After “Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life” introduced us to the likes of Scott, Ramona, Knives, Wallace, Stephen, Kim, Young Neil, and our hero’s main quest — defeating Ramona’s Seven Evil Exes and thus being able to date her in peace —, the next installment “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” carries on with the plot besides adding some much-needed texture to Scott’s past relationships.
Recap
Right off the bat, creator Bryan Lee O’Malley takes us to a 16-year-old Scott on his first day as a transfer student at Northern Ontario. He formally meets Lisa, another new kid on the block who seems eager to befriend Scott. It is her idea that the two should form a band. Concurrently, Scott seems to be developing feelings for a classmate, Kimberly Pine, and it is for her that Scott ends up fighting a whole load of another school’s kids after they sort of kidnap her. Now Scott’s official girlfriend, Kim joins the band as a drummer, and things seem to go well for the gang at least for a while. All that gets interrupted with Scott’s announcement that his family is moving to Toronto.
Back in the present, Wallace Wells confronts Scott with the reality that he has to break up with Knives Chau if he plans on maintaining a relationship with Ramona Flowers. Despite his initial resistance to doing the dirty deed (because it’s hard!), Knives’s declaration that she is in love with Scott finally propels the breakup. For a second there, Scott is upset about it, but ultimately, he takes a positive stance as he sees the pathway to Ramona is clearer now.
Scott invites Ramona over for dinner and, surprise, her hair is shorter and sporting two colors now. The date goes as well as it can, but the makeout session is cut short after Scott freaks out over his own current hair; he largely blames his last breakup (which hit him like a shovel, apparently) on a specific haircut.
The next part begins with a short insight on Kim’s life. From a dream she has, it’s likely that she harbors less-than-ironic resentment towards Scott. In fact, her whole thing seems to be an inherent distaste towards people in general, which includes her housemates. At her work as a video/DVD store clerk (Scott Pilgrim makes you feel old, huh?), she gets a visit from Scott who wants to rent a few movies starring Lucas Lee who Wallace found out is the next ex-boyfriend he must fight. According to Wallace’s dossier, Lucas is a former pro skater turned buff-actor — keep in mind that, in the movie, he’s played by Chris Evans.
Through a couple of short scenes we find out some other tidbits of information:
- Knives is still hung up on Scott. She ends up dying her bangs red after catching sight of Ramona during one of her stalking sessions.
- Scott hates The Clash at Demonhead’s lead singer, Envy Adams.
- Scott’s parents are traveling through Europe.
- Ramona dated Lucas during high school. It was brief and there was a lot of drama.
- Ramona REALLY hates Scott’s “apartment”.
Finally, it’s time for the big fight. Lucas doesn’t sound like a particularly evil or bad guy, to be honest, even when he is whooping Scott’s ass. He tells Scott that Ramona cheated on him and about the official designation of The League of Ramona’s Evil Ex-Boyfriends (that’s how they’re organized). Scott takes advantage of Lucas’s ego/vanity and challenges him to do a skate trick on the rails of a really long set of stairs. The aftermath, as expected, is Lucas exploding as he reached ultra-speed, leaving behind fourteen bucks in coins.
As Stacey Pilgrim is showing Ramona around the Toronto Reference Library, she is attacked by Knives and the two fight briefly before Knives makes an exit. During the fight, Knives recognizes Ramona from the day at the library when Scott first saw her, and she realizes that Scott was cheating on her.
Scott receives a call from Envy in which she asks his band, Sex Bob-Omb to attend a show of theirs and then to open for them at a later date. The rest of the band is excited to open for a local band that has made it big, but Scott hates the idea due to his non-friendly breakup with Envy. As he tells Ramona, Envy (who used to be called Natalie) wanted to move to Montreal and, two weeks later, she was sleeping with her best friend Todd.
At the show, we first meet Joseph, Kim’s friend Hollie’s roommate — he is important later on! Also noticeable is that Young Neil is on a date with Knives. Finally, as the show begins, we catch sight of Envy and her bass player, Todd, who, to make things more interesting, happens to be Ramona’s third evil-ex.
Thoughts
In comparison with volume 1, this one feels quite more grounded and less “weird.” Yes, I say that knowing full well that there is an entire section where the characters break the fourth wall to teach the reader how to cook a vegan Shepherd’s Pie. Still, as the concepts from volume 1 have been internalized by now, the weird factor doesn’t reach a higher threshold.
Story-wise, the flashbacks are a nice a piece of exposition. They are not quite linear and feel more like snapshots at specific moments of Scott’s life during a long period of time, so a lot is expected of the reader to fill in the blanks. The first flashback feels important not only for introducing Lisa but for giving some more texture to Kim who appeared underdeveloped so far. She’s fallen under the “Negative Nancy” stereotype most of the time. As we are witnessing, Scott’s past relationships tend to leave scars on the people involved — Kim and Knives, for one, but also Scott’s own hurt left by Envy — and it is a big part of his arc: how to become a better person when it comes to dealing with Ramona.
Speaking of the Knives/Ramona relationship, I’d say it’s at least icky the way Knives talks about Ramona when she finds out she is dating Scott.
Now, as someone who has read the comics after watching the movie, I have to say that the big fight between Lucas Lee and Scott feels quite underwhelming in comparison with the visual media. While I am trying to keep any comparison between movie/comics to another piece, this particular moment doesn’t quite reach the cinematic-ness of Matthew Patel’s fight. It makes sense that the film screenwriters enhanced the brawl while keeping the roots pretty much the same thing.
In terms of expectations for the future and if I haven’t spoiled you too much already, the confrontation between Scott/Ramona/Todd/Envy is definitely one of my favorites. Plus, Lisa returns and we get to see far more of Knives whose arc is incredible throughout the six volumes. It’s hard seeing her getting her heart broken by Scott to the point where it reaches levels of unfairness, but perhaps knowing that Knives ends up learning a lot from the situation (along with Scott, it’s always important to point out) may give you hope.
