Volume 1
Synopsis
Scott Pilgrim is your typical underachiever. He doesn’t have a job, mooches off his friends, and seemingly has no real motivation to change any of this. One of the few things he’s pretty proud about is that he’s dating a high-schooler, Knives Chau. She’s pretty obsessed with him and his band, Sex Bob-omb. Then Scott meets Ramona Flowers, the literal girl from his dreams.
He starts dating Ramona (without informing Knives). Unbeknownst to him, to date her he must successfully defeat her seven evil exes. Should seem simple, but it isn’t. Ramona has dated some pretty successful and powerful people. Not to mention how angry they each are at him for attempting to date her.
It really wouldn’t have been so bad if that was all he had to deal with, but it isn’t. Life hasn’t stopped just because of this. Scott still has to deal with not having a job, not having his own place, his band, dealing with his own exes, and most important his relationship with Ramona. What will he do when his decisions and actions come back to bite him?
Dating Ramona is not as easy as Scott thought, but he doesn’t give up so easily. As the evil exes are defeated one by one, will Scott have the strength to finish them when his life falls apart? Will he actually get the girl, or will it all have been in vain?
My Thoughts
Here is another example of a book/graphic novel/comic where I saw the film version first. I loved the cheesy, video game style it had. Now that I’ve finally read the original material, I appreciate it so much more.
For a romantic story, I really enjoyed it. I liked how it wasn’t dripping with gooey, lovey-dovey nonsense. It’s simply a story about a guy who falls for a girl and then has to fight for her. It’s less about what happens in their relationship and more about the outside issues against them. It’s a really fun read. As I said before, I love the video game element to the story. I play a lot of games, especially RPGs, so I really appreciate how they included it. It was also very imaginative, as if everyone involved was on an acid trip when they created it.
For the most part I liked Scott. He’s a guy who takes heartbreak very seriously and takes a long time to get over it. While that is fine, he lets it affect every aspect of his life, which is not good. He’s also pretty dumb. It was kind of endearing in the beginning, but it got old by the 6th volume (where it thankfully didn’t last for too long). The rest of the characters are good in their own ways, but my favourite is Wallace Wells (the gay roommate). No, not because he’s gay, but because he is basically the snarky voice of reason in Scott’s head. I was also surprised what happened with Stephen Stiles at the end of the series (dun, dun, dun). Only in Canada, right?
I found the dialogue easy to read and very coherent. Everything with the artwork and the writing made sense and didn’t confuse me to the point. That’s all I really have to say on that.
Here’s a quick comparison to the movie. Yeah, yeah, I know movies are typically different from their source material and this one is no different. Scenarios were mixed around (like the fight with ex Roxie), some characters were omitted (like Envy’s appearances at the end), and then the ending had so much wrong going on. It was a decent interpretation, but they really could have done a better job with staying consistent with the original.
So yeah. I loved this series. I give a 5/5. It was fun, silly, and showed that relationships take work. I definitely recommend this. Enjoy 😉
Buy on Amazon: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, Volume 6
Buy at Barnes and Noble: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4, Volume 5, Volume 6
From the Mind of C.E. Tracy 