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Jason Schachat Vs. All Six Volumes of
Scott Pilgrim
Page 2 (for
page 1, click here)
Scott
Pilgrim Gets It Together
Scott Pilgrim is 23, dating Ramona Flowers while awaiting
death at the hands of her four remaining Evil Exes, trying
to hold in the secret that he saw his own exes (not evil)
making out while they were drunk at Julie's beach house,
and still ignoring the fact he's unemployed with no prospects
or worldly possessions. And it's all going swimmingly, actually.
Until he loses his home and the trust of his girlfriend.
The
Walkthrough:
MISSION
1: Scott encounters his old best friend Lisa for the first
time since the flashback in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
And she's hot.
MISSION 2: Scott must beg the landlord not to evict him.
MISSION 3: Sex Bob-Omb faces the recording session without
end.
MISSION 4: Ramona must trust that Scott's not cheating on
her.
MISSION 5: Scott must find a job.
MISSION 6: Boss Fight.
MISSION 7: Scott must keep a job.
MISSION 8: Scott must find a place to live.
MISSION 9: Boss Fight.
MISSION 10: Scott has to wield the other "L" word
(even though lesbians do figure significantly in this mission).
MISSION 11: Boss fight.
Just
as every band has that one album where they try something
different and leave out something fans think 'make them',
every book or comic series has that one volume where something's...
different. Like a Harry Potter book without Quidditch, having
less of Scott's band in this volume than any of the others
(and by 'less' I mean almost none) isn't fatal, but it announces
changes to the formula.
In a
nutshell, this is the romantic book in the series. It's
the point where things start out well, then look a bit rocky
as Scott and Ramona have to figure out whether they really
belong together or if the relationship has to end before
anyone gets hurt.
We get
to travel inside Ramona's head for a change and start to
understand she may not be the best thing to ever waltz into
Scott's life. After all, he never did try dating Lisa. And
Kim's stuck with him through all the years. What about Knives'
unwavering devotion? And, hey, Wallace is totally gay for
him. Is it really worth fighting all these insane ninja
super Exes just to win over a girl who will probably dump
him the way she dumped them?
Scott
Pilgrim Gets It Together also ups the video game references
with hit point bars converted into Scott's thirst, money,
and pee meters. He's now earning XP as he finally starts
to grow up and unlock new skills and weapons along the way.
Scott's dreams have become Zelda ripoffs and ninja battles
are now routine.
He's
also experiencing The Glow himself, and it looks to be taking
him down a dark path. Sure, he may love Ramona. But can
he keep loving her, or is he doomed to become one of her
Evil Exes just like the rest?
The
oscillation between one minute power-pop explosions and
five minute mega ballads makes Sloan's Never Hear the
End of It a nearly ideal album for Scott Pilgrim's
strange rhythm. I resolve to keep it going through the last
two volumes.
Scott
Pilgrim vs. The Universe
Scott
Pilgrim just turned 24. He and Ramona Flowers have been
living together for months, attending theme parties they
don't really want to go to, and generally not fighting Evil
Exes, playing gigs, or traveling through subspace. But,
since this is a comic book about just that, the Katayanagi
twins (aka Evil Exes five and six) appear on the scene with
a secret lab full of murderous robots. And, yes, Scott has
to fight them all before he can even lay a finger on the
twins.
The Walkthrough:
MISSION 1: Boss
Fight.
MISSION 2: Scott and Ramona face the malaise.
MISSION 3: Sex Bob-Omb must practice so they don't suck
at their first gig in more than three months.
MISSION 4: Boss Fight with simultaneous parallel Boss Fight.
MISSION 5: Scott and Ramona fight the antipathy which rose
from the ashes of the malaise.
MISSION 6: Boss Fight with simultaneous parallel drinking.
MISSION 7: Ramona must fight her feeling Scott is an Evil
Ex in the making.
MISSION 8: Boss Fight.
MISSION 9: Scott has to choose.
Just when Scott
Pilgrim Gets it Together had you thinking everything
was peachy, here comes the penultimate volume to smash everything
to pieces. Scott's long-hidden delayed break-up with Knives
(i.e. AFTER he'd already started going out with Ramona)
is finally revealed to Ramona. And, since she herself is
a habitual cheater, she can no longer see him as anything
but a reflection of her inner demons.
The metaphor
of Ramona's ever-changing hair styles peaks with her decision
to let her hair grow out once she and Scott have settled
into a steady relationship. But, when she starts eyeing
those scissors...
The Evil Exes
in this chapter make for some cute robot fights, but they
don't carry quite the same weight as Todd or Roxanne did
in the last two books. They highlight Ramona's cheating
ways, but there isn't the developed, multilayered metaphor
about how people view those they love before, during, and
after cupid's arrow skewers them. There also isn't a resolution
of certain problems similar to how Ramona found out about
subspace or when Scott would stop being such a pussy.
