Review: Clean Room Vol. 2- Exile
Quick Summary
Pros: The characters, story, and suspense are all just as good as they were in the first volume. Readers have a chance to discover more about Astrid’s interesting backstory. The volume’s structure builds immediate excitement and also gets readers excited for the future. The artwork looks great throughout.
Cons: The series still lacks a clear theme.
Overall: Readers need not worry about the second volume of Clean Room living up to expectations. This collection takes the charming characters, the intense mystery, and the pulse pounding suspense of the first volume and does it all over again. Immediate and upcoming threats are balanced together to create a narrative that builds excitement now and in the future. If you liked the first volume in this series then don’t stop reading now.
Story
Clean Room Vol. 2: Exile replicates the formula and tone of the previous volume and ends up being just as thrilling and entertaining. Writer Gail Simone continues to uncover secrets, deception, and a covert alien invasion. The same charming characters and story elements return to cultivate the same sense of immense suspense. The only problem is that Exile also inherits the previous book’s negatives as well, though, few as they may be. Readers who enjoyed the previous volume are very likely to enjoy this one as well.
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As stated earlier, Exile continues nearly all of the positives from the previous volume. The characters are well written, the story is interesting, and the mystery behind the entire series is still well executed. Once again, I had to read this entire book in one sitting because I simply couldn’t put it down after starting it. Readers who were hooked after the first volume will find this one to be just as addictive.
The difference is that this volume gives a more thorough look into the mystery that is Astrid, one of the book’s most enigmatic and interesting characters. We learn more about her history, her motives, and what drives her to take on the impossible task she has chosen. The previous volume had to cast Astrid as the villain at first, so readers didn’t get to learn too much about her right off the bat. This volume recognizes her as the hero (or at least anti-hero) and, thus, allows her more vulnerable attributes to come forward.
Gail Simone also comes back to a tactic that worked wonders in the previous volume and does the same here. This tactic involves setting two separate, yet connected, plotlines parallel to each other throughout the book. One is an immediate threat, in this case it involves a takeover from another cult, while the other is less pressing but more relevant to the overall plotline of the entire series, in this case it involves Spark’s connection to the alien invasion. By balancing these two plot threads against each other, Simone is able to give the reader something urgent to worry about, while also building up something more significant in the background. It keeps this volume interesting but also ensures that the following volumes will be interesting as well.
The only real negative is the same negative from the previous volume, the deeper meaning behind the series is still very nebulous. It would be completely fine for there to be no deeper meaning to this series. However, this would prevent the book from becoming more than just a good thriller. This could mean the difference between something fun and exciting, such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, and something more memorable, such as The Shining. I’d love to see something more concrete develop in the following volume and am looking forward to reading it to see if this happens.
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Art
The story is not the only aspect of this book that maintains the same quality level from the previous volume. Jon Davis-Hunt and Quinton Winter’s artistic pairing continues to impress and frighten on nearly every page. This collection is crisp and clean at all times, but also has the remarkable ability to shift between beautiful and horrifying on a moment’s notice. This shift is what keeps the book interesting and really sets it apart from some of the other titles out there. It adds to the overall tension and pairs with the story in a way that works.
Continuity
Clean Room Vol. 2: Exile is published by Vertigo, an imprint of DC Comics. Thus, this title, like many other Vertigo title comics, maintains its own continuity. This means that all you have to do to understand this volume is read Clean Room Vol. 1: Immaculate Conception (Review).
The story here continues in Clean Room Vol. 3: Waiting for the Stars to Fall.