Hope you don’t mind me stealing your tagline, Greg, but here is my old review of the second Scott Pilgrim graphic novel from about five years ago. This review originally appeared in Comics Buyer’s Guide sometime in late ’05 or early ’06. I gave this 3 stars out of 4, per CBG’s grading system.
Scott Pilgrim Vol. 2: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World GN
Oni Press
$11.95, b/w, 200 pgs, available now
Writer / artist: Bryan Lee O’Malley
3 stars
Reviewed by Jim Johnson
Why would we all want to be Scott Pilgrim? He’s a young guy dating two girls, he has an up-and-coming band, and he gets to play video games a lot.
Now, why wouldn’t we want to be Scott Pilgrim? One of his girlfriends is named Knives, and has a personality to match. His other girlfriend has seven ex-boyfriends who all want to beat him up. And he has to share a mattress on the floor of his near-empty apartment with his gay roommate.
Bryan Lee O’Malley has carved out quite a unique life for his character, and it’s this quality that makes one breeze through this enjoyable graphic novel at a brisk pace. Scott Pilgrim is not your usual twenty-something, angry rebel reluctantly being dragged into adulthood; instead, he just goes with the direction life takes him, readily taking both the ups and the downs. In other words, he’s likeable.
O’Malley’s characters all have the same bug-eyed look, though, and their simplistic rendering makes them hard to tell apart, visually. Fortunately, their personalities are better rendered, and this is how they truly stand out.
www.onipress.com
ISBN 1-932664-12-2