No, the bittersweet
nature of Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe almost
makes it the Empire Strikes Back of the series.
The one where major characters are possibly killed off,
good friends betray each other, terrible secrets come to
light, the gang splits up, and our hero learns he may not
actually be able to overcome the dark side.
The look of Scott
Pilgrim has solidified by this point, and the improvements
you see are a lot more subtle than the leaps between Scott
Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,
and Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness. O'
Malley has become more comfortable with crowd scenes and
depth of field while embracing manga standards like chibi
characters inhabiting largely empty panels or fast-motion
lines filling the pages of extended fight scenes.
His shading,
though often simple, adds great effect to his clean designs.
Compared to this, the first volume looks like it was drawn
with a box of crayons. You can also see he's become more
confident with architecture and backgrounds but manages
to avoid looking like a slave to photo referencing.
It'd be unfair
to say this book isn't as good as the ones before it because,
for all its humor and robot kung fu, this is the story of
a group of friends going their separate ways and losing
their trust in love. Pretty depressing stuff, really. While
it whets your appetite for the denouement, you'd be hard
pressed to say it satisfies like Scott Pilgrim &
The Infinite Sadness or Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together.
But this is a
build up to the finale, and, taking that into account, makes
for a damn fine read (just don't try calling up one of your
own exes afterward).
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Scott
Pilgrim's Finest Hour
Scott Pilgrim is 24, is haunted by dreams of his missing
girlfriend and Gideon Graves, the leader of the League of
Evil Exes, and has spent months huddled in the apartment
his parents got him, playing with his PSP. Knives Chau has
gotten over him. Envy Adams is a megastar and now worries
about how he's doing. Wallace and Stephen Stills (slightly
more like the famous one now that he's in a band that doesn't
suck) try to convince him to visit the outside world.
So he
does. In that same patented Scott Pilgrim happy puppy fashion
where the pain of the past fades away so loud music and
video games can remain front and center. But then Envy asks
Scott the most important question he's heard in a long time:
does he remember anything?
The
Walkthrough:
MISSION
1: Scott leaves the apartment.
MISSION 2: Scott must realize he's not the center of everything.
MISSION 3: Scott recognizes his exes are all real human
beings.
MISSION 4: Scott runs screaming from a Boss Fight like a
little girl.
MISSION 5: Scott trains in the wilderness so he can defeat
Gideon and not run away like a little girl.
MISSION 6: Scott must accept his dark side and learn from
his mistakes.
MISSION 7: Ramona reveals herself.
MISSION 8: Boss Fight.
MISSION 9: Boss Fight (cont.)
MISSION 10: Boss Fight (cont.)
MISSION 11: Journey into The Glow.
So,
at long last, we learn why Scott Pilgrim's always a bit
stupid. Gideon's machinations are laid out before us, and
perceptive readers will realize he's been meddling with
our hero since Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life.
The power he has over Ramona is made clear, as is the general
function of The Glow, Subspace, and all the crazy ninja
superpowers everyone seems to have.
Is it
all logical and complete in its structure? Hell, no! But
it suits our purposes just fine, since we mostly want to
see Scott pummel Gideon within an inch of his life, then
go a few more inches for good measure. Scott Pilgrim's
been a series steeped in metaphor disguised as metaphysics.
Where someone gets a sword from is less important than the
fact the sword represents the power of love (cue Huey Lewis).
Every
major character in these books represents one of the ways
we cope with emotional hurt. Scott forgets the bad memories.
Ramona runs away. Knives refuses to back down. Envy lashes
out at the world around her. Kim stops caring. Lisa moves
on. Wallace convinces himself he's above it all. Young Neil
crumbles. Stephen lives in denial. The Seven Evil Exes deny
happiness to the one who hurt them. And Gideon seeks to
control everything.
The
visuals simply cannot be compared to the previous books.
This is the work of O'Malley at his peak with John Kantz
and Aaron Ancheta unlocking a secret level. Kantz's background
lineart is intricate and precise, appropriately lending
Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour the air of the climactic
battle in Hayao Miyazaki's classic manga Nausicaa of
the Valley of the Wind. Detail is dense and scenery
is lush. If O'Malley had tried to do it all himself, we'd
easily wait another year for him to finish.
Scott
Pilgrim vs. The Future
Is this truly the end for Scott Pilgrim?
I'd say yes. The threads have been tied together. The characters
have grown past that awkward phase of their 20s. Everyone's
ready to get on with their lives. It's possible Scott and
Ramona will have more adventures, but everything Scott
Pilgrim was about is in their past now. They'll look
upon it fondly, remember what they learned, and keep moving
ahead.
More
would be nice, but it's like getting stuck in the past:
you have to move on and accept what's done is done. But
that doesn't mean you can't crack the books open again and
see what you may have missed on the first read. Look back
on the good times. And the ninjas. And the robots.
Just
because it's 'game over' doesn't mean you can't play it
again.
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