky Taylor, who’s like Frankenstein’s monster, has a deep fear of fire - these flashes of flame erupt around his neck when he’s triggered into frenzy mode.
And that leaves us with one more member of the team needed. Even though Doctor West doesn’t want her to participate.
Mina, to me, is the spirit of the team.
Mina, to me, is the spirit of the team. She has been working as a scientist in Doctor West’s lab. She is Doctor West’s surrogate daughter and acolyte and cares deeply about the work. She’s also been afflicted through a traumatic event, which we’ll get to, which transformed her into a gorgon. She has the power not only of the spectral serpents, but she has great abilities with mind control, telekinesis, and mind reading.
And there’s our team! When they gather, it isn’t a buddy story out the gate. I’ll tell you that much. There is a lot of sibling rivalry between these monsters. Angling for who’s the leader, who’s in charge, who actually 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 enjoy one-upping each other.
But once they’re in hell - and they will be going into hell together - and their backs are against the wall, they come to realize that there may be no one that recognizes them as people of value other than one another and Doctor West.
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 military, and DC’s version of the U.S. military. Whenever we have the military in a superhero story, it raises questions of power. Who has power? Who doesn’t have power in this situation? Wanda is a really interesting character to me, I’m excited to see what you do with her. How are you approaching the way DC’s version of the military is used in this story, especially the military as another kind of genre layer on top of horror?
DD: That is like that added slice of the pie that makes this so exciting to me. I love monsters and horror, and because this is DC Horror Presents, they gave me complete liberty to really lean into the gore and the frightening nature of this kind of storytelling. I really want there to be page turns where you’re shocked at what you see.
This is a story of heroism.
But it’s a superhero tale. This is a story of heroism, even though it may look different than the kind of heroism we’re used to, and ultimately, at the end of the day - that part of the triangle, that part of the pyramid that makes this thing work is that it is a war story. These are military tales. And so you’ve got people of great skill, of great integrity, and some of not so great integrity, working within an operation that is serving the purpose of a power structure of which most of these people have been threatened by.
So, what’s really cool to me, and it justifies this - and it makes it stand apart from, say, other similar Dirty Dozen-type of storytelling motifs where you go, we’re going to take a bunch of misfit ne’er-do-wells and put them on a good mission. Because I love those kinds of stories.
But the government - and as you’ll see, what the general is up to may not be exactly as it appears - 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 technology and the horror that they’re after in this as this story kicks off, is something that they are trying desperately to keep seen by as few eyes as possible.
Sending monsters into this, you might say: Well, why does that matter? Because of the enemy that they’re going to be facing, they need soldiers who can decimate [these enemies] with no conscience so that they can get to this weapon as quickly as possible. And then if they need to, perhaps, they could just eliminate the team. Because they’re monsters, so it’s very easy to throw them away, just like saying they’re villains, the way you would to, say, a Suicide Squad mission.
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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 admit it to themselves or not, are so desperate to find some sense of meaning and purpose in the pain and suffering that they experience because of their afflictions.
SR: The monster metaphor always gives, right? It always gives.
DD: It’s so great. And it’s something I can relate to. I’m someone who struggled with a number of conditions and afflictions and things that make me feel - is my existence of value? Is there a purpose in this life? And there is. For all of us, every single one of us. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we don’t have value or the things that are broken in us make us a liability to the world. They don’t. If we can be willing to do what we can for ourselves and others, there is ultimately a purpose in it. I truly believe that, and I think these soldiers, these monsters, these wonderful beings, 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 good at getting into people’s brains, so…
Cover Art forDC Horror Presents: Creature Commandos#2 by Tirso Cons
SR: I do want to ask one last question slightly related to what you’ve just said. Wehavegotten the solicitation for issue 2, which includes the main cover, and Brainiacdoesappear on that cover. Without giving 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 cameos we can expect for our beloved readers and fans of DC cameos?
DD: I don’t know how soon you’re gonna be able to put out this article, but I want to say, because there’s only a few days left to participate, but - two-part answer to your question. Number one: if you go to your local comic shop today and put on your pull list the comics that I have written that are coming out in the next month, which includes Creature Commandos #1 as well as Knights vs Samurai and Headless Horseman, you’ll be entered for a chance to win the very special print of Jim Lee’s variant cover that was given out exclusively at San Diego Comic Con, and it’s signed by Jim and I, as well as some other cool prizes.
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 teased about what happened before this that was so horrific, so tragic, you’re not even gonna want to see it, but you’re not gonna be able to turn your eyes away from it, ‘cause it’s a whole incorporation of monsters that have never been within the Creature Commandos before, and I can’t wait for everyone to see that, but it leads us to two very special characters within the DCU that I was given the opportunity to play with. One of whom is Zatanna, who I love, and you will see why I wanted to bring her into this story.
For Zatanna fans itching 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 enemy! A brain so maniacal - but also so devoid of human emotion that it sees beyond the six steps of a chess game, and it sees beyond the sensitivity of and frailty of human life when in comparison to the biggest picture, the greatest development say, of technology, of the development - the advancement - of science. So this very maniacal brain that operates behind one of the great villains of DC, Brainiac himself, along with his incredible sidekick who we all love
Koko is going to play a part in the story that I don’t want to reveal yet because I want you guys to be as shocked when you read it as I was when I came up with the idea. It’s really… pretty awful. And it hopefully makes you root for the Creature Commandos that much more, and why we really hope that they’ll succeed in their mission.
DC Horror Presents: Creature Commandos#1is available October 2nd, 2024 from DC Comics.
Creature Commandos
Cast
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.
