Tintin is the antithesis of a superhero, which may account for why he seems so alien to Americans. He has an upswept red forelock, wears plus fours and argyle socks and lives alone with his dog, Snowy. He has no exceptional powers, no sexual identity and seemingly no inner life at all. Hergé began drawing the character in 1929 and was working on a full-length Tintin adventure (it would have been the 24th) when he died in 1983, and in all that time Tintin never aged, remaining a barely pubescent 14 or 15. He ostensibly works as a journalist, though we almost never see him write or file a story. .
The books are long by comic-book standards, with more pages and many more words to a page than usual. They’re genuine graphic novels, to use the current terminology, and require from the reader time and attention and a kind of childlike surrender. If the Spielberg version encourages a new American audience to read and appreciate these sweet, charming and visually arresting books, the way the rest of the world does, that may be its greatest accomplishment.
The new movie is based on three Tintin adventures that Hergé drew during World War II: “The Crab With the Golden Claws” (1941), “The Secret of the Unicorn” (1943) and “Red Rackham’s Treasure” (also 1943). They are a slightly misleading introduction to Hergé’s work, which typically has a more documentary quality and dispatches Tintin to solve mysteries in exotic locales.    
Full story at The New York Times.