Batman #46

Who are you Mr. Bloom?

Well, that's revealing.

How many iterations of Batman have you known Mr. Bloom? 

In Batman #44 Bloom was ret-conned into the series by Scott Snyder in a move that I initially dismissive of.  (Batman #44.)

Now, I am not so sure.  The above statement tells us at least Bloom is aware of others that have donned the cape and cowl in Bruce Wayne's absence.  Something even Commisioner Gordon only mused at when Dick Grayson took over for a spell.  (Gordon thought he seemed smaller and "happier.")

True, this is a post"Flashpoint," "New 52" and "Convergence" story line so Snyder can do anything he wants with the Bloom background.  But, despite all the changes to DC, there is always some commonality that preserves the major moments in DC mythology and particularly Batman mythos.

Who are you Mr. Bloom?  

In my review of Batman #43 I was sure Bloom was some sort of weird organic reincarnation of The Joker.  Maybe he is still and Scott Snyder has the most bizarre and twisted conclusion to this arc we have ever experienced.  

If not, who is this being that has such intimate knowledge of Batman?  Alfred?  One of the Robins? A long lost girlfriend seemingly dead and mysteriously resurrected?  I know it strains credulity but this is the comics so if we are going to go there let's go there all the way.

(Hmm, Bloom is kind of thin maybe it is Elastic man.  Nah, even I'm not that crazy.)

Want some evidence Bloom is someone we know?

Duke from the "We Are Robin" comic has infiltrated the Penguins new Iceberg Lounge and despite Daryl's warnings to steer clear of all things Bloom, he has stumbled across something anyway.

"But it doesn't make sense."  "None."  "Bloom can't be...."

Of course Duke's revelation is interrupted by the Penguin himself.  We don't want to learn too much do we Mr. Snyder!

Speaking of Snyder here is what he said about Bloom in a recent interview with Newsarama,  "Bloom, literally and figuratively, is the thing that kind of comes up in those cracks that happen between all of those things that are supposed to be sewn together by the city." 

You mean like a weed Scott?  (For the whole interview go here.)  This statement doesn't exactly point to someone we already know in the Batman mythos but it could just be Snyder keeping his cards close to the vest.  (Joker card?)

So, readers of Batman #46 may have noticed I skipped a little ahead here.  Let's catch where Batman #45 left off.

Bloom had captured a Bat Blimp and set it against the movers and shakers of Gotham.  He picks off the fundraisers one by one and  taunts Geri and Commissioner Sawyer.  The Gordon Batman comes out of hiding and nearly manages to capture Bloom in clever fashion.  Equally, Bloom counters Batman's moves and makes his escape.

All a bit campy and a little too predictable.  But it does move us along to what the real Batman is doing which is...


Shower Time!

Yep, the currently oblivious Bruce is enjoying a nice morning shower.  It is "the morning after" and instead of looking deeply into his own mind, Bruce wants to know what is going on with Jules.

This post pillow talk does have some significance in that in provide an ever so subtle crack into the mind of Batman and his history.

To wit.

While Bruce is by and large totally unaware of his former alter ego as Batman, he does know that Jules' father had a sordid past and he is not beyond putting the pieces together.  Despite her father being the man that sold the gun to the man who murdered his parents he blithely wants to carry on and marry Jules.

Woof!  Things that are said in the shower!  Bruce is so far removed from the most pivotal moment in his life he nonchalantly pops the question and fits in a little naughty time.  (BTW, a hint was dropped by Jules that something is going on with her, probably something physical.  Cue future heartbreak.)


Oh Gotham, why?

Fortunately we have the hubris of an arrogant city to distract us.

Despite being easily menaced by Bloom earlier in our story Gotham continues on its path of self delusion.  Geri shows Gordon her army of Bat robots that she is utterly convinced will protect Gotham.  This from a city that once considered Batman a pariah.  Now they are telling themselves they have the better solution and are using the symbol of the Bat as their shield.

 Sheer hubris dear readers.  Sheer hubris.

Snyder has positioned Bruce Wayne as a small picture man that can't see what role he plays in Gotham.  Alternately, Gotham has been positioned by Snyder as a city that is seduced by the big picture that can't see the small picture.  

