Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
In my review for the first book I mentioned that I struggled through it the first time. That is true. That is also true with this book, but for the life of me, I can't remember why. You see, when I started Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, I was reading it online and only read a little bit of the beginning. However, after reading the books over again, I gotta say, they're a thing of beauty. Book 2 here is where things really start to pick up, and Scott Pilgrim truly shows his potential for greatness.
Side note: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World has a fantastic title page. I had it as my computer background for months due to it's sheer beauty. Said image is at the bottom of the review.
The book opens with a fight from Scott's first day at St. Joel's Catholic High School, where we see Scott get into a fight, day one. Granted, he's not the Scott we know and love yet though. He's young, isn't the best fighter there is (But he's still incredibly awesome), and has to learn the way high school works. Being a Scott Pilgrim book though, there's more than meets the eye (Or is that Transformers?) and we learn a bit about Scott's old friends, old girlfriend (A shocker!), and his fight with a boy in glasses who looks oddly familiar...
Meanwhile, in the current timeline, Scott has to deal with the two girls he's involved with, the second evil ex (Who is encountered in like the best way ever, you just can't hate the guy, even if he is evil), and the looming presence of Scott's ex Envy Adams coming to town...
Bryan Lee O'Malley really cannot be complimented enough for his work on this book. It's consistently improving and with the groundwork laid out he takes the chance to really delve into the characters and you get a much better sense of Scott's Peanut Gallery of friends, in particular Kim. Also, as if the fight in the beginning isn't awesome enough, we get the coolest boss fight of all the books (Well, maybe second coolest, or third if the final book is as awesome as I expect it to be) and we also get to see Knives and Ramona go at it in a hardcore cat-fight. I mean, it's seriously awesome beyond belief and the choreography in these books is something not to be overlooked due to animated styling. Bryan Lee O'Malley has a better sense of camera work and fighting in general than you're average comic book will showcase, something that pays off big time.
What really shines here though are the little things. The humor is even better than in book one and characters you never see again make great little quips and observations that just really fluff the story out into something great. References to various video game properties are appreciated and if you're a gaming nerd, you'll thoroughly enjoy this. But you know that already, what with the clear love and affection for video games Bryan Lee O'Malley has and displays in these nice pages.
Overall, buy this. It's not the best, but it's better than the first book and shows the books gradual increase in quality and just overall sense of awesome that cannot be ignored. While some people say Scott isn't lovable, you gotta love a story about redemption, love, heartbreak, and epic video game fights. I mean, it's just great. 4 out of 5. But the best is yet to come.
