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One of the saddest elements of The Suicide Squad is the origin of one of the team members, but their story also offers constant comedic relief.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Suicide Squad, now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.
Polka-Dot Man is one of DC’s most bizarre and obscure villains. Introduced in Police comics # 300 by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff, his unique costume was capable of carrying a number of deadly and dangerous tools – disguised as polka dots. In his first appearance, he even managed to capture Robin and almost killed him, before being defeated by Batman.
A radically different version of Polka-Dot Man appears in James Gunn’s The suicide squad, whose life story and lingering trauma is truly tragic, but also gives the film its best running joke in the form of seeing him everyone like his mother.
In The suicide squad, Abner Krill is reimagined as one of Belle Reve’s prisoners. Equipped with a power damper to suppress his superhuman attributes, “Polka-Dot Man” is ridiculed by his regular fellow inmates and considers himself the most mentally unbalanced of the squad. It turns out that Abner was the son of a STARS Lab scientist who strived to give his children superpowers. By stepping into another dimension and infecting them with a particular virus, the attempt worked – leading her children to develop massive colored growths that they had to regularly expel from their bodies, lest they be faced with the prospect. a horrible and painful death.
The process left some of Abner’s siblings dead, while some – like him – developed the ability to produce rainbow-colored energy. Able to effectively “throw” peas at someone, contact with the substance can melt most substances. But the trauma of surviving this process as a lab rat for his mother left Abner traumatized. He’s come to see his mother everywhere – imagining everyone he meets (his teammates, enemies, even possibly a rampaging giant Starro) as his mother. And that’s something that often gives Abner a dark side to his arc in the film.
It makes sense that in a world where characters like Superman and Wonder Woman are some of the most powerful and beloved characters on the planet, scientists are actively trying to recreate the situations that produce such powers. But that also means that there are some pretty horrific possible side effects, as evidenced by Abner’s frequent pain and discomfort. Even when he finally gets the chance to have a positive effect on the world and proclaim himself a superhero for helping fight Starro, it’s a short-lived joy as the alien quickly crushes him. for attacking him. Polka-Dot Man dies a vile death, only apparently mourned by Ratcatcher (Daniela Melchior).
But due to the tone and nature of the film, Polka-Dot Man’s trauma is also used for comedic effect. The sheer absurdity of his powers is commented on, and the efforts he must make to control them are portrayed in a bizarre light. Notably, his visions of his mother wherever he goes generate big laughs three times in the film, with her appearing as all of his teammates, dancing around him in a club and ultimately attacking Corto Maltese in place of the giant Starro. It’s a delicate balancing act that The suicide squad largely succeeds in managing thanks to the overall ridiculous nature of the universe around it. But it’s still fascinating how one of the film’s most haunting tragedies is also one of its dumbest aspects.
To see the tragic origin of Polka-Dot Man, The Suicide Squad is now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.
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