Clean Room, Vol. 1: Immaculate Conception by Gail Simone

Clean Room, Vol. 1: Immaculate Conception Reviews

• 
  Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈

  Before reading this book: what the fuck?
  
  During: what the fuck?
  
  After: what THE FUCK???
  
  This book fucked me up, man.
• 
  Anne

  What if Scientologists were the good guys?
  You know, underneath it all...
  
  
  
  This is pretty out there but I did quite enjoy it. Especially the part where it took my expectations and flipped them around on several things.
  It kind of feels like Kirkman's
  Outcast in that there's something evil and alien (demonic?) invading our world and sometimes our bodies.
  But it has far better art.
  
  
  
  You don't get a clear picture of what's happening, but it's ok. It has that good vs evil feel, so I think there's enough here to keep most people interested.
  
  Shallow Comics Horror Show Buddy Read.
  
• 
  Matthew

  I have no idea what I just read, but I enjoyed it!
  
  
  
  This graphic novel is only for fans of the totally weird and oddly gruesome. If you are easily offended or troubled by disturbing images, nudity, etc., this is not one for you to try. But, if you are okay with a bit of excessive content, I feel like it does generally support the story and atmosphere here.
  
  
  
  Usually by the end of volume one, I have at least a passable idea of what is going on. In this case, I know the characters and what has been happening. But, if you are asking me to put two and two together at this point, that just isn’t going to happen!
  
  
  
  The art for this title has been great so far. A good combination of realistic and fantastically gruesome. Also, the collected volume includes some of the alt cover and conceptional artwork which is fun to look at and very well done.
  
  
  
  I am going to keep reading. Maybe I will eventually understand. But, at this point I am not sure I care if I don’t!
  
• 
  Sam Quixote

  Chloe’s fiancé committed suicide after discovering the dark secrets of a Scientology/cult-like group called the Honest World Foundation headed by the charismatic and mysterious Astrid Mueller. Now Chloe wants answers for why her husband-to-be chose to die, what this organisation is really about… and what is the Clean Room?
  
  Gail Simone’s first Vertigo book is a messy horror/sci-fi wannabe-Grant Morrison-y comic that succeeds at inept storytelling and little else besides. The opening sequence in particular is an incompetent use of the comics form where the panels don’t form a coherent sequence (which inadvertently sets the tone for the book) - something about a truck hitting someone, possession, a monster appears out of nowhere, and then some guy’s getting beaten up by a crowd? It’s explained later in the book but it reads like nonsense, confusing the reader right off the bat rather than drawing them in.
  
  I think Simone’s attempting to parody Scientology too but I’m not sure what she’s trying to say about it besides “it’s creepy and exploits celebrities to spread its cause”, which, duh, what redundant observations!
  
  As for the story, Chloe finds out what the Clean Room is (which is basically Cerebro from the X-Men movies - real original Gail!), and… does nothing with the information. There follows some random scenes full of gratuitous horror, something about a ghoulish Joker figure hunting Chloe for no reason, a villain called the Surgeon who shows up in the last pages having had no build-up, some gibberish about a home in the sky full of villains or monsters which, again was a big detail that just got dumped in out of nowhere.
  
  These things in themselves are interesting but Simone has no idea how to connect them together into a story so it doesn’t add up to a hill of beans. Her approach is to ramble about chess pieces and nightmares and then throwing in some graphically violent gore scene to wake the reader up before resuming the drivel - that’s cheap and hackneyed storytelling when the writer has to resort to shock value to keep the audience interested!
  
  Simone’s written hundreds of comics but reading Clean Room is like reading an amateur’s effort. There’s incoherent plotting, sloppy storytelling, poorly-defined characters whose motivations remain nebulous throughout, and random scenes that add nothing. The approach is why I think she’s going for an Invisibles-style book which she achieves in the same way that Morrison’s series was often confusing, up-its-own-bumhole, and boring but still made more sense than this crap.
  
  I really enjoyed John Davis-Hunt’s artwork which was very accomplished - clean lines, good framing, a cinematic look, and the horror is powerfully realised. His style is like a cross between Frank Quitely and Jamie McKelvie’s which is quite something to see!
  
