The Red Sea Sharks is, I suppose, a fine adventure tale, even if it’s not an entry in Hergé’s canon that I’m particularly fond of. The nineteenth installment in the series, the author uses the opportunity to tie a whole slew of open story threads together and anchor the long-term continuity of the series, but he also decides to deal with the issue of modern slavery – a controversial and topical issue, to be sure. However, while I have no doubt the author’s intentions were true, the story reads more than a little awkwardly in dealing with the topic.The story finds room from all sorts, including a short cameo from Doctor J. W. Müller himself and reappearance of Haddock’s treacherous first mate Allan, tempting the good captain with the demon drink. …show more content…
That’s grand – I accept that bad people to exist in these stories – but I find it fascinating that Tintin remains on good terms with a person like that. It just seems inherently wrong to keep babysitting for somebody like that, and Tintin give no indication of any objection to the Emir’s approach. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it does bother me. And, truth be told, it overshadows the story a bit. The Red Sea Sharks is about as conventional a Tintin story as you can get – and it features some wonderful art from Hergé – but I never really warmed to it. I had a bit of difficulty with how Hergé handled his racially-themed content, and I also found the “all of Tintin’s bad guys working together” plot point a little forced. Still, things were about to get considerably different.help as Haddock is ready to let them out, he very dismissively exclaims, “All right, I’m coming