Hey everyone! Today I’m going to review the Deadly Class series volume 1-7. I know my pictures only have from one to five, it’s because #6 and #7 only came in after I took the pictures. I’m also doing all of these books at once because if you did not know, these are comic books! (Or are they graphic novels? Not quite sure but let me know if you know the difference between the two!) Very new for me, also very fast for me to read, so the reviews will be short but I will add them all together to form a full review. Hope you enjoy!
*Cover photos from amazon.com*
Deadly Class, Volume 1: Reagan Youth
Author: Rick Remender
Illustrator: Wes Craig
Colourist: Lee Loughridge
Introduction: David Lapham
Publisher: Image Comics
Publication Date: July 16, 2014
Pages: 160
Price: $12.95 CAD (paperback) at Indigo Books & Music Online
Synopsis
It’s 1987. Marcus Lopez hates school. His grades suck. The jocks are hassling his friends. He can’t focus in class. 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 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 Kings Dominion School for the Deadly Arts, the dagger in your back isn’t always metaphorical.
Collecting the first arc of the most critically acclaimed new series of 2014, by writer RICK REMENDER (BLACK SCIENCE, Fear Agent) and rising star artist WESLEY CRAIG (Batman). Experience the 1980s underground through the eyes of the world’s most damaged and dangerous teenagers.
Collects DEADLY CLASS #1-6.
-Goodreads
This is my first time reading an adult-focused comic book. Let me just say. It’s so weird. You need to look at the illustrations AND read the texts. It confused me, I’m so used to novels where I read the scenes and I can read the emotions but here I am presented with the scenes already shown and sometimes in different ways than I imagined. Reading comics is pretty fun though, takes me like 30 mins to read one volume and the art is really vivid and representative of the 80s. I’ve never read any book that takes place in the 80s but I love watching TV shows that take place in the eighties. The reason why I started reading these books in the first place was because of the TV show!
“Morality’s just comfort food — it holds no meaning outside of our minds.”
― Deadly Class, Volume 1: Reagan Youth
Deadly Class, Volume 2: Kids of the Black Hole
Author: Rick Remender
Illustrator: Wes Craig
Colourist: Lee Loughridge
Introduction: David Lapham
Publisher: Image Comics
Publication Date: March 3, 2015
Pages: 128
Price: $22.50 CAD (paperback) at Indigo Books & Music Online
Synopsis
Marcus Lopez is settling into life at Kings Dominion for the Deadly Arts, a secret elite school, to train the next generation of assassins. He has a girl, a circle of friends, and he’s learning a trade: the craft of killing. But his murderous past is about to catch up with him, and there are a few things about Marcus that even his friends don’t know. Secrets that threaten the lives of everyone around him. Because there’s a reason Marcus was sought out by the school’s shadowy principal Master Lin, a man who’s long had an eye for Marcus’s unique talents. Continuing the story of a group of damaged, deranged, and struggling teenagers living through one of the country’s most vibrant and chilling eras.
Collecting DEADLY CLASS #7-11.
-Goodreads
In this comic, we really enter King’s Dominion much more profoundly. In this Volume Marcus is more aware of what he’s gotten himself into and is scared to be found out. Kids of the Black Hole was so much more spooky and suspenseful than Reagan Youth, Marcus is also developing some friendships which is really good for him considering his troubling past. Again the art in these books is so cool! I was amazed with the amount of work that was put into each line! These meticulous illustrations make the comic to be all the more entertaining for me!
“The difference between old friends and new friends is that new friends just haven’t let you down yet.”
― Deadly Class, Volume 2: Kids of the Black Hole
Deadly Class, Volume 3: The Snake Pit
Author: Rick Remender
Illustrator: Wes Craig
Colourist: Lee Loughridge
Publisher: Image Comics
Publication Date: October 7, 2015
Pages: 128
Price: $19.59 CAD (paperback) at Indigo Books & Music Online
Synopsis
When homeless orphan Marcus Lopez was asked to join a shadowy school specializing in training the next generation of the world’s deadliest assassins, he figured he had nothing left to lose. He was wrong. Now, Marcus and his one-time lover Maria are thrown to the wolves when a Mexican Cartel, the family of a classmate they were forced to kill, comes gunning for revenge. The true costs of the life he’s chosen to live are only just dawning on Marcus. Incapable of staving off the ravages of love, life, and death, he plunges headfirst into a black pit of drugs, sex, and self-destruction. And just when things seemingly can’t get any worse, Finals Season descends on the school. And in this world final exams can be murder!
Continuing the cult-hit dark teen drama, writer Rick Remender and artist Wes Craig take readers on the darkest road through 1980s San Francisco, and the kids that ruled its streets.
Collecting DEADLY CLASS #12-16.
-Goodreads
Yikes! I’m not used to such intense stuff! The Snake Pit was action-packed all the way and absolutely riveting! I really enjoy how honest Marcus is about his mental health in this one. He also is coming to terms with life at King’s Dominion which is good! Ouf but when the Mexican Cartel comes after him, that scene had me at the edge of my seat! Once again the artwork is superb and the character are all relatable in their own special way.
“Rush life like a yellow light.”
― Deadly Class, Volume 3: The Snake Pit
Deadly Class, Volume 4: Die for Me
Author: Rick Remender
Illustrator: Wes Craig
Colourist: Jordan Boyd
Publisher: Image Comics
Publication Date: August 9, 2016
Pages: 136
Price: $22.50 CAD (paperback) at Indigo Books & Music Online
Synopsis
It’s 1988 and Marcus Lopez’s first year at Kings Dominion, the elite academy where damaged teenagers are forged into the world’s deadliest assassins, is coming to a close, and the final exam. Pass or Fail, no one survives the Freshman Finals without getting blood on their hands.
