Scott Pilgrim Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim's finest hour

Lets get this out of the way. It's tough for me to talk about Scott Pilgrim Finest Hour in any sense that even approaches objective.

There’s some art that just syncs up with your life. People talk about how when Harry Potter ended, so did their childhood. That particular series never had that kind of synchronicity with me. I didn’t start reading it until the middle of high school. Pilgrim though? Oh man that hit the sweet spot for maximum possible impact. I discovered that first volume the year I first lived on my own. And the last finds me at a major cross roads in my life.

I don’t know if Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, is Scott Pilgrim’s actually finest hour. I suspect that title will always belong to the wounded and lovely Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe. I mean come on, last night I compared that particular piece to The Searchers and Pickpocket, and if that doesn’t suggest that I hold it in high regard I don’t know what does.

I’ve heard a lot of opinions voiced on Volume Six and can more or less understand all of them. There are moments that made me want to cheer, and artistic decisions that I just plain don’t get. It feels both as if O’Malley is running through a check list, and doesn’t have enough time to do everything he wants (and at six volumes and thousands of Pages I have to hand it to him. Never once did it look like he was running out of ideas)

Structurally speaking final volumes of anything are built to disappoint. Early installments exist in a vacuum. Their discovery is a happy accident, the closing chapters bear the weight of expectation that increases exponentially with each new chapter. The reason why that rare work of art that does stick that impossible landing become so cherished is their rarity. For every Return Of The King there are a dozen X Files Series Finales.

Still success or failure, best or worst (and I’ve heard both opinions voiced) when I closed the cover on the last page I felt as if I was closing a chapter on my own life. And its not every day that a piece of art will do that to you.

Finest Hour is a work of fiction about letting go of fictions. It's about facing who you are and what you’ve done, taking responsibility for it, and trying again anyway. It’s epic, goofy, heartfelt and funny. Bitingly ironic and blisteringly sincere (The two reach synthesis with the fearlessness with which O’Malley has always literalized his metaphors. It takes powerful faith in your readers investment to literally heal a characters wounds with the power of love). In short it’s a glorious mess, and a perfect microcosm for the series.

So to Bryan Lee O’Malley, and all the rest I can only say thank you. Of Scott Pilgrim, and his wonderful world, and their supporting cast I can only say what I can only say about the fictions I most cherish. I will miss them all terribly.

Goodbye.

Happy Scott Pilgrim Day: The Top Five Moments Thus Far.

If you live near a comic book shop that doesn’t completely suck you’re probably celebrating Scott Pilgrim day. The final volume of Brian Lee O’Malley’s slacker opus hit stores yesterday, leaving me to weep bitter tears and avoid spoilers with all my might as I wait for the stupid bookstores to get their hands on my reserved copy.

To fight off the tears I’ve decided to highlight my five favorite moments from the five prior volumes that make up Scott Pilgrim.

Scott Pilgrim for those poor bastards who don’t know, is the story of the titular hero. A slacker in his early twenties, who lives in a world where videogame logic works. Which is why nobody finds it very odd when Scott is forced to duel his new girlfriend’s seven evil ex boyfriends to win the right to date her.

Scott Pilgrim is a frothy, mix of mid twenties angst, indie rock, comic books, and video games, that goes down easy. But its also one of those wonderful and strange pieces of art that is actually much richer then it appears. Sure its still at its core a work about attractive twenty somethings occasionally sleeping with one another and more occasionally leveling entire city blocks. But it develops into a story about why we fight. For anything, love, friendship, art. What it is that makes people who don’t put themselves on the line as a matter of course put themselves out there and make a stand. And sometimes the answers it finds are kind of beautiful.

And its always goofy and fun as can be.

So without further ado, the five moments that make Scott Pilgrim kick ass.

5: Scott Pilgrim And The Infinite Sadness: Vol 3: Showdown at Honest Ed’s.

Scott has shown up to duel the new boyfriend of his rockstar ex. Who has vegan fueled psychic powers. Believe it or not, that’s pretty par for the course for Scott Pilgrim. That’s an important frame of reference for you to keep.

Because shits about to get weird.

