Customer Reviews

Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 3: Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness

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I can still barely believe that the Scott Pilgrim series is as good as it is. Author Bryan Lee O'Malley has taken a relationship drama and infused it with numerous references to video games, indie music, manga, and other niche areas of popular culture to create a world where characters are completely fine with breaking out into a massive, over-the-top fight that involves the battleground imploding at the end.
Scott Pilgrim, for those of you who aren't caught up, is a 23-year-old slacker who lives in a small Canadian town around Toronto. He is in a bad band named Sex Bob-Omb along with the completely cool (so cool he has no emotions) Stephen Stills and the angry Kim Pine (whom he dated in high school). After breaking up with a 17-year-old high school girl named Knives Chau, Scott began dating Ramona Flowers, an American now living in Canada and working as an Amazon.ca delivery girl. However, before Scott can officially date Ramona, he must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends. He has already taken out 2, but the next on the list, Todd Ingram, may prove to be more than Scott can handle.
Picking up pretty much exactly where the second volume, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, left off, Scott and Ramona have just learned that Todd is dating Natalie V. "Envy" Adams, Scott's girlfriend before Knives who ripped his heart out. Through flashbacks, we learn how Envy met Scott as a shy anime fan and eventually turned into a rock goddess. If that weren't bad enough, Todd is a vegan, and in Scott's world, vegans attain vast psychic powers that make him a much more formidable opponent than Matthew Patel and Lucas Lee.
As usual, the battles don't take up the whole book; most of the pages are devoted to hilarious character studies. Scott's roommate, Wallace Wells, is just as funny as ever, with his snide comments about Envy and his platonic love of Ramona. Knives is great due to the sheer sadness of her situation (I kind of feel bad for her, but she is responsible for some very funny and heartfelt situations). New characters like Envy and Lynette, Envy's drummer who has a biomechanical arm, are fun as well. But the book is also full of great moments that don't deal with characters. The existence of a save point in the world was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. And of course, the fights just keep getting better. Ramona shows that she can hold her own and that her little handbag is just full of surprises.
The only thing I have to say that is negative is that I just can't get a good feel for the art. It is (as far as I know) intentionally cheap, but there are times when I can't tell who certain characters are or when the flashbacks end. Still, it isn't too much of a problem.
I don't care what excuses you may have for not reading Scott Pilgrim, get on it now! The story is great and the humor is fantastic.

How to describe Scott Pilgrim and his strange little world? It's funny, to be sure. It's seemingly normal, to a degree. When we meet new characters, we often get their level rating (Scott is, of course, "awesome"). Everything about the series is so Generation Now--Scott is straight but he has a gay roommate; they share a small studio apartment and sleep in the same bed, platonically; Scott plays in a band with a female drummer, which is cool, although the band doesn't quite rock at first (but they have heart). None of it is overdone, though. In fact, there's so much genuine sweetness to it (in a good way; not in some treacly, sentimental manner) that you can't help but wish you were part of the group--part of this world, even, because it's a pretty different world.

That is to say, it's Toronto, but some magical, videogame-like qualities exist. These characters exist mostly in the real world but at the same time, it has some decidedly offbeat properties. Scott is an innocent, a supercool, eminently likable cipher who happens to be almost irresistibly endearing.

As the series begins, 23-year-old Scott has just started dating Knives Chau, a 17-year-old high school student. It's all very innocent; they haven't even kissed, just hugged. Scott is recovering from a devastating breakup a year ago and views Knives as a way to move on without getting his heart too involved. His friends and sister waste no time ripping into Scott for this robbing-the-cradle transgression, but Scott sticks with it, even after meeting Ramona Flowers. Ramona is the girl of Scott's dreams, literally. He keeps seeing her in visions, so when he sees her at a party, come to life in strange garb, he makes his move.

The series has the feel of a gentle romantic comedy at times, and the banter back and forth between Scott and Ramona (and even Scott and Knives) has the kind of meet-cute quality of cinema. It's also hilariously hip, metatextual, and self-referential (again, it's a Generation Now thing). When Ramona explains that she's been in Scott's dreams because there's a really convenient subspace highway that happens to run through his head, Scott doesn't really question it. Later, they get to know each other and decide that some of their stories will be revealed in different volumes, before sleeping together (again, platonically, because they've been holed up inside together because of a freak blizzard--although it's clear both characters will want to do more than just sleep together eventually).

And here we come to the real meat of the story. As Scott begins to see Ramona, he first receives an email, then a letter, from a man who wants to schedule time to fight Scott. Scott ignores them, but this is a crazy guy who won't be ignored. It turns out Ramona has seven evil ex-boyfriends, all of whom Scott will have to fight and defeat if he wants to continue seeing the delightful Ramona. (And if you're wondering what ever happened to Knives Chau, well, there's more to that as well.)

