Covers by Claudia Ianiciello.
The Premise
Once again, the entire arc of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, is covered. However, there were extensive changes to the story, and while the outcome in the end remains pretty much the same, the changes are large enough to impact any future adaptations based on the David Lagercrantz novels.The Characters
José Homs and Manolo Carot keep their art very consistent with each other's. The characters are rendered beautifully and with style.The Mood
There are plenty of color schemes that signal a change in mood. When Lisbeth is doing her computer hacking schtick, it's predominantly blue. When there's a flashback, it's shades of grey and brown. And in between, everything's done in brilliant color.What I liked
The art. Damn, I could rave about the art forever. The panels are smaller and there's a painstaking amount of detail put in each panel. The artists sure don't believe in the adage "less is more". No, they threaten to overwhelm you with detail. Like the clutter in Plague's apartment, for instance. Or the little shout-outs in the panels. Look at these... |
| See that sly nod to Noomi Rapace? |
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| And that shout-out to Robert Englund! |
And what about the numerous angles? The artists play with them all the time, sometimes giving us a top-down perspective, or a mouse-eye's view. It's spectacular.
One thing I really appreciate about the art, particular to the characters. The faces are very expressive. Mikael yells, looks smug, sympathetic, and more. Lisbeth, well, either smirks or scowls. Miriam rolls her eyes. Erika teases, scolds, and shows fear and trepiditation. Armansky ponders, pleads and commands. When Sonia Modig meets Zala, there's a delightful expression of revulsion on her face.
In many panels, Lisbeth is drawn to look like Ruby Rose. I kind of like Ruby Rose.
The numerous flashbacks throughout the series were great. They're not strictly part of the novels, but they serve to tell the story a great deal more coherently when you see snippets of the serial killer at work interspersed with what's going on during the story.
The iconic scenes are lovingly rendered. Take this shot of Lisbeth entering the courtroom below.
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| Awesome! |
What I didn't
There was a whole shitload of plot changes. I can understand the author wanting to put his own spin on things, but some of those changes felt like change for the sake of change. Some of these tweaks are minor and can be amusing - like Lisbeth learning that Holger is still alive at a hockey game instead of Armansky's office. Or Neidermann getting nailed in the hands rather than the feet. Monica Figuerola has been almost completely written out and only makes a short appearance (under a different first name, no less). I can live with those.But there are significant deviations in the plot that feel off. Peter Teleborian is shown to have physically molested Lisbeth as a kid, whereas in the novel he somehow seemed scarier because he restricted himself to psychological abuse. Lisbeth takes on a group of guys from the Svavelsjö Motorcycle Club instead of just two. The entire plot point of Lisbeth getting buried alive by Zala and Neidermann, has been reworked till it's almost unrecognizable. There's more, but I don't want to go into those at the moment.
In Runberg's version of events, Camilla Salander has become Lisbeth's forgiving and very non-criminal twin sister, unlike the role she plays in The Girl In The Spider's Web, the supposed follow up to the events of The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by David Lagercrantz. It's probably safe to say that Runberg will not be adapting Lagercrantz's novels the way he did Larsson's.
Some of the characters emoted way too much. Lisbeth, in particular, is known for her simmering rage and tranquil fury, but in Runberg's narrative, she hams it up a whole lot. Her temper gets a lot more explosive. Mikael is less clever and assured, and more anxious. Angsty, even. Plague, too, gets some characterization inserted in the form of a sci-fi convention hobby.
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