Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
O’Malley wraps up his megahit slacker opera in this sixth volume, at last delivering the battle between Scott and Ramona and the insufferable Gideon Graves (“Occupation: asshole”). Throughout the series, O’Malley has proven to be a remarkably clever cartoonist, but his manga-inflected artwork has never looked more accomplished than it does here, with plenty of inventive touches to savor splayed across the multifaceted panel work. The video-game and indie-rock references still play strong, and Scott’s “Memory Cam” is a particularly hilarious new device that nails his winning blend of oblivious charm. Substantively, the book is mostly one extended fight sequence (and a pretty epic one, at that) capped by Scott’s hard-won maturation, with plenty of closure to go around. O’Malley ties up an impressive array of loose ends in the finale to this bighearted series, and few fans will be in any way disappointed, but it’s hard not to look back fondly upon the more shallow, aimlessly myopic Scott Pilgrim of earlier volumes. In any case, an essential addition. Grades 10-12. --Ian Chipman