Frederick DeLamb (New Earth)

Frederick DeLamb
Mainstream Universe‎‎, 1950s-2011‎
Gallery
Real Name	Frederick DeLamb
Relatives	Gunther and Astrid DeLamb (parents, deceased)
Affiliation	Nazi Party
Base Of Operations	Markovia
Status
Alignment	Bad
Identity	Secret Identity
Citizenship	Markovian
Occupation	Former Monarch of Markovia
Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	6' 6"
Weight	225 lbs (102 kg)
Eyes	Brown
Hair	Auburn with white highlights
Origin
Universe	Earth-One · New Earth
Creators	Mike W. Barr · Jim Aparo
First Appearance	Batman and the Outsiders #1 (August, 1983)

History

Origin

Frederick DeLamb was born in the small European country of Markovia to Gunther and Astrid DeLamb. Gunther was a minor public servant under the regime of King Viktor Markov. During the World War II, however, the Nazis occupied Markovia and exilied King Viktor. As Gunther was a supporter of the Nazis, he became the puppet ruler of Markovia.

This allowed Frederick to follow a hedonistic lifestyle, taking anything he wanted from the Markovians. Once, a Markovian lady rejected Frederick's romantic advances by hitting him in the face with a bottle, leaving a facial scar. In reprisal, Frederick had her hanged.

During the end of the war, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler secretly visited the Markovian palace to hide a secret project there. Frederick witnessed the event, hidden in the shadows. He became obssessed with that visit of his worshipped leader and finally concluded that Hitler had hidden a sample of his own cells somewhere in the castle.

By the end of the war, the United States Army liberated Markovia and reinstated King Viktor. The Markovian people executed regent Gunther by hanging. Frederick, fearing similar reprisals on himself, escape from the country.

Exiled, Frederick became a financier and made fortune creating a company, De Lamb Chemicals, which also allowed him to follow the lead to Hitler's cells on Markovia.

Also becoming an insurrectionist, DeLamb intended to overthrow the Markovian monarchy and restore the DeLKamb regime. To do so, he would wait the proper political regime, to avoid American interference such as it happened in conflicts in Afghanistan, Czechoslovakia and Poland - so that he could become a recognized ruler before the United Nations had a chance to act. DeLamb took the nom de guerre Baron Bedlam -an anagram of his own surname- and hired a mercenary army including General Karnz as one of his officials.

First coup attempt

Baron Bedlam

Bedlam's attack to Markovia was seen as a revolution with an unknown enemy. Bedlam's troops succeded at killing King Viktor, who was replaced in the throne by his first-born Gregor. The younger Prince Brion agreed to a treatment by Markovian scientist Helga Jace to get super-powers under the codename Geo-Force. The procedure was succesful, but Bedlam expected this move and sent his troops to raid Jace's laboratory and capture Jace so that she could give powers to Bedlam himself. They found another superhero, Metamorpho, who had just reached the place looking for Jace for his own purposes; but Bedlam's mercenaries defeated Metamorpho and shot Prince Brion, burying him in an unmarked grave to not give the Markovians a martyr. They were unaware of Geo-Force's powers which would revive Brion in contact with earth. Unfortunately, Prince Brion revived amnesiac and it would took him a while to recover his memories.

The USA State Department feared that the situation could escalate should American troops or superheroes intervene, so they forbid the Justice League of America to even visit Markovia. However, Batman was worried about the many captured foreigners, including his friend Lucius Fox, and he insisted in going to Markovia along with fellow superhero Black Lightning (who, guilt-ridden, believed he had lost his powers), although Batman had to resign from the League to do so.

Once in Markovia, General Karnz was murdered by Japanese superheroine Katana, who had a score to settle with him; Black Lightning was arrested for the process. Batman met a young amnesiac superheroine, Halo, with whom he associated. However, Batman was also captured soon afterward. Bedlam visited these VIP prisoners in their cell, and Batman tried to distract him to give Lightning an opportunity to attack him with his powers.

Katana and Halo met and associated with each other to release Lightning and Batman. When they attacked the prison, they activated an alarm. Bedlam ordered to execute all the prisoners but Jace, leave for Jace's labs so that Bedlam could be empowered, and then attack Markovburg castle. Fortunately, Lightning recovered his powers and release Metamorpho; meanwhile, Katana and Halo found and saved Lucius Fox, capturing several troops.

