Dark times are upon us, I hope solace can be found in whatever media you’re consuming whether it’s dark horror like The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina or dumb comedy like Some Assembly Required, or intense violent action like… what’s going on outside your window. And whilst holding people accountable for their heinous actions is important, time must also be spent reflecting. On that notion, I invite you on a little journey, a Pilgrimage, a Scott Pilgrimage.
Yes, I took that title because Dominic Noble didn’t, sue me!
Scott Pilgrim may be known to some as the Edgar Wright movie, but before that, it was a series of graphic novels written and drawn by Brian Lee O’Malley. They were released in 6 anime style volumes between August 2004 and July 2010. As we begin the Rage4Media summer hiatus, I thought it a prudent time to give my thoughts and feelings on each volume before concluding with a review of the film. Unlike a certain Adaptation critic, I’m going to try and review the comics independent of the movie adaptation. I’m using the colour editions for this review because it was Black Friday and my family wanted to buy them as Christmas presents, the colourist is Nathan Fairbairn.
So let’s begin our 7-part journey with Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life.
We open on a snowy winter’s day with Breaking News: Scott Pilgrim is Dating a High Schooler! And he’s 23, this got on the wrong side of creepy already. Scott is telling his friends/bandmates about but we don’t actually know where they are yet. As for the girl, her name is Knives Chau, aged 17, she was on the bus, being pressured by her mother to start courting, when she drops some books and Scott picks them up for her. That’s not all Scott picked up apparently.
The book is divided into chapters, we lead into Chapter 1, presuming the first few pages were a prologue or something, Dating a High Schooler. We’re introduced to Wallace Wells, Scott’s roommate, aged 25 and gay. Their apartment is filled with mostly things that belong to Wallace, including the socks that Scott is wearing but because it’s funny, apparently, there’s only one bed which they both sleep in.
The next day, or something, Scott takes Knives to Band practice and for some reason makes her promise to be good, something which she doesn’t take well. So, now we have a character in our shoes, we can finally introduce the members of the band. Steven Stills, the talent, Kim, the drummer, and Young Neil, he just lives in the house they practice in.
Their bend is called Sex Bob-omb, so these guys are all in their 20’s right?
We see them practice and it’s a full 2-page spread of all the lyrics and notes so anyone musically gifted may know what any of this means. It only has 3 cords, implying they’re not exactly great. But is seems to impress knives as sparkles show up in the black holes that are her eyes. Everyone else has pupils but her eyes are black dots, it’s creepy.
Knives heads home on bus thinking they were amazing; Scott says he’ll come by after school tomorrow. Kim asks if he’s really happy, or if he’s using her for some ulterior motive. Scott feigns being offended and she takes the question back. It’s a bright and early 12.30 in the afternoon when Scott is woken up by a phone-call from his sister Stacey.
Wallace has told her about his new girlfriend, and we find our she attends a Catholic school, in Canada the only type with a uniform. They haven’t done much yet, just holding hands and one hug, which lessens the creep factor somewhat, I think. He likes it because it’s a simple relationship, a year since his breakup.
Scott and Wallace head over to the school, Scott compares their relationship to trainspotting because he doesn’t really get subtext. Wallace is about to leave but Scott tells him there are boys at the school too. Knives sees them, but Scott sends Wallace off before he can find out who the gay kids are at the school. Wallace tells Knives she’s too good for Scott before heading off.
Scott and Knives head to the mall, sharing some school gossip, some shopping, some talk about the band but nothing of consequence. Next they head to Scott’s old house, where he lived whilst he was in High School. His parents moved away and sold the house.
Chapter 2: Do you know her? Scott’s in the desert, breaking down as he’s feeling so alone as a girl skates by. She tells him he isn’t alone and is just having a dream. His response: “Can we make out then?” Maybe this is why you don’t have the greatest luck with women, Scott.
Scott, Wallace and a guy also named Scott dubbed Other Scott are having sushi the next morning, Scott tries to tell them about his dream but neither of them are interested. He and Knives are at the public library and he sees the girl again, delivering a parcel from Amazon. This puts Scott in a bit of a daze, not doing well during band practice. He has another dream, this time of his band performing but the girl skates through the audience, he realises it’s a dream, and we wake up into the next chapter.
Chapter 3: This One Girl. The Band and Young Neil are heading to a party at the house of a girl named Julie. Scott really doesn’t care for it and is about to head to the bathroom when he bumps into a guy named Comeau, he knows everyone, apparently, and he gives a vague handwavey description of the girl and Comeau identifies her as Ramona Flowers, and tells him she’s coming to the party.
Scott looks around, eventually finding her but their initial interaction is about as awkward as you can get. He resorts to stalking her for the rest of the party until she leaves. Way to go, our hero. Comeau doesn’t know much about her, only that she’s American and recently moved over here. He says 2 girls named Sandra and Monique could help, they don’t know much either but they tell him she has a boyfriend in New York.
He talks to Julie and Steven Stills (who is only ever referred to by his full name so I’ll do the same) she tells him she came into the coffee shop, ‘the second cup’ where she works and that’s how she got the invite. Steven Stills mentions a breakup which Julie didn’t want Scott to know about. Julie forbids Scott from hitting on Romona, she’s not entirely sure about the breakup, only that it involved a guy named Giddeon and the rest she had to piece together.
Later that evening, Wallace arrives home drunk. Scott tells him about his dreams and thinking he’s in love with Ramona. He seems fixated on her shoes, which he thinks are very uncomfortable. Scott says he doesn’t drink, I don’t believe it. The next morning, well, afternoon, Scott has a headache, suspicious for someone who doesn’t drink but thankfully Wallace is making them eggs and bacon.
Scott has an idea, to order something of Amazon.ca to hopefully get Romona deliver it, if only he knew the website, or had money. Thankfully Wallace provides both. Scott gets an email, some guy named Matthew Patel saying something about them fighting soon and… Scott deletes the email.
He sits there, waiting for a package, oh to be young and not know how the internet works but his impatience is interrupted by Knives arriving. They head out on their date with Knives giving Scott all the gossip and seemingly oblivious to Scott only half paying attention. As they depart, Knives gives him a kiss. Scott runs off excited, telling her he’ll see her at band practice tomorrow.
Scott asks about his CDs but Wallace informs him that it won’t come until at least Monday. On Sunday evening, Steven Stills informs the band he got them a gig at a place called The Rockit on Wednesday night. Knives says she may not be able to come, and Kim accidentally upsets Young Neil by calling her their biggest fan. They’re playing with a group called Crash and the Boys, Scott’s not a fan of them.
Chapter 4: Ramona Come Closer opens with another of Scott’s dreams, he sees Ramona with a parcel addressed to him skating through a hallway. As he wakes up, Ramona is at his door, their initial conversation goes about as well as you might expect. She uses a travel mechanic known as a subspace highway to get around and one such one goes through Scott’s head. It’s transportation not known to Scott. Scott theorises that her going through his head is why he’s obsessed with her. Ramona, get out of there now, that’s the biggest Red Flag since Christian Grey, just all of him.
Scott wants to hang out and she eventually relents, agreeing to meet him that night at 8.00. Their date consists of walking through a snowy park. Scott reveals he’s between jobs but we’ll get into that in a later volume, I’m only barely paraphrasing, there is the occasional 4th wall break in this. There’s a bit of banter about Scott and Wallace as the weather begins to turn and it starts to snow.
Ramona uses a subspace doorway to get them out of the snow and to her house. Scott is frozen from all the snow and follows Ramona upstairs when she promises to get him a blanket, they end up kissing and soon end up in bed, though Ramona changes her mind before they have sex and Scott is accepting of that. Let’s be clear though, if he wasn’t, there’s no going back from that.
The next morning, Scott has to wake up early as Ramona has to head out for work. Because of her unique talents she delivers Amazon parcels for the entire downtown area on her own. Scott wants to take things to the next level and she agrees to meet him at the performance on Wednesday. Scott drags himself home for an ever not worried Wallace, it was apparently a 5-hour trek.
Wallace tells him there’s a letter left for him. Scott spills the beans about Ramona and Wallace tells him he needs to break up with Knives. He opens the letter and it’s another one from Matthew Patel which Scott quickly crumples up and throws away. Scott tells Wallace about the show and he agrees to come as long as he breaks up with Knives. Scott screams into his pillow but heads off to band practice through the snow that afternoon. Must be a dedicated crew to open the place after this blizzard.
