Deadly Class

Plot

The first issues of Deadly Class focus on the story of teenage orphan Marcus Lopez Arguello as he transitions from living on the streets to being enrolled into a school of assassins. The academy, run by Master Lin, is composed of children of mob bosses and mass murderers, learning the same trade as their parents.

Marcus's decision to attend the school is one of the only decisions he gets to make for himself throughout the arc and history. His entire life has been composed of unfortunate events, each leaving him further ostracized from humanity. Marcus is homeless largely because his parents died in a horrible accident when he was young, leaving him in an orphanage whose headmaster required his manual labor for him to retain residence. This continued degradation of his sanity through the abuse by the hands of his roommates and guardians eventually drives him to committing a massive act of violence. Deadly Class then follows the students in the academy and many of their eventual downfalls.

Characters

Marcus Lopez Arguello is the newest addition to King's Dominion. Plagued by tragedy and trauma, Marcus still finds himself an outcast at the school in regards to both the students and the teachers. At the beginning of the story he aspires to kill President Ronald Reagan whom he blames for inadvertently killing his parents and ruining his life. After the death of his parents, Marcus was sent to live at the Sunset Boys Home where he was forced to work in a sweat shop where he was abused by the guards and also his cruel roommate Chester Wilson. One day, Marcus made a makeshift bomb out of needles from the workshop which he used to escape which disfigures Chester. Marcus escapes the Boys Home but Chester slaughters all of the other kids there and burns the place down which Marcus is blamed for. Marcus is left on the streets to fend for himself and wanted by the police until Master Lin finds him and offers him a place at Kings Dominion. Marcus is given the title of a Rat, which is the lowest status at Kings Dominion. At Kings Dominion, Marcus befriends Willie, Billy and Petra, and begins a secret relationship with Maria. However, he is secretly in love with Saya. During the finals, he and the other rats are hunted by their legacy classmates. Marcus goes on the run with Petra and Billy. Eventually, he is caught by Saya and seemingly killed. In reality, Saya faked his death and asked him to live on the run with Maria, never to return to Kings Dominion. Eventually they are tracked down by Quan and his group to ruin Saya's reputation. Marcus returns to Kings Dominion. He eventually incites an insurrection at the school, killing Master Lin and fleeing. After many years as an assassin, Marcus settles down with Maria and abandons the assassin life, becoming a successful author. He and Maria marry and have two kids. They are forced into hiding after being hunted by Shabnam and Brandy, but are able to fight back. With Shabnam and Brandy gone, Marcus and Maria are able to have a happy ending.

