Mister Bloom (DC)

**Mister Bloom** is a male comic supervillain who features in DC Comics.

## Biography

Mister Bloom was a being whose origins were traced to the events of the Zero Year when Gotham City was terrorised by the Riddler. After the devastation, a young genius named Daryl Gutierrez had a vision to empower the people of the city to protect each other. Following him receiving the **Crowne Genius Grant Award**, Daryl used the money in the creation of a new prototype **seed** technology that empowered the user with abilities. He had intended to become a new hero for Gotham and came up with the identity of Mister Bloom which he named after **Blossom Row** that was a site where people had come together once upon a time. To test the **seed**, he provided it to his cousin **Peter** with the idea that he would set an example but it did not work and Daryl decided to burn the research. Afterwards, Gotham came under attack again this time from the Joker with Batman missing at the time leading to Gutierrez trying to restart his research. He decided to try again by using the bodies of unidentified victims from **Potter's Field** where he implanted several of them in the various bodies as he sought to test them differently as he determined that they should function without strong emotions such as rage. During testing, the results did not look promising with Daryl ready to give up when he checked on his experiments to find one of the test subjects arise with the seed successful in them. This person took the name of Mister Bloom whose identity was unknown as Gutierrez was unsure which body and which seed had worked. Mister Bloom determined that he was Daryl's 'monster' and departed where he took all the research of Gutierrez for himself. Daryl had sought to reclaim his stolen research as he came to see that Mister Bloom had perverted his work as he had intended to make a new hero for the city only for his creation to become its newest villain. (Batman v2 #50) Mister Bloom looked to test the ability of the 'seed' technology which were given to a number of people seeking powers with the first few experiments leading to the death of the hosts. This allowed him to perfect his craft and continued being a weapons dealer within Gotham City. This including providing the 'seeds' to several prominent crime bosses that operated within the **Narrows**. (Batman v2 #42) Daryl Gutierrez once told Batman about Mister Bloom operating from an alleyway but by the time the Dark Knight arrived on the scene the villain had vanished. (Batman v2 #44)

Thus, he began to operate in the criminal underworld where these 'seeds' provided their hosts superpowers where they went on a rampage in the city. This along with offering genetic enhancements were services he was offering to gangs such as the **Devil Pigs**. The Penguin arranged a meet with Mister Bloom in order to acquire one of these 'seeds' for himself. However, Mister Bloom refused to give them to Cobblepot as he did not factor in his plans for Gotham. This led to Oswald ordering his men to shoot Mister Bloom in the head to remove him as a competitor and threat. However, Bloom's enhanced biology meant he could not be killed by the gunshot and he murdered Penguin's men whilst injuring Cobblepot himself. (Batman v2 #43) He then commandeered the new Batman themed airship that was used by the Gotham City Police Department for use by their police trained replacement for the Dark Knight. The ship was crashed into the ceremony that was looking to replace the G.C.P.D. Batman where Mister Bloom broke onto the scene and killed a number of the attendees. The new Batman then attacked him with numerous shots to the head but these did not kill Mister Bloom who looked to overwhelm the G.C.P.D. officer with his powers. The power armoured suit was then deployed but Mister Bloom was able to damage it with apparent ease whereupon he pinned Batman with a spiked finger to the shoulder with him ready to kill the hero. He was only saved by one of his support crew namely Julia Perry who used the airships electro magnet to temporarily restrain Mister Bloom. The villain was excited at the next encounter with the new Batman who he knew to be James Gordon and escaped the scene before he could be arrested. (Batman v2 #45)

He then had some of his followers dress up as him as he prepared to destroy Gotham City. (Batman v2 #48) Jim Gordon as Batman came to track Mister Bloom to **Blossom Row** where he uncovered his lair with a cache of seeds. One of the copycat Mister Bloom's managed to take over Gordon's powersuit forcing the Batman to destroy the Rookie. However, he used this opportunity to corrupt the seed cache thus preventing them from being usable. This saw the Mister Bloom get angry but he found that a blocker was used to impede his powers allowing Batman to capture him. However, the other Mister Bloom's broke into the Batmobile and free him whilst capturing Gordon. (Batman v2 #47) Mister Bloom then went on a rampage in the city where he was joined by his henchmen as he prepared to raze Gotham. Holding Gordon captive, Mister Bloom stated that he had come to tear Gotham down which was why he offered the seeds to criminals. However, he offered the seeds to all citizens as he had placed it in places around the city and offered powers to everyone. This shocked some of his henchmen with Mister Bloom killing them as he wanted the people of Gotham to destroy the city. (Batman v2 #48) The GCPD headed by Maggie Sawyer made use of armored robotic Batsuit's that were sent to apprehend him though Mister Bloom came to commandeer their suits and turned them against Gotham. (Batman v2 #50)

