The Beauty, Vol. 5

The Beauty Series #5

by Jeremy Haun, Jason A. Hurley, Nick Filardi (Artist)

Timo and Ezerae's brutal quest for revenge collides with Detectives Foster and Vaughn's newest case. Now they must form an uneasy alliance if they want to survive.

Collects issues 22 through 26.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Fiction, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Crime

128 pages, Paperback

First published February 19, 2019

About the author

Jeremy Haun is a freelance comic book artist. Beginning in 2002, Haun worked for Image Comics, IDW Publishing, Oni Press, Devil's Due Publishing, Top Cow, and Marvel Comics. Since 2008, he has worked for DC Comics. He is best known for his work on Berserker and Battle Hymn.
External links

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, an interesting science fiction series concept goes more and more off the rails in this volume, where a seemingly thoughtful, complicated exploration of social and cultural issues as they pertain to beauty becomes a gang war and police procedural. The original idea (I thought) was: Do you want to be beautiful, given its statistically-proven relationship to success (and probably short-term) happiness? Okay, but what if one way you could get beauty was through a sexually transmitted disease? Would you take the chance that it might kill you?

Okay, it’s not the most original idea ever, since we already know that people in fact take crazy health risks all the time to Become Beautiful, but the premise and look of it seemed promising and the artwork was interestingly a perfect combination of uh, okay, yes . . . beautiful, and also fascinatingly creepy. We know the popular ones, they were going to the parties we weren’t never invited to! We preferred to read, anyway! But how do we feel about that drive to beauty and popularity leading to the death of the beautiful and popular and wildly successful?

And it is an interesting question about how Big Pharma benefits, as in volume 4, and it has some potential interest that organized crime is involved, not surprisingly, but okay. . . a LOT of people die in this shoot-em-up issue, if you like that kinda thing, a lot of people I don’t really know as characters or ultimately care about. But come on, what about the initial soci-cultural exploration of how this impacts individuals in various ways? And, I’m worried; can this actually be the end of the series?! If I find that out, I will come back and rate this even lower than I have. The best part of this series are the one page depictions of beautiful people dead from Beauty, the covers, and they are terrific.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an issue by itself: 4 stars
As an issue continuing the storyline of a series: 2.5 to 3 stars



I am not really sure what happened to this series, but it seems to have gone off the rails from the original plot. What started as an intriguing mystery (which may still be in there somewhere) turned into an action packed revenge story for this issue.



As mentioned in my star rating at the top, I really did enjoy the action and the revenge. And, if this stood alone I could easily walk away giving it 4 stars. But, trying to reconcile it with the plot I was given 4 issues ago, I am totally lost. I think there is only one issue left so we will see if it comes full circle.



The art is just okay for me in this series. There are a few really great frames but a lot of the times the faces and expression seem slightly off/incorrectly proportioned. The covers are much better and I wish that had been the art used in the story.



So, I cannot say I continue to recommend this title. It had some cool stuff early on, but feels like it is fading away.

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the trade that finally convinced me to unsubscribe. I keep waiting for the magical arc that will unite the rest of them... and it never comes.

The series relies on violence and terrible people to cover for the fact that they abandoned the procedural elements that hooked readers in the first arc. I have no idea who anyone is or why I should care about them, since we have a new batch of characters every 5 issues. Moreover, the art and characters blend together, so I can’t physically tell people apart from issue to issue.

Disappointing.

[Ilana (illi69) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a letdown considering how good the series was up to now. I think they decided to pause the story about a big pharma plot to spread a virus called The Beauty. A sexually transmitted disease, it quickly becomes a pandemic, since people obviously want to be infected for all the short term social advantages of being among the “Beautiful People”. They have no idea the disease is either purposely designed to, or has the fatal flaw of making carriers eventually spontaneously combust and calcinante from the inside. A nice exploration of our twisted priorities as a society for a horror-mystery-sci-fi graphic novel series.