The devil is in the details Gothamites.


Wake Up Call

 

The only man on the planet with a grip of what is going on is Gordon.  In true Batman fashion he wants to go it alone.  He correctly assumes an army of Bat battle-bots would only lead to a large scale disaster.

 The man that should truly be on the ball is Bruce Wayne and he is still playing catch up.  His wake up call comes in the form of a child's drawing.   The urgency of the situation is starting to dawn on him (Bat-sense tingling?) and he realizes he can no longer find that seed Bloom left behind.  

Here we have another tie in to the children of Gotham.  Snyder seems to be focusing on Wayne's forgotten childhood and future of Gotham's kids.   If they have a future that is.

 
Gotham used to be a thriving community with the emphasis on "community."  Where once was charity and a populace that took care of its own, now stands arrogance that has created a divide where a path (Blossom Row) once brought people together.  Through that crack evil blooms.  (See what I did there?)

Bloom has proved to be formidable foe.  As our story closes "Bat-Gordo" is in the grip of his machine "Rookie."  One can assume the rest of the Bat Battle Bots will soon be in service to Bloom.

Better hurry up and snap out of it Wayne!


Okay.  Who is up for a little spoiler?

You're going to have to scroll way down.






Lower.







A little lower.  








Last spoiler warning!






Want to see what Bruce Wayne looks like when he finally realizes he's Batman?


Here it is..

The horror.

Yanick Paquette will be sitting in as illustrator for Batman#49 as Greg Capullo will be taking a break.  (Capullo will illustrate Batman#50.)  

I love Paquette's take on "German Expressionism" especially in the style of F. W. Murnau.  Wayne seems to be reacting as if he is in the thrall of some demonic presence.

I certainly hope so! 


See you back here for Batman #47.   Bat Battle Bots anyone?







 

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Batman #44 and #45

I'm doing a little double duty with this review.  Since I am late with Batman #44, I thought I might throw in a review of Batman #45 while I am at it.

Batman #44

I do my best to avoid reviews of comics that I am also reviewing lest they prejudice my own opinions.  That being said, sometimes it hard to avoid the digital leviathan that is the internet.

I had read that issue #44 of Batman was a rewind of sorts that take a break from the lost Bruce Wayne and Mr. Bloom story line.

That's fine, I'm sure Snyder and DC want to prolong this particular script as Wayne adopts his new life outside the cowl and pursue the fate of Gotham as the Gordon Batman struggles to keep the city in one piece.

In doing so we make a brief return to the Bruce Wayne Batman as he gets embroiled in street level crime that leads him down a darker and larger path.

A good portion of the story involve the fate of one Peter Duggio.

Duggio is just a kid trying to make it right on the streets of Gotham that even that city has forgotten.  That, my friends, is as about as low as even Gotham can go.

 
The internet was quick to point out the topical nature of a portion of this story and how it deals with "Black Lives Matter."  Indeed, kudos should go out to Scott Snyder for including something so relevant that it sadly appears on almost a daily basis.

Unfortunately, we live in a society where violence is the first option  and the police feel so besieged that they reflexively turn to the gun.  It is left to the bereaved, media and the courts to sort things out.

Frankly, it is a sad epidemic mess.

Where Snyder goes wrong is his introduction of Mr. Bloom into the story.

 As Snyder would have it, Bloom already exists in the Batman universe.  He is not the Joker reincarnated (as I had predicted) but someone trying to make a name for himself as a low life peddler  of some bizarre addictive chemical concoction.

This isn't strictly a ret-con but more a reverse introduction of a character that has always been in the Batman universe.  It's just that we the readers never knew of him.

Sorry, but I find this annoying.  I'd prefer Batman's world be expanded as we grow to know him and as time progresses.  Not as part of a rewind.  It just seems less inventive to me to insert parts to a mythology that we are already steeped in just to find out we don't know as much as we thought.

Our story takes a freakish turn when the afflicted Peter, in his zeal to escape the mean streets of Gotham, grows Bat-wings (ironic symbolism?) and finds himself nearly vaulted outside the city limits.

