It really doesn't seem fair. Palmiotti is already one of the best and most prolific inkers in the biz, but if you judge by this and his co-writing gigs with Justin Gray at Wildstorm, it looks like he's aiming to be one of the talented writers as well. I was drawn into Beautiful Killer largely on the promise of some of Phil Noto's unusual and stunning painted artwork, but the story of secret formulas, two spies in love and their daughter and an obsessed crazy with a mad-on for all three has grabbed my attention. I will confess to a little confusion about the timeline, as Palmiotti's script jumps casually from past to future and Noto doesn't do much to indicate those time-jumps, but overall I found the origin of Brigit Cole to be fairly riveting stuff.
One of the questions from the first issue was the question of Brigit's appearance and skills. It's easy to excuse it as simply a visual choice, and that she was a child prodigy who had great teachers, but I have to admit that having her appearance and skills explained by the pseudo-science of her origin sequence solidified the character in my mind. Though Beautiful Killer is not by any stretch of the imagination a super-hero tale, Palmiotti and Noto have given it a touch of the fantastic to go along with the cinematic espionage style that defines the story.
Actually, it's a 70s cinematic espionage style, the more I think about it. The period clothing and cars, the sexy femme fatales, the consortium of businessmen, all of this combines with Noto's choice of color and style to create a feeling that this is a lost Sydney Pollack production, a spy story from the old school with a few new tricks up its sleeve. Brigit's story takes place in the present, but the bulk of the story has focused so far on her parents and their hunter, all of which are rooted back in the spy era of the 1970s, which was really the golden age of espionage as far as fiction was concerned.
What's impressive about the relationship between Brigit and her parents is that we get a feel for how amazing they are, how skilled and professional, but Palmiotti doesn't go the predictable route of parents who loved a job and not a child. The love they feel for Brigit is clear in the scenes of how she was raised or how they talk to her, and so the need for revenge that she feels is just a genuine. Only by spending so much time defining the parents could the central plot have had as much meaning as it does, and I think Palmiotti and Noto made the right decision in focusing less on Brigit in the now and more on Brigit in the then. Even if I think that the lines between now and then can get a little blurry, mostly regarding what happened to her parents and when. Was the gunshot that wounded her father and started the whole origin sequence the one we witnessed last issue? Or was that the one that killed him? Clarity on that one point would have helped the rest of the story considerably.
I've mentioned it throughout, but I can't finish the review without once again praising Phil Noto's work. Using a limited color wash effect and a style that relies on few lines, he has created a truly unique look for this book. It's gorgeous to look at, to watch the story flow and to see the impressive moments, whether it's the sultry steam bath of Natassia, the blue-tinged flashbacks to Brigit's training or the details of the Coles' escape from custody.
