“Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir,” a four-issue comic series now available in trade paperback, is both very cool and kind of disappointing. It’s the first continuation of “The Clone Wars” outside of the canceled-too-soon TV series, but it also screams to be seen on TV.
Much like TV’s last Maul arc, a four-parter in Season 5, “Son of Dathomir” (originally intended to be the Season 6 episodes “The Enemy of My Enemy,” “A Tale of Two Apprentices,” “Proxy War” and “Showdown on Dathomir”) is an action-oriented epic that brings together several pieces on the game boards of both Sidious (Dooku and Grievous) and Maul (his Mandalorian, Black Sun and Pyke allies). The Jedi mostly sit this one out, preferring to scratch their chins and wonder if Dooku and Maul are perhaps the two Sith lords. Obi-Wan, Mace Windu and Aayla Secura dip into the Maul-and-Dooku intrigue just long enough for Dooku to slaughter Tiplee from the “Clone Wars” Season 6 episode “The Unknown.”
When we last saw Maul in “The Lawless,” Sidious was attacking him with Force lightning. Here, we learn that Sidious did not kill him, but locked him up, using him as bait to draw out Dathomir Nightsister leader Mother Talzin (more on that in a bit).
When watching the Season 5 episodes, I assumed that Sidious wanted Maul dead because he had replaced him with Dooku and now sees the surprisingly alive Maul as a complication – similar to Sidious ordering Dooku to kill Asajj Ventress. Sidious is orchestrating the Separatist versus Republic war, and he can do without the wild-card factor of Maul’s Shadow Collective. After Sidious breaks up the Shadow Collective, he tells Dooku:
“This was a difficult piece to maneuver, but now it is in place. Maul’s future has been erased, while ours is more certain than it has ever been.”
Interestingly, “Son of Dathomir” (adapted by Jeremy Barlow from the TV scripts by Aida Mashaka Croal and Matt Michnovetz) adds another motivation for Sidious that arguably contradicts previous lore. James Luceno’s novel “Darth Plagueis” chronicled the infant Darth Maul being given to Darth Sidious as a gift by his mother, who sought to protect Maul from Mother Talzin, who knew of Maul’s brother Savage Opress, but not Maul (see page 183 of the hardcover). Why the mother viewed Talzin as a threat to her sons, beyond the fact that males are used as servants in Nightsister culture, is unclear. Then in the comic digest “The Sith Hunters” (2012), Savage Opress tells Maul: “Mother Talzin said this ‘Shadow’ (Sidious) came to Dathomir to purchase you.”
“Son of Dathomir” tells us that Maul is the son of Talzin herself. Throughout Maul’s “Clone Wars” arc, she has indeed shown love for him, most notably by giving him magic-enhanced mechanical legs, which is no small thing — “Mother sacrificed much of her own form to resurrect me,” Maul notes.
This comic reveals a rivalry between Sidious and Talzin, and claims that Talzin herself gave up Maul as a gift. Sidious tells Dooku:
“My history with the Dathomir witches goes back further than you know. Maul came to me as a child – a not-so-appreciated gift from Mother Talzin. Her spite for me runs deep.”
Talzin, however, claims that Sidious stole Maul. As she tells Dooku:
“Long ago, Sidious came to me on Dathomir. We exchanged secret wisdom, mingled dark side abilities with Nightsister magicks. He promised to make me his right hand, but instead stole what was most dear to me: My own flesh and blood. My son!”
That convoluted backstory is the set-up for a final-act showdown between Sidious and Talzin, which plays out fine in comic pages, albeit a bit like the Voldemort versus Harry wand battles in “Harry Potter.” But I can’t help but think how much cooler it would’ve been as a fully produced episode backed by Kevin Kiner’s score.
Still, “Son of Dathomir” falls firmly into the “better than nothing” category, along with the unfinished “Crystal Crisis on Utapau” arc on StarWars.com and the 2015 Christie Golden novel “Dark Disciple,” which will feature Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos. Collectively, these tales based on unfinished “Clone Wars” episodes are categorized as “Clone Wars Legacy” stories. Seeing as how Maul is merely beaten, but not killed, at the end of “Son of Dathomir,” perhaps his legacy will continue further still.