If I gave my long answer, I'd just be echoing a few other folks' opinions here (@AnnaLandin, @shazzbaa) ... but I'll add something else to my feelings on it. Warning: if you've no interest in crazy socio-political ramblings, skip past what's below.
[rant]
Of course I like looking at beautiful characters. I'm a human being that isn't blind. I don't mind if most of the characters in a given comic are attractive (so long as they are DISTINCT in both appearance, voice, motivation, etc), but what concerns me about comic books (and film and television, similarly) is the over-emphasis on the superficial. Visual storytelling has a unique opportunity to connect to folks with its stories in a different way than written word, music and other mediums do. Visual storytelling is very, very important -- and it has been for many thousands of years.
However, I believe firmly that, as storytellers, we've taken on the responsibility for our stories. And that responsibility is that our stories help inform their readers of values, ideas and beliefs. Superficial stories that only exist to promote characters that all look the same and are all pretty and are all reveling in their prettiness, or that over-emphasize how "cool" it is to live a wealthy, self-indulgent lifestyle ... to me, they're no better than watching a bad/phony/soulless reality TV show like The Bachelor. It's that type of focus that trains people to only value appearances, teaches women that they are only worth how much a man wants them more than other women, teaches people that they should seek romance for awful reasons like wealth and fame, teaches people that social responsibility is less important than what type of clothes that they wear. Stories where everyone looks the same? What message do you think that is teaching, if not that the reader should desire to conform and look/think/act like everyone else? Stories have powerful impacts on people, and we have to consider what our stories are saying, what impact they might have ... the focus on superficial storytelling right now is, honestly, an incredible problem in our society.
Our world faces challenges that we've never faced before. Climate change, ever-increasing weapons of mass destruction, over-population, struggles to break into meaningful space exploration and colonization, political/corporate globalization, an incomprehensible evolution in technological growth without understanding the ultimate implications of that technology, etc. Widespread war and genocide are happening ... well, right now. No, that stuff isn't fun to think about: it's challenging. But I firmly believe that a shift towards the superficial in storytelling by the masses bodes poorly for us as a world civilization.
I love looking at pretty people, too. But there are more important things to consider, and storytelling in any medium has a certain responsibility to get people to think about the bigger, more important things. If comics can do that AND have pretty (but distinct!) characters ... well, cool. Awesome.
And sure, not every story needs to have some sort of super-serious meaning. Satire and comedy are important. Stories about every day problems and how to deal with those problems, important. Stories about the nature of friendship, family, relationships to other people ... all important. I'm specifically railing on stories that only care about celebrating superficial qualities. Unfortunately, there are a lot of those!
[/rant]