Chapter 5: Everything’s Starting To Get Complicated opens with Knives arriving at Band Practice and laying a massive kiss on Scott. Scott cannot bring himself to break up with her right after that, especially after she got dressed up especially for him. Steven Stills introduces us to the 3 members of Crash and the Boys, Crash, the lead singer and guitarist, Joel, their bass player, both of whom Scott hates. The old drummer went insane and has been replaced by a girl, Trasha, aged 8, so naturally she’s hated by Kim.
24 hours later it’s show night and the drums have the logo of the Archies on them, cute. Scott finds Wallace, Stacey and her boyfriend, Other Scott couldn’t make it, so Wallace hangs out with them. Stacey’s boyfriend is named Jimmy and he gets along with Wallace instantly. Knives arrives with her friend Tamara and kisses Scott, revealing to the others that he hasn’t broken up with her yet. Ramona arrives also, and Scott races backstage to avoid confronting this particular drama.
Crash and the Boys, one of which is a girl, begin their songs, each of which last an extraordinarily short time. But the songs seem to have an interesting impact on the audience. Kim notes that Knives is dressing more like her as Crash and the Boys play their final song, “Last Song Kills Audience.” It knocks out all the audience on the lower level. Stacey and Ramona talk in the bathroom briefly, and when they head out, they see in the upper level Wallace is kissing Jimmy, much to Stacey’s chargin.
She splits them up, bringing everyone together as Sex Bob-omb are about to play. Their song is interrupted by the arrival of Matthew Patel, who considers his fight with Scott begun. Scott shows he can at least fight a little, according to Kim he’s the best fighter in the province. He introduces himself as Ramona’s first evil ex-boyfriend.
Romona explains to Scott’s friends that Matthew was the only non-Jock at her school, and that together they fought off the Jocks combining her strength with his mystical talents. But it wasn’t to last, and she blew him off after just over a week. His is creating holograms capable of shooting fireballs. They have a, I guess it’s supposed to be a sing-off and all of Scott’s friends join in to help, creating a force-field that blocks the fireballs and, wait, do they have mystic powers too?
It seems Matthew loses, his girls are stunned and Scott delivers the final blow. He explodes in $2.10, and leaves with Romona before everyone gets mad. They take the subway and Scott asks Ramona out, they kiss with a studio audience just off-panel going “Ooooooooooooooo.” Ramona tells him that she will have to fight and defeat her 6 or 7 evil ex-boyfriends to date her. Scott is OK with that Scott asks about Giddeon and white lines appear around her face.
The first chapter has the tough job of introducing a lot of elements in a natural style whilst also being a progression of the overall narrative and a standalone entry for a series that could be release with gaps of several months between them.
My opinion is that it succeeds with most of these. It does a decent job of setting up the important characters, plotlines that will be ongoing and a few conflicts that get more attention in other volumes. Scott is not entirely a good person, he’s an obsessive stalker of Ramona and a cheat to Knives but that being said there’s something incredibly relateable about him. He’s a mediocre human being, childish and lazy but he’s also sweet and isn’t intentionally trying to hurt anyone (he's hurting people unintentionally by being a lying cheat, so don't think I'm giving him a free pass or anything). There’s certainly room for growth which will likely be the main focus of the story.
The artwork conveys a fairly simplistic manga style but every major character looks distinct and the environments are just detailed enough, aided if necessary, by some panel narration. The colouring in the coloured is clean and bright. The book has a decent pace, with no scenes outstaying their welcome.
When it comes from world-building, I feel some aspects could’ve been properly established before being paid off as part of the plot. The existence of magical skills in people should’ve been set up much earlier before the final fight, same for a lot of action beats surrounding that fight. That said, it’s likely that fight is in and of itself setting up elements for later fights.
Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life does a decent job of setting up the story, even if the world-building makes it feel more like a setup for future books than a read in its own right.
Rating 75/100
This is the book that inspired the title for the film, what does that mean for the book’s content, well let’s take a look.
So, before we get to the next chapter it’s time for an interlude, detailing a bit of Scott’s history. More specifically his time as a student at St Joel’s Catholic High School. He’s confronted by some bullies as he’s about to enter, and whilst he’s a confident fighter, he gets a black eye and is sent to the principal. It’s there he meets Lisa.
That Night, he’s playing video games in the basement when Lisa pays him a visit. He acts rather cold toward her for no real reason. She tries to befriend him in the cafeteria but he apparently hates being bothered when eating so it doesn’t go very well. What could be considered a breakthrough happens when they both sit under a tree and she asks “Do you hate me?” foundation for an everlasting friendship, right there.
There’s a bit of a talk at a family meal and it must be a joke that Scott has a brother named Lawrence we never see, not sure how funny that is. Scott and Lisa meet up that evening, and it seems Lisa has family problems of her own, though that’s not elaborated on here. The next day, Scott is partnered with a girl named Kim for an assignment, yes, that Kim.
Lisa and Scott discuss performing in order to transcend their rankings in the school hierachy, if you get my drift. But they could really use a drummer to complete their act. Scott and Kim bond some more and Scott shows Lisa at a recital that Kim has drumming skills and could be their missing third member. Kim introduces Scott to Lauren, who I’m sure won’t be important later as Scott and Lisa talk, Scott is developing feelings for Kim but when Lisa questions it, he backs down and says it’s just about the band.
Scott arrives at school eerily early, he missed the bus and Kim has been kidnapped by boys at Benvie Tech School. Scott fights his way through the school, to the big boss, Simon. Scott fights him to a surrender but then kicks him off the roof after he kisses, he rescues Kim and the two share a kiss. The group unite together, playing video games, rehearsing music, going on dates and finally launching as Sonic & Knuckles, odd name for a bad ok… The fun ends when Scott has to move away to Toronto. More context to this in volume 6
Chapter 7: Dating a High Schooler, part 2. Scott’s dreaming about playing video games but Ramona, using his head as a subspace door again, reminds him 11:30am and he should get up. On the bus, Scott and Wallace talk, Scott’s going to bring Ramona over to their house for a date, and Wallace tells Scott that he has to break up with Knives or he’s going to tell Ramona the moment she arrives. He also tells Scott he’s having a date tonight and doesn’t want him home, right as they arrive at their bus stop. Scott reacts accordingly, saying such hurtful things as “You’re a stupid poo-poo head” he’s 21 at this point, right?
Scott uses a payphone to call Knives, by a striking co-incidence she’s right nearby. They head to the music store and Knives invites Scott to her house to meet her parents, his reason for saying no: “are you even allowed to date outside your race or whatever” yikes!!!! I’m not touching this one. Knives to win him over with the power of love, manifesting as the word spelt in pink clouds, but Scott rejects it and breaks up with her. It’s clear Scott is conflicted and Knives devastated but Scott’s thoughts quickly dwell to Ramona, which cheers him up again.
He tells his band what happened, and Kim calls him “The scum of the earth” sounds like a perfectly reasonable assessment, I’d call him an asshat, but maybe that’s going too far. So date night approaches as Scott is busy cooking stuff for his “Rammy” yeah, that aint gonna stick. Incidentally, Ramona makes her first appearance in the book, 57 pages in. She has a new haircut, a dark purple with some black near the tips. Scott shows her around and they eat, it’s decent food, apparently. The two make out in thankfully minimal detail as Ramona makes a comment about Scott’s hair, which we find out hasn’t been cut by a professional in over a year, much like most people these days. It was just supposed to be passing remark but Scott freaks out.
Chapter 8: The Late Scott Pilgrim, and late doesn’t mean what you think it does, okay it does in this dream sequence where Kim dreams that Simon actually killed Scott and people don’t have nice things to say about him at his funeral. Kim lives in a house-share with Sara, Tracy and Emily, all of whom are kind enough to leave their underwear on the bathroom so the captions can identify them. Kim heads to work, accidentally waking up Sara, it’s clear the two don’t get along.
