Polka-Dot Man

"I'm a superhero! I'm a motherfucking super-!"
: ―Polka-Dot Man's final words[src]
Abner Krill, also known as the Polka-Dot Man, was a metahuman criminal who could grow multi-colored polka-dots from his body due to an inter-dimensional virus, and weaponize them. He was also a member of the second Task Force X strike team sent to Corto Maltese to destroy Project Starfish. Krill played an important role in the mission and during the confrontation with Starro and was able to damage the alien creature, fulfilling his dream of becoming a superhero right before he was crushed by Starro.
== Biography ==
=== Early life ===
==== Childhood ====
: "My mother was a scientist at S.T.A.R. Labs, and she was obsessed with turning me and my brothers and sisters into superheroes. She infected me. Now, if I don't, you know, expel the dots twice a day..." "Then what?" "They'll eat me alive."
: ―Abner Krill and Robert DuBois[src]
Abner Krill was the son of a woman who was obsessed with superheroes. She was a scientist for S.T.A.R. Labs, and used her research to attempt to turn her children into superheroes. Krill was infected with an inter-dimensional virus that causes glowing polka dots and lumps to form on and under his skin. Although some of his siblings survived the experimentation, others died as a result of the experiments.
Krill survived, but was forced to expel the polka-dots twice per day for the rest of his life, in order to keep the virus causing them from eating him from within. As a result of his mother's experiments and witnessing the suffering and death of his siblings, Krill has PTSD. He sees his mother in every face he looks into. He dislikes killing, but can manage to do it if he imagines the targets are his mother, implying he might've killed her at some point.
==== Imprisoned in Belle Reve ====
Krill was eventually imprisoned in Belle Reve Penitentiary. He was fitted with a power dampener around his neck, likely to suppress the virus and eliminate his need to expel the polka dots. 
=== Mission in Corto Maltese ===
==== Recruited into Task Force X ====
: "We're all gonna die.""I hope so.""Oh, for fuck's sake."
: ―Bloodsport and Polka-Dot Man[src]
In August 2020, Krill was recruited by Amanda Waller as a support member for a new Suicide Squad and he and the team were briefed on the mission. He traveled with the team to Corto Maltese to destroy the Nazi-era prison and laboratory known as Jotunheim, along with the secretive Project Starfish. Because his abilities were useful for the mission, Krill was enlisted as part of the second strike team.
After Bloodsport agreed to join the mission, Abner along with his companions were prepared to meet while some guards accompanied Krill. Finally, Krill was introduced as the last member of the squad, after his team arrived the guards were in charge of removing the power dampener. Waller explained how his alias was Polka-Dot Man, making Peacemaker laugh who scoffed saying that his power was to throw points at people, but after Waller did not respond, he realized that this was actually his ability.
Krill then advanced, however Calendar Man who was passing along with Double Down began to tease him by making fun of his powers and calling him pussy, wryly mentioning that they wanted Polka-Dot Man to host a birthday party. Abner tried to ignore them insecurely and continued with his team advancing, being taken to a armchairs room where Amanda Waller explained the mission to the squad with details.
There, Polka-Dot Man overheard Waller talking about the mission telling them that they must kidnap the scientist Gaius Grieves to help them enter Jotunheim, throughout the conversation, Krill remained silent listening carefully. After that, Waller asked if they had any questions leading some members to ask, finally DuBois was frustrated when he realized that they were all going to die on the mission, so Krill depressingly replied that he hoped that, anguishing him even more.
==== Arrival at Corto Maltese ====
: "There's something wrong with your skin.""It's just a rash."
: ―Ratcatcher 2 and Polka-Dot Man[src]
Three days later, the team reached the second beach of Corto Maltese without problems when swimming in the sea, after the soldiers of the Armed Forces of the country faced the first strike team in a battle. Polka along with his companions advanced into the jungle when they heard an explosion on the first beach. As Bloodsport and Peacemaker argued, Krill's skin turned with multicolored pustules, scaring his companions asking what it was, which is why Krill lied saying it was a rash.
