Rick Remender is a powerhouse of writing, and Deadly Class is no exception to his story telling ability. Our protagonist, Marcus, has a tragic back story which frames his depth into sadness and anger. Although we see his dark thoughts and witness his savage actions, his enduring ability to hope and be a force of honesty and good makes him such a likable character. His journey through surviving the school of assassins is a definite page turner with murdery-filled pages, complicated characters, and suspense for days. It's a story that's very difficult to put down.
Deadly Class takes place in the underbelly of San Francisco. No, you won't find Danny Tanner and the Olsen twins living jolly day-to-days here. What you do get to really see is the city's homeless community. Marcus begins the comic by living on the streets and is poetically telling his story while surviving constant dismal desperation. Like in real life, many of the homeless have fallen from grace and are not able to recuperate. We get a glimpse into that world, emphasized by the economic policies of the 1980s (aka Reaganomics). This was the era where President Reagan gave a ton of financial support to big companies and cut many social programs. This directly influences our main character's story. Shining a little light on the topics of the poor and homeless in this time and place proves to be history lesson that everyone should know or remember.
Wes Craig and Lee Loughridge team up on the art to capture the essence of Deadly Class. It can be dark and gritty and somehow capture everything the 80s was at the same time, but the range of abstract ideas and colors by these two during the drug-induced, hallucinatory pages are absolutely gorgeous. Most of the pages sport a monochrome hue, but when our cast arrives in Vegas, Fear-and-Loathing style, the colors get pumped into overdrive. Craig and Loughridge simply kill it.
Deadly Class is filled with an array of ambitious killers ranging from thugs to hardcore racists. The timeline, the setting, and especially the characters give the story such an authentic horror Even though Marcus is attending an academy for killers, there's nothing more twisted than the familiar face outside of the school, hunting him. This disfigured villain proves that there are just some things worse than death.