Jace submitted Bedlam to the geo-force process, which gave him powers. She failed to tell him that the powers would only be temporary. Emboldened, Bedlam led his troops to battle, and the defending Markovians would have lost, if Batman and his new allies had not appeared. Bedlam then used his newfound powers to cause an earthquake and flew to fight King Gregor on a tank. Just then, Prince Brion saw the battle and recovered his memories. Brion, now Geo-Force, chased Bedlam away from the king. Bedlam escaped to the towers of the castle and dueled Geo-Force, promising to burn his corpse.

Although Bedlam got the upper hand in the fight, his powers faded just when he was holding a big rock over his head, leading to his defeat.

Death

Geo-Force decided he did not want to send Bedlam to a court and instead he telekinetically pushed the usurper to the ground, so he would fall on a crowd of angry Markovians that killed him. Geo-Force joined the other heroes who have helped him as the Outsiders, a super-team headquartered on the American city of Gotham.

Second Coup Attempt

Bedlam's corpse was found by genetist Dr. Ovarni, aka Madame Ovary, who cloned him and restored his memories. Together, they decided to look for Hitler's cells to resurrect him. Although Hitler would not have his memories, Bedlam intended to use his fingerprints to open a secret door in Castle Markov to access a weapon. They also wanted to restore Hitler's memories to get a charismatic figure; to do so, they would bomb him with images from the WWII and give him a Jewish chambermaid for him to murder when the time comes.

Preparing a new attack against Markovia, Bedlam got Soviet support, including troops under Colonel Metenko and the Kremlin's assigned observer Bad Samaritan, with whom Bedlam did not share his plans to revive Hitler. He also hired super-villain team Masters of Disaster.

Bedlam's forces attacked Markovia and captured King Gregor's fiancée Princess Ilona. Due to the Soviet support to Bedlam, the US rejected to participate as it would be considered an act of war against the USSR; they rejected the Markovian ambassador and Dr. Jace; and journalist Joan Lincoln was unable to interest her network station on the situation of a little-known country. Batman tried to hide the Markovian crisis to Geo-Force so that the Outsiders help him in Gotham but, when they discovered it, the Outsiders decided to forfeit Batman and left for markovia.

Once in Markovia, the Outsiders were defeated by the Masters of Disaster -except for Halo, who was left for dead-. Bedlam imprisoned the Outsiders, along with the Samaritan, who had just discovered Bedlam's secret project.

With Proton Cloud Generator

Bedlam then launched a full attack with Russian forces that defeated the Markovian forces. King Gregor and Joan Lincoln were captured and taken to Bedlam. Bedlam punched the King and then used Hitler's clone to access a secret chamber hiding a powerful weapon, the Proton Cloud Generator. The use of Hitler's clone was unacceptable for Colonel Metenko, who threatened Bedlam. Bedlam disintegrated Metenko with the Generator, and then pretended to have sent him in a special mission.

The Outsiders managed to escape. When Bedlam heard of it, ordered to execute the King, the Princess, the journalist and the Samaritan as soon as possible. He also reprimanded the Masters of Disaster, who pretended to accept the blame but then decided to abandon Bedlam. When the Outsiders discovered of the planned execution, they fred a number of Markovian prisoners from a Russian-watched camp and attacked to stop the execution. In fact, Bedlam was with the firing squad and insisted on going along with it even during a battle. Fortunately, Geo-Force emerged from the ground and stopped the bullets. The newest Outsider Looker released Ilona, Lincoln and the Samaritan.

Final death (?)

Chased by Geo-Force, Bedlam ran to the Proton Cloud Generator to use it against his enemy. Geo-Force used his own powers to increase gravity of the proton cloud and protect himself long enough to destroy the weapon with a lava ray. Bedlam them tried to shoot Geo-Force with a common gun, but Geo-Force was stronger. Geo-Force left Bedlam with the gun with one single bullet so he could suicide by his own hand, and tried to leave. Bedlam, refusing to die again, shot Geo-Force from behind, barely wounding him. In reprisal, Geo-Force took a Nazi shield from the wall, threw it to Bedlam and beheaded him.

The Outsiders then discovered Hitler's clone, who had committed suicide when he had understood his nature. Ovary's notes on eugenesics ended in the hands of New Wave of Masters of Disaster, who used them to clone her sister Windfall.

