After hearing Wil Wheaton mention how much he loved Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley, I decided to check out a comic I probably wouldn't have given a second look to otherwise. And I'm very glad I did. I blazed through the first four volumes, Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness and Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, in no time. I couldn't put them down.
Scott Pilgrim is a 23-year-old slacker living in Toronto. He plays bass guitar in an amateur band, Sex Bob-omb. He's dating a 17-year-old high school student named Knives Chau. And then he sees the roller-skating delivery girl, Ramona Flowers and falls in love at first sight. The comic, drawn in a style reminiscent of Japanese manga, starts out as a sweet and snarky story of college-age slackers, funny because it's so realistic and recognizable. And then things suddenly get...strange. Scott discovers that if he wants to date Ramona, he has to defeat her seven evil exes in video game-style martial arts battles, complete with swords and axes, super powers and special moves. There's also the mysterious black void called"subspace" that Ramona is able to enter at will. But no matter how strange and wacky things get, O'Malley plays it straight (well, mostly straight, with a lot of sarcastic humor), which makes Scott Pilgrim even funnier and loads of fun.
The Library has the fifth volume, Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe. I can't wait to get my hands on it. Scott Pilgrim rules! Or something.