Published: March 22, 2017
Rating: Rated T
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Penciller: Luke Ross
Cover Artist: Rafael Albuquerque
The Synopsis:
A Jedi Padawan has been captured by sinister forces…and Darth Maul is determined to find her?! This early tale of the galaxy’s deadliest Zabrak continues!
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The Plot:
Maul walks into a seedy underworld Cantina on the Smugglers moon of Nar Shadda, like a scene from a Western movie, all the patrons stop and turn to see him silhouetted in the doorway. The Cantina closely resembles the one Anakin and Kenobi were in in ‘Attack Of The Clones’, it is occupied by all manner of underworld species. Maul approaches the bartender, asking the fellow Zabrak where he might find ‘Xen Xrexus’, the Cartel villain who is holding a Jedi Padawan captive, ready to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The bartender warns him off, but Maul is persistent. A patron of the bar calls Maul a Jedi, which tips him other the edge, and in the next panel said patron is shown being launched through the bar window and into the street. The Sith Lord starts kicking butt of the thugs that have left the bar to attack him, that is until a Quarren thug squirts some kind of venom into Maul’s face, temporarily blinding him.
The gang of alien thugs start laying the smackdown on Maul.
Suddenly a knife flies through the air and pierces the squid heads chest, followed by a flurry of blaster bolts that take out the rest of the cronies.
Walking up the street area familiar group of Bounty Hunters consisting of Cad Bane, Aurra Sing and Vordehlio, who is an ugly looking blood sucking fly type hybrid thing.
It transpires that Maul has hired the Bounty Hunters to assist him in his mission to find the Jedi Padawan.
Cad Bane advises Maul that they have ‘acquired’ an invitation to the Padawan auction and also a freighter to get them there, having eliminated the crew in the process.
Maul and the group of Bounty Hunters arrive at their newly acquired vesell to find an Protocol Droid called Fee-Bee (think C-3PO) having an eye removed by a blowtorch wielding, walking, bat looking alien wearing a mechanical eyepatch named Tek-Tek. He is interrogating the droid for information regarding the auction, the droid is uncooperative so has his eyes removed to teach him a lesson, the droid decides his loss of sight is enough and offers up what he knows.
On the journey Maul meditates and dreams that he is on an ancient planet with Sidious, the dream is fuzzy but seems to show Maul being attacked by ancient Jedi, some of whom seem to be wielding the cross blade style of lightsaber like Kylo Rens.
When they arrive the auction is being held in a futuristic palatial palace, complete with trees indoors and filled with various looking unsavoury species from around the Galaxy.
While the Bounty Hunters are busy listening to the glamorous Xen Xrexus, head of the cartel make her intros and show a holo of the captured Jedi Padawan to the assembled bidders, Maul disappears into the inner workings of the palace, where he meets one of his familiar probe droids, the droid informs him the whereabouts of the captive Jedi
To be Continued……..
The Review:
As hoped, the second edition of this story arc is much approved on the first! This is mainly helped by the introduction of the familiar Bounty Hunters of The Clone Wars era.
Although personally i don’t see the need for the mosquito beast and the bat face to have joined the crew. The introduction of these characters seems to help take
the focus off of Maul himself, which seems to work well, what with the Sith Lord being the quiet sulky type, it definitely helps the story flow more freely. On the down side, i don’t see the point of having another C-3PO lookalike having a role in another comic, to me it’s a bit too much.
A couple of other nice touches are the cross blade wielding Jedi which Ive not seen before and at the auction you can see gathered the Kyuzo species, maybe one is Constable Zuvio? Also in attendance are assassin droids like IG-88, a large Hutt that looks familiarly like Jabba and who i believe to be Hondo Ohnaka.
Along with the story picking up, the art continues to shine.
