Written by: Rick Remender
Art by: Wes Craig
Publisher: Image
Deadly Class is one of Image’s best series month to month due to the fact that it just gets it, man.
Issue #9 picks up with many of our characters dealing with the guilt, ramifications, and uncertainties following the death of Chico. Remender and Craig fire on all cylinders in the opening pages of the issue, delivering a stunning, disturbing, and poignant origin story for Maria, a character who has been already shrouded with immense pain and torment as is. The brutality in this opening, while incredibly gruesome, is essential to what makes Deadly Class work. The violence, presented in all of it’s brashness, cruelty, and (most importantly) evil reminds the reader that while this series is at it’s core a coming of age story for Marcus, the carnage portrayed conveys a sense of disturbing realism some books wouldn’t dare to touch. The action scenes presented in Deadly Class (especially in issue #9) have an incredible sense of immediacy to them, forgoing the dragged-out, exaggerated, testosterone-infused combat depicted in other, lesser, titles. For this, we have Wes Craig to thank.
While Remender and Craig do not shy away from the gritty realism depicted in their actions, the cores of their characters are given the same reality as well. Marcus remains an incredibly compelling character for a multitude of reasons. He exists as an obvious cypher for our author and yet is not shown with any sort of pomp or circumstance in his actions. Remender writes him as a human, with all of the flaws that come with that title. He is a morally ambiguous character, rejecting the notion of a paragon protagonist and committing some deeds that are reprehensible. However it is important to note that while Marcus’ actions may be hard to get behind sometimes, they are the beating, bleeding heart of this story. What he does and why he does them are the real selling point of this comic book and the other incredible characters in their incredibly depicted Assassin School almost act as window dressing in comparison. He is that good of a character.
Deadly Class #9 is just another great addition to a wonderful, disturbing series. While some may get frustrated at the lack of a driving force in the second arc of this series, the slower, quieter issues allow the heart of this series to bubble to the surface, inching towards the imminent bombshells to be dropped upon the reader later in the arc. We should be grateful for books like this on the stands.
