The new DC universe that’s being piloted by James Gunn and producer Peter Safran got underway with the launch of the first two episodes of the animated Creature Commandos, available to anyone with a Max subscription and an interest in gory, grisly, hilarious superhero comedy. Similar to what he did in his own live-action DC story The Suicide Squad, Gunn assembles a team of absolute misfits and sends them on a controversial mission that’s controlled by the vile Amanda Waller (Viola Davis). But as we got to know Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr., The Bride (Indira Varma), G.I. Robot (Sean Gunn) and more, there was a subplot involving Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour) that will develop as the full season rolls along.
After the first two episodes of Creature Commandos premiered on Max, here’s what you think you know about Frankenstein. He basically forced his creator, Victor, to create The Bride so that this monster would have a mate. The Bride, instead, fell in love with Victor, so Eric killed him. Then, as we saw in an amusing montage, Eric spent centuries pursuing The Bride, trying (and failing) to win her over.
But there’s even more about Eric Frankenstein that is alluded to in these opening episodes. For starters, when we first meet him, he’s on a chartered yacht, surrounded by bikini-clad ladies. Eventually, he hires a helicopter pilot so he can spy on The Bride, and we will see more indications of Frankenstein’s wealth in later episodes. So when I got the opportunity to interview David Harbour, the voice of Eric Frankenstein, about his contributions to the new DC universe, I asked if he knew where Frankenstein got all of his money! Harbour laughed, and elaborated for CinemaBlend:
That’s a great question. I really didn’t go into that, but he does feel like he has sort of an oligarch, mobster feel to him. So who knows? I mean, he has a very questionable morality. I think he has his own code of ethics. I don’t think he would be against running drugs, or guns, or whatever to make some money. And I certainly don’t think he’d be against just knocking off banks, or Fort Knox, or whatever. I mean, he’s pretty sophisticated when he wants something. Right. He’s pretty relentless, and sophisticated. And I imagine, if at one point he needed to amass some money to go get his bride back, he clearly seems very capable of doing that.
In the montage that concludes Creature Commandos Episode 2, we see some of the lengths that Eric went to in order to win back The Bride. They seem relatively harmless: Surprising her with flowers at a market, or showing up to her punk rock show. But David Harbour believes that within that montage, Frankenstein was fully capable of some “sophisticated” crimes. And now I just want a spinoff show of Eric over the years, amassing a fortune like Oz in The Penguin. Different universe, but you get the same idea.
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Creature Commandos will continue with its third episode, dedicated to the Nazi-hating G.I. Robot, beginning on Thursday, December 12. So make sure that you are up to date on your Max subscription to see how James Gunn’s universe expands in upcoming DC movies and TV shows.