Rick Remender first gained my interest when I saw a copy of 
 Fear Agent 
 , which I loved. I've also recently read the first volume of 
 Black Science 
 , which I also enjoyed. 
 So it's with that in mind that I picked up 
 Deadly Class Volume One 
 . I flipped through it to check if I like the art by Wesley Craig and Lee Loughridge, which is great so I scanned the blurb. It seemed like a wacky teen adventure set in a school of assassins. Fun, but ultimately unfulfilling. 
 Of course, as with Fear Agent, there's a lot of hidden depth to what initially appears to be a fairly straightforward story. Particularly emotional depth, and like the would be assassins of the story, it sneaks up on you and before you realise you've been emotionally sucker punched. 
 Initially I found it difficult to like the protagonist Marcus, a homless kid who gets dragged into a school filled with cliques and gangs, but as the story progressed and I got to see how he ended up where he is, I found myself siding with him more and more. 
 The artwork really is fantastic and fits the themes really well, the use of colours, particularly during the acid trip is great, and even if you're not a fan of the story the art should keep you interested. 
 Reading the afterword shed some light on Remender's state of mind when he wrote it, and I can definitely see that it's a personal story at times and he's clearly taken inspiration from his own youth. Although he probably didn't grow up in a school full of assassins, you can definitely see the reality of the various groups that sometimes make high school seem more like prison. 
 I'm very interested to see the direction the story takes as it leaves Marcus in a fairly precarious position.