Advance Review: “Deadly Class #1″ Is a Broody Twist on a Familiar Theme

Deadly Class
(w Rick Remender)
(a Wes Craig)
Image Comics
$3.50

Imagine if Batman was homeless and then joined Ra’s Al Ghul’s little team. That’s the nitty-gritty of the first release in Deadly Class. Boy loses parents, boy becomes orphan, boy lives on street, boy meets girl, boy joins secret shady assassin school. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen that happen to someone, I’d had $3.50.

The story is told from the main character, Marcus’s, point of view. He’s our trusty narrator in this little story. Living as a homeless person on the mean streets of San Francisco. I think he is supposed to be 14, but he doesn’t look like it at all. Now Marcus is trying to figure out what he is doing and why he shouldn’t off himself. Enter the action filled climax and his fated encounter with Saya and eventually the assassins. Saya is Japanese and the only word she says in Japanese is a curse word. But they use saya for women because they are supposed to keep men in check and stop them from losing control. I am interested in seeing whether the author has that plan in mind.

I really liked everything about this comic. The art was rich and had some great character styles. The monologue was broody and witty at the same time. It left off at a great spot to leave you hanging and looking forward to more. All in all, I’m excited to see where this one is going.

That being said I would like to compare a couple of points shared by Batman and the main character.

Inspirational dead parents….check.

Anger issues….check.

Joined an assassin’s guild….check.

Broody….check.

However Marcus is poor and alone while Bruce is rich and has Alfred the awesome. In other words, it will be fun to see whether Marcus can kill.

I would give this comic an A. A is for artwork and the dancing chick with the sugar skull face paint wins the day.

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Alex “Danger” Byers is a regular person in the working world, but at night (after work) he transforms into a video game loving, comic book reading, super tasty beer drinking, foodie of near hipster level. You can contact him at alexoftheazuresky@gmail.com or with a beer signal.

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