DUNE: HOUSE ATREIDES
Spice Boys
RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher BOOM! Studios
Writers Brian Herbert,
Kevin J Anderson Artist Dev Pramanik
Dune fans may have have a painful wait to see the movie, but at least now there’s a new comic to enjoy, arriving in the wake of the recent graphic novel adaptation. Once again written by long-time Dune experts Brian Herbert (son of Frank) and Kevin J Anderson, this 12-issue miniseries adapts the first of their many prequel novels, and is set a generation before the events of Herbert Sr’s 1965 sci-fi classic.
The far-future action in these three opening issues is split between several characters: slippery opportunist Vladimir Harkonnen, who’s trying to keep control of spice production on the desert planet Arrakis; royal prince Shaddam, as he plots to become Emperor; and young Leto Atreides, who’s learning what it’ll be like to take over as Duke of the planet Caladan.
Herbert and Anderson once again prove good at capturing the same decadent weirdness that made the original Dune such an indelible classic, and they’re helped in this by evocative art from Dev Pramanik, who gives this future world a sense of grandeur and scale.
As with the Dune graphic novel adaptation, however, it’s hard not to wish that someone else was handling the scripts, as Herbert and Anderson’s weaknesses are showcased even more clearly here – from odd pacing and excessive infodumps to muted drama and creaky dialogue. House Atreides has brief sequences that are genuinely lurid and evocative – it’s just a pity that it so often feels more like a reheated Wikipedia synopsis.
Herbert and Anderson’s latest Dune novel, Dune: The Lady Of Caladan, is due in September.