But suddenly this latest entry loses all attempt at moving the story forward and it’s simply cops and gangs and bad guys (including a girl cop and a bad gal, both with The Beauty, so there’s your tenuous link to the series) shooting at each other with ridiculous quantities of oversized weaponry, action movie or video game style with seemingly no point but creating a large body count. And just... why? Good artwork but wasted on senseless and ugly violence that Americans seem to frankly have a cult for. Doubly disappointing since the 4th volume in the series was quite strong and left me looking forward to more. I’m supposing this one is meant as an “entertainment” and they’ll be returning the main program with the next issue. Just not my idea of a good time.

The artwork is great, which saves it from a single star rating from me.

[Corrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Beauty Vol.5 (issues 22-26)

Timo and Ezerae's brutal quest for revenge collides with Detectives Foster and Vaughn's newest case. Now they must form an uneasy alliance if they want to survive.

Shit is going down!! Very, very bloody.

3.0 Stars

[47Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's obvious that we're not going back to events in the first arc. That's the endgame and everything else happens before it. This volume starts off strong with an unexplained vendetta being carried out by Timo and Ezerae. I almost forgot this series was about the Beauty. It's solid action with cool characters, but you can get that anywhere. They barely even mention the Beauty any more. It's just regular revenge, regular police work, regular (then again, pretty cool) shootouts, regular bad guys armed to the teeth. On second thought, this volume still deserves praise for these things. Just don't expect Beauties.

A firefight started by Timo and Ezerae attracts Foster and Kara who were investigating a case with a container of burned Beauties. The detectives reluctantly band together with Timo and Ezerea until they have time for a proper questioning of recent events. They must face the full force of the crime family Timo and Ezerea were gunning for. The burned Beauties case hits a dead end and the detectives lose Timo and Ezerea who in the end get the revenge they sought.

[Maggie Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Waste of pages in what should be a fascinating sf story. Instead there's a lot of guns and murder with barely a tenuous link to the plot readers actually find interesting.

[Whitney (The Cover Collector) · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only ‘Beauty’ story left in this series is the covers. This cow is dry, guys.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5
I mean I just don’t even know what’s happening anymore or who anyone is.

[stefanny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can't decide if I like this series or not

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

This volume seems to have almost entirely abandoned the Beauty story. It's mostly about gang war violence in this volume. So, all action, non-stop shoot 'em up, page after page. An interlude, assuming Haun finds his way back to the thread he began with, that is sure to turn-off a lot of readers. Disappointing as this series had so much promise in the early volumes.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

What started out as a fascinating alternative world with a distinctive concept and novel execution ends up here, as a run-of-the-mill heist story. It's not a bad story, by any means - the collision of our volume 3 rogues and the police characters from the rest of the series makes for an intense, almost collection-length action sequence. It's fast paced and serves to move the plot along pretty well. I would be tempted to give this volume 4 stars, if it weren't for the fact that this seems to end the series, and all the discarded potential is hovering around the edges. The social impact, the shifting cultural norms, all of those fascinating ideas from the first volume are all reduced to a tiny background piece. Even the Beauty itself hardly makes an appearance in this volume -the art for the infected characters lost much of its luster too.
If this is the end of the series, I'm not sure I can really recommend it. The thing that made it memorable is squandered so completely it's hard to give credit to the decent story and art that replaced it.

[Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ah, Volume 5 and we check back in with Timo and Ezerae. They're my least favorite characters. The whole mob story feels out of place.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this was... fine. I feel like that's been my overall assessment of this series after volume 1.

Partly, I wonder how much I've forgotten about these characters since it's been so long since I've read about some of them.

Vol. 5 of The Beauty delivers a cop story / crime/revenge tale. The writing works, the art is good--it just feels rather... fleeting. Volume 1 of this series set the standard so high in terms of stakes and concept, that trying to move into the regular goings-on of life in the world of the Beauty just feels kind of lacking. The idea of the Beauty isn't used very thoroughly, and while there's nothing particularly bad about what we did get, there's no shaking the knowledge that it could be so much more.

[Zedsdead · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Beautiful assassin protagonists from v2 enter an uneasy alliance with the Beautiful cops from v3 to take down an organized crime crew engaged in Beautiful human trafficking.

This is easily the weakest volume of the series, and 3 stars might be generous. v5 mostly consists of gunfights and fistfights, and those aren't even drawn particularly well. The action looks static. Posed. There's no violence in these violent acts.

