The Scott Pilgrim Series by Bryan Lee O'Malley: Vol. 5

See previous reviews for Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3 and Vol. 4.

Volume 5: Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe

While this was a strong entry in the series, with a lot of really in depth character exploration for a graphic novel, a couple of things about it were disappointing. First, there wasn't nearly enough Wallace. Where is the graphic novel just about Wallace, is what I want to know. He's awesome! And hilarious. Second, a lot of the action takes place at houses (particularly house parties) and that means less Toronto goodness. There's something so delightful about seeing the places you pass every day being rendered in cartoon form.

Worst of all was that all the progress Scott made towards becoming a decent human being in the last installment seems to be slipping away from him. I'm sure this is typical of 24-year-old men, but Scott just doesn't get it. It's like he just doesn't understand how to relate to the people around him, particularly the women. It's well written/drawn and I'm sure very relateable to dudes Scott's age but I just want to shake his adorable little cartoon shoulders and tell him to smarten up.

This volume may be the one that has diverged from the movie the most so far (ok, I know, it's the other way around). In this one, the evil ex Scott has to fight is actually two evil exes, twins, and he doesn't even fight them - just their amazing fighting robot. Why would they leave this out of the movie??

So far I think the best, most interesting character is Kim, and we got to see a lot of her in this volume, which was great. Another thing I enjoyed was that despite a notable lack of Wallace for the majority of the book, there were lots of great little jokes and funny tidbits. Scott trying to entice the cat back with various questionable food items was my favourite.

All told this volume wasn't the weakest entry, but didn't hold my interest after the last, spectacular one. I'm giving it three CN Towers out of five.