Vitamins and supplements are a big industry throughout the world as everyone craves perfection. Health and fitness have become paramount in the news, as celebrities’ flaws are magnified and the most disciplined, their health regiments are duplicated through various books and DVDS. Imagine a world where we can just take a pill and become our best selves? can such a thing exist? This is the question that is explored in Jeremy Haun, John Rauch, and Jason Hurley’s The Beauty.

The Beauty opens up with background on a certain sexually transmitted disease, which had actually positive effects, as the thought bubble narration clearly says” FAT MELTED AWAY , THINNING HAIR RETURNED, SKIN BLEMISHES FADED, AND FACIAL FEATURES SLIMMED.” This disease quickly becomes a fad, as it seemed as though it had no negative effects at all, and everyone was trying to catch it. Eventually it becomes an epidemic, and over half of the population becomes infected, as those who are infected, are labeled “beauties”. This creates special interest groups who range from the publically outspoken to the downright violent as within the first few pages; someone gets killed from an implosion.

The police investigate this latest death with much trepidation, as the NYPD, has set up their own Beauty Task Force, and are beginning to think this more than just another random Beauty killing, as the CDC gets involved. The task force, starts unraveling the case, clue by clue. They eventually run into a perpetrator who may have the answer to everything, but something unfortunate happens. The issue ends with another person being infected with the “Beauty”, and someone no one expected it to happen to.

The creative forces behind this comic are more than a force to be reckoned with. The story by Jason Haun is a beautiful of crime procedural with dystopian science fiction, in Haun’s refreshing style. The art by John Rauch and Jason Hurley is elegant yet raw, style most welcome in this genre. Overall, an excellent first issue for a series that seems to be most ambitious series Image has undertaken in a while.

Story: Jason Haun Art: John Rauch and Jason Hurley
Story: 10 Art: 10 Overall: 10 Recommendation: BUY NOW

Image Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review