Saya Kuroki (Japanese: 黒木沙耶, Hepburn: Kuroki Saya) is the leader of the Kuroki Syndicate at King's Dominion. Her preferred weapon is a katana, which was passed down through her family. It's revealed that Saya since childhood has been competing to be head of her family's clan with her older brother, Kenji and wanted desperately to impress her father. Kenji framed Saya for murdering a fellow yakuza head and breaking a truce which caused their father to take his own life and Saya to be disgraced and wanted dead for treason. Saya enrolled in Kings Dominion to reclaim her rightful place and to take refuge from Kenji and his assassins trying to kill her and take back their family's sword. Marcus had a crush on her but Saya distanced herself from him. Saya grew to love Marcus, but she never acted on her feelings because of her ambition to return home and reclaim her place as head of her family's crime organization. She was upset that Marcus started dating Maria and began flirting with Marcus. This led to Saya and Marcus sleeping together which Marcus ran away in panic leaving Saya alone the next morning. During the raid on Fuckface's hideout, Saya is confronted by Maria who correctly suspects that she slept with Marcus and it leads to a heated and violent argument between them. Saya feeling hurt and betrayed leaves Marcus and Maria to fend for themselves and bitter when she sees them back at King's Dominion together. When Maria disappears, Marcus tells Saya he loves her but she rejects his confession telling him that she's already dating Willie which puts a big strain between them and Marcus accusing her of killing Maria. During the Finals, Saya is forced to hunt down Marcus and the rats seemingly without hesitation that Willie argues with about it but she breaks things off with Willie and leaves on her own. Saya has a change of heart when she reads Marcus's journal and she realizes that not everything is worth sacrificing. This causes her to save Marcus by faking his death by temporarily poisoning him which also makes her pass her exam. The next year, the finals had left Saya distant and alone with most of her friends dead and Marcus out of her life. Saya is trying to move on while trying to protect the new freshmen but then she and the freshmen are attacked on Halloween by Kenji's henchmen. Saya fends them off and helps the freshmen escape but she is betrayed and stabbed by Quan who leaves her to be captured. Saya is taken back to Japan where she is recovering from her injuries but still held prisoner by her family. Her mother tries to help Saya escape but Kenji thwarts their efforts and kills their mother and knocks Saya out. Saya is later drugged and chained up in a cell where Kenji tells her that he knows Marcus is alive and his men are going to close in and capture him to show Master Lin that Saya cheated so that she would be expelled and disgraced. When Kenji's plan fails, he decides to just kill her which make Quan have a change of heart and free Saya. After getting her family katana back, her and Quan fled Japan on Quan's family's boat but Saya kills Quan for betraying her and selling out Marcus. Saya returns to King's Dominion where she finds out that Marcus and Maria returned as well and that Master Lin now knows she cheated on her finals which makes him strip her of her status and make her a rat. Disgraced and alienated, Saya tries to convince Marcus to leave but he acts cold towards her as he hasn't fully forgiven Saya for last year which causes even more of a strain between them. At Stefano's cabin Saya fights off the honeycomb cultists but Shabnam takes advantage of the situation and knocks her out temporarily and handcuffs her hand to a pipe in the cabin that's on fire and leaves her to resort to cutting off her own hand in order to escape. Losing her hand makes her even more angry at Marcus and when Marcus and the rats choose to turn against Kings Dominion at the finals, she chooses to protect Master Lin in a last ditch attempt at regaining her status back. Saya is forced to fight Marcus to protect Lin but it's in vain as an earthquake occurs which causes Kings Dominion to be destroyed and Saya is willing to accept her fate of dying there until Marcus saves her despite her pleas to him to let her die and Saya disappears when Marcus is unconscious. For many years, Saya is left homeless and addicted to heroin while still on the run from Kenji's assassins. Saya even pawned her family's katana for heroin which leads Kenji right to her. Saya is found by Marcus who was secretly hired by Kenji to kill her, Marcus detox's Saya and they rekindle their old feelings for each other. But it is short lived as Saya finds out that Marcus was hired by Kenji to kill her but Marcus doesn't go through with it and instead tries to make Saya let go of her revenge and ambition and start a new life with him. Saya chooses to kill Kenji and runs away leaving a letter to Marcus. In 2020, Saya is now head of her family's clan and she is now a cold and bitter person who spends most of her nights doing heroin and being in orgies. Saya regrets not being with Marcus as he is now married to Maria and has kids with her living a normal happy life. Saya is informed by her men that Shabnam and Brandy plan to kill Marcus and his family but Saya chooses to do nothing as she is still angry with him. Saya begins to rethink her decision until she is caught off guard when she finds Shabnam waiting for her at her home who just killed her girlfriend, Jayla. Before Saya can act, Shabnam shoots her straight through her head killing her instantly.

Television adaptation

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo have signed on to produce a television series based on Deadly Class. The Sony Pictures Television-produced adaptation has been optioned as a pilot for the Syfy channel. Benedict Wong, Benjamin Wadsworth, Lana Condor, Michel Duval and María Gabriela de Faría are among the actors cast in main roles for the series. On April 18, 2018, Syfy picked up the pilot to series. The first episode aired on January 16, 2019, on SyFy. After first season ending on a cliffhanger on March 20, 2019, the series was cancelled due to small audience and high production costs.