Kim works at a video rental store and has a co-worker named Hollie, the two get along pretty well, in that they both trade insults with each other constantly. Scott enters as his next opponent is famed actor Lucas Lee, and he needs to train by watching his movies. But Kim informs him he has a ban thanks to an extortionate late fee, and the fact that even the computer calls him scum. Why not call him a poo-poo head and really hurt his feelings?
He found out about Lucas Lee through Wallace and Kim starts to probe about how the two ended up living together. Apparently, it’s a somewhat gay story, cue fan-art.
Next question, exactly how is Lucas Lee evil? I guess he sold out ie, demanded he got paid for his craft, the monster. Ramona bumps into Stacey at the coffee shop, giving Scott and ominous feeling at the house with Wallace. Wallace has also prepared a dossier on him, he was formerly a pro-skater, and then there’s that bit about him being a sell-out again. Wallace forces physical training onto Scott, making him do push-ups.
The band have another jamming session and afterwards we see a band called Clash of the Demonhead is gaining traction in Now Magazine. Scott has feelings about this, which he expresses by hitting Simon Stills over the head with a pillow. The next day, Scott is on the bus with Ramona as Knives rings and has a talk with Wallace, she lies and says her and Scott were due to go out for coffee, Wallace thankfully doesn’t believe her, though tries to be patient and kind, but upon finding Knives outside tells her she needs to leave.
Scott and Ramona watch another of Lucas Lee’s movies at Scott’s place, Ramona wishes there was a couch, though she doesn’t have one at her place either, or a TV for that matter. Watching enough of him causes lines around Ramona’s head to appear again.
Chapter 9 – As Long as the Road Lacks Perspective (what does that mean?) Scott is woken up by a call from his mother, they’re in Italy. It’s not especially important so here’s the interesting bits. They don’t know that Wallace is Gay, Scott still doesn’t have a job and Scott knows all of 5 things about Rome, most of which are wrong.
Time for Ramona to meet the band and they’re making Vegan shepherds pie, and just for the entertainment value, they’re giving us the recipe too. With such useful tips as “invite your friends and make them do all the work.” Knives watches from outside, running off when she realises about Scott’s new girlfriend.
She head to a store and buys some hair dye, complaining about the situation to Tamara. She dyes her hair so it now has some red on one side. She decides that she’s not gonna let Ramona have Scott and take her out of the picture. Well, this suddenly got dark.
We find out Ramona has a cat she’s named Giddeon, and produces a list of reasons why having a kitten at Scott’s is a very bad idea. We find out about Lucas Lee, he was a bit obsessive, asking her out until she was worn down enough to say yes, that sat on curbs and smoked most of the time until they broke up after about a month.
The next day Scott and Wallace head to Cas Loma, where Lucas Lee is shooting for his latest film. They find him and Scott introduces himself, Lucas Lee punches him and flings him into a building. OK, how does that not make him explode into coins? Scott recovers and Lucas calls a truce and the two talk. Lucas reveals that Ramona cheated on him, something that seems ironic to Scott’s friends.
So, they’re part of something called the League of Ramona’s Evil Ex-Boyfriends, this exists because the plot needs it too, to be honest I feel like they should be going after Ramona, or warning Scott about how she broke their hearts, not trying to kill him but what do I know? Lucas offers to tell Gideon Scott won for money, but Scott instead tricks him into doing a super-dangerous skateboard stunt that goes wrong and poofs him into coins, this time $14 worth. He also gets a skateboard but because he never picked up that proficiency, it’s useless to him.
Chapter 10 – Nothings’s ever over. But I’m about 2/3 done so… Julie rants at Scott about him dating Ramona after warning him against it. She also tells him his ex-girlfriend is back in town and Scott runs off. Ramona is with Stacey at the library, she has a package but no idea where to deliver it. Scott heads home, hoping for Ramona to call him. Steven Stills does instead, Scott knows they’re at the reference library but between them they have no idea where that is, and he doesn’t know Stacey’s number.
Knives decides to make an appearance and attack Ramona with well, knives. Knives eventually recognises her and pieces together that Scott was cheating on her. Stacey tries to call Scott for help, but Scott is calling Wallace for a cheat code. Yeah… Ramona eventually wins the fight against the 17-year old, and Knives runs off, leaving behind a rude note.
Scott receives another phone call, and you can tell it’s not one he’s ready for as his whole world goes orange. Envy Adams, Scott’s ex-girlfriend, his most recent one. They both have gotten together with other people, Envy with some guy named Todd. She’s calling because Clash of the Demonhead, her band, are playing shows in town and their opening act just dropped out, she was hoping Sex Bob-omb would play in their stead. She’s put them on the guest list for Friday and they’ll talk about performing then. Wallace coming home and his reaction is hilarious and kinda charming too.
Chapter 11 -Things Keep Happening – The next morning, Scott calls his sister, trying to calm his mind about Envy but ends up finding out about Knives attacking Ramona. Later Scott tells the band about NV’s proposal. Steven Stills takes it well for the first 5 seconds, then freaks out because their band is kinda crap.
We cut to Friday as Scott and Ramona are walking together, and Scott tells her about Envy. It’s a nickname because her initials were N.V. Scott asks if there’s any bad blood after the Knives fight but there clearly isn’t, she wants to hear how Scott broke up with her. She moved to Montreal missing her best friend, Todd, and hear soon after that they were sleeping together. Ramona remarks that she dated a Todd, I wonder where this is going…
Scott remarks that he doesn’t remember much of the year that came after that. The next he remembers is some fantasy restaurant that may or may not be completely fabricated but most likely is. They arrive at the club and find that Steven Stills got a haircut because he was nervous and Knives has found a new fling with Young Neil. Kim finds Hollie and her roommate Joseph, who makes a charming first impression telling the girls they’re going to hell. Knives has an interesting reaction to hearing Envy once dated Scott and some other things happen.
The Band head onto the stage, and begin to play as Ramona confirms that Todd is very much the same Todd she dated.
Scott Pilgrim vs the World is an odd title for this novel, because it never really feels like the world is out to get Scott. Lucas Lee is a slightly better antagonist in that he had a bit more meat to him than the last one and his words do hint at some interesting progression for Ramona. It’s safe to say both her and Scott have their respective issues.
Without having the burden of introducing everything, this book just got on with it, the pacing is improved because of this, spacing out multiple action scenes and character progression along the way. Of course, there’s still a lot of work ahead of most of these characters and we will continue with the Infinite Sadness that is chapter 3.
Rating 80/100
We approach the half-way point in the journey, Scott has defeated 2 of Ramona’s evil exes, but each give a hint that Ramona may not be the nicest person either, the arrival of Envy Adams, Scott’s ex and the now boyfriend of evil ex #3, the next chapter in the story is set to be a good one.
We open with a performance of Clash of the Demonhead as we enter Chapter 12: I Envy you, get it, because Envy Adams and… moving on, Scott spots a glowing flame thing that he thinks might be a save point, but he doesn’t make it, he almost lands in trouble with the waiters but Envy saves his bacon, so they can begin negotiations for Sex Bo-bomb’s performance. Knives and Young Neil accompany them too.
It’s awkward to start with, especially since Knives doesn’t really have a purpose being there. There’s some small talk before Knives blurts out that she kissed Scott, a woman, who we later find out is named Lynette uses her bionic arm to punch Knives so hard her highlights come out. Envy orders her and young Neil to leave. I guess the assault that just took place we’re going to gloss over.
This whole event is causing Scott’s life to flash before his eyes. Specifically the bit where he was in a band with Envy and had even longer hair, and crawling up the street at night feeling alone. There’s a bit more small-talk as we get neat captions reintroducing each of the main characters, with some trivia about their current mindset beneath.
Knives and Young Neil have retreated to a donut shop and Knives is clearly upset from it all. Envy immediately guns for Ramona, insulting her in pretty personal ways. Scott soon breaks from his trance and attacks Todd, but Todd has magical vegan powers and effortlessly tosses Scott through a wall.
We flash back to Scott at university meeting Natalie V Adams, aka Envy. Julie was her roommate so she got introduced to Scott, though Julie describes him as a “Lady-killer wannabe jerky jerk” Natalie thinks he’s too dopey to be a lady-killer.
