Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour: The Reviewening (with no spoilers!)

This is it, friends, the moment that everyone on the internet has been waiting for (no not this review!), the final volume of Scott Pilgrim! Oh wait, the internet has had it for about a week now. Well, whatever, I'm reviewing this thing.

I think it's important to note that I love the hell out of this book, enough so that I went to the midnight release party at my favorite comic shop (Brave New Worlds in Old City Philadelphia!). So I'll try my best to gush over it too much, but it may happen and you have been warned.

Alright, so first thing I want to wank on about; holy schnikies is that cover awesome. Look at that thing, it just oozes a feeling of awesome and epicness (I know, I know, but it looks actual epic, not internet epic) that I just can't stop looking at it, even if I scanned it pretty poorly. We've got Scott with his love sword (though I'm trying not to see that heart at the bottom as Scott's testicles and failing hard), with Ramona's image right behind him to his looking kinda glow-y and angelic, and Scott's past loves to his right there, right under Gideon, the evil jerk behind everything. Usually we just get one character on the cover, with two on Volume 4, but here we've got 6 people total, all looking very dramatic. And Scott's got a glossiness that makes him stand out and demand your attention. It's crazy awesome.

As for the actual content in this book, it's awesome. We start off with Scott being at his lowest point yet in the series since the end of the last book (for those of you who haven't read, I won't spoil anything) and we get to see what he's been up to since then. Again, without spoiling anything, a good chunk of this story is getting Scott to man up, grow a set, and fight for the love of his life. We also get to see Scott interact with each of his past loves, and each bit is equally awkward (not writing wise, but situation wise).

We eventually get to our final showdown with Gideon, which takes up most of the next half of the book. This part is pretty crazy and easily my favorite part of the book. I'd go into depth on it, but I'm just going to say read it for yourself. Some really crazy fun stuff happens and that final blow struck made me think of Chrono Trigger. We're then treated to one of the most satisfying endings I've ever gotten to read. Characters will resolve things, surprises will happen and we end the series in a way that is just so damn awesome I really wish I could talk about it without spoiling things.

With O'Malley's art there seems to be a bit of a split in terms of opinions; you either love this art or you despise it. Personally, I'd eat this art up if it were a food and I'd get fatter than I am now. There's a beautiful mix of western animation and anime style here that melts together amazingly well.

In the end, this is a satisfying end. If you love Scott Pilgrim, you're in for a treat. If you haven't read this yet, get off the internet and go buy the first book. If you like video games, comics, cartoons, anime, manga, comedy, action, romance, and just fun in general, read this series; you won't be disappointed.