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...
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