Back in the present Scott gets a second wind but Todd’s vegan powers send him high up and hurtling into a trash pile. How is Scott not a pile of coins by now? We flash back again, finding that Scott, Stephen Stells an Envy teamed up to form a band together, which lead to Envy and Scott dating, much to Julie’s… I’m not sure what her reaction, we flash back to the present.
Deciding that ¼ of the book is enough time spent on this, Envy decides to call it a night and resume the battle at Honest Ed’s tomorrow at 1pm. Back to the flashback, Scott finds out that Envy decided to trade in her toys and anime stuff for CDs and expensive boots, we also see them in bed together so we know that happened.
Kim heads home, deciding she doesn’t need to appear for the contest at Ed’s and Steven Stills follows suit. Hoping to get out of the rain, Scott and Ramona head to a pizza place finding other Scott and Wallace. Wallace gets caught up on the plot and has a fun, protective big-brother-like reaction to it all. He also says he picked up a guy named Mobile and need their place for the night. Despite Scott being thrown in the garbage and smelling like it, Ramona relents and lets him stay with her. Scott gives Wallace his keys as he forgot his.
Romona is annoyed, wondering how Scott could have dated someone like Envy. 7:30 the next morning and Scott is awake, which is unusual for him. He doesn’t take a shower before he leaves but he gets an unexpected one as he walks home in the rain and finds that Wallace isn’t in and forgot that he no longer has keys. We’re now in Chapter 14 – About to Explode.
Wallace arrives, he was just dropping Mobile off at the bus stop. Mobile is apparently psychic, which Scott thinks might be a help against Todd but Wallace isn’t so sure. We’re treated to another flashback showing Envy having a bit of a mean streak, quitting a game after the losing and storming out.
The next morning, Wallace helps cheer Scott up with bacon and some sagely advice regarding his feelings on Envy... You won me over at bacon. We finally get to that slightly gay story of how Wallace and Scott met. They met in a class and he just kinda came over one day and never really left, and in interesting hint about Scott not drinking being a lie as he and Wallace got drunk together.
It’s Saturday morning at Honest Ed’s and it’s time for another showdown. 2 enter but only 1 will leave or something… To make things fair, Todd isn’t allowed to use his psychic powers, though Ramona warns him he won’t be able to resist using them for long. Honest Ed’s a department store portrayed in this novel as a place of existential horror.
It begins taking its toll on Todd, who breaks down, seeing his father telling him he doesn’t have the willpower to be a vegan, Lynette telling him he’s hers for the taking and who I believe we can assume is Gideon telling him to just use his powers, and use his powers he does, blowing up the entire store. And nothing of value was lost.
Chapter 15: Bad old days. It’s band practice and Steven Stills is becoming increasingly paranoid that they’re not very good, and he’s on the verge of being right about that too. Knives isn’t there despite Young Neil being there, she was still sobbing from the whole affair with Envy the night before. There’s supposed to a take 3 on the fight, which Kim decides not to bother with as she has a ‘hot date.’
Scott and Ramona have sushi together, Scott using Wallace’s credit card to pay for it, he apparently has permission to do that. They head to the subway but it’s at this point Ramona asks Scott if they can just forget it and head to hers for the night. They do but sexy time is kinda ruined with both of them thinking about Envy for different reasons.
She dropped Lucas for Todd almost instantly, they were bad kids together until Todd disappeared after some trouble at home. Apparently he was kidnapped by dairy scientists and tested for his veganism. He tells Ramona “You’re my hot little bitch, baby” OK, who is the target audience of this book? Have to say poo-poo head but hot bitch is totally fine apparently. He then jumps and creates a crater in the moon, causing about 30 pages worth of explosions and tidal waves that we’re thankfully spared.
Scott is about to reveal Envy’s weakness but Ramona stops him, instead to talk about Kim. It’s not especially exciting which frustrates Ramona, and she doesn’t seem to believe him about the fight with Simon. Meanwhile Knives is sitting on top of some scaffolding in Dundas Square.
Chapter 16: Frail and Bedazzled. At noonish on Sunday, the band are having gelato, which contains milk and apparently eggs. Todd doesn’t care that this go against his Veganism because he’s a rock star, and he kisses Lynette whilst Envy is in the bathroom.
At 2pm, Ramona has changed her hair style, which she does every 3 weeks or so, Scott’s jealous since he’s been meaning to get one for weeks so Ramona offers to give him one. They talk a bit about Envy and later Scott heads to band practice, his haircut is barely even noticeable. They’ve decided to be the backup band for Envy’s and Steven Stills is very worried, Scott tries to reassure him that it won’t be like before with Kid Chameleon.
So, about that band. We flash back and see that Envy has basically taken over the band and has hired a new drummer, relegating Scott to bass, which he can’t play. Either way, the band is being sought after by record labels and got to be pretty large. Tune in next flashback to find how it all comes crashing down.
We’re back at Lee’s palace and Scott finds Steven Stills puking his guts out in the bathroom. Apparently, he and Julie had had a pretty nasty fight. Scott saves Ramona from some female cattiness and they both down gin and tonics, Scott does so surprisingly quickly. Kim tells Ramona that she didn’t really have a date last night and was busy scrap-booking.
The Boys (+ girl) and Crash are on stage, the talent having switched. Envy and Scott meet outside, she asks if they can talk like normal people, Scott eventually asks if they ever did. She heads inside and Scott finds Knives. Back inside, Kim tells her side of the story, how she was obsessed with Simon for a while but knew in her heart of hearts that it wasn’t to be, she described both Scott and Simon as dicks.
Scott and Knives talk, Scott apologises for Envy’s harsh actions then admits that he wasn’t exactly fair to her either. Knives admits she was only dating Young Neil because he looks like Scott, Scott asks Knives to give him a chance, his heart is in the right place. The two depart on good terms. One interesting change with The Boys and Crash is they seem to be playing glowing gloves as opposed to any instruments.
Chapter 17: The Infinite Sadness - Envy tries to bury the hatchet with Ramona but it ends badly and the two end up fighting. Whilst we know Ramona is capable, Envy is too, plus she has the general crowd on her side thanks to her celebrity status. Scott’s friends back her up though, though eventually Envy manages to knock her down, she’s about to poof Knives with her own hammer when Knives intervenes.
Sex Bob-omb make their stage debut and Scott sees the attack, triggering another flashback. Scott plays a song for Envy on his bass but she acts cold to it, later they hear a voicemail from some guy named Jacob and Scott suspects she may be cheating on him. The band are about to sign a contract with a big label, Scott isn’t really ready for the big leagues and wants not to, he’s kicked out of the band he founded for that reason. On New Year’s Eve the two had a fight, Envy tells him to get out of her life, he doesn’t remember it the next morning.
Scott utilises Envy’s weak spot on her back and knocks her down before she can do any more damage to Ramona and Knives, she calls for Todd to help her but he’s busy, doing the nasty with Lynette. Envy tells her story of meeting Todd, illustrated in storybook fashion and main thing of note as that he created a crater on the moon for her too, Ramona delights in telling her that he created the first one for her.
Todd comes out of the bathroom, his fly down and panties on his head. Envy attacks Lynette, managing to knock off her bionic arm as she teleports away. Kim reveals she actually spent the weekend working on her dress as opposed to scrap-booking. Envy attacks Todd but Todd is no pushover, however she knows his weak spot, right in the nuts. It winds him but he uses his powers to send Envy flying into a wall.
Todd and Scott battle, with Todd using his psychic powers to blast Scott back despite the fact he’s already better instrumentally. Thankfully the boys and Crash, now with the ability to manipulate soundwaves through willpower alone back Scott up in the fight… It doesn’t work
Scott is down for the count, and needs a poorly set-up dues ex-machina to save him. It’s actually a well set up one, the Vegan Police arrive, having taken note that Todd had eaten Gelato in violation of his veganism. They use their de-veganising ray to remove Todd’s powers, and without them, Scott headbutts him into a small number of coins, and an extra life that I’m sure won’t be used later. Scott checks in on everyone, Knives advises that Sex Bob-omb play given that there’s a massive audience and the headlining act are basically gone now. The audience seems to be enjoying it, including one mysterious figure
Chapter 18A Before you leave. Scott says goodbye to Envy as she heads back home, the rain that had be present throughout the volume seems to stop and he’s got 4 evil exes to go.
Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness is a decent middle chapter for the series, it seems that Bryan Lee O’Malley has really hit his stride in confident character direction, and is beginning to push characters toward their endgames.
Rating 75/100
Nex is Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together, will he follow the title and begin sorting out his mess of a life? And what new secrets about Ramona will be revealed? Let’s take a look and find out.
Chapter 19 – Two Months off. Scott and his friends are on a beach holiday, celebrating Steven Stills and, more importantly (to her at least) Julie’s birthday. Knives is also there and it appears her relationship with Young Neil has hit another rocky patch. We find out that Ramona is a vegetarian, one of the few bits of information we actually know about her, and this time that’s going to be a plot point.
Julie and Stephen Stills have something resembling an argument that shows all may not be well there, but they are drinking beer around a campfire so… Even Knives is drinking and this leads to a weird moment where Scott stumbles upon Kim and Knives making out. Much like the comic says “Let us never speak of this again”
Some time later, we see Scott and Wallace doing grocery shopping, we get a receipt showing that they buy relatively cheap stuff, and anything expensive is for Wallace only, also, the only vegetable Wallace eats is broccoli, good to know. Wallace tells Scott they need to see their landlord soon about their rent. Their place is a sh*thole too, and it’s infested with mice just to up the rental value.
Talk goes to Ramona and Wallace asks if he’s said the L-word yet, Scott thinks the L-word is lesbian, you know it suddenly occurs to me that Scott isn’t very bright. Kim is moving into a new place, given the stellar relationship she had with her previous housemates this comes as no surprise. We’re introduced to Jason Kim, the joke is that his surname is Kim and Scott continually forgets he exists, much like the reader, moving on.
On the way up, Steven Stills as finds a guy with a home studio, his name is Joseph and Steven Stills asks about him recording an album for Sex Bob-omb. He says yes, but only because he finds Steven Stills attractive. Scott heads to Ramona’s place, she can apparently afford to live on her own with a job at Amazon. I know she does quick work but still…
They start to talk and it quickly becomes apparent how little Scott knows about her, she doesn’t even know how old she is but when he asks, she gives a dismissive answer. The next morning, Wallace, working in a call centre, gives Scott a ring and tells him to get out of the house and somewhere with air conditioning. You see, I chose to do comic reviews for the summer, so I didn’t have to worry about my loud fan, so I totally relate.
Scott heads to the mall but as his thirst meter is growing, he’s monetarily indisposed if you get my drift. Help arrives in the form of Lisa Miller, who Scott instantly recognises… yeah, that’s a lie. The two spend the afternoon catching up whilst Lisa pays for everything on her credit, can’t wait for that bill in a month. She’s moving to California soon and doesn’t have a job so… yeah, good luck with that bill.
Scott tells her about the band and invites her to practice, Lisa gives him her cell phone number and asks about Ramona. Cut to the Chau residence, Tamara asks Knives about her breaking up with Neil, so if that didn’t happen during the beach vacation, it has now. She still claims to love Scott, which comes as a surprise to Tamara as his face has been slashed out on her Scott shrine. Also, yikes, she has a Scott shrine. Maybe Scott got out of there just in time.
The next day, Scott is taking Lisa to band practice, she asks if his girlfriend will be ok with this but she’s busy working and Scott, brain trust that he is, hasn’t mentioned her to Ramona at all. They arrive at the house but only Young Neil is in, and he’s not in a great mood. They head to Kim’s new place and spot Steven Stills, now growing a beard, with Joseph finalising details for the new album.
Kim’s headed over to a place called Sneaky Dee’s. They head there and Lisa and Kim catch up, the conversation turning into noise as Scott eyes a plate of nachos until Ramona arrives. She gets to know them and we also know that Lisa played a ‘town slut’ on a Canadian TV show, so California is about her acting career. Afterwards Scott asks Ramona if she’s kissed a girl, she did and she liked it, hope her boyfriend don’t mind it, he doesn’t.
Chapter 21, about ¼ of the way through the book is Getting it Together. It opens with Scott having a dream and Ramona finding him in it. He’s getting annoyed with this and she tells him maybe it’s time to get a job so he isn’t sleeping during the day. He’s woken up with a phonecall from Wallace saying they should visit their landlord tomorrow. Scott heads out, bumping into Knives briefly, someone with sinister motivations is watching from behind.
He goes to ask Stacey about getting a job at the second cup but quickly runs out on that one, he tries to ask Kim about getting a job at the video rental store but given that the owner called Scott scum, I don’t see that one working out, thankfully the restaurant Stephen Stills works at is hiring and he is rather quickly hired as their dishwasher. Unfortunately, he’s still being stalked, and his stalker has a sword, which he uses to slice through a bus, dick.
Scott uses a subspace door to get him and Kim out of there and the two part company. Scott heads home to find Wallace pre-drinking with friends, Scott quickly calls Ramona and two head to Kim’s place to continue recording the album. Julie’s getting impatient and grumpy, so they head to Sneaky Dee’s, where Julie bails on them to hang out with her ‘real friends’. Lisa and Ramona head out the front to smoke, worrying Scott. Steven Stills comes in with Knives, who he vouched for, for some reason. Scott heads to empty his pee gauge but whilst he’s away, Julie returns and she yells at Steven Stills for allowing Knives in. Scott decides now’s a good time to go.
Ramona asks about whether he and Lisa were ever an item but Scott denies it. They return to Scott’s place to find Wallace asleep from pre-drinking. Wallace is still sober and awake enough to tell Scott they need to be up early tomorrow for their appointment with the Landlord
Chapter 22 – Comes a time. They’ve had a tumultuous relationship with their landlord to say the least, but as it happens they paid for their first and last months up front and this is their last month, they can choose to continue to rent the place month-to-month but if they choose to leave, they need to be out by the 27th. Scott heads to work, and leaves what feels like 1 million hours later, I totally relate.
On his way home, Scott is attacked by what seems like a shadow, he manages to get her visible by punching, and it’s a woman, he punched in the boob. She tells him to prepare to die, but Scott doesn’t put two and two together yet and disappears with a smoke bomb. Scott returns home to find Wallace in the shower and he calls Ramona. Unfortunately it goes straight to voicemail.
Scott is ready to record his bass for the album, and listens to what they have so far, he barely recognises it. After the recording, Ramona tells him she’s staying home tonight, he told her about the girl who attacked but not the samurai guy nor the fact that he did get a job. At Sneaky Dee’s Scott is again clueless when the elusive L-word is brought up. He heads home with a rather tipsy Lisa who seems to be flirting with him.
At home, Scott and Wallace talk about whether they want to stay here or go their own separate ways, Wallace asks if he could ask Ramona to consider the two moving into her place. Scott and Stephen Stills discuss it on the way to work, when the samurai guy from earlier walks by, Scott hides. At work, Scott tells all to Stephen Stills who reveals the guy brings his family to the restaurant for dinner every so often.
Scott spots the lady that attacked him with Ramona, she’s spreading gossip that Scott and Lisa are doing things behind her back. Her name is Roxanne Richter, Ramona and her were roommates in college and she’s a half-ninja. Scott eventually, and I mean eventually puts two and two together and works out that Roxanne is evil ex number 4. Not particularly wanting to fight someone with a sword, he hides in Ramona’s satchel as we head into Chapter 23: You got me running.
They head through a subspace door but Roxanne is also privy to this secret and is able to follow them Her and Ramona fight, though Roxanne doesn’t display much interest in fighting Ramona, I’ll have a point about this later. Roxanne knocks Ramona down and leaves. Later on, Scott asks Ramona about living with her and she agrees, at least as a temporary solution.
Young Neil joins them at Sneaky Dees, he’s annoyed they don’t hang out with them anymore but between them not practising together and Young Neil’s summer classes there’s been no time. With regards to practising, it’s revealed that Steven Stills has been turning down shows, supposedly to make more time for the album.
On the way home Ramona asks about Lisa and their relationship, she probes a little too hard for Scott and the two part-ways for the night on less than ideal terms. Scott returns home to find Wallace in bed with another man, we are thankfully spared the visual, Scott’s reaction is honestly funnier. Unfortunately thanks to the antics with Roxanne, Scott’s been fired from his job.
