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Deadly Class is a comic co-created by Rick Remender, of X-Force fame and Wes Craig. Lee Loughridge acts as the Colorist and Rus Wooton as the letterer.

Marcus Lopez is a homeless Nicaraguan teenager living on the streets of San Francisco. His parents are dead and he's being hunted by the local police force. That is until he's saved by Saya and her plucky band of assassins. Marcus is then given the option of staying on the streets and eventually dying or joining Kings Dominion High School for the Deadly Arts and learning to become an assassin.

Deadly Class is a 2014 series published by Image Comics and is published in a monthly format, concluding in 2022. It ran for 56 issues, collected into 12 graphic novels. The humor is off the wall and dark, the characters are interesting and the violence is gratuitous.

Syfy adapted the comic as a series called Deadly Class starring Benedict Wong and Lana Condor. It was previewed online on December 20, 2018, and on Syfy on December 30, 2018, ahead of its official premiere on January 16, 2019. After one season, it was cancelled in June of 2019.

Now features a Characters Page that could use some love.


This comic contains examples of:

  • The '80s: The series begins in 1987.
  • Academy of Evil: Poison, decapitation, ritual murder, and lockpicking are all in the curriculum.
  • Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Since they're the most talented and well-connected killers in the school, they wield of a lot of power.
  • And Now for Someone Completely Different: Almost the entire original main cast is dead or incapacitated by the end the first school year. "New" Deadly Class kicks off with Saya and a new group of freshmen students.
  • Anyone Can Die: Several prominent and even main characters die, including Lex, Billy, Willie, and Petra. Major villains also die surprisingly quickly too, including Chico and Chester.
  • Arrow Catch: Pulled off by Saya, naturally.
  • Asshole Victim: Oh, so many...
  • Ax-Crazy: Averted. Most of the characters are not fond of killing at all. Then played straight during the Freshman Finals where people are killing off their own classmates for credit regardless if they are in their clique or their significant other.
  • Badass Adorable:
    • Averted with Willie, who people assume was able to kill his dad's attackers as a child. Turns out his uncle killed the assailants that struck his father and made it appear that Willie was the hero.
    • Maria was a cute assassin when she was a little girl.
    • Subverted in-universe as most other characters still assume that he is a badass.
  • Bad Guy Bar: Yakuza clubs show up from time to time, and they all feature a lot of Yakuza thugs hanging out and getting drunk.
  • Bestiality Is Depraved: Fuckface really loves animals.
  • Big Damn Heroes: The Gang are cornered by Yakuza when shots from a bell tower take their assailants down, fired by Viktor of all people, who tells them to run while he covers them.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Shabnam seemed like an okay person if a little needy but as it turns out he is a Manipulative Bastard who digs dirt on other students and play The Chessmaster during the Freshmen Finals
  • Blind Alley: Averted. There are more pursuers checking the alleys.
  • Breaking Speech: Shabnam gives a devastating one to Kendal the prep, describing in detail the proof he has of Kendal’s relationship with Stephen, and how he has people on the outside waiting to send that proof to Kendal’s CIA father unless Kendal does what he wants and murder his own boyfriend so Shabnam gets the credit.
  • Bring My Brown Pants: Marcus’s attempt to fart on an annoying co-worker at the comic store after eating a bad burrito goes horribly wrong…
  • Clique Tour: Willie gives Marcus one as she introduces him to the assassins' school. The cliques in this case composed of the children of violent groups. The "Dixie Mob" are redneck neo-Nazis, the "Preps" are rich CIA/FBI, the "Jersey Kings" are East Coast mobsters, the "Soto Vatos" are drug cartel kids, the "Kuroki Syndicate" is Yakuza, and the "Final World Order" are LA gang bangers.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Marcus after taking six tabs of acid.
  • Dead Guy on Display: Marcus spills the beans that Willie never killed anyone to Gabe, another guy in their class. Gabe, furious, goes to confront Willie. Shortly afterwards, Gabe is found impaled on a flag pole, and the classmates can all tell someone is sending a message.
  • Decapitation Presentation: An unwitting case. Marcus and Maria grab Chico’s head to dispose of it so no one can trace his death back to them, and walk smack into his father, presenting him with proof that his son is dead.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Literally! Marcus opens a cage for one of Chester’s abused dogs and it immediately tears him to pieces.
  • Dream Sequence: Marcus remembering the death of his parents is portrayed as this.
  • Evil Is Petty: Shabnam’s rise to the top is motivated largely because Marcus slept with the girl he liked and didn’t invite him to parties.
  • Genre Deconstruction: What happens when a selection of fundamentally decent kids with no combat training go to a school full of violent brutes who were trained in murder since their youth? In a conventional story, the inexperienced and decent kids would somehow rally and defeat their tormentors. In this one, almost all of the kids who don't want to kill people or who just lack experience die. By issue 37, of all the initial 'rats' who showed up without experience, only Marcus and Stephen are still alive.