I thought it ludicrous.

Yes, I get it.  He wanted to fly and he nearly made out of the hell that Gotham was to him.

But Bat-wings?  That's a bit too on the nose.

Surely Snyder is showing us the new menace that is Mr. Bloom's concoction but the "re-invention timeline" and the wings threw me for a loop.

In the end Batman learned a hard lesson.  He used this experience to connect with the forgotten youth of Gotham and it drew a through line between what happened here and the amnesiac Bruce Wayne working at the home for disadvantageous youth we saw in Batman #43.  And, yes, that through line connect it all to Mr. Bloom.

But, really, bat-wings?


Batman #45

As we continue our journey into the rediscovery of Batman I get the impression Scott Snyder wants us to see Batman as something elemental, something born of youth.  

Of course, the foundation of what was to become Batman started with Bruce Wayne as a youth and the murder of his parents.  But I think Snyder wants to change the perspective on this old tale and see Batman through a new lens.

Bruce Wayne is an adult now with his slate wiped clean.  Yet he is constantly surrounded by youth and one could say he has a naivete unfettered by his tragic past.  

It's as if Snyder wants to see what Batman would be like without his youth yet have the mantle of Batman forced upon him.

That should be interesting.

Our story returns to the present with the Jim Gordon Batman battling for his life.  He is nearly consumed by flames and the message seems to be Batman is, or can be, forged by the elemental nature of fire or at least the flames of combat.

While Gordon is adept at getting himself in and out of trouble it is the remotely controlled empty suit that comes to his rescue.  Here Snyder may be saying the new Batman may be as much suit as the man inside it.  (See my examination of the mind of Batman and his costume at the link.)

Gordon narrowly escapes death with the help of Daryl and our tale reverts back to Bruce Wayne.

Has Batman become a dinosaur?    A thing of the distant past?  Extinct?  The amnesiac Bruce Wayne ponders the past he knows little of.   Again, Snyder positions Wayne as someone looking at himself from the outside instead of within.

He knows nothing of Batman but he is aware of attack on Gotham by the Joker and the detritus left behind.  Wayne looks upon the artifacts as curiosities and is at first dismissive of them.

What were once trophies are now some much garbage.  Relics of a bygone era with little meaning aside from their obvious extinct nature.

However, the reach of evil is never too far away in Gotham.  

As Wayne ponders the meaning of his existence his stand-in, Jim Gordon, is getting a rude lesson into the elemental nature of what it is to be Batman.

Quite literally.

The movers and shakers pf Gotham know their city is in constant danger but sadly can't see the forest for the trees.

In their quest to find the ultimate protector for Gotham they've broken down what it is to be Batman to the minutest detail. 

They are so convinced of their findings they can't see that Batman is much greater than the some of his parts even at the atomic level they have distilled him down to.

As a counterpoint, Wayne believes Gotham can be saved by serving its youth.

He's taken the remnants of the battlefield and turned them into object of amusement.  Why dwell on the past and be consumed by it when you can transform it into something much more benign and less threatening?

Because, as I said, evil is never that far away in Gotham.

As Gotham congratulates itself in it's reinvention of Batman, Mr. Bloom makes his grand and murderous entry.

Gotham is fortunate Gordon has a much better understanding of what it is to be Batman than the arrogant city he serves.

Batman is not just an empty suit.  Nor is he something that can be reinvented by by people on the outside trying to look in.  

Snyder's lens wants to discover Batman in a new way.  There is something elemental about Batman.  But it is organic, something found within, not recreated from without.  

Wayne will have to discover what it is to be Batman again and he'll have to do it without the benefit of his youth.  Instead, he'll have to see it through the eyes of the children he's surrounded himself with.  Snyder's exploration into what it is to be Batman is an interesting tact.  


Batman #46 should be very compelling indeed.

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Batman #43 - Who is Mr. Bloom?

Batman returns in issue #43 and he still doesn't know who he is.

It should be said, the Bruce Wayne Batman doesn't know who he is.  The Jim Gordon one certainly does.

