Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir #3

Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir #3 (of 4)

Writer: Jeremy Barlow
Artist: Juan Frigeri
Inker: Mauro Vargas
Colorist: Wes Dzioba
Letterer: Michael Heisler
Cover Artist: Chris Scalf

Warning: this reviews delves into some spoilers.

Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir #3 starts off slow but heats up with some serious action halfway through. The Jedi send some of their best to confront Darth Maul, and to tip the scales in his favor, Dooku joins his side. Maul, Obi-Wan, Dooku, Mace, Aayla Secura and even Tiplee all find themselves in a massive free-for-all. Yet as the conflict plays out, the true opponents sit back and watch. Sidious and Talzin have a lot at stake, and there is only one issue left to decide their fates.

At the start of things, Palpatine plays his part as the Jedi fill him in on what’s going on with Maul and the Separatists. The Jedi decide to go after Maul and Dooku. Obi-Wan teams up with Tiplee, the exotic red skinned alien that appeared in the Order 66 television arc and whose twin sister was killed by a clone trooper. Mace Windu teams up with Aayla Secura. Shifting to the battlefield, Maul shows his hand to Darth Sidious and threatens to kill Grievous and Dooku. Between all the groups, there’s a lot of talking and posturing. The action doesn’t kick in until page 12.

The slow start is thankfully just a long lead in to some pretty fun action. Grievous gets some interesting scenes as he makes a jailbreak. In one of my favorite panels in this issue, we see a close-up of the cyborg general splattered n blood as he brutally kills a Mandalorian with his hands. One can only imagine that the tv show would never have gone so far as this. Adding to the action, Maul and Dooku team up against the Jedi as a matter of convenience. Surprisingly, they manage to hold their own. All in all, the action packed chunk of the issue was a lot of fun and makes it worth checking out.

Topping things off, Son of Dathomir #3 lays out very clearly what Darth Maul and Mother Talzin’s relationship is. Keep in mind that this comic is considered to be part of the new canon. Furthermore, it provides some closure for Tiplee. While it most certainly would have been awesome to see this part of the story done as an animated episode, it’s kind of nice seeing it done as a comic. The surprises and story development gives it some resonance, and combined with the artwork, it’s a decent medium for the story.

With good enough artwork and an interesting story, Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir falls in somewhere between must read and entertaining. On one hand, some serious story chunks start falling into place that any Star Wars: The Clone Wars fan will want to be filled in on. While it would be easy enough to read some Wookieepedia article on it, you’d miss out on the full context, and there really isn’t any good reason to not check it out first hand. On the flip side, it’s a fun comic. It might not be on the same level as Legacy or Knights of the Old Republic, but it’s still good and worth a read. Thus I give Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir #3 a four out of five metal bikinis.

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.