Locke & Key Volume 6: Alpha & Omega Review
Written by Joe Hill
Art by Gabriel Rodriguez
Published by IDW Publishing
What a wild ride Locke & Key has been for all of those involved. While I wasn’t lucky enough to have read the series as it came out issue by issue, I was lucky enough to have experienced it nonetheless. Just as with most epics, L&K took us through highs and lows; from overwhelming sincerity and joy, to feelings of pure hatred and sadness. Rarely in our medium of comics has a book had such a profound effect on everyone who read it.
As soon as I heard that Alpha & Omega was available to order from Diamond, I immediately told my LCS about it and grabbed myself a HC edition of it. Let me tell you, this thing is absolutely gorgeous. DC and Marvel should take notes from these indie publishers on how to put out a trade because at $30, this thing is worth every penny!
This is the final volume of Locke & Key and as with most finales; it was tasked with wrapping up every storyline in a satisfying manner. Unlike most finales though, it couldn’t have pulled that gargantuan challenge off more beautifully. Things look incredibly bleak for the Locke family; Dodge, now disguised as Bode Locke, has gotten his hands on the Omega Key and is putting the final touches on his master plan to create himself an army to do his bidding. Will the rest of the Locke clan catch on to his master plan or will Dodge finally succeed in a plan that’s decades in the making? A better question though, is will Joe Hill be able to give this critically acclaimed series the ending it deserves?
The answer to the latter, of course, is yes. I won’t divulge spoilers because everyone owes it to themselves to experience this epic tale. As much as I’ve loved the twists and turns Hill has taken us on throughout this series, I can say with confidence that this particular volume is easily one of, if not the best thing I’ve ever read. Hill masterfully manages to make you feel the lowest lows and highest highs in this, the final volume, of Locke and Key. One can’t help but appreciate how truly special it is to have an ending that’s just as magnificent as the series it’s concluding. Every character I’ve grown to love, and even the ones I hate, got a fitting conclusion and their own time to shine at the end of the story. I couldn’t think of an ending more perfect and more epic than the way Joe Hill finished this one.
Gabriel Rodriguez is an absolutely brilliant artist. The most acclaimed names in his field are people working on high-profile, usually action heavy books. While Locke & Key is certainly high-profile, the true uniqueness lies in the amount of raw, pure emotion that the characters show us. Rodriguez’s art not only portrays this beautifully, but it pulls us in as readers into feeling the same things that the characters are going through as well. I can sit and enjoy as story as much as the next guy, but what makes L&K so special is that you feel everything that goes on, on an entirely different level than most comics; Rodriguez is as much responsible for that as the writer, Joe Hill.
If you’ve been thinking of starting this series or it’s been one of those, “oh I really want to read that” books, you owe it to yourself to not only start it, but stick with it and finish it as well. This series as a whole is one of the best works of fiction not only for our generation, but in all of literature. The first volume will draw you in with its sense of adventure, but by the time you turn the last page of volume 6, you’ll feel like you’re as much a part of the Locke family as any of the characters in the book. I said it before and I’ll say it again, volume 6 of Locke & Key is in the upper echelons of my favorite works of literature ever, if it isn’t my absolute favorite. For that alone I can’t give not only this volume, but the series as a whole…
5 out of 5 nerds
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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