No Such Thing as Easy Money in Darth Maul #3

After a pretty solid couple of issues, the limited Darth Maul series continues with its middle chapter – Darth Maul #3 by writer Cullen Bunn (Uncanny X-Men) and artists Luke Ross (Gen¹³) and Nolan Woodard. Spoilers ahead

 

Having been forbidden by his master, Darth Sidious, from interacting with the Jedi, Darth Maul has set out on his own secret mission to satiate his revenge against the Jedi. After discovering that a Jedi Padawan has become a prisoner of profiteering gangster Xev Xrexus and is soon to be put up for auction, the Sith apprentice teams up with bounty hunters Cad Bane and Aurra Sing to join the fray of the galaxy’s most dangerous crime bosses at the auction.

 

 

Darth Maul, however, has no plans to purchase the Padawan. Instead, he infiltrates Xrexus’ detention area to “rescue” the Jedi. Upon arriving at the cell block, he discovers his quarry – Eldra Kaitis, a female Twi’lek Padawan.

 

 

This issue begins at this point with Darth Maul just outside Kaitis’ cell. Unfortunately for Maul, Xev Xrexus has discovered his presence and surprises him accompanied by a couple of droidekas. Maul claims that he was just wanting a look at the prize before the auction began and Xrexus lets him off with a warning, admiring his rashness.

 

 

His initial plan having been thwarted, Maul now resorts to Plan B – find out whose pockets are the deepest, thus being the most likely to purchase the Padawan, and ambush them at their ship after the purchase. Maul sends Bane and Sing on ahead with the other two bounty hunters to secure the ship of the Moogan crime boss Jee Kra as he stays behind to make sure that Kra indeed secures the purchase.

 

 

After acquiring the Padawan, the Moogans head back to their ship, only to be ambushed by Maul and his crew of bounty hunters. Maul employs fierce hand-to-hand combat to disable the alien gang, knowing that to ignite his lightsaber would identify his true nature as a Sith to the rest of his crew.

 

 

Eldra Kaitis is not fooled however, as she witnesses Maul sling his robe at Jee Kra, using the Force to constrict around his face and suffocate him as he brings down the rest of his gang with physical attacks.

 

 

Eldra seems to realize Maul’s intentions, and a confrontation arises between the young Jedi and her captor. She accuses Maul of being afraid and challenges him to remove her binders, give her back her lightsaber, and see how his abilities stack up against an equal.

 

 

Maul barks that she is in no way his “equal” and promises to meet her challenge when the time is right. The issue concludes with a plot twist as Xev Xrexus reveals her true intentions, disabling Maul’s stolen ship and causing it to crash down to the surface of the planet below, proving Bane’s assessment correct – “No such thing as easy money.”

 

 

After having sold the Padawan slave for a couple million credits to the Moogans, she now takes advantage of this new golden opportunity, alerting her criminal guests that the hunt for the Padawan has now begun – and the buy-in is 350,000 credits…

 

 

I am really enjoying this Darth Maul series – a lot more so than I thought I would. Bunn has worked hard to build anticipation throughout this story arc and has even managed to have a few minor pay-offs along the way to keep the story from growing stale and being all build-up.

 

 

It would have been so easy to write a Maul story that focuses on his athletic and martial prowess with no real substance of character, but that is the exact opposite of what Bunn has done so far with this story. There has been enough action to keep it interesting, but by just giving us brief moments of Maul in action – focusing instead on his motivations and character development – Bunn has created a scenario that should prove truly satisfying in the next couple of issues when all the anticipation comes to a head and the lightsaber ignites once again.

 

 

Ross’ art continues to compliment the tone of the story quite nicely and Woodard’s vibrant coloring is a good fit for this era in Star Wars. I can’t wait to read the next two issues to see how it all plays out. There is still an opportunity here to have Maul team up with the Padawan for a time, especially now that they will be fighting for their lives against the onslaught of criminal overlords.

 

 

I predict that they will work together, with each gaining some level of respect for the other. But in the end, let’s be honest, it’s not looking good for the Padawan. There’s no way she’s making it out alive. In The Phantom Menace, the Jedi were still ignorant of the return of the Sith. So unless she goes dark and joins forces with Maul, I don’t see her making it out of this story. But that scenario would bring up even more questions as readers would no doubt wonder about her ultimate fate before Episode I or the Clone Wars.

 

 

I said all that to say that I don’t see the conclusion of this story surprising me much in the end, but that’s not to say that I’m not still looking forward to the ride. Darth Maul #3 is available now at your local comic shop or digitally at Comixology.

