POBB December 14, 2025

Pick of the Brown Bag

December 14, 2025

by

Ray Tate

Created by Tiziano Sclavi, Dylan Dog is an occult investigator with his own long-running comic book series originating in Italy.  This figure may ring a bell to the English speakers of the world and not just Europeans.

Legends of Tomorrow's Brandon Routh starred as Dylan in a feature film that didn't gain a lot of traction, to be kind. 

Italian director and frequent Dario Argento collaborator Michele Soavi indebted his 1994 critically-acclaimed dark fantasy movie Cemetery Man to Dylan Dog.  

With those works in mind, it's safe to say that Dylan Dog has been hanging around in the pop culture consciousness.  You may have seen Dylan somewhere before without knowing who he was.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that he teamed up with Batman: ISBN: 978-1-77952-948-0. 

The story begins when the Joker receives a letter from an old acquaintance, Dylan Dog's arch-nemesis Dr. Xabaras.  

Writer Roberto Recchioni takes the opportunity to tie the villains together with a smart updating to the Joker's history.

The inclusion of a doctor in the house of the Joker hasn't been done since Tim Burton's Batman.  So, it's a relatively fresh revisit.

After reading the letter, the Joker departs Gotham for London and leaves Batman a parting gift.

The Joker's victimization of this unfortunate justifies Batman beating the Joker senseless in later panels.  In fact you can imagine Batman compartmentalizing his anger.  Letting it stew and waiting for the perfect moment to serve.

The prologue does a lot with very few pages.  It establishes Recchioni's and artists Werther Dell'Edera's and Gigi Cavenago's take on Batman.  It creates the relationship between the Joker and Dr. Xabaras.

In the next scene, the evil doctor returns to face Dylan Dog and his assistant Groucho, a dead ringer for his namesake.

Don't be alarmed by the colors.  These are out of context.  Within frame of reference, they work well to contrast the earthen zombie tones and the hot hues of conflagration.

Batman interrogates his various squealers and follows the Joker.  He makes contact with Dylan.  Dylan was the last to see Xabaras alive.  As coincidence would have it another familiar Gothamite made contact with Dylan before Bruce arrived.

It was huge shock to see Selina Kyle in this book.  In fact, a number of DC Comics characters step onto stage.  Some of which I'll not spoil until you've been amply warned.  

Selina belongs in the Batman universe.  Her appearance though a delightful surprise isn't unwarranted.  Other guest-stars in Batman/Dylan Dog are at best tangential to Batman mythology.

Tipped off by Bruce Wayne's appearance, Dylan Dog searches for Xabaras at his last known hideout and encounters Killer Croc, whom the Joker hired as his muscle.  Fortunately for Dylan if Selina Kyle is in London, Catwoman cannot be far behind.  

Recchioni's, Dell'Edera's and Cavenago's Catwoman is perfect.  Her reasons for doing everything fit her personality.  Why she's in London?  Why she interferes in Dylan's untimely demise?  How she can wrangle Killer Croc with just a whip and pluck.  

Catwoman's interference should secure Dylan Dog's continued existence.  Should.  

In addition to providing Killer Croc with steady employment, the Joker surfaces another threat for the Nightmare Investigator.  

This peril comes in the form of another merger between DC and Sergio Bonnelli Comics, publisher of Dylan Dog.  The meld produces unique undead creatures that soon overwhelm Dylan and Groucho.  Fortunately, not his Dark Detective co-star.

Now it's official the team-up between Batman and Dylan Dog.

Or not.  Batman doesn't warm up to Dylan immediately.  Their methods strongly differ.  In fact Dylan Dog shares more with Dirk Gently.

Meanwhile, the catalyst of the uneasy partnership finds herself in dire straits.  

I could rattle on about the animosity between Catwoman and the Joker.  Suffice to say it's 1940s long.  Recchioni may or may not know about the Catwoman/Joker antagonism, but he really nails the zeitgeist.

Catwoman escapes all on her own.  Yay!  She quickly finds Batman, who drops the pretense and invites Dylan Dog on his quest to take down the Joker.

