The Beauty #18

The Beauty has always paired stunning visuals with unsettling ideas, and issue #18 delivers both in full force. Thomas Nachlik's cover art centers on a young woman — her natural afro framing her face dramatically — mouth open in what reads as either ecstasy or anguish, her skin showing the telltale cracking that marks those afflicted by the series' mysterious condition, all bathed in soft, dreamlike pinks and whites. It's a quietly arresting image that captures the series' tension between beauty and something far more dangerous.