I’ve been hearing many great things about a movie titled Scott Pilgrim vs The World which is based on the graphic novels from the Scott Pilgrim collection. I was super intrigued with how popular the movie turned out to be so I decided to look at the original comics that started it all. The original stories were created by Canadian comic book artist Bryan Lee O’Malley who has written other graphic novels such as Lost at Sea and Seconds. This review will look at the first volume of stories from the new colored editions of Scott Pilgrim and here is what I have to say about them.
Scott Pilgrim is an average young adult who is at first dating a high schooler named Knives. Scott is also a part time electric guitar player with his friends in band called Sex Bomb-omb. Everything changes for Scott very quickly when he comes across another girl around his age named Ramona Flowers. Immediately they both hit it off and begin to date each other without Knives knowing about it. However, the catch to officially date Ramona is to stop her evil ex-boyfriends who come in all shapes and sizes which forces Scott to take them all down in the only ways he knows possible.
These are the kind of stories that know how to have fun with themselves. It incorporates many interesting characters as well as many interesting teenage lifestyles and fantasies that establish an edgy but also innocent times of teen and young adulthood. The best part of the whole thing though is the way that these stories tend to break the fourth wall or just having them plain making up scenarios that are unrealistic but also interesting as it is the kind of graphic novel that clearly establishes that this is the kind of world where anything goes and random situations are the norm. There are plenty of references to pop culture and it just plain has fun with the idea of capturing the feeling of celebrating youth from a different period in time
The characters we meet have plenty of personality quirks and each of their motivations are perfectly established. Scott himself is a very typical young adult and his search for something greater than himself is very relatable and keeps the pages turning from the reader. Other characters like Knives, Wallace and Ramona are also very memorable and are great for working off Scott with their own personalities and their character arcs.The character talk like an actual teen or young adult would talk which brings a sense of sympathy to the audience these stories were mainly made for.
Character designs are very good and each of them are drawn in a way that conveys the emotions they are going for. It's also great how almost every character including the background ones have distinct visual traits that relate to their personality such as hair color or sometimes the clothes they are wearing. It's also really cool how the majority of the Scott Pilgrim stories are set in Canada which is great for introducing the audience to a different country but also creates a uniqueness compared to a lot of other graphic novels set in an American setting. You’ll also be able to see some surprisingly gripping action and colorful settings for our characters to walk around in. if you can get the color versions of the Scott pilgrim books then certainly get them because it's worth it to see how well the colors work with conveying a feeling of a certain scene in the story.
Scott Pilgrim would go on to receive a movie adaptation as well as a small video game adaptation in the future years that followed after the release of the first few stories from the original black and white versions. For what I saw with the Volume one color edition, I’d say I'm more than excited to see more of Scott Pilgrim and his buds to go on more crazy adventures and take down many more evil ex-boyfriends. Needless to say Scott Pilgrim Volume one was such a great read for me and I can’t wait to see what is in store for Scott in the next volumes that follow.
(Final Grade: A-)