in this review of Star Wars: Shadow of Maul #1, welcome to Janix, another wretched hive of scum and villainy embroiled in a dangerous smuggling operation (among many other illicit activities), and to where Darth Maul has just secured travel plans.
STAR WARS: SHADOW OF MAUL #1
Writer: BENJAMIN PERCY
Artist: MADIBEK MUSABEKOV
Main Cover: DERRICK CHEW
Variant Covers: AKA, BJÖRN BARENDS, DAN PANOSIAN, ELENA CASAGRANDE
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 3/4/2026
This review contains spoilers
Star Wars: Shadow of Maul #1 opens in the present day on the Mid Rim planet of Janix, a well-known haven for corruption, as Captain Brander Lawson of the Tactical Defense Force is called into the local police precinct for questioning by Inspector Ruhl. Lawson bristles at the indignity, but explains how events unfolded one week earlier when he went undercover in a seedy establishment.
Lawson ordered a Corellian whiskey, flashed a few credits and got a front row seat to bid on some illegally trafficked alien species. Lawson takes a sip of whiskey and is informed by the bartender that his drink is poisoned. With his cover blown and his life on the line, Lawson radios for back up which arrives in the form of Two-Boots the droid.
Two-Boots tries to even the odds but the bartender is a brawler, disarming Lawson, putting Two-Boots in a headlock and releasing the large and deadly creatures from their cages. Lawson passes out from the poison, leaving Two-Boots in dire straits (giant spider), but the story cuts to sometime later as both Lawson and Two-Boots appear alive and intact as their boss Chief Klyce reads them the riot act back at headquarters.
Fed up, Chief Klyce assigns the pair three new recruits. Lawson fills them in on a protected witness stashed in a safe house, but soon after Lawson and Two-Boots discover one of the recruits is a mole who is killed before they can question him. Back in the present, a fed-up Lawson storms out of the interview room with a piece of advice for Inspector Ruhl: on Janix, to get justice done you often need to break the rules.
Star Wars: Shadow of Maul #1 ends on a planet in the Cina System as an unnamed smuggler gives a prospective passenger a tour of the many amenities of their starship. The passenger decides to cut out the middle man and murders the pilot with a red lightsaber. Darth Maul is ready for a trip to Janix.
Analysis
Star Wars: Shadow of Maul #1 sets the stage for the upcoming Disney+ “Maul: Shadow Lord” animated series with a wild and turbulent tour of the Star Wars underworld. Star Wars: Shadow of Maul #1 plays as a straight up crime noir thriller complete with seedy establishments, shady characters, flawed heroes and deadly schemes.
Writer Benjamin Percy, no stranger to either Star Wars or crime fiction, seamlessly blends the two concepts into a riveting pot boiler. As for the title character Maul, the shadow lord makes only a cameo appearance, albeit a memorable one. Maul’s shift to crime lord reveals a cunning and ruthless manipulator whose near-death experience at the hands of Obi-wan Kenobi reshaped the once devout Sith apprentice.
Percy takes advantage of the rich characterization established in The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series to expand upon what was originally a cool concept, but a one-note character.
Percy packs a lot into Star Wars: Shadow of Maul #1, including multiple time shifts and various new supporting characters (some of whom don’t last the entire issue). Brander Lawson and Two-Boots are easily identifiable as the weary but steadfast protagonists and their rapport is amusing. The dialogue and terminology in Star Wars: Shadow of Maul #1 might read as strange, but the classic noir tropes are familiar to anyone paying attention.
Percy’s dialogue informs readers that Lawson is the quintessential hard boiled lawman playing by his own set of rules on a harsh and dangerous world, as well as a former bounty hunter with a young son. Two-Boots is more by the books but the droid still follows Lawson’s lead regardless of the risk.
As skilled a writer as Percy is, parts of the story raise questions: how the embattled Two-Boots (last seen battling a giant spider) is able to rescue the deathly ill Lawson from a literal den of thieves in time for them to meet up with their chief later? How did Two-Boots get the antidote to an exotic insect venom? Regardless these might be addressed later in the series, but the shift is jarring (unless all of these events are the product of Lawson’s fevered mind as he succumbs to the venom).
Artist Madibek Musabekov is a remarkable choice for Star Wars: Shadow of Maul #1, providing impressive visuals with remarkable detail. The mashing up of the lived-in feel of Janix with the visual cues of film noir such as heavy use of shadows, gives the backgrounds tremendous weight. Facial expressions, figure posing and camera angles effectively portray drama and tension. Musabekov’s action sequences are striking.
Brander Lawson takes the spotlight in Star Wars: Shadow of Maul #1, and Musabekov portrays the character as both the tough guy archetype and the vulnerable hero scrambling on hands and knees after his blaster as poison courses through his bloodstream. Maul’s stoic presence by contrast is both striking and imposing in just a few panels. This might seem one note, but as that was just the entrance, more depth and explanation from Maul should be forthcoming.
Final Thoughts
Star Wars: Shadow of Maul #1 is an engaging crime thriller in space with enough plot twists to short circuit an astromech droid. The two new leads make for promising potential foils as the former Sith Lord prepares to cast a dark shadow over Janix. The story and art are stunning.