After hearing another explosion, the group decides to prepare a camp to sleep that night. During the camp, Polka-Dot Man was vomiting violently whilst the other members of the team were sleeping after having your face completely covered by moles. Bloodsport then woke up after hearing him and witnessed it, confusing him about the outburst. In that, Ratcatcher 2 would be about to be eaten by King Shark, leading Bloodsport to stop him, while Polka-Dot Man, already freed from the moles, approached to see what was happening with them.
At that, Waller's team found the location of Coronel Rick Flag, who survived the battle on the beach, allegedly being captured. Waller then ordered the squad to divert their efforts on travel to the location where Flag was, instructing them to find Flag as a matter of urgency. On their way, Waller warned them that the captors were dangerous people ordering them to kill everyone in their path. Abner Krill along with his team then walked to the location arriving at the morning.
==== Massacre of the Maltese Resistance ====
: "I don't like to kill people, but if I pretend they're my mom it's easy."
: ―Polka-Dot Man[src]
Upon arrival, the squad came across a camp of people, so they hid in the jungle while spying on them and Bloodsport analyzed the exact location of Flag. When preparing to attack, Ratcatcher 2 asked Krill if there was people that called him the crazy one, for which Krill answered affirmatively. The squad then began to attack, starting with their comrades who began to assassinate multiple enemies. With a combined effort, Krill and the other members headed the base they believe Flag was being held captive at.
Continuing with the murder of numerous people, the squad then continued advancing until a rebel from the fort would try to shoot them with a submachine gun, but Polka-Dot Man stopped him with his explosive moles, destroying the fort and killing the rebel. Peacemaker when seeing his ability for the first time was surprised that he really threw polka-dots and Cazo saw it as something cool, Krill then explained that he does not like to kill people, but pretending that she is his mother is easier for him.
The team continued advancing, finally reaching the hut where it was marked, however upon entering they realized that Flag has been rescued by Sol Soria and the resistance. Flag then explained that Soria saved his life, however the squad, regretful for killing innocents, tried to cover up the massacre, when Soria was surprised that her companions didn't notify her of the arrival of the squad, until Nanaue spat a bone from a rebel. Shortly after, Soria went outside and saw in anguish the dead bodies of her companions, for which Krill and the team felt very sorry and apologized.
==== Kidnapping of Thinker ====
: "Where's she now?""Everywhere."
: ―Ratcatcher 2 and Polka-Dot Man[src]
The team then continued to advance with Sol Soria and the surviving rebels, heading to kidnap Thinker, but first having to rescue a rebel named Milton. On the way, Krill accidentally tripped over mud due to his face filling his with moles again, while Cleo Cazo got tired of walking.
Cazo when seeing Krill noticed that they were getting moles again, Peacemaker worried that the moles are contagious, stopped Krill to ask him what the moles were on his face, that is why he explained that it was an interdimensional virus, along with how his mother conducted experiments on him, when Cazo asked where his mother was, Krill replied that she was everywhere while he saw them with his mother's face. Flag and Soria in a hurry asked to continue moving.
At night, the team found the location of Milton who was being interrogated by some guards, so Polka and the team were in charge of assassinating them to save Milton. Once rescued, Krill and his team began to move boxes to Milton's truck, while Sol Soria explained that the boxes had party clothes as he would take them to the La Gatita Amable club to kidnap Gaius Grieves, in that Krill too He changed his clothes to be able to camouflage himself at the club. Finally, the squad made their way to the club, where Krill was quiet on the journey and sleeping.
Upon arrival, Milton announced the arrival so Krill and his teammates entered the club while Milton waited at the entrance. Krill nervously went through the entrance and along with his companions gathered at a table to talk about the arrival of Thinker. To entertain for a while, Peacemaker ordered a fernet telling Bloodsport that one drink is harmless to anyone, Krill then commented on the many people who die in car accidents.
