While the story of Scott Pilgrim is good, it is not exactly original. The reason the series is so spectacular is because of the humor. Some of it is cynical, some random, and some is self-referential, but it is all great. Many of the jokes derive from the fact that the world that Scott and his friends inhabit isn't exactly the real world, despite what the reader is led to believe in the opening chapters of the first volume. As I said in the previous post, Bryan Lee O'Malley is obviously a huge fan of independent music, video games, and comics (notably manga). This love manifests in various situations where video game cliches and references. The characters level up, the losers in fights drop items and/or money, and a save point shows up at one point. All of the bands have names that are video game references, the best being Scott's band, Sex Bob-omb.
And then there are the fight scenes. Things don't truly cross into the realm of over-the-top otherworldlyness until Scott fights Ramona's first evil ex-boyfriend. Without warning, the book changes from a smartly-written love story into an insane fight involving nearly every major character. The moves are stylized and synchronized, and suddenly, Scott goes from slacker to the best fighter in Toronto.
There are also plenty of comments that break the fourth wall; mostly Scott does this to answer other characters' questions about the story. If someone asks him about an event that has already been shown to the reader, he might say something like, "Go read the second volume". On the other hand, he has referenced future plot points by saying that they will be covered in a future installment.
If all of the humor was comic book and video game references or self-referential, it would get old fairly quickly. Fortunately, there is plenty of clever and cynical word-play that the characters use to (usually) express how much they hate each other. Don't get me wrong, Scott has friends, but he also has to deal with many people who dislike him (and what is a friendship without a few shared insults).
The jokes obviously work best in context, and I don't really want to give away any more. I hope that these two posts have given you enough reasons to check these books out. I know that the style of art and the story may be a little off-putting (it did with me for a while), but once you start reading it, you will be hooked.
Up next: An American horror story...
Showing posts with label Scott Pilgrim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scott Pilgrim. Show all posts
Monday, May 26, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Scott Pilgrim: Fighting For Love
If you couldn't tell from my posts about the works of Joss Whedon, I enjoy stories that explore relationships between people, and the Scott Pilgrim series is a lighter, but by no means less meaningful or hilarious, take on human interaction. Make no mistake, when I say that this is a lighter story, things aren't all sunshine and rainbows in Toronto; Scott and his friends deal with the "regular" aspects of life usually dealt with in coming-of-age stories, including break-ups, finding/keeping jobs, and getting over the past. However, the pain is almost always dealt with with incredible humor. As much as we want to see our protagonist succeed, the fact that Scott can be so clueless and puerile makes his failures just as fun to watch as his triumphs.
Scott is a 23-year-old slacker to the nth degree. He lives in a tiny apartment with his gay roommate Wallace (the apartment is so small that they sleep in the same bed, not because they are lovers, but because they can neither afford nor place another bed). Nearly everything in the apartment belongs to Wallace; one notable exception is the obligatory poster of two women kissing belongs to Scott (you know the one I'm talking about, every college kid in America and Canada either owned or knew someone who owned one- in fact, I have a very funny story relating to it, but this isn't the time or place for that). Because Scott has no job, he "borrows" all of Wallace's stuff, including his toothbrush, and never passes up an opportunity to mooch off of his friends. He is the bassist of a terrible band that clearly isn't going anywhere, and, true to his desire to do only what is convenient, the story begins with him dating a high school student who is clearly much more into him than he is into her.
However, he begins having a series of strange dreams featuring a beautiful girl on roller blades. These perplex him for a while, until he meets the mystery girl at a party. Her name is Ramona Flowers, and she is an Amazon.ca delivery girl, and her appearances in Scott's dreams is due to her using "subspace highways" as shortcuts between actual points in space. Oh yeah, these books aren't exactly realistic fiction. Bryan Lee O'Malley is obviously a huge fan of comic books, manga, music, and, especially, video games. He also isn't a big fan of the fourth wall, since he continually breaks it. But that is the subject of the next post.