The Beauty is at its best when exploring its signature disease's social impact, using that to examine real world issues. The passing reference to the Beauty's inevitable association with human trafficking is superficial, but the plotline hasn't yet resolved. Here's hoping v5 was (clumsily) laying the groundwork for a much more incisive v6.

[Matt Krohn · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first volume of the series had me completely hooked, but since then, it's gone completely away from that original storyline. It basically just feels like a violent escapade now, with no real mooring to the original premise. I cancelled my subscription.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has turned into a straight up organized crime story with tons of shootouts, violence and not much else. If you're into that kind of thing then this is likely great but it's not for me. My interest in this series ends here.

[Madeleine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The series has just become ridiculous. We're not really learning about the disease anymore. It's just people with guns running around and killing each other all the time. I hope the story will come back to its roots.

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are certain references made that place this volume at a specific point in the graphic’s timeline. So we know when we are here. What grips the attention is that Foster and Vaughn at last meet Timo and Bonita, the two assassins carving their bloody swathe through the Bianchi family. With this quartet in play, we are guaranteed high tension and a fair amount of bloodshed.

In fact, this installation in The Beauty series is short on conversation and heavy on grisly action and gore. Page after page subjects us to gunplay, stabbings and one defenestration. There’s also a mystery involving The Beauty after seven burned bodies turn up in the morgue and we’re not spared sight of those, either.

The corpses are tied to a sex trafficking ring. You’d expect that form of crime to be on the rise with such a disease, as with prostitution and other professions that benefit from physical pulchritude. But this is the first time this felony is mentioned in the series so it’s a baffling revelation rather than a link to previous stories, one that only generates more questions.

How does the trafficker, likely one Leon Mutti, get his hands on his victims? When did Vaughn become involved? The dead women were asphyxiated before they were burned but how did the choking occur? Was it an accident and the trafficker found himself with dead bodies that had to be disposed of before anyone noticed? If the women were deliberately choked, who did it and why?

With more questions than answers, this installation of this remarkable story leaves you hanging at the end. You wonder if Timo and Bonita will disappear off the map now that those criminals most interested in pursuing them are dead. Will they cross paths with Foster and Vaughn again or find a way to evade detection?

It’s a tad frustrating. But it’s the sort of dangling end that keeps you coming back for more.

[Alex Hernández · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bastante entretenido. Mayor fluidez en la historia, narrativa tan buena y acorde a lo mostrado en las viñetas, que sentí lo que con pocos comics que he leído: sentir que estoy viendo una serie o película.

Ciertamente es el tomo que más alto he calificado, pero no deja de perder por el simple hecho de que tuve que darle la oportunidad hasta el 5to para poder sentir que se retomaba el punto focal con el que comenzó toda esta historia. Ciertamente no hay desperdicio como tal en los volúmenes 2-4, pero cuando se trata de comics se siente diferente el recurso literario que aquí se utiliza.

Por cierto ese pedo del personaje transexual no me lo creo. Noto un enorme error al incluirlo y que tenga totalmente apariencia femenina, cuando su biología no corresponde. Es decir, el virus como tal embellece y acelera el mejoramiento de la salud de quien lo padece, ¿cierto? Entonces ¿cuál lógica existe en que alguien con cromosomas masculinos pueda tener belleza a manera específica del sexo contrario? ¿Es acaso que el virus infecta y funciona incluso de acuerdo a los gustos y preferencias del portador? Hueco enorme en la construcción del personaje y concordancia con la historia principal.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

I finished this volume and said WTF? I cannot keep track of who anyone is. I cannot keep track of where we are in the story. I don't understand how anything fits. I don't know what timeline we are following -- before, during, or after Volume I. Jeremy Haun took this very interesting concept of a disease called The Beauty, threw in some old, shadowy, mysterious cabal organization, and then promptly let all that go. There is absolutely no context for anything. Even the characters don't look the same from volume to volume.

What really did it for me was the ending to this volume where the supposed "good guys", Detectives Foster and Vaughn, allow the supposed "bad guys", Timo and Exerae, to throw another "bad guy" out a window like so much garbage. Foster and Vaughn just walk away as the dude smashes into a billion pieces onto the sidewalk, just missing pedestrians innocently walking and going about their lives. Other than the guy relaxing in the greatest bathtub ever throughout the whole volume, no context as to who this guy is and what makes him such a monster. WT actual F??

