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A review by enriquedcf
Batman, Volume 9: Bloom by Scott Snyder
3.0
At least I liked it more than Endgame.
Bloom should have been the grand finale for the legendary run by Snyder and Capullo; instead, it's just OK. The art and the action are great as always, and when it gets close to be about something, the comic kind of works, but as I was reading it, I just felt disaster fatigue; yet another story of Gotham being destroyed by a Batman villain.
My other issue with this is that despite the cool design, Mr. Bloom is a boring villain. I feel nothing for him, the mystery is barely interesting and his role as "anybody who could lose hope in Gotham" is just a way to justify a flat character. He is no Doctor Hurt or Bane, he is barely an Owl.
As the finale for Jim Gordon's time as Batman, at least they gave him some cool moments, but still feels like an underused concept. I might be wrong, but I can only think of Batgirl and We Are Robin as comics that dealt with Jim Gordon as Batman in Gotham and it still feels like an afterthought, just a temporary switch that didn't last long (and don't get me started on the lame way Bruce Wayne comes back as Batman).
I liked Duke; I wish he had gotten more to do after this; it feels such a coward move that DC didn't let him be a Robin; at least as Robin he would part of the main family, instead of being just a forgotten sidekick like Harper (and what I guess will end up happening to Clownhunter).
Overall, Bloom is just fine; it offers little new and shows that even a run where plot threads can be planted early and exploited later can show serious signs of fatigue. Just one more trade to go in my reread.
Bloom should have been the grand finale for the legendary run by Snyder and Capullo; instead, it's just OK. The art and the action are great as always, and when it gets close to be about something, the comic kind of works, but as I was reading it, I just felt disaster fatigue; yet another story of Gotham being destroyed by a Batman villain.
My other issue with this is that despite the cool design, Mr. Bloom is a boring villain. I feel nothing for him, the mystery is barely interesting and his role as "anybody who could lose hope in Gotham" is just a way to justify a flat character. He is no Doctor Hurt or Bane, he is barely an Owl.
As the finale for Jim Gordon's time as Batman, at least they gave him some cool moments, but still feels like an underused concept. I might be wrong, but I can only think of Batgirl and We Are Robin as comics that dealt with Jim Gordon as Batman in Gotham and it still feels like an afterthought, just a temporary switch that didn't last long (and don't get me started on the lame way Bruce Wayne comes back as Batman).
I liked Duke; I wish he had gotten more to do after this; it feels such a coward move that DC didn't let him be a Robin; at least as Robin he would part of the main family, instead of being just a forgotten sidekick like Harper (and what I guess will end up happening to Clownhunter).
Overall, Bloom is just fine; it offers little new and shows that even a run where plot threads can be planted early and exploited later can show serious signs of fatigue. Just one more trade to go in my reread.