Murder Hogwarts: Deadly Class Volume One

I like to read cheerful things, so when I heard about a comic about a school dedicated to creating murderous assassins, I said Count me in!

Deadly Class: 1987: Reagan Youth tells the uplifting tale of one Marcus Lopez Arguello. A homeless teenage boy, Marcus' family was destroyed directly because of cuts to mental health programs made by President Ronald Reagan. The trauma of losing his family was compounded by cruel abuse suffered as he was shuffled through the child services system. As a result, Marcus took some rather direct action against his abusers, and is now not only homeless, but on the run for murder.

When he's offered enrollment in the Kings Dominion School of The Deadly Arts, Marcus initially refuses. But it becomes clear that he was chosen not for his ability to kill, but for some other more humane quality he displays. After some convincing by a tattooed girl with a talent for katanas, he enrolls.

This first volume details Marcus' introduction to the less than welcoming School of Deadly Arts, with its many factions and allegiances. The student body is almost entirely composed of the children of drug lords and assassins from around the globe, so don't expect any cheerful Harry Potter-like scenes of golden lit fraternity round a roaring fire. These are kids with chips on their shoulders and blood on their hands. Still, we get to see kids just being kids: lying about their families, having crushes, making bad interpersonal decisions, maybe taking way too much acid, and this being 1987, discussing how great the Smiths are. That, and killing homeless people for a class assignment.

The final arc of this volume deals with Marcus and his new friends taking an ill advised trip to Las Vegas, which goes as well as you would expect.

I am a fan of Deadly Class' writer, Rick Remender, and he does not disappoint. My only criticism of the book would be one character out to murder Marcus (get in line, pal) that just goes a little too far on the Edgy Meter. Aside from that, Remender creates a cast that is fascinating and unsettling. The art by Wes Craig is perfect for this book, and his action scenes are just a joy to stare at in wonder, complemented by Lee Loughridge's page-popping colours.

For a comic about murder and the horrors of society, Deadly Class is a beautiful book. The perfect gift for the lonely outsider in your life.

I Am A Hero Omnibus 4

As I pick up each new volume of I Am A Hero, I ask myself: Is this where it starts to suck?

As I finished reading I Am A Hero Omnibus 4, I sighed and thought ''No, not yet."

One of the themes that runs through this zombie apocalypse saga is how people become unexpected heroes, in the process surprising themselves moreso than anyone else. The first volume centered on mentally ill manga artist Hideo Suzuki, but as the story progressed more and more instances of small heroism became evident.  From an elderly woman giving a teenage girl proper boots as chaos rages around them to those infected with the zombie virus struggling to save their loved ones, I Am A Hero casts a wide narrative net to express this theme.

The story also has shown the worst that humanity can offer, especially in times of crisis. This volume centres around Hideo and struggling Hiromi taking refuge with a group living on the roof of an open air mall. Hideo's relief at finding some sort of sanctuary is shattered as he discovers the truth: a cruel dictatorship has arisen among the young men ruling the terrified refugees, demanding complete obedience or face being thrown down to the zombie hordes below.

It is among these refugees that we are introduced to Tsugumi Oda.  She is suffering especially hard underneath the mall roof tyranny, yet still retains enough anger to survive. Much of the focus of this volume is on Oda, and how she still retains her humanity, especially when it comes to Hiromi and Hideo.

This volume highlights the monsters that people can become moreso than the threat of the zombies. But the odd zombies--or ZDQs, as they are called in the story--are given more light, as we see just how cruel this virus can be. These are not the shuffling, mindless hordes we see in Romero movies or The Walking Dead. They are just as deadly, but far more heartbreaking.

The volume also has some great action scenes, especially around an attempt by the roof crew to get supplies from the mall food court. At this point, the pages tended to fly by as I wanted to see just how in hell things would end.

I Am A Hero continues to be the best zombie comic I've read in a very, very long time.

The Ride: Burning Desire

Imagine my surprise when I discovered The Ride: Burning Desire was a celebration of a comic that come out 15 years ago, a comic I had never heard of.  I spend a lot of time in comic book stores, and I think I have a passing knowledge of most books from the Big Three. Guess not.

As explained in this issue's backnotes, The Ride is a shared pulp/noir world where comic creators were given free rein to tell their stories. A 1968 Camaro--the titular Ride--would serve as a connection between stories.

Being a fan of crime stories, be it Elmore Leonard, Brubaker's Criminal, Rucka's Stumptown or Hard Case Crime novels, I thought I'd give this a try. Even without having read the previous stories, The Ride: Burning Desire was still an enjoyable read that pulled me in the way good crime stories do.

The comic is divided into two stories. The first story deals with ex-con/ex-cop Samantha Vega. Fresh out of prison, she's working security at an exotic dance bar when some assholes decide to step out of line. This results in Vega getting arrested by a police force with a long memory that features a lot of Vega, and why she ended up in prison.  Things are made clear to her in a small room, and we know that things are about to get worse. So, joyful.

The second story is entitled Sparkles, with gorgeous art by Adam Hughes. It deals with Kiri, a woman whose brother in law covets her a bit too much. This ends in his meeting with a rather unexpected unhappy ending, and Kiri having to take it on the lam. It also seems to allow Hughes to draw a very Power Girl looking Kiri in the nude, and make a head wound look a lot like a vagina. Free rein, remember!

The Ride is a cool idea, and the writer and artists here make it even cooler. I look forward to the next issue.