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Star Wars: Shadow Of Maul (2026) #2
THE UNDERWORLD EXPLODES WITH SCUM AND VILLAINY AS MAUL LOOMS IN THE SHADOWS! Ruthless mercenaries are looking to unload IMPERIAL treasure! Crime lord DEEMIS will stop at nothing to get it! Will CAPTAIN LAWSON be able to thwart the exchange of the smuggled fortune?
- GenresStar Wars
Kindle Edition
Published April 8, 2026
About the author
Benjamin Percy
819 books1,228 followersBenjamin Percy is the author of seven novels -- most recently The Sky Vault (William Morrow) -- three short fiction collections, and a book of essays, Thrill Me, that is widely taught in creative writing classrooms. He writes Wolverine, X-Force, and Ghost Rider for Marvel Comics. His fiction and nonfiction have been published in Esquire (where he is a contributing editor), GQ, Time, Men's Journal, Outside, the Wall Street Journal, Tin House, and the Paris Review. His honors include an NEA fellowship, the Whiting Writer's Award, the Plimpton Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, the iHeart Radio Award for Best Scripted Podcast, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 18, 2026
Enjoyable Second Chapter
I'm loving the show, and this is doing a nice job of building to its inevitable beginning point. Solid art, and the voice of the characters is consistent with the series.
I'm loving the show, and this is doing a nice job of building to its inevitable beginning point. Solid art, and the voice of the characters is consistent with the series.
April 26, 2026
Boring. Not about Maul. Feels like another Disney marketing ploy. Not about good story telling or character building.
April 10, 2026
Calling a comic Maul then making it about everyone but Maul sure was a choice. A marketing choice for sure, but if y'all just wanted a Lawson comic you could've called it that....
April 9, 2026
Shadow Lord has now started and it's everything I was hoping for, and then some. With most of its characters having now appeared onscreen, it's clear what Shadow of Maul is aiming to be: complimentary information about the existing criminal and judicial set-up of Janix rather than drawing better material away from the series itself.
Last issue, we were introduced to Captain Brandon Lawson, his droid Two-Boots, and their uphill battle to take on the crime syndicates that dominate Janix the same way Gotham was in Batman or Italy by the Mafia. In #2, we get introduced to Nico Deemis for the first time (or rather second, after Chapter 1 of Shadow Lord). The MacGuffin in #2 is a stolen shipment of 20 million Imperial credits, a fortune even the crime lords of Janix are chopping at the bit to get their hands on. And Lawson is desperate to keep it out of their hands to avoid allowing one to become more powerful than the other, and to keep the Empire from coming to Janix. We get some nice policing tropes in this issue, like the stakeout, tailing and the chase scene, as well as the familiar criminal gang confrontation at the end. But this is also Star Wars, so we also have an interesting new droid, and some thrilling droid vs. droid action. Action is something comics struggle to do at the best of time, but recent Star Wars comics (particularly the sadly-ended Jedi Knights) have made me care about the action on the page, not just the dynamics between characters.
The only slight issue I have with #2 is that some of the endgame was a little unclear. Hopefully, this will be rectified in #3. Regardless, I love what this does for Lawson