– Spoiler Review –
I was pretty confident I’d be returning to review this issue by issue, but I was reading the third issue before I realized I hadn’t been staying on top of the reviews. But with the series over now, and the show it’s a prequel for having ended long before, it’s time for a review of the remaining issues I didn’t cover, #2-5, making this essentially a miniseries review, for Shadow of Maul.
Reading Shadow of Maul in full after the TV show it’s a prequel for is over (with its first season) was the right choice, in the end. Between the show’s propulsive release schedule and pace, it felt difficult to want to return to Shadow of Maul knowing there were several issues left while the show was still airing, especially as it was clear it wasn’t going to be deeply connected to its story. Yet it is very much connected, not just in giving us Maul’s first moves before his grand entrance on the show, but rather more so how it sets the mood and tone, while giving a little more life to Janix and characters like Captain Brander Lawson, his partner Two-Boots, and crime bosses like Looti Vario and Nico Deemis. This miniseries is really just a palate teaser in the end and reading it at your own leisure, either before or after watching the show, lets writer Benjamin Percy’s script breathe. Did this series need to have some type of big reveal or connection? No. And did it need more Maul? Maybe, just a little, but it wasn’t called Shadow of Maul just to be cute with the TV show’s title, Maul: Shadow Lord. So let’s focus more on what it did have than didn’t and see how that all stacked up.
After issue #1, it really felt like this comic was going to peer into some of the Lawson’s backstory in ways the show never likely would. By the end of the miniseries, I appreciated the glimpses of his past as a bounty hunter, of hearing his feelings about what makes him call Janix his home, and how much he loves his son, but much like the show, it felt like the comic was more content to tell, rather than show, some of these things. Regarding what makes Lawson want to protect Janix, to stay on such a planet, it felt like the series did a good job establishing that and helps make his insistence in the show about keeping the Empire away even more fitting. Despite the corrupt members of the defense force, the corrupt internal investigator, and the various crime bosses and illegally legal podracing, he sees Janix as his home because he cares about his job for once, he wants to protect his son, and the trouble here is just enough to be interesting. The comparisons to Gotham have been hard to miss, a city so close to either side of tipping it’s hard not to see the allure of keeping it from doing so, and through Lawson, Janix feels a little more alive and so does his connection to it. Yet I found Shadow lacking for Lawson as well, as the bounty hunting past was touched on briefly, if only to serve to introduce us to the history between Rheena Sul and him more (though what we see here does make the theory it was spicy between them more and more likely), and not having his son Rylee at all made him feel even more an absentee father than the show did initially, because, if he really cared, wouldn’t we see Rylee like…once? In the end, it didn’t seem like we learned anything new about Lawson, but it did add some filling to give him a little more rounded of a character.
When it comes to the drama of the corrupt members of the task force and Janix’s various crime syndicates, Shadow of Maul does much the same with them as it does with Lawson. Those wanting a little more cat and mouse between Vario and Deemis, before Maul pushes things over the edge, get some fun here, as both sides play their games and try to keep the peace but forward themselves. It makes the stalemate more intriguing and left me wishing we got to see more of how this delicate balance was kept, and how much Lawson’s own checkered past helped him keep the two from tearing one another apart. But it never quite got anywhere interesting with the corrupt members of the defense force, nor even with the internal affairs guy, Clariveen Ruhl, as these are dealt with and left without much consequence. One of the corrupt dudes dies by accidentally being run over. And Ruhl’s fate, while satisfying, and the fate of those around him, doesn’t seem to have made much of an impression or given Lawson any desire to follow-up, as it’s sort of weird no one seems to mention or notice how some of the syndicate members were so clearly chopped up by…something abnormal for Janix. Which I guess was the hazard of having Maul make any move, of any capacity, ahead of the events of the show: if he was busy slicing up too many people, wouldn’t someone notice something more was happening? Either way, while the syndicates and the corruption gave Janix more layers, they weren’t too deep in the end.