Unable to go to Ramona’s, Scott’s only recourse is to stay with Lisa at her sisters. Lisa explains that the dress she was wearing at the mall she was only wearing because she was doing laundry, but it got Scott’s attention and she kinda liked and has been dressing to impress him since. Even the night gown she’s wearing now is one she put on after Scott called.
The talk soon turns to their past and whether or not they had feelings for each other. Scott reveals he and Ramona argued about this and Lisa says maybe they should’ve had a thing. That’s possibly the worst possible thing to say.
Scott’s latest dream is interrupted by Roxanne who attacks him. He wakes up, seemingly oblivious to what happened Lisa said that worst possible thing. Lisa tells him they didn’t do anything, he babbled about how he loved Ramona, finally using the L-word, she got upset and he tried to cheer her up, then they ordered Pizza and fell asleep.
Scott heads out to clear things up with Ramona but decides first to head back to the restaurant and get his job back, as it happens, that was fairly easy as they hadn’t hired a replacement yet. He heads to the second cup and finds Knives works there, and more interestingly finds out the samurai that’s been stalking him is her father.
Apparently discovering that Knives had a white boyfriend caused his brain to “break in half, replaced by a purely mechanical engine of revenge” hell of a metaphor. Scott uses another subspace door to escape. He ends up in Ramona’s head, seeing her submissive to an unknown someone but most likely Giddeon, she charges at Scott and forces him out. She yells at him for a minute but calms down quickly, apologising for her behaviour the night before. Scott tells her he stayed at Lisa’s last night and she sinks, asking if Scott is in love with her. Scott says no before discovering that Ramona had Roxanne over as a house guest, making her a massive hypocrite.
Scott walks it off, nearly collapsing in the street and is confronted by NegaScott, a dark evil looking version of himself. He punches it into oblivion and heads back to Ramona, and just in time as Knives’ dad also found his way through the subspace door. He lures him up to Roxanne and briefly thinking Giddeon didn’t believe in her, the two clash swords.
As the fight continues, Scott tells Ramona that he is in love with her and they can make this work. In doing so he levels up and earns the power of love, manifested as a sword. Thanks to some longsword proficiency he picked up in 5th grade, he successfully uses the sword to dispatch Roxanne, she’s apparently worth bunnies and birds, how the f*ck does that work. Before she leaves, she warns that the twins are up next.
Scott tells Mr Chau he never harmed Knives and hardly touched her but he’s already gone, having apparently seen Scott’s worth. Ramona tells her Roxanne slept on the couch and “we didn’t even make out that much” which means they made out, great… But she confesses love for him also, and the two kiss. Soon after Scott moves in with her, and he says his goodbyes to Wallace. Wallace had signed a lease with Mobile about a week and a half ago. Mr Chau gives his approval of Knives dating a white man.
Back with Steven and Joseph, Scott takes a listen to what they have so far and it’s decent, but they’re not even close to done. They head to Korean Delite as Lisa’s time with the group is coming to an end. Scott’s drinking beer and gets drink in like seconds. Julie apologises to Stephen Stills, since he believes he may have had a thing for Knives, right… but Steven Stills looks uncomfortable. Ramona has finally changed her hair to an orange colour and shares a tender moment with Scott to end the book.
It is good that this story focuses on Scott growing as a character over the battles with the evil exes, it also begins to shed darker lights on Ramona which will only be further looked upon in the next chapter. Everything’s set up nicely as Scott seems on top of everything, but as we all know, pride comes before a fall. Join me for Scott Pilgrim vs the Universe
Rating 80/100
Scott Pilgrim has everything he could want at this stage. He has a girlfriend who loves him, a band putting out an album and he’s defeated 4 of Ramona’s evil exes. But as summer ends, a storm is on the horizon, we continue our Scott Pilgrimage with Scott Pilgrim vs the Universe.
Chapter 26 is titled precious little life, the title of the first book, huh.
We open at Julie’s new apartment, and we’re told she rents it with 3 other girls as it was a perfect party spot. Scott is there but is beginning to feel sick of all the themed parties. This one is the Day of the Dead party, which means we’re glossing over into November at this point. Some banter is exchanged before Ramona spots exes, in this case twins Kyle and Ken Katayanagi. Scott is ready to confront them but they’re not gonna fight him, despite outnumbering him 2 to 1 but in Japanese tradition, cue giant robot
OK, I think you may have misread that, I said GIANT robot. No? Maybe later… We don’t see much of the fight, is the time is dedicated to Kim and Ramona speaking outside. Kim is feeling a bit down, her life lacking a sense of structure whilst band practice has been on hold for constant recording. Ramona has become Scott’s secretary for Wallace’s little notes to Scott as he doesn’t have a phone. Now you have a job, Scott, might be worth investing in one, just a thought.
We cut to Knives talking with Steven Stills, he and Julie have broken up, again, and he lays down the hard truth about Scott and her relationship with him. Knives considers the fact that Ramona may not know about the whole cheating aspect. Scott at this point defeats the robot in the first time in 5 volumes I see the whole ‘best fighter in the district’ title justified. He gets nothing for this fight.
At the apartment, presumably the next day, Ramona’s off to do busywork and leaves Scott with the important task of emptying the dishwasher. She leaves her phone behind and spends the entire afternoon playing games on it. I’ll give some credit, that’s hardly the worst thing he could’ve done but of course he didn’t empty the dishwasher. Ramona asks Scott to charge her phone, her charger is in a drawer and inside he sees a letter for Gideon, not wanting to open that can of worms he takes out the charger.
As they prepare their next meal, Ramona asks about Envy and how Scott got over her so quickly. It’s something she kinda relates to. Chapter 27 – Can’t Face Up, it’s more trouble with the Album as editing is not going great. Steven Stills calls a band meeting, they need to practice as they have a gig on Sunday at Sneaky Dees. They try playing a song and it goes as badly as you might expect for a band about 3 months out of practice.
We cut to Knives and Tamara talking about the whole Scott cheating on her situation, she still believes its Ramona’s fault, though Tamara advises she check that. In the Fashion District, Ramona’s trying on some new outfits. Scott asks for some advice about the band but Ramona tells him bluntly that she doesn’t care for his band. This has an impact on Scott that lasts into the next morning. As Ramona heads off for work, Scott texts Wallace advice, only to find he hates the band too.
At work, Steven Stills and Scott try to plan for the event but 48 hours later, the plan hasn’t really materialised and everyone’s a bit worried. It doesn’t help Scott’s mood that some people have been thinking the band broke up, and we see the twins are there too, though Scott doesn’t. I sense things are afoot.
It’s a mess right from the word go as Kim is about to play a different song than the boys, but we don’t get to not hear it as it’s time for Knives and Ramona to ‘talk’ in the bathroom. It’s a brief fight which ends when Knives tells Ramona that Scott cheated on them. It turns out the whole concert was a trap as we see Scott decapitate a robot with his guitar, breaking it in the process. Steven Stills is not happy with Scott over it, and Kim isn’t best please either. Scott forgot his keys and Ramona wants some time alone and tells him to crash elsewhere, he ends up crashing with Wallace at his new place.
Chapter 28 – The Glow. Wallace and Scott catch up with some witty banter, fried breakfast and noogies as Wallace has come up with a dossier for Gideon, he’s in some pretty blurry photos but little else. Wallace asks what comes next once the evil exes are gone but Scott doesn’t really have an answer, well he does, but it’s stupid. Scott meets up with Kim and its revealed here she’s had a falling out with Hollie.
They go to meet with Steven Stills but he’s not at home, just Young Neil, smoking a joint. The two enjoy some Thai food and Scott camps out on her couch for the night. Scott asks Kim for a favour, to organise a ‘chance’ encounter with Ramona, she openly admits Scott put her up to it and Ramona bursts out laughing.
Turns out Jason Kim, remember him? NO? Me neither. Either way, he slept with Hollie behind her back, more piling on for Kim and she’s bound to break eventually. To thought of someone cheating has Ramona showing her glow again. Kim points it out and it has her panicked, but when she tries to show her the glow in the mirror, it’s already gone.
They invite Ramona to join them at another of Julie’s parties. At the party, we see that Young Neil is dating Tamara as Knives has his eyes for Steven Stills, or as Young Neil calls him, Captain Homo, Ramona doesn’t take kindly to that. Scott is stealing liquor for some reason and is caught by Julie and the twins, and we get an actual giant robot this time.