He's the one reaching out to Wayne to outfit his desperate needs with Wayne Tech and help  divine the mystery behind Mr. Bloom and the seeds he sows that give users "terrible abilities."  

Alas,  Bruce Wayne is too busy making goo-goo eyes at the young lovely whom he helps at the local outreach center.

Also making eyes is none other than the Man of of Steel himself visiting from Metropolis and in the company of Alfred the butler.

Before we get to the identity of Mr. Bloom, it's probably worthy to see what is going on with the Dark Knight himself and why he is so clueless to his true nature.

When Batman died in unison with the Joker he came in contact with "Dionesium." This not only allowed Batman to experience his rebirth but rewired his brain to such an extant that he is no longer the man crushed by guilt and forged into the dark avenger eternally in pursuit of justice.

Alfred never got around to telling the reborn Bruce Wayne of his alter ego.  He did fill him in of his tragic past but stopped just short of the evolution into one of the great superheroes of all time.

It seems Alfred sees this as a gift.  A gift that would allow Bruce Wayne to grow into his true self.  Compassionate, loving and charitable. 

Good grief Alfred, what are you thinking?

Acting as the voice of sanity, Superman tells Alfred this cannot stand.  

Acting as the voice of insanity, Alfred threatens Clark with kryptonite.

* Editorial Aside *

Maybe Alfred's niece, Julia should completely take over the duties of the Bat Cave.  Alfred is so consumed with Wayne being the innocent he could have been, he actually threatened the world's greatest hero with his one weakness.

You need to lie down Alfred.

Well, all is not lost.  Batman was working on an invention insuring there will always be a Batman so there is our narrative "out" for this mess.

But seriously Alfred, threatening Superman with kryptonite?  If I were the Man of Steel I'd just fly in sometime, grab Wayne and plug him into the machine so we can have the old Bats back.

* End Editorial Aside *

Alfred underestimates the seriousness of Mr. Bloom and his seeds.  As the Gordon Batman struggles with this new threat our Mr. Bloom meets with the Penguin.

Naturally, if there is a new drug on the streets of Gotham the Penguin wants a piece of the action.

Ha, well, not just a piece, the whole thing.  The Penguin has one of his hoods "off" Mr. Bloom and thereby sets something into motion not one of us saw coming.

Quite the metamorphisis I'd say.

So, who is Mr. Bloom?

Well, if Wayne can undergo a metamorphisis of his own on a neurological basis  why can't the Joker, with whom Batman met his demise, undergo a change of his own except on a biological one?

Yes, I'm saying Mr. Bloom is the Joker.

Bloom is conveniently wearing a mask so as not to spoil his true identity.  I'm sure the writer, Scott Snyder, didn't want to divulge all the goodies in one issue.

Bloom is also a lanky sort much like the Joker (check out the pose on our topmost picture.) and his machination of sowing discord in Gotham with his seeds is something the Joker would claim second nature to.  

Outwitting the Penguin is something the Joker would find quite easy.

Would the Joker know getting shot would allow him to evolve into that gangly monster we see in the last frame?  Eh, maybe not, but he may not know he is the Joker either.

This organic being may realize on a seperate level his true nature by evolving into something new.  With the Joker as his biological forebear perhaps the sentience would be enough to make that subconscious determination.

So, as we close, if you look in the corner of this last picture Snyder asks sthe question, "Who is Mr. Bloom?"

Think he'll tell us?

I don't.  I think he'll drag it along a little further.  God knows the Joker loves to make a grand entrance.  What grander one than when Batman regains all his memory and capabilities.

That should be a few issues from now.  Five maybe?

See you then.

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Gotham - The Mask

You know, this is at least the third episode of Gotham where we find a masked man.  Some have been good but most evil.  I wonder what Gotham is trying to tell us.  (Just kidding, I get it.)  Hopefully soon I can do a blog post on all of the masked men we've seen so far.

Gotham continues to mature as a series and while this wasn't their best entry it still introduced us to many interesting concepts and characters.

The main plot point of the "Fight Club" business was tepid at best.  We've seen it.

I got a real "Wolf of Wall Street" vibe when we caught glimpses of the feral and entitled staff too.

