Say it. "Damn all of them. There's only me." Say it. Say it! Because the city was built on divisions. Dead flower dolls. Gotham isn't a garden! It never was! It's a wild, bloody meadow! So stop wasting your lives! Don't take the pennies! Come to the land of giants! Go get what's yours get it! And let what's here die as it should, and grow something wonderful in it's place! 
- — Mister Bloom src
Mr. Bloom was a Gotham City power broker and enemy of Batman.
History
Before gaining his powers, the man who would become Mr. Bloom was an anonymous participant of Daryl Gutierrez's underground metahuman experiments in Blossom Row. Said experiments resolved to grant ordinary civilians metahuman powers through the consumption of a device known as a "seed". Mr. Bloom was the only successful subject and after he was imbued with powers, he destroyed the lab and appropriated Daryl's research and his moniker as Mr. Bloom.
Superheavy
After disappearing for years, Mr. Bloom returned to Gotham City after the chaotic events of Joker's endgame. With his arrival came a new wave of former crooks turned metahuman powerhouses such as Precious Precious[1], Gee Gee Heung[2], and Qi Tsu. He provides his "seeds" to a select few, acting as implants that once rooted inside the body will grant their hosts extraordinary superpowers at the cost of their lives. Mr. Bloom then went on to try and sell his "seeds" to The Penguin. However, when Mr. Bloom revealed he had no intention giving Penguin his own "seed", Penguin had Mr. Bloom shot through the head. Through thanks to his meta abilities, Bloom survived being shot and impaled Penguin and his men, before leaving them all to bleed out.[3]
Mr. Bloom would go on to hijack a police zeppelin and crash it into a press conference meeting hosted by Geraldine Powers, in which James Gordon was meant to resign from the mantle of 'Batman'.[4] Despite indiscriminately killing several of the prominent business and government officials at the event, he claims that he is only there to celebrate with them. Mr. Bloom declared to Geraldine Powers that he wanted her to continue her Batman program, mockingly giving her a dollar bill as a "donation", before Batman and "Rookie" attacked him. Mr. Bloom would be temporarily subdued when Batman used the magnetic field of the Batplane to trap Bloom against the bottom of the plane, though he would escape by using his metapowers to create an electric discharge that deactivated the plane.[5]
Batman located Mr. Bloom after his escape hiding out in a warehouse within The Narrows and after a brief confrontation -which resulted in the temporary destruction of "Rookie"- defeated the criminal thanks to a signal blocker designed by Julia Pennyworth and was arrested. Batman and the Gotham City Police Department transported Mr. Bloom within the Bat-Truck through The Narrows as a way to parade his capture. However, just before Batman was about to unmask Mr. Bloom, the Bat-Truck was attacked by metahumans dressed up like Mr. Bloom, allowing the criminal to escape once more.[6] Mr. Bloom grabbed Batman and took him with him as he escaped and began growing nearly two stories tall, allowing him to address the city and explain that he wants to grant the people of Gotham the chance to rise up and take their future in their own hands, revealing that he had planted his "seeds" all over Gotham. This causes numerous Gotham citizens to scrounge up these "seeds" and place them in their bloodstream, granting them metahuman powers, but symbiotically, granting Mr. Bloom more power himself.[7]
Task Force Z
After his supposed death from being absorbed into a collapsing 'strange star'[9], Mr. Bloom was recovered by Powers International under the orders of CEO Geraldine Powers and was kept locked up in one of her laboratories for years.[10] 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.[11]Mr. Bloom would later be covertly recaptured by Project Halperin and forcefully indoctrinated into Task Force Z by Director Crispin.[12]
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.[13] 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.[14] He would later accompany Task Force Z in obtaining and reanimating the corpse of Floyd Lawton[15] and preventing the Kobra Cult from distributing the Lazarus Resin pills[16].
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Metamorphosis
- Claws: While using his powers, Bloom can sharpen his fingers to deadly points, his go-to weapon when aiming to kill.
- Superhuman Agility
- Superhuman Strength
- Elasticity: Bloom can extend and retract his body parts to incredible lengths.
- Size Alteration: Mister Bloom is able to grow to gigantic size, becoming taller than entire buildings.[17]
- Superhuman Durability: Mister Bloom can endure extreme levels of physical harm, he survived being smashed through buildings, point blank explosions, high-caliber explosive bullets[17] and has even endured a brutal beating from the frighteningly strong Solomon Grundy.[18]
- Mechanokinesis: Mister Bloom can take control of the GCPD armored suits.[17]
- Pyrokinesis: Mister Bloom can project flames hot enough to melt one of Batman's armored suits.
- Cryokinesis: Mister Bloom displayed the ability to project ice from his hands.
Abilities
- Genius Level Intellect
- Science
- Mechanical Engineering: Mister Bloom has the mechanical skills to produce high-quality robotic "seeds" that grant its user super powers.
- Deception: As shown throughout his time in Task Force Z, Mister Bloom is a talented manipulator, convincing others that he is on their side while truely working towards his own ends.
- Charisma: Mister Bloom has clear signs of charisma by his ability to convince to populace of Gotham City to use his "seeds"[19]
- Tactical Analysis
Trivia
- Within the series Task Force Z Vol 1, Mister Bloom has developed a running gag of randomly abandoning his teammates, as he abandoned his team when they were combating Mister Freeze in Issue #1, left Sundowner when he was meant to be protecting her in Issue #2 and abandoned Task Force Z again during a fight against the Suicide Squad to pursue Geraldine Powers in Issue 5.
- Mister Bloom is allegedly a 'shy pooper'.[20]
Related
- 21 Appearances of Mister Bloom (Prime Earth)
- 10 Images featuring Mister Bloom (Prime Earth)
- 4 Quotations by or about Mister Bloom (Prime Earth)
- Character Gallery: Mister Bloom (Prime Earth)
Footnotes
- ↑ Batman Vol 2 41
- ↑ Batman Vol 2 42
- ↑ Batman Vol 2 43
- ↑ Batman Vol 2 45
- ↑ Batman Vol 2 46
- ↑ Batman Vol 2 47
- ↑ Batman Vol 2 48
- ↑ Task Force Z Vol 1 5
- ↑ Batman Vol 2 50
- ↑ Task Force Z Vol 1 5
- ↑ Task Force Z Vol 1 6
- ↑ Detective Comics Vol 1 1043
- ↑ Task Force Z Vol 1 1
- ↑ Task Force Z Vol 1 2
- ↑ Task Force Z Vol 1 3
- ↑ Task Force Z Vol 1 4
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Batman (Volume 2) #50
- ↑ Task Force Z #10
- ↑ Batman Vol 2 48
- ↑ Task Force Z Vol 1 5
  Batman Villain(s) |
 Suicide Squad member |