  • Goth Girls Know Magic: Subverted: while not magic, Petra is very good at making poison, contrasted with the other kids who are all guns and blades.
  • Higher Understanding Through Drugs: At one point Marcus takes peyote, and during his ensuing hallucinations he finally determines what it is he truly wants in his heart.
  • I Just Want to Have Friends: Marcus's main motivation: he will do anything to keep from being alone.
  • Instantly Proven Wrong: When Shabnam corners him, Marcus emphatically denies having had sex with Grogda. Naturally, she picks that exact moment to walk in and accuse Marcus of getting her pregnant.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Saya is very skilled with one.
  • Let's Split Up, Gang!: One member of Willie’s old crew suggest this while hunting him down, but the others immediately shoot this down.
    “Split up? What are you, some dumb bitch in a horror movie? We stick together, you dumb motherfucker.”
  • Loser Protagonist: Marcus starts the series off as a very troubled orphan boy, homeless and eating garbage to survive. Needless to say, he goes through quite the transformation over the course of the comics.
  • Mushroom Samba: Believing a dealer is trying to sell them fake acid, Marcus licks an entire wad of blotter paper. The dealer runs off in horror, and Marcus proceeds to lose his goddamn mind.
  • Most Writers Are Adults: Marcus' penchant for philosophical monologues is more akin to that of a thirty-five year old screenwriter than a recently-turned fourteen year old.
  • Orifice Invasion: During the fight with Chester’s gang, Maria drives a pitchfork into one their mouths.
  • Orphanage of Fear: Marcus lived in one of these before the story began, complete with an Evil Orphanage Lady who scarred his face. His flashback reveals it was little more than a sweatshop. He eventually fought back, seriously injuring her and her cronies, and Chester burned the place down in the chaos.
  • Parental Abandonment: Implied with Saya.
  • Please Wake Up: After Willie is shot by Viktor, Marcus drags him into cover and begs his lifeless body to get up.
  • Really Gets Around: Marcus, in the first few volumes, sleeps with Maria, Saya, Grogda and Petra.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Parodied mercilessly during Freshman Finals. Marcus, Petra and Billy are looking for a way to escape their murderous classmates when a kid named Pauly runs up to join them. None of them have a clue who he is, beyond the fact he’s literally wearing a Red Shirt, but Viktor, who has a clear shot, lowers his weapon and refuses to shoot Pauly.
  • Rhymes on a Dime: The Dixie Mob, as a bunch of psycho cheerleaders, do this as they attack their classmates.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Billy gets Marcus to help him kill his father. Turns out Willie also killed his father, albeit accidentally, and Zenzele killed both her parents for using her as a bargaining chip.
  • Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: This is The '80s after all, the characters engage in a lot of it.
  • Soft Glass: Subverted. Jumping foot-first onto a moving car is actually a plausible way to break it.
  • Stepford Smiler: Petra becomes one of these after finals.
  • Then Let Me Be Evil: Invoked by Chico’s father in the flashback to when he killed Maria’s family, although he was evil well before this anyway.
    ”Behind my back, you, my neighbours, call me ‘El Alma Del Diablo.’ Time to live up to it.”
  • These Hands Have Killed
    • Implied to be Saya's response after killing the officer in #1.
    • Averted with Marcus and then played straight in # 4-5 when he thinks that he's going to jail.
  • Teens Are Monsters: The series focuses on kids training to be assassins, after all.
  • Time Skip: After the massacre at Stefano’s cabin, the series skips ahead periodically to 1991, 1997 and 2001.
  • Traitor Shot: During the Freshman Finals, Shabnam gets a phone call from some he calls “a desperate rat”, and he guarantees their safety. The scene cuts to Marcus, Petra and Billy holed up in Chester’s old place, and as Marcus finds Billy in a darkened room, there is a large panel focusing ominously on a phone in there.
  • Troubled Teen: Essentially every non-adult character in the series.
  • Tyke Bomb: This is a series about teenagers going to school for assassins.
  • Vision Quest: After escaping Mexico, Marcus takes some peyote and hallucinates his way through one of these.
  • Viva Las Vegas!: The first real arc is this. However, the plot focuses on Marcus trying to survive two killers who are out for him.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Viktor’s father is as abusive as half the cast’s (that is to say, very), but rather than try to become a Self-Made Orphan like them, he strives to gain his father’s respect and atone for his failure to protect his mother and sisters.
  • Why Won't You Die?: Marcus yells this at Viktor after plowing into him with a VW Beetle. Viktor clings to the car with one hand, wields an assault rifle in the other, and screams that nothing can kill him.
  • With Friends Like These...: Marcus recalls going to a party full of the preps and jocks, and how they would all talk and laugh like true friends, but the moment one of them left the room, the others would immediately tear them down behind their backs. It makes him miss his real friends.
  • Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: When Marcus, Petra and Billy are on the run, Marcus, still hurting from his falling out with Saya and Willie, gives an over-the-top thank you to Billy for being such a good friend. Since it’s implied Billy has sold them out to Shabnam, Billy is very uncomfortable.

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