The team then poured themselves a drink and toasted, but when Krill tried to take this he spat it out his nose, making his teammates laugh. Shortly after, his companions began to dance in the disco so Krill accompanied them, but when trying to dance among some people, he began to see them with his mother's face, making him nervous. After this, Grieves would arrive at the place so Krill met again with his companions.
Bloodsport was able to capture Grieves by threatening him with a weapon, however some soldiers of the Corto Maltese Armed Forces arrived in search of the infiltrated Americans on the country. Worried to fail the mission, DuBois asked Krill and Cazo to take Gaius Grieves out the back door while he gave them the gun to continue threatening him. Krill and Cazo then moved with Thinker, while Krill threatened him with the weapon, finally exiting through a bathroom with naked women scaring them.
Upon leaving, they met with Milton while Thinker began to make noise to attract the attention of the Armed Forces but fell silent when Cazo threatened him, Krill then continued pointing the gun at him and they went to Milton's truck. DuBois and his companions were able to escape from the Armed Forces, leading them to rejoin Krill and the rest of the team as they followed them in the truck. Flag then asked that before starting the operation in Jotunheim they should rescue Harley Quinn.
==== Saving Harley Quinn ====
: "It doesn't seem to be any traffic."
: ―Polka-Dot Man to Task Force X[src]
At dawn, Task Force X deflects their efforts to save Harley Quinn by heading to the palace she was in, while Krill prepares for the trip. Upon arrival, Flag gave the mission orders, where Abner checked for traffic, thus avoiding being discovered. However, when attempting to start the mission, they discovered that Quinn had freed by her own. Hardly assembled, the team led Thinker over a building where Krill's companions explained the mission to Thinker, threatening to help them, while he ate empanadas that Milton delivered to the team. When Thinker said the mission was a suicide, Flag replied that that was their specialty, and Krill agreed with him.
==== Destruction of Jotunheim ====
: "He was a really nice guy, and he sacrificed himself to help us. And now look at him, dead."
: ―Polka-Dot Man to Harley Quinn[src]
The squad then headed towards Jotunheim being led by Thinker in Milton's truck, while they hid on the ground so as not to be seen. After Thinker parked, Krill and his friends prepared to go down, leaving in a heavy rain that helped them camouflage themselves without being seen, their companions began to attack the soldiers killing them, while Krill and the others rushed to enter.
Arriving at Jotunheim, the team prepared explosives around the building, where Polka-Dot Man helped them to prepare the bags with plastic explosives and joined with the Bloodsport team to implant, in a hurry they went to the second floor each with a bag. While Polka and his companions placed bombs on one of the floors, Bloodsport observed through a window how reinforcement troops from the Armed Forces approached, so they began to rush and quickly entered a room to place bombs.
While setting explosives around the building Polka-Dot Man accidentally dropped a bag of explosives which warned the soldiers in the room of their presence. Bloodsport, Polka-Dot Man, and Harley Quinn all were able to hide behind cover but Milton was shot dead in the hallway. Polka-Dot Man avenged his death by killing soldiers but then was angered when realizing that Bloodsport and Harley hadn't even noticed Milton was with them the whole time since leaving the bus prompting him to defend Milton. Bloodsport sensed that Polka-Dot Man had romantic feelings for Milton and questioned him about it. Polka-Dot Man then revealed that he liked him from the beginning but didn’t say anything.
They were interrupted by the appearance of more enemy soldiers, As Polka-Dot Man prepared to shoot more Polka Dots at them a horrified Harley tried to warn him to stop as the bag of explosives was in front of them, however she was too late to stop him from firing the dots which ignited the explosives on the floor, the explosion knocked everyone back and caused all the other explosives spread on the building to also detonate prematurely.
