Unrequited love is a terrible thing.
But then so is love that is seemingly mutual and then never really goes anywhere, a flicker of romantic hope that holds so much promise but fails to deliver on it, crushing at least one of the people involve who wonders, understandably, again and again, what went wrong.
In Love and War by writer Andrew Wheeler, and artists Guillermo Saavedra and Killian Ng, we see that horribly soul-scouring dynamic on full display when Domo aka Dominic Novak arrives back at Aster Academy, an elite school in the city of Rosecastle, to find that the guy who kissed him at the end of the previous school year and seemed to hold his heart close, is now nowhere to be seen.
Domo has been sadly ghosted by his former schoolmate and captain of the school’s elite tug of war team – in this particular alternate Earth, and honestly that’s what it feels like, the sport is huge business and Aster, along with a slew of other schools including their archrival Kingdom College, compete for the glory of coming first in the comp – after they shared a moment, and while he tried to process that, he’s trying to win the captaincy of the tug of war off hyper-competitive Jocasta aka Jo who is adamant the gig is HERS.
In other words, Domo, built to anchor tug of war teams and he believes, initially, not much else, has a LOT going on and the novel takes a lot of time, in-between some inventive visual gags (Jo is off the wall hilarious in her manic ambition to be captain) and the sort of dialogue sparkle that makes you wish you were as snappy with your conversation as a fictional character, to really explore what he’s going through.
Complicating things still further is the arrival of Emil Vargas, a flamboyant dancer who freely admits he doesn’t do team anything and is far happier behind the unobstructed, limelight-drenched centre of attention.
Domo and Emil are so different that it’s unlikely they’ll become friends, or anything more, but somewhere along this charming narrative things begin to happen and suddenly Domo has to work out if he wants apparently unobtainable Gabriel or if his heart can belong to Emil who, it turns out, maybe more caring than he first appears.
Meanwhile, Jo and Vanessa “Nessa” Howell are trying to square being girlfriends and tug of war teammates and not always managing to stick the romantic landing, a messy dynamic that allows seems to finally work when circumstances conspired to give them some much-needed space.
Wheeler brings all this coming of age romantic maneuvering and super sporting competitiveness to life with a sweet vivacity which accurately reflects what it is like to have a lot coming at you, especially as a teenager, and to not be sure how to handle it all.
Or if you handle any of it at all.
When you’re still trying to figure out life period then having all kind of complications thrown your way and to have your heart, sporting or otherwise, pulled in all kinds of unexpected, and manifestly unwanted directions can be super tough, and Love and War let’s breathe with real emotional resonance on every single page.
Adding to the superlatively sensitive and funny writing is the cute but grounded artwork by Saavedra and Ng – they split artistic duties with the latter handling the first two chapters, and the former the latter three – who bring these gorgeously honest and emotionally conflicted characters to highly-appealing life.
The world-building is fulsome and expansive, and you get a sense of how alive this world of school sports and affairs of the heart is, and why it matters so much to each of the characters involved including most especially Domo who is a charmingly passionate and heartfelt kind of guy.
Love and War is one of those thoroughly delightful graphic novels where the writing is beautifully in sync with the art, the two combining to create a story that feels like a whole world sprung to life.
Saying something “springs off the page” is a little hackneyed and overdone but in this case it’s very much the case, with readers quickly forgetting they are in a 2D comic world at all and everything feel so richly, authentically, winningly ALIVE.
It’s a joy to spend time with these characters, all of whom are written with so much nuance that you always appreciate where someone is coming from and judge them with all the facts at hand – for instance Jo might seem a LOT, and yeah, she is, but she’s also someone who’s a caring daughter and a loving girlfriend so even at her most annoying, you get why she is the way she is – and Love and War benefits from taking the time to establish the characters, to let them breathe and to let the story, and the art, be propelled by who they are.
A queer sport romantic comedy that neatly balance humour, narrative momentum and some touching emotional intimacy that really underscores that love really is love, Love and War is a gem of a graphic novel that affectingly and humourously tells a story of some remarkable young people grappling with competing priorities and passions and trying their best to navigate it all to some kind of happy ending, if such a thing is even possible (and good lord, for their sake, you want to hope it is).
