Frank Wolff

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Evil-doer
Full Name	Frank Wolff
Alias	Wolff
Origin	Tintin
Occupation	Engineer Spy
Powers / Skills	Genius-level intellect Engineering Mechanical skill.
Goals	Hijack the rocket so it can be brought to the unnamed foreign power on Earth. Mishandle the ladders and airlock to abandon Tintin's friends on the moon (both failed, later abandoned) Sacrifice his own life to save oxygen for Tintin and his friends (succeeded)
Crimes	Hijacking Attempted murder Treason Assault Espionage Theft Involuntary manslaughter
Type of Villain	Remorseful Spy

Frank Wolff is the secondary antagonist of the Tintin books Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon and their 1991 TV series adaptations.

Appearance

Wolff is a man with black hair on the sides of his head, the center of his hair is shaved off and has a mustache; He also wears round glasses.

Personality

Wolff is a clever but feeble and quiet engineer with a master degree in Mathematics with Mechanics.

During the Moon mission, he seems to be more stressful and overcome with guilt as time passes, which later caused him to commit suicide by exiting out of the rocket and into space as a sacrifice and left a note of forgievness, as he is still a decent man in heart despite him being a spy.

Biography

Background

Frank Wolff is an Austrian engineer who originally worked at an atomic facility in the White Sands in the United States, before falling into huge debts due to his compusive gambling. A man then offered to pay off his debts in exchange of harmless information about his work. However, he was eventually forced to reveal real secrets and to work as a spy. One day he wanted to go straight and fled to Europe. He got a job at the atomic centre in Syldavia.

Destination Moon

Wolff is first seen when Tintin and Haddock are taken to the Atomic Research Centre in Sbrodj. He introduces himself and then takes Tintin and Haddock to a guiding tour around the premises. During the tour, they meet Calculus, who was doing a test of a helmet made in plexi-glass, a very strong glass material. Wolff tells them that Calculus is his dependable right hand man. Resuming the tour, Wolff even went over-technical as to the working of atomic batteries, which Haddock still has in mind, though he tried to not show it.

However, the spies who paid Wolff's debts quickly tracked him down and threatened him to expose his past if he did not cooperate with them. Wolff went along, much against his will. He and Calculus were working on an experimental rocket called X-FLR6. It was created to orbit the moon before returning to Earth with pictures on the other side. Unnoticed, Wolff passed the microfilms to the spies using the air conditioning system of the Centre. He was almost caught by Haddock, forcing him to knock him out unconscious.

After X-FLR6 was launched, it was suddenly intercepted by the foreign power during it's return to Earth, thanks to Wolff providing them the plans and passing them to Miller. Unfortunately, Calculus installed an auto-destruction mechanism inside the rocket, which thrwarted the spies's plans.

Wolff was then suspected for his failure of his attempt at hijacking the rocket by Miller and was threatened to be killed. After hearing that a new rocket was being built which was fully capable of actually taking people to the moon, Wolff was told that a journalist who will help him on his task will be smuggled inside the moon. He then incurred the wrath of Captain Haddock by refusing to allow any alcohol or tobacco inside the rocket (despite Haddock hiding some bottles inside his libation anyway in the following story).

Wolff then continued to work on the rocket and the suits needed for the Moon's exploration. He eventually sets off to the moon with Tintin, Calculus and Haddock, as well as the Thompsons who were supposed to watch over the rocket before it's launch, which they thought was scheluded for 1:34 p.m instead of 1:34 a.m.

Once arrived on the moon, Wolff then assisted the "journalist" who was smuggled inside the rocket, revealed to be Boris Jorgen, who was an enemy of Tintin back when he was part of the conspiracy tasked with stealing the Ottokar Sceptre. He then reveals that his main mission was to bring the rocket back to the foreign power he and Wolff were working for. This led Wolff to mishandle the rocket's ladders and airlock once the others set foot on the moon. He and Calculus then set about performing various experiments and observing the stars from there. He also explored in the lunar tank with Tintin and Haddock.

While the other members of the crew went on an expedition that would last two Earth days, Jorgen came out of hiding and knocked Tintin out, binding him afterwards. Wolff was then pressured at gun point into launching the rocket back to Earth, which he obeys to. However, as the rocket almost blasted off the surface of the moon, it went back down, due to Tintin freeing himself due to the poor knots he was binded with and sabotaging the rocket. Wolff was almost killed by Jorgen as he was accused of the sabotage, but Tintin revealed he was the one who did the sabotage to stop the rocket's takeoff. He and Wolff were then binded and Wolff confessed them about his past, starting with his compulsive gambling. During the return trip, Wolff and Jorgen managed to free themselves due to the Thompsons removing the ropes tying them to use handcuffs instead as a more secure way.

Jorgen promised Wolff that he would spare them, but lied about it and was about to shoot Tintin and his companions. Wolff intervenes and, jolting Jorgen's pistol, convinces him to spare their lives and a struggle then followed, resulting in Jorgen accidentaly shooting himself in the heart, killing him. His body was cast into space as it was too dangerous to keep a dead body inside a rocket with limited air supply.

Wolff was allowed back into the crew, but was suspected of "possible betrayal" by Haddock. Despite this, he was overcomed with guilt for betraying his friends, as well as fear for the foreign power that hired him would come after him if he came back to Earth. As the others were asleep to save oxygen, Wolff silently left the rocket, sabotaged the alarm, left a note of forgiveness and slipped away into space, sacrificing his life for the others with his death. Even Haddock, despite suspecting him for his treachery, was moved by this selfness act. Everyone was able to get back to Earth alive, just in the last minute, thanks to Wolff.

Trivia

• Wolff's name is shared with the real-life actor of the same name. Coincidentally, both of them commited suicide.