This is actually the second review I’ve written for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. The first was for a different website and was actually the very first review I wrote for them. At the time I hated this volume. I was terribly disappointed with it because too much of the real world had seeped in. Scott and Wallace were no longer living with each other, the band is hardly playing and well the ending… the ending… After this volume I always said that I was more of a Scott Pilgrim volume 1 through 4 type of guy, but for some reason I was really looking forward to re-reading vs. The World; maybe because it’s been like reading the series for the first time again. It’s colored after all, but also being a fan of the film I like to spot the matching dialogue. It’s a stupid hobby, but when you enjoy the comic and the movie with the same amount of excitement then it becomes quite fun.
To my surprise there are a lot of lines of dialogue in this volume that ended up in the film and worst yet… they were some of my favorite lines. Why, oh why did I ever dislike this volume? And when I say dislike or hate I don’t mean like it was the worst thing ever, but in the way that only a fanboy or fangirl can be let down by a story. You all know what I’m talking about, when something doesn’t match your expectations, but you can still acknowledge its quality… but it’s different and different is… its different! Well it’s different no more, now it’s really fucking good.
What’s the volume about? Well Scott is on the fifth and sixth ex’s and they’re the twins. If you’re more familiar with the film then just put that out of your mind because they build robots to fight their battles for them. The issue is actually about Scott and Romona’s relationship and them coming face to face with the fact that they don’t know each other’s pasts. Also it’s finally revealed that Scott cheated on both Knives and Romona.
The coloring continues to be wonderful. Nathan Fairbairn is one of the most talented colorists in the business and was the absolute right choice for this series. I can’t even imagine another colorist on this series because if it didn’t turn out looking the way it did, then it would have ruined the entire point of the colored editions. Frankly Fairbairn has ruined me on the black and white trades because I don’t think I could ever read them again without running to the colored editions.
The extras in the back were a nice trip down memory lane as everything in this volume was when I was buying anything and everything Scott Pilgrim (and there wasn’t much so it was easy!) so most of it was things I own like T-Shirts and colored specials.
I’ll tell you right now that I liked the sixth volume in the series, but after re-reading this volume I think I’m going to love the finale a bit more this time around. If for some reason you were like me and you let your fanboyism get in the way of enjoying this volume the first time around, then definitely give it another shot. Hell, just seeing it in color is worth the price, but you’ll also see where some of the maturity of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Seconds comes from after reading volume 5.
Score: 5/5
Writer/Artist/Creator: Bryan Lee O’Malley Colorist: Nathan Fairbairn Publisher: Oni Press Price: $24.99 (Evil Ex Edition $40.00) Release Date: 8/13/14 Format: Hardcover