There has been an interesting mystery lurking throughout the entirety of Rick Remender and Wes Craig’s Deadly Class. Readers have been forced to guess who the deformed, monstrous figure constantly looking to attack Marcus is. The one big hint the comic gave before was that this man formed a grudge against Marcus during his time at the orphanage; something also kept mostly in mystery up to this point. Issue #8 gives loads of answers and totally delivers. Deadly Class #8 is a visually-interesting, exciting, and twisted look into a very revealing segment from the past of this book’s protagonist.

The coloring here, from Lee Loughridge, is done in a very simplistic fashion, bathing the pages in such a way that simultaneously makes it look like a flashback and something simply stylish and cool. At the start, pages are soaked entirely in yellow, and then it shifts to red, and then green, at which point the colors blend along with the heightening of the story’s franticness. Out of context this minimalistic take on coloring is neat, but it’s especially impressive in how it fits the story of the comic. Aside from this bold change, characters look as gross and intimidating and the action looks as dynamic as brutal as ever. Deadly Class #8 is a fantastic looking comic.

In terms of plot, what’s delivered here is disturbing enough to be downright enticing to read. This portion of Marcus’s upbringing spent in a hugely fundamentalist and generally evil Christian orphanage sure was terrifying. Like the art, the plot functions well in a vacuum but even better in context. The strange and nauseating events of this issue, along with the triumphant, action-packed fight back Marcus gives, is great fun on its own. Good turns to great whenever the rest of the series is taken into consideration, this issue serving as an explanation for so much of Marcus’s character.

This issue was a long time coming, and it did not disappoint. The concept of a school for young assassins may have seemed potentially trite at the start of this series, but Remender pleasantly surprised whenever the series turned into something much different. Deadly Class is a fascinating character study on a bunch of sad, screwed up kids; they just so happen to attend some crazy classes sometimes.

Story: Rick Remender Art: Wes Craig
Story: 8.75 Art: 8.75 Overall: 8.75 Recommendation: Buy

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Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review