Why Tintin is so important in our age of superheroes

When The Adventures of Tintin is released on movie screens all around the world on Friday, it will hopefully open a window for many young children to a simpler time -- a time when our heroes didn’t have superpowers; when they didn’t fight to prevent nuclear war; when their brand of justice was simple.It was the time of Tintin, Tarzan of the Apes, Mandrake the Magician, The Phantom – to name but a few. Now, these guys couldn’t fly or breathe fire or have access to technology that others could only dream about. They were the kind of guys who would walk into a bar and ask for a glass of milk – in this age, that takes guts too. But when the Phantom did it – no one asked questions. The Ghost Who Walks wasn’t one to be messed with.These guys were old school. To ensure that good triumphed over evil, they used their brains. They worked out strategy, raced against time – as fast as humanly possible, and somehow almost always came out tops.These days even our superheroes die. In 1992, Superman died for the first time. There was much blood and gore. Batman has died as well. But in these comics, no one died, there was no blood and the culprits/criminals were almost always handed over to the police.[caption id="attachment_128407" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="It was the time of Tintin, Tarzan of the Apes, Mandrake the Magician, The Phantom – to name but a few. Now, these guys couldn’t fly or breathe fire or have access to technology that others could only dream about. Getty Images."][/caption]But even in the esteemed company of Tarzan, Mandrake and Phantom, Tintin stood out as the simplest of the lot. The former three were specially trained. The latter was only guided by curiosity and his reporter's instinct; curiosity may have killed the cat but in Tintin’s case it only helps him solve one problem after another.It helps him make friends, sniff out stories – he’s always game for a good story and fly around the globe. Of course, it helps if you have friends in all the right place. Those friends were Captain Archibald Haddock – hard drinker and user of colourful insults, the most famous of which is blistering barnacles. Professor Calculus – an absent-minded, hard of hearing physicist who first made an appearance in Red Rackham’s treasure. And of course the bumbling twins, Thomson and Thompson, who are police detectives.No matter what Spielberg does, he probably can’t top what Belgian artist Georges Rémi (Hergé), did with the books. For books allow you the choice to go back and read, over and over again – that one phrase that catches your fancy. Wouldn’t you like to go back and read something like “nincompoop”, “abominable snowman”, “nitwits”, “scoundrels”, “steam rollers”, “parasites”, “floundering oath”, and chuckle along?As you keep reading these curses and move, they grow on you. In much the same way as Tintin did.But what Spielberg can probably do is introduce children to a different kind of superhero – one that everyone can become… the only pre-requisite being curiosity.