CLEAN ROOM #2
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Jon Davis-Hunt
Published by DC Comics/Vertigo
Release Date: November 18, 2015
Chloe Tona Pierce gets what she wanted. She gets inside the Clean Room. And she may be sorry she ever did.
No. Just no. No no no no no no no.
This book, particularly this issue, is not OK. It’s not OK to make me feel so dirty on the inside right before scaring the crap out of me.
I used to like monkeys. They were my favorite.
Why did you do this to me, Gail? What did I ever do to you, Jon? WHY.
I should just stop there and curl up into a crying ball and wait for my cats to come and gnaw on my fingertips in that cute way they will when I am dead and they want to be fed but have no affinity for human-designed can openers. I should let my tears trickle down between the floor boards where the dust mites will adhere to their viscous surface and build civilizations bent on attacking the world above. I should.
I mean. Fuck. Clean Room #2 is by far the most elegantly disturbing comic book I have read maybe ever. Or maybe it’s just the only one of its kind I haven’t (yet) had hypnotically removed from my long-term memory. Simone is delivering this odd blend of matter-of-fact horror with not-too-distant future tech sci-fi, and serving it up as a new age religion. Which, given its obvious influences and other magnificent truths we experience today, seems apt upon reflection. The main difference here is that it’s clear we’re not to believe it’s smoke and mirrors that compels Astrid’s methods or the Clean Room itself. It’s real and it’s frightening.
This issue distances itself from both Astrid and Chloe in a lot of ways, having focused on their paths to meeting for most of issue #1. Instead, we get a much closer look at the apparatus of the Clean Room itself, and those who are made subject to its interrogations. Having scanned the preview, I was already impressed with David-Hunt’s convincing pretzeling of the human form (I can’t believe I just typed that.). But that’s nothing to the Danger Room stylings and subsequent goddamn scary as fuck repercussions the subject — Dwight is his name — faces upon return to his normal life.
I can’t even say how great this art is without spoiling the issue for you, but it is so brutally gorgeous that it could make you want to remove your vision on a semi-permanent basis. The art is haunting, both for its sterile perfection in quieter moments and mortifying detail in the ones meant to scare the bejeezus out of you.
Simone’s raw plotting and strong pacing here do so much more than dialogue in taking this issue from something a little unnerving to flat out threatening. It’s not about atmosphere or nuance as much as just plainly showing the reader this stuff that’s meant to destroy their ability to sleep peacefully for say, oh, ever. And so when Chloe reacts similarly, we get it. We get it, girl.
Look. Clean Room #2 defies any sense of sophomore slump, taking the strong beginning this series had with #1 and pushing it into scream mode and beyond. Gail Simone and Jon Davis-Hunt are magicians weaving the most disgusting (and yet most compellingly beautiful) Frankensteinian bunny I have ever seen, and I have to say, I’m a little scared to see what gets pulled out next. Damn it.
The Verdict: 10/10