Saya and Maria, who betrayed each other but cannot bear to be separated, are reunited, but events soon spiral out of control in a torrent of blood and violence. While one church is desecrated, Helmut goes cross-country to Sacramento to another church, to avenge Petra. Will he be able to escape what happens in the basement? Find out in our Major Spoilers review!
DEADLY CLASS #40
Writer: Rick Remender
Art: Wes Craig
Colorist: Jordan Boyd
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Editor: Brian Skelly
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 25th, 2019
Previously in Deadly Class: Kings Dominion for the Deadly Arts is no ordinary high school. In caters for the children of assassins and mobsters and other all-round psychos. In the aftermath of Master Lin’s master plan, old enemies become friends and reunions lead to further bloodshed. But there’s time for Saya and Maria to reunite in the chapel…with typically bloody results!
HOLY…WHAT THE?!
I’ve never read an issue of Deadly Class. Not seen a single panel, read a line of dialogue or seen a review. The name Rick Remender is vaguely familiar, but if you held a gun to my head and demanded I reveal, where on pain of having my skull ventilated, I’d say three Hail Mary’s and consign myself to the tender mercies of God.
But now that I’ve read Deadly Class #40, it won’t be the last issue I read. I’ve been delivered of my ignorance, had a conversion on the road to Major Spoilers, and won’t stop banging the drum of how magnificent this issue is.
Opening with one story and ending in another, Deadly Class #40 is a fast paced, kinetic thrill ride of action, more action, buckets of blood, an orgy, and then even more violence and action to end it. Reading this issue is like being smacked around the head while running the 100-meter sprint in under ten seconds, while mainlining cocaine. It will set your heart pounding, while making you laugh aloud at the sheer energy and bravado of the storytelling and art.
I’ve read somewhere that good writers create character through action and dialogue. Rick Remender does both with his wonderful writing, as we see characters revealed through their bombast and their willingness to flout all sorts of moral codes in the pursuit of victory. This is never better displayed than in the church scene that rounds out Deadly Class #40.
MOTHER OF GOD
I’ve never been to an orgy, and after reading this, neither will the readers of this review. Another student of Kings Dominion, Helmut, sneaks out and ventures cross-country to Sacramento, to avenge the death of his love, Petra, who came from what turns out to be a death cult.
That’s right – an orgy involving members of a death cult. It goes about as well as you might expect. If you thought the first half of Deadly Class #40 was over the top, then the last segment will make you question your sanity and God’s plans for his people. It is also the single most entertaining thing I’ve read recently in comics, as characters strip off their clothes while declaiming ever greater excesses to the goat-headed, sword wielding acolytes who stalk through their midst intent on murder and dismemberment. It is…glorious.
BOTTOM LINE: RUN, DON’T WALK, TO YOUR NEAREST COMIC STORE
The journey to enlightenment runs through Deadly Class #40. Filled to the brim with distinctive characters and merciless one-liners, this issue is the acme of bravado, the pinnacle of outré violence and just an utter joy to read from one page to the next. Buy it, read it, then read it again. And remember, not all orgies end this way…or so I’ve been told.
Deadly Class #40
Suffice to say my first experience of Deadly Class certainly won’t be my last. With kinetic energy spilling off the page, and a roll call of characters that live and breathe fire, Deadly Class #40 is a balls to the wall hell ride into madness and depravity…and all the way round again.
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Writing10
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Art10
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Coloring10