Though seemingly killed, he was actually saved by the **Powers Corporation** under the orders of its CEO **Geri Powers**. Whilst in there custody, he came to be part of a team that worked on creating the Lazarus Resin that was a substance able to reanimate the dead. Alongside him were Dr. Halbrecht, Dr. Shelley and the Resurrection Man with Mister Bloom claiming that he found the means of stabilising the formula for the resin. (Task Force Z v1 #5) Geraldine Power's would force Mr. Bloom to join a science division along with the Resurrection Man to create the Lazarus Resin pills that would eventually be used by Task Force Z. However, after learning that he would not receive his freedom or any money for completing this experiment, he caused the Powers International laboratory to explode and escaped. (Task Force Z v1 #6) Mr. Bloom would later be covertly recaptured by Project Halperin and forcefully indoctrinated into Task Force Z by Director Crispin. (Detective Comics v1 #1043) Later on, Bloom came to be recruited into **Task Force Z** where he agreed to help the covert ops team as penance for his past actions. This saw him working alongside Bane, the Man-Bat Kirk Langstrom and the Arkham Knight who were all in an undead state after being resurrected by the use of Lazarus Resin. The team were overseen by the Red Hood Jason Todd who was tasked with keeping the team in line during their assignments. Mr. Bloom's first mission while press-ganged as a member of Task Force Z involved raiding a warehouse controlled by Mr. Freeze and his gang, who had been smuggling crates of Lazarus Resin. (Task Force Z v1 #1) During this mission, he temporarily abandoned his teammates -who were frozen in the warehouse- to pursue and kill Mr. Freeze, returning to save his field leader Red Hood from the zombified Arkham Knight by feeding her Lazarus Resin pills which satisfied her hunger. (Task Force Z v1 #2) He would later accompany Task Force Z in obtaining and reanimating the corpse of Floyd Lawton. (Task Force Z v1 #3) Task Force Z also helped prevent the Kobra Cult from distributing the Lazarus Resin pills. (Task Force Z v1 #4)

## Overview

### Personality and attributes

In appearance, Mister Bloom was an individual who wore jeans along with a black shirt and a mask that hid their features with a weed-like sharp on the face. (Batman v2 #43)

Mister Bloom claimed that he was once a bleeding heart and a soldier for Gotham. (Batman v2 #46) He believed Gotham to be a failed experiment and was not some tame garden but rather a bloody landscape. It was built on divisions and that people should simply take what they wanted from it. According to him, people hated one another and that they should kill each other as a result. (Batman v2 #48) He had considered himself to be a scientific problem solver who believed that morality should not stand in the way of science. (Task Force Z v1 #5)

He came to be impressed with James Gordon when he had become the new Batman and said that he was on track to be among the best to wear the mantle. (Batman v2 #46)

### Powers and abilities

As a result, he had superhuman abilities such as being able to function even without a gunshot wound to the head. He could alter his body by stretching his limbs such as elongating them and even shaping his fingers as spears that he could shoot out to stab a target. (Batman v2 #43) These could be extended across great distances where he often used them to pierce through vital points such as eyes, neck and other vulnerable parts of the body. (Batman v2 #45) Mister Bloom was shown to hold a degree of super-strength as he was able to effortlessly rip apart powered armour with ease. (Batman v2 #46) He could also grow to gigantic size where he was as tall as some buildings. (Batman v2 #48)

He offered small 'seed'-like devices to customers with this being placed within the body whereupon they provided the host with superpowers. Bloom was regarded as a weapons dealer who made no deals and seemingly gave these powers away as he grew his business like a garden. (Batman v2 #43) Upon finding one, a person simply needed to make a small incision in the skin and plant the seed directly into the bloodstream where shortly afterwards it gave powers to the user. (Batman v2 #48) The 'seeds' looked organic but were very high-tech where a super-lead shell that covered a tiny radioactive reactor. This fuelled their ability to give their user a unique power by enhancing and channelling their own body's energy. Powers could range from being electrical, thermal or even physical abilities. It was possible to remotely dissolve the shell thus exposing the host to a massive amount of radiation effectively cooking the user and killing them in seconds. (Batman v2 #42) The 'seeds' were known to be electro magnetic which meant that they could be manipulated by a powerful electro magnet. (Batman v2 #46)

His greatest feat was the ability to manipulate strange matter and was able to generate one into a miniature star. Through his seeds, he was able to beam the energy from them to produce the energy for a strange matter reaction. All this power was transmitted to the super-seed that was located in Mister Bloom's own body. This was capable of growing to the point that it could potentially destroy an entire city. (Batman v2 #50)

Mister Bloom was able to attract a number of followers among his henchmen who were able to dress as him. This meant that his enemies were unaware of which person was the real Mister Bloom. (Batman v2 #48)

## Notes

* Mister Bloom was created by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo where he made his first appearance in Batman v2 #43 (October, 2015).
* In an interview on CBR, writer Scott Snyder noted that, *"For me, Mr. Bloom is a character that’s been in the back of my mind a lot. He’s sort of a boogeyman — but not like the Joker. To me, the Joker is this kind of guy who says, 'Life is meaningless, I’m laughing at all of you.' Mr. Bloom, he’s very much kind of a flower — he’s the kind of thing that says, 'Come closer, I have something good for you. Come down this alley.' ... He’s really a figure I love. I love writing him, and I love the specificality that Greg [Capullo] has brought to him, too; just with his fingers — next issue, in #45, he sneaks in somewhere really bad and does something really bad. The thing I love about him, even when he walks into a room, he doesn’t even realize he’s killing people, because his fingers almost shoot out without him noticing, and just sort of spear people as he walks by. He’s very fun to write in a twisted way, and I love him as a villain."*

## Alternate Versions

* In Batman: Last Knight on Earth v1 #1 (2019), an alternate version of Mister Bloom was shown to had existed in this world in the Multiverse.

## Appearances

* *Batman v2*: (2015)
* *Task Force Z v1*: (2021)