Deadly Class comic review: Reality remembered & fictionalised therapy for high school survivors

 

I guess there are people out there who had a great time at high school.

Who had lots of friends.

Who sailed through in a fog of only slightly angsty teenage moments.

I have met people who claim high school was the best time of their lives.

Only one or two mind.

The rest shudder at the mere mention of those thankfully long past years.

I wasn’t sure about Deadly Class as first.

Until I read the author’s note in the letters page at the back of the comic and I really saw what he was trying to do here.

It’s interesting.

This stirs up memories of how vicious kids can be.

Of bewilderment, confusion, hatred sparked through the hurt of non-acceptance.

But, and it’s the ‘but’ that makes this worth reading and recommending.

It also places the whole emotional rollercoaster in a fantasy world where a street kid with a black past can be saved from a tragic end by enrolment in an academy for assassins.

It’s the perfect balance of reality remembered and fictionalised therapy for high school survivors.

 

Rick Remender and his collaborators in this comic, Wes Craig and Lee Loughridge have chosen to set this in the 1980s of their own teenage years.

They made a conscious decision to set this in a recognisable world.

As Remender says,

“There’s no magic. No spaceships. No one can fly or shoot eye beams. It’s a coming of age story about broken kids expected to deal with a violent world. It’s the 80s. No cell phones or email. And many of these stories are based on true events.”

I read issue 1 and immediately bought issue 2 just to see where this was going to go.

The emotions of the writer, artist and colourist add a lot of spice to this fictional tale. It could have been a fantasy escape aimed at teens. Instead it’s a really rather gritty investigation for adults looking back at just how awful high school could be for a broken kid.

There’s no wish fulfilment here.

At least not so far.

But there is a whole host of great characters that I’m just dying to get to know.

A few secrets yet to be revealed.

And the beginning of a story arc that I get the feeling I’m going to stay the distance with.

And as ever with any comics I find myself drawn to, the artwork here is beautiful. The Day of the Dead parade is a fantastic concept for a chase scene. In fact all the action scenes come across as thrilling but contained within a somewhat believable world.

The colours are also great, really reflecting the bleak aspect of the surroundings but throwing in tiny flashes of that 80s fashion staple neon pink.

What’s not to love?

Comic Review: The Wake by Scott Snyder & Sean Murphy

The Wake is a new 10 part comic series by American Vampire writer Scott Snyder and Hellblazer: City of demons artist Sean Murphy.

I really loved this comic because of its ambition and scope. Snyder has woven a story out of sea myths, folklore and fable that comes crashing into reality with a terrifying discovery on the bottom of the ocean.

It’s epic in scale, part one takes us from 200 years in the future to Mars 3.8 billion years ago, takes a pit stop on the Great Plains at the turning point of human evolution 100,000 years ago before bringing us back to the present. Despite these broad strokes the story arc of the main character Dr Lee Archer is perfectly plotted so you get to know and care about her in a pretty short time.

 

Believe me when I say this comic is best read with little or no knowledge of the story.

which makes it a little tough to review.

I really don’t want to spoil it for you.

So let me just give you a few basics that will let you know if this is for you or not.

Do you love the sound of an amazing sea-based sci-fi story that cleverly ties in real things like the inscription on a Sumerian tablet telling of the flood of Babylon with the Loneliest Whale in the World and the Aquatic Ape Theory?

Then this is for you.

I will also say that after reading this through for the first time I immediately re-read it. This almost never happens but it really is that well written and full of detail that it’s easy to miss first time round.

One last thing to say about The Wake is that the whole thing would fall flat without Sean Murphy’s amazing artistic treatment of water throughout. In an interview with ComicVine last year he said:

“It sounds kind of funny but water is like another character in this book. I looked at a lot of other comics and noticed a lot of people don’t draw water. They’ll just draw lines and the colourist just makes it blue. I really tried to figure out a new way to handle water, to draw an actual wave crashing, a tidal wave surging through a city, there’s all different ways that water works. I’m trying to learn about that.”

I’d say it’s working pretty amazingly well so far.