Batman Vol. 9: Bloom (The New 52)

This is a pretty epic conclusion to the New 52 Batman series. Mr Bloom is just as good a villain as the Court of Owls. Snyder's really made Batman feel fresh again and I can't wait to pick up dark nights metal next.If you like big Kaiju battles and city wide destruction stories this is for you. I only mark this down a star because my new copy came with a few torn pages towards the back of the book. I'm not sure how this happened, I don't think it was shipping issue. My guess is its a manufacturing defect as the book its self was still sealed and showed no signs of being opened before.

Great read lots of twists and turns in the storyline.

When I was young - too many years ago - the local newsagent used to sell american superhero comics. The selection on offer was fairly arbitrary but every fortnight I'd buy one to read. Batman, Dr Strange, The Avengers and so on. Then I grew older, moved away and stopped reading comics, but I retained fond memories of them.Seeing the superheros on sale on Kindle I decided to get a few - and started with the Batman 2011-16 collection. Batman and Dr Strange were always my favourites.Vol 1 to 7 in the series were 'good to excellent'. Vol 8, not so much - did Vol 9 improve?Batman 'vanished, presumed dead' at the end of Vol7 'Endgame', so Gordon jumps in a suit of power armour and plays Batman in Vol 8. The premise was questionable, the story was weak, the characters actions were unbelievable - and Gordon was drawn like a hyper athletic wasp waisted 30 year old. Volume 9 improves, at least the story, substantially. I still don't like the artwork. Sorry, but I'm not convinced by Vol 8 and 9 buying. I dutifully read them 'for completeness'. I don't regret it, but I can't help feeling it could have been a lot better. It does add to the Batman story - but Gordon as a Batman stretched disbelief to breaking point and Bloom, the titular villian of the story comes across as a bit too forced and a bit too omnipotent for me,Its all subjective and personal preference, of course, you may like it more than I did.

Good conclusion to the Superheavy story. There's an unexpected turn of events with Mr Bloom's plans for Gotham and it marks the return of Bruce Wayne as Batman.

The commissioner as the big b didn't sit well at first but ended up being rather well handled! Not so sure on the return of yellow on the chest, but I suppose its not over the top!

Satisfying end to the new villain (Bloom). Although Gordon's time as Batman was enjoyable, the return of Wayne to the cowl feels right.

Well written, some great artwork and terrifying new villain. Jim Gordon rocks. A great addition to the Batman story- kudos!

Every new writer tackling the dark knight should get the lattitude to make their own mark, take their own direction. Not every new envisioning of the Batman mythos is going to appeal to every fan and that's fine.I really enjoyed the start of Scott Snyders run. I thought the court of the owls arc was excellent, liked the tone, felt like it added something interesting to the cannon. Since then gradually becoming more and more disenchanted through Endgame and finally with Bloom.Trying not to give spoilers but the narrative devices that drive both Bruce Wayne and the villian of the piece I found entirely unsatisfying. It barely raises above the level of the kids creative writing project 'it was all a dream' The story line surrounding Jim Gordon was potentially a really nice idea but to me was bungled. The scale of the conflict is big, cartoonish, childish. This is set against some of the most pretentious over ripe guff about the meaning of Batman to Gotham I've had the dismay to read.For the first time I can remember I really struggled to finish a Batman book. I disliked it so much after first reading that I distrusted my own reaction. I assumed that I must have been in a bad mood or missed the point and a couple of days later reread the last few TPs of this run. Only to find exactly the same sentiment.There's a lot of Batman out there in the collected back catalogue. Lots of different approaches and styles. For me this was a very ambitious, ultimately overreaching, attempt at a 'big' batman story that wrote an enormous cheque that it was woefully unable to cash in a satisfying way.The best I can say is that, I guess I'm glad Scott Snyder took a bold risk (no fun if everyone just plays safe) but for me....swing and a miss