 

 

 

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Jordan Pate is Co-Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net, of which he is also a member of the book and comic review team. He loves all things Star Wars, but when he's not spending time in the galaxy far far away, he might be found in our own galaxy hanging out in Gotham City or at 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, NY.

Jordan Pate (Hard Case)

Jordan Pate is Co-Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net, of which he is also a member of the book and comic review team. He loves all things Star Wars, but when he's not spending time in the galaxy far far away, he might be found in our own galaxy hanging out in Gotham City or at 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, NY.

16 thoughts on “No Such Thing as Easy Money in Darth Maul #3

  • April 26, 2017 at 9:11 pm
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    I enjoyed this comic enough. I wouldn’t say it was as good as the first issues though. I’d hope we get some more Palpatine in this book eventually.

  • April 26, 2017 at 9:19 pm
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    What the point in retelling of the whole plot in a review? We’ve read the issue, we know the story, there’s no need to retell it.

    • April 26, 2017 at 10:05 pm
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      We found that many of our readers don’t read the comics. That part is for them to keep them up to date in regards to canon. We’ve had this same discussion in house. We decided to couple our reviews on the comics with a recap for that reason. You can always scroll past that section. 🙂

      • April 26, 2017 at 10:09 pm
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        I read the summaries specifically because I don’t read the comics. Please keep including them! Thanks

        • April 27, 2017 at 12:07 am
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          Same here. I really enjoy reading a synopsis whenever SWNN posts one.

      • April 26, 2017 at 10:36 pm
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        I see. Ok then. 🙂
        This issue is as great as the previous two. But one issue a month for such a dynamic story – it’s a torture! It will be great to read all 5 issues in a row in the future!
        lol Maul said “my dear”… it was so out of character, but funny. :)))

        • April 27, 2017 at 2:27 pm
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          I agree. I look forward to reading them all back to back or in trade paperback format here in a few months. I read a lot of comics so it’s sometimes hard to remember every little detail from previous issues from month to month. One good thing about the SW comics has been the opening “crawl” text that helps me remember what the heck is going on.

          • April 27, 2017 at 2:57 pm
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            Agree completely. I also like that the TPBs makes it easy to incorporate the books into the bookshelf with the rest of the literature.

      • April 27, 2017 at 1:47 am
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        I’m glad you folks do this. I don’t keep up with the comics. I watch the films and read the novels, but there just not enough time in the day (or the wallet) for everything.

      • April 28, 2017 at 2:15 am
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        Thank you Hardcase, I appreciate your synopsis.

      • April 28, 2017 at 5:41 pm
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        Didn’t read it. Thank you

  • April 27, 2017 at 6:41 am
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    Not only is the galaxy so small that we keep running into the same characters over and over again, but I guess the galaxy is not interesting enough that there are no new and dynamic characters left to be introduced….I mean we get a trio of new and solid characters in Dr Aphra series. See came out of no where so recently and people are already asking for a figure of her (and the droids).
    We need more of that.

    • April 27, 2017 at 2:59 pm
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      I. for one, I am glad to see Sing and Bane with some new bounty hunters. This is clearly the beginnings of Palpatine’s repeated use of Cad Bane during the Clone Wars, and I like that a lot, considering Bane is one of my all-time favorite characters.

      • April 27, 2017 at 3:59 pm
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        Yeah, to me it makes sense to include them. I predict that Bane will prove most useful to Maul in the coming issues and will be recommended in the future to Palpatine by Maul. They kind of did a similar thing in the titular Star Wars comic by having Boba Fett discover the name of the rebel pilot that destroyed the Death Star.

        Fett’s success in this no doubt helped put him on Vader’s radar to be included in the hunt for the Falcon in ESB. I don’t have any problems with having SIng and Bane in the comic. And a pre-TPM Maul story is actually a pretty interesting idea for me. Bunn has included several new characters in this series as well so no complaints on my end.

  • April 27, 2017 at 4:38 pm
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    This mini-series so far is very enjoyable and has great artwork.

    Only thing that really irked me in this issue, was the text in the opening crawl:

    “Little does Xrexus know, Sith apprentice Darth Maul has infiltrated the auction. With a group of bounty hunters – including Cad Bane and Aurra Sing – Maul plans on purchasing or kidnapping the Padawan. Maul plans on kidnapping the Padawan, and then killing her, in order to satiate his desire for vengeance against the Jedi.”

    Somehow I feel they could have avoided the above repetition in sentences.

  • April 28, 2017 at 2:14 am
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    But Disney hates the Prequels?

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