Exquisite Corpses #13 // Review
It wasn’t exactly the way that things were supposed to work out. The Last Gunman is up against the Fox Mask Killer. Only it wasn’t the original Fox Mask Killer and it’s not the original Last Gunman either. And so the question is: is it fair to say that the weapons are the real opponants and not the killers themselves? It’s not going to be easy to find an answer in Exquisite Corpses #13. Writer James Tynion IV concludes his series with artist Michael Walsh and colorist Jordie Bellaire. It’s not exactly a satisfying ending, but it IS an ending.
There’s blood spattering everything in the final hours of the competition. It’s somewhere between the evening of the last day of October and the beginning of November. Everything ha nearly drawn to a close. It’s just a matter of working out quite precisely who it is who is going to be winning at the end of the game. The woman wearing the mask of the Last Gunman is trying to talk reason to the woman wielding the sword of the Fox Mask Killer. Maybe she’ll get through to her. Or maybe the wealthy elites in the command center are going to win. Either way...it’s all coming to an end before the sun rises on the tiny town, ushering-in November.
Tynion had set himself up for a very, very difficult ending. It was all well and good to have brackets between killers as the series progressed and certain people were eliminated from the competition. But once you get down to the last two in the final issue it's a bit of a challenge to try to bring it across with any kind of power. Because to a certain extend it almost feels like it's just completing the equation. Even if there are unexpected twists and turns. It's reached a point where things are going to happen one way or another.
There is a remarkably solid, feel to the end of the horror. It really does feel like the end of a horror movie. There are those final moments of darkness before it all comes to an end. The characters have been through so much over the course of the 12 issues leading into the big finale. There is a sense of exhaustion and fatigue on the page. There's also a sense of impending ending as tight close-up on characters face is reveal the humanity beneath the horror. Walsh frames to drama well. Bellaire bathes the page in varying shades of red that suggest both bloodshed and sunrise.
It all feels like it could've been handled better. It would've been a different series entirely if it were handled differently. However, there is always the option of things getting more satisfying at the end of a second series. They’ve teased a one-shot with a surviving killer...but there’s also the possibility of a whole new series that might turn things in a different direction for the underlying darkness of the series.