  Clean Room has some cool characters like the ghoulish Joker, this weird spirit that possesses humans and distorts their bodies, and the Surgeon, as well as brilliant art, but Gail Simone’s hopeless flailing in trying to assemble them into a worthwhile story kept me a long way from being engaged with the book. Fans of The Invisibles and pointlessly gory horror might like this but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone really – Clean Room is a long way from an immaculately conceived comic!
• 
  Philip

  2ish stars.
  
  Gruesome and disturbing. Which is the point, we're meant to feel disgusted and uncomfortable. A lot of the content seems like it's specifically targeted to that, regardless of whether it's good or relevant storytelling.
  
  Speaking of the story, for the first several issues I was really confused and didn't care much about what was going on. I don't know if it was meant to be confusing to build tension and create mystery or if it was just poor storytelling. The fact that I can't tell is not a good sign. However, by the end of the final issue in the volume, I was surprised how much I wanted to know what happens next! It ends up being legitimately interesting as well as disturbing and it's a shame it doesn't start out that way.
  
  The art by David-Hunt is clean and well drawn. It's hard to know how much of the confusion comes from his layouts and how much of it is poor plotting. The characters themselves look great, though. Did anyone else notice the jarring shift in colorists around the third issue, though? Issue #1 had David-Hunt coloring his own art - here's a panel showing Killian (and showcasing some of the... adult content):
  
  
  
  And here she is after Quinton Winter was brought aboard as colorist a couple issues in:
  
  
  
  Not saying I prefer one over the other, it just caught me off guard and took me a minute to realize it was the same character. Anyway Jenny Frison's cover art for each of the issues is gorgeous. Undecided whether I'm going to continue, I kind of want to know what happens next...
• 
  Paul

  I'm not feeling very well so this will be brief. Gail Simone and her partners in grime have really done it for me with this book. A great new horror comic from Vertigo that I actually found genuinely gruesome and pretty damned creepy. If this was a movie or a tv show, I'd be watching it from my 'safe corner' (it's totally monster-proof).
  
  Simone has really set the stage well and left me wanting moooooooorrrre...
  
  Recommended to fans of seriously twisted shit in the vein of Clive Barker.
  
  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and fill several more tissues with snot...
• 
  Alexander Peterhans

  It's all very WEIRD in this here book, in fact, it's WEIRDY WEIRD WEEIIIRD. At times I found it hard to follow, in that way when an author and/or artist doesn't seem to know how sequential storytelling works..?
  
  This is one that depends on what happens in following volumes. I'm not entirely convinced, let's say.
  
  The art is good, sometimes pretty, mostly uncomfortable.
  
  3.5 of the stars
  
  Reading this with Level 8 Bullshitter, Anne.
• 
  Misty

  So, apparently I'm on a kick of reading really, really weird comics. I blame Hoopla, they keep recommending me weird shit. (Which I then read, feeding into their algorithms, sooo... I also blame myself.)
  Sometimes weird
  works, and sometimes, it
  doesn't. This one (despite having a lot of not-so-great ratings on Goodreads) worked for me. It's gross and creepy and over the top, and I kinda loved that? I mean, I liked it enough to immediately load vol. 2 on my Hoopla account.
  I'll (probably, maybe) get more into detail later, after I've read more and know more of the story), but for now, it's a fucked up little story that's scratching an itch I didn't know I had. It's been a long, long time since I've really enjoyed most horror or horror-like things, but lately, in comics at least, I'm digging it.
• 
  Chad

  I have no idea what I just read, but I loved it. The basic gist of this seems to be that there are parasites in this world that only a few people can see, and there's a group masquerading as a self-help guru that is trying to stop them.
  
  The Good: Even though I know very little of what's going on, I find myself constantly wanting to know more. I never expected this kind of series out of Gail Simone. She's always written straight-up superheroes, but she's done a great job at getting into that weirdness Vertigo is known for. The art and coloring in the book are outstanding.
  
  The Bad: The series is hard to follow, reminds me of something Grant Morrison would write.
  
