Fiction Review: The Millennium Series Graphic Novels (Part 1/3)

If you liked my writings on The Millennium Series and the movies, here's some good news - they actually have graphic novels, published a few years back, based on the original works of Stieg Larsson.

If you didn't like them, well, tough titty I guess. I will be reviewing them today. I won't go through the storyline or the characters much - they've been covered in excruciating detail in my previous reviews of the books and the movies.

There are two series of graphic novels - one released in 2014 by Vertigo, and another published in 2017 by Titan. Why people thought the world needed two series of graphic novels will forever remain a mystery to me, but I ain't complaining. I will be reviewing Vertigo's version first, adapted by Denise Mina, with art by Antonio Fuso, Leonardo Manco and Andrea Mutti.

Covers by Lee Bermejo.

The Premise

These graphic novels by Vertigo covers the entire story arc of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. While there have been a few changes, it's pretty much all there.

The Characters

These are how the characters are drawn. For the purposes of brevity, I'm only going to include characters that appear in at least two out of all three graphic novels in the series, regardless of how great or small their roles are. You'll notice that they aren't all done by the same artist.

The Mood

The art is a study in contrast. There are parts where the colors are bland and light, but when Lisbeth goes to her really bad place, the colors get dimmer and bleaker. It's... interesting.

What I liked

Holy shit, the violent bits are horrifying. They're suitably grim and bloody.

The dialogue is different from the books, but they gel with the overall spirit of the story, and in some cases, work better. In fact, the dialogue feels distinctively American.

Dirch Frode: Best report I've ever read.
Dragan Armansky: Miss Salander's clients always say that.
Dirch Frode: Strange manner though.
Dragan Armansky: They always say that too.

Miriam Wu: (about Faste) Please tell me that guy isn't a rapist.
Jan Bublanski: Officer Faste is not a rapist, nor in any way inclined towards rape. He was very taken with your picture in the apartment. I think he's a little lovestruck.

Erika Berger: I'm leaving. Right now. Forever. And I'm appointing you acting chief editor.
Anders Holm: ...I still hate you.
Erika Berger: That's still mutual.

For the most part, what goes on in the graphic novel is pretty faithful to the novels, and haven't been cut out the way they have in the movies. Take the entire arc of Lisbeth's little vacation in the Carribbean in The Girl Who Played With Fire, for instance, pictured below.

A hotmail address, no less!

In that scene, they even featured Plague's email address! A nice little nod to the novels.

What I didn't

In many places, the art is pretty meh. The artists don't appear to have their hearts in it, and just seem to really put in effort at the more iconic scenes. Also, the art feels very inconsistent because there's a few illustrators at work here. Some of the art is really good and some is... ugh.

Mikael Blomkvist looks a little too much like Daniel Craig. Oh God, please, no. Even the scenes of him in bed with Lisbeth show off an unbelievably buff bod.

Geez, really?

I can't believe I'm complaining about this, but there are times when this graphic novel series is a little too faithful to the original. Even the time-wasting parts such as Erika Berger's encounter with a stalker, are reproduced.

Conclusion

The writing is good, but the inconsistent quality of the art really brings this series down several notches. Below-par effort. And it's a pity because I like Vertigo's stuff.

My Rating

6 / 10

Next

Another series came about three years after this one was published. Let's take a look at it!