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bookalchemist 's review for:
Deadly Class Volume 1: Reagan Youth
by Rick Remender
I understand this series got picked up to be turned into a show, and I'd heard good things about it. I can't say that I'll be interested in trying the show or continuing the comics.
This felt like an offbrand Hunter S. Thompson creation, with lots of heavy use of racial and social stereotypes on top of that. Oh sure, the older Chinese man that runs the secret academy has the typical face, facial hair, and dress of any old Chinese man in American cinema. Of course, the primary girl we see as representative of the Japanese clique in school already has two half sleeves of tattoos and carries a katana. Definitely, the primary couple in the Latinx contingent is in a dysfunctional relationship and she dresses like La Catrina for one scene, but apparently that's a defining characteristic since it's in all the cover art.
It is definitely very 80s, so you could argue that some of the stereotyping is excused, as it was definitely common at the time. And apparently Remender had a pretty rough youth, which he used as inspiration for this story. I don't want to downplay that his experience was difficult, but the story that he grew out of it frankly is not great. I'm sure the pseudo-philosophical contingent finds it intellectually stimulating, but I had to force myself to listen to the monologuing of the main character.
The art at least, was fantastic, and did a great job of conveying the tension and mental state of the protag. So there's that.
This felt like an offbrand Hunter S. Thompson creation, with lots of heavy use of racial and social stereotypes on top of that. Oh sure, the older Chinese man that runs the secret academy has the typical face, facial hair, and dress of any old Chinese man in American cinema. Of course, the primary girl we see as representative of the Japanese clique in school already has two half sleeves of tattoos and carries a katana. Definitely, the primary couple in the Latinx contingent is in a dysfunctional relationship and she dresses like La Catrina for one scene, but apparently that's a defining characteristic since it's in all the cover art.
It is definitely very 80s, so you could argue that some of the stereotyping is excused, as it was definitely common at the time. And apparently Remender had a pretty rough youth, which he used as inspiration for this story. I don't want to downplay that his experience was difficult, but the story that he grew out of it frankly is not great. I'm sure the pseudo-philosophical contingent finds it intellectually stimulating, but I had to force myself to listen to the monologuing of the main character.
The art at least, was fantastic, and did a great job of conveying the tension and mental state of the protag. So there's that.