Darth Maul – Black, White & Red 2
What is it ? : At the Moonbender Colony on the Outer Rim, the Remainders run the colony. They are those left from Bounty Hunters, Mercenaries, Soldiers of Fortune whose are the last ones left from their groups, and they provide protection and organisation to the colony, former combat medics provide health care, soldiers negotiate and enforce solutions to disputes, and they protect the planet from outside attack.
Korvik a Doctor is treating a young Twi'lek girl who has a wounded eye, ordering his droid to give her candy, when they hear about a vessel arriving, The Scimitar.
Maul sends a message telling them that the Republic has ordered them to leave the colony, but they send a message pod to confirm this is a legitimate order from Coruscant, but Maul destroys the message pod, before it can leave, so the Remainders decide he is illegitimate so prepare to defend against him.
Two guards block his way supported by a sniper, but he leaps out of their sights and kills the two guards. So they block the passageway with a barrier with gun slits. As Maul approaches, they fire, but he parries the attacks easily, but they have prepared for adversaries who can block blaster fire by magnetically sealing the corridor, so they fire at the walls with the ricochets bouncing at Maul from all angles, but he still manages to parry them. He cuts his way through the barrier, killing the gun men awaiting him there.
In the surgery wounded begin to arrive and Korvik knows that Maul will soon arrive, as all he needs to do is follow the blood stains.
On the way there, Maul faces off against a blaster cannon wielding woman and a martial artist, but defeat the pair easily, but as the woman falls she activates detonators, and Maul is wounded by blast debris cutting into his flesh.
In the surgery Korvik is operating, but his patient passes away due to their wounds as Maul slaughters his way through the last line of defence into the surgery itself, and stabs Korvik through the back with his lightsaber. As Korvik breathes his last, he reveals he was better with droids than at surgery, and his assistant droid attacks Maul from behind.
Later we see Maul leaving the tower telling Palpatine that he has completed his mission, he asks what was of value on the planet that Palpatine required the removal of the Remainders. Nothing Palpatine responds, there's nothing there he wants, it was just a training mission for Maul to fight people with a variety of combat skills. . . .
High Points : The concept of the Colony is good, a lawless place which ex-mercenaries and soldiers and bounty hunters made their home, a place where the survivors, the last of their groups came, and brought law and order. Their skills were useful, so this backwater colony is defended, and has health care, and technicians, and became a safe place for people to live.
I also loved the ambush they set up, firing through gun slits into a magnetically shielded corridor, where their blaster bolts would bounce around, testing any Jedi or Sith's ability to parry blaster bolts and they come bouncing back at them from different directions.
Low Points : But the story is just, Maul kills folk, again. The guards he beats because he is Maul, the trap he beats because he is Maul, the Martial Artist and Gunwoman, he beats because he is Maul, he even defeats the explosion just because he is Maul, and they don't even bother showing us how he defeats the modified droid, as by this point we know he'll win just because he's Maul.
So what do you really think ? : Vader Black White and Red was an attempt at horror involving Darth Vader, I'd be assuming that was what they intended with Maul Black White and Red as well, but apart from the horror imagery used by the Final Occultation last issue, I'm not seeing any horror, or even any tension, with barely any storyline.
Final Words : Perhaps it is building up to something, perhaps the story will build over the four stories to tell us something more about Maul, perhaps even to something that will scare him. But at the moment, this is inferior in every way to the Vader series.
Score : 7/10
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