This moment also begins the fish out of water humor threading the plot of the book.  Batman is a very funny character.  He just doesn't tell jokes.  Dylan is ostensibly an ordinary guy, and his reactions to Batman's ways are a riot.

Batman takes the poisoned Catwoman back to his London headquarters.  There we get to enjoy Batman's characterization as a detective and scientist.

Batman and Dylan Dog investigate another of Dr. Xabaras' lair, and they find instead a Jokerized Groucho leading a lurch of zombies.  

Once they overcome the Joker's undead troops, Batman takes advantage of the resources given to him to find a means to cure Catwoman and Groucho.  

Okay.  Okay.  Spoiler Ahoy.  Maybe you thought Recchioni would kill anti-hero and sidekick.  I mean technically.  None of this is canonical.  At best it occurs on one of DC's many earths where Batman, Catwoman and Dylan Dog cohabit.  

A recovered Groucho reveals the Joker's plans go beyond meeting up with Dr. Xabaras. 

The Joker intends to resurrect another of Dylan Dog's rogue's gallery.  I'll not reveal the identity in case some better versed in Dylan Dog are reading.  The name will mean nothing to the Batman community.

One of the reasons why I choose to buy these out of left field team-ups is that Batman is usually broken down into the facts the whole world knows.  I don't need to follow an ongoing Batman book that I may not like.  As expected, Rechionni streamlines Batman beautifully.

For example, he's wealthy millionaire Bruce Wayne.  Alfred Pennyworth attends to him as wealthy scion of the Wayne Family and as crimefighter Batman.  Selina Kyle alias Catwoman is a known associate.  Batman mentions Robin.  He answers Commissioner Gordon's signal, etc. etc.

Though Recchioni simplifies the continuity that surrounds Batman, he nevertheless presents a complex character to entertain.  He delves into Batman's philosophy, his utter hatred of the Joker, his refusal to kill.  

Someone who hasn't been following Batman's adventures of late as well as a seasoned Batman fan can pick up this book, dig right in and be rewarded for reading.  I furthermore liked Dylan Dog.  He didn't feel gratuitous or a cypher.  Rather integral to the mystery.

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So far, Batman/Dylan Dog has been pulp, science-fiction disguised as horror.  What with the Jokerized zombies.  Now, the book turns a corner and takes the alleyway to the supernatural.  

The first step in Dylan's investigation.  Establish whether or not the Joker actually succeeded in raising the dead from Hell.  

At first, Dylan Dog uses one of his more benign contacts.  A hilarious lady psychic who happens to be in touch with Batman's parents.  On the other hand, maybe she merely suspects Batman's origin story involved the death of his parents.  Fictional psychics can go both ways: really empowered and/or really good detectives.  

When she's unsuccessful, Dylan must consult someone seedier: John Constantine.  One of those tangential Batman mythology characters I referred to.

Again.  Hilarious.  This book is entertaining in so many ways.  The path to Hell incidentally gives a nod to Ghostbusters.  Yes.  I saw what you did there.  Cheeky devils.  

Even John an arch magic user.  I doubt he would refer to himself as a magician, wizard or sorcerer.  Nothing so "wanky" for John, thank you very much.  Anyway.   Although a practitioner of sorcery, John still needs a guide for Hell.

Jason Blood.  Jason was John Constantine before John Constantine.  

Created by Jack Kirby in 1972, Jason Blood and his alter-ego Etrigan made their home in Gotham City, but originally never met Batman.  

It would take Bob Haney and Jim Aparo for that to happen a year later.  Since then.  Creators considered The Demon and Jason associates of Batman.

...Gone, gone of form of man, arise the Demon Etrigan...

Etrigan leads John Constantine and Dylan Dog through Hell.  Along the way, we get to enjoy the Demon's terrifically imagined battle against a demonic minotaur.  

Recchioni imbues the impression that the Demon is helping John and Dylan only for the sport in Hell.  That is a brilliant explanation.  The one thing that ties all the different written versions of the Demon together is challenge.  The Demon likes to fight and seeks usually to kill or destroy his opponent.  Merlin first called forth the Demon to defend Camelot.

