I haven’t been on board the entire time, but I would say reading all of Scott Pilgrim was the best idea I’ve ever had since I was born and thought that maybe I should try breathing. The book series is so brilliantly written by an independent writer named Brian Lee O’Malley, who proves time and again that comic books can be smart and witty on top of being a fun ride. The series was a 6 year journey that ended July 20th, 2010 with the release of this book, and has a feature film adaptation coming this Friday starring the ever-so-likeable Mikey Cera as Scott. And while I’m sure it’ll be much more faithful than the Kick-Ass adaptation, it still won’t be able to come close to touching the charm and depth of this amazing graphic novel inspired manga.

Finest Hour has some of the best jokes in the series, but it also has the darkest tone of them all. I liked how much of it took place inside characters’ heads, but it was much different to them spending time walking around the city doing normal things. A lot of that was made up for in the beginning of the book though – anytime Scott goes somewhere with Wallace the scene is always hilarious and fun. While all of the fantasy brought us weird things like Ramonas thoughts, without it we wouldn’t have brilliant things like the “Memory Cam” which was not only funny, but changed the perspective of the entire series.

Finally we get to know Gideon Gordon Graves who, as you may know, is the final evil ex-boyfriend. He brings a hilarious combination of passive-aggressive attitude to the fight opting for sarcasm more often than anger. A role which I know will be played perfectly by Jason Schwartzman. Although we’ve been waiting on the subsequent fight for a while now, it still doesn’t disappoint, taking a few twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting at all. Gideon’s not in the book for that long, but O’Malley has done the best job keeping him a main character, yet still elusive and ominous.

If you’re nerdy enough to be reading comics in the first place, chances are you like video games, at least the classics. Which is hands down my favorite aspect of this series. In fact, I’ve read this book a few times and I know there are references I haven’t picked up on still. Gideon’s “Chaos Theatre” is from the SNES game “Earthbound,” a game I openly consider to be my favorite from the console. I will admit I facepalmed when I read about it on the internet, because even though I love that game, it’s just impossible to notice every single reference to it. Sometimes even the obvious ones. If there are any faults at all to this book and the series, it’s that they’re too rich, too in depth, and it will take you a lifetime to fully get every reference. And that is by no means a problem. There’s everything to love about the series, and not one thing I could hate. Let’s just hope the movie can live up to the book and its incredibly high standards.