Deadly Class returns to print after a hiatus today — just in time to coincide with tonight’s series premiere of the TV show based on the comic on SYFY. And what a return it is.
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That timing creates opportunity for writer Rick Remender and the art team of Wes Craig, colorist Jordan Boyd, and letterer Rus Wooton — but also raises expectations. How does one progress the plot of a long-running comic book while making it accessible to the likely new readers who will wander in out of curiosity due to the TV show? And how do you appeal to TV watchers when half of the characters they are just about to fall in love with have been dead for years in the comics?
The answer, as it turns out, is drugs. Lots of drugs.
Deadly Class #36 sends Marcus on a peyote-fueled vision quest, reconnecting with his past while ghosts of his friends and parents persistently ask variations on the same question: what’s next?
The result is an elegant solution to the challenges raised by releasing #36 of the comic and the first installment of the TV show on the same day, and it effectively emphasizes a lot of what makes Deadly Class one of the best books on the stands.
Larger-than-life and sometimes monstrous images with a sickly, disorienting color palette plays to the strengths of Craig and Boyd; the series has always been one-and-a-half steps removed from a black-and-white comic, with most pages featuring a minimalist color approach. Here, that is ratcheted up to 11, creating a surreal and off-putting experience that enhances the scratchy, frantic linework of Craig and the frenzied, madhouse lettering of Wooton.
On the first episode of In Vitam Mortem: A Deadly Class Podcast, the hosts (this writer included) discussed the similarities between Deadly Class‘ Marcus and The Invisibles‘ Dane/Jack Frost. In this issue, Remender himself seems like he’s feeling a bit Morrison-y, and the result is one of the series’ most memorable issues — and one that, if you were so inclined, could be compared to Dane’s revelatory trip on the subway mold in terms of certain elements of its execution as well as the end result for the character.
What makes Deadly Class #36 stand out from a lot of similar stories is that while the book is shaped and will be remembered by its striking visuals, Remender and Wooton conspire to fill the pages with speech balloons that manage to feel ambient and constant — like a drug-addled mind rambling to himself — and which do not step on the toes of the art. Often, the inclination would be to keep the talking to a minimum, stretching a story like this out for two issues with the trip here and the revelations next time. Instead, the team delivers a powerful, packed issue that delivers backstory, foreshadowing, art, and character.
In short, Remender and company set a high bar for themselves, launching the next era of a fan-favorite series on the same day as they launch its live-action adaptation. They manage to meet the bar, and have created a memorable issue that will likely be remembered as one of the series’ best.
Published by Image Comics
On January 16, 2019
Written by Rick Remender
Art by Wes Craig
Colors by Jordan Boyd
Letters by Rus Wooton
