Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3 proves that maybe, just maybe, space piracy never pays out. Especially not when your fallen House Atreides is on the line.

Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3 ~ Details

"Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3" main cover art by Christian Ward.
Note: not actually a scene in this comic book. Main cover artist: Christian Ward.

Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3 is the 3rd issue (you can find a review for issue #2 here) of this sci-fi comic book series set in the Dune universe by Frank Herbert. The Dune prequel novels duo of Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson continue to be the writers for this comic book. Francesco Mortarino (Power Rangers) returns as the artist, alongside Raúl Angulo (Go Go Power Rangers) as the colorist, and Ed Dukeshire (Once & Future) as the letterer. Christian Ward (Something is Killing the Children) drew the main cover, with Junggeun Yoon (Magic) and Andrea Sorrentino (Avengers) responsible for the variant covers. Lastly, BOOM! Studios continues to be the publisher for this comic book.

"Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3" variant cover A art by Junggeun Yoon.
Neither of them are as confident as they look here. Variant cover A artist: Junggeun Yoon.

Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3 went on sale on July 13, 2022, for a retail price of $4.99. You can purchase physical copies from your local comic book shop. If you’re fine with the digital version though, then you can download it from content providers like Amazon. BOOM! Studios claims to have this issue and previous issues in their website. However, as of this writing, searching for this comic yields no results in said webstore. Perhaps BOOM! Studios will give us an answer to this conundrum later?

"Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3" variant cover B art by Andrea Sorrentino.
Paul Atreides, is that you? What are you doing here in this comic that doesn’t feature you? Variant cover B artist: Andrea Sorrentino.

Warning: spoilers for Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3 below. If you want to watch this attempt at piracy go horribly wrong for yourself, then stop here, and come back once you’ve finished complaining about dishonorable pirates. No matter how obvious that sounds.

Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3 ~ Plot Summary

"Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3" preview page 1.
Man, the orbitals around Dune are pretty crowded. It’s almost like a Kessler syndrome, but with spaceships.

Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3 picks up where we left off, with Gurney Halleck and his band of merry smugglers/pirates as they traverse the heighliner over Arrakis in stolen Spacing Guild uniforms and credentials to hijack a House Harkonnen water tanker ship. The journey itself is uneventful, and they successfully enter the water tanker posing as inspectors. Gurney stops only to inject some kind of pinkish liquid into the water tank as part of a mysterious backup plan before rendezvousing with the others. They convince the pilot to take off believing that the inspection was over and they had left when the “inspection team” was still very much on board as the water tanker casted off.

Gurney and his pirates manage to fight their way to the bridge, expecting to find a crew of 7. Instead, they run into “20 or more” Harkonnen soldiers fully clad in armor and swords. Apparently, someone tipped them off (presumably that noble who sold them those disguises and credentials in the first place). Gurney quickly starts losing people to them, including Mr. Eyepatch Fremen. Gurney and the remains of his team manage to flee in the water tanker’s escape pod. However, they now are 9 soldiers down with no water to show for it. Looks like their only hope now is whatever that pink liquid Gurney injected into the water beforehand and that the water tanker is apparently crashing into Arrakis. What does either of them mean? Well, that’s what we’ll presumably find out in Dune: The Waters of Kanly #4.

Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3 ~ The Good

"Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3" preview page 2.
It’s all in the authoritative voice and posture.

The best part of Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3 is the story, as is fitting for Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. There’s more than enough drama and plot complexity here to satisfy any fan of heist stories. That little Xanatos Gambit Gurney pulled with that pink liquid (very likely poison, but it’s possible it might be something else) is also a really interesting subplot. It really makes you eager for the next issue, just to find out the result of this Xanatos Gambit.

I would also give points for the artwork of Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3. Like in the previous issues, Francesco Mortarino and Raúl Angulo do a great job with the artwork. It really does a great job immersing you into the story, especially with the shots in space. Seeing the ridiculously crowded orbitals of Arrakis really reminds you of how critical the planet is to the Dune universe.

Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3 ~ The Bad

"Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3" preview page 3.
I wonder about the water tank being in that exposed location there, but then again, she is a civilian cargo ship.

My only complaint about Dune: The Waters of Kanly #3 is that I think they wasted a perfectly good character with Mr. Eyepatch Fremen. He had an interesting backstory and personality, and it would’ve been nice to have him develop more as a character before they killed him off. Character deaths work the best when the more you care about said character in question, after all.

Source: BOOM! Studios