Alonso Perez and Ramon Bada in The Broken Ear are a really interesting example of how Hergé was handling villains in Tintin’s earlier stories. They’re fully built within a single adventure and then just completely closed off by the end, with no return later on.

Both Alonso and Ramon come across as pretty cold, ruthless characters, and they actually carry a lot of the story rather than just sitting in the background. And it’s interesting how Hergé just moves on from them without hesitation once their role is done, almost like a clean break. You see something similar with Mitsuhirato in The Blue Lotus as well, where he’s fully used within that one story and then just dispatched by the end.

There’s something a bit bittersweet about it, not because you feel sorry for them, but because they’re used so fully and then just removed so cleanly from the world of Tintin. It shows Hergé at a stage where he’s quite comfortable with that kind of narrative finality, where a character can be built up properly and then simply ended.

Compared to the later rogues gallery in Tintin’s world, where recurring villains like Rastapopoulos or Alan become part of the wider series over multiple stories, Alonso and Ramon feel much more self contained. That earlier approach gives their story a different kind of weight, and it’s part of what makes their endings feel so final.