Beauty

Facts from Wikipedia.

Valérian and Laureline (French: Valérian et Laureline), also known as Valérian: Spatio-Temporal Agent (French: Valérian: Agent Spatio-Temporel), is a French comic book science fiction series created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières. It belongs to the rich family of Franco-Belgian comics.
Valérian and Laureline centres around the adventures of the spatio-temporal agent, Valérian, and his redheaded female companion, Laureline, as they travel the universe through space and time. Valérian is a classical anti-hero, strong and brave but with a tendency to follow the orders of his superiors even if he feels, deep down, that it is the wrong thing to do (as in Welcome to Alflolol). On the other hand, his companion Laureline manages to combine sex-appeal with intelligence and independence making her one of science fiction's most notable heroines. Influenced by classic literary science fiction, the series combines elements of space opera and time travel. Christin's scripts are noted for their humour and strongly liberal political slant while Mézières' art is noted for its vivid depictions of the alien worlds and species Valérian and Laureline encounter on their adventures.
Valérian first appeared on November 9, 1967 in issue #420 of Pilote magazine, and continues today with the latest installment published in 2007. It is one of the top five biggest selling titles of its publisher, Dargaud. Many of the stories have been translated into several languages, including English. The series has received recognition through a number of prestigious awards, including the Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême.
Valérian has proven to be influential on a number of comics artists as well as on several science fiction and fantasy films, including Star Wars. Jean-Claude Mézières worked as a concept artist on Luc Besson's The Fifth Element and the Valérian album The Circles of Power influenced the futuristic New York City with its flying taxi cabs seen in that film.
An animated television adaptation, titled Time Jam: Valerian & Laureline, is expected to debut on France 3 in 2007.

The original setting for the series was the 28th century. Humanity has discovered the means of travelling instantaneously in time and space. The capital of Earth, Galaxity, is the centre of the vast Terran Galactic Empire. Earth itself has become a virtual utopia with most of the population living a life of leisure in a virtual reality dream-state while ruled by the benign Technocrats of the First Circle. The Spatio-Temporal Service protects the planets of the Terran Empire and guards against temporal paradoxes caused by rogue time-travellers. Valérian and Laureline are two such spatio-temporal agents.
However, since the end of the album The Rage of Hypsis (Les Foudres d’Hypsis), in which Galaxity disappears from space-time as a result of a temporal paradox, the pair have become freelance trouble-shooters, travelling space and time offering their services to anyone willing to hire them, while also searching for their lost home.

Valérian and Laureline’s Astroship, the XB982, as it appears in Orphan of the Stars (L'Orphelin des Astres)
In the first two albums Valérian travels through time in a two-seater device, the XB27, which transports him to the various relay stations that Galaxity has hidden throughout time (e.g. in Bad Dreams (Les Mauvais Rêves) the relay is hidden below a tavern). In subsequent albums Valérian and Laureline use the saucer-shaped Astroship XB982 (which made its debut appearance in 1969 in the short story The Great Collector (Le Grand Collectionneur)). The astroship is able to travel anywhere using a spatio-temporal jump, a sort of hyperspace drive enabling near-instant transportation anywhere in space and time.
The initial albums were generally straightforward good versus evil adventure stories that employed a great many well-worn clichés. However, thanks to Pierre Christin's interests in politics, sociology and ethnology, as the series progressed, the situations typically arose from misunderstandings or ideological differences between various groups that could be resolved through reason and perseverance.[8] The core theme of the stories is an optimistic liberal humanism: the adventures aren’t about defeating enemies but about exploring, facing challenges, and celebrating diversity. Thus, according to academic John Dean, Christin “as a rule works into his narratives political, environmental and feminist concerns – thereby showing social ills are universal, no matter on what planet you land”.

Valérian
Valérian (Dutch: Ravian; Danish, Norwegian & Swedish: Valentin) was born on Earth, in Galaxity, capital of the Terran Galactic Empire in the 28th century. He joined the Spatio-Temporal Service in the year 2713. He has been trained to think that Galaxity is always right and even when he receives orders that go against his sense of right, he will, reluctantly, follow them. He much prefers to be a man of action than sitting around pondering what course to take next.

Laureline
Laureline (German: Veronique; Danish, Norwegian & Swedish: Linda) is a peasant girl from 11th century France who rescues Valérian from the enchanted Forest of Arelaune in the debut adventure Bad Dreams. When she accidentally discovers Valérian is a time-traveller, he is forced to bring her back with him to Galaxity where she is trained as a Spatio-Temporal Agent and assigned as his partner.

In the early stories Laureline generally sits in the background while Valérian saves the day in whatever situation the pair have found themselves in. However, as the series develops, Laureline's position begins to change. World Without Stars, in which the two characters are separated for most of the adventure, allows Laureline to step out from under Valérian's shadow for the first time and she proves to be more than an equal to Valérian in ensuring that their mission succeeds.