Once on the beaten path, Dylan Dog and Constantine discover the worst has come.  See what I did there?  The Joker did indeed bring out the dead, ostensibly for a playmate.  Not sexual.  Just somebody to pal around with while he kills people.  It doesn't go well for the Joker.

In the end, Batman, Dylan Dog, Jason Blood, John Constantine and Dylan Dog cast member Madame Trelkovski must combine forces to bring justice to the unjust world.  

I'm not usually big on hocus hocus.  The eerie elements in Batman/Dylan Dog were reminiscent of the juxtaposition against the real world in Kolchak the Nightstalker and The Sixth Sense, the television show with Gary Collins.  In other words.  Fantastic.

POBB December 2, 2025

Pick of the Brown Bag

December 2, 2025

by

Ray Tate

Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag.  I'm Ray Tate.  I review comic books and comic book related material.  I've been doing this awhile.  Since 1993 in fact.  Back when there was a usenet.  I have read a boatload of comic books.  What I don't know in hand, I research.  So this blog is about as informative as you can get.  Some subjects however remain daunting.  Anything involving the X-Men, for example, and Kang.

Pity about Kang because Kang is the antagonist and/or motivator for nearly every issue of Jed MacKay's impressive run of The Avengers.  

I'm embarrassed to say I know very little about this version of Kang.  I was still under the impression that he descended from or actually was Doctor Doom.  

Turns out he's an alternate descendent of Reed Richards.  Or something like that.  If you want more, click the link.  The nice folks at Wikipedia have got you covered.

Fortunately, writer Jed MacKay gleans the basics well enough.  Kang lives to conquer.  He's fond of blue masks.  He despises the Avengers.  It must gall him when earlier seeking their help.

After The Avengers premiere, Captain Marvel meets the injured Kang, and he has this to say.

These Tribulation Events come to pass in following issues.  They're Grant Morrison JLA level kind of threats.  Some just as weird.

The Marvel Universe is normally pretty streamline.  They've got people who want to conquer the earth and/or universe.  Kang for example.  They've got people who want to rob banks.  Paste Pot Pete.  They've got people who just want to kill other people.  Lots.

The Ashen Combine are alien, psychopath artists with bizarre powers that seek to murder cities in imaginative ways.  I can honestly say.  I've never seen the Avengers deal with anything like them.  They probably wouldn't be a walk in the park for the Justice League either.

It's pretty cheeky to throw something like that at the Avengers. Every character in the Marvel Universe received amperage to better reflect the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  The Avengers still pale when compared to the power and guile Grant Morrison imbued to the Justice League.  

That being said.  The Avengers are heroes, and heroes have one thing to say when faced with such overwhelming odds.

The Avengers take care of business.  They save the world.  They capture the Impossible City.  They free it from Ashen Combine enslavement.  They furthermore recruit the city as a teammate.  The city is alive.  Though I'm sure Blade Runner would need another movie to prove it.

Kang makes a deal with the Avengers.  He seeks time and protection to recuperate from battle against an arch-wizard named Myrddin.  In return he'll feed them knowledge about the Tribulation Events.  To broker trust, he gives the Avengers inside information on how to prevent mass casualties blipping in the immediate future.  That's a nice bit of writing.  What can Kang offer the Avengers? Lives.  Brilliant.

As stated, Myrddin is responsible for Kang's sorry state.  MacKay sets up Myrddin as an alternate Merlin.  If you've created a Merlin, why wouldn't you create a King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table?

MacKay obliges.  There's a lot more to these characters than compare and contrast.  Myrddin introduces them as champions.  In other words, the Twilight Court are heroes.  They do not want to harm or kill innocent people.  They serve Myrddin, and they battle the Avengers out of fealty to him.  There's even more about the Twilight Court revealed in the most recent issues of The Avengers.  I'll not spoil it. 

