In the first issue of writer Gail Simone’s first Vertigo series, she teams up with artist and colorist Jon Davis-Hunt for a supernatural story involving a reporter investigating a strange and possibly deadly self-help empire. “Clean Room” #1 is entry into a disturbing, yet mysteriously enticing, world.
Written by Gail Simone
Illustrated by Jon Davis-HuntIt’s the start of the first Vertigo series from fan-favorite writer Gail Simone, with 2000AD artist Jon Davis-Hunt! Astrid Mueller is the enigmatic and compelling guru of a giant self-help organization—a devastatingly powerful figure in the industry between psychology and religion. Journalist Chloe Pierce’s fiancé decided to pick up Astrid’s book, and within three months he was dead. Something in Astrid Mueller’s book made Philip blow his brains out all over Chloe’s new kitchen.
Now Chloe is on a mission to find out who Astrid Mueller really is. What is this Clean Room she’s been hearing about where your deepest fear and worst moments are revealed? Chloe intends to immerse herself in the Clean Room and wreak havoc on Astrid’s empire.
Chloe Pierce doesn’t want to live anymore. Her fiancé shot himself dead supposedly over a self-help book written by the elusive and secretive Astrid Mueller. After surviving a suicide attempt, Chloe uses her journalistic detective skills to track down the supposed “killer” of her love. The concept behind “Clean Room” is original and intriguing, with myriad ways that Simone can utilize to explore issues of self-esteem and other highly topical subjects. The potential is definitely there in the first issue despite its seeming brevity. Jon Davis-Hunt’s art and colors add a grounded tone even in a world where people and events aren’t what they seem.
By giving us as little information as she can, Simone’s script for “Clean Room” #1 is effective at setting a tone of mystery and suspense. The opening scene is vicious, monstrous, and happens for seemingly supernatural reasons. What horrors are behind this self-help movement and why is this self-help leader supposedly to blame for the images people see before them? Are they real? With unanswered questions posed, Simone entices us to follow along a dark path that promises to become even grimmer than what occurs in this series’ debut. The issue could have been enhanced by more pages, yet Simone and Davis-Hunt give us just enough to want more.
There are some delightfully sick and twisted words and goings-on in “Clean Room” #1, with Simone obviously having a fun time. With tasteful violence, putrid acts of inhumanity, and implied evil, Simone and Davis-Hunt’s enthusiasm for their story’s world is palpable. Without any derivativeness, this issue is reminiscent of Tim Seeley and Mike Norton’s atmospheric and slow-building horror title “Revival”. Like that series, let’s hope “Clean Room” can reach the heights of creativity and inventiveness of the Image book.
Like “Revival”, “Clean Room” has the advantage of an artist who can intertwine the supernatural with the real world in a creepily slick way. Davis-Hunt depicts the characters realistically without his art being stylized when drawing them or their world. When creepy images appear in a panel, it makes them that much more disturbing. They are more shocking when placed within a world that is recognizable to us. Like any successful horror story, Davis-Hunt and Simone ground their artistry in the real world where recognizable personal events and emotions can be observed and felt by the reader. And, like any good horror, the unexplained is that much more disconcerting against the backdrop of a familiar world.
Davis-Hunt’s colors, like his art, thrives in subtlety through most of “Clean Room” #1. There are particularly effective uses of color throughout the issue that enhance panels without being blatantly obvious. In the opening scene, the color of a family’s hair matches a bloodstained road. The color conveys what is happening without Davis-Hunt required to show gore for gore’s sake. Yet when he does depict a scene of half a man’s head blown clear off, it literally drips with methodical and almost medical precision. We’re not being grossed out, but simply shocked to see an image of a man somehow speaking in his condition. The real and the unreal, once again, collide beautifully and successfully.
Continued belowThe colors are also used in a beautiful yet haunting sequence after the opening scene of mayhem. The blue night sky is contrasted with a darker blue of a lake. The ethereal quality of this scene contains a massive illuminated moon with blue crater lines as a woman looks up at it from the bottom of the lake. Davis-Hunt proves he can create scenes that not only exude realism, but contain a magical quality. This is not just evident in his pencils, but in his colors as well.
Gail Simone and Jon Davis-Hunt are a duo that have welcomed us to a world that is far from clean. With the sheen of the real world, “Clean Room” #1 has mysteries and ghoulish entities lurking beneath its unsettling surface.
Final Verdict: 7.9 – Simone and Davis-Hunt give us a promising first issue that has a unique premise and execution. They keep us interested as to where they could possibly go from their introduction to a world where self-help can equal self-harm.
