Overflowing Imagination and Gothic Horror
If, like the author of these lines, you’ve never been a big comic book fan, Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez’s volume is the best way to change your attitude. Don’t worry, there’s no superhero nonsense here; despite the everyday protagonists, the main feature of the illustrated pages of Locke & Key is the overflowing imagination – where teenagers’ struggles to fit in and their romantic troubles are elegantly accompanied by thriller, gothic horror, and surrealism.
Although at the beginning you might feel like you’ve signed up for a teenage story (after all, the main characters are teenagers), and the scheming villain who almost laid all his cards on the table in the previous part isn’t nearly as frightening, you’ll soon be shaken out of your complacency by the captivating “shadow” section. Yes, Zack Wells still has plenty of tricks up his sleeve.
Locke & Key is an Exceptional Experience
And although there are repetitions in the second part of Locke & Key (if someone comes up with some information, you can bet it’ll be dealt with soon), thus reducing the excitement factor a bit, the absurd ideas, the variety of the Locke family’s keys, and the astonishing twists guarantee an above-average experience.
Especially if the illustration switches to “Tintin” style for a few pages. Okay, maybe not. Besides making you wonder what the point of that is, it probably doesn’t have much point. Unlike the comic book cover within the comic, which doesn’t hesitate to punish with a brutal spoiler!
Brutally Exciting – Joe Hill Shocks You by the End
Did I say something about the excitement factor? Oh yes, the second part of Locke & Key becomes much more thrilling by the end. Can you imagine that? Getting excited over a comic book? Absolutely, when the investigation kicks in, the pieces start to come together, and our heroes race against time – with a cunning bastard as their opponent. And it ends with a nice little cliffhanger in your face. But one that really makes you think: there is no justice in this world.
Rating: 8.1/10
Locke & Key: Master Edition, Volume Two by Joe Hill – Gabriel Rodriguez
312 pages, Hardcover
Published in 2016 by IDW Publishing
(Master Edition, Volume Two collects Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows (#1-6), Locke & Key: Keys to the Kingdom (#1-6))
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Review of the previous volume:
Locke & Key: Master Edition, Volume One