  The Ugly: Those monsters by Jon Davis-Hunt are creepy as hell, and at such contrast with the rest of the book.
• 
  Jan Philipzig

  I’m afraid I couldn’t get into this fantasy/horror/mystery mash-up that reminded me in turn of Brubaker’s Fatale, Spencer’s Morning Glories, and Urasawa's Monster. I found the plot confusing in places, and I guess at the end of the day the story just did not feel all that relevant to me. To be fair, though, my reading experience last night was probably somewhat tempered by the unfolding Trumpocalypse: While I was supposed to feel creeped out by the cultish ways of the mysterious Honest World Foundation, I found myself humming Newman’s “Political Science” and pondering the sheer banality of real-life evil instead...
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QbUS...
• 
  James DeSantis

  Uhhh so my wife asked me what this is about.
  
  My answer? Has lots of monsters, blood, and tits.
  
  I really don't know what happened here. Don't get me wrong it's not bad at all. I just was confused a lot of the time. Strange shit just kept happening every single page. The demons or aliens or whatever they are were full on exorcist on your ass scary. "Fuck your little cunt face" and stuff like that. Scary for sure. Also the dialog stayed entertaining throughout. Never once did I feel bored.
  
  I also enjoyed the art a lot. Very cool designs on a lot of the monsters and everyone has their own look that helps. The violence is shown here in full and it doesn't hold back. You will also see some boobs, but who the fuck doesn't like boobs? Maybe disgusting monster tits you'll look away but fear not, you can do it!
  
  The only negative is I still have very little idea what the fuck was happening. I liked it, but I don't know what the heck was happening a lot of the time. But it's mystery made me come back for more. Volume 2 on order right now!
• 
  Shannon

  Individual issue reviews:
  #1 |
  #2 |
  #3 |
  #4 |
  #5 |
  #6
  
  Total review score: 2.5
  
  I'm rounding down though because I think some of those 3 star ratings were me being generous.
• 
  destiny ♡ howling libraries

  I liked the concept a lot — I mean, I really dug the idea of it — but the execution was missing something. I think it was mainly the dialogue that never seemed to do a good job of holding my attention, no matter how interesting the goings-on were.
• 
  Jonathan

  This is exactly the kind of creeptastic shit that used to keep me up at night as a kid. Hell it still might.
  
  "You have a fine sleepy-sweet night, hear?"
  
  No, I don't think I will actually. This is magnificent and brilliant and psychologically terrifying all wrapped up into one.
  
  
• 
  Chris Lemmerman

  I thought this was going to be a good little read, if a bit quirky, like most of Gail Simone's work. Boy, was I wrong. This is a whole different level of horror, to the point where I was apprehensive about turning the pages for fear of what might come next.
  
  Astrid Mueller is a self-help guru. When Chloe Pearce's husband reads her self-help book then subsequently commits suicide, Chloe makes it her mission to investigate Mueller, but finds herself embroiled in a cross-dimensional conspiracy.
  
  Simone makes a hell of an effort to dripfeed some answers whilst offering more questions, kind of like an anti-X-Files, and I'm really intrigued as to what the hell is going on here. The characters' motivations are very complex, and just when you think you have it all figured out, something new happens that throws it all into doubt again.
  
  Jon Davis-Hunt draws this series with a more European edge to his work alongside the likes of Andre Araujo or Renato Guedes, and the bright, almost sterile colour palette he and colourist Quinton Winter employ make the horror stand out even more.
  
  The most terrifying comic I've read in a long time, and yet I want more already. I'll reiterate my initial thought: Gail Simone scares me.
• 
  Skye Kilaen

  If my husband hadn't told me to finish this book, I wouldn't have made it past the first issue. The storytelling starts out jerky, uneven, and confusing. I'm glad I kept going because it does smooth out, and it's delightfully creepy after that in a very destabilizing way. Every character I like also terrifies me because I'm expecting something awful will happen with them later. By the end of the volume, I still don't know if I'm supposed to trust that ANYONE in the cast has an accurate perception of what's happening. So if that's what Simone was trying to do (and I think it was), mission accomplished.
  
