Comic reviews: Dune: House Atreides Vol. 1 (BOOM! Studios)

BOOM! Studios bring you a sci-fi comic about aliens on another planet which happens to be the prequel of Groundbreaking Dune, in Dune: House Atreides on its first volume.

Ok, so this comic brings you to another Star Wars film. If so, then this comic should be Marvel Comic material, because the story is more beyond the Avengers movie with Thanos on it. But the whole series focuses on a sandy desert planet, Arrakis which is turning into the planet Tattoine. The story is written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson and illustrated by Dev Pramanik. Brian Herbert is one of the most famed American authors whose father is a science fiction author Frank Herbert. Brian wrote so many novels that have a primary focus on sci-fi genres. And Kevin has written on some spin-off sci-fi novels of every tv and movie series and he’s the co-author of the Dune prequel series.

The front cover shows a distinctive symmetric form of the background between the characters and some monsters. Speaking of monsters, what does those two look like? Surely it’s not a penis, but it almost reminded me of that alien monster in the Alien: Isolation game. But seriously, seeing those monsters almost look like alien snakes or a giant worm. So the cover art, there’s nothing to talk about.

The story starts in a galaxy far far away, on a desert planet called Arrakis. And from the start of the story, the planet is in a middle of a war in which almost everyone got annihilated. However, there is more to that than the war, because a galaxy is a big place and the creator just made a big world out there with some foreign planets. We get a planet that can have bullfights in a stadium just like the Spanish usually does for entertainment, a royal palace of planet Kaitain, there are so many different planets that usually goes for some learning experience of what these aliens do and stuff. If you’re thinking that this comic is like Star Wars, well you’re not wrong, but there are no Jedi or any warrior tribe on this comic. So the plot of the prequel is that there’s a young boy named Leto Atreides who started his fateful journey, has dreams to become a duke, however, he has so many obstacles to take. He arrives at Planet IX just to start his new life, but when he landed on that planet, everything is deserted or should I say that everyone is hiding underground. A man that Leto was supposed to meet told him that the whole civilization is underground because he came up there on an elevator which is too random, to begin with. The world is a big place and every character has their own story to tell, so there are so many things that we have to witness in this prequel but one thing I have to say that this is a story that is worth telling.

The story seemed interesting at first, although, the author just created a huge universe in this series, and it makes you think you’re watching another Star Wars movie. There is so much that I don’t know about but I’m willing to witness the whole story. The art is very well detailed. On top of that, when I see his illustrations around this comic, this should be a Marvel or Image Comic material, because the whole scene looked so very real. The characters though, the anatomy looked very detail which is coming from the artist, and whenever I see their expressions on their faces, he adjusted the face shapes and their interactions as well. The only thing I like about this comic is the background that the artist creates because ever since I saw that stadium from Caladan, it reflects another scenery of bullfights in Spain. And so does the palaces, whenever I looked at one of the pages, the perspective makes it more realistic which is something I want to learn from. So this prequel comic of Dune is great, but there are so many things that I don’t know about, and I’m willing to read this further. If you’re interested in another sci-fi comic that can be similar to Star Wars, then this is for you.