Dinosaur Hunter Diaries #094: Pyre
X-O Manowar #48
Turok and Aric are no longer BFFs.
X-O Manowar #47 (Aug 1995)
A lot’s happened to Aric since we last saw him, and none of it good! After his right-hand man Ken was captured during Turok’s team-up in issue #43, Aric was imprisoned in his own company’s basement by Mistress Crescendo — an Egyptian queen whose empire was plundered and destroyed by the Visigoths. While she trapped him in a fantasy of his glory days, she began dissolving his empire as his men did to hers — liquidating Orb Industries’ assets, crashing the stock…
… and murdering his two closest companions: Randy Cartier and Ken Clarkson. He may not have been personally responsible for her downfall — Ken gave his life for that — but her only goal was to reduce him to his lowest pit of despair, to take everything away from him. Although Crescendo was finally slain, her message seemed to get through to Aric — he reduced Orb Industries to rubble, cementing his belief he has nothing to live for.
So of course, Turok happens to pay a visit in the middle of a self-destructive house-wrecking session. He heard the news of Orb’s closure and is eager to aid his blood brother however he can, but Aric wants none of it — all he asks is to be left alone.
Turok insists; he won’t resolve anything by holing himself away from the outside world. Aric smoulders: What’s left for him out there? Everyone he cares for is dead, his empire has collapsed… to have this happen twice in one lifetime is a little hard to bounce back from. Still, Turok persists–
— and is met with brutality. To strike a blood brother, to cast them out, and dismiss his treasured gift, the azze-kloth? Turok leaves him no option — he’s severing their blood bond.
And with that, Turok walks out of Aric’s life forever. Never again will the dinosaur hunter, the Son of Stone, come to the aid of X-O Manowar.
… that’s a blow, huh? Their crossovers may have been infrequent and somewhat impersonal, but the flowery language suggested Turok and Aric were genuine buddies, finding solace in their uncanny predicaments and knowledge of the old ways.
This is the culmination of events that began during Birthquake, and seemingly the start of a brand new status quo for Aric — by the issue’s end he burns his house to the ground, leaving his X-O armour as the only relic of his old life… and Paul, whose consciousness is still alive in the suit. But that’s a quibble for him to resolve at a later date.
On the bright side, it’s smooth sailing from here on out. Having burned his bridges with Aric, Turok has no more crossovers for the rest of the Valiant run! I no longer have to entertain this charade of wrangling cameos and geographical locations into continuity! From this point on, we can simply read the Turok: Dinosaur Hunter series in consecutive numerical order, barring the occasional special issue… like the long-awaited #0, which we’ll dive into next week.
