"Locke & Key: Clockworks" takes us back in time and shatters expectations once again

So we've finally gotten answers to some of the most sought-after questions when it comes to the Locke & Key mythology.  Where did the various keys of Keyhouse come from?  Who created them?  And when?  In the opening chapter of Locke & Key: Clockworks, Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez takes us a few centuries back in time, all the way to the Revolutionary War, and they reveal the curse of the Keyhouse in the most graphic, engrossing way.  The result is an exciting and most mind-numbing chapter of this story yet.

Using the newly discovered Timeshift Key, Tyler and Kinsey take a trip back through history, and learn about how the Keys were forged, when their great-great-great... uncle Benjamin Locke used a leftover whispering-iron, a product from beyond the Black door, to melt and create the Omega Key, among others.   They also went back to the late 1980s and witnessed their father, Rendell, who was attending the Lovecraft Academy as a high school senior at the time, put on a magnificent play with his friends, the so-called Keepers of the Keys (or the Tamers of the Tempest, depending on whom you ask) - consisting of Rendell, Luke Caravaggio, Erin Voss, Kim Topher, Ellie Whedon and Mark Cho - all agreed to extract a piece of whispering-iron from the Black door for themselves.

Needless to say, things went awry, and Luke's soul was possessed by a demon from beyond, a tragedy that left Kim and Mark murdered, Erin without her wits, and the demonic Luke as a woman (thanks to the Gender key).   This section of the story was written by Hill and illustrated by Rodriguez with such originality and gorgeous detail that one couldn't help but hold their breath throughout.  No, seriously!  In fact, I'm still recovering from it as I type this.

Clockworks' conclusion sets us up for the ultimate climax in the series finale, Omega.  But regardless of what happens in the end, who survives, and who doesn't make it, Locke & Key has cemented its legacy with this, the most incredible and best chapter yet.  I only wish that I could use the Head Key to erase it from my memory completely, revert to the Timeshift key in order to go back a few hours, and experience it all over again, for the very first time.  
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