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a while since I've gotten caught up on The Beauty, and it was a little tricky to get back into the groove of things. We had just left a compelling story arc and then we sort of rebooted by going back to everyone's favorite guns for hire. The story was a little droll at first until we looped in Vaughn from Task Force Beauty, bringing back a law enforcement angle to this.

And then things really become fun when two storylines came together and REALLY became interesting. I've been wanting these characters to me ever since we switched tracks to the assassins early in the series and this did make for a fun story for everyone. And one with a heck of a lot of gratuitous violence and one moment of male full-frontal nudity.

[Aram · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure if there are more of these, not going to pick them up if there are. This volume really solidifies the problem, that there's only one story they have to tell *about* the concept and it was complete in Vol. 1. Every volume since has just been treading water in flashback land. The gangsters and cops plot here reads like a tribute to Brubaker, which is fine though not as well executed, but sort of beside the point. The question posed at the end of Vol. 1: what happens when the cure for the Beauty means you live but you live looking like a scifi monster? It remains unanswered here. And it doesn't feel like they are interested in ever answering it. This is really a 2.5 rating.

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yuck. What the hell was that?

This did absolutely nothing to propel the story forward. Almost the entire volume was fighting - I read BLAM, RATTATAT, and DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA so many times that it felt like my eyes were bleeding. I kind of wish they had been so I wouldn't have finished this. But then I wouldn't have been treated to even more AAAAAHHHHs, GAHs, and AAGGGHs. What a shame that would have been.

I still like the art. I also still like the partnership between Vaughn and Foster even though it was almost completely overshadowed by all the RATTATAT and DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA in this.

2 Stars

[Britain Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

As both an issue in and of itself as well as how it works into the storyline it ranks as a 2 for me. Sure, there’s a few recognizable characters but it felt like 5 short scenes thrown together with a bunch of fight scenes and organized crime, which isn’t bad in itself but the length of it got boring. I also didn’t care about any of the characters - especially any that died (or lives were in critical danger). I also didn’t quite feel as if this fit in well with the series. It felt like a badly added companion novel in a popular series. It was seemingly unnecessary.

There is, however, only one more issue and they take no time to read so I guess I’ll go ahead and finish the series.

[Caleb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Revenge. Violence. Shoot outs. Cops & criminals united against a larger threat. Volume 5 is a solid crime story with all the dressing. It weaves the known character of the series further together which hopefully will give us a satisfying pay off. As far as crime stories go it was great. But where is the oddity of the beauty and the associated crimes? The unraveling of that conspiracy and wider effects? Those of the hooks that drew me to the series and story but now are MIA.

When will we return to the sci-fi conspiracy of the beauty itself?

[(a)lyss(a) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this is the least interesting issue of Beauty since the start.

While things are starting to come full circle back to our original characters, this issue focuses on more political intrigue and trafficking without really giving us any details or helpful plot advancement. Typically by the end of an issue something in the story has been resolved, but this one felt like a slog and for all the implying something big, there isn't really a payoff.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've really enjoyed The Beauty series. A whole lot. This volume though felt like a slog. Okay it wasn't that bad, but it felt like watching a Law & Order SVU episode I'd seen 30 times and there wasn't any science fiction part with the actual virus. The only part The Beauty plays now is a symbolic role of prejudice, which is very important, I love metaphors for racism, sexism, class prejudice, etc. in Sci-fi.
But I also really enjoy actual scifi stuff in a scifi story.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed this series but volume five was the worst one. The series is unique but this volume was more or less just a firefight for five issues, which is pretty basic. While the art was good we didn't get any real character development like we did in the similarly themed second volume. The book was lacking, ironically enough, The Beauty. Overall, a speed read that was just one long fight scene.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The detectives from an earlier volume get caught up in a criminal revenge spree. That's...about it. It's quite exciting, lots of action, violence, and blood splatter, though there's very little heft. This doesn't feel like it belongs in the world of the beauty at all. A fine, mostly fun story on its own, but this series has definitely lost whatever focus it had.