Myrddin is self-admittedly not a hero.  He like Kang is interested in obtaining a macguffin called The Missing Moment.  MacKay just revealed what that whatnot is.  Even though it's nothing to sneeze at, I'm still arguing that it's just a catalyst to motivate Kang.  A good catalyst, but a catalyst nonetheless.

Myrddin tracks Kang down while the Twilight Court battle the Avengers.  He unleashes some more devastation.  

Ouch.  I can't say I feel sorry for Kang, but did he have this coming?  It depends on the Kang.  This one...I'm going with...probably not.

With a massive gap in his memory, Kang tracks down the hard copy of data he compiled on the Missing Moment.   Elder of the Universe The Grandmaster, whom you may know as Jeff Goldblum, possesses the data.  

The Grandmaster locked it up for auction in his old-timey vault, at The Speculatorium of En Dwi Gast.  An intergalactic casino, which he happens to own.

Through a magical contact, the Scarlet Witch learns of the auction, and she hatches a plan.

A heist says you?  This is about as much fun as a superhero can have.  Superheroes behaving badly.  Stealing a whatnot from a cosmic super-being that's a ne'er-do-well at best.  Still thievery.  Something a superhero isn't supposed to engage in.  Naughty, naughty.  

MacKay demonstrates his fine skill for characterization during the discussion.  It's telling that Wanda, one of the founding members of The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and Storm, a child pick-pocket, get the most charge out of this plan.

They're above board now.  Not always so goody-goody in the past.  Yes.  I do know the original X-Men lore.  It's when you go post-Byrne that the fog rolls in.

The art in The Avengers is uniformly excellent.  It doesn't matter if it's C.F. Villa, Valerio Schiti or as in this case Farid Karami and Federico Blee.  The art is just stunning.  What I love about this story's visuals is that because it's a heist, a lot of the team are all smiles.

This is a rare thing in comic books.  Incidentally, Vision and Scarlet Witch have never been chummier, other than when they were a couple.  

The roulette ball is in play.  With the distraction carried out, the other members of the team go to work.

What terrific disguises!  If you haven't yet figured it out.  This tale is an outright comedy, it would have to be because of its guest-star.  Though not guest-Avenger as the cover would have it.

Kang because he is not a thief, recruits the Black Cat as his cutpurse.  Kang cannot use his awesome time-travel technology because it's the Grandmaster's casino. 

Any other casino, he may not have needed the Black Cat, but this one? "What's up, Pussycat?" 

I love the Black Cat.  Specifically Jed MacKay's super fun treatment of the feline.  If you haven't picked up MacKay's Black Cat series and its myriad spin-offs with Mary Jane Watson and/or Iron Man, do so.  You won't be sorry. 

If I hadn't already been reading Avengers, I would have started with this issue.  It has everything I'm looking for.  The Black Cat.  A heist.  Time Travel that makes sense.  Gosh.

The Black Cat has a personal stake in the heist, and that price gives this story its emotional punch.  For Black Cat fans, this is the awwwww moment.

If you're not a Black Cat fan, well, you should be one.  Then you would know what the Black Cat's price for helping Kang and her recruitment means to her.

Some of the Black Cat's crew do not need to be hidden.  For example, there's the muscle, a fan favorite whom you may recognize from Excalibur.

The muscle of course adds to the light heartedness of the caper and her team messes with the Avengers providing further distraction, on the Kang Team front.

Of course because it's Kang, you can expect a double cross.  The Black Cat may be unpredictable, but does have lines she will not cross.

Like many a hero, villain or parasitic alien pair of pants, Kang will regret his boast.  Check for back issues at your friendly, neighborhood comic book shop.  If you prefer the trade paperback look for ISBN: 9781302960766. 

POBB November 16, 2025

Pick of the Brown Bag

November 16, 2025

by

Ray Tate

Welcome to the Pick of the Brown Bag.  I'm Ray Tate, the creator and concocter of the POBB.  If you've just found the blog, you're not lost.  I normally review comic books.  This missive is the third part of a rare look at prose books.  You can find parts one and two below and nigh immediately when clicking the older posts link. 

The special POBB examines the work of Karin Smirnoff, the latest author attempting to offer sequels to Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy.

