The second part of Bryan Lee O'Malley's funny and charming Scott Pilgrim series didn't grab me as immediately as the first, but it was just as consistently enjoyable throughout. It's a bit longer, and delves more into the back story of the various characters and shows that Scott isn't the only one capable of kicking some ass. One of the most interesting things about volume two to me was the evolution of Knives, the girl Scott was dating when he met Ramona, the girl whose ex-boyfriends he's battling for her. She's sympathetic as an unfortunate casualty of Scott's affections, but she becomes more and more clearly obsessed and basically goes nuts before too long, providing for some pretty entertaining scenes without removing what made her likable. The book's still really about Scott and Ramona though, and the continued development of their relationship was quite good.
It's really funny to see more and more how the world of Scott Pilgrim is basically taking place inside a video game. There's a bunch of idiosyncratic things going on, especially when someone gets defeated and explodes into loose change and sometimes a random item, which Scott may or may not have the right skill proficiency to use. It's clear how much of a dork O'Malley is, with games constantly getting name dropped, including the names of most of the characters' bands that get mentioned. This volume also shows a different side of Scott, as he's capable of tricking people into defeating themselves if he feels overmatched and not just winning by brute force. It's not that easy to explain what makes Scott Pilgrim work so well, it just sort of does. There's apparently some sort redesign happening that's making the third volume difficult to find in comic shops, but I'll still be trying to read it as soon as possible.
AAAAAGGGHHHH
15 years ago
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