There are only two more volumes after this one, so it’s apparently time for Locke & Key to get ready for the endgame. For as fun as the last couple issues have been (and by “fun” I mean horrifying and interesting and really hard to put down), once everything was introduced in Vol. 1, everything was actually pretty status quo, relatively speaking. New keys, Dodge trying to manipulate the Lockes while hiding in plain sight, bad things happening all over the place . . . but in Keys to the Kingdom, the whole series pivots.
Starting with an issue that imitates fully and so eerily the style of Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes to great effect, to an issue that cleverly skips through an entire month in a very creative way, and one from the POV of Rufus, the boy who speaks entirely in military jargon, all the way to the freaky-deaky conclusion, which very much shakes things up going forward.
Something that has surprised me is what the comic has done with the character of Sam. I guess I assumed he was a throwaway after the first volume, but what they’ve done with him the last couple has been actually really interesting, and my opinion of him has totally done a 180 (I really, really didn’t like him at first, even as a “villain” — but then, that was before I knew who the real villain was . . . if I even do now, who knows anymore).
Also, I really need Kinsey to get her fear back. I really hope that happens in Vol. 5 or 6.