After reading and enjoying Karin Smirnoff's first sequel, The Girl  in the Eagle's Talons, I actually tracked when her second book would arrive.  While I waited, Trump's tariffs increased book prices.  I didn't balk because I didn't think Smirnoff would let me down.  That this book would be as much of a keeper as Eagle's Talons.  Nope.

The finale to Eagle’s Talons flaws The Girl with Ice in Her Veins.  One part of the novel is devoted to non-canonical villain Marcus Branco seeking revenge against Lisbeth Salander and Svala, Lisbeth's non-canonical niece.  

Branco's hatred of Svala reflects his fascism and racism.  He's also child molester, and passages indicate he longs to rape Svala.  Thus Smirnoff once again follows the themes of Larsson's trilogy.

Branco hates Lisbeth in a different way.  In Eagle's Talons, she physically and mentally hurt him.  He hates and fears Lisbeth.  He doesn't want to humiliate her.  He wants her as dead as possible, as quickly as possible.  He furthermore does not care who carries out the deed.  As long as she's dead.  This want makes his early scheme with the new Lo even more tactically dubious.

Branco sends Lo out to seduce Lisbeth.  The move on the surface is preposterous.   Lisbeth already spent adversarial time with Lo in the finale of Eagle’s Talons.  Lo’s parting words to Lisbeth consist of:

“Burn you goddamned rats, you’ll soon be burning in hell.”

Lisbeth sees Lo.  She hears her.  She’s unlikely to forget her, even without her canonical photographic memory.  Smirnoff must know this.  Rather than drop a bad idea.  She casually reinvents Lo.  

Lo isn’t a reboot.  She’s a different woman.  Another woman, essentially “neutered,” just like the “original” Lo, but with the same name.  This doesn’t make sense.  

The “original” Lo is the only woman in Branco Group’s inner circle.  She was part of Lukas’ kidnapping.  She faced Lisbeth Salander in the bunker.  How does this new Lo become Branco’s trusted right hand man?  So trusted that he pulls her from the seduction assignment when it doesn’t appear to be working.  Doesn’t kill her.  Mind you.  Just pulls her.

So, let me get this straight.  You thought it would be a good idea to make a big deal about Lo.  Redevelop her into a completely different woman.  Specifically so Lisbeth wouldn’t remember her, nor her voice.  Then have her pulled from the assignment?  What is the point of this exercise?  I asked that question a lot while inching through Ice in Her Veins.

We also have no satisfactory explanation for the “original” Lo’s disappearance after Eagle’s Talons.  What exactly happened to her? Lisbeth didn’t kill her.  Branco didn’t kill her.  She appeared to escape.

The original Lo’s animosity toward Lisbeth arose quite late in Eagle’s Talons.  Lo drank the Kool-Aid.  She believes in the promise of Branco’s fruitcake fascist vision.

Lisbeth puts a bullet in Branco, and that’s enough to set Lo off.  Refer to the quote.  Lo’s obsessive loyalty would logically drive her to be a part of Lisbeth’s demise.  Yet she’s not here.

Smirnoff’s Ice in Her Veins is a slog.  There’s a good novella in this 365 page drag, but that novella as well needs editing.

The story begins promisingly.   Lisbeth, felled by the common cold, takes part in the prologue.  A rare thing in books.   Here she begins to investigate Plague’s strange behavior in Eagle’s Talons.   

Even Batman caught a cold

Chapter Two starts with Svala interning for the Gasskas paper and using the splendid gift her Aunt Lisbeth got her in the prologue.

Chapter Five introduces the murder of Ester Sondergran that should motivate all the cast but strangely doesn’t.  Instead, Smirnoff will link the new Lo with the mentally damaged witness to the crime.  

Neither of these things are deal breakers.  The latter however seems in my opinion to be artifice to better excuse the appearance of a second Lo.  Why not just keep her as Marika Vikstrom?  Perhaps make her Lo’s assistant.  Call her Ferret, if you like.  It’s just really annoying to spend Chapter Nine finding out this new woman has now been dubbed Lo.

You’ll get the most out of Smirnoff’s second work if you skip chapters six, seven, eight, eleven, fifteen, nineteen through twenty-three, twenty-six through twenty-eight, fifty through fifty-four, sixty-seven through most of seventy-one and seventy-two.

Chapter six through eight for example is a self-contained short story featuring Officers Jessica and Birna.  It serves only to superfluously flesh them out.  Expanding on their characterizations is unimportant to the novel.  They’re only minor players.

Ice in Her Veins properly starts with Chapter Twelve.  The discovery of the body.  Ester, the friend and colleague of Svala.  In Chapter Thirteen Mikael Blomkvist enters the picture.  An unfortunate awkwardness and uncharacteristic dialogue between he and Lisbeth palls the serious nature of the meeting.  Mikael has a file that he wants Lisbeth to eye.

Chapters nineteen through twenty-three; twenty-six through twenty-eight try to humanize the Cleaner.  These chapters take him away from nature and the sea eagles.  None of this works.  He’s a rapist and killer.  Furthermore, in these chapters he only interacts with peripheral characters.  Not a single word in this span is important.  

Had Smirnoff minimized The Cleaner’s involvement, or remove it from the book altogether, until Svala’s encounter, his re-emergence would have been more effective.  No.  The Cleaner does not threaten Svala.  She’s a child.  The Cleaner does not harm children.  In any case, it would have been, "Oh, hey.  That's the Cleaner from the first book!" not "Sink me, Sir Percy.  How much more of the Cleaner's sex life must we know?"

In Chapter Twenty-Four, Smirnoff redirects to Lisbeth and Mikael searching for the now missing Plague.  This is when Lo’s honeytrap begins.  Reservations aside about this character being in the book and the bizarreness of instituting a honeytrap, it’s a decent seduction.  Lisbeth is naturally suspicious, but also interested.  Lisbeth plans to use her, not the other way around.  What a shame Smirnoff cuts back to the Cleaner in Twenty-Six, ad infinitum. 

In an outré Chapter Thirty-Three, we learn that Branco has an AI girlfriend.  I’m sorry.  What now?  Such a thing seems completely alien to his character.  He’s a child rapist.  He doesn’t have his splendid headquarters the Eagle’s Nest, nor the multinational wind farm, but he still possesses Varg, a Lo, flunkies, the resources of Branco Group, etc.  He should be orchestrating more abductions.  He should be compelled to satisfy his lusts.  Instead, AI girlfriend.  It’s just weird, and Branco’s not weird.  He’s fucking evil.

In Chapter Forty-One, Svala attempts to pump Henry Salo for information regarding the new mining of rare earth elements in an old dump.  This is apparently what got her friend killed and serves as the catalyst to a protest in which Svala takes part.  

In Chapter Forty-Three, Kostas Long a minor non-canonical character in Eagle’s Talons resurfaces.  Why? Why interrupt the flow?  Fine.  Kostas Long resurfaces.  Wish somebody drowned him.

Smirnoff intends to shape Long into a villain of worth rather than Lisbeth’s one-night stand.  He is so uninteresting.  Smirnoff realizes that he must be interesting if he’s a suspect for the murder of Ester.  So, she tries to spin Kostas as Lukas’ father.  Guess who’s coming to dinner, Pernilla?

The canonical Pernilla needn’t be in this story.  Henry Salo’s role could have been reduced to a walk-on, dialogue confrontation against Svala.  Salo is unappealing.   Following his point of view however briefly is tedious and painful.  Empathizing with him, impossible.  

Lisbeth finally returns in Chapter Forty-Four.  Mikael close behind.  Branco begins instituting some queer moves against them.  It’s as if he’s never done this sort of thing before, which seems unlikely.  Honeytrap with Lo.  Pull her away.  Bicyclist attack for Mikael.  Non-lethal intent.  Just to mess with him.  Threaten Lisbeth’s therapist.  Booga-Booga!  Branco acts more like a goofball rather than an insidious fascist leader bent on revenge.

