leelah 's review for:

Deadly Class Volume 1: Reagan Youth by Rick Remender

5.0

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The year is 1987.

Cold War is nearing its end;
walkmans are filled with pop cheese tunes;
leather jackets are studded and zippered,
Dirty Dancing is released;

.....and somewhere underground,
in an unsuspecting place,
in an improbable school full of thugs
one kid decided he's going to kill Ronald Reagan.

*******************

This is not my first introduction to Remender work.
I couldn't get into [b:Black Science #1|18691177|Black Science #1|Rick Remender|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1382278836s/18691177.jpg|42088705] and [b:Fear Agent, Volume 1: Re-Ignition|993861|Fear Agent, Volume 1 Re-Ignition|Rick Remender|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390440468s/993861.jpg|979355] was one crazy,pulpy whack-a-mole, so Deadly Class was not really on my radar.
But, I ordered my paperback right on cue, because Kat wrote in her review it's "the best thing she read since Saga".
That's one hell of a pimping line. :)

The story starts with Marcus Lopez, homeless kid trying to survive on his own. His only valuable possession is his diary and through several entries we can grasp some of his backstory and why he ended up where he did.
Soon, Marcus caches an eye of several interesting people and before he knew it, he is enrolled in King's Dominion School of Deadly Arts.
School for assassins.:)

Except this one little tidbit, it struck me that Deadly Class is actually following familiar story since Marcus is dealing with every issues teens are usually dealing with:
He is a new kid in the school,
he hangs up with outcasts,
popularity contests and rep sheets,
homework is crazy,teachers are insane,
there are highschool cliques formed,
there are mean girls and jealous boyfriends
and he ends up tangled in love triangle.
This school doesn't have jocks and prom queens the way you think of them, and you can be sure their pranks don't involve buckets of pig's blood, but teenage angst and teenage drama is there. It just gets completely different meaning when every mistake means death.

It's basically My So-Called Life with assassins. :D

Remender inverts common trope so subtly and skillfully to a point where having classes like Beheading and Assassins Psychology is the most normal thing about it, but the guy watching poodle show on TV makes you uncomfortable.
Characters are all interesting, but being what they are- badasses, where certified kill is a requirement for being accepted in this school- likeness depended more on those scenes where they showed some weakness.
Hence, they go from "I have to read more before I like you completely" to "Saya is my soulmate."
Saya is everything.

Writing was my favorite part, but Wes Craig's art is mind-blowing. One particular segment is worth mentioning where combined with Loughridge's coloring we get one amazing, suspenseful, psychedelic bonanza chase scene on acid.

It's weird and quirky depiction of tripping...
Trainspotting, assassin way.;)


TL, DR: I am in love.