Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Jeremy Huan & Jason A Hurley
Artist: Jeremy Huan
Colours: John Rauch
Release date: OUT NOW!!!!!!
Price: $2.99 Digital/Print $3.50

This Image Comics pilot season winner returns and the eponymous Beauty is not a person, but a sexually transmitted disease everyone wants because it makes you, well, beautiful. But there’s a side effect no one expected: spontaneous combustion. It gives the King Kong phrase “Beauty killed the beast” a whole new meaning. The first of these deaths is investigated by the city’s Beauty Task Force, however, said task force soon discovers the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) have taken over the case. It’s a turf war!

Not everybody wants the disease and anti-Beauty political dissidents are popping up, although writers Jeremy Huan (Constantine, Batwoman) and Jason A Hurley do not detail what these anti-Beauty dissidents do, except some are violent. Detectives Foster and Vaughn get a lead on an anti-Beauty terrorist and the result is far from what they expected.

In The Beauty # 1 this original concept is plot-driven; so don’t expect much entertainment from the dialogue. The plot gets somewhat mundane after the disclosure the CDC knows more than it is telling about the disease, and the local cops don’t like it. A bit of an old chestnut in plot device terms but The Beauty # 1 dusts if off and polishes it up pretty well. Not quite shiny and new but pretty darn close.

The Beauty # 1 is off to a good start. It would be better if it did something original with the government conspiracy theme. Still, in The Beauty # 1 your curiosity will be piqued.

Reviewer: Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker