The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Millennium TP
Publisher: Titan Comics
Release Date: September 5, 2017
Price: $19.99
Creator(s): Sylvain Runberg (writer); Jose Homs (artist)
Format: 136 pgs., Full-Color, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-7858-6173-4
Age Rating: 17+
ICv2 Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5

This is not the first adaptation of Larsson's dark novel.  Vertigo did a totally different version five years ago.  That one was perhaps more detailed and a more direct adaptation of the novel, but this version is an excellent overview and abridgement in the same way that the film was a masterful adaptation.  In fact, this new version gives some of the rapid-fire pacing of the film, even though it does slow down to dwell on a few horrors.  The just desserts received by a few bad guys during the story take just long enough for the reader to sink into their pain, but their crimes are portrayed in a way that you can also understand why they deserved to suffer.

The main mystery, an apparent cold-case murder, keeps twisting and turning as too many suspects have too many motives to do too many bad things.  Mikael, a journalist who has been tricked into rushing a phony story into print, is hired to investigate the cold case, under the cover of writing the history of a major industrial family.  Lisbeth Salander, first hired to investigate the journalist, and then to assist him, is at the heart of the story.  Her strength comes out of various forms of pain that she has undergone, and yet she has a vulnerable side which leads to a couple of heart-wrenching scenes in the story.

This would be the graphic adaptation to hand to someone, to see if they would like the movies and perhaps Larsson's whole Millennium trilogy.  It isn't for everybody, though, with graphic rape and murder scenes.  For adults who aren't squeamish.

--Nick Smith: Library Technician, Community Services, for the Pasadena Public Library in California.