Scott is immediately infatuated with Ramona, and though she is not as quick to take a liking to him, the two eventually begin a relationship. Unfortunately, Scott quickly learns that Ramona is a girl with some baggage. Ramona is looked down upon by most of the people in Canada because she is viewed as a slutty New Yorker, and there are many vague references to her less-than-model behavior. The same people who ridicule her tend not to like Scott, and they alternatively warn against and encourage a relationship, but both suggestions are motivated by malice. They see Ramona as both being too good for Scott (warning against), but they also believe that her promiscuous behavior will only get Scott hurt (thus, they encourage him to ask her out in the hopes that he will). To an extent, the rumors about Ramona are true, and Scott finds that to be able to date Ramona in peace, he will have to engage her Seven Evil Ex-Boyfriends in combat and defeat them.
No, you did not read that wrong, and yes, the premise works out much better when you read it in the books. But in addition to physical fighting, Scott has to figure out how to become a mature adult in order to stay with Ramona, since his childish ways, which may have impressed Knives Chau (his Chinese-Canadian high school girlfriend), put Ramona off and keep her closed up. She is a mysterious character (as the asides always remind us when they say, "Age: Unknown"), and before she can open up, she has to know that the person she confides in is trustworthy.
Up next: Surrealism, humor, video games, and evil exes...
Scott is a 23-year-old slacker to the nth degree. He lives in a tiny apartment with his gay roommate Wallace (the apartment is so small that they sleep in the same bed, not because they are lovers, but because they can neither afford nor place another bed). Nearly everything in the apartment belongs to Wallace; one notable exception is the obligatory poster of two women kissing belongs to Scott (you know the one I'm talking about, every college kid in America and Canada either owned or knew someone who owned one- in fact, I have a very funny story relating to it, but this isn't the time or place for that). Because Scott has no job, he "borrows" all of Wallace's stuff, including his toothbrush, and never passes up an opportunity to mooch off of his friends. He is the bassist of a terrible band that clearly isn't going anywhere, and, true to his desire to do only what is convenient, the story begins with him dating a high school student who is clearly much more into him than he is into her.
However, he begins having a series of strange dreams featuring a beautiful girl on roller blades. These perplex him for a while, until he meets the mystery girl at a party. Her name is Ramona Flowers, and she is an Amazon.ca delivery girl, and her appearances in Scott's dreams is due to her using "subspace highways" as shortcuts between actual points in space. Oh yeah, these books aren't exactly realistic fiction. Bryan Lee O'Malley is obviously a huge fan of comic books, manga, music, and, especially, video games. He also isn't a big fan of the fourth wall, since he continually breaks it. But that is the subject of the next post.
Scott is immediately infatuated with Ramona, and though she is not as quick to take a liking to him, the two eventually begin a relationship. Unfortunately, Scott quickly learns that Ramona is a girl with some baggage. Ramona is looked down upon by most of the people in Canada because she is viewed as a slutty New Yorker, and there are many vague references to her less-than-model behavior. The same people who ridicule her tend not to like Scott, and they alternatively warn against and encourage a relationship, but both suggestions are motivated by malice. They see Ramona as both being too good for Scott (warning against), but they also believe that her promiscuous behavior will only get Scott hurt (thus, they encourage him to ask her out in the hopes that he will). To an extent, the rumors about Ramona are true, and Scott finds that to be able to date Ramona in peace, he will have to engage her Seven Evil Ex-Boyfriends in combat and defeat them.
No, you did not read that wrong, and yes, the premise works out much better when you read it in the books. But in addition to physical fighting, Scott has to figure out how to become a mature adult in order to stay with Ramona, since his childish ways, which may have impressed Knives Chau (his Chinese-Canadian high school girlfriend), put Ramona off and keep her closed up. She is a mysterious character (as the asides always remind us when they say, "Age: Unknown"), and before she can open up, she has to know that the person she confides in is trustworthy.
Up next: Surrealism, humor, video games, and evil exes...
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