Marvel tackles one of the few exciting & cool looking remnants from the original trilogy: Darth Maul. Maul was a scary looking Sith Lord who wielded an intimidating double bladed light sabre. Although there wasn’t much depth to the character, Maul left an impression with Star Wars fans. Unfortunately, our fascination with him would be short lived because Maul was killed at the hands of Obi-Wan at the end of Episode One thus denying fans any real insight into this character.
Thankfully, the powers that be brought back Darth Maul in comic and animated form with both Star Wars: The Clones Wars and Rebels. This gave us the opportunity to learn the backstory to this very interesting character. And now, Marvel Comics is delving into the hidden years of this character, in a five part comic book mini-series simply called, Star Wars: Darth Maul.
The series takes place before the events of The Phantom Menace where Darth Maul, anxious and impatient in his bloodlust against the Jedi, is preparing for thing; to eradicate The Jedi. However, his Master, Darth Sidious, wants Maul to remain hidden in the shadows while Sidious' plan is complete. Well, all this hiding and waiting frustrates Maul, who goes out to vent his frustration by testing his skills against some of the deadliest creatures and cut-throat bad guys in the galaxy.
Marvel’s Darth Maul is a decent entry and revisiting of this captivating character. In my opinion, if Marvel really wants to explore the hidden years of this character, there would be more interesting avenues to explore. And basically, most of them occur after The Phantom Menace. For instance, what happened after his near death encounter with Obi-Wan and why not bridge the gap between The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels?
I’ve always been interested in Darth Maul, so I guess I’ll give this series a chance, but I’m not sure as of yet what writer Cullen Bunn and artist Luke Ross wish to accomplish with having Maul hide in the shadows for five issues. I guess time will tell.
If it were up to me, I would have started this series with Maul’s childhood and training and end the series with Maul’s impatience and anxiousness in waiting in the shadows. All this being said though, the artwork is solid and provides a decent distraction. But again, I am slightly disappointed with Bunn and Ross’s choice of story.
