You might be thinking why am I not drooling over Superman Earth One Volume Two at this very moment, the reason is that I stumbled upon a little Image comic called Bedlam that just came out today (and its already out of print) and just wow….. This first issue is just amazing on so many levels.

The first issue that costs 3.50$ will offer you 50 pages of just pure psychological torment and will give you insight into the mind of one of the best comic book villains of all time!

The story centers on Madder Red, a violent, homicidal serial killer/terrorist who just recently got released from a mental institution following a bombing at the local police station where he was being held for murdering about a 1000 children…. in the opening pages of the issue.

That’s not all he does in the opening pages, but his crimes are so shocking and so disturbing I dare not spoil it for you guys and ruin the first among many WTF moments and there are many.

Now im going to be crucified for saying this, but Madder Red in my opinion is even better than Joker, now before you get the pitch forks and torches hear me out. Madder Red will undeniably remind many of you of Heath Ledgers Joker as it did me, but I found him far superior to even that character.

He shares many similarities being a terrorist, a serial killer and a wanted criminal but what’s interesting is that he knows he’s crazy, which instantly raises the question; can a sane person truly commit these kinds of acts and still be even considered a human being? Or is he truly a monster?

But what makes him infinitely scarier than Joker and other villains like him is that he truly has no goal, he wants to push the law and people to the breaking point by slowly driving them mad through his crimes, his dialogue shows that he’s not only a master mind, but that he has a deep and profound knowledge of history, philosophy and the human psyche.

He’s so nonchalant in the way he talks that he reminds you of Deadpool, but here its not used for comedy but rather it further unsettles us the readers, because while he may seem calm and fairly normal at the moment, there is always a murderous intent behind his words and it just raises the tension of every bit of his dialogue.

This is a very wordy book, but not in a bad way that I often associate with writers like Bendis, in a lot of his stories, even the good ones, the dialogue feels like 95% filler and that it’s just shoved in there so that the issue can reach 20 pages, it’s not the case here.

Every bit of dialogue here feels important and the way the art is used to enhances this, weather it be through the environment, the gestures or the close up shots of the characters further increases the tension and really gets you invested into what’s going on.

Madder Reds outfit is also fantastic with his mask being particularly creepy, in fact if he didn’t have that awesome mask, I might not have picked up this issue, and through it all there are constant close up shots of the mask and I swear I felt like Madder Red was looking directly at me and I looked over my shoulder just a few times to make sure he wasn’t behind me.

So yeah, buy this comic book! My god, I haven’t been this pleased with a comic book since Scott Snyder’s Batman #1, just based on this first issue I can tell the rest of the series is going to be phenomenal and if Nick Spencer can keep this level of quality throughout the entire series I will be a very pleased comic book fan.

FINAL VERDICT: A+

 

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