Over the last few years, Abrams ComicArts has been serializing a graphic novel adaptation of the first DUNE book. I reviewed Part One when it came out in 2020, as well as Part Two, which followed in 2022, and now, Part Three has finally arrived, bringing the series to a solid ending.
Each book in the series has been scripted by Frank Herbert's son, Brian Herbert, along with Kevin J. Anderson, and features artwork by Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín, ensuring a consistent aesthetic across each volume — and Part Three, subtitled The Prophet, is no exception. Unlike the recent film adaptation, Herbert and Anderson adhere slavishly to the narrative; sure, they have to boil the story down to its essentials, but they make certain that every curious character gets their cameo. The crisp and beautiful artwork is similarly streamlined and utilitarian. Rather than taking liberties with luscious new designs drawn from their own interpretations, Allén and Martín go to immaculately detailed lengths to simply recreate the prose on the page.
For the most part, this works well. You don't get distracted by some uniquely disgusting interpretation of Baron Harkonnen, for example; he's a fat, ugly, bald white dude, and that's that. This lets the book breathe in certain moments—for example, when Feyd exploits his uncle's creepy queerness in an attempt to assassinate the old man. There is an intrinsic tension in their familial confrontation, and both the clean artwork and stripped-down prose work wonderfully together to make the moment resonate with the reader, without adding any unnecessary flourishes on top. Likewise, this ability to focus on smaller moments makes Leto II feel like slightly less of a prop, and makes the weight of his loss that much more powerful; see also, the reunion between Gurney and Paul, and the later one between Gurney and Jessica.
Again, this has been the consistent appeal of this entire DUNE graphic novel adaptation. Very little interpreting is done in the adaptation; instead, painstaking efforts are made to translate the prose as literally as possible—an art in and of itself!
That's also how this became the first volume to really disappoint me — on the very last page.
There's a lot to love about the world that Frank Herbert crafted in his DUNE books, but I think it's fair to say that his writing of women is not one of his stronger storytelling qualities. Which is why, after reading some 400 pages largely about galactic kingdom rivalries and mystical prophets and giant sandworms and the like, I've always found the very last line of the book to be extremely jarring. After Maud'dib wins his epic and intimate fight against Feyd-Rautha, and announces his plan to marry into the Emperor's family for expedient political reasons, his mother turns to his lover and says, "We who carry the name of concubine — history will call us wives."
It's a sweet moment and one that certainly makes sense in context. It's just a weird button to put at the end of the story. People often remember the final moment of a story — whether it "sticks the landing," as it were — and I've always found that to be an odd choice for the final moment. DUNE leaves you with a lot to think about, but if you asked people about the most interesting part of the book, I doubt very many would say, "Hrm, I enjoyed the semantics of marital titles and convenient political marriages."
In the prose version of DUNE, this moment is followed by a bunch of appendices about the minutiae of the galaxy, so you might not remember it as the very last line of the story proper. But in DUNE: The Graphic Novel, Book 3: The Prophet, it is indeed the very last thing you read. You see a triumphant Paul standing over a bloody corpse — a fitting climax indeed, with a fantastically well-choreographed fight scene! — and then you turn the page to find a visual montage of the planet Arrakis, with a voiceover caption from Lady Jessica saying, "History will call us wives."
And that's it. It's the only line of dialogue on the page, a linguistic orphan juxtaposed against the smoldering sands of Arrakeen.
Typically, in the language of comic book storytelling, when you carry over a line of dialogue into a voiceover-like caption, it carries some resonance with it. Maybe you use it for foreshadowing, or to simultaneously comment on an unrelated visual, and make you think about how these two disparate things might relate.
But here, after three books and roughly six hundred comic book pages, the very last page leaves me reflecting on … women defining themselves by their relationships to their royal male spouses? And also sand?
…That's it? That's the end?
Again, I sort of knew this was coming; it's the same last line from the book, which I've always disliked. But seeing it presented in this new format — particularly accompanied by a picture of a mostly barren landscape — really ruined the moment for me. There's no denouement, no emotionally satisfying falling action after the climax; just this.
I really loved the rest of it, as I've enjoyed this whole adaptation series. But that's the moment that's going to stick with me. So thanks, I hate it.
DUNE: The Graphic Novel, Book 3: The Prophet [Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Raúl Allén, and Patricia Martín / Abrams ComicArts]
