Force Matters: More All-Maul ‘Star Wars’ Madness

Comics took a week off, but we’ve got two more episode of Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord to dig into!

Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord “Call to Oblivion”

Written by Julia Cooperman. Directed by Nate Villanueva.

Rylee is taken into Imperial custody as Maul comes face-to-face with TWO Inquisitors.

• The episode-opening pans across Janix City look really fantastic. They seem like matte paintings done in watercolors. 
• The way this episode references that Vario and Devon were both captives of Maul earlier (“Back again?”) without any kind of clunky, “ah, I see you’re back, remember when we were both prisoners here?” kind of expository dialogue.
• The second Inquisitor who arrives in this episodes is the Eleventh Brother. He first appeared in the Ahsoka-centric Tales of the Jedi episode “Resolve”, which is the source of a weird situation in that the plot of that episode is very similar to that of EK Johnston‘s Ahsoka novel, which Dave Filoni confirmed was the source of inspiration for “Resolve.” Yet the Inquisitors in each (the Eleventh and Sixth Brothers) are considered separate characters by the Star Wars Encyclopedia, Star Wars Insider, and Wookieepedia.
• The Eleventh Brother’s ship is the Scythe (or a similar Phi-class shuttle), the command ship of the Inquisitors, which first appeared in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Its name is also a pun (Scythe/Sith).
• To date, Lawson’s past encounter with a Jedi remains un-detailed.
• A snippet of the Emperor’s theme can be heard in the score when Maul is talking to Rook Kast about how allegiances can be severed. 
• Maul’s episode 4 leg injury (struck by Daki) continues to cause him problems, and gets exploited here by the Inquisitors, showing how even though Daki didn’t defeat Maul in that fight, he may have won in the long run.
• Scorn is the Zabrak brother who is killed in this episode. 

Ever since his high in episode 4, winning back the Pyke Syndicate, and the arrival of the Empire, the series has been gradually pulling down Maul towards his lowest point. We know this episode isn’t the end of Maul – the series has at least three more episodes – but it does an effective job of believably stripping Maul of his assets and pushing him to the brink.

Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord “The Creeping Fear”

Written by Jennifer Corbett. Directed by Saul Ruiz.

Maul journeys through his heart of darkness while Lawson and the Jedi execute a prison break.

• The painting overlaying the animation is very visible in the closeups on Maul’s face throughout this episode, and it looks great, adding a lot of texture to an animation style that is sometimes derided as being too smooth.
• I kinda love that the final Imperial straw for Two-Boots is Lieutenant Blake refusing to take coffee from him. But also, no one would be in any of their current messes if Two-Boots had just kept his trap shut in the first place.
• Most of the Maul childhood/training flashbacks in this episode are inconsistent with previous depictions of his backstory, which according to Maul actor Sam Witwer, is an intentional choice made by the creative team.
• I’m not sure if the beings Devon steals the speeder from are supposed to be a recognizable species; *I* don’t recognize them, and Wookieepedia only refers to them as “humanoids.” 
• When Devon whips the speeder into the fight with the Stormtroopers, there’s a little riff on the score that almost sounds like it’s about to launch into Bonnie Tyler‘s “Holding Out For A Hero.” 
• Played by Paul Bettany, Dryden Vos is the leader of Crimson Dawn at the start of Solo: A Star Wars Story (which in the end reveals that Vos himself answers to Maul). Presumably, the character’s involvement in this series will set up the beginning of that relationship. 

The sequences in which Maul is flirting with madness again as he stumbles his way out of the tunnels are the highlight of the episode, and do a great job of lending Maul a touch a sympathy and humanity, allowing him to fully stand as both the hero and the villain of this series at the same time.