The content is never too adult (but trust me, adults will--and do--enjoy it quite a bit), but it's more appropriate for teens and older (the publisher gives it a 13+ rating). The story and art are definitely manga-influenced, but it isn't straight manga. It's a hybrid. A very good hybrid, it turns out. Scott Pilgrim is one of those series that catches fire and, when you check in to see what all the buzz is about, you realize why immediately. This much clever, inventive fun deserves to be a smash.

-- John Hogan

I can still barely believe that the Scott Pilgrim series is as good as it is. its a whzi bang comic book

The Scott Pilgrim series is an absolutely awesome storyline and I highly recommend it to anyone with a geeky side, especially if you enjoy video games. I also recommend watching the movie if you haven't seen it :P

Love these Scott Pilgrim books by Bryan Lee O'Malley! Interesting to see how the story differs from the movie and how much more of the characters we get to read and see. Sex Bob-Omb rox!

Scott pilgrim, is one of the best graphic novels ive ever read, and this volume is where i think it starts to really get good.

Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 3 / 9781932664225

I first came to the Scott Pilgrim franchise via the movie, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and have very much enjoyed the graphic novels thus far. Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 3 covers the time from the introduction of The Clash at Demonhead (as well as Envy and Todd as important romantic figures in Scott and Ramona's past) to the conclusion of the Scott/Todd battle.

If Vol. 3 has a flaw, it's perhaps in the overly slow pace. The volume does a great job of fleshing out the backstory of Scott and Envy, as well as making Envy into a very sympathetic character instead of just "that woman who broke Scott's heart", but at the same time, there's an overall feeling of killing time until the next volume in some ways. There's a several page sequence where Todd and Scott are forced to run through "Honest Ed's", which would appear to be something of a tourist shop containing EVERYTHING EVER SOLD EVER and the boys are thoroughly overwhelmed by the awesomeness of the store, and then the store implodes, and... somehow it lacks the same zaniness and punch of earlier volumes.

On the other hand, the volume does a great job of exploring why money and fame don't automatically equal happiness, and it's nice to that the sympathetic treatment and deep characterization of all of the characters thus far (especially Scott's ex-girlfriends) is being extended into a meaningful exploration of Envy and Scott and how the two of them grew apart as Envy started reaching more for the stars and Scott resisted out of a sense that their band was just for having fun and meeting "chicks".

If you like the Scott Pilgrim series thus far and don't mind a mostly flashback-and-characterization volume, then Vol. 3 will meet that need nicely; if you're just here for the video game references and fighting scenes, there's a nice kickboxing/giant-hammer battle between Ramona and Envy in the second half that will seem strangely familiar to fans of the Ramona/Roxy movie battle.

~ Ana Mardoll

...if you don't know the story from the movie or manga, here goes: This is the story of a lazy Canadian video game nut, who plays bass in a band called Sex Bob-omb. He meets the girl of his dreams and has to fight her supervillain exes to win her heart. And, she's a ninja delivery girl. So, it's awesome and if regularly you read manga, you should read this. It is full of Pop Culture references, and romance, and kung fu, and some more stuff. If you know the manga series and are wanting to read it, why are you reading a review of volume 3? PICK UP VOLUME 1 ALREADY, DUDE! On a different note, this is when the story differs majorly from the movie so, if you saw the movie, this might be confusing to you but, read it anyway - it's fun! And with that you realize, not all Scott Pilgrim vol 4 reviews, lead to the same words.

So much depth for a graphic novel. I became interested in these stories because I really enoyed the movie. One of the great strengths of the movie and definately one of the strengths of these graphic novels is the strong ensemble of characters. The great thing about these stories is how O'Malley shows us the character of Scott Pilgrim by how his friends respond to him. Unlike most stories the books really follow not only the protagonists, Scott and Ramona, but their friends as well. In some ways Scott Pilgrim is the least interesting character when stacked up against Knives, Kim, Ramona, NV Adams, Lisa, Wallace and Stephen Stills.
The art work is far more interesting than the stock imagery of most manga, and O'Malley's determination to constantly change his characters hair and clothing, unlike the normal convention in comics of identical clothing and hair, really pays off and tells the story of his character's moods and growth over time. The dialogue is excellent, well paced, clever and bright. The framing, the action, and the expressiveness of the characters makes you feel like you are part of the story rather than just watching it through the artwork.
I really enjoyed the first two books but here in book three O'Malley really hits his stride and comes up with Scott's Evil Ex NV Adams. As somebody said, (I don't know who) "The measure of a hero/person/character is the hatred of their enemies".

Well done and I hope O'Malley brings us something new soon.

Scott Pilgrim volume 3 continues Scott's quest to defeat Ramona's seven evil exes. This time there's a plot twist as his own evil ex comes back to town, who happens to be dating Ramona's third evil ex. Almost the entirety of the novel deals with this conflict, so at times it doesn't feel quite as engaging as the previous volumes. It still has a good mix of action, humor, and pop culture references to keep things moving even if the story lags. Scott's awareness of his own story's slowness comes in at the end, hilariously saving it from an otherwise absurd conclusion. Somehow, the separate elements manage to come together even when they feel like they're about to fall apart, making this a good addition to the series.