Bedlam #10

by Nick Spencer, Ryan Browne & Frazer Irving

Fighting an enemy that can control other people through an advanced form of hypnosis is proving to be a real tough case for both Fillmore and Agent Acevedo. This villain not only controls innocent civilians but cops and even the city hero known as The One. While our villain is holed up in an abandoned school surrounded by cops, he doesn’t seem concerned or trapped for that matter.

Most of the crimes so far in Bedlam have been close to Fillmore in different ways. This time the subliminal psycho seems like he’s close to Fillmore and even knows him on a personal level. This case has been both pretty disturbing and quite tricky but it feels like things are coming to a conclusion now that Fillmore is face to face with the killer. Although it’s not much of a face since he is able to hide it my clouding people’s minds which makes this guy even trickier to catch. Spencer does a great job building suspense each issue while still able to catch the reader off guard with a few surprises.

Ryan Browne has done a great job since taking over for Riley Rossmo but this issue’s art did feel a little weaker than the previous ones. Don’t get me wrong, Bedlam has always had a sketchy and chaotic style to its art but for some reason this issue felt a little more rushed in certain areas. Although both full page images of The One were exceptional and stood out from the rest of the issue. Now, that’s not to say the art is bad at all, personally it just seemed to catch my eye as being slightly lesser in quality this issue compared to the previous ones.

This has been the most intense arc of Bedlam so far so there is plenty of curiosity to see how this whole story will play out and what it will mean for our characters. Even though Bedlam can seem like a formulaic series of a reformed psycho who helps cops solve various brutal crimes to redeem himself there is this looming and mysterious feeling of a much deeper underlying story that’s waiting to pop out of nowhere and twist this series into something different. There is just something appealing about Bedlam that keeps you wanting to come back for more.