Exquisite Corpses: Fox Mask Killer #1 Review: The Killer Under the Mask

Look, I came into Exquisite Corpses: Fox Mask Killer #1 ready for the usual buffet of fucked-up shit. Blood? Check. Blades? Of course. Some lunatic in a badass mask stacking bodies while we slowly learn why they became a lunatic in a badass mask? Yeah, fam, I know the game. Che Grayson and Adam Gorham could have played this one straight down the middle and probably gotten away with it too. Instead, they gave me something I wasn’t expecting to give a shit about. There is an actual woman underneath that fox mask, and once I started understanding why she wants OUT of this life, all the stabbing and slicing suddenly had some weight behind it.

That’s where this book got my ass. Fox Mask is already cool without anybody trying to convince me she’s cool. She’s dangerous, she looks fucking vicious, and clearly this isn’t somebody you want popping up behind you while you’re taking out the garbage at midnight. But Grayson doesn’t spend the whole issue screaming, “LOOK HOW BADASS SHE IS!” Thank you! We get it. Instead, the story digs into somebody who doesn’t necessarily want to become queen of Murder Mountain. She wants a fucking life. She wants out. Unfortunately, when you’re this damn good at killing people, apparently HR doesn’t just accept your two-week notice.

And Gorham? My dude understood the assignment. This book gets nasty when it needs to get nasty, but I can actually tell what the hell is happening. You’d think that would be standard operating procedure in an action-heavy comic, yet here we are in 2026 still celebrating artists who understand that I shouldn’t need a fucking GPS to follow somebody getting stabbed. Gorham knows when to open up a scene and let the violence breathe, then gets right back in somebody’s face when the story needs that uncomfortable intimacy. Jordie Bellaire’s colors ride beautifully over all of it without drowning those lines, and Becca Carey’s lettering does its damn job instead of trying to become the loudest person at the party.

But here’s the WEPA of the whole thing for me: I gave a shit about the human angle. That’s the sauce, mi gente. Give me twenty assassins, fifty swords and enough blood to make the Comics Code Authority rise from the grave and file a complaint, but if Fox Mask is nothing more than a cool design holding a sharp object, eventually I’m checking out. Grayson doesn’t let that happen. There’s vulnerability here, but don’t get shit twisted, they don’t suddenly turn her into some helpless little wounded bird so we can all feel bad for her. Nah. This woman has survived some shit, adapted to some shit and gotten extremely fucking good at making sure the other person doesn’t walk away.

And THANK FUCK they don’t spend the entire issue beating me over the head with tragedy like they’re trying to win the Trauma Olympics. You know exactly the kind of comic I’m talking about. Every three pages somebody has to remind you how horrible everything was, then here comes another flashback just in case you forgot to be sad. Fox Mask Killer #1 doesn’t need that shit. Her past informs who she is, but she’s still making decisions NOW. Sometimes smart decisions. Sometimes violent decisions. Sometimes decisions where you’re sitting there thinking, “Ohhhhhh, this shit is about to go very fucking badly.” THAT’S character. Let me watch somebody move through the world instead of handing me their psychological Wikipedia page.

That’s why this one worked for me, Crusaders. You want to spin somebody out of a bigger horror universe? Don’t explain every fucking thing about them until there’s nothing mysterious left. Give me enough to understand why I should care, then get the hell out of the character’s way. Exquisite Corpses: Fox Mask Killer #1 gives me the carnage I came for, but underneath all that blood is somebody desperately trying to figure out whether there’s still a life waiting for her beyond the mask. The blades look cool as hell, Gorham absolutely brings the pain, and the horror crowd is getting fed. But Fox Mask herself? That’s why I’m coming back for issue two.

Crusaders Score:
4/5

Writer: Che Grayson.
Artist: Adam Gorham.
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire.
Letterer: Becca Carey.
Publisher: Image Comics / Tiny Onion