Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour

And so it ends. For a lot of geeks you won't be picking up your copy until the shops open up today, but for you uber-geeks in Toronto, you were at the Beguiling last night lined up for the midnight release. It was pretty spectacular. When they had the final Harry Potter party years ago my wife and I went to check it out, and of course it was bigger than this, but for an indie comic that's set in Toronto, it was pretty awesome-insane. I'm curious to know how many people were there, but easily there were over a thousand. Although I'm not very good with judging the size of a crowd.

So on the way home I dived into it, passed out, then read the rest on the way into work this morning. I'm going to do my best not to give anything away, but the one warning I will give with this book is that it's something completely different. Despite being the longest book in the series, I think it has the least amount of story (not saying that as a bad thing), the pages instead are filled up with the most action that we've seen in the entire series. This also isn't about a bunch of friends hanging out like we've seen in the past issues, and although I really missed that aspect of it, this is our hero's journey, and Scott has to take this last leg alone. Pretty much every supporting character gets their moment (except Lisa... but I understand why), and the series ends on a really nice and simple note. It's not easy to change, but you have to at least try.

On the back of the book there is a quote from Joss Whedon:

Scott Pilgrim is the best book ever. It is the chronicle of our time. With Kung Fu, so yeah: perfect.

This is a series that blends fantastic comedy with some real, never cliched emotions. Despite things being to the extreme - you know these characters, you know their problems. Yes, there are battles and outrageous things and it's a little bit silly, and you could even argue some holes in the narrative, but this is a book that speaks to a generation. I wanted it to be longer, I wanted to spend more time with these characters - but that's because I'm selfish.

The world awaits what you do next Mr. Bryan Lee O'Malley, but do yourself a favor and take some time off first. Enjoy yourself, you've earned it.