Review by Frank Plowright

Scarlett Carver is the daughter of a woman who runs a global fashion agency that’s in fact a CIA front with operatives masquerading as models, but in actuality highly trained specialists. Scarlett is among them, and when first seen in black leathers resembles nothing so much as the Black Widow. Someone has been kidnapping and killing models, and is going to great lengths to cover their tracks.

Des Taylor sets Scarlett’s assignments in the same type of improbable over the top world James Bond operates in, glamour and dangerous locations prioritised. It means Scarlett is seen in action at fashion launches and under the sea. It’s all the same to her as she brings a sassy can-do attitude to diffusing bomb threats and dealing with assassins.

The starting attraction is Taylor’s three dimensional cartooning in vibrant colours and attention paid to focus, shadows and light. Take any individual panel and allowing for the stylised look it’s a nice piece of art. However, string those panels together and Scarlett Couture isn’t as appealing. Taylor keeps the focus on faces, so it’s a rare page where a full body illustration is used, and too many similar viewpoints distil the proficiency. The glamour is achieved by shopping in shots of yachts and expensive cars, and while the people are dressed to kill, there’s rarely any sense of place except for the undersea sequence.

Taylor’s also a better artist than he is writer, and an overly complicated plot constantly needs wordy explanations. It’s as if action cinema is the greatest influence, but what works on movie screens doesn’t instantly transfer to comics, and the cast are one-dimensional and constantly explaining the plot. It leaves Scarlett Couture as a moderately successful pastiche, but hollow. Dangling plot threads are picked up in The Munich File.