flawless victory - a review of scott pilgrim vol 1-6

 

Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim Graphic Novel Series, Vol 1-6

Review by Chris Nolen
 

In July, 2010, Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley released the sixth and final book in the series, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, capping off one of the most successful indie/underground graphic novel series to date. The books are most famous for seeming to capture the spirit and language of the “Nintendo Generation,” the first generation to be around video games and tech their entire lives. They are the first to have grown up with gameboys and cell phones as a natural part of their day-to-day experience. Generally speaking, this generation tends to line up with the formidable 25-35 year old male demographic. It targets this demo with precision as it is loaded with not only gaming, but general pop culture references. But aside from the cultural fixins', the S.P. series is rooted firmly around relationships, both romantic and platonic. And it is in this core that the books have managed to reach well beyond the gamer/comic fan to become popular across many groups, including females and the gay community.

I won’t dwell too much on the plot, as if you’ve seen the movie trailer, you already know the setup. The series revolves around the titular protagonist Scott Pilgrim, a 23-year-old slacker in Toronto. He plays in a band, Sex Bob-omb (a reference to the Super Mario Brothers character,) and hasn’t quite grown into responsibility just yet. He shares an apartment with his “cool gay roommate” who enables Scott’s slacker ways by basically letting him freeload with no job. But life is going well by Scott’s standards, as he has just started dating a new girlfriend as the story begins. The status-quo is rocked, however, with the appearance of Ramona Flowers, an American transplant working for Amazon.ca. She is the girl of Scott’s dreams, literally. So naturally, Scott is infatuated. But Ramona has some baggage. In order to date Ramona, Scott has to defeat her seven evil exes. And therein lies the crisis at the core of the series.

But the brilliance of the books is that there is a lot of depth that isn’t revealed by the simple synopsis. The book’s trademark use of videogame iconography and language, most evident when Scott battles his foes as if they were boss battles in a game, can be interpreted simply as the way someone of the Nintendo Generation views life…through the lens of his culture. When he does something good, his statistics increase. When he is sad, his stats sink. When he comes to a moment of clarity and understanding, he “levels up.”

The battles against the evil exes are him coming to terms with insecurities, as we all feel the need to live up to or outdo the past relationships of our girlfriends. Physical battles are how Scott interprets this conflict, and he has to conquer the specters of Ramona’s past to have a shot with her. Scott has his own baggage in the form of his exes that also appear and must be conquered. The end goal is letting go of the past. And it is a fierce battle indeed.

The tone of the books is very light-hearted and filled with comedy. In fact, the series has widely been recognized as having some of the best comedic writing in all graphic novels. The dialog is dry, sharp, and completely believable even if the subject matter goes into the fantastic. His characters are amazingly true to life. They work, have sex, and live lives of varying degrees of responsibility. They have their favorite bars and hang-outs. They live with consequences. Their lives change over the course of the books in some pretty significant ways. Some move away. Some come out of the closet. They break up and get back together. Some break up for good. Some finally grow up, for better or worse. It is the sweet and sour life of the modern twenty-something.

It is in O’Malley’s ability to make this complex subject matter not only digestible, but entertaining, by speaking the language of his audience. The artistic style is inspired by Japanese cartoons, or Manga, a style that fits the video game references and structure well. To those who aren’t fans of the style, this reviewer included, it can be a bit off-putting. But the dialog and depth of the stories and well-developed characters and relationships balance out the art style perfectly, bridging the gap between serious storytelling and comedic fare. It’s true that O’Malley does seem to have found a wonderful balance of accessibility and depth, and a fan of a well-told-story should not miss out on the Scott Pilgrim series simply because of the art style. And if you are from the Nintendo Generation, or love pop culture in general, it is a can’t miss cultural landmark series...that, along with the film adaptation, is another step toward videogames being accepted as a mature medium for the masses.

Comments

[O]

Great review... I am ordering the box set and can't wait to get pulled into the world of Scott Pilgrim!