Volume 4 of Locke and Key is a mixed bag. On the plus side, Hill and Rodriguez get more creative with the format of the issues. Issue 1 is set so that on each page, there's a 4-panel, newspaper cartoon strip running down the center that focuses on Bode's adventures as a sparrow (courtesy of the Animal Key.) Rodriguez modifies his style to something closer to Bill Watterson's for that, while retaining his usual look for what Tyler and Kinsey are doing in the meantime.
Issue 2 involves the Locke kids meeting an old friend of their father's, who is not in a good way. That Erin Voss is black leads into some discussion of racism and how little the Locke kids understand about that. Nothing more ever comes of Kinsey using the Skin Key to make herself black long enough to speak to Erin, so I don't know how great an idea that was.
Issue 3 covers February, with little calendar pages as panels in an upper corner. The kids fend off a series of attacks from the "dark lady", while their personal lives and relationships fall to pieces. Kinsey tried dating "Zack" (i.e., Dodge/The Dark Lady), but he refuses her request to share something with her from his mind via the Head Key. She turns to Scott and Jamal, but that leads to some chest-thumping between the two of them and the dissolution of their friendship with each other and Kinsey. And Jordan deliberately fucks things up with Tyler, which puts him in a irresponsible mood.
Issue 4 is Sam's ghost trying to recruit Rufus (the son of Dodge's old girlfriend/current "mother") to beat Dodge. Rufus tends to discuss things in soldier-speak, so Sam makes his ghost look like a sergeant, and Rodriguez draws some of the panels to match Rufus' imagination or himself as a big, tough soldier.
Then in the last two issues, multiple characters figure out something's going on with "Zack." Tyler, the detective that's been hanging around, and Sam all take a run at Dodge, and he slips past all of them into the perfect disguise. After spending an entire issue that established Dodge can't see Sam's ghost, Sam's big attempt to thwart Dodge goes to hell because Dodge had him outsmarted all the time anyway. No idea how Dodge got back the Music Box the Locke kids briefly contend with in issue 3 - presumably he swiped it back during one of his visits to Kinsey - but either way he's got it to keep Tyler busy.
It's just incredibly frustrating because Hill established right off in volume 1 that while Dodge is absolutely an unrepentant murderer and sadist, he's no criminal mastermind. He couldn't convincingly fake a suicide for the old professor or keep people from recognizing him, he can't keep Tyler hoodwinked, but somehow he was able to outmaneuver all these characters into thinking he's been dealt with.
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