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A long-time Batman supporting character once encountered a major character in The Suicide Squad and left them reeling in the hospital.
Amongst all the unexpected weirdos and losers at the heart of The Suicide Squad is the Polka-Dot Man — a bizarre new take on the goofy Silver Age villain. He’s recast as a tragic figure, an attempt to make a hero and instead just a traumatized and sad person with odd and often painful powers.
The Polka-Dot Man of The Suicide Squad might be a tragic character with a bummer of a life, but he’s got nothing on the surprisingly realistic and brutal trauma Gotham City fan-favorite Harvey Bullock put him through in the comics.
In the Pre-Crisis DC Universe, Polka-Dot Man — then called Mister Polka-Dot — debuted in Detective Comics #300 by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff. Although he had a bizarre costume design, the polka dots were actually disguised weapons that the villain could use to catch his enemies by surprise. He proved surprisingly difficult to beat in his first outing, even briefly capturing Robin. But the Boy Wonder was rescued by Batman, and Polka-Dot Man was defeated. His return saw him greatly diminished, wearing a suit with none of the weaponry he’d once utilized.
In 1996, Batman: GCPD by Chuck Dixon and Jim Aparo opened with the return of the Polka-Dot Man. Having fallen on increasingly dire straights, the minor Batman villain is forced to resort to basic criminal activities like attacking an officer with a baseball bat and trying to rob a jewelry store. Gotham police partners Renee Montoya and Harvey Bullock confront Polka-Dot Man over their beaten fellow officer. Bullock — a long-time critic of Batman and costumed heroes and villains in general — finally gives in to his rage when he sees his friend and fellow officer with a shattered knee because of a masked joker like Polka-Dot Man. Taking the bat from Polka-Dot Man, Bullock savagely beats him — breaking his arm and leaving him with a serious concussion.
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The only reason Bullock doesn’t go further is because of Montoya, who breaks up the fight and ensures that Polka-Dot Man gets medical attention. Once he regains consciousness, Polka-Dot Man files a brutality complaint against Bullock, prompting internal affairs to turn their attention to Bullock. The detective is even forced to face a hearing over his attack — where it’s revealed his fellow officer recovered from his injuries but Polka-Dot Man ended up in traction from the beating he received from Harvey. Bullock was even forced to take psychiatric help to keep his badge. Polka-Dot Man never truly recovered from this, and was only ever seen as a laughing stock by other villains following his embarrassing defeats. He’s often seen being thrown out of windows or assaulted in bars, contributing little to the overall universe.
His only other notable appearance came shortly before the end of the Post-Crisis DC Universe. In Final Crisis Aftermath: Run by Lilah Sturges and Freddie E. Williams II, Polka-Dot Man was one of the villains recruited by General Immortus. However, he didn’t last long, with the minor villain killed by a flying manhole cover during the climactic battle of that storyline. It could be argued that Bullock’s beating was perhaps the lowest moment for the obscure villain, sending him on an even further downward spiral that he was never able to escape.
While the film version of Polka-Dot Man at least gains some friendships and even achieves a heroic moment in The Suicide Squad, the version of the character from the comics gets no such luck.
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