Creature Commandos is finally here, with the first two episodes of the eagerly anticipated series now streaming on Max. The series, which is sort of the soft kickoff for James Gunn’s new DC Universe, centers around a black ops team of monsters that Amanda Waller has put together after she’s no longer allowed to use humans for the job. The team roster is an eclectic one with plenty of new characters and creatures for fans to enjoy and while the series (thus far) does a fantastic job with each of them, there is one character in particular that stands out: G.I. Robot — and he might just be one of the best on-screen DC characters we’ve seen.
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Warning: spoilers for the first episode of Creature Commandos beyond this point.
In terms of his comics history, G.I. Robot has had a few iterations since his debut in Star Spangled War Stories #101 from 1961, but it is the fourth iteration, J.A.K.E. 2 that Creature Commandos appears to be adapting — he has a number “2” on his head in the series. However, those fine details generally don’t matter in the grand scheme. It’s the G.I. Robot we get on screen that is just perfect. In the series, G.I Robot was a Nazi killing machine (literally) during World War 2. Waller remarks that he killed more than 300 Nazis during the war and it’s something that G.I. Robot clearly takes pride in. Right away we see him always vigilant about the Nazi threat, even while in captivity at Belle Reve.
While that focus on a singular purpose is unsurprising considering that he’s a robot and that is clearly a part of his original programming, there is also something endearing about it. The way G.I. Robot is drawn and animated, he looks friendly and harmless. It makes his fixation on the Nazi threat feel almost comforting in a sense, like he’s trying to do something good for humanity, albeit something violent. And the series does make the effort to “humanize” him in a sense. G.I. Robot’s dynamic with Nina Mazursky in particular goes a long way towards that. Not only does Nina treat him as a “person” — when at dinner, she asks if he needs anything and then sees to it that he’s brought diesel so that he gets to eat with everyone else. We also see more of the “humanity” of G.I. Robot later when he tells Nina “G.I. Robot would like to kill Nazis with you” and it’s revealed that he’s been waiting a very long time to have a friend to do that with. And yes, he tells us exactly how long.
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Of course, lest viewers forget what G.I. Robot’s purpose is even after such touching interactions, he does later recall his entire history of killing Nazis while guarding a bedroom door. It’s little touches like this that really elevate the show’s presentation of the character. Rather than merely being a robot, there is more to the character. In a way, G.I. Robot comes off as though he just has a special interest, one that he wants to talk about and equate things to that special interest — in this case killing Nazis. It’s weirdly endearing and also very relatable. By giving viewers this little bit about G.I. Robot in the first episode of the series, it gives viewers an emotional touchstone as they work on getting to know this group of misfit monsters in a way that might otherwise be difficult to achieve. After all, Weasel is weird, Dr. Phosphorus is kind of a jerk, the Bride has her guard up, and Nina seems very withdrawn — and Rick Flag Sr. has his own baggage.
With a charming design that feels friendly despite being literally a robot as well as some “quirks” that make the character endearing, G.I. Robot just feels like a home run of a character. He’s well-rounded and interesting and gives viewers someone to be intrigued by and to root for and while he’s not your standard hero, it’s the complexity of the character that we get glimpses of that makes him genuinely interesting and one of DC’s best to date.
Creature Commandos is now streaming on Max. New episodes arrive each Wednesday.