No, the best thing about this episode was how Gotham handled the dynamic between the main characters and how their stories are interwoven.

The relationship between Alfred and Bruce was a high point.  In fact, this was a pretty good "Bruce" episode.  Alfred has been a bit of a disappointment but bringing young Bruce to confront Tommy Elliot and reassuring Bruce he can teach him how to fight was valuable indeed.

Alfred proved he could be parental if need be but he also showed he is a worthy mentor and a bit of a best friend too.  In the above frame, Bruce confesses to the fire of being angry all the time and I got a big time Batman rush from that statement.

I've had my doubts about David Mazouz as Bruce but his beat down of Tommy Elliot using his Dad's watch was rather thrilling.  Yes, that sounds a little sick but we are seeing the future Batman at his earliest moments.  Sometimes the Bat just can't contain himself and it took Alfred to pull the reins back.  The use of the watch was highly symbolic as Elliot was taunting Bruce over the loss of his parents.  Bruce channeled their loss and used that memory to teach Elliot a valuable if not bloody lesson.

 

And, whoa!  I forgot they were going to introduce Tommy Elliot.  I think a Hush came over my darkened psyche.   Cole Vallis made quite the impression as Elliot.  I hate him already!  He was cruel and entitled and hopefully he will become a recurring character.  When Tommy grows up to be Hush he will become a powerful villain in the Batman mythology.  For now, as young Tommy, let's hope we see more of him as he will provide Bruce as an off and on friend, competitor and foil that Bruce can measure himself against.

Speaking of off and on allies, Selina made her return in a cameo.  The great thing about this is it ties her fate back in with Gordon and it is Gordon that is investigating the murder of the Waynes.  You know, the murder that set Gotham City on it's downward spiral as characterized by Captain Essen.  That was a pretty big moment in my regard.

Another dynamic that played itself out was the one between Bullock and Gordon.  I still have my doubts concerning Bullock and sometimes I think he is too earnest when he tries to convince Gordon he is on his side.  (I have a theory that Bullock is still in league with Fish Mooney and to the detriment of Gordon.)

Take a look at Bullock in Essen's office as he gazes upon the beleaguered Gordon.  It was quite telling.  It shows Bullock as shaded to different degrees.  Not all of which are honest.  He sympathizes with Gordon and do doubt sees a bit of himself as he once was.  Harvey's in deep now and I think the tentacles of Mooney and Falcone reach deep inside him.  Gordon wants to trust him but I would be wary as of now.

Speaking of Essen, did anyone else get a romantic vibe here?  In the comics this comes to pass.

Allies of a different sort were displayed when the Cobblepots were seen together.  The fast rising Penguin tried his "hand" at smoothing things over with Fish Mooney but she had a different point to deliver.  Penguin learned his lesson.  But thanks to Mama Cobblepot, Oswald found out there is more than one way to trap a rat.  This episode didn't belong to the Penguin but as always Robin Lord Taylor stole every scene he was in.  In fact when the family dynamic is played out between the Cobblepots I don't know which one is more oddly magnetic, Oswald or Gertrude.

Maybe they should get their own spin off series.

And spinning out of control are Barbara and Jim.  Should I really comment on these two?  Have another drink Barbara and don't let the door hit you on the way out.  Sheesh, not again with her!

Lastly we got a good look at Edward Nygma.  He really wan't paired off with anyone but as usual he seemed a little "at sea" when it came to working with others.  Ed continues to be pushed away by just about everyone and it is only a matter of time before his resentment builds to the point where he'll take all the knowledge working for the police and use it against them.

Cory Michael Smith who plays the future Riddler has a nice comedic touch.  His scene with the deceased office worker was pretty funny.  The riddle he posed to the stiff was unsolvable and I got a kick out of him just talking to the dearly departed.  Cobblepot gets so many good scenes maybe it is high time Ed got his share. 

Alas, the next episode is titled "Harvey Dent" so the stage will have to be shared with another baddie.  How much room is there for another super villain?

Enough for Killer Croc?  I hope so!  Don't go down in the sewers anytime soon Jim.

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