If Tintin Were Set in The Present Day

Tintin is one of the most iconic comic book characters in the world. His adventures existed in the 20th century from the 1920s to the 1970s (or 1980s if you count the unfinished adventure Tintin and Alph-Art). I thought it would be interesting to write down ideas that could be explored in Tintin if there were Tintin adventures set in the present day. In this article, I am giving a list of what I’d like to see in present day Tintin. While most ideas are specifically related to the present day, there are a few that are simply things we haven’t seen before in Tintin I’d like to see. Let’s begin.

• Have Professor Calculus invent green technology, and not as a joke, but as cool useful technology that actually works especially with the environmental issues we’re currently facing.
• Tintin has had science fiction stories and elements, so have a science fiction story. It could be based on an invention of Professor Calculus or deal with issues of artificial intelligence.  
• Have an adventure where Tintin, Captain Haddock and Snowy take on ISIS in the Middle East. It could be tied to the state of Wadesdah (a fictional country run by the heroes’ friend Emir Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab).
• If there’s a way to deal with it, feature the contemporary problem of racism and hatred in some of the stories, e.g. it could be with Syldavia (a fictional country in Tintin) electing a populist leader.
• Syldavia is enemies with their neighbouring state (also fictional) Borduria. Borduria is an aggressive state and they have the dictator Marshal Kurvi-Tasch who’s mentioned but only appears in photographs. Have the Bordurian leader Kurvi-Tasch appear and be the main villain of the story.
• Have a story dealing with cyber crime.
• Bring the Panama Papers into Tintin, and have some Tintin villains being part of it.
• Have a story dealing with automation.
• I did say to have a science fiction story, but I would like to see another specialised form of science fiction, which is time travel. Have a story where the heroes go back in time to an incident involving Captain Haddock when he was much younger with Captain Haddock avoiding contact with his younger self. Show the contrast between the two of them and the story would involve the heroes stopping the villains from altering history. Differentiate the two Captains by making the younger Captain Haddock without a beard.
• I would like to see a subplot in a story of insurance agent Jolyon Wagg suffering due to the annoying things he’s done to Captain Haddock.
• Captain Haddock’s Butler Nestor is very formal and we see little of what he’s really like as a person. Reveal what he’s really like by showing him interact with others casually, and possibly have his interactions with the heroes getting less formal. There could be a story of Nestor getting kidnapped with the heroes going to rescue him. That would give the opportunity to delve into his personality.
• Incorporate drones (the type that take videos and photos) into a story.

I hope you enjoyed my list of what I’d like to see in present day Tintin. I’d be interested to hear what your thoughts are on these ideas, if you have any expansions of them or if you have ideas of your own.