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Batman #46 Review

Comic Books

Batman #46 Review

The very thought of pricking your finger is an unnerving thing, which is precisely why Mr. Bloom is a freaky new villain in the Batman rogues gallery. We learn more about the character in this week’s Batman, but is it good?

Batman #46 (DC Comics)

Batman #46 Review

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Jim Gordon is Batman now and it’s no longer a one man job but a team of police officers making it work. Gordon has a Bat-suit of sorts, but also a larger mech suit to jump into. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne doesn’t know he was Batman after losing his memory in a near death battle with Joker. He knows his parents died, but it doesn’t instill him with rage since those feelings have been lost. Now he just wants to be a stand up guy and get married.

Why does this comic book matter?

Writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo have been at this for quite a while now, so you know whatever story you’re getting is not only drenched in mythos they created, but just plain good storytelling too. The art is as always very detailed and nice to look at and Snyder has consistently made this character a walking myth sort of story.

Batman #46 Review
Scary as hell.

Snyder ties in social class into this issue very nicely and it’s going to be great to see Mr. Bloom’s ties to it. It is however still very early for details on who Bloom is unfortunately. We get a lot more of him in this issue though and there’s a rather violent and disturbing sequence that will put you on edge. Ultimately Snyder gives us a Mr. Bloom that’s formidable, scary, and interesting. You want to learn more about him.

One of the Robins gets some time on the page this week too, and while his character is fun and interesting I didn’t know why I needed to care about his mission. That said he faces a group of foes that’d put Batman to shame and it was neat to see his use of birds.

Bruce gets a nice short scene too and it’s exciting to see his detective skills haven’t waned. It’s also interesting to see a new side of Bruce, although you know every fan is just waiting for him to bust out the heroics and stop being the settled down husband type.

Meanwhile Capullo does wonders with Mr. Bloom. The character is unnerving visually and the head/eye of this beast is freakish. You really get the feeling that it’s some kind of bedtime nightmare. The violence he inflicts is also masterfully captured with the pricks flying and flicking with scary detail. We also get a look at a new Batmobile which is always exciting and the Robin sequence was bar none very well laid out.

It can’t be perfect, can it?

There’s a lot of postulating from Gordon and his police crew on how they should tackle Bloom that’s downright boring. It’s also annoying to have a hero say, “I’m doing this and then you can fire me” for what seems like the 50th time. At the very least we see this trope over and over. While this convo brings in a new idea that could spell changes for the entire DCU I can’t say the verbose sequence helped the pacing of the issue.

As far as who Mr. Bloom is it’s starting to feel a bit drawn out as far as details. Maybe it’s because the series is juggling a few different things at once, but we’re about three issues into seeing this character and I still have no idea who he is or what he’s up to.

Batman #46 Review
Observant.

Is It Good?

While this issue feels a bit slow and cumbersome Mr. Bloom steals the show. You haven’t had nightmares under the bed quite like this.

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