Scott Pilgrim vs The Universeby Bryan Lee O'Malley
Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 5: Scott Pilgrim vs The Universe / 9781934964101
I've really been liking the Scott Pilgrim series so far -- I love the thoughtful characterization and the exploration of "growing up" in those later young adult years when you're not quite a kid but not quite feeling like an adult either -- but I will admit that some of the earlier volumes have been a little slow-paced for my tastes. This volume, however, is a thrill ride from beginning to end and probably my favorite of the series so far.
If things seemed rosy at the end of the last volume ("Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together"), this volume is here to turn all that around and curb stomp your heart into a mass of quivering sadness. In following the developing theme that you can't run from your problems because they'll always catch up with you, quite a few of Scott's previous bad decisions start to catch up to him here, including his poor handling of his Knives/Ramona switch-over from the beginning of the series. The storyline in this volume is fast paced and tight, and it's impossible for Ramona and Kim *not* to steal the show -- it's easy to see why Kim especially is such a fan favorite after her stellar role in this volume.
Another thing I really liked about this volume is the continued evolution of the artform. There's a lot of cute "anime-esque" panels that really fit nicely with the overall video game theme, and it's really nice to see an artist improve and expand their repertoire over time. The regular art style is noticeably clearer and darker to me now, too -- outfits especially seem to really pop and the overall feel is very nicely done and professional.
If you've been with the Scott Pilgrim series so far, I am fairly confident you'll like this volume. The pace has really picked up, and it's nice to see Scott being forced to confront and deal with his bad decisions up to this point. The characterization development of Ramona and Kim is well worth exploring, and overall I enjoyed this volume immensely.
~ Ana Mardoll
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1 comments:
This book has its moments, but overall I think it's among the weakest in the series. The characters all feel as if they're in a rut, and it's something that somehow seems to infect the actual book. This is also kind of the point in the story where I go "get to the end already", so I actually somewhat appreciate that the movie's adaptation of the volume (such as it is) only takes about five minutes--even if it robs Ramona of some rather important bits of development.
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