Review: Scott Pilgrim Vs The Universe

Title: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe (Scott Pilgrim #5)

Author: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Publisher: Oni Press
Publication Date: February 18th, 2009
Genre: YA, Graphic Novel

It’s Scott’s birthday and before he blows out the candles he vows to be the best 24 year-old ever. But things are just as difficult as when he was twenty-three. Scott has to defeat the twins Kyle and Ken Katayanagi, two of Ramona’s evil exes. While fighting two people at once is difficult as it is, Scott has to get past the twins’ fighting robots before he can even fight them. Although Scott won’t stop fighting for her, things with Ramona are difficult as well. Scott and Ramona both find out about the other’s wrong doings in the past, which causes problems in their relationship. Not to mention Scott finds out that she doesn’t even like his band Sex Bob-Omb. While Ramona being mysterious was one of the things Scott initially liked about her, he learns about the downside to all that mystery. Things might be difficult now, but Scott will just defeat the twins and Gideon and everything will be perfect. Won’t it?

This is the penultimate book in the series and has a much darker tone than the previous books. This book was mainly building up to the final volume, and it definitely left me wanting to read the next (and last) book in the series. Of course, at the same time I don’t want to read it, since I don’t want this series to end! Once again this book starts off with a short recap explaining the different characters and their connection with one another. I like the artwork in the first pages a lot: the first page shows a picture of Ramona walking in the fall, and the next two pages show the title with a dragon around it. Overall, artistically I liked this book the most. Unlike the previous books in the series, Scott Pilgrim Vs The Universe wasn’t all that funny. This volume is more focused on character development, as well as Scott and Ramona slowly coming to terms with their pasts. Both Scott and Ramona have done bad things in the past and are trying to change for the better. But is that really possible? The cliffhanger ending worked well and I loved all the build up to the grand finale of the series. This book had a different mood than the previous books, and that was one of the things I liked. While it is definitely dark, I thought that was fitting for the second to last book in this series. While it is different from the first four Scott Pilgrim books, I enjoyed this one and I think it did a good job of setting things up for Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour.

4/5

“Maybe next time let’s not date the girl with eleven evil ex-boyfriends, okay?”