Bedlam #1 Review

Bedlam has the potential to be something very special. Nick Spencer and Riley Rossmo combine their not inconsiderable talents, in this first issue from the first pages, to create a dark, bleak, and strangely beautiful world well worth checking out at least once.

The comic focuses on Fillmore Press, once a masked villain named Madder Red, and his struggle to move on with his life a decade after he stopped slaughtering people by the hundreds. The clearest influences on the character of Madder Red appear to be the Joker and Dexter Morgan, with maybe a little Sherlock Holmes thrown in for good measure. The issue is split between the present where Fillmore is struggling to keep it together while listening to reports of a particularly prolific serial killer on the radio, and the day ten years prior when Madder Red set the city of Bedlam into mass turmoil and apparently died in an explosion at police headquarters. As of this point, the only well developed character is Madder Red, though there seem to be several characters that will be important later on present in this issue; one such character is Madder Red's superhero arch-nemesis (though as of this point, I can't tell if he is more of a Batman-type or a Superman-type).

Nick Spencer is a very talented writer of comic books, and this first issue of Bedlam is no exception. Well-plotted with a fascinating protagonist, this inaugural issue had me interested on the first page, and hooked by the third. The dialogue is both clever and well-written for the most part, and the only real issue I had with it was that Madder Red's monologues where he waxes poetic on both human nature and the atrocities he commits are a touch over done and take away from the otherwise frantic nature the flashback sequences have, though that is a minor issue on the whole. If Morning Glories has proved anything to me, it is that Nick Spencer knows how to tell an intricate and engaging story, and Bedlam is setting itself up for very good things down the road.

The art done by Riley Rossmo is some of the finest I have ever seen, and is a perfect fit for the subject matter on hand. Rossmo's art is unsettling, unique, and gorgeous and complements Spencer's writing perfectly. The sequences set in the past are done solely in whites, blacks, and grays, with splashes of red here and there meant to accentuate what is going on within the panels (a slit throat, the diamonds on a playing card, Madder Red's mask.). The design of Madder Red is excellent, being emotionless, menacing, and rather disturbing, while Fillmore Press is lanky, jittery, and sallow.  

I'm not sure even a mother could love this face.

Bedlam is a truly excellent first issue to what promises to be, at very least, an interesting comic from top flight talent and is well worth picking up if only to be able look at the art inside.

10/10

Additional Notes:

• While the first issue is double length, it is still only $3.50 (with no ads).
• I can't help but feel like the design of Fillmore Press is based off of Cillian Murphy (not a complaint, just something I noticed).