The DCU has just barely begun, now four episodes into Creature Commandos and we just can’t get enough of our terrible troupe of ghouls.
One of which is a bit more familiar than the others. Yes, that would be The Weasel, one of the few characters to carry over from the DCEU into James Gunn’s new universe. We were briefly acquainted with the mammal in The Suicide Squad, but he really gets to shine in this series.
The Weasel was first introduced back in Firestorm Vol 2 #35 back in May of 1985 and was created by Gerry Conway and Rafael Kayanan. John Monroe was a total social outcast at Stanford University, ridiculed and made a joke of by his peers came to dub his “weasel” due to his thin frame and narrow stature. This treatment led him to become disgruntled and insecure, eventually leading to his sinister turn.
After graduating, Monroe would go on to become a professor at Vandemeer University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania along with a handful of fellow students from his time at Stanford. Monroe would grow increasingly paranoid over their presence there. Monroe began to worry that the people from his past could affect his tenure at the university as some were high-ranking faculty.
The constant anxiety over this and the worry of being ridiculed by his contemporaries led him to develop the Weasel suit, a flexible fur suit equipped with four razor sharp claws on each hand. Monroe would don the Weasel suit and kill three of his colleagues from Stanford, as well as a security guard, leaving their bodies behind.
One of the now vacant positions was quickly filled by Dr.Martin Stein, one half of Firestorm, who was also a past acquaintance of Monroe at Stanford. This led John to set his sights on Stein next. Weasel made multiple attempts on Stein’s life, nearly successful on the second try had Stein not quickly bonded with Ronnie Raymond and transformed into the superhero Firestorm.
Following Monroe’s defeat, he was taken into custody and sent to Belle Reve. The Weasel would eventually join the Suicide Squad alongside Colonel Rick Flag, Mr. 104, Psi, The Thinker, and The Weasel.
The squad would be sent into Nicaragua to save or kill Hank Hall, the superhero known as Hawk. During the mission, the Suicide Squad run into the Doom Patrol whom squad member Mr. 104 has a history with. The Thinker attempts to stop Mr. 104 from attacking the Doom Patrol but is stopped when The Weasel slices Thinkers’ throat, leading to the two teams brawling.
Rick Flag takes Thinker’s helmet to try and stop the fighting but unaware of its affects on ones mind. Thinker’s helmet takes control of Flag who spots Weasel, shooting him dead.
The Weasel briefly reappears as a part of DC’s Blackest Knight event. Monroe is brought back to life decades later with a Black Lantern ring, becoming a member of the Black Lantern Corps.
JAMES GUNN’S WEASEL
James Gunn’s Weasel is almost completely reimagined. This Weasel is not a college professor, the closest thing you’d find to the Weasel on a college campus is probably being dissected on a table. No, James Gunn’s Weasel is quite literally just a vicious humanoid Weasel metahuman.
The Weasel’s origins currently remain unknown, no one knows where he came from, who he is, or how he got like that, he just showed up. All that is mentioned in The Suicide Squad is that he was supposedly responsible for the death of 27 children.
Creature Commandos shines some more light on his background, revealing that his government name is simply, John Doe, a name given to unidentifiable corpse. We also learn that the Weasel did not kill those children, instead he tried to save them. The Weasel stumbled upon a schoolyard full of children playing one day.
Not knowing any better he began to approach with the children feeding him with stuff from their lunches and playing with them. A passerby noticed what was happening and out of concern rushed to grab his gun, calling the police in the process. They all sneak into the school, Weasel and the children venture down into the basement, one of them accidentally sets a fire with some matches.
The passerby confronts Weasel with the children and begins firing off his shotgun, hitting a gas tank in the process and causing the school to explode. Weasel survives and watches a child day, before noticing another child has survived.
Weasel attempts to save the girl but the police misconstrue what is going on and begin firing at Weasel and striking him multiple times, causing him to drop the child. As the building continues to burn and crumble around them, the police tackle Weasel and drag him out of the building as a part of the building collapses on the girl.
The Weasel would next appear in Gunn’s The Suicide Squad as a member of Team A. Weasel is quickly believed to be the first casualty, being thrown from the plane without anyone knowing he cant swim. The post-credits of the film reveal Weasel to have washed up on shore, awaking and scurrying into the rainforests of Corto Maltese. In the two years between that and Creature Commandos, Weasel ends up back in custody of Belle Reve.
The first four episodes of Creature Commandos are streaming now Max. Check out the rest of our coverage for the series here.
