The Penguin Just Put Its Own Twist on a Deep-Cut Batman Villain You Likely Missed

This Penguin article contains spoilers.

After Matt Reeves first introduced us to his Gotham City for The Batman, it’s over to Lauren LeFranc to expand these crime-riddled streets further in The Penguin. With rumors swirling on who the big bad of Reeves’ The Batman Part II will be, The Penguin has already teased famous foes ranging from Sofia Falcone/the Hangman to a new take on Clayface, a possible wink to Scarecrow, and now, a seemingly grounded version of an obscure Batman villain.

This week’s episode, “Bliss,” reveals the new drug that Sofia (Cristin Milioti) is trying to flood the streets of Gotham with, teaming up with Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) to ship the euphoric party drug to the masses. Although seemingly shooting down the theories that we’re getting this world’s version of Scarecrow’s fear toxin or Bane’s Venom, the fact that Bliss is the creation of a guy named Trey Bloom (Tyler Bunch) has us immediately thinking of the villain Mr. Bloom from the comics. Remember him?

The dynamic creator duo of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo introduced Mr. Bloom in 2015’s Batman #43, which took place at a time when Jim Gordon had taken on the mantle of Batman following the Caped Crusader’s disappearance during a fight with the Joker. Bloom was the result of metahuman experiments in Blossom Row. When things went terribly wrong, he metamorphosed into a creepy-looking monster with a flower motif on his face.

Scientist Daryl Gutierrez used “seeds” to imbue civilians with metahuman powers, and Bloom took on the research as his own. At one point, he crossed paths with the Penguin, promising to give him the mobster his own seed, but when Bloom double-crossed him, Cobblepot had him shot in the head. Bloom’s powers meant he survived the ordeal, though.

After spreading his seeds around Gotham and looking like he’d defeated Jim Gordon’s mech suit-wearing Batman, Mr. Bloom’s rampage through Gotham eventually led to the return of the real Batman after Bruce recovered from amnesia. Snyder and Capullo have described Mr. Bloom as an anti-Joker, explaining that similar to how giving Joker a solid origin story would cheapen him, Mr. Bloom’s anonymity is what makes him scary.

If The Penguin’s Mr. Bloom is a reimagining of the character, this would somewhat undo that. Still, there are elements of him that would rightly fit with Reeves’ grounded work. Snyder told IGN in 2015, “What’s scary about Mr. Bloom is that anybody disaffected enough or angry enough at things not working and the machine of Gotham breaking down could become Mr. Bloom with the right push,” which sounds similar to Riddler’s (Paul Dano) motives in The Batman.

Bliss can similarly finds its roots in a forgotten corner of the comics, with 2010’s Titans introducing it as a hallucinogen created by a drug lord named Elijah. Like The Penguin’s Bliss, it was all the rage among the young crowd of the criminal underworld, but unlike the live-action version, it was created from the secreted hormones of kidnapped pre-adolescents. Despite being halted by Deathstroke’s Terminator iteration of the Titans, a new form of Bliss was reintroduced to the market by Mallah and The Brain in 2018’s Titans Annual #2. The Penguin’s creation of Bliss involves the use of the Bleeding Tooth Fungus, which is a real-life mushroom (scientific name of Hydnellum peckii) that is thought to have anti-coagulant properties rather than narcotic uses. It’s a quite gruesome looking mushroom, either way.

As Sofia was given Bliss in Akrham, it’s likely something to do with Dr. Rush, who was introduced in episode 2, but even if we do see more of Trey Bloom, this more realistic take on Batman and his villains means we doubt he’ll be transforming into a two-story tall metahuman. Others are theorizing the Arkham connection is linked to Poison Ivy. Having Ivy unleashing a The Last of Us-inspired plague on Gotham from behind the bars definitely seems more plausible than a minor character like Trey Bloom becoming a revamp of Mr. Bloom, but we’ll have to wait and see.

While Oz and Sofia are poised to sit atop their own criminal empire, we don’t know the inevitable side effects of Bliss and whether someone bigger than both of them is behind its creation. Either way, we don’t have a good feeling about it.

New episodes of The Penguin premiere Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.