Darth Maul – Black, White & Red #4
“PEACE AND QUIET”
Before the fall of Anakin Skywalker and the rise of Darth Vader, Darth Sidious trained another disciple in the secrets of the Sith Order.
This apprentice was a mysterious warrior of Dathomir, who left a path of death and destruction as he made his way through the galaxy….
Writer: Greg Pak
Pencillers: Luca Pizzari, Will Sliney
Inkers: Luca Pizzari, Will Sliney, Jay Leisten, Roberto Poggi
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Colorist: Andres Mossa
Cover artist: E. M. Gist
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publication date: July 31 2024
We arrive at the final issue of this impressive four-parter and unsurprisingly we open with Maul knee-deep in carnage on the opening pages of ‘Peace and Quiet‘, written by Greg Pak and illustrated by Luca Pizzari and Will Sliney. Entering an inpemetrable garrison by disguising himself as one of the guards, he’s instantly in the fray, and we cut to his ship the Schimitar as it swoops away from the planet, his mission complete and a hologram of his master looming over him. Maul ended the life of his intended target the governor, but also slaughtered all of his guards, and Sidious orders him to go to the world of Ah Re Won to meditate and wait for his masters arrival. Exterminating the enemy is his task, but so is stealth and stragegy, and we cut to Ah Re Won on the Outer Rim as he walks through town and out to the ruins, where he waits, trains and meditates alone.
There he is disturbed by a racket from the town as the Sullustan mayor and landlord of the settlement eeks the rent out of one of the towns shopkeppers. Maul is agitated, ignoring the offer of a better accomodation than the ruins and stalks back to his solitude, but is quickly disturbed again by the Sullustan mayor who is annoyed at being shortchanged, so decides to make a racket all night to drive his tenant out. We see nothing but hear it (as much as you can ‘hear’ something in a comic) as the mayor appears to be ended by Maul and the noise stops.
The following day the mayors absense is noticed as his servant droids come to the lodgings, where Alma the owner says she hasn’t heard or seen the mayor. Maul sees the exchange, returning to the ruins where we see a fierce looking creature drag the body of the mayor away, taking any evidence with it just as the next ship full of vistors land. Alma tries to persuade them to stay at her lodgings, but this is a prince and he wants only the best, which includes hunting the karafankata beast, who’s tracks they’ve spotted. They decide to hunt at night and we see them in the dark, startled by birds but quickly encountering the creature which is protecting its young. Unmoved by that act of motherly dedication they turn their blasters on the creatures when a red blade spins through, scattering the group into the forest.
The hunting party is swiftly ended by Maul, leaving their freshly diced carcasses to the hungry karafankata and its cubs, but the next day after a brief period of peace and quiet another ship lands carrying the self-proclaimed pirate king of sector nine. He threatens to burn down the settlement if the prince and his party aren’t brought before him, and he opens his eyes in shock when he is told that perhaps the missing prince went from hunter to hunted. We learn that the pirate is the father of the prince, and he goes on a furious rampage as Alma flees his blasters and dives into his ship, taking off and leaving him stranded. There, Maul appears and the pirate king tries to take him down, but Maul repeats that all he desires is quiet, something he’ll not get without a fight, and a battle ensues as the Sith Lord takes out the pirate kings men one by one, finishing off the fleeing king last.
As the dust settles and calm reigns, Sidious finally arrives, surveys the wreckage of the settlement and smiles at the ‘stillness and quiet‘, ending an entertaining issue and a solid mini series. It’s hard to show Maul doing too much in the open before his fight with Qui-Gon in The Phantom Menace, the Sith still sticking to the shadows as they do, and many of these issues feature Maul taking on (and taking out) people in distant outposts, far away from the broader galaxy, their absense hardly noticed. That makes sense, but can lead to repetition in storytelling, a risk when telling the tale of Mauls training under Darth Sidious, but when it’s well-told and visually engaging as these four issues have been then that’s a risk worth taking. Here’s to more Black, White & Red tales – perhaps one featuring Kylo Ren in his early days with Supreme Leader Snoke would help cement his legend even more.
