In Bloom #2

Recap
Tensions rise as those infected by the Bloom clash with police, revealing more pieces of an emerging conspiracy.
Just what is the Lotus... a cult? A new religion? A political movement? Perhaps all of the above, and something much more...
Review
Beauty has never been so disturbing as it is in In Bloom #2. A series that was complicated and compelling to begin with is elevated here thanks to complicated visual storytelling.
In Bloom #2 opens with a flashback to the Moynihan Incident, most people’s first experience seeing a bloom, when a news anchor named Moynihan transformed on live television. The rest of the issue alternates between the present day storytelling and flashbacks detailing Spears’ life after returning from war, recovering from his injuries, and being diagnosed with cancer. The present day story follows the investigation into the bloom murders which are causing civil disturbances and are far more complicated than Detective Spears originally thought.
Curiosity continues to be the series’ driving force. Spears as a character is rounded out more, but he’s not yet compelling enough to drive everything on his own. In Bloom #2 moves forward on a dual track of a mystery within the story (who is killing bloomed people) and the mystery about the story itself (what is this world that it takes place in).
The series’ first issue didn’t exactly sell the bloom as a positive thing–or even a neutral one, necessarily–but In Bloom #2 pushes the series’ environment toward the truly sinister. A large part of that is achieved visually with characters who have bloomed. In the first issue, individuals who had bloomed were aesthetically pleasing for the most part. That is not the case in this issue where almost all of them range from ugly to downright disturbing. Indeed, the first bloom most people saw live on television was horrifying. The dialogue that overlaps that flashback speaks to the traumatic nature of the moment. In this way Conrad and Pearson create a push and pull tension within the story where text at times is saying one thing and the visuals are saying another. This narrative conflict furthers the mysteries surrounding the world in which the story takes place.
This complicated visual storytelling also suggests a new subtext for Spears. His ambivalence toward bloomed people was well established in the first issue. In Bloom #2’s flashbacks reveal more about Spears’ past and touches more specifically on his head wounds. Traditionally in visual storytelling, a face covered in bandages portends a heavily scarred character. In this case, Spears is bandaged to the point of only his left eye being visible. It’s in that state that he sees his first bloomed person whose appearance is easily more disturbing than Spears’ facial scarring. Yet in this world, the more disturbing looking person is actually the more attractive because of the value society places on blooming. In a society of disfigurements, Spears’ disfigurement is still an undesirable one. Add that to other key information revealed about his backstory, and Spears’ view on bloomed people is easy to understand.
Pearson’s color choices for the flashbacks make for an ominous journey through Spears’ past. The first flashback scene catches up with Spears in the hospital. Though it still has the muted, almost watercolor quality that forms the backbone of the series’ color palette, the scene is relatively bright. The following flashback sequences are depicted in grayscale which telegraph that although what just happened seems bad, something worse lurks over the horizon.
Lettering isn’t showy here. Brosseau isn’t playing too much with font design in dialogue, and sound effects are very limited. The most important thing is the least showy, though. At times the issue can be verbose, and some smaller panels feature significant dialogue. Brosseau does a good job keeping dialogue neat and organized, never distracting from Pearson’s visual storytelling.
Final Thoughts
Conrad and Pearson take the already complicated story begun in In Bloom #1 and add even more complexity. In Bloom #2 takes full advantage of the medium by not just using art to tell the story, but by using the art to create tension with the text and ultimately add more dimension to the story. Through its first two issues, In Bloom is a must read series.
In Bloom #2: Beautifully Elevated
- Writing - 9/109/10
- Storyline - 9/109/10
- Art - 9.5/109.5/10
- Color - 8.5/108.5/10
- Cover Art - 8.5/108.5/10