Doctor Bedlam
| Doctor Bedlam | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Mister Miracle #2 (May–June 1971) |
| Created by | Jack Kirby |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Doctor Bedlam |
| Team affiliations | Darkseid's Elite |
| Notable aliases | Baron Bedlam, Macro-Man |
| Abilities |
|
Doctor Bedlam is a DC Comics supervillain created by Jack Kirby as part of his Fourth World comic series of the 1970s. He is part of Darkseid's Elite on the planet Apokolips. He first appeared in Mister Miracle #2 (May–June 1971).
His name comes from the Bethlem Royal Hospital insane asylum, and is a reference to his madness-inducing "paranoid pill".
Doctor Bedlam's early life is unknown, save that he once possessed a physical body that was somehow transformed into pure psionic energy. His primary foe is Mister Miracle whom he has never defeated.
Following the destruction of Apokolips and New Genesis, Doctor Bedlam relocates to Earth, where he attracts the new Mister Miracle's attention by becoming an escape artist under the name Baron Bedlam. He wears a costume which is a negative copy of the new Mister Miracle's outfit. He is not, in fact, a good escape artist, but does not need to be; one android body is destroyed by the traps, and he relocates to another one, which then appears from backstage.
Bedlam is a featured character in Underworld Unleashed: Apokolips - Dark Uprising #1 (1995). With Darkseid missing, the various factions of Apokolips form plans; Granny Goodness sends several of her students to kill Bedlam. They seemingly succeed but again, he has transferred his mind to another body just in time.
Grant Morrison revamped Baron Bedlam in Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle as a rival escape-artist stealing Shilo's fame. In this incarnation, the Baron's bodies are blonde, Caucasian males whose suit is an inversion of Shilo's. The Baron performed inescapable death traps, destroying the body he was currently using and inhabiting a replacement, via the Bedlam Beat, stashed nearby to make it seem like he escaped unharmed. His popularity grew to a point that he had his own cult following of Plastic People, fans whose bodies were transformed in a surgical process involving enamel. However, most of the events in this story were revealed to take place in an alternative timeline, so there is a possibility that it did not happen.
...
Wikipedia