Perfectly streamlined graphic novel adaptation, December 13, 2010

The story opens on Mr. Brunner’s class of boarding school kids while they’re taking a field trip to a museum. Mr. Brunner calls on Percy Jackson to explain the history of Kronos the titan and his son Zeus, king of the gods. Percy, our sixth-grade hero, gives a very intelligent answer, though he comes up short when asked how the myths might relate to modern life. Mr. Brunner insists that the stories are vitally important to Percy, and soon he figures out why: Percy is the demigod son of Poseidon, lord of the sea, and he’s being called on to find Zeus’ stolen master bolt and prevent a war among the Greek deities.

The story itself is preserved very nicely from the original book. A few scenes are skipped, particularly the ones where Percy, Annabeth, and Grover get sidetracked on their way to LA to find the Underworld–in the book, the have about a dozen missteps and nearly-tragic setbacks, but in the graphic novel, the only major time-waster they come across is the Lotus Casino. But the important parts of the story are all here: Chiron’s big reveal as a centaur, Poseidon’s trident symbol flashing over Percy’s head, the Oracle’s prophecy, the visit to Hades, the throne room scene on Olympus that resolves the conflict and introduces Percy to his father. It’s a near-perfect adaptation in terms of the plot–everything vital is kept, and everything that slows the plot down is skipped or compressed.

The overall art style is easy on the eyes. It’s not so dark and craggy that it projects unpleasantness, and it’s not so cute that it would drive away younger male readers; it’s a happy medium where nobody’s really beautiful and nothing but the monsters and underworld creatures are really ugly. The character design took awhile to get used to, though. The adult faces look fine, but there seemed to be something unusual about all the kids’ noses, like the nose became the focal point of their faces instead of the eyes. My favorite character design is Percy’s mom with her flowing hair, mildly wrinkled face and bright cerulean shirt–her expressions and body language are perfectly drawn to convey her endless love for Percy. Percy’s design is solid, too. His brilliant green eyes look just like his father’s, and his floppy hair and average looks cement his status as the everyman character we all root for. Percy does look closer to 14 than 12, but it helps make his action scenes more convincing.

The fantastic pacing speeds the book along quite nicely, and it can be read in about an hour, which is perfect for adults without a lot of time to spare or children with shorter attention spans. The Lightning Thief graphic novel takes an already exciting adventure book and boils it down to eye-catching illustrations and plot basics, but for all the streamlining, the story isn’t dumbed down. It’s still an incredible introduction to Greek mythology and it delivers facts about the gods, monsters, and heroes in an understandable, memorable way.

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