This comic got Herge into no end of trouble after World War Two and is the chief basis for all those Tintin-was-a-Nazi stories. Tintin takes part in an expedition to the Arctic Sea to track recover a meteor - the expedition has representatives from most European countries (including Germany), and the baddies are from a ficticious country but the chief baddy looks Jewish (in the original edition the country was America).I don't think Herge was a Nazi, just a Belgium who was distrustful of all other countries except Belgium and, later, England - up til then he'd had digs at imperialism by America, Japan, Germany, Russia and England (but not Belgium) - but the drawing of the baddy is a bit anti-Semitic and makes the story a bit uncomfortable.
Having said that, this is a top quality entry - the opening scenes of impending apocalypse (heatwaves making tires burst, a creepy telescope) being particularly effective. Ditto the visit to the meteor, where there is spectacular action including a fight with the spider - this is weird, too - science fiction-ish but still has firm roots in reality, making it very effective. The setting of the Arctic Sea is higly effective - this Tintin looks like no other in the series. Haddock has a strong reason for being in this one as captain of the boat - he soon wouldn't need one apart from being Tintin's friend.
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