An earned respect.
Creative Staff:
Story: Cullen Bunn
Art: Luke Ross
Colors: Nolan Woodard
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
What They Say:
Darth Maul and his crew of bounty hunters have captured Eldra, the hunted Jedi Padawan! But Xev Xrexus will not give up her prize without a fight. There’s a new bounty out…and the reward for whoever defeats Maul and captures the Padawan is worth dying for. Not to mention, Eldra isn’t leaving without a fight, either…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
We hit the penultimate issue in the series with this installment and as much as I’m enjoying it, and still a bit wary as mentioned previously, I’m still in a place where I’m not quite sure of the importance of the story. Bunn has given us a look at Maul at this stage in his being the apprentice to Darth Sidious/Palpatine that has him like the caged animal we saw in The Phantom Menace where he was finally unlocked. Granted, we know there’s a lot more to his story after that but for most people it was an inglorious end to a character that really didn’t work well after one of the best lightsaber battles we had on screen. Here, we get to see more of what drives him and it’s well executed through the script overall and with some great pages from Luke Ross and Nolan Woodward. But I’m not sure it really feels as cemented in the shared universe as it should be.
Maul’s plan to deal with Eldra has naturally gone off the rails a bit with Xev setting it so that they all end up on the moon below, opening things up for a hunting match for those that want to get in on it. There are plenty of targets now and lots of people that love a sanctioned-ish kind of event like this. That’s a solid setup that puts Maul and his group with Eldra on the defensive, or rather just setting up the traps and events so they can come out victorious. The setup for it is certainly fun as we get the kind of banter that you’d expect out of Cad Bane for this but it mostly comes down to all of them wanting to get paid and seeing a path for more out of it, if they survive. They’ve all been in tight spots before so it’s not exactly something they look for but they don’t turn away from it either. I do wish there was a bit more with Xev up in orbit, however, because it felt like it needed more running commentary from her as those that participate head down to the surface.
While there’s a lot to like in how all of Maul’s hired hands handle this, the real fun is watching him and Eldra survive through this. It’s a given with Maul to be sure, and even really Eldra for the moment, but putting the two of them on the same side of sorts is a lot of fun even if familiar. They know they need each other to survive and each is vastly curious about the other even while fending off the attacks. The visuals for it sells it really well, especially being a fan of those from Ryloth myself, as they pull out their lightsabers and go at it against the oncoming horde. Each gets to cut loose in a way they likely haven’t before and the adrenaline is certainly running through it. There’s a good deal of dialogue between the two, which feels odd if you’ve only seen the film and aren’t used to how verbose Maul can be, but it sets up for that final page where the two are finally standing off against each other and he finally gets to tackle a Jedi, even if she is a nearly graduated Padawan.
In Summary:
Darth Maul does some good stuff as it gets moving along into the action but I’m still waiting for that killer moment where it feels like the journey is worth it. The last couple of pages here hint at it and gets us closer to it but it really needs to stick the landing in the next and final issue with Maul and Eldra. I do wish Bane and the others had better roles here but there’s only so much space and I’m not sure Bunn quite has Bane’s voice, for example. Luke Ross does some great stuff here overall in capturing so many different types of species that are moving about while making sure that Maul and Eldra are given the most attention in their action scenes. A solid issue that has me hopeful for a strong ending that may read better as a whole than in individual installments.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: June 21st, 2017
MSRP: $4.99
