The Beauty Vol. 4
Jeremy Haun & Jason Hurley, story; Matthew Dow Smith (Chapter 17), Thomas Nachlik (Chapters 18-21), art; Nayoung Kim, color; Thomas Mauer, lettering & design
Image Comics, 2018
The series has a pattern of beginning with a stand-alone story, with a different artist than the others. This time it's a story about fixer and assassin Calaveras (they guy who wears a death's head mask when he's working), and it is illustrated by new artist Matthew Dow Smith. Smith has an approach new to the series, a dramatic style with heavy black lines and shadows (it brings Vertigo to mind).
The main story is about a podcaster named Cooper Mack, illustrated by Thomas Nachlik, returning from the previous volume. He and his partners have just completed a successful first season of "The Offense," and are looking for a topic for the second season. When a pharmaceutical engineer who works for Abericcorp contacts them with the truth about The Beauty, they are convinced they have found it. The story leads back to Dr. Doreen Palmer, a power broker we have seen before (she was also the hostage in the opening story). Undercover meetings and industrial espionage follow, but as soon as Palmer becomes aware that something is happening it seems likely that things will not go well for the journalist and his source. There is a nice little twist at the end, which brings the opening story back into the main narrative.
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