Locke and Key / Sandman: Hell and Gone #1 by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)

 

At one and the same time, I almost wish there were more comic mashups for comic universes that exist in the realm of "cult", and far less comic mash ups for well established characters who have a habit of splitting off into different story arcs with irritating frequency (I mean how many times has Batman fetched up in other story universes, much to the irritation of long established fans on both sides?)

When you think about it, "Locke and Key / Sandman: Hell and Gone #1" is an almost eerily 'fitting' mash-up. The weird, wonderful and in places downright uncomfortable to read Sandman graphic novels were a staple of my youth and revisiting them recently on their 30th Anniversary (which just made me feel even older) reaffirmed my belief that Gaiman and McKean had never done better work before Sandman, and I've never really taken to much they've turned their hand to since. 

In "Locke and Key" I think even by their own admission, Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez had begun to run out of ideas and the well was running a little dry before they recently rebooted the series, flinging it back into the past to take up the story of how the Locke family first discovered the dark secrets surrounding them, and the power of the many keys that have come into their possession over the years. 

In the last story arc, we met Jack Locke and his sister Mary - two siblings who use the power of the keys in different - and ultimately tragic ways. Their father tries to warn them and protect them, their mother is killed after an accidental portal to the front line of World War 1 brings Nazis to Lovecraft Island, and Jack - raddled with guilt - tries to drown himself aboard the RMS Titanic. 

Ten years on and very dead, Mary is determined to rescue Jack from hell but will need the assistance of the most evil man in Britain, and his most prized captive (if you haven't figured out who that captive is yet, I won't spoil it for you but it's one of this comic's "Wow" moments and will make you cheer out loud!)

It feels like Hill and Rodriguez have once again settled into a story-telling groove that is both scintillating, original, horrifying and thoroughly addictive once again after the disappointment of the last story arc and what felt like a lot of wasted possibilities for awesomeness. 

Here though, this is the tiniest drip-fed hint of amazing things to come and I just hope that this current arc doesn't run out of steam because there's so much lore in the Sandman Universe alone that could act like an adrenaline shot to one of my favourite comic series of the last 10 years. 

Gorgeous to look at, as you'd expect from Rodriguez, but also with some pretty tight and luxurious storytelling that tells of finer things yet to come in volume II. I cannot wait.