DUNE: HOUSE ATREIDES #2 God Killers, God Makers

Issue two in the series splits the story into four pieces and gives us a bit of everything from the cruelty of the Harkonnens to the machinations of the Bene Gesserit and the spectacle of the sandworms of Arrakis before taking us into the slave pits of Geidi Prime before rejoining Leto and his arrival at the mysterious IX.

Although still mostly set up at this point the issue does a good job of expanding our collective view of who all the players in the game are by bringing in Bene Gesserit and the young Duncan Idaho before jumping back to Leto and his arrival on IX. The adaption of the original material really works well in the comics format and the ending is a good cliffhanger for anyone not familiar with the novel.

The contrasts in the issue including of the Harkonnens hunting a worm (Shai-Hulud, the Fremen “GOD” and then cutting to the Bene Gesserit and their breeding program to produce the Kwisatz Haderach or “Super Being” nd between the harsh life of Duncan Idaho as a slave and then the privileged life of a ducal heir hit much harder for me now and that again feels like the material benefitting from its adaption to comics.

The art does a  great job of capturing both the scale of the worlds and environments it’s showing as well as focusing close on characters when required to convey mood and urgency. An example of this is Duncan being hunted in the tunnels on Geidi Prime, tight shots, non-uniform paneling help add to the atmosphere from Dev Pramanik while Alex Guimarães colors are at once charming in their colored pencil style feel but also help create the very distinct visual of being in different environments every time it changes. Beyond the environments, the character’s faces and expressions are dynamic and engaging communicating the feelings they are meant to be feelings per the writing which sounds like something that should always happen but it doesn’t.