I know, I know it's another review of the Scott Pilgrim saga but fear not, the end is near! There's only one more volume to review before I'm done and I can go back to reviewing other things. But this doesn't mean I feel bad for reviewing Scott Pilgrim since it's been one of the most inventive and hilarious comic series I've read, granted I don't read that many comics. But I was warned that in Volume 5, the mood was actually going to change into something darker but I dismissed those warnings. Now where those people right? We'll see as we dive into Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe.
Our recently turned 24 hero, Scott Pilgrim, has beat up and defeated four of his girlfriend's, Ramona Flowers, evil-exes...out of seven. In the meantime, Scott has realized he truly loves Ramona and has a cool sword of true love. Now their life is full of ultra-togetherness since they live together but things are about to change. The next Evil-Exes show up and this time, they're Japanese Twins who do everything in tandem since Ramona played them against each other, plus they keep sending robots to fight Scott. But none of that matters since things are getting rocky with Ramona when the fact that Scott dated her and Knives Chau at the same time which can't be fixed by saying "I'M HARDCORE, I'LL TAKE 'EM BOTH!" which culminates in Ramona leaving Scott.
I got to admit that writing in this volume is, by far, the most mature the series has ever become. There's no time for sissy stuff like video games and rocking out but only time for who gets hurt in cheating and how much can one take of someone babbling about X-Men storylines. Now don't get me wrong, there is some light-hearted stuff with the many robot fights and the evil Japanese twins but like Roxanne in the last volume they're presence is fairly minimal even if they have more screen-time. The meat of this is pretty much the fall-out of Scott and Ramona's relationship and how it affects Scott's friends...even if it minimally affects. them.
Now with this maturity comes a great price for this volume, it's not as much fun. Now I know that it's not supposed to be fun when all the heavy drama starts pouring in and that's fine. Those bits are not supposed to be fun but when all the light-hearted trademarks of Scott Pilgrim come in and you're having fun, that's a problem. Every fight and every video-game reference seems obligatory here since the contrast between that kind of light-heartedness and the heavy themes is too severe here for a proper marriage, so to speak. The last volume got away this since it didn't become all THAT heavy to drown out the fun in Scott Pilgrim.
This is the worst of the Scott Pilgrim saga but it says something about the series when the worst is still good. It's still readable and it's still entertaining. All the trademarks are still there even if it's not as entertaining. The heavy themes are actually a welcome change. The characters are still likable and there's plenty of heartwarming situations. The problem is that the light hearted stuff and the heavy stuff just don't mesh well together. The ratio between light and heavy here is way too lop-sided with a bias towards the heavy stuff. It's still a good read, it's just not as good.
7/10
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