In
another thread comparing Tintin to Asterix, the distinction was made that while Asterix had super-powers, Tintin was fully bound by more realistic constraints and had to rely primarily on his wits to get him out of a fix.
I disagree with this statement. While Tintin may not have any clearly defined "super-ability", like some other comic book characters, he has proved himself many times in the series to do things I consider super-human - or at least well above average!
Some examples off the top of my head are single handedly beating up three burly guards at once while doing time in
The Blue Lotus; tearing Mitsuhirato's clothes to shreds with one punch in the same book; and even binding and gagging a tiger with his bare hands in
The Cigars of the Pharaoh!
The examples I mentioned occur quite early on in the series.
However, while it's true that many aspects of the character Tintin and his adventures have developed and changed throughout the course of the series, the conviction I have that, if he wanted, he could fight his way out of anything (despite being displayed less and less with time), nonetheless remains.
Consider the numbers of times Tintin has been shot and recovered within a matter of days, if not the next day!
Destination Moon saw Hergé really up the ante considerably in terms of the amount of detail he paid to Tintin's stories and graphics - but it also sees our hero being shot in the head only to recover (albeit with a bandage wrapped around the wound) a short time later! That seems pretty super-human to me!!
Can people think of other times Tintin has proven his mettle in extraordinary ways?
Do people disagree with me that Tintin truly has phenomenal power and instead see the examples I've given as either gags, Hergé employing artistic license, or something else entirely?