A really good piece of writing.  The kind prevalent in Eagle’s Talons appears in Chapter Forty-Eight:

“A swallow named Svala is hunched down on the landing, propped against the door.  She’s pulled her arms out of her anorak sleeves to tuck around herself.  Her hair is a tousled mess.  She is bleary-eyed.  Flattened.”

Just beautiful.  Lisbeth figures out quickly that something happened to Svala other than the murder of her friend, and she begins to calculate revenge on Svala’s behalf.

In Chapter Forty-Nine, Lisbeth learns about Svala’s dead friend and we get a tiny bit of progress regarding Plague, but bang on Chapter Fifty.  It’s the Salo and Kostas Long show.  One a thoroughly terrible human being, and the other, I dunno. 

This is another overall irritating thing about Ice In Her Veins.  Smirnoff keeps precluding momentum.  She interrupts the velocity of events with detours that nobody cares about.  The Salo and Long show continues through Chapter Fifty-Five.

Hitting Fifty-Six, Svala meets the Cleaner and learns more about Branco.  Together they hatch a scheme to destroy him.  In Chapters Fifty-Seven through Sixty-Seven we finally get back to the meat of the story, but these chapters are messily written.  Lisbeth’s renewed lusts for Mikael and Jessica just seem to be planted.  She dropped them both when it seemed like they didn’t want her.  These distractions aside, at least we get to the search for Plague.  Again, Smirnoff gives us the glimmer of skillful writing displayed in Eagle’s Talons:

“Her thoughts shoot outward, radiating like strings from a midpoint.  Svala’s disappearance, Plague, the ransomware attack on municipal council (and Henry Salo), Ester Sodergran, Marianne Lekatt and her missing son, what else?”

Lisbeth puts everything together, including what upset Svala enough for her to camp on the doorstep.  

Probably the best chapters in Ice In Her Veins are Sixty-Two through Sixty-Five.  If you included Chapter Forty-Eight and additional material found in the book, this would have been the darkly comical novella involving only Svala, Lisbeth and a few other cast members. 

Damn it.  We’re back to Salo and Kostas Long in Chapter Sixty-Six through Seventy-One.  It doesn’t matter if Lisbeth and Mikael are heroic in these chapters.  These sections have no business cluttering up Ice in Her Veins.  If Smirnoff wanted Kostas Long to be the villain of the piece, she should have saved him for another novel and refocus.  No matter.  The idea that Long slept with Lisbeth, Jessica and Pernilla is outrageously stupid.  On a subjective and objective level.  I also question the attempted kidnapping of Pernilla's son Lukas.  Too repetitive.

Chapter Seventy-Three, Lisbeth tracks Svala and makes certain her needs are met.  Really quiet things she does, but Lisbeth doesn’t want to damper Svala’s independence nor upset her plans.   She draws a red line that Svala doesn’t yet cross, where Lisbeth deduces, glides Branco and company.  Finally, Smirnoff pulls a genuine twist.  It’s just, by this time, will you care? Can you appreciate it after reading all of the stagnant sludge about the Cleaner, Henry Salo, Kostas Long and other characters not scintillating enough to fascinate?

Chapter Seventy-Four concludes the novella, that still needed editing.  It’s a terrific ending.   Svala takes after her aunt and transforms into a junior action hero.   After the novella, we finally get back to Branco.

Setting a trap, Svala arranges to turn over the macguffin to Branco.  She underestimates him.  Branco is a perverted savage.  This is the Branco we met in Eagle's Talons.  Svala’s plan goes to hell.  Lisbeth Salander storms to the rescue and instills conniptions in Marcus Branco:

“At first he can only see the hair.  Short, swept back.  It’s when the creature turns its ugly mug to the camera and laughs like a hyena that he completely blows his top.”

Too much of this book is a meander.  The focus in Eagle’s Talons is nowhere to be found in Ice in Her Veins.  I’d swear Knopf Publishing, impatient for the second novel, raided Smirnoff’s abode, snatched as many notes about the first and second novels as they could, smooshed them together and gave the haphazard amalgamation to the translator.