Exquisite Corpses #4 sees the weaving mystery of the nature of the games get an interesting wrinkle or two as more and more characters make headlong collisions with one another.
Exquisite Corpses #4
Writer: James Tynion IV and Che Grayson
Art and Main Cover: Michael Walsh
Colors: Jordie Bellaire
Variant Covers: Adam Gorham, Michael Walsh, Puppeteer Lee, Dylan Burnett, Wes Craig
Pages: 32 pages
Release Date: August 20, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Exquisite Corpses #4 opens with a haunting scene of carnage inside a Burger baby restaurant-playpit. The janitor of the games, assesses the damage and recaps what had happened to the event organiser: Rascal Randy, New Jersey’s killer, had entered, retrieved his mascot outfit and slaughtered seven people in the vicinity. He also notes that so far just three of the killers have yet to retrieve their caches, but are all nearby.
At Big Bruce’s car dealership, Lady Carolina searches for a vehicle with Audrey and Bruce. There’s some awkward banter between all three as Audry and Bruce don’t know how to engage with someone so obviously high class. Bruce tries to direct Lady C to a high performance sports vehicle, but Lady C has a hidden agenda. She searches the cars for her cache of weapons, which has a GPS location tracker attached to it, landing on an economy class hatch-back.
Waiting on the edge of the dealership is Bruce’s ex-wife and kids. She notes that none of her texts are going through, a result of cellservice being dismantled from the area during the games. One of the kids notices a woman in a fox-mask also lurking nearby. The Fox Mask Killer, notes how similar the children are to her own, before flashing her blade, threatening to use it and scaring the mom away.
Elsewhere in town, EMT Laura grieves the death of her friend and coworker Ian at the hands of Nurse Pete. She vows to get to the bottom of whatever is going on.
Back at the dealership, Lady C asks Bruce to open the trunk of the vehicle, only to struggle with the lock, and to suddenly have his hand garrotted off, boobytrapped by the Recluse. She retrieves a crossbow from the trunk. The Fox Mask killer arrives and the two rival killers begin a confrontation. As the two brawl, Audrey tries calling 9-1-1, to no avail. She absconds with Bruce in the sports car as Fox Mask appears to deliver a crippling blow on Lady C.
Meanwhile, as the Janitor is cleaning up, he nearly runs into one of Recluse’s wire traps. The two converse on the nature of the game and the rules, specifically that harming the Janitor is grounds for immediate disqualification. The two note that Recluse is playing the long game, having booby trapped much of the playing field and the remaining caches.
Admittedly, Exquisite Corpses has been a slower burn than expected from its introductory issues. In four issues, only three of the killers have been dispatched, with nine remaining. It’s not hard to imagine other action-horror-thrillers would go whole-hog into chaos and violence. This is an observation and not a criticism, as this extended length is really giving room for Grayson and Tynion to explore the world and interpersonal character dynamics. The clash between Lady Carolina and Fox Mask adds an interesting kink in the “games”, adding some personal stakes to the carnage. Moreover the conversation between Recluse and the Janitor adds a mystery element in play as to the rules of this game.
The tension in the “used car” sequence between Lady Carolina, Audrey and Bruce is effective. However, the mechanism by which Bruce loses his hand is a little confusing. There may be a more effective way to depict the imperceptibility and suddenness of Recluse’s razor wire trap, but more than this I just don’t understand how her trap could even be set up in a car trunk.
While I’ve been previously complementary of Gorham and Walsch’s art in the series (and there are some great panels that continue to wow me), Exquisite Corpses #4 is not quite as moody or polished as previous issues. Page thirteen has a particularly porn-y looking “scream” close-up that, while well colored, isn’t up to standard with some of the other expressions and acting in the book.
Exquisite Corpses #4 continues the engaging experiment in sequential art, albeit somewhat slow. There’s depth to these characters and this world and the violence, when present, is ominous. I’ll be curious to see how long and how far this continues, as so far only volume one of the trade has been announced.
