Comics
Review: ‘Deadly Class’ #3
Marcus and Willie take to the city with a grim task ahead of them. Remender uses the mission as a backdrop and focuses on character. “Deadly Class” #3 peels back the thin exterior over both of these tough characters, and shows that they might not be who they say they are.
WRITTEN BY: Rick Remender
ART BY: Wes Craig
PUBLISHER: Image
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: March 26, 2014
Last month focused on the rude introduction to the way things worked around Kings Dominion. Now with all over the exposition out of the way Remender can take a look at his characters. This issue proves all the better because of it. We get treated to some fantastic moments of Marcus and Willie out on the town.
We start to see that most of what happened at King Dominion was founded on performance. The idea of creating a dominating personality as the best defense against those around you is definitely alluring in a school filled with assassins. Now that we’re in the real world the vulnerabilities of such an act start to show.
The action takes a little bit of a back seat this month. Yet, the roof jumping and slum snooping will be enough to whet anyone’s appetite. This is a tight issue that takes Marcus back to his roots. We’re treated to a little more backstory and left with more than few revelations about characters we thought we knew. It’s the type of brilliant deconstruction that Remender is known for making look easy.
Speaking of making things look easy, Wes Craig is just beyond talented. His art of this book adds volumes of substance and style to the book. Lee Loughridge’s colors are neon soaked love letters to the eighties that compliment the art style and cement this world. Craig’s use of paneling playfully dances around the dialogue heavy script without missing a beat. It revels in smaller moments like a rooftop jump and makes them absolutely glorious to witness.
There is a lot of tension within the issue. Mostly found toward the end with the kids actually having to complete their lesson. It doesn’t come easily to them, and since it’s only their first assignment one can only imagine that things will just get more difficult from here. There is a lot of humanity in this story, with both the assassins and the victims. Everything is soaked in vulnerability that makes even the most trivial task, a little uneasy to experience within this world.
So “Deadly Class” #3 proves to be even more successful than the pulse pounding debut issue in demonstrating a grounded and dangerous situation. It’s told through the lens of broken people, and has a lot of development for characters we’ve only just met. It’s the type of story I totally didn’t expect from this book, and I couldn’t be happier to receive it. It has a ton of heart, some more context, and a touch of insanity. Also known as the perfect combination.
Rating: 4/5 Skulls.
Comics
‘You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive’ – IDW Dark’s Next Horror Comic Will Make You Question Reality
Five friends. Four houses. One perfect life. Bloody Disgusting is excited to exclusively announce You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive, a brand new horror comic from IDW Dark.
From Eisner-Nominated writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, and rising horror artist Heather Vaughan, You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive is described as a “paranoia-laced, socially-conscious, horror mystery that will leave you questioning reality, and reveal that this crafted world is more of a nightmare than the idealistic dream they were expecting.”
Phoebe Joplin has never questioned the world her parents built: a secluded community where she and her friends were raised to be smarter, stronger, and better than anyone else. No distractions. No dangers. No secrets. Until the night of their graduation.
When one of them dies under impossible circumstances, Phee starts to pull at the edges of her perfect life—and what she finds is something far more terrifying than she ever imagined.
Because this place isn’t a sanctuary. It’s a cage. And no one who discovers the truth ever leaves it alive.
Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing (Batman – One Bad Day: Clayface, Star Trek: The Last Starship) co-write the upcoming IDW Dark horror comic, featuring art by Heather Vaughan.
Jackson Lanzing said in a statement to Bloody Disgusting, “You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive is in many ways a spiritual successor to our last creator-owned horror, The Principles of Necromancy – a dive into the promise and consequence of playing god with the blood of innocents. But the Hivemind book this reminds me of most is Clayface: One Bad Day. This is a deeply human story with intensely raw emotions – five best friends and their five mysterious parents, tearing one another apart for the promise of some impossible glory that’s waiting just beyond their darkest actions. We’re thrilled to be bringing this story to life with our long-time partner in crime, editor Heather Antos, at IDW Dark – and we’re particularly excited to give our Clayface fans a new, brutal and emotional horror made just for them.”
Adds Collin Kelly, “We’re deconstructing a feeling that seems universal these days; our elders have a death grip on their power, without any intention of giving it up to the generations that come next. YNLTPA is about growing up with the limitless potential of the future… and realizing how much it’s a lie we’ve been fed to keep us under the yoke of the past. Bringing this brutal experience to life is our artist and co-creator, Heather Vaughan, who brings an incredible amount of humanity to our cast. But it’s in our youthful leads that Heather’s art really shines – you are going to fall in love with these young people, even as they go through the worst experience of their lives. What we’ve all crafted together is going to be tragic, painful, but above all else, sincere – with a future so uncertain, there’s only one thing we can trust: you’ll never leave this place alive.”
“Some horror stories are about monsters in the dark. YNLTPA is about realizing the monsters raised you,” previews Senior Group Editor Heather Antos. “Working with Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly on this series has been a dream in the darkest possible way. They’ve built a story that’s layered, brutal, and deeply emotional, and every issue gives artist Heather Vaughan opportunities to push the art into places that feel both haunting and deeply personal. Some horror comics will keep you up at night…this is one that will stick with you for years to come.”
The first issue of You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive goes on sale October 14, 2026! Make sure to pre-order at your local comic shop by September to guarantee a copy.
Exclusively check out the various covers for Issue #1 down below.
IDW Publishing’s horror imprint IDW DARK features comics like A Quiet Place: Storm Warning, Smile: For the Camera, The Exorcism at 1600 Penn, Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees, The Twilight Zone, Event Horizon: Dark Descent & Event Horizon: Inferno, and more.
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