Star Wars' Shadow of Maul comic sets up crime-thriller spin-off

Star Wars: Shadow of Maul, a Marvel miniseries that leads into the animated Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord, steers the franchise toward noir. The first issue leans away from a Jedi-vs-Sith framing and toward a grittier, crime-thriller tone reminiscent of Sin City and the more serious Star Wars stories like Andor.

Written by Benjamin Percy with art by Madibek Musabekov and a cover by Derrick Chew, the issue opens in an interrogation room and introduces Captain Brander Lawson. A disgruntled cop on Janix, Lawson isn’t afraid to break rules or criminals’ faces; an Internal Investigations inquiry into a team member’s death soon exposes local crime syndicates and inner police corruption.

Maul appears surprisingly little here, but his absence helps set up the obstacles he will face on Janix. The story is set a few years after Revenge of the Sith, with Maul attempting to rebuild his criminal empire after the Shadow Collective disbanded following his defeat by Darth Sidious on Mandalore and his period in hiding.

star wars, maul, shadow lord, benjamin percy, madibek musabekov, derrick chew, brander lawson, janix, shadow collective, crime thriller