The raid in the 1950s is just part of something far larger and more sinister than expected.
Creative Staff:
Story: Steve Orlando
Art: Giopota
Letterer: Simon Boland
What They Say:
Hollywood. The 1950s. The Celluloid Closet forces performers to hide who they are. Or it did, until Hotel Oasis! Lately, Tinseltown’s closeted elite have found a place where it’s safe to live and love freely, a science fiction speakeasy run by none other than Malcolm Irina-stranded time traveler and inventor! As Irina rubs elbows and uglies with Hollywood’s biggest names, his Wolf comes calling. John Wolf has dropped in from 1907 to find his lover under attack-and his hotel with it! Wolf and Irina are the only ones who can defend Hotel Oasis from the Pilgrims, a secret society infecting all of history, erasing queer lives, stories, and loves.
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 opening issue had a lot going on within it and this installment deals with a whole lot more. It’s a packed book with so many things going on while still finding some time to breathe – and to have sex. John’s arrival in the 1950s has been chaotic so far but having Bowman show up to try and take down the Oasis Hotel just throws everything up in the air. You do wish we had more time before this attack happened to get a handle on the time and place and the characters themselves. But the first half of the book is just pushing back against Bowman and stopping his raid on the hotel all while he spews his rhetoric. It’s an amusing array of situations that happen and seeing John getting a chance to just take fisticuffs to him is amusing, especially when Bowman reveals that he’s brought a knife to the fight. There’s some solid stuff to all of this and it’s simply good to see Malcolm and John operating together.
What Bowman reveals in his defeat, however, is that he’s part of a group that has been dealing with destroying places and people like this throughout history and that they cannot be stopped. It makes an already expansive series look even bigger as it now turns our leading men into time travelers intent on going back in time to change things for the better. Or at least try and create some ripple effects to it. That ends up placing them in the year 307 by the end which is going to be a whole lot of chaos. There’s a lot of movement through time in these first two issues and I hope the third gives us a chance to get to know the time period more because these two burned through things quickly. Before the pair go, at least, we see how John is trying to set things on a better place in the present and that’s worthwhile and hopefully comes back around in a good way by seeding something bigger and more positive in the world with the hotel.
In Summary:
Sainted Love spends a good number of pages on some very solid action between its cast as the sexual side of it is just as important as everything else. And it’s handled well with some very fun sequences but also a revelation from John along the way as he’s learned more about himself as well, such as that he’s bisexual. This creates an interesting conflict of sorts between the two of them as Malcolm isn’t sure why he struggles with this but it works well to show how the two can strengthen their bonds together. It’s a pretty fun issue and accomplishes a lot and comes up with some neat designs and ideas, but I just keep hoping it’ll take a chance and breathe a bit more.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: November 1st, 2023
MSRP: $4.99