Polka-Dot Man and Harley narrowly avoided falling off a chunk of Joutenheim that collapsed while Bloodsport fell through several floors as the whole building crumbled and King Shark fell all the way to the ground though he wasn't injured from the fall. The group later reunited after Bloodsport took down Peacemaker following his betrayal and murdering of Rick Flag, just in time for Starro's containment cell to be broken by the premature explosions forcing everyone to flee in haste as Starro escaped the underground and made it to the surface.
==== Battle of Valle Del Mar ====
: "Abner! You see who that is??? ITS YOUR MOM!!!"
: ―Bloodsport to Polka-Dot Man[src]
A now freed Starro proceeded to release its spores to mind control everyone in the nearby area except for the Task Force X members who were able to either kill spores flying into their trajectory or protect their faces after Ratcatcher 2 warned them. Krill, like his companions, tried to protect his face with his mask and hit all the spores that were approaching at the same time, until spores from the sky stopped appearing.
Finally the soldiers with spores rised from the ground, surprising Krill who began to see around him how they got up, after the confusion, Starro used the body of Mateo Suarez to warn the squad that the city of Valle Del Mar belonged to it and started heading there to attack it along with its controlled bodies. The destruction of Jotunheim allowed Waller's team to restore communication with the squad, so she contacted again with them.
Amanda Waller then demanded that Task Force X leave Starro behind to doom everyone in Corto Maltese advising that the mission was completed as the Project Starfish records were destroyed, however Bloodsport refused to walk away and turned back to go fight Starro. Krill's companions also disobeyed Waller's orders and went to fight Starro, so he followed them insecurely while sharing a look with Harley Quinn, and at the same time scared as Waller began to threaten them with detonate the nano-bomb.
An infuriated Waller lashed out at everyone to no avail as the rest of Task Force X including Polka-Dot Man joined Bloodsport to stop Starro's rampage, meanwhile Waller's staff knocked her unconscious before she could detonate their neck bombs. The members of Waller's team then set out to aid the squad by guiding them towards the best route to counter Starro, so Krill and the team raced to the location. Upon arrival, Bloodsport began shooting at Starro while Krill and the others were protecting themselves, when Starro approached to hit them with his limb, Krill and his companions began to move away running to a nearby pole to take cover.
After fighting alongside the other members of Task Force X against Starro, Bloodsport told Polka Dot Man that Starro was his mother and that he should attack him, making Abner picture Starro in his mind as his mom destroying a building, he then fired a bunch of polka dots at his mom/Starro and her leg disintegrated, as all of the mind controlled victims of Starro and Starro yelled in pain, Abner cheerfully remarked to be a superhero, right before being crushed by one of Starro's legs, killing him instantly.
=== Legacy ===
The death of Polka-Dot Man prompted Cleo Cazo to summon a herd of rats in favor of defeating Starro before it continued to do damage, ending the battle. After Starro's defeat, Ratcatcher 2 briefly mourned Abner's death over a small piece of his costume that was left behind, remembering her fallen friend.
== Personality ==
: "I thought you were the crazy one.""I am."
: ―Ratcatcher 2 and Polka-Dot Man[src]
Abner Krill was very timid, soft-spoken, dourly dispirited, and did not seem very confident in his metahuman abilities, due to his powers being viewed as a joke by his fellow inmates, as they constantly mocked his abilities and called him names. As a result, he often appeared nervous in battle. He was miserable and had a death wish, wanting to die on his Task Force X mission.
He was also cynical, taking up the mantle of "the crazy one" with no issue or debate; though like Ratcatcher 2, Abner was not a violent hardened criminal and had a good heart as he did not enjoy killing. Due to his traumatic upbringing, Abner suffered a form of Fregoli delusion, viewing every person he saw as his mother.
== Powers and abilities ==
=== Powers ===
* Interdimensional polka-dots generation: As a result of being exposed to an interdimensional virus by his mother, Krill developed a condition that causes him to grow multi-colored polka-dots and glowing pustules on his body over time.
