It is often the case that in films about heroes and superheroes, the underdogs and the most unassuming characters become our favourite ones. This is definitely the case with the recently released "The Suicide Squad" by James Gunn, a reboot/sequel of the disastrous 2016 film by David Ayer.
The plot is essentially the same, the government agency led by Amanda Waller recruits imprisoned supervillains for dangerous missions in exchange for reduced sentences.
In this case our anti-heroes travel to Corto Maltese (a tribute to Hugo Pratt) to destroy the Nazi-era prison and laboratory known as Jotunheim and the secret Project Starfish. Gunn's film offers the chance to a wide range of DC Comics heroes and villains to find a new life (and for some also a very fast death...).
Of all the bizarre characters appearing in Gunn's rebootquel, there are a few ones that will become favourites with many cosplayers around the world.
Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) returns in this film to a bi-coloured black and red look, but retains the acrobatic attacks and colourfully visionary assaults she developed in Cathy Yan's hugely underestimated "Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn".
Yan's magnificently colourful and dynamic film, hated by most male critics and male comics fans for featuring a bunch of dangerous, strong and clever girls and a protagonist that finally left behind her psychotic boyfriend and her itsy bitsy hot pants to pursue her own destiny, clearly inspired Gunn all the best ideas, from the fractured timeline of events to some of the most intriguing shades of the film.
Harley Quinn's blood red tulle gown that she rips and uses as a weapon, but also the Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior)'s attire complete with leather steampunk mask and luminous device to attract and direct mice, will definitely provide many ideas to cosplayers.
But there is a character in "The Suicide Squad" that manages to steal the fashion scene – Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian).
Traumatised by his mother, a scientist at S.T.A.R. Labs, who wanted to turn him and his brothers into superheroes, but only managed to infect him with an inter-dimensional virus that produces glowing bulging dot-like bumps under his skin, Abner Krill has now got to expel the colourful dots his body produces twice a day otherwise they will eat him alive.
Suffering from his condition and having witnessed the death of his siblings, soft-spoken, shy and awkward Krill has a death wish. He hates his mother and manages to focus on his targets whenever he projects on them her image.
Many characters in the film make fun of Polka-Dot man's abilities, calling him a sissy and considering him as a sad birthday clown, but his weapons are not like paper confettis, they are lethal killing machines. Krill's polka-dots can indeed turn into deadly weapons when projected from his gauntlets.
Krill's grey uniform is covered in bright polka-dots (slightly reminiscent for what regards the distribution of the polka-dots of designs such as 1980s vintage sequinned polka-dot ensembles by Lillie Rubin View this photo) and he wears bright red goggles, while his gauntlets help him discharge and project his weaponized polka-dots.
When he wears ordinary clothes in the streets of Corto Maltese you get the feeling he wouldn't look out of place in a Wes Anderson film.
The idea of the polka-dot-like virus developing under Krill's skin calls to mind the origin of the polka-dot pattern: in Medieval Europe, polka-dots were indeed linked with disease and impurity as the unevenly spaced dotted fabrics of the time reminded of the rashes produced by contagious diseases, such as smallpox, the Bubonic plague, and leprosy.
Yet the origins of this unlikely fashionable villain should be traced back to 1962 when, on Detective Comics #300, he was introduced as "the bizarre" Mister Polka-Dot, another villain in Batman's universe.
The brainchild of artist Sheldon Moldoff and writer and Batman-co-creator Bill Finger, he used to wear a jumpsuit covered in irregularly-sized colorful dots. In that case the dots were removable and transformed with a controller on his belt into a series of gadgets, including a buzzsaw dot, a man-sized flying saucer dot, a sun dot (a projectile emitting a blinding light) and even a hole dot (it opened a teleportation transport system) all these devices would self-destruct after they had served their intended purposes.
Polka-Dot Man went down in his career and eventually was forgotten, even though it was a bit of a shame considering how his colours brought some much needed Pop Art shades in Gotham.
Why would this new and revised version of Polka-Dot Man be trendy? Well, because polka-dots have always been trending since the mid-19th century. The term "polka dots" was used to refer to a spotted fabric that first appeared in print in 1857 in Godey's Lady's Book, a Philadelphia-based women’s magazine of the time.
The term probably came from the polka dance craze that swept through Europe at the time, even though the connection between the dance and pattern remains unclear (it has probably got to do with the pattern evoking the cheerful nature of the dance).
From children's clothes to womenswear collections (but also interior design pieces), this pattern became extremely popular and polka-dots were never out of fashion.
Open a vintage magazine from the '50s, watch an iconic film from the '60s such as "Cléo from 5 to 7" (1962) by Agnès Varda or early '80s videos by the Strawberry Switchblade, made in Glasgow Scottish Gothic Lolitas (before the Gothic Lolitas were even invented), and you will find yourself surrounded at some point by polka-dots.
Often used in beachwear, polka-dots have returned collection after collection: there are designers who turned polka-dots into their signature pattern, among them Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garçons and Carolina Herrera (who loves polka-dots of different scales and sizes and considers them a neutral for her house; on her website there is even an entire section dedicated to this pattern, called "The Polka Dot Shop").
Browse through images from more recent collections and you will discover how some designers, such as Anrealage, have used this pattern to symbolise our topsy-turvy world in total confusion and chaos.
Art-wise, the dots on Krill's uniform call to mind the colours of Damien Hirst's spot paintings or Alighiero Boetti's late '60s works made with colour code dot labels on paper that the artist employed to create an abstract visual glossary.
Yet, the coloured dots (in a very "Birds of Prey" palette...) discharged by Polka-Dot Man also evoke Yayoi Kusama's infinity rooms, those dark immersive spaces with light dots reflecting and multiplying on mirrors.
Fashion-wise that same palette of polka-dots can be spotted in the sequins decorating Christopher John Rogers' black gown from his Resort 22 collection (that also features several designs covered in optical polka-dots).
And if you're a film classicist and you don't really like superhero films full of adventures, action and, well, gore, just go back to the 1943 Twentieth Century Fox Technicolor musical film "The Gang's All Here".
Directed by Busby Berkeley it featured the number "The Polka-Dot Polka", a song written by Harry Warren and Leo Robin, referencing the 19th Century polka-dot craze in the lyrics.
The number was sang by Alice Faye and featured a polka-dot inspired choreography ("The Polka Dot Ballet") by the Busby Berkeley dancers. So, well, it doesn't matter if you like Polka-Dot Man or not, it looks like "the polka dot lives on," as Alice Faye sang.
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