Kyle gives the liquor to Ramona, saying she needs to face reality. Something happens that makes her scream “Would you piss off” when Kim finds her, her head starts glowing and Kim takes a picture.
Chapter 29 – The Universe Fights Back. Kim shows her photo and asks what it means but Ramona says she can’t tell her. They begin drinking the Liquor as Scott finishes off the giant robot. The 3 get drunk together and lie on a bed. Kim heads home but the twins find her first, she’s the one person who seems to stand by Scott no matter how bad a person he is.
Scott and Ramona take subspace home and make out for a bit, but Ramona confronts him about his cheating on Knives. Ramona calls him a bad person and an evil ex just waiting to happen. She stops short of breaking up with him as he makes a rambling apology to her. The next morning, he has a brief scare as Ramona’s in the shower. Ramona gets a text for Scott from Kim, as the twins are now holding her captive. Scott rushes off to save her but Ramona doesn’t hear him and her phone runs out of battery before she can read the message.
The Glow Part 2 – Scott turns up to the battle, still hungover from the Tequilla they drank. It’s revealed here that Ramona dated the twins simultaneously, cheating on both with the other. So, the two have vowed to vowed to always work together, including double-teaming Scott, who they’ve decided to fight properly now.
They know Ramona quite well and tell Scott that she came here to escape Gideon and her own past. She worked for him back in New York. Kim realises this smack talk is weakening him and pretends to have a text from Ramona saying all is forgiven, this gives Scott the strength to beat the twins, earning about $150 in the process. Scott apologises to Kim for her getting involved quite like that but then rushes home to Ramona
He tells her that even if she’s done bad things, he still loves her, and they can change. Ramona, now having cut her hair short, disappears in a massive glow. He sees the letter for Gideon but decides not to read it, he looks around but as he looks outside, Gideon the cat runs off and Scott forgot his keys again and locks himself out.
Chapter 31 – World of Ruin – Scott stays with Steven Stills for the night, yelling out how he feels alone in his dreams. He sees NegaScott in the mirror as he brushes his teeth. He cries through work, though he was chopping onions so…
Steven doesn’t want to listen to wail anymore but as he heads to Kim’s it turns out Hollie sold the couch. As they share a bed, Kim tells Scott she’s considering moving back home. Scott is preparing fish sandwiches with Wallace when Mobile walks in, Scott confuses him for Gideon. Speaking of Gideon, Scott’s sleeping outside the house in the snow as Gideon the cat eats the fish sandwich Scott left out for him.
Kim decides to head home, at least for a while as Scott sees her off on the bus, apologising for, well, everything, especially him and Kim accepts his apology. Scott’s homelessness situation is resolved by his parents who have conveniently returned from the exotic land of Europe to give him a new apartment, I can’t fathom why they didn’t just do this in the first place rather than having him sleep right next to Wallace.
Outside lies another blow as Scott’s previously unseen brother makes an appearance, and of course Scott thinks he’s Gideon because he’s an idiot. Turns out his bass is borrowed from him and he wants it back. Scott closes the door of his new place, takes out the envelope for Gideon and reads it, it’s a break up letter that Ramona never sent. He’s interrupted by a phone call, not sure how he got the number since this is a new line but it’s Gideon and he’s asking when it’d be convenient to kill him.
As cliché as the lowest point moment is in fiction, I really must echo one Mr Noble’s thoughts on this, all of this was set up and paid off properly, some of it much earlier in the story. It’s interesting how the robot fights were literally background elements as well as metaphorically.
Rating 85/100
We approach the end of our summer journey as Scott reaches the end of his, well year-long journey, either way, the obstacles faced are not over yet and they’re not for Scott either as we conclude this Scott Pilgrimage with Scott having to face the most challenging foe of all, himself… and also Gideon.
Chapter 32 – Things Stop Happening opens with another dream sequence, Scott sees who he thinks is Ramona, from the back, stroking Gideon the cat, he runs after her but she runs in a blur, Scott goes through the blur and sees Gideon the person telling him he’s waiting. Scott has taken to recent run of failures badly, spending his entire life playing video on a console sold to him by Young Neil. Wallace tries to encourage him to get back on the stallion, if you get my drift. It’s been months since Ramona ran off, but Scott isn’t interested and Wallace leaves him to his game.
Next to pay him a visit is Steven Stills, I guess Scott has stopped showing up for work but Steven Stills tells he still has a job if he wants it. He also confesses he’s started a new band, which doesn’t involve Scott, Scott suggests the name Shatterband, Steven Stills invites him to practice but Scott’s attention is soon back on the game.
Next dream sequence sees an angel Ramona stab him through the chest followed by nega-versions of all his exes tearing him to bits. Scott finally heads out to a place called the Cameron House, where we hear that Gideon has a new club opening in town soon, the Chaos Theatre. We see the new band featuring Steven Stills, Joseph and a guy named Cole, another person Scott confused for Gideon. Apparently that happened off-panel so Scott doesn’t remember it.
Knives enters the bar, having turned 18 the previous week. She tells Scott she’s moving away for college. She feels it’s the right thing to do despite it meaning it being far away from friends. Scott decides to be indefensibly stupid and ask her for casual sex. The response is priceless. Outside Knives reminds him he was actually a pretty crappy boyfriend and she’s finally moved on. She’s happy being alone at the moment, trying to like herself again and I feel that’s a good place for her character to end up. More on that in the film review. Unfortunately, she decides to try one final tryst with Scott and we’re thankfully spared it, we’re told it was horrible for everyone, including us, and that’s enough.
Chapter 33 – She says what she means. Scott stumbles into a party, still somewhat dazed from whatever the hell just happened and hears it’s for someone called Sarah Jane. RIP Liz, anyway, Scott thought it was a Julie party but she has moved to Montreal between volumes. Apparently Envy Adams is there for some reason, Young Neil gives bad advice to Scott and their encounter goes pretty badly.
Thankfully Envy isn’t entirely heartless, despite what others would have you believe, and meets him the next afternoon for coffee, it’s still a pretty painful spectacle. She reminds him that were kids when they dated and he was hardly a paragon of virtue. High on caffeine from one cup of coffee, Scott rants about all this to Wallace and a book shop, with a nice little background joke, the place is going out of business and one of its signs says “Please help oh God.”
Scott’s pieced together what everyone else did in the last chapter and worked out that Gideon’s in town. They chat a bit and Wallace buys him sushi. Scott gets a message from Kim telling him that life uptown is boring and he should pay her a visit sometime. Another small bit of fortune comes Scott’s way as Gideon the cat has returned. Scott huddles up with the cat, and the cat doesn’t seem to like it.
The next day, Scott and Envy talk again, and Scott offers casual sex again. He’s really not getting the hints here, is he? Envy responds that he barely remembers the old her which is sad since he was the only who really ever did. As for the breakup, the fight on New Years Eve clearly took a toll is she responds the feeling of heartbreak was mutual. He also tells Scott Gideon isn’t even really a bad guy. Speaking of, the two stand off and Scott runs for his dear life.
Wallace sends him off to met Kim, calling it a sabbatical to cleanse his mind before he fights Gideon. Scott replies, in of the few times he ever makes sense, that he doesn’t want to fight Gideon, he has no reason to. Either way, he heads to the Great White North
Chapter 34 – A Link to the Past. Scott has breakfast with Kim’s family and they’re all sorts of embarrassing. Kim and Scott head into the Wilderness and we have a line from Scott that sums up his character thusfar quite nicely “I don’t think I’m ready to be a grown-up.” Kim still isn’t sure what she’s doing here either and one smile leads to Scott kissing her.
She firmly rejects it, but Scott argues that she has stood by him this whole time. And then a couple of items from previous volumes are turned on their head as it’s revealed it wasn’t Kim he told that he was going away, it was Lisa, and Kim didn’t find out until Lisa told her. And then there’s Simon Lee, not a bad guy, just a nerd that Kim was dating..
