BIOGRAPHY
Little is known of the early years of Willam Nowlan, a Canadian man who at some point was convicted of murder and sentenced to a remote provincial prison in Nova Scotia. It's unknown how long Nowlan was imprisoned before his existence was discovered by James MacDonald Hudson, who was in the early stages of setting up his Department H program. Funded by the Canadian government, Hudson was tasked with establishing a team of super-powered beings, not unlike the Avengers of the United States.
Unfortunately for Hudson, he struggled to find super beings, having only so far located Logan, the man called Weapon X. Hudson had created a device which enabled him to find people with latent super 
powers, the first of whom was Nowlan. Nowlan was offered a pardon in exchange for being experimented on so that his powers could be activated, after which he would be used for the betterment of the nation. Nowlan agreed to this deal and, wrapped head-to-toe in bandages, he was transported to the secret Department H facility beneath Canada's Parliament Hill. Weapon X expressed concern to Hudson about the possible danger Nowlan could bring, but Hudson decided to deal with that if it ever arose. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #52]
Hudson's experimentation proved successful and Nowlan was indeed mutated. Now possessing great psychic powers, Nowlan ominously chose to begin calling himself “Be
dlam the Brain-Blast.” Weapon X's concerns about Hudson's experimentation and use of a convicted criminal proved founded, as Bedlam had no intention of being controlled by the government or being a super-hero. He attacked both Hudson and Weapon X, nearly killing both of them. Despite his injuries, Hudson was able to subdue Bedlam before he was able to escape Department H and spread mayhem across Canada. Rather than kill him, Hudson imprisoned Nowlan in a strange, life-support cocoon, sequestered in the secret lab where the experimentation took place. The lab was sealed off and Bedlam was all-but forgotten about by Hudson, who turned his attention to beings with already established powers whom he soon located and began training at a remote farm. Weapon X remained with Hudson during this time but left soon after. Although his reasons for leaving were varied, what transpired with Bedlam was a major part in his departure. [Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe #5, Alpha Flight (1st series) #52-53]
In the years that followed, Hudson's dream of establishing a team of heroes for the betterment of the great nation of Canada came true in the form of Alpha Flight. The government eventually stopped funding Department H, however, and the facility beneath Parliament Hill was shut down and cleared out. Unfortunately, no one thought to check for any secret laboratories. When Hudson was apparently killed in combat, his wife, Heather Hudson, took over as leader of Alpha Flight. The government later offered a “no-strings attached” funding for Heather's Alpha Flight but the team's government liaison, Gary Cody, became wary of the head-strong Heather. He started spying on her, concerned that the government may need a way to control her and Alpha Flight.
During all of this, Bedlam lay dormant inside the life-support cocoon, hidden away in the secret lab. That is, until one day Gary Cody discovered the lab where Hudson's secret experiments took place. He had located information about Nowlan after stealing secret files from Alphanex, Alpha 
Flight's computer. Gary Cody was fascinated about Hudson's experiment on Nowlan and the notion that the Canadian government might be able to breed and control their own superbeings. With Hudson's laboratory having its own power source, which remained in operation when Department H was shut down and cleared out, Bedlam remained in hibernation. However, after his discovery, Cody was able to release Bedlam from the cocoon, only to be rewarded by being rendered comatose via one of Bedlam’s “brain blasts.” What Bedlam didn't appreciate was that the equipment in Hudson's lab was somehow linked to an emergency beacon that contacted Weapon X, now Wolverine of the X-Men, that alerted him that Bedlam was free. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #52]
Possibly thanks to his vast psychic abilities, Bedlam learned of the dysfunctional former patients of Dr. Lionel Jeffries, who had escaped imprisonment from the New Life Clinic following Jeffries' death. Somehow, in a very short space of time, Bedlam captured the four patients and took them to the Arctic, where, in unrevealed circumstances, he created a sprawling, high-tech complex amongst the icy wasteland. Dubbing his newfound team of disturbed beings the Derangers, Bedlam modeled his team on the premise of Hudson's original plans to form a team of super heroes to protect Canada. He quickly trained them into skilled fighters that would form the forebears of a new race under his control. [Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe #5]
The next part of Bedlam's plan involved launching an assault on Alpha Flight at their home on Tamarind Island. There, he interrupted Alpha Flight as they were engaged in 
a training session by blasting upwards through Mansion Alpha, destroying the old building from within. He quickly placed Heather Hudson, now called Vindicator, under his control, along with Sasquatch and the two Beta Flight recruits, Purple Girl and Manikin, and departed with them, leaving Box behind. Taking his captives to his new base of operations in the Arctic, he mind-linked the Alphans and the Derangers, revealing the origins of each of the Derangers.
Bedlam was particularly interested in Vindicator, realizing she provided him with a connection to Hudson, through which he could enact his revenge. Further, seeing Hudson as his creator, he called Vindicator his “mother.” Bedlam proceeded to pit the Alphans and Derangers against each other, with the winning team claiming the prize of becoming the core of his master race. After each side initially refused, Bedlman solved the problem by mind-controlling them, forcing them to battle each other. As Box neared the Arctic with Wolverine, Bedlam detected them and blew them out of the sky. However, at this point, Bedlam slowly began to lose control over his Derangers, killing each of them without a second thought as they stopped doing his bidding.
When Box and Wolverine made their way into Bedlam's complex, Bedlam quickly pitted them against each other. Distracted, he lost his control over Vindicator, who then fought back against him. Bedlam attempted to distract Vindicator by appearing to her as her “daughter,” but Vindicator saw through the illusion. Enraged, Bedlam warned that, if she wouldn't submit to him and become part of his new master race, then he would kill her. Vindicator opted to act first and blew Bedlam's head off, putting an end to Bedlam's mayhem and closing the chapter on one of her husband's darkest moments. [Alpha Flight (1st series) #53]