Disclaimer: This review is actually fairly pointless. If you love Scott Pilgrim, you're guaranteed to get this book regardless of what I say. If you dislike Scott Pilgrim, the final volume certainly won't change your mind.
That effectively renders a review moot, save for spoilers, and I try to avoid those. This review is purposely vague, in fact. :/
------------------------------
The long-awaited sixth and final volume of the Scott Pilgrim series does not disappoint. At all. In fact, if "Awesome" was infinity and "Disappointing" was negative infinity, this book would go through negative infinity on the way to infinity. At least twice.
For the uninitiated: Scott Pilgrim is a Canadian graphic novel series combining social drama with kung-fu action, videogame tropes, and the most bizarre sense of humor this side of dadaism.
The final volume is the darkest in the series. I think this is the first time a character has actually bled, rather than suffering cartoony bludgeoning. Copiously, at that. However, rather than decreasing the amount of humor and deliberately making the conclusion darker and edgier, O'Malley manages to work humor into even the most gruesome impalement. This impressive balancing act is entertaining most of the time, though there are a couple instances where it comes across as jarring or inappropriate.
O'Malley's art has improved over the six volumes as well, to the point where I can now tell the characters apart. Seriously, that was a problem I had in the first couple volumes. D:
There are several scenes of extreme beauty in this volume as well as a couple scenes of horrific events, and O'Malley could've managed none of them at the beginning of his career.
The ending is one of the most satisfying I've ever read, and cleverly wraps up several loose ends that had left readers puzzled. The only downside is that it isn't different enough to entice skeptics to the series, but if you dislike Scott Pilgrim, you're probably not very important anyway. :P
Rating: 4.7/5
No comments:
Post a Comment