Still, in the comics it's clear that Scott isn't smart or heroic and the movie kind of has the opposite story.

I mean it's not entirely clear from the start.

It's a major plot point of the comics/manga that Scott has a self realization that he's been kind of a shitty person for a long time. A lot of the stories he tells himself about the past, stories that we the reader are meant to take to be the truth at first, namely his rescue of Kim, are distorted by his narcissism. He's in fact much less heroic than he likes to think he is, sometimes even outright toxic. But it's acknowledging that fact that let's him learn, and grow to become a better person. He accepts his flaws, apologizes for his past behavior, takes responsibility for his mistakes, and matures considerably.