Marcus tells the story of his last day at Kings Dominion in Deadly Class #48, by writer Rick Remender, artist Wes Craig, colorist Lee Loughridge, and letterer Rus Wooton. This issue is the one that readers have been waiting for, and it does not disappoint.

Basically, Marcus and his cadre of students attack the faculty of King’s Dominion. That’s as far as synopsizing goes because this is really the kind of story that readers should experience on their own. Suffice it to say there is action, thrills, and a rather surprising ending.

It really feels like Remender pulled out all of the stops for this one. From the action to Marcus’s captions to everything that happens in this issue, Reminder hits the next level with this issue. In it, one can hear his plea to the new generation. One of Marcus’s deals with the students working with him is not to kill other students. His rationale is that they must be better than the generations that came before, and Marcus keeps the promise throughout the rest of the book. In fact, it’s rather surprising how far he goes with that. Marcus has changed, and this issue really shows it. It works for the plot, and it works for Remender’s message with the chapter. He wants to show that the young can be better and learn from the mistakes of those before them. Another message of the issue is to get moving because death comes to us all, and the installment is pretty literal with that whole message, especially at the end. Remender has been known to get preachy in this comic, and it doesn’t always work. It does with this particular issue.

There are so many thrills in this comic. Remender does a great job of setting up some great, surprising page turn panels, and there’s a fight in this issue that is both completely unexpected but also completely inevitable. There’s really just so much to love about this issue. It works as both a chapter in a larger narrative and as a great single-issue story. Deadly Class has hit a rising action in this story arc after what felt like some wheel spinning, and this issue is the pinnacle of it. It’s a triumph, and even lapsed fans of the book will be won back by this one.

Craig and Loughridge are sensational in this issue. This issue hinges a lot on action, and they seriously deliver. There’s a lot of great action scenes in this book, and the page layouts make things really interesting. The issue isn’t very colorful, but that works for it; it’s a flashback issue, and that works for it. Where necessary, Loughridge drowns the scenes in the color. There’s a lot of red, and it works very well. Craig has long been a great action artist, and he really nails it in this issue, but he’s also able to capture the needed emotion to make the whole chapter really pop.

All in all, Deadly Class #48 is one of the best issues of this comic ever. The entire creative team turns in some fantastic work. It’s an action-packed romp that drops readers into things at 60 mph and then rams it into 200 mph. It’s the end of this story arc, and it’s a great way to end it. This is pretty much a perfect issue of Deadly Class and sets a high bar for the eventual end of the book.

Grade: A+