In our review of Corpse Knight #4, Foy and her father find Joan. But will she be able to help them out?
Corpse Knight #4
Writer: Michael Chaves
Art and Main Cover: Matthew Roberts
Variant Covers: Tiffany Turrill, Tonči Zonjić, Nimit Malavia, Yasmine Putri
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: July 22, 2026
This review contains spoilers
Foy and her father have reached the region where Joan’s stated to be. Foy tries to mess with some of the English army’s weaponry to try and lend a hand. She’s caught immediately and almost killed before her dad steps in.
They, with a mix of an English firebomb and good-old-fashioned swordwork, manage to hold off the surrounding English enough to garner the attention of Gilles de Rais, one of Joan’s men. Grateful for their assistance, he grants Foy’s request to take the two of them to Joan.
Upon meeting Joan, Foy requests her help. But Joan initially declines the request. Once she learns more about Foy, her father, and their situation, she relents. She removes his helmet…
And decides that there is nothing godly about this creature before her and he needs to be destroyed. Her men then begin to de-armor and dismember him right there in front of Foy, much to her horror.
They say that you should never meet your heroes, and this feels like an excellent example of why. On the one hand, the fact that they, and the readers, get to finally encounter Joan is fairly awesome. It’s what this whole thing’s been building up to so far. But on the other, this is very much not what Foy was hoping for.
A simple “Nope, can’t help” would have been merely disappointing, but the actual butchering of her undead father right there in front of her? Foy’s already had to grow up way too quickly as it is thanks to the war itself.
There’s something a bit heartbreaking about her telling Joan that she’s not a child. In some ways, she’s all too correct about that. She has maybe one scrap of innocence left in her, and the attempted re-murder of her father probably killed that last scrap.
At the same time, though, we’re reminded that she is still a child when she’s nearly set on fire and launched with one of the firebombs. As an adult, she might’ve had a better chance. But she didn’t, here. Not that the English forces thought of her as a child. Nope, they just thought of her as simply another to-be casualty. Seriously, absolutely nobody gave a thought of “Wait a second, this one’s a child…”. The closest they probably had was: “Small equals tiny, more sabotage-friendly hands…KILL”.
Given Foy’s father’s recent track record of not-staying-dead when he’s taken down, there’s still a possibility that he’ll pull himself together. Though during the rest of this installment, while they’re on their way to see Joan in the first place, he seems to be struggling along the longer he’s undead.
So, curious as to if he will manage to reassemble himself. And if so, how long would it take? And for that matter, what would happen to Foy if he, for whatever reason, doesn’t? There’s probably no way she’d want to be around Joan and her army after that. But would they let her take her chances on her own? After all, she did insist she’s not a child any longer.
For the artwork here, we’ve got some lovely stuff going on. The battle scenes are just as intense as they should be. And a favorite image of mine is that final page. Foy’s just seen her father butchered in front of her. We see her utterly horrified reaction reflected in a pool of his blood. He seems to have been (somewhat) living again specifically for her, so to see his reason for being-again reflected in his blood has a certain impact that fits for the story.
Final Thoughts
Corpse Knight #4 is a gripping installment of this tale of familial love and the undead. It has some wonderful action, and the achievement of a goal that didn’t go quite as hoped. At all.
