Ever since I first saw The Phantom Menace in the sixth grade, I’ve been obsessed with Darth Maul. The mystery surrounding the red and black tattooed villain intensified after his all-too-brief screen time. Despite being dispatched rather unceremoniously in his screen debut, Maul has kept coming back, most famously in The Clone Wars cartoon, where he began a fascinating journey as one of the few characters who knows of the secret machinations behind the conflict, and intends to take it down as revenge for being the pawn that started it. After other characters from the galaxy far, far away got their own anthology series, it’s time for the one-time Sith apprentice to get his due. As with the other titles in the Marvel anthologies, Darth Maul: Black, White, & Red is a series of separate stories that feature the title character. Unlike others, the through line in this collection is some fantastic character work that plants the seeds for the person Maul will become later, if a little narrow in its focus.
The first story in the series, “Ghost Ship” by Benjamin Percy and artist Steffano Raffaele, sees Maul sent on a mission by Darth Sidious (Sheev Palpatine if you’re nasty) to intercept and recover a transport vehicle that has mysteriously gone dark. On the way there, Maul reads the debrief and discovers that the transport is holding three members of the Final Occultation, a dark cult that wants to take down the Sith and all other Force users. As Maul attempts to contain and subdue the Occultation’s members, he finds himself in a space where he doesn’t trust his master’s plans for the three, which ultimately leads to the biggest theme of the the four stories in this collection: the struggle for power and trust. Benjamin Percy’s script does a great job of setting the tone and giving Maul a surprisingly robust vocabulary and inner monologue, but Steffano Raffaele’s art is the real showcase here, with some truly horrific images that look ripped from movies like Alien and the Dead Space games.
Marvel
Up next is “The Remainders” from Mark Russell and Carlos Nieto, which is my favorite of the stories here. Featuring Maul attacking a remote mining facility on an Outer Rim planet, the story accomplishes two things: it introduces compelling lead characters in a very small amount of time, and makes room for Maul to look like a total badass. Russell’s script does such a great job of introducing you to The Remainders, a group of former bounty hunters that now help protect the mining facility, that you won’t want them to meet their inevitable end by the chapter’s conclusion. In fact, I was so interested in this team that I wouldn’t be mad if Lucasfilm decided to give them a little miniseries on Disney+ (it would be for me and me only, but it would make for a great “left of center” story from Star Wars at least). Nieto’s art in this chapter is a great mix of Manga fluidity and the “established” Star Wars look, and when Maul eventually makes it to his targets, it’s great to witness under his pencils, even though you’ll be a little bummed for the victims.
The third story is “The Mission” from Erica Schultz and Leonard Kirk, and is probably the one that will most intrigue fans of the prequel era the most. When Palpatine is blackmailed by a Devronian criminal named Coir Cion, he sends Maul to track him down and kill him. It’s the first story that really nails down that Maul is ultimately a pawn for his master, and is the one that really shows us the glimmers of the character Maul will become after his death and resurrection. Schultz has a great time exploring the seedy criminal underside of Coruscant in her script, and Kirk, a longtime Marvel staple at this point, does an excellent job showcasing the various alien races in the franchise, alongside some pretty excellent action for Maul to pull off.
Marvel
The final story, “Peace and Quiet” by Greg Pak and artists Luca Pizzari and Will Sliney, is a low stakes but surprisingly humorous story of Darth Maul being sent to the far off planet Ah Re Won to learn “patience through meditation” until Palpatine arrives. Unbeknownst to Maul (put probably known by Palpatine), this planet is home to a few residents and hunting parties that don’t quite understand the tenants of meditation, and must be dealt with accordingly. It’s a surprisingly fun and dark story that follows Maul just attempting to find the peace he needs to meditate, which is an interesting juxtaposition between how the Sith and Jedi attempt those means. While the script is fun here, the melding of Pizzari and Sliney’s art styles is a little jarring at times in the story.
One of the interesting aspects of an anthology story is the promise of different stories in one package, and while Darth Maul: Black, White, & Red does offer different settings in each chapter, they aren’t that different from one another narratively. They all follow the same basic beat: Maul gets a mission, Maul goes on the mission, Maul completes the mission with lingering doubts regarding his place with his Master. Setting all of these stories within a set era of the character does give us the foundation we need to understand his later turn against his master, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t have liked another story for the character outside of the prequel era. For a character who has such a rich and interesting history outside of The Phantom Menace, putting this collection firmly in one time period limits what the creators can do, and creates a sameness around stories that, while having some differences here and there, start to blend together when read all at once.
All that being said, Star Wars Darth Maul: Black, White, & Red will still appease fans of the Sith Lord. If you want something featuring Maul running the Shadow Collective or hunting down Ezra Bridger, prepare to be a little disappointed. But if you want to see Maul let loose in a way that he can’t do on the big or small screen, Black, White, & Red will whet your appetite before his new show arrives later in April.
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