Originally posted on Goodreads.

Synopsis (of Volume 1): Scott Pilgrim's life is totally sweet. He's 23 years old, he's in a rock band, he's "between jobs", and he's dating a cute high school girl. Nothing could possibly go wrong, unless a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, rollerblading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. Will Scott's awesome life get turned upside-down? Will he have to face Ramona's seven evil ex-boyfriends in battle? The short answer is yes. The long answer is Scott Pilgrim, Volume 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life.

Rating: 5/5

I'm writing one comprehensive review instead of taking the volumes one-by-one because, honestly, I'm lazy and they're too small for me to actively want to review them separately. I've been a fan of Scott Pilgrim since the 2010 movie came out (wow, it's been ten years), and I've always wanted to read the comics because I loved the movie so much. There's a lot of prominent differences in movie vs. the comics, and most of that is due to characterization, which is what a good chunk of my review will focus on.

The brief review? Scott Pilgrim is a hundred times more of a jerk in the comics than he is in the movies, and as Joseph said in Volume 6, his friends really need to get new friends.

Scott Pilgrim has struck me as being marketed to a more hipster, young adult demographic (most likely white considering how most of the characters are white) — you know the type, anywhere from 17-24 like the characters, snobby, self-absorbed, bad at communication, moody... Am I describing the target audience or the characters? Yes.

I wonder if this was written as a sort of satire social commentary about this demographic of people because it would work really well if it was. As it is, I'm going to go ahead and assume it's not, but my review doesn't change either way. Scott is the biggest jerk in the entire six volumes. He plays around with Knives' feelings, he's not nice to his friends, and he sees everything in his own obnoxious, self-biased lens (everyone in the book does, that's a fact of life). And, yet, I'm still left rooting for him. Why? Well, because, usually, his enemies are even bigger assholes than he is (except for Lucas Lee, I loved that he and Lucas took a "break" from their fight to talk during Volume 2, especially because Lucas revealed some more insight about how Ramona treats others in her relationships). I don't want to see his enemies win. They're snobbier than him. He should kick their butts. And he does.

The two main leads, being Scott and Ramona, are insufferable morons. (I know — this is a five-star review?) It's like the rest of the cast are their more sensible friends, and Scott and Ramona are that couple that just happened that you see on your Facebook feed and you get that feeling of dread... Like you want them to be happy, but if they broke up, you wouldn't be sad about it at all. So, Scott Pilgrim is the story of you watching your misguided friends make bad relationships decisions except from the perspective of your misguided friends.

That being said, I still enjoyed it. The supporting cast does a lot to make me tolerate Scott and Ramona's grating behavior and lack of communication. It's like watching bad reality TV. It's bad, but you want to keep watching to see how dumb they're going to be next. Leads aside, my favorite character is definitely Wallace because he's one of the few voices of reason in the entire book (Kim, sometimes Stephen, sometimes Envy, and definitely Joseph are others). He's actually my favorite part about the entire series and the movie.

So, why a five-star review, then, for a series I can't stand the leads of? Nostalgia, I suppose, and sentimentality. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is my second favorite film ever and my first most rewatchable film. The characters are much more tolerable and less annoying and unsympathetic in the movie, but the comics are equally fun and that made all the difference. O'Malley's humor shines through the pages, the art style is cutesy and likeable (perfect for the cartoon-y atmosphere and genre of the book), and the transitions from panel to panel or page to page are crisp and well done. The comics are made very simplistically, so they're a light, fun read. The five stars are my personal enjoyment of the series; if I rated it more objectively, it would probably get three stars from me, so at least you know those extra two stars are how much I just love reading it for fun.

Kim is absolutely 100% right, though, when she says, "Scott, if your life had a face, I would punch it." Because so would I.