Based off of the popular comic of the same name, Deadly Class is one of the newest comic
book adaptations to hit the small screen.
Based off of the story by Rick Remender and Image Comics, Deadly Class follows a teen
named Marcus who becomes enrolled in a private academy called King’s Dominion where students
are trained to become assassins.
So before you dive into the show, or the comic, we’re breaking down some things you may
or may not have known about it with our list of the top 10 deadly class shocking facts!
Let’s get to it.
10 What is it?
Deadly Class was created by Rick Remender, whose also known for his work on Venom, Uncanny
X-Force, Punisher vol 8 and Fear Agent, among others.
Wesley Craig is the artist on the series, and issues have come out on a monthly basis
since it first debuted on January 22nd 2014.
So it’s a fairly new comic property, to say the least.
The show has been described as an unlikely coming of age story set against the backdrop
if unsanitized 1980s San Fransisco counter culture, with the homeless disillusioned Marcus
being our gateway into this world after he commits a mass act of violence.
Marcus is an orphan, to boot.
9 The 80s Both the show and comic are set in the late
80s, specifically, 1987.
As Remender has noted, there’s never really been a story told that really unpacks what
it was like to live as a teenager through Reagan era, at least in main stream comics.
A big societal theme in the show is the result of what Reagan’s actions in office led to,
especially his closer of government funded mental health care facilities, which led to
an increased amount of homelessness in urban areas; a problem that directly affects Marcus
and leads to his parents untimely demise.
So yeah, there’s a ton of 80’s references throughout the show, from pop culture tidbits
to what these teenagers wear.
Overall, Deadly Class is Remender’s love letter to generation X.
8 The Russo Brothers One reason to get excited about Deadly Class
is the people behind it; The Russo Brothers, known for directing Avengers Infinity War
and Avengers End Game, among other MCU films, are executive producers on Deadly Class, having
noted that after reading the comics, they were blown away by them.
Speaking of crew, Tim Ives, who was the cinematographer on the first season of Stranger Things and
many other shows, is one of the directors of photography on Deadly Class, so you know
its gonna look real darn good.
7 Young Killers The students who attend the academy come from
all sorts of backgrounds.
For example, in the comics, we have Viktor, who is a Russian brute and the son of Joseph
Stalin’s personal assassin.
Then there’s Brandy Lynn, a southern belle who is the daughter of a famous neo-Nazi responsible
for killing civil rights activists, and she’s incredibly racist.
Saya, who is played by Lana Condor, is the leader of the Kuroki Syndicate and wields
a katana.
Billy Bennett, who in the comics is seen as kind and soft, is depicted as a friendly punk
rocker who is the son of a corrupt drug smuggling cop in the show.
All in all, there’s a wide range of characters, and the show’s writers have been very careful
when crafting some of the darker kinds of traits the series depicts, noting “we make
sure that the world feels very heightened and different from ours, and in that way,
we can explore these themes without making people feel too uncomfortable about the current
state of the world.”
6 Gavrilo Princip In the pilot for Deadly Class, we were given
a heavy dose of foreshadowing that may or may not pan out over the course of the season.
Master Lin, played by Benedict Wong, spends a chunk of time recounting the assassination
of Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of Austria whose murder was the catalyst for World War
1.
His killer was Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist who worked for a secret society
called the Black Hand.
Why does this matter?
Princip was 19 at the time of the murders, having killed Ferdinand’s wife in the process,
and claimed he committed the crime because, I quote, “as future Sovereign, he would
have prevented our union by carrying through certain reforms”.
Without getting to heavily into the politics or history behind it, long story short, the
Archduke coming into power would not have put the people’s best interest at heart.
Or at least, that was the Black Hand’s opinion.
Now look at Marcus.
Marcus blames Barbara Salinger’s suicide that inevitably killed his parents on Ronald
Reagan due to his cutting of funding for the US’ mental health facilities; a similar
kind of motive as Princip, to an extent.
Marcus wants to kill Reagan, practicing the deadly arts in order to kill off the man who
robbed him of his parents.
5 Expansion One of the biggest things to know about the
Deadly Class series if you’re a fan of the comics is that the show is very much an expansion
of the original source material.
According to creator Rick Remender, I quote, “in the comic books, I have to choose the
most essential storytelling elements.
So I don’t really get to linger in the school all that much.
I don’t deal with the classes, the training or the ins and outs of things like PTA meetings.
Because as readers of the comics know, I can barely fit the story of my main cast into
the 35 issues we’ve done of the series so far.
So the joy of this is it allows us to expand and unpack the universe We can look around
and see what corners of it were unexplored.”
Speaking of expanding on the original source material-
4 Henry Rollins One of those parts of the show’s expanded
universe is the school’s poisons teacher, Jurgen Denke, played by Black Flag legend
Henry Rollins.
According to Remender, the poisons teacher was a character he had a lot of ideas for,
but ultimately couldn’t really incorporate a narrative for in the comics, With the show,
Jurgen gets way more of a narrative, and Rollins is the perfect fit as far as Remender is concerned.
Rollins and Black Flag were huge influences on him, and for the series as a whole.
I quote, “I obviously love Black Flag in all its iterations, but in 1989 I started
hearing Henry Rollins’ spoke word stuff and buying his books.
Those things had a huge impact on me because here was this guy delivering this authentic
disclosure without any need for veneer or trying to sell a cult of personality.
It was somebody who was philosophical like Mark Twain or Kurt Vonnegut, and just as smart,
but came from a scene that’s near and dear to me.
It was him recounting his tales of growing up with Ian MacKaye from Minor threat and
Fugazi that were one of the biggest influences on Deadly Class.”
He also told CBR.com that he geeked out hard when Rollins was on set.
3 More Than Violence According to showrunner Miles Orion Feldsott,
much thought has been put into the depiction of violence in the show, and it’s not just
violence for the sake of being edgy.
I quote, “I think there’s two ways to look at art, and its certainly a question
that Rick and I ask ourselves not only when we put violence in this project but in…
if we put homophobia or racism or sexism or any kind of ugliness of the world.
When we put it into a project, you have to ask yourself, why is it there?
I think it’s there to hold up a lens, a mirror, to society.
And there’s certainly the other way to go, which is more aspirational art.
But there are dark things in our society that we want to examine through art, and I don’t
think we’re really interested necessarily in, “oh violence is cool and its edgy.”
It’s more about, what are the consequences of that?”
2 Wes Waz Here When watching the pilot episode of Deadly
Class, you might notice a cool little easter egg that pops up on the side of a bus stop.
It’s graffiti that reads “Wes Waz Here”, which is a reference to Wesley Craig, the
artist behind the Deadly Class comics.
It’s not the only shout out he got either.
During another scene that takes place in a graveyard, there’s a larger graffiti piece
that reads simply “Wes”.
Wesley Craig was given input alongside Remender in terms of developing the visual style of
the show, including with our next number- 1 Animated Memories
In the show, there’s a really neat animated sequence that acts as a flashback scene for
Marcus concerning his past and his parents.
Those of you who have read the Deadly Class comics will find it awfully familiar.
That’s because it’s almost exactly panel for panel, AND it was directed by Wesley Craig.
Although the astute eye will catch a few major differences between the comic and the sequence
in the show.
In the comics, Marcus and his parents are on a ferry, and Barbara Salinger is standing
on the Golden Gate Bridge when she jumps off, killing Marcus’ parents in the process.
There we have it friends!
Are you going to watch Deadly Class?
What do you think of what you’ve seen so far?
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