As USA had failed to act in the Markovia crisis, the Americans then agreed to make an extra effort to normalize the relations with Markovia.

Other Appearances

Believed dead, Baron Bedlam was then seen manipulating a Markovian Prime Minister candidate, Wilhem Wittings, to reach power and then close consulates and arrest the King and by-then-Queen Ilona. This Bedlam later revealed to be the Psycho-Pirate impersonating him.

Somehow, Bedlam reappeared in good health when the supervillain Sonar recruited a plethora of villains to fight Justice League Europe in the border of Russia, a country he had just usurpated. Those villains included Bedlam, along with Copperhead, Eurocrime, Global Guardians, Injustice League and Royal Flush Gang. However, during the fight, Bedlam clearly saw the heroes getting the advantage, particularly when one of the villain teams changed sides. Bedlam then asked Major Disaster of the Injustice League to create an earthquake so that they could retire to Moscow and regroup.

The League eventually reached Moscow, where they fought again against the villains. When Leaguer Flash defeated Sonar, the minions who had not escaped already surrendered.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Baron Bedlam temporarily received the powers of the Geo-Force following the same procedure that gave powers to Prince Brion Markov and Princess Tara Markov. However, these powers could not be retained by commoners not related to the Markovian Royal Family and, should Bedlam tried to receive the powers again, he would have been killed by the process.<ref="WHO9" /> After losing his powers, he became a normal human again.

With Geo-Force powers

Bedlam was not seen using all of the Geo-Force powers, but only the following ones:

• Gravity Manipulation: Brion is able to manipulate the gravitational field of Earth itself.

• Density Control: He can increase the gravity around and within an object to make it extremely heavy or he can decease the gravity around or within an object to make it extremely light.

• Superhuman Strength: While his feet are planted on the ground he can give himself an immense amount of boosted strength.
• Superhuman Durability: While his feet are planted on the ground he can give himself an immense amount of boosted durability.

• Flight: By nullifying gravity around himself he can levitate himself and coupling that with his pyrokinesis he can use fire for propulsion.

• Geokinesis: Brion is able to manipulate the Earth itself by vibrating and transforming it's crust (the ground). He can use this power to create earthquakes, tap into lava flows, and levitate or create shapes out of solid rock.

• Pyrokinesis: Brion is able to manipulate fire and lava from it's source within the Earth.

• Energy Projection: He can channel the heat from the Earth through his hands causing blasts of intense heat, fire and lava.

Abilities

• Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic): Although Bedlam is not extremely athletic, he is superior in hand-to-hand combat.
• Tactical Analysis: Frederick have ruthless tactical mind and vast financial resources. He claims to be "an old survivor of the turnings of political tides."
  

Paraphernalia

Equipment

A smoker, he carries tobacco and a lighter.

Weapons

Bedlam uses traditional guns and sometimes advanced super-weapons such as the Proton Cloud Generator.

Notes

• Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.
  

Trivia

• Baron Bedlam appears out of continuity in a two-page story "Your Butcher Life!" published in Outsiders #22. This story is a homage to horror comic-books published by EC and a Bedlam look-alike appears as unsympathetic butcher Mr. Costmeyer, who murders an inspector only to face a fatal destiny soon afterward. Dr. Helga Jace appears as the narrator.
• Bedlam's entry in Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #2 mentions that his mother is dead, but never explains how or when it happened. The text also mentions that he intended a coup to "restore" himself to the Markovian throne, although he never held the throne himself - it was his father. It also explains that King Gregor ascended to the throne after crushing Bedlam's rebellion, which is inexact in the comic - Gregor is clearly a king during the battle against Bedlam's troops.
• Who's Who says that DeLamb made fortune through unknown means; Adventures of the Outsiders #34, published later, explains about his chemical company.

Related

• 13 Appearances of Frederick DeLamb (New Earth)
• 8 Images featuring Frederick DeLamb (New Earth)
• 1 Quotations by or about Frederick DeLamb (New Earth)
• Character Gallery: Frederick DeLamb (New Earth)

External Links

• Baron Bedlam at the Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe

Footnotes

Outsiders Villain(s) This character, team or organization, is or was primarily an enemy of Outsiders. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Outsiders Villains category."