Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe by Bryan Lee O'Malley. graphic literature, comic violence, relationships, music. 184 pages
After watching last night's Super Bowl festivities and witnessing the Lombardi Trophy return to its original home in Green Bay, I thought that nothing could possibly bring me down. Unfortunately, I had yet to read the 5th volume of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series. To call the story a downer would be a real understatement. I am sort of at an advantage to all of the Scott Pilgrim faithful who read the books when they were first released, because unlike they were when Vol. 5 was first released, I know that there is a 6th and final Scott Pilgrim book where everything turns out alright. Unfortunately, this reassurance doesn't soften the blow very much.
After the events of Vol. 4 when Scott gets it together, Vol. 5 does a complete 180 and the reader is treated to watching the life to which Scott (and the readers) have become accustomed to COMPLETELY FALL APART. In a quick 184 pages, Scott manages to not only lose his home, his girlfriend, his band, and his dignity, but also his will to keep going. The optimistic Scott Pilgrim of the past four volumes is replaced with a hollow shell of a character that is driven only by his obsession over why his girlfriend has left him even after he has taken down 6 of Ramona's evil exes (if you've been keeping count but haven't read the books, Scott's adversaries this time are the tag-team duo of evil exes 5 and 6, twins Kyle and Ken Katyanagi and their limitless arsenal of robots). I understand that in order for Scott to truly complete his epic journey, he has to fall and then get back up again, but this fall was painful to watch. I hate to say this (because it makes me sound like a crazy person) but I feel really bad for him after reading this. This isn't meant as a criticism of O'Malley's story. On the contrary, in fact, I would like to compliment him for creating a character for which I can have true sympathy (something I don't even have for REAL people sometimes). My only regret in reading this story is that I didn't have the 6th volume ready and waiting so I could recover from this universe-sized buzzkill.
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