I had a discussion the other day with someone who claimed that Dirk was the hero and Al the sidekick! :angry: Which I strongly disagreed with, I mean think about how many times Al has saved Dirk , he is a total HERO!

So I thought I'd open it up for discussion (I promise not to get too mad if you take the opposite side j: )

So what do you think? Is Al just a sidekick?

:) I think Dirk and Al are equal.

Yes both are hereos but they are diffierent.

This is the way I see it:
Dirk has a slight tendency to go overboard, while Al is always calm, and in control. (Well, most of the time..) Dirk is usually the one to get in trouble, and Al gets him out of it, and does a lot of the labor.

Just a thought, but what about comparing Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala??

I've noticed that in the novels Al seems to be a little more cold-blooded than Dirk, but this is strictly an observation. As for the true hero, it's up for the reader to decide. th:

I don't know. Dirk can be cold blooded at times, but then the next minute he's saving the lives of women and children.

To my way of thinking they are both heroes.They really can't be seperated anymore,with one you get the other.
I think Dirk is the more cold blooded of the two.
Pinning Massarde down naked in the hot sun is the first one that comes to mind.
Pinning Ono Kanai beneath the supertanker.And Quin Shang in the same manner.
Sticking Kamatori to the wall with his own sword.



Al seems to take the more direct approach,shooting Melika,not really making her suffer.
Snapping Boudicca Dorsett's neck.
Al is definately not a sidekick,he is comic relief alot of the times.But he is definately a hero. w:

In an interview with Clive Cussler by Rochelle O’Gorman - October 15, 2003 (found at this page on the Cusslermen website: http://www.cusslermen.com/characters.htm)

O’GORMAN: Why did you give him a sidekick :blink: with Al Giordino?

CUSSLER: I wanted to be different. All the rest of them are single heroes and I thought this way Pitt and Giordino could play off each other.

While each book in the adventure series is promoted as being a Dirk Pitt novel, both Pitt and Giordino are heroes in my book. And they do "play off each other" very well!

b: snor: det: p: para: (ooops - not Giordino's favorite) t:

I think Dirk and Al play off each other and neither one is more the hero than the other. They both take different approaches to situations and I believe both have saved one another in some way or another. They work together to rid the world of all the evils. B) co:

Dirk and Al are DEFINITELY heroes of differing types but they complement each other B)

Massarde and Kamatori both deserved it. I don't remember what Kanai and Shang did.


But you're right, Al is the comic relief.

I like you lot :)


j: j: j:

I'll admit when I first started reading the books, I thought Al was the sidekick. But as I read more I realized they were kinda eqq\ual, though I do still get the impression Al's somewhat the sidekick.

That's probaly how the movie's goign to portray Al...every good hero neds a short, stocky Italian sidekick.