Michael Walsh and James Tynion IV have proven themselves to be horror maestros, and their inevitable team-up on an action-horror has been a delight. Armed with a writers’ room featuring some of comics’ best, Exquisite Corpses #3 launches into comic shops this week with Pornsak Pichetshote leading as writer with Tynion, along with art by Valentine De Landro and Walsh. It’s a chapter that fully fleshes out one of our civilian characters while reminding us of the disturbed nature of the elite who bet on the secret killing game.
Exquisite Corpses #3 opens behind the scenes, where the uber elite watch the game unfold. There’s some bullying going on, setting up a kill that may or may not happen. Adding to the disturbed nature of these elites is an old granny who looks like she’d bake you an apple pie, but she’s anything but kind. She’s vilely cruel and has a strategy that doesn’t involve winning, but enacting the most pain on innocent civilians.
From there the story cuts to the EMT’s with Laurie and her partner Ian carting one of the killers, Pete, though they think he’s a new doctor in town. They’re in danger and don’t know it, and it’s unnerving to know he’s only a few feet away ready to strike. This is the A plot of the issue, and by the end we get a stronger sense of who Laura is, along with the familial small town relationships that are lost this night. Pichetshote does an incredible job with dialogue drawing you into these EMT’s lives efficiently so when death does befall them you’ll feel it even more.
This granny freaked me out!
Credit: Image
Another subplot involves two folks in a Jeep and it’s not looking great for them. This, along with a few bodies found by another supporting character, set things up for future confrontations. As far as the Jeep duo, it’s nice to see folks are realizing something is up with the internet and phones down, with conspiracy theories that are edging towards the truth.
Art by De Landro is great, humanizing our characters or revealing the monsterousness of the killers and elite. The best scene in the issue involves a slaying in a hospital with many bodies strewn about. A confrontation is intense near the end of the issue that’ll shock you with it swell choreographed scuffle and the gore involved.
All in all, there’s a good balance of humanizing the civilians, shining a light on the monsters, and setting up subplots for future plot development. Exquisite Corpses #3 is a chilling, character-driven chapter that deepens the horror and stakes with sharp dialogue, brutal tension, and a growing sense of dread and brought to life by compelling visuals and tight pacing. It’s the kind of issue that crawls under your skin and lingers long after the final page.
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