The inspiration for war almost always comes when a mass fear of loss is expected. A collective loss of economic power, cultural significance, dignity, innocence and the loss of life. But what happens when fear itself is used as a weapon of war? What happens when the worst nightmares not only become reality, but also become living entities capable of taking orders and defending themselves with the obedience of a foot soldier? The 1980s comic book characters The Creature Commandos answered this question while raising many others about fear during wartime.
The Creature Commandos were brought to life in 1980 by artist Pat Broderick and writer J.M. DeMatteis. Broderick specialized in the kind of grotesque viscera that was a hallmark of DC Comics’ Weird War Tales (WWT), the title that featured The Commandos’ origin and first appearance in its 93rd issue (November 1980). Legendary for ambitious plot devices and mature characterization, DeMatteis was a young scribe who’d become the driving force behind many of Marvel Comics’ greatest super hero story arcs. The Creature Commandos were among his most innovative pre-fame creations.
Broderick departed from the series early, leaving DeMatteis to be joined by artists Fred Carillo, Dan Spiegle, and George Tuska. In addition to DeMatteis, DC writer Robert Kanigher would occasionally contribute the scripts during The Creature Commandos’ brief early-1980s run in WWT. The series focused on the absurd yet creepy premise which found three WWII soldiers and one military medic fall victim to government science experiments that transform them into mutant monsters who closely resemble iconic frights from horror/fantasy literature and folklore. Midwestern farm boy Private Warren Griffith becomes a werewolf; RAF Sgt. Vincent Velcro a vampire resembling Count Dracula; after a landmine disfigures him, Private Elliot “Lucky” Taylor is haphazardly re-assembled into a form similar to Frankenstein’s monster; a laboratory accident finds Dr. Myrra Rhodes transformed into a snake-haired gorgon a la mythological villainess Medusa.
While realism was rare in Creature Commandos stories, fear and war-born PTSD made their way into several; of the adventures; the most powerful example was a Dematteis/Carillo story from WWT no. 102 entitled “The Children’s Crusade.” The tale centers around a Nazi regiment of psychotic/chemically-engineered child super-soldiers and the grim events which lead The Creature Commandos to a fatal clash with the youngsters. When the mutant children are finally slain their internal organs disintegrate causing their bodies to melt leaving behind only lifeless bloody sacks of flesh.
In the lead up to the killer kids’ defeat, Lucky Taylor’s paralyzed by fear and unable to fight, terrified by the thought of murdering a child. At one point in the battle a little girl in a frilly dress bolts through the air with arms outstretched, ready to choke the life out of Taylor. Before her death grip can become reality one of Taylor’s fellow Commandos peppers her body with machine gunfire. As a rain of blood sprays through the air Taylor catches the child, mesmerized and downtrodden by her loss in a poignant scene that echoes the 1931 Frankenstein film's infamous drowning scene.
In every other Creature Commandos story the eponymous monster-protagonists appear triumphant, always winning their battle against the evil Nazis. “The Children’s Crusade” is the only one where the enemy appears in a sympathetic light. It’s the only instance in the original series when The Creature Commandos face a cruel mad science as offensive as that which caused their own disturbing transformations. The children warped by Nazi science had to die. The danger they posed was unquestionable, but Lucky Taylor’s empathic response to their death was also justified, as was his inability to defend himself. While a decisive military victory is dramatized visually with all the cartoonish spectacle you’d expect from a 1980s comic book, this scene is painfully devoid of any emotional triumph. It’s a defining moment in The Creature Commandos’ saga where science becomes the ultimate form of terrorism.