Our modern Romeo, Scott Pilgrim
I suppose I’m a bit late to the Scott Pilgrim bandwagon, but I just caught up and I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying it so far. I’d read Books 1 and 2 about a year ago, and while I thought the whole gamer angle was fun, the story hadn’t struck me as anything special. It’s turning out, though, that what Scott Pilgrim is really about is our romantic pasts, and the way they shape us. And that’s a topic much richer and more interesting than the standard boy-meets-girl story.
This is the rare love story that doesn’t just acknowledge, but actually involves the complex backstories of both main characters. And by complex, I mean realistically complex– not just one torrid, scarring affair, but small disappointments, childhood flirtations, and regrettable behaviors as well, and all woven together in a way that highlights Scott and Ramona’s core qualities as well as their capacity to learn and change. The notion of Scott having to fight Ramona’s evil exes in order to earn the right to date her seemed silly to me at first, even anti-feminist– shouldn’t Ramona be the one granting people the right to date her? But the battles are less about Ramona being allowed to date, and more about Scott learning to accept Ramona, flaws and all. It’s no mistake that he continues to call her mysterious five books into the series– he hasn’t quite come to terms with who she is yet. And although Ramona’s battles are less organized, she also learns about Scott by meeting figures from his past and present.
I’m probably making Scott Pilgrim sound more serious than it is. It’s mostly light reading, and the grown-up themes are offset with lots of cute, geeky references and fulfilling of stereotypes about Canadians saying “eh?” a lot and hanging out at Tim Horton’s. But, well, for something that initially appeared to be one long gamer joke– and still does– Scott Pilgrim’s turning out to be an unexpectedly mature exploration of modern romance.
Tags: books, bryan lee o'malley, comics, reviews, scott pilgrim
