I will be the first to say that I was late to ride the Scott Pilgrim Fan Bus, and like many others, was instantly hooked upon finishing the first volume and like many people late to the ride the same bus I discovered that there were in fact more volumes to be swooped up and devoured in one sitting. Then I had to wait, and wait, and wait for volume 5. Lewis Black said it best when he said anticipation is better than the act. That your anticipation for what you want most is always better than what you get. That too is true in the case of Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe.
If you too, liked, the previous four volumes then you will like this book... actually no, you probably won't. In fact you're fanboy or girl head will probably explode when you make the startling discover that Bryan Lee O'Malley has not only grown as a storyteller, writer, artist, but that he has taken this rich with nerd reference love story with an amazing premise and added a
depth that was not in the a fore mentioned volumes. In fact the nerd references are minimum, the music references are minimum as well, and the over the top fighting... lacking. If you came to this book expecting more of the same and the progression of the overall story of Scott Pilgrim fighting Romona's seven evil ex-boyfriends then allow me to break your heart and kill you're anticipation.
What you will get from the afore mentioned
depth, character
depth and story
depth. If you break the book into three acts you actually find that Mr. Pilgrim is in fact not the main character of the story until the third act. Instead you will follow Kim (1st act), Romona (2nd act) and last and certainly not least Scott....(3rd act couldn't help myself).
But the real question here is, is the book good? Yes, in fact it is fantastic!
CLICK TO SHOW SPOILER Mr. O'Malley masterfully and quietly destroys everything that he has been working towards. Why you ask? Because a good story is one that makes the reader hate change, to hate having to work for the happy ending. A good story leaves you looking up at your wall thinking about how the story was suppose to go, how it was suppose to continue on with no surprises just new jokes and new villains. It was suppose to be the next step before the final boss fight, but all good things most come to an end. How else can we appreciate the ending? You have to tear the character down before you can bring them back up again.
If you're getting on the Scott Pilgrim bus late, fear not, there's still plenty of anticipation for the next volume but for my money number five has been the best thus far giving six that much more work to truly do.
