DEADLY CLASS #1 Review

Rick Remender, one of the industry’s finest writers, takes us back in time to 1987 and into the life of Marcus Lopez. Homeless and on the brink of suicide, Marcus stumbles into an underground world that will give his life a purpose: to be one of the world’s top assassins.

Read the official description from Image Comics:

It’s 1987. Marcus Lopez hates school. His grades suck. He has no money. The jocks are hassling his friends. He can’t focus in class, thanks to his mind constantly drifting to the stunning girl in the front row and the Dag Nasty show he has tickets to. But the jocks are the children of Joseph Stalin’s top assassin, the teachers are members of an ancient league of assassins, the class he’s failing is “Dismemberment 101,” and his crush, a member of the most notorious crime syndicate in Japan, has a double-digit body count.

Welcome to the most brutal high school on Earth, where the world’s top crime families send the next generation of assassins to be trained. Murder is an art. Killing is a craft. At King’s Dominion High School for the Deadly Arts, the dagger in your back isn’t always metaphorical, nor is your fellow classmates’ poison.

The issue is an introduction to our hero, Marcus Lopez, and we spend the bulk of it watching him trying to find a reason to live, or not. 14 and homeless, Lopez’s life means little to him, but to those watching, his life means quite a bit.

Rick Remender (Black Science, Uncanny Avengers) is going back in time and creating a new world. While Marcus is going to be the central character, it seems we will get an ensemble here and that’s when Remender works best. I’m foreseeing a Harry Potter of Assassins vibe headed our way. How cool is that?

Wesley Craig (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Lee Loughride, who worked with Remender on Fear Agent, combine to shape a set of memorable characters and, given the future of the book takes us to a school of assassins, are going to have a ton of fun showing us this world.

A GREAT creator-owned comic that I’m not sure why you haven’t picked it up yet, Deadly Class #1 looks outstanding and sets up a potentially phenomenal series!

5/5