The biggest train wreck in a well known comic book series.

[The Great Saiyaman]

Well, we all experience some off days, but not many of us can claim that their off-days were published in comic book format and read by people who will go "What the hell did I just read?" Or who will go: "How is it possible that this was green lit for publication?"

And I'll start with what is probably the best known character from European comics of all time.

Tintin.

Now, the earliest comics of Tintin have NOT aged well.


But once artist Hergé got his act together, he produced some truly STUNNING albums, both in artistry and in the stories themselves.


But even with protégés like Jacques Martin and Roger Leloup (who later became well known ComicBook artists in their own right) helping him out in the later years, Hergé could still drop the ball. And his worst album ever must be THIS one.


So what went wrong here?

* Well, for starters, Hergé himself had been worked to death and when his publisher commissioned another Tintin album from him, he was quoted as saying "I CAN'T STAND THE SIGHT OF HIM ANY MORE!"
* So, his heart wasn't in it and it shows in the story itself.

So what is the story about?
SPOILERS
* While on route to Sydney and making a stop at Jakarta international airport, Tintin, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus run into an old friend. Pilot Skut from the "Cokes in stock" adventure. Who reveals that he's now the personal pilot of billionaire aviation tycoon Laslo Careidas. (A parody of French aviation tycoon Marcel Dassault)

* Having introduced his friends to his boss, Careidas invites them on board his private plane which will take them to Sydney faster than the regular jetliners of the day. But at hearing this change in plans, Careidas' two right-hand men, all of a sudden start to sweat bullets. Because that could ruin their plans.

* Which are revealed to be to hi-jack the plane and make it land at a small Micronesian island where they wanted to extort Careidas from his fortune.

So far so good, sounds like a plot for a superb James Bond style adventure, doesn't it?
Yes, but it all goes awry as soon as the plane actually touches down.


Because, all of a sudden, the mastermind of this plan is revealed to be Tintin's oldest adversary: Roberto Rastapopulous. (Himself a parody of Aristole Onassis)


Who wastes little time telling our heroes that the island will be their grave site. Trying to make an example out of a random spider with pathetic results...

And following that, the train wreck ensues and plot is all over the place.
* Rastapopulous' crooked Doctor, administering a truth serum to Careidas, in order to get the details on his bank account number, gets a lot of stories from his sordid childhood.
* When Rastapopulous wants to strike the said doctor, he gets a dose of the serum himself and promptly reveals that it was his plan to keep the money for himself and to kill everybody, including the doctor. Before he and Careidas get into a screaming match over who is the biggest villain of them all.

Yeah, it went from a James Bond kind of plot to something out of a Pink Panther movie...

And then the volcano on the island explodes, luckily our heroes are saved by a flying saucer, which drops them in one of the plane's rescue dinghies and taking the villains out to space.

And YES, as crazy as it might sound, that truly IS what happened in that story.




I mean, if the saying "Losing the plot was ever applied to something, it should be for this issue of the Tintin ComicBook series. Since it hopped from a suspenseful thriller, to a comedy, to a sci-fi and ended with a "men-in-black" avant la letre, wiping off the memories of our heroes, who can't recall any of what happened.

So, having made probably the WORST album of his career, what did Hergé do next? Well, he got his act together with "Tintin and the Picaros" which, as it turned out, was also the last album he completed before his death.

Which, again was a masterpiece in both story and art.

Which makes the fact that "Flight 714" exists in the first place all the more baffling…