As for Maul himself, it’s understandable he’s used so sparingly here, as they want to keep his big reveal and what he’s come to Janix for a secret to be shared in the show that’s actually about him. It did feel like the comic could’ve done a little more to bridge the gap between where he’d been before this and what his intentions were. Watching the show after reading the comics works best for its usage of Maul, as his little moves in the background are, like many other things, a fun way to whet the appetite for what the show has in store. Maul’s big moment in issue #5, taking down one of the syndicates and ending Ruhl’s part of the story, are a blast to see and make the whole cloak and dagger of his appearances worth it.
Bringing the lovely series to life across all 5 issues was the wonderful team of artist Madibek Musabekov and colorist Luis Guerrero, joined by letterer Joe Caramagna. One of my favorite panels from the whole series hits in issue #5, on its second page, final panel. It’s a close up of Lawson and Two-Boots as the Captain is calling Janix his home, with their faces framed in the window of their speeder, the neon, noir-like lights of the city reflecting in the window, setting a moody, yet bright light to Lawson’s otherwise grim stare and the droid’s impassive concentration. There’s his determination on display and the beauty of the city, of what he’s seeing reflected on the window, which all came so close to the techniques the animation team used to bring Janix to life as well, it could almost be mistaken for a screenshot from the show. As I impatiently await Galactic Racer‘s release for more podracing in my gaming life, I’ll take whatever little snippets of the sport I can take, so while there wasn’t a ton of podracing scenes in issue #4, the double-page splash for the big crash was a crazy good sight; I’m going to be causing a lot of those in the game, watch out! It’s almost overwhelming at first, the double-page splash, as the initial panel, which are all cut on a diagonal up and to the right, is bursting with details and explosions. It’s Caramagna’s sound FX for the explosion that helps center the eye, allowing readers to sort of spin out from there, taking in the destruction and those able to avoid it. Maul’s big moments in the final few pages of issue #5 really left me wanting Musabekov and team behind more Maul artwork. We don’t even need to see him for most of the scenes for it to work so well, be it his blade spinning around, chopping up fools before it ends up in his hand, the art making it look like he barely even had just thrown it before it was back to him, to his SFX filled swing of the blade, “kakow” after “kakow” popping off as he swings through the panel, deflecting the fools’ blaster bolts with a menacing ease.
Here are a few other things:
- Favorite issue was #4. I get it probably seemed the most disconnected, but come on…it’s podracing! There was the fun question of what both sides were playing at with betting for and against the same racer and overall it felt the most like an issue of the series I’d have liked more, where it was really about Janix, the interesting things that go on there, and how they roll with the chaos.
- The droid from issue #2 was an eerie thing, but totally reminded me of…something. Not quite sure if it was like a mixture of Mass Effect and Star Wars or just that it was an enemy in a video game or something I played. Very neat though, would like to see more of its design in the future!
- Inspector Ruhl almost looked very familiar to me and I was wracking my brain trying to make the connection to which actor he looked like. And, by the time I finished this review, I still couldn’t quite place him. But I can see who I’m thinking of, just never enough to know what movie it was so I can look it up. Maybe, one day, I’ll put it together…unless you, dear reader, noticed he looked familiar and want to share with the class!
- I included issue #4’s Pride Month variant above, as it’s only one of three covers for 2026, a disappointing trend across all the special cover series since there’s been so little output. Still, lovely little thing and I will say, as always it looked great in person!
Shadow of Maul #2-5 wrap up the miniseries with plenty of moody fun, but it’s as surface deep as the show tended to get at times, leaving one wishing we’d peeled back just a bit more of the city’s grime to see what was under there.
+ Setting the palate for the show and offering a few extra layers to its city/characters
+ Musabekov, Guerrero, and Caramagna set the mood just right
– Not digging much past Janix’s first layer of grime
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him and the website on Bluesky.
MAUL: SHADOW LORD REVIEWS
Season One: Series Premiere “Chapter 1 – The Dark Revenge” & “Chapter 2 – Sinister Schemes” | “Chapter 3 – Whispers in the Unknown” & “Chapter 4 – Pride and Vengeance” | “Chapter 5 – Inquisition” & “Chapter 6 – Night of the Hunted” | “Chapter 7 – Call to Oblivion” & “Chapter 8 – The Creeping Fear” | Season Finale “Chapter 9 – Strange Allies” & “Chapter 10 – The Dark Lord”