Collects DEADLY CLASS #17-21
-Goodreads
OUf! INTENSE! Die for Me is totally my favorite out of all these books. The battle in between the classmates was totally unexpected but super chilling! I can’t believe that’s how they do their final exams over there. I won’t spoil too much, but some deaths were really saddening. Also I found out that my favorite character is either Petra or Saya! Two super awesome gals!
“Life is a series of unique opportunities.
It’s our job to find the happiness in each one.”
― Deadly Class, Volume 1: Reagan Youth
Deadly Class, Volume 5: Carousel
Author: Rick Remender
Illustrator: Wes Craig
Colourist: Jordan Boyd
Publisher: Image Comics
Publication Date: August 9, 2016
Pages: 128
Price: $19.50 CAD (paperback) at Indigo Books & Music Online
Synopsis
The brutal Freshman Finals at Kings Dominion School of the Deadly Arts have created a new status quo. The Student Council has eliminated all its enemies and rules the halls with an iron fist. Into this shark tank comes a new class of kids, fresh blood for a fresh start.
There is Quan, a Vietnamese rockabilly, quick with his knives and a comb. Helmut, an East German metalhead with a hatred for communists. Zenzele, a hammer-swinging refugee of a brutal African civil war, and Tosahwi, a Native American skate punk with a whole nation’s history of violence to pay back.
And then there’s Saya, who alone of her group of friends survived the finals and who stands poised to become the school’s deadliest student. But when her dark past comes back to haunt her, will she ride the torrent of blood she’s unleashed or end up drowning in it?
It’s morning in America, and a new era of RICK REMENDER (Seven to Eternity, Black Science) and WES CRAIG’s (Black Hand Comics) DEADLY CLASS begins.
collects issues #22-26.
-Goodreads
Wow I am LOVING the new Freshman! Zenzele, Saya, and Petra are now all my favs. The San Francisco location of the series is also neat because not only have I already been to San Francisco but this is is San Fran from a different and even cooler era! Once again super drama-packed absolutely thrilling, once I start one of these I won’t put it down until I’m done! This volume also followed Saya’s character more closely than before and I liked how the spotlight was taken off Marcus for some time so we can really see different perspectives!
Deadly Class, Volume 6: This is Not the End
Price: $22.50 CAD (paperback) at Indigo Books & Music Online
Synopsis
The freshman class has gotten a bloody welcome to Kings Dominion, as the newly empowered student council holds brutal sway over the hallways and dorms. If you’re not part of the group, you’re part of the body count. Meanwhile, Saya’s own mysterious past comes back to haunt her. Betrayal and subterfuge are around every corner. And far from the bloodshed are Marcus and Maria, rare survivors of the deadliest school on earth, harboring dark desires for revenge. Don’t miss the darkest and most revealing chapter of RICK REMENDER & WES CRAIG’s smash-hit series DEADLY CLASS.
Collects DEADLY CLASS #27-31
-Goodreads
Going to be real here, I did not enjoy this one as much at the other volumes. I thought the student council scenes were annoying and obnoxious and I did not like those characters at all, although the Saya drama was crazyyyyy! And Marcus and Maria’s big escape! These comics are so wild! I wonder if all comic or graphic novels are this action packed! I won’t spoil much but stuff goes DOWN in this volume!
Deadly Class, Volume 7: Love Like Blood
Author: Rick Remender
Illustrator: Wes Craig
Colourist: Jordan Boyd
Publisher: Image Comics
Publication Date: August 28, 2018
Pages: 120
Price: $22.50 CAD (paperback) at Indigo Books & Music Online
Synopsis
Marcus and Maria have resurfaced, and with them a whole ocean of bad blood crashes on the shores. Shabnam and the Student Council are out to put Marcus and Maria in the grave for good this time, Saya’s maniacal brother Kenji stokes the flames of hatred, and in the shadows of those flames looms Headmaster Lin, waiting to reward whoever is left standing with a place by his side—or a sharp knife in the back. It’s 1989 and the era is drawing to a close, but it’s going to take as many poor bastards with it into oblivion as it can.
Collects DEADLY CLASS #32-35
-Goodreads
I hate Shabnam so much. I just want to say it. He reminds me of Piggy from Lord of the Flies and that’s a whole other issue of its own. Personally I think Marcus and Maria’s relationship is not that good they are both a little too mentally off to focus on a healthy relationship in my opinion. Oh, and the rest of the gang has found them! That was a fun reunion lol. I will really miss Petra and I’m really sad that she was killed in such a brutal way. She contributed so much to the story so far and volume eight is going to be weird without her! 🙁 I am eager to read the next volume although its not out at my library yet *sigh* I guess I’ll just have to wait a bit…. but that ending had me wondering and thinking forever!
Overall, this is a really good comic series. I love the era it takes place in, the ideas and the illustrations are so vivid ans detailed! I’d recommend these comics to anyone who enjoyed the Deadly Class TV series, to anyone who wants to try reading something other than a novel (I think this is a good starter series) but I do advise that you are a mature audience because some scenes can be really graphic and included a lot of drugs, fights and swears. So not for little kids!
I will be reading the upcoming volumes as soon as they come out at my public library! I think its really soothing to read a comic or graphic novel once and a while because its a really good reading break in-between two novels, but you are still reading! They also take no time at all to read, I read all of these in seven days, one book took me about the duration of my bus ride home to read so my bus rides were really eventful!
I hope you consider ready the Deadly Class series. If you know any other comic or graphic novel series that are similar or you think I’d be interested in, let me know!
Have a great day!
-Emma 🙂