Advance Review: The Rules Are Changing In ‘Exquisite Corpses’ #9
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
The rules are changing in this series, both from a story and a storytelling perspective. It’s good to shake things up, but the fundamental issues — including way too many characters to keep track of — continue to weigh the series down a bit.
Overall
8/10Poet Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.” Whether he would have been interested in the series Exquisite Corpses is debatable, but he would almost certainly appreciate how the deadly game has evolved. 
Nearly every aspect of the story seems to turn in the ninth issue, with mixed results. The focus in this installment largely moves from the dozen killers unleashed in a small Maine town to a few surviving residents trying to survive this horrific Halloween night. Last issue we saw once of the residents actually kill one of the contestants. There’s a similar scene here, though with different results.
The problem with this issue, written by Tyler Boss and James Tynion IV, continues to be the number of characters readers have to remember each month when they pick up the book. A dozen killers, about as many recognizable townspeople, and the elite who are pulling the strings behind the scenes leaves readers struggling to remember who’s who.
Still the concept is fascinating. And just as the storytelling rules have changed, the story itself evolves. We learn in this issue that it may not be the killer who is most important to the game, but rather the weapon that each wields. That’s quite a different interpretation of the rules than we had known. And the stakes are quite high — the victorious 1-percenters take secret control over the country for the next five years.
It’s a curious shift for the series’ first season (co-creators Tynion and Michael Walsh have multiple runs planned.) Instead, it feels like something that would be introduced in a later season, when the creative team is looking to shake things up. But kudos to them for putting it out there now.
Walsh is joined by Valentine De Landro to illustrate this chapter. There’s plenty of easy-to-follow action throughout the book. Aside from that, the artists aren’t breaking any rules.
Sure, rules are made to be broken. Just make sure that we can follow the story so we can appreciate those evolving guidelines.
Exquisite Corpses #9 will be available in comic book stores and on digital platforms Wednesday from Image Comics.