Scott’s head begins to glow, we’d seen this once before. Kim tries to get him to calm down but out of the shadows comes the NegaScott, the two fight but all the time, Kim tells him he can’t keep living like this, he can’t keep forgetting all his mistakes, or he’ll never learn from them and they’ll follow him around. NegaScott pins him down and he sees flashes of Ramona, causing him to relent the fight. The NegaScott merges with him and he remembers everything.
Scott no longer believes he deserves Ramona but Kim tells him it’s now time to earn it, in other words:
If it’s worth having, it’s worth fighting for, eh? He rides on top of the bus, for dramatic effect, kinda reminding me of Knives’ dad, not sure if that was intentional.
Chapter 35 – Love Hurts. Envy shows off her latest costume to Gideon, who has his usual list of advice and criticism. Envy wants a word, whilst he’s busy preparing for his grand opening. She’s tired, she’s been training and learning choreography for weeks and tried on 71 dresses. He remarks that for these outfits, he’s had young designers chained to sewing machines and that her dress-up is providing him with sexual pleasure.
Scott runs into the chaos club where co-incidentally, all the major characters we’ve seen so far are, including Julie who moved 3 chapters ago. OK, Kim and Lisa aren’t there but… you get my point. Scott has a straight drink that he finds so disgusting he spits out, I totally relate. Anyway, he needs a new t-shirt now, thankfully there’s one from the marketing the barman gives him. He bumps into Stacey and introduces him to Young Neil, who he introduces as just Neil, which makes Neil’s day. Some men are easily pleased.
Envy goes on stage for her performance, which contains a cryptic message for Scott to look behind him as Gideon makes his move. I hadn’t mentioned it up to this point but Scott had assumed Ramona had gone back to Gideon because all his friends seemed to think so, but no. Angry from all this, Gideon strikes Scott in the chest and steals his power of love. Gideon invites Scott to be part of the League of evil exes but Scott refuses. Gideon responds by stabbing him through the chest, he doesn’t explode into coins or… How does this world work?
The impact is so hard apparently Kim was able to feel it, weird.
Chapter 36 – Don’t let it get you down. Scott is in his dreamscape where he sees Ramona. Scott is relieved that she didn’t get to Gideon as she admits things were pretty messed up with her and she left to find herself and, in some way, save Scott from her. It ended up doing the opposite. She has to come back but she’s doing it for her. She’s always the one who leaves and can’t say goodbye and doesn’t want to be that person anymore. She apologises to Scott for it.
Scott kisses her twice in spite of everything she said. She then reveals that he is dead and she doesn’t know why he’s here until we remember Scott had an extra-life from Volume 3. Apparently only Scott’s mother remembers this. I guess given these volumes came out yearly O’Malley kinda hoped that people would’ve forgotten, it doesn’t work reading them back to back like I have but…
Ramona bursts out of Scott’s chest and decides not to let Scott do the fight alone, finally. Gideon… reveals he had a group of girls frozen in ice awaiting the day they’ll all go out with him and… seriously? Gideon uses his Kamehameha and everyone’s head starts to glow. Scott gets a bit angry at Ramona, he’s not really fighting for anything now. Turns out the glowing head thing is a Gideon design and here we find out the whole League of evil exes was something that just came about when he posted a drunken rant on Craigslist.
Ramona reminds him that he didn’t really love her, he was pushing her away until she left. Gideon doesn’t quite remember it like that, having a more idyllic memory similar to ones Scott had had, and angrily takes a swipe at Scott. Ramona tries to glow out again but Gideon stabs her with the sword, somehow not killing her or make her explode into coins.
Gideon remarks that she’s been using the glow to enter subspace somehow as the whole deal with the glow is that was something Gideon created for emotional warfare, it’s intent is to trap you in your own head but since Ramona already hates herself in some ways, she managed to warp it to her own benefit. We see a bit of their relationship, when they meet and when she left.
Ramona, still alive, repeats the remark from an earlier chapter that Gideon has a way inside her head, but she means that literally. Scott enters her subspace bag, where we find Ramona cuffed to Gideon. He’s apparently all-powerful in her head, but Scott doesn’t care, charging at him headbutting him hard enough to infect him with the glow.
Unfortunately, he still has the sword and cuts Scott in half, I guess he survives this though f*ck knows how. But Ramona, inspired by his bravery or something breaks free of the cuffs and is joined by all the other hairstyles in kicking the crap out of Gideon.
Chapter 38 - Music sounds better with you - Now we’re back in the real world, as Gideon is about to strike a killer blow, Ramona blocks him using her subspace bag. The bag explodes open raining down all the bits that were in it. Ramona now has the power of love, which heals her wounds. Scott remembers all his breakups and sees all his friends together, telling him to fight on, and is able to admit that he and Gideon in many ways are not dissimilar, though Scott is an idiot and not totally insane.
With that Scott earns the power of understanding which comes with its own sword and a new T-shirt. But don’t count Gideon out yet, as Gideon had a sword embedded in Envy’s dress. Yes, he’s that kind of prick. He tries to throw them off, but Scott kinda turns the tables by telling him about Gideon the cat. Turns out, he had used the subspace highway to get into Scott’s head and is the primary reason for all his gaps in memories and falsehoods disguising his misdeeds.
The two finally finish Gideon off, resulting in coins to the value of over $7m dollars falling on the club’s patrons. Envy, thankful to get out of this relationship hugs Scott and gives him some level of closure. She plays a song and frees all the women Gideon had frozen. There’s a few jokes with them sprinkled in but we’re coming down to the end now, so let’s finish this off. Ramona jokes that she wanted a new bag anyway, and isn’t really interesting in picking up all her sh*t, hope your purse wasn’t among that stuff then.
Stacey asks where she was, and she admits she also went on what was supposed to be a wilderness sabbatical. It was only supposed to be for a couple of weeks but it worked out longer as she just spent the days sleeping, doing internet sh*t and watching x-files. She tried calling Scott but presumably at her old apartment as opposed to his.
The two are exhausted and talk in the lift. It’s not gonna be easy resuming their relationship but maybe it’ll be worth it if they just hold on. Ramona remarks that she’s never been good at that but in a nice call-back to something Kim told Scott earlier, Scott replies “Hey. You’ll get it. It just takes practice”
Wrap up time. Scott gets his job back and we get the reveal that Steven and Joseph are dating. He apparently came out to everyone else in the last volume. Joseph doesn’t like Scott much, can’t imagine why. Kim and Scott play a cover of “I’m a believer” under the new name Shatterband but neither Knives nor Neil really care for it. Knives says her farewell to Scott as she heads for College. Scott and Ramona meet and travel through a subspace door out of the darkness, into the light.
Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour lives up to that title. He definitely is growing as a person through the acceptance of everything wrong he’s done and the resolve to do better. This is the him we hoped he would be, even if he’s still a little dense. This story takes the general coming of age format and twists it to also serve as a cautionary tale for those who choose not to, like Scott.
Whilst it makes sense in the story to have Gideon be responsible for some of this, I feel him being totally responsible does somewhat take away from Scott’s growth. Gideon as a character is maybe a little too over-the-top, I would’ve made him a more subtle manipulator whose evil is more cleverly hidden, especially given Envy’s “He’s not even a bad person” line.
But that that does come to a problem with the League of Evil Exes, what did they actually want? No seriously. How did they find out about Scott so quickly? There’s a lot of unanswered questions they kinda expect you not to think about too much as they’re driving forces in the main narrative.
The other questions I have are that of world-building. All the evil exes burst into coins in their defeats, but Scott doesn’t, he bleeds. Ramona too, some have said this suggests that Scott’s entire story is a delusion, but the Gideon reveal doesn’t gel with that theory anyway.
I have to admit I like where everyone ended up, Steven Stills and Joseph getting together was foreshadowed well, I’m glad Knives decided to move on and get away from it all, I’m glad Young Neil got a promotion to Neil, and I’m glad the onus is on both Scott and Ramona to work together to resolve their issues, rather than it being focused on one or the other.
Scott Pilgrim as series is an enjoyable read with great art and the colour, whilst not essential, is somewhat helpful if you can afford it. For one it makes Ramona’s hairstyles stand out all the more. Both Bryan Lee O’Malley and Nathan Fairburn deserve praise for a great bit of work.
But we’re not done yet. Next, we’ll reach our final destination, let’s see this story get the film treatment in the hands of Edgar Wright.
Rating 85/100
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