** Polka-dots projection: With the help of his gauntlets, Krill was able to project the multi-colored dots as destructive projectiles from his hands. Krill's polka-dots were incendiary in nature, being able to disintegrate anything they come in contact with. The Polka Dots were shown to be destructive enough to quickly melt down Starro's skin when Bloodsport's weapons and King Shark's bites only mildly injured it before.
=== Abilities ===
* Expert engineer: Krill is an experienced engineer, being able to construct his uniform and a pair of advanced technological gauntlets that help him project his polka-dots.
==== Weakness ====
* Mental illness: Abner suffered from severe psychological trauma stemming from his mother's experimentation on him and his siblings, as well as watching several of his siblings die as a result of said experimentation. This trauma resulted in his quiet, soft-spoken and awkward demeanor. It also resulted him perceiving everyone around him as his mother, as well as possible depression and suicidal thoughts.
* Power limitation: Due to the nature of Abner's condition, if he did not expel polka dots twice a day they would build up in his body to the point that they would devour him from the inside, killing him. Without the use of his gauntlets, Abner would be forced to vomit out his dots.
== Equipment ==
=== Weapons ===
* Revolver: Krill briefly carried a Bloodsport-issued revolver to supervise Thinker while he was gone. Krill took it upon himself to threaten him with the weapon throughout the kidnapping until DuBois returned.
=== Other equipment ===
* Power dampener: After being imprisoned in Belle Reve and due to his highly dangerous abilities, a power damper was placed on him. This device was tasked with retaining Krill's powers during his incarceration in prison, having been removed to complete the mission in Corto Maltese.
* Uniform: Krill wears a polka-dotted uniform with bright red goggles that protect his identity and cements his supervillain status.
* Gauntlets: On each wrist, Krill wears gauntlets that glow and assist him in the projection of his weaponized polka-dots.
=== Vehicles ===
* Helicopter: To be added
== Relationships ==
=== Family ===
* Unnamed mother † - victim
* Unnamed siblings †
=== Allies ===
* Task Force X - teammates and friends
** Rick Flag † - team leader
** Christopher Smith/Peacemaker
* Robert DuBois/Bloodsport - former team leader and friend
* Cleo Cazo/Ratcatcher 2 - former teammate and friend
* Nanaue/King Shark - former teammate and friend
* Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn - former teammate and friend
* Maltese Resistance - former enemies and victims turned allies
** Sol Soria
** Milton † - friend and love interest
* John Economos - mission coordinator and manipulator turned ally
* Flo Crawley - mission coordinator and manipulator turned ally
* Emilia Harcourt - mission coordinator and manipulator turned ally	
=== Enemies ===
* A.R.G.U.S.
** Amanda Waller - manipulator
** Fitzgibbon - physician
* Belle Reve
** Calendar Man - rival
** Double Down - rival
** Wayne Hawkins/Karma - rival
* Starro † - target and killer
* Corto Maltese Armed Forces
** Silvio Luna †
** Mateo Suarez †
** Isabella †
* Gaius Grieves/Thinker † - kidnappee and manipulatee
== Behind the scenes ==
* David Dastmalchian has vitiligo and felt a personal connection to Polka-Dot Man, as he had been bullied and called "polka dots" as a child due to this condition. James Gunn was not aware of this when he cast Dastmalchian in the role.
* Adam Hart was a stunt double for David Dastmalchian in the role of Polka-Dot Man.
* It was confirmed in the deleted scenes that Abner killed his mother, mentioned by Gaius Greeves, though Abner then states it was out of self-defense.
== References ==
# ↑ Jump up to:1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Gunn, James (writer and director) (August 6, 2021). The Suicide Squad.
# ↑ The Suicide Squad's David Dastmalchian has a personal connection to Polka-Dot Man
== External links ==
The DC Universe Wiki has a collection of images and media related to Polka-Dot Man.
* Polka-Dot Man on DC Database
* Polka-Dot Man on Wikipedia