When all you want is a place to feel safe, you’ll go to the ends of the earth and beyond to find it.
Creative Staff:
Story: Steve Orlando
Art: Giopota
Letterer: Simon Boland
What They Say:
New York City. 1907. Malcolm Irina is the greatest inventor the world’s never heard of, and his lover, John Wolf, is the toughest bare-knuckle boxer in the city. Irina’s crowning invention, the Chronocorridor, is nearly complete. He dreams of whisking himself and Wolf away to a time when they can live and love freely. But when crazed Detective Felt raids Irina’s lab, the couple dives into the freshly powered-up portal to escape capture.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Vault Comics has been doing some good stuff the last few years with its titles where it’s able to be mature and work with themes that while touched upon in other comics, go the distance and walk the walk better. It’s not that showing sex makes something inherently better but it removes the stigma of it from stories where it’s appropriate. So I’m glad that writer Steve Orlando and artist Giopota have done just that with Sainted Love. While going with something a little lighter in visual design rather than hyperrealistic, we get something that makes for an easy connection to the characters with the characters and the color design for it all. Mixing some time travel into it opens it up to some fun ideas but at the core you have to like the characters, from wanting to watch their adventures to wanting to watch them enjoy the pleasures of the flesh. The team here has largely managed to do that well with this extended first issue.
The book starts in 1907 where we’re introduced to a tough boxer name John, who is definitely a sweet guy when not in the ring, and an inventor named Malcolm who rails against Edison and the way he crushes the competition. The two are very involved and live together while hiding their relationship from most of the outside world. Of course, there’s a cop that’s intent on proving what they’re up to and arresting them for a host of issues, but the guys try to live their best lives while not living in constant fear. We see them together in a tub early on and it’s enjoyable to watch them in this form, but John makes an offhand comment that gets Malcolm to rethink one of his inventions in a new way that he’s struggled to get working. That it’s actually something called the Chronocorridor is in its own way hugely fun, but it’s no surprise that he manages to get it working with handwavey science at its best just as the cops come bursting into their home.
You can see where it’s going, right? Malcolm escapes in the corridor and minutes later John pushes through, dealing with the cops and chases after him so they can be together. While the 1907 period feels like it has some closure – for now – the bulk of the book takes place in 1954 where Malcolm has been living in Hollywood for the past year as Max. And he perfected his corridor stuff pretty well so that he’s created a space between space called Hotel Oasis where it’s a safe space hotel for men like him. He’s expected that he won’t see John again after this much time and is enjoying his life here, but the forces of this period are trying to break through to this as well as we’ve seen. But we also get John finally arriving in this time as well, which adds a new wrinkle to Malacolm’s situation – though it’s one that unfolds well for all involved. The setup for what’s to come is pretty solid even if we basically skim over some plot points, but it delivers well with the characters that you want to see more of the hotel and how Malcolm as Max pulled this off.
In Summary:
I had a lot of fun with this book though I’ll admit I wish we had more time and setting take place in 1907 before it whizzed off to the future. I love the ideas within the book and what we see in the time travel element and how it’ll unfold, and I think the team made it clear the relationship at play between John and Malcolm. I just wanted more of it (and Pat!) in 1907 before it got to where it goes, which is definitely fun to see play out. It’s a solid title that doesn’t hold back in ways most other things have over the years, or made it more “artsy” instead of just straightforward, and I’m excited to see what’s in store for the cast and how they’ll hopefully come out on top by the end. Time travel stories are certainly a dime a dozen but this one kicks off with a really interesting use of it and from a different perspective than normal for the characters. Definitely worth checking out.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: September 27th, 2023
MSRP: $4.99
