Comic Review: Deadly Class #44

Deadly Class #44

Image Comics

Writer: Rick Remender

Artists: Wes Craig & Jordan Boyd

After the brief hiatus, Marcus and the rest of the King’s Dominion students are here to conclude Deadly Class‘ 9th arc. “Bone Machine” has been an exhausting arc, with tons of changes in the status quo tearing the characters apart. Everything comes to a climax in Deadly Class #44, a chapter where almost every significant character is fighting for their life.

In this issue’s solicit, Remender and company promised that this issue will be full of many unexpected and shocking events. This is usually a pretty generic sell to get people hyped up for an issue. I should have seen this coming since Deadly Class is one of the few comics that constantly shocks me with its brutality, but Deadly Class #44 actually delivers on all of its promises. No character feels safe as the class finds themselves fighting against many enemies and themselves.

Remender’s script is full of the usual angst and suffering, complemented by Craig’s brutally drawn action sequences. This is one of the fastest issues in the series. Aside from a brief flashback, Deadly Class #44 is just constant madness with blood and chaos on every page. There aren’t any long monologues about how much Marcus hates everything. It’s just blood, sweat, and tears. It makes for one of the strongest and most draining issues of the series, filled with multiple surprising moments. It’s an issue that once again marks a major change for the series going forward, which is starting to become a norm.

Remender’s ability to seamlessly insert essential character moments into all of the chaos is impressive. Most comic issues that focus on this much action tend to do so at the expense of good character writing. There aren’t any obnoxious speech’s or forced moments. Every character grows in this battle in some way and does it in a natural way

I say this with every issue of Deadly Class but it’s always true. Wes Craig’s work looks phenomenal. Craig handles action-heavy sequential art in a way that few artists can in the industry. The action moves along in a creative and easy to follow manner with great panel layouts that contain exciting content within them. Jordan Boyd brings emotional beats with harsh colors. Boyd does a fine job of ensuring that the colors do much more than simply add depth to the action. Rus Wooton doesn’t get nearly enough credit for his role in adding a voice to the characters. Aesthetically speaking, Deadly Class hits the mark perfectly.

This arc ends on a cliffhanger, which is becoming the norm for each arc’s conclusion. It’s unfortunate because it feels like this story hasn’t completely wrapped up yet, so this arc will likely blend into the next one. Still, that doesn’t stop this issue from being another fantastic chapter in this series. Deadly Class is still a must-read series.