  I'm not compelled enough to buy it, but I'm definitely interested enough to read the next volume from the library.
• 
  James

  This is probably the only time I have read a book and not fully know what’s going on but liked it. Even though I don’t know everything that’s happening, I can tell it’s going to eventually give us all the details eventually and I’m on board for the ride. There are these creatures that are from somewhere, I’m sure we will find out where later, and Astrid Mueller and her company are trying to find them and stop them. The artwork is great and depicts some creepy ass monsters. In this volume, a small layer has been pulled back giving us a small bit information and I’m sure the other two volumes will peel back the rest and I can’t wait.
• 
  Victoria

  I wouldn't say this was scary at all, though that might just be me, but it certainly was entertaining! I was a bit confused what was going on at times but by the end the plot and the world building was becoming a bit more clear. The art was a bit boring at times, but that might just be because i've been reading some stuff with really detailed artwork, but the gore was really well done. Will for sure be reading the next few volumes bc i'm interested to see where this goes!! The premise is really interesting!!
• 
  Rod Brown

  Wow, that was unexpected. This seems more like a Warren Ellis or Grant Morrison story than the Gail Simone I'm used to. There is a lot going on here, and I'm not sure I totally follow it yet. At first that was frustrating, but by the end I was just happy to be along for the ride. I'm looking forward to future installments.
• 
  L. McCoy

  So people hype the f*** out of Simone’s work but between the stuff I’ve read by her in anthologies and then this mess...
  
  What’s it about?
  After a woman’s husband commits suicide she tries to investigate some things and then ends up getting into stuff that involves a weird, kinda generic cult.
  
  Why it gets 1 star:
  The story is dumb, poorly written and often confusing.
  The art is so f***ing ugly. The covers for the volumes and issues of this have gorgeous, wonderful art. The artist for the covers should have done the art inside too. The art inside of this is very reminiscent of that awful Nowhere Men book.
  The characters are bland and not worth giving a s*** about.
  You know the way horror stories are meant to be intense? This one ain’t. I was bored the entire time. It was mostly people sitting around blabbing about uninteresting things.
  There’s not any real good horror quality. Simone pretty much just slaps some weird s*** together, hoping it shocks people.
  This book tries way too hard to be edgy and shocking but just comes across as immature. Those who follow my reviews know I don’t have a problem with violence, sex, language, etc. in books. If it weren’t for the frequent swearing (I read this book a while ago so I could be wrong but I don’t remember that part being too gratuitous), gore (not insanely gratuitous but still mostly for shock value) and s***ton of nudity (so much it’s laughable) this probably wouldn’t have been a Vertigo title but you gotta get that mature rating there so... yeah.
  
  Overall:
  This isn’t as horrible as most of my one star books but is worse than anything I’ve given two stars, hence the one star review. I think it would be a bad but not quite horrible comic if there was anything good about this book but... there’s nothing good about it so it’s just absolutely horrible.
  
  1/5
• 
  Crystal Starr Light

  Bullet Review:
  
  For a good 3/4 to 4/5 of this book, it was a mystery what was going on. I like Gail Simone's work in general, but come on. This was throwing things at a chalkboard and seeing what stuck - and then the whole "I'm not going to actually come out and say anything to make this clear until I am cornered".
  
  And let's just start it out with the whole prologue of the thing, which was quite possibly one of the most disjointed, unclear sequences I've seen in recent comic history.
  
  By the end of this, it seems like your stereotypical "there are these hidden creatures ruining humans' lives and this one sorta-kinda evil corporation is the only thing standing in its path". I ain't read everything in this genre, but there's got to be better than this out there, if that's your thing.
• 
  Shadowdenizen

  Two words- Gail Simone.
• 
  Lata

  Pretty gruesome.
• 
  Allison

  o.O
• 
  Sana

  'Odd how we fear expressing kindness. In a dark, dark world that needs it so badly.'
  
  WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST READ?! SO DELIGHTFULLY TWISTED AND A CREEPY MINDFUCK AND YES. IT WAS ACTUALLY HARD TO GO ON READING AT TIMES BECAUSE SO GROSS WHICH MADE IT EVEN BETTER SOMEHOW
  
  Also, Astrid Mueller's looks are just killer
• 
  Mike

  Evocative story, if a little jumbled. Gail Simone really immersed me in with these absolute weirdos, and Jon Davis-Hunt commits to making sure you know exactly what these weirdos are up to between word balloons.
  
  This is dead-on-the-nose “What if Scientology wasn’t garbage sci-fi wrapped around the most blatant scam, but was all real?” I applaud the creators giving it a go, and it takes no chances going down that gopher hole of broken ankles.
  
  If it wasn’t for trying to follow too many characters and timeframes I’d consider this debut a masterpiece of nuanced characters in a splatstick universe.
  
  Spooktober Buddy read with the Shallows
  
• 
  Jesse A

  I think its time i faced facts. Im just not a fan of Gail Simone's writing.
• 
  Demi

  What the butts did I just read? Damn, Simone.
• 
  Stewart Tame

  Many, many mysteries … when she was a little girl, Astrid Mueller was run over by a truck. Twice. She survived, and now she sees … things. She now heads the Honest World Foundation (which is definitely not, in any way, based on the Church of Scientology), an organization that's part religion and part self help movement. Chloe Pierce is a reporter who is sure that her fiancé’s suicide was a result of his involvement in the HWF, and is determined to expose the truth at any cost. But the HWF is more than it seems, and there are deadly forces at work …
  
  The whole premise can, in some ways, be boiled down to the simple question: “What if the core beliefs of Scientology aren't as crazy as they seem?” That seems to have been the jumping off point anyway. Obviously, all characters and organizations are fictional, any resemblance to anything in the real world is purely coincidental, even the character of Doctor Hagen, who is definitely not, in any way, based on Wilhelm Reich.
  
  It's a little too early to tell where this is all going. Simone is just putting her pieces on the board at this point, but the mysteries are intriguing. I’m curious to see what happens next ...
• 
  Michael

  Chloe Pierces Verlobter Philip ist in die Fänge einer geheimnisvollen Organisation geraten, die ein wenig an die Scientology Sekte denken läßt. Als Philip sich bald darauf das Leben nimmt, liegt ein Selbsthilferatgeber der Sektenführerin Astrid Mueller neben seinem Leichnam. Zuerst verliert Chloe ihren Lebenswillen, aber dann nimmt sie den Kampf gegen die vermeintliche Sekte mit den Waffen ihres Berufs auf, denn Chloe ist Reporterin - "Fuck Superman, I always wanted to be Lois Lane".
  Die Ereignisse, in die sie nun stolpert, sprengen nicht nur ihren Vorstellungshorizont. Chloes Weg führt sie tief, tief in den Kaninchenbau und es scheint, dass jede noch so verrückte Idee aus den Romanen der Sektenführerin wahr ist.
  
  CLEAN ROOM ist eine gelungene Mischung aus SciFi und Horror mit so ziemlich allen Zutaten, die die Genres zu bieten haben. Ein solcher Mix hätte leicht danaben gehen können, aber Gail Simone beweist einmal mehr, das sie in der obersten Liga spielt. Chloe ist eine glaubwürdige und sympathische Hauptfigur und ihre drei hilfsbereiten Nachbarn bringen als ganz einfache Menschen ein bodenständiges Element in diese ansonsten völlig abgedrehte Story. Auf der anderen Seite steht die geheimnisvolle Astrid Mueller mit ihrem Stab, von der man nicht weiß, ob sie die Guten oder die Bösen sind. Absolut faszinierend auch die Idee des titelgebenden Clean Rooms, dessen Funktionsweise nicht weniger unerforschlich scheint. Und wer ist der dritte Gegenspieler, sind es Aliens oder böse Mächte? Fest steht nur, dass er extrem blutdürstig und gefährlich ist.
  
  Fazit: Der Auftaktband mit den ersten sechs Heften zieht in den Bann und läßt nicht los! Spannend, blutig und gruselig, aber dank der tollen Hauptfigur Chloe auch emotional.