Writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo revealed during a New York Comic Con 2021 panel that the trickiest character they designed during their transformative run on Batman was the sinister Mr. Bloom.
"The toughest one was Mr. Bloom, because [Scott] goes, 'You know, he could have a flower in his face, you know? Something creepy,'" Capullo said, reflecting on the process of coming up with the villain's flower-laden appearance. "And I'm going, 'How are flowers creepy? I get flowers for my girlfriend, for my mother, you know, flowers are nice.'"
Capullo said that it took some time for Snyder to get him to come around on the idea, but it was a photo of a predatory flower with teeth-like appendages in concentric circles that sold him.
"I don't know where he found the picture -- but they have like rows of teeth," Capullo said. "It was a real flower and I go, 'Okay, now this makes sense.' So yeah, he has these seeds of an idea. And then I just tried to bring them to life, you know, and I just follow my instinct and what path it is. Mr. Bloom was the trickiest one I ever co-created with him."
Mr. Bloom was a villain who tormented Jim Gordon during the former commissioner's tenure as a government-sponsored Batman during "Superheavy." The story capped off Capullo and Snyder's run on Batman, which spanned 51 issues from 2011 to 2016.
During the panel, Snyder pointed out that creating unusual new villains like Mr. Bloom was one of the first tasks he and Capullo would tackle prior to embarking upon each story arc.
"We collaborate first and design all the characters first," Snyder said. "Whenever we were doing something with Batman, we would do the creation of the villain, like Mr. Bloom or the Court of Owls, before we began. So, like the Talon or same thing here [We Have Demons]... I think we'll probably put it in the end of the issue or when they do the collected trade for digital and that stuff. You'll see the designs and stuff, but it was great. It's a great process with him, where we just go back and forth and see what we think looks right for the character. So, I never start writing until I have them in my head because he drew them first."
Capullo and Snyder would go on to work together on Dark Nights: Metal, Dark Nights: Death Metal and Batman: Last Knight on Earth. The pair's latest collaboration is the creator-owned comic We Have Demons, which is now available on comiXology.
Source: New York Comic Con