Sunday, August 29, 2010

Review: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour


The final chapter in this epic series begins with a short dream sequence. In it Scott Pilgrim finds himself chasing down the retreating figure of his lost love Ramona Flowers. The harder he tries to catch up, the faster she moves away from him, until she is completely gone and in her place is the seventh, and most evil ex, Gideon Graves.

In real life, Scott is pretty much down and out. Ramona has left him. He's living alone in an apartment paid for by his parents, and for the past four months he's done nothing but play video games. Even his band, Sex Bob-Omb, has broken up, Kim Pine has moved back with her family and Stephen Stills is in a new band, and no, they don't need a bass player. The poor guy is all kinds of messed up in the head, which is probably why he find's himself trying to score some "casual sex" with Knives Chau, and having coffee with his very own evil ex, Envy Adams...who just so happens to be dating that bastard, Gideon Graves. Scott, assuming he is off the hook for the seventh battle, flees from a confrontation with Gideon, and also flees the city, taking a "wilderness sabbatical" to visit Kim Pine.

While he's on his wilderness sabbatical, Scott finds himself in a showdown with Nega-Scott. During the battle he finds himself also fighting his memories, and trying to come to terms with the bad things he has done in the past. Eventually, with the help of Kim, some things click, he absorbs Nega-Scott, and gains some maturity in the process. With his new found maturity, Scott decides to win his lady-love back, so he travels to Gideon's new Toronto club, The Chaos Theater, for his final showdown.

All the great mysteries of the series: What is with this Subspace thingy? Who the hell is Gideon? What is up with Scott and Envy? And many others are concluded in this very strong, and totally satisfying final volume.

Unsurprisingly, the final volume in the Scott Pilgrim series lived up to its potential, and came to a completely awesome and gratifying finale. Bryan Lee O'Malley really did a fantastic job. He crafted a totally believable, poignant, and true-to-life love story, that never came off as cheesy, and on top of that mixed in tons of great laughs, and all the other, sort of goofy, stuff like video game style fights, and subspace, and amateur bands, that make this series so damn unique and fantastic.

Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour is nothing if not the best looking of the six books. I've enjoyed watching O'Malley's art form evolve and improve over the course of the series. I think compared to other skills, like pacing, character building, and plotting, his art is the most different from the book one to book six.

I don't really know what else to say here, just read the damn books already. I'd recommend this graphic novel series to anyone between the age of 16-50. They are a total joy to read. Enjoy!

Grade: A

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