Darth Maul - Son of Dathomir pt. 2

Review

Star Wars: Darth Maul - Son of Dathomir #2

Script Jeremy Barlow

Pencils Juan Frigeri

Inks Mauro Vargas

Colors Wes Dzioba

Cover art Chris Scalf

Published by Dark Horse Comics

It occurred to me the other day what I thought was a little bit odd in the previous issue of this comic. In the beginning where Maul is still captive, I can't help but to wonder why the heck was his shirt taken off? We've seen other characters in these force cages before, Eeth Koth and Obi-Wan for example, but I don't see them being stripped of any clothing! What's the difference? that Maul was (probably) being tortured? Gotta have bare skin to absorb those lightnings as much as possible? But wait, Eeth Koth was tortured too, right? He got to keep his clothing. Oh well, I suppose I shouldn't really complain. After all if we end up with a shirtless Maul, I guess any reason is good.

Spoiler warning!

The Cover. I see what you did there. If you look closely, you can see both Feral and Savage Opress on the cover fighting Dooku, even though they're both long dead.

On a side note, it really begins to show that this comic is based on the script of the unaired episodes(?) of the Clone Wars. My problem with the TV-series was that at some moments it was too fast paced and skipped a lot of things. I realize of course there is only so much you can do with 20 minutes. But taking some more time for the characters to reflect on things that have happened would have been really welcomed idea instead of jumping from action to more action.

This issue opens up with......wait wait wait! What the F did I just read? In the story so far- section: "Darth Sidious captured and interrogated his former apprentice Maul -and learned that the witch Mother Talzin is was behind his resurrection." What? So you're telling me Maul told him everything!? But you just showed us in the first issue that Maul told him nothing! He just spat out some old teaching of Sidious and refused to answer their questions! Sidious and Dooku actually got some information out of him and that Maul knows and remembers who Talzin is? Didn't anyone think this was vital information for the reader to make sense of the story? ARGH.

This issue opens up with the first panel showing Maul's fleet flying off to.....somewhere. Alone in his quarters Maul is trying to reach Mother Talzin by mumbling to himself. (Since when has he known he can do that?) Talzin answers and some green mist bursts out from Maul's chest and takes Mother Talzin's form. The two have a conversation. Maul tells her he has been successful in luring her enemy, Sidious after him. Also about his capture and escape from the prison. Talzin replies that he was probably allowed to escape. "With Sidious nothing is ever as is seems. We must be this way, as well." Figured out as much, if they really wanted to prevent Maul from escaping removing his legs should do the trick. He also tells her about the loss against Grievous and asks what their next move should be. She guides him not to seek her out, because that is exactly what Darth Sidious expects. Instead, she orders him to go to a Black Sun's stronghold in Ord Mantell and prepare for battle. Still, Maul asks if she will meet him in Ord Mantell, she declines, but promises that help from Dathomir is on it's way.

.....So, for this entire time, Maul was working for Talzin? WHAT!? THE ENTIRE TIME!? Was it her idea that Maul and Savage should rob and murder people for their credits? Her idea that they should build an army of criminals? To take over Mandalore? Savage's death and Maul's capture? Everything so that she could have revenge on Sidious for an unknown reason? Since when? When was anything of this sort at any time implied in the series? All this time I thought this was about Maul getting revenge on Kenobi and in his twisted way showing off to everybody that forgotten him that he still is a menace. All you had to do is have one scene in any of the episodes that would show Talzin and Maul talking to each other. There was none. This is completely out of the woods. I want an answer, when did all of this happen? Why would Maul help her? Why the hell he is suddenly so damn loyal to her!? 

Furthermore, It kinda creeps me out how Maul only calls her "Mother" (or mother, impossible to tell since everything is written with upper case letters) the entire time and she refer to him as "Son" (my child, my beloved son). Granted, Savage and even Obi-Wan has called her "Mother" but they at least start by calling her "Mother Talzin" before moving on using her title only. I get the vibe that Maul might actually believe she is his mother. No doubt, Maul is bound to have all sorts of mommy/daddy/younameit-issues but come on! Either this turns out that Maul is her actual son or she is just being as manipulative as Darth Sidious. Moving on....

Maul briefs the leaders of each of the groups that make his army about their next move. Maybe a stupid question, but is it commonly known that Count Dooku, the leader of the Separatist's is also a Sith? For the folks that are not involved in fighting the war itself I mean? Maul only mentions a battle between them and the Sith which the Black Sun leader immediately recognizes as Dooku. Of course it makes sense why Ziton Moj would know, but this just got me wondering. "Take out their leadership and they all fall down." Maul says. How's that gonna work? Wasn't the need of destroying a signal ship removed, that the droids would still be operational with out it? Or do they need to find someone who knows how to shut the droids down? 

Meanwhile Dooku and General Grievous' fleet flying off to.....somewhere. Grievous questions again why Talzin is so important that she needs to be destroyed. Dooku tells him that Talzin and Sidious were once allies. Darth Sidious sought after her teachings and magics. "Now her meddling could compromise all of our designs." Well, she wouldn't be meddling if a certain Sith master hadn't ordered a certain someone to get rid of Ventress, then she wouldn't have any reason to go back to Dathomir and get this whole cycle of revenge started. *cough* Maul had nothing to do with this, until Ventress and Opress crossed swords. Mother Talzin seemed pretty content in leaving Maul on the garbage planet and didn't seem too bothered to go find him herself even tough she knew he was alive (this whole time?).

