Anarchy In Lovecraft: Locke & Key: Alpha #1 Review

Editor’s Note: Cthulhu Fthagn! Ph’nglui spoilers Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!

Basically, I see your crazy and raise. It’s the only way to live.

– Tyler Locke

And with that line, if nothing else, Locke & Key: Alpha #1 has finally settled the question as to what I want engraved on my tombstone.

I opened with that line because I’m finding it hard to review the actual comic book. First of all, this thing is a monster – 32 pages, not counting the “special features” toward the end of the issue – with battles and conflicts happening in about four different places with interchanging teams of characters fighting different threats at varying times.

Second, it’s a hard single issue to summarize. We jump back and forth between the characters, each of which is in a different form of mortal danger at least once, and many of them don’t make it through the issue. The nature of the threats to the characters changes from demons to torture to taunting to thrown rocks, so there’s no simple throughline to follow to keep track of everything so it can be described concisely for people who might be looking for reviews to decide if they want to try the book or not.

Further, this just doesn’t scan like your average superhero comic book. Throughout the issue, we see villain Dodge using a variety of escalating levels of magic to try to enforce his will. But instead of your normal comic, where the heroes meet that power with more power, they generally resist by simple human means of courage and love and persistence, leading to almost the opposite of a standard comic book climax, where the action grows smaller and simpler and more intimate toward the conclusion.

And finally, this issue doesn’t end like your normal superhero comic. Because for all the violence and power displayed, this issue concludes with a simple grapple between the villain and an ancillary character. And unlike in your standard comic, writer Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez give us a conclusion that makes a hard distinction between the bad guys losing and the good guys actually winning.

So I’ve struggled to decide how to write about this issue. So we’ll go with this to start: if you have been following Locke & Key, this is a spectacular ending (yeah, there’s one more issue, but based on this one, it looks like it’s gonna be a simple denouement) that pays off on just about tease and promise that has been made to the reader leading up to this moment. And if you have not been reading Locke & Key? Well, start with the trades and give this one a wide berth until you’re up to speed.

This is where I normally summarize the events of whatever issue I’m reviewing, but I’m not gonna do that this time around. There’s just too much going on. Let’s just go with: we open with Dodge holding Kinsey and Jamal hostage, preparing to send one through the Omega Door to release demons to harvest their whisp’ring iron with the other rendered senseless by the Head Key to help make more keys so Dodge can enslave mankind. Tyler and Duncan are battling off shadow demons so Tyler can use the whisp’ring iron in the fishing lure on his hat to make one more key. Nina Locke is battling shadows just to get out of Keyhouse. And Rufus Whedon has made his way back to Keyhouse to help Bode. And of all these people, one of them sees through all the magic and cruelty and power to remember just what Dodge is, and despite all Dodge’s crap and flash and thunder, he is at Keyhouse. And Keyhouse has rules. And everyone has to follow them.

From here, Hill and Rodriguez let go of the key (get it?) and let the clockwork run. There’s a ton of action in the book, and they make a solid choice by having the Shadow Demons kill off one the higher-profile supporting characters within the first three pages. It works on a couple of levels, the first being that it is a loud and clear shot across the bow that Hill and Rodriguez are willing to kill characters before this is all said and done. It makes a statement that automatically raises the level of anxiety for the reader… but I give most of the credit to Rodriguez, who shows this character having a real emotional connection to one of the major players – an emotional connection that, for longtime readers, indicates possible long-term happiness for the primary character – before having the supporting character ignominiously cut down like a dog, without time for any dying declarations or anything else. The combination of the action and the underlying emotion tell us readers: “We are not only willing to kill characters, but we will also do it in a way that delivers crippling emotional blows to the characters, and to you.” Jesus, between the sudden skewering death of the character and the circumstances, no wonder Hill named one of his characters “Whedon.”

With the stakes suitably stated, the entire issue carries a ton of weight. We further see that Dodge, via his possessed high school student minions (including Scot with the Hercules Key, making him look like Spider Jerusalem after a course of Deca Durabolin and / or horse testicles), has been willing to torture high school students, including yanking out the odd eyeball or two… so when Dodge threatens Kinsey and Jamal, you know that Dodge, Hill and Rodriguez fucking mean it. So the evil, and what it means if it wins, is well established here…

…but so is the good. Almost without exception, the creators have the heroes of the story act selflessly, even when making other choices would clearly be easier, if not smarter. We see Duncan take on the shadows so that Tyler can make his key. Jamal tells Dodge to empty out his head so Kinsey doesn’t need to live like that. Tyler, given the chance to make any kind of magic key, chooses to make one that will release his friends from the influence of the demons. And then there’s Rufus, who walked into a blazing shitstorm of fire and Shadow Demons because he thinks he can help his buddy Bode, even though Bode is possessed by a fucking demon and much more clever than himself. The only selfish act on the part of the protagonists is when Kinsey asks to be put through the Omega Door so as not to be turned into a drooling spastic  by the head key… and that act is immediately punished when Dodge tells her she’s gonna get the opposite.

In short, Hill and Rodriguez has the heroes act like fucking heroes. They are generally selfless and trying only to help their friends and family in the face of overwhelming evil, even when acting in that way puts themselves into serious, if not mortal, danger. It is exciting, and the contrast between that behavior and Dodge’s reliance on expanding power and trying to drive wedges between people makes for a satisfying read.

And then there is that ending. Despite the spoiler warning up front, I don’t want to give too much away here, but by setting up the conclusion in the way that they did, Hill and Rodriguez bring the series full circle. After all, a large part of this entire series has been about Keyhouse, the Keys, and how the Locke kids learn the rules for using them. Hell, the initial release of Dodge from the Wellhouse was based on the idea of the kids learning the rules of how the keys work. So to see Dodge, who has amassed power and minions and has wreaked untold havok out in the world, be defeated by one of the very first rules of one of the very first Keys that we were introduced to, was amazingly clever. And to have him defeated by the one character for whom all the magic and lights and spectacle would never obfuscate the fact that there are rules, and that everyone must follow the rules, made complete sense. And that character’s victory line? Man, that’s totally in character, and second only to that “crazy and raise” line I opened this review with. It’s an incredibly satisfying climax.

Rodriguez’s art continues to be rock solid in this issue. Think about some of the stuff he needs to deliver in this comic book: shadow demons, miniature winged women, terrified children, multi-eyed horrors from the Plains of Leng, and most importantly, Bode – a child possessed by a demon, requiring him to look realistically young and yet filled with a terrible and cruel wisdom. And he nails all of it, with an easy-to-follow panel layout and solid pacing. And Rodriguez drops a couple of clever bits of business into the issue; for example, Bode starts the issue clothed in shadow armor and crowned with the Crown of Shadows, but by the end of the issue, he’s reduced to a kid’s sweatshirt and jeans, giving visual clues to reinforce Dodge’s loss of power. And there is a panel in the middle of the issue with Dodge and Kinsey where the eye’s focus falls automatically fall on the faces and the word balloons… but if you follow the natural eye-line around the panel, there is some creepy shit going on, man. You’ll know it when you see it, trust me.

Look: if you haven’t been reading Locke & Key, this issue is gonna do nothing for you. You won’t know who these people are, or why there are shadows killing dude, or why there’s a kid so evil that he makes Frank Miller wake up screaming. But as a climax to the story for regular readers, it’s about as good as you could hope for… and if you’re not a regular reader, you’ve got some time to catch up with the trades before the real wrapup in Locke & Key: Alpha #2. And as someone who was also late to the party, let me tell you: it’s totally worth it.