What happens when the two run into Honest Ed’s can perhaps be described as a scene from Evil Dead II reimagined as a scene from Akira. The savings from Honest Ed’s overwhelm our heroes to the point where even hockey gloves and wrap around shades can’t protect them from the talking deer heads. Or as a secondary character puts it, “Do you know how when a baby is first born it just cries from the sheer horror of being alive?”

The effect is indescribable which is kind of the point. O’Malley for all his other gifts has the rare ability to drop the floor out from under you, and still have it be a surprise after the fourth or fifth time he’s done it. Anything can happen in an O’Malley comic and its never feels anything less then organic.

4: Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life: Vol 1: First Date:

It takes a lot to make a girl seem worth mortal combat with seven evil assholes with varying levels of superpowers. And its to O’Malley’s credit that he totally does. Ramona far from being a simple Maniac Pixie Dream girl, is sketched and layered as a very real person. But even before O’Malley started adding depth to her in some real and unexpected ways, he always made her intrigue.

The first date between Scott and Ramona takes it time. Its not so much in the writing as the way that O’Malley captures the feeling of meeting someone you think is the most intriguing person in the world, with his gorgeous sparse artwork. As the snow moves in and the world moves out Scott and Ramona’s first scene because as quietly a lovely portrait of first connection as I’ve ever seen.

3: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together: Volume 4: Climax

Where the hell to even start?

It sometimes seems that the mythology and the emotional content of a particular piece of fiction exist on a see saw. Pile more on one end and the other will suffer for it. So watching O’Malley suddenly ramp up both in the closing pages of book four. Is like something that shouldn’t theoretically happen, happen. Call it a miracle if you want. The word’s been chucked at lesser things.

Starting with Scott being chased into Ramona’s mind, and realizing very quickly that there are dark things in there. Things that he is no where near ready to handle. It’s a stellar example of O’Malley’s skill at literalizing metaphor on a narrative level. How many times have we been confronted with something ugly in a significant other and been forced to choose fight or flight? Speaking personally I can say that twice I've looked into that "room" turned and ran in the other direction. Once I feel I was justified. The second time, I still feel ashamed of.

Things stack up out in the real world, and just when it seems that flight has won out. Scott shows a heretofore unknown depth of character, and chooses to fight past his/their issues. And also a ninja. He has to fight one of those as well. Actually two ninjas, if you count the father of his ex. And an evil version of himself.

And that’s what I’m talking about. O’Malley just has scenes like this that are running at four or five different levels. Ranging from Ninja fighting, to heavy exposition, to the emotional core of the series hitting new heights. The kind of grace with which he waltzes in between these shifts in tone, often from panel to panel, is just crazy.

2. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe: Volume 5: 32:

Lets face it, a lot of Scott Pilgrim is just plain lifestyle porn. Illustrating the kind of twenties that nobody ever quite has and everybody wants.

So its shocking the ferocity with which O’Malley takes a baseball bat to the knees of the fantasy he’s so intricately constructed. Bringing every truth ugly to the forefront of his story. Watching casually as the characters rip into each other and things fall apart. Scott Pilgrim Versus The Universe ends with the world of its characters in tatters. And all hopes for a happy ending seemingly gone.

It makes the ending of The Empire Strikes Back look like the ending of Return Of The Jedi.

And it all starts here. One Page. Five Panels. O’Malley sums up the rot that can creep into even the healthiest relationships like sepsis. And he does it using the exact same iconography he used to document the original infatuation.

1. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe: Volume 5: Sorry About Me.

The ending of Volume 5 is pretty devastating. But it’s the moment when one of the characters gets to prove they’re better then both we the readers and they the characters, think he is, that really breaks my heart.

I don’t want to give away to much about this scene. I’ll just say that it involves Scott and my favorite character/shameless fictional crush, Kim Pine (And the fact that she hasn’t shown up on this list should tell you just how much great stuff there is in Scott Pilgrim) as one of them leaves the other.

Though out the series, Scott, though likable, has basically been rather shallow, and really kind of a douche. This is a scene of him rising to the occasion, of him slowly making himself the better person he needs to be. And it is genuinely a moving one.

