Creature Commandos has introduced audiences to a whole new roster of weirdos, pulled from just about every corner and crevice of the DC Universe.
At this point, what James Gunn project doesn’t do that? Its just his modus operandi at this point. To lead this new group of monstrous military men, isn’t actually a man at all, its a woman, a Bride – specifically The Bride, not of Frankenstein, she doesn’t liked being referred to as that. So…who is The Bride in the DC Universe?
HERE COMES THE BRIDE
The Bride of Frankenstein, better known as just The Bride in the DC Universe, first appeared in Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein #3 and was created by Grant Morrison and Doug Mahnke.
Everyone knows Frankenstein, and everyone knows his Bride. Without them and the works of Mary Shelley we would not have science fiction as we do today without her. At the same time that Morrison and Mahnke reintroduced Frankenstein to DC Comics, having been originally introduced in Detective Comics Vol 1 #135 by Bob Kane and Edmond Hamilton.
The Bride was created by Dr. Victor Frankenstein to be a companion in life for his first monster, who would come to be known as Eric Frankenstein, or just Frankenstein (Yes, I know). She reunites with Eric when he is picked up by the Super-Human Advanced Defense Executive, better known as S.H.A.D.E. after Frankenstein is awoken from beneath a high-school in a small town, burning down a school to stop a mystical threat known as the Sheeda.
On their first mission together, The Bride tells Frankenstein that she had heard he died in the Arctic, beneath the ice. The Bride reveals that after she had believed Frankenstein dead, she traveled to India where she was kidnapped by the Red Swami. The Red Swami brainwashed her and sewed two additional arms onto her body, passing her off as the reincarnation of an assassin goddess in India. The Bride is a formidable threat, revealing that when she was found by S.H.A.D.E., it took seven agents to subdue her.
We learn all of this information during their first mission together, sent to Salvation Valley where an attempt to weaponize water goes horribly wrong, poisoning the entire towns water supply and turning everyone into psychopaths. The two are sent in to retrieve a helicopter pilot left stranded, but upon realization that he too is infected by the water, the Bride takes a pane of glass and cuts his head clean in off. The Bride states that they were “not about to lost 3 billion dollars worth of highly trained super-pilot” saving his head for cyber-surgery.
THE DCU VERSION
Her true origins and life with Victor and Eric Frankenstein are never shown in comics. Creature Commandos shows fans a new origin for the character, one similar in some ideas but primarily quite different. In Creature Commandos, we see her creation, at the behest of Eric Frankenstein, begging for a partner in life.
Victor was apprehensive, fearful of playing god once again and asking was Eric’s mere existence not enough for him. In the show Victor is the one to fall for The Bride, eventually forming a romantic relationship during their teaching sessions. This enrages Eric who eventually kills Victor, believing him to be what stood inbetween him and his Bride.
This is where the comic version and this version share a similarity, they both want nothing to do with Eric Frankenstein. In the comics she merely moves on, believing Eric to be dead and under the ice in the arctic. In Creature Commandos, however, Eric does not die, he instead aggressively pursues The Bride throughout time, chasing her around each and every corner of the earth.
This version of the bride is much angrier but just about as deadly as her comic counterpart, even without her two additional arms. James Gunn was asked about why her extra appendages are missing, explaining that she did not initially have them in the comics, only getting them after being capture by the Red Swami. This was likely Gunn’s way of saying that this never happened to The Bride in the DCU, heavily occupied dodging her undead nowhere-near-secret admirer.
The first four episodes of James Gunn’s Creature Commandos are streaming now on Max, with new episodes releasing weekly on Thursdays.
Check out our recap of Episode 3 and the trailer below!
