Shadow of Maul: 5 : Advent of Shadows
What is it ? : Lawson dictates how in the past as a bounty hunter he'd dwelled in the darkness between worlds, but now he's got a good partner in Two Boots, a home on Janix, and a son who he cares about more than himself, that Janix is his home and somewhere he wants to protect. This is why he is now going after Clariveen Ruhl the internal affairs detective who is trying to bring it all down for Lawson.
He follows Ruhl and has a police drone watch as he meets with Nico Deemis who is paying to have Lawson killed or jailed, something which hasn't happened yet so Ruhl leaves without payment.
He then meets with Looti Vario, who doesn't seem to be interested in Lawson, instead interested in information about Nico Deemis, which he pays Ruhl for.
Ruhl then goes on to meet Benejin Bloor, a mercenary, aboard Bloors starship a Gozanti class cruiser. Bloor gives Ruhl a blaster, telling him that they're going to take out a new player on Janix before they get a foothold, although if they can capture them, Ruhl can take them in for extra credit as a police officer.
As the ship flies over Janix, they detect Lawsons drone and blast it out of the sky, arriving at the metal works where they encounter Maul who slaughters Bloor, his team and stabs Ruhl through the chest with his lightsaber.
By the time Lawson arrives Maul is gone and they discover the dead bodies of the Mercenaries, and find Ruhl breathing his last, Lawson questions him as to who did this, but Ruhl says he did it to himself as he breathes his last.
Lawson thinks to himself he should be relieved, a major player on Janix has been taken out, his enemy within his own department is dead, but he thinks it doesn't feel like the end, it feels like the beginning of a war.
To be continued in Maul: Shadow Lord . . . .
High Points : So I suppose it wraps up the main plot of the comic series of Lawson being investigated, and the detective element I've liked is there with Lawson stalking Ruhl, and the artwork continues to impress.
Low Points : But it doesn't do so in any satisfying fashion. Ruhl who had reasonable reasons for investigating Lawson, a cop who by his own words breaks the rules and enjoys corrupting his sidekick. Lawson who's team was killed or turned out to be moles within the department, should probably be investigated. But the story just turns simplistic, that the good cop cannot be investigated for any other reason that internal affairs is corrupt.
And Ruhl is being paid by Vario? In fact Vario is the ONLY one who pays Ruhl, and he was the one who gassed him in the corridor outside Lawsons home, and then drugged Ruhl into thinking he'd be drinking heavily and forgetting the last few hours? Was Vario there because Ruhl had told him? Was Ruhl there because Vario had told him to hassle Lawson, so Vario could come to Lawson's rescue to balance the debt he felt that he owed Lawson? So many questions caused by them just deciding that Ruhl isn't just corrupt, he's mega corrupt and taking bribes from absolutely everyone.
I'm also a little confused by Benejin Bloor, he's grouped in with the other crimelords on Janix, Vario and Deemis! But he's described as a Mercenary, someone who'd made a fortune in the Clone Wars dealing arms and is now a gun for hire? He works from a starship, and has a squad of other Pau'an mercenaries with him. He just doesn't seem to be in the same group as Deemis and Vario, yet he is the one who has noticed Maul beginning to operate on Janix and moves to stop him. He doesn't seem like the others, although kind of acts like them, I just don't get it.
And just as a final point, if Ruhl dies, wouldn't his investigations just get passed over to someone else? Ruhl had legitimate reasons for investigating Lawson, and I see no reason why his investigation should die along with him, unless it's a weird rule of Janix law enforcement where if you can kill the investigator, no one else can investigate you for the same crimes?
So what do you really think ? : The issue seems far more brief that the others, as we discover a lot about Ruhl, even if it's just kind of sprung on us. Ruhl is corrupt, for no other reason that he's investigating our hero, so must be corrupt, even though our hero does much which warrants investigation. He's being paid my Deemis to take Lawson down, he's being paid by Vario to spy on Deemis, and he's being paid by Bloor to help build goodwill with the police by taking out a new criminal group on Janix. He's corrupt without it making sense.
Ruhl could have been so much more of an interesting antagonist, actually honestly investigating Lawson for his actions, somewhat in debt to Lawson for saving his life last issue, we could have gotten something where Ruhl helps Lawson even though Lawson is borderline breaking the rules, as they both realise that they're fighting for the same thing, but one plays by the rules and the other doesn't. But we get a far more basic and boring, anyone who is against our good guy must be a bad guy.
Final Words : So that's Shadow of Maul, which began as the nice Star Wars Police Procedural that I'd wanted since the beginning of Maul: Shadow Lord, with Maul's shadow being cast over the story as he arrives on Janix, and much of the crime is being caused between Vario and Deemis, both of which had served in Mauls Shadow Collective, but with it collapsing when Maul was captured their struggles for supremacy were causing problems for Lawson.
A lovely addition to Star Wars and building the background of the animated series. But then they suddenly just wrap everything up by getting Maul involved making the antagonist bland and predictable and then dead. An interesting series which just falls apart in it's last chapter.
Score : 6.5/10
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