To give away the build up to what makes this scene so moving would be too much. But to describe what happens in it I’d like to turn to a quote from Glenn Kenny on a recent piece on The Searchers.

“And yet when it comes down to the wire, both characters are visited by an irresistible force. One could call it grace, as I have; one could call it the Holy Spirit. One might be best off in calling it love.”

I’d say that’s a fair description of what happens to Kim and Scott at that lonely bus station.

It's an emotional cresendo that I can only hope that O’Malley can sustain through the climax. Not love in the romantic sense, but love in the knowledge that the person before you deserves better then you can give. And if you want to look yourself in the mirror, then you will have to be better then you are. Recognizing that leap, and then making it.

I think he will.

After all, as those five moments demonstrate he’s surprised me before.

Locke & Key: And Other Things That Are Great

Do you like Horror? Do you like comics? (And if you’re on this blog then statistically speaking you do.) Are you reading Locke And Key? No?

What the fuck Is wrong with you?

Locke and Key is simply put one of the best comic books hitting the stands, second only in delivering the monthly goods to Brubaker’s Criminal. I’ve geeked out about Joe Hill before and I’ll do it again, because God damn it it is unfair for anyone to be this talented. Hill can write in any format, He can spit out great concept after concept (20th Century Ghosts), infused them with heart and depth (Heart Shaped Box) all the while being scary as hell. And he’ll write it in Swahili too. Why? Because he fucking can.

Hill is in the fabled “Eat your brains to gain your knowledge” spectrum of writers, chilling along side of the likes of Gaiman and Vaughn, as us mere mortals scratch in the dirt with sticks trying to form “words”. He’s just that good, and Locke and Key might be his greatest work.

Locke and Key tells the simple story of a family that suffers a tragedy and ends up moving to their family hate in Lovecraft (MWAHAHAA Maine). Starting off as a fairly pulpy Ghost story, Locke and Key has proven expert at redefining the terms of its story. Extending the scope with each arc with the grace of The Wire. I described it before as The Royal Tenenbaum's staring in The Haunting, by way of Lost, and that still seems right. Except its gotten even better.

Locke and Key does of course employ a few tropes that I am, to put it politely, a total sucker for. Few things will get me into a story quicker then the hint of a mult generational conflict, and the introduction of this element in The first issue of the second series might end up being my favorite issue of comics ever.

But its not the cool mythology, beautiful artwork, or truly scary moments that keep people coming back to Locke and Key and makes damn sure I’ll be there to pick up the book opening day. It’s this extraordinary family that Hill has at the center of his conflict.

Hill shares his father’s great gift of being able to firmly couch the supernatural in the mundane world of the every day. The problems of day to day living seem worse then the ssupernatural. After all what’s a monster living in the well, when you’re dealing with a loved one’s alcoholism, or a friend in the hospital, or are still reeling from a death in the family. Hill burrows right to center of his characters (sometimes extremely dark) hearts the stakes are so high not because of the cosmic nature of the horror but because of how much these characters stand to lose.

Locke and Key’s the best comic to deal with the supernatural since Sandman. Pick up an issue, give it a shot, just have some extra spending money handy because you’ll soon be compelled to pick up everything Hill has ever written. And you’ll be better for it.

Other Comic Notes:

Ultimate Spiderman #4: Despite the iffy art (great at times notso much at others) this series is still superlative. Part of its power comes from Bendis’s unparalleled long run. Bendis knows how to use the fact that we’re not just attached to the characters, but to his version of said characters, to his advantage. By this time we’ve grown attached to more or less everyone in Bendis’s cast. Conventional wisdom says that the essence of drama is conflict between the characters. Bendis seems to realize that writing Characters who aren’t utterly hateful to one another is also has its merits. It’s not Bendis’ large scale thinking that makes him one of the best in the business. It’s his humanism. And it’s never on display better then in his signature book.

Though I have to say the master plot is looking pretty good on this too. The issue ends on a cliffhanger that actually cliffhangs, and there’s a real feeling of momentum on this thing that’s intriguing. When Bendis can make the frigging Shroud Intriguing, you know he can pretty much do whatever the fuck he wants.

