The Girl Named Mary Sue

I just finished "The Girl Who Played With Fire." At this point, it would be helpful to review the attributes of the title character, a Swedish girl named Lisbeth Salander.

• She has a photographic memory;


• is an untraceable, unblockable, world-class computer hacker;


• and has talent with mathematical analysis at the level of Fermat's last theorem.


• She is mysteriously sexually attractive to both men and women;


• yet the Swedish police find her to be an untraceable, wraith-like ninja who can elude a nation-wide manhunt at will.


• She is fast enough, if not strong enough, to go into the boxing ring against male boxers.


• Through a combination of wits, speed, and ruthlessness, she has managed to overpower half-a-dozen adult men, including professional criminal members of a biker gang.


• She has managed to terrify, admittedly irrationally, a man the size of Andre the Giant who is immune to pain.


• She has survived hurricane-force winds.


• She has survived three gunshots wounds, including one that left a bullet lodged in her brain.


• She has survived being buried alive.

How do we explain all this? There really is only one explanation. She is not actually mild-mannered Lisbeth Salander at all. She is really Sal-El, daughter of Zal-El, last survivor of the planet Krypton!