Anyway, Separatist's spies have found The Shadow Collective on planet Ord Mantell easily enough, but Dooku refuses to attack the place before they know for certain that Talzin will be there too. And wouldn't you know, a report comes in that informs a shuttle has left Dathomir and is headed to Ord Mantell. This seems to be all the proof Dooku needs to determine that Talzin is making her way to meet Maul. He orders the fleet into hyperspace with the coordinates to the planet where Maul's army is waiting and commands Grievous to start bombarding the planet immediately after they jump out of hyperspace.

The scene switches back to Maul's base were they continue strategizing about the incoming battle and we learn that Commander Saxon is alive! Huh, so it was just some random Mandalorian soldier Grievous killed in the previous issue. A Mandalorian trooper informs that the shuttle from Dathomir has arrived. Maul takes Saxon with him to greet the arrivals and leaves Kast to finish the briefing. It turns out that the "help" Mother Talzin promised is actually Brother Viscus and a good bunch of Nightbrothers. There is no time for a welcoming party however, because Maul senses that the droids have arrived as well. (I thought one cannot sense droids? or wait, wrong series. It's the androids from DBZ I'm confusing with) As Dooku ordered, once they jump out of hyperspace Grievous immediately opens fire at the planet. Explosions everywhere! Maul's gotta hustle off somewhere else, he leaves Saxon in charge of the ground assault and tells Viscus and the brothers to get to the command center and wait until Maul tells them otherwise. Not sure how much help they're gonna be if they're just gonna sit around and wait, but okay. Let see were this is going. 

General Grievous is done bombing the planet and sends out the infantry to meet the combined army of Mandalorians, Pykes and Black Sun members under the command of Saxon. Meanwhile Count Dooku lands on the planet, accompanied by two MagnaGuards, which he orders to go find Maul and Talzin, who he still believes will be on the planet. Back at the orbit, a Super Tactical droid, suggest that they continue bombing the planet when their fleets cannons have recharged. Grievous suspects something fishy is going on, why didn't Maul order some aerial support from those Mandalorian warships Grievous know he has? Could it be? It's a trap!! Maul's fleet of warships attack Grievous' command ship and we learn of Maul's intentions to capture the big G himself. Maul's ship is piloted by Kast and is colored black and red in contrast to the other warships that are blue and gray.

Back with Dooku and his two Guard droids. They've made their way inside a building, presumably the command center and are soon ambushed by the Nightbrothers. The MagnaGuards are disposed easily and Dooku finds himself facing the Nightbrothers all alone. Come on, we know who is going to win this fight! The ten (or more) Nightbrothers are only armed with Electrostaffs. A group of them couldn't even beat an unarmed Ventress, what chances to they got against a lightsaber wielding Dooku? Yeah, Dooku doesn't really see their chances either.

At the same time in the battle outside Commander Saxon, a Black Sun grunt (Ziton Moj?) and a Pyke are either hiding or ambushing some droids behind a collapsed wall. The Black Sun soldier expresses his dislike towards Maul's plan because all it seems to do is getting them killed, the Pyke agrees. Saxon tells them to can it and follow their orders, their conversation gets interrupted when a super battle droid that looks like its been designed to crush through walls, does precisely that and pulls the Pyke soldier towards his doom.

Meanwhile in space, Maul and Kast have finally been able to attach to the command ship and are cutting their way in. Then the scene jumps back to Dooku vs. the Nightbrothers. Oh man, if it isn't brutal!! Heads roll, arms fly, bodies hit the floor and Dooku finishes them off with some lightning. Even tough the Nightbrothers are left anonymous, with no names, no personalities and heck, not even properly drawn faces (except Viscus and Maul of course) I feel a thousand times worse looking at these guys getting slaughtered than I ever felt for the clones at any time during the TV-series. It seems Brother Viscus is the last man standing and he charges Dooku by jumping in the air and it looks like to be a bad move since Dooku already has his lightsaber raised, ready to cut Viscus in half......

Back with Maul, he and Kast have made their way to the command deck on Grievous' ship. Almost too quickly and effortlessly Maul has the darksaber pinned to Grievouses' throat and orders him to shut down the droids. 

Surprisingly, Grievous complies with this and not a moment to soon. Back on the planet's surface Maul's forces have surrendered, but the droid's don't take prisoners and so they are going to be executed. The Black Sun soldier from earlier looks very displeased with the situation when suddenly the droids shut down! Saxon and everybody take the opportunity to start scrapping the droids.

Elsewhere.... Amazingly, Brother Viscus is still alive. He has seemingly dodged Dooku's swing of the lightsaber, but this doesn't bother the Count too much, instead he force grips Viscus and slams him HARD to the ground. Ouch! that's gotta have broken some horns or bones! Not longer able to fight, this looks like the end for Viscus as Dooku closes in with the lightsaber......but then Saxon & Co. arrive to the rescue and Dooku is captured. Conveniently both Grievous' and Dooku's capture happen off screen. I'm guessing that sadly, Viscus may be the lone survivor of this Nightbrother massacre, but its not confirmed.

Later when everything has calmed down after the battle, Maul alone again, contacts Mother Talzin and tells her about their success. This pleases Talzin and she again calls him "my son", the comic ends with Talzin caressing Maul's chin and her promising that together they will have their revenge on Sidious.

What I liked:

+ The art.

+ Still no Jedi.

+ Welcome back Saxon.

+ I never took Dooku for any kind of a badass, until this comic.

+ Maul wins this battle.

(+ Savage and Feral on the cover, I guess that is the best mention of them we will get)

What I didn't like

+ Watching Maul making his own decision is more fun than watching him take orders.    Maul will forever be someone else's bitch.

- Too much jumping around from one scene to the other.

- Why are the tactical droids the most stupid droids of them all?

- So many Nightbrothers died.

Next: The Proxy War! The Jedi enter the fight.

What the plot feels like pt.2