Meanwhile at the Distinguished Competitor Batman and Robin ends its second Issue with all the beloved Freak Flaggery that I’ve come to depend on. I wrote up the current arc in more depth last week. Suffice to say the finale didn’t disappoint.

Do you know what else is awesome? The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead is fucking awesome. I don’t think I’ve written about it at length, and a full on consideration should be coming soon.

Batman And Robin: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Tolerate Grant Morrison

So me and Grant Morrison are not the best of friends. I’ll be the first to admit that it could be me, and not him. I just don’t get it. While others see the best comics storyteller working today. Someone who understands and utilizes the form in a way that’s almost preternatural. I on the other hand do not.

I get no charge from Morrison's work. To be frank he’s kind of a bore, someone coasting on an overrated reputation, chaos magicks, and an ego that makes Alan Moore’s seem healthy. It’s not that I haven’t tried. I read Final Crisis with an ever growing sense of despair it. I didn’t understand that. And I mean that on a very basic narrative level. I couldn’t follow what was happening. It was like a chemistry book with superheroes doodled in it. Stuff like Animal Man and The Filth, where disappointingly (and in The Filth’s case depressingly) shallow, based upon their reputation. And as for his “classics” like All Star Superman, and Arkham Asylum. Well these too where problematic. For something that supposedly “got the essence of Superman perfectly” I can’t help but think he had remarkably few qualms about genetically engineering peoples fates. Arkham Asylum was also problematic. Though McKean’s art was beautiful (and also utterly inept narratively) and Morrison did script some arresting moments, the whole thing was too clever by half, and came out as the work of someone who didn’t really like Batman.

Which was kind of what I thought about Batman RIP the first time I read it. Though in interest of truth in criticism that particular piece works one hell of a lot better as a whole then in parts and featured a few truly stellar sequences. Still I can’t help but feel that it’s a flawed work at the very least.

I mention all of this only to underline how odd I found it when Morrison became responsible for one of the best Goddamn Batman stories I’ve ever read. A story centered around not one but two gimmicks that I was deeply skeptical about at first. It’s sort of amazing a true classic of the genre (And can we take a moment to savor the irony that it shares the name with the other Batman And Robin? OK Irony savored. Moving On).

So many comic writers seem like kids at a toybox dragging out two action figures to bang together for the thousandth time. And one thing I’ll say about Morrison, he’s never afraid to bring new elements into play. At the climax of this issue there are now two characters who feel like they’re destined to be lasting parts of The Batman universe, it feels like things matter, and frankly it’s a rush.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Batman And Robin is based on two Morrison elements that I found, at the very least, quite questionable. Morrison giving Wayne a son in the form of the petulant, vicious Damien, and Morrison sending Wayne back to the caveman era to go write shit on the wall (I think? I’m not going to lie I have little to no idea what happened at the end of Final Crisis). Taking these two unstable elements, Morrison has somehow spun gold. Telling the story of Dick Grayson, attempting to fill Batman’s big shoes, while at the same time turning his sociopathic son into a somewhat acceptable Robin, while battling a new villain Professor Pig, and his creepy creepy Doll people, made for a compelling story. And while Morrison’s first two issues in the arc worked fine, in the third one he brings it all together.

It’s like this issue allowed me to briefly see the Grant Morrison everyone is always talking about. The one who knows how to write a scene like Professor Pyg’s monologue, which could ONLY work in comics. It works because the best version of it is happening in your head as it happens on the page. As a result it’s hilarious, disturbing, terrifying, and even a little sad, with a great punch line to boot (A punch line that incidentally happened to capture my exact reaction after reading The Filth).

Morrison it seems has also finally figured out how to write for Damien, by giving him just a smidgen of a moral center (though so much as to spoil the fun Morrison has writing him) he makes him infinitely more relatable. And by giving Damien his first failure, he sets up what appears to be one hell of a thread for the next arc in the series. All while still finding the time to work in one of the best moments from Batman RIP.

Batman And Robin seems vital in a way very few Comics appear these days. In a medium where every story is just a retcon away from obsolescence, Morrison’s story seems to matter. He’s setting up something great here, and when he brings Quitely back to end the run, I think it’ll be very clear that this is one of the true, few classics of superhero genre.