The latest Image Comics series to make it to the small screen is ready to slice its way through the lineup of the SyFy channel. Set to bow early next year, Deadly Class brings Rick Remender and Wes Craig's story of teenager killers in training in the weirdest 1980s private academy ever to life with Avengers directors the Russo Brothers behind the scenes as executive producers.

Making its public debut, the series welcomed to the stage of Comic-Con International in San Diego both creators of the comic as well as producer/writer Miles Orion Feldsott, producer Mike and the cast including Benjamin Wadsworth (Marcus), Lana Condor (Saya), María Gabriela de Faría (Maria), Luke Tennie (Willie) and Benedict Wong (Master Lin).

The panel started with a video message from Anthony and Joe Russo with the latter saying "We wanted to show our support for Deadly Class the show...we're huge fans of the book, and we want to bring it to the screen as faithfully as possible." The video had a running gag of Anthony revealing the title of the new Avengers movie only to have it bleeped out, but soon the presentation shifted to the show itself.

The early clip shown was of Wong's Master Lin giving a lecture to the class about who they would want to kill given the opportunity to doll out punishment. The scenes carried the sharp humor of the comic with Wadsworth's Marcus being the new kid who is taunted by his fellow classmates including a doll with a knife stabbing a note into its heart that said "Child Killer."

The action continues with a long voiceover/flashback from Marcus as he lives on the street after causing a fire at the last house that would have him. After smoking an angel dust-laced joint he finds in an alley, Marcus gets a message from then-President Ronald Reagan before heading into a wild slow-mo Day of the Dead parade. There he's picked up by his future classmates but thrown into a run for his life from the police. The show leaned hard on its unexpected humorous twists and a classic '80s punk scene soundtrack – all heavily influenced by the comic. When Marcus is cornered by police, he's saved by the high-kicking, katana-wielding Saya and then taken to Lin for recruitment into the show's secretive academy.

Later scenes evoked not only Remender's story but much of the framing and design of Wes Craig's pages from the first volume of the Image series.

Once the panel portion of the hour got underway, Remender spoke to being in the rare position for a comic writer of becoming the co-showrunner of this TV series. "Ultimately, the spine of it is the book. That's what we're making," he said, crediting Sony studios for keeping him in control. "I wanted to maintain what's so important to me,  which is a snapshot of the Generation X underground that I grew up as a part of...there hasn't been a voice that wanted to change it. I kept having this fear of 'When will the bullshit start?' but the bullshit has kept off."

Wadsworth talked about the lead role of Marcus – the orphan fated to take a key role in the assassins academy. "It's extremely nerve-wracking but awesome," the actor said. "I prepared by reading the comics...we have everything we needed at our fingertips and on our phones." The actor turned 18 the week the show began production and writer/producer Feldsott credited the young star with carrying the show onscreen and making it all work.

"We were all watching [the clips] backstage and hugging each other," said Condor speaking for the cast's surreal Comic-Con experience.

Wong then stepped up as the veteran of the cast and as a beloved figure from Doctor Strange and Avengers: Infinity War, and he said "I was working on a little film called Infinity War, and Joe called me up and said 'I got this script! You're going to love it!' It was an incredible script, and I read the graphic novels and...did a bit of research on Rick and got his Spotify playlist." The cast echoed that the music and culture of punk rock had an impact on what they wanted to do. "Generation X has been marginalized and forgotten about, and we need to remember what this scene was about," Remender said.

Gabriela de Faría said she "wanted to play Maria in a relatable way...I just wanted you to feel her like I do." The actress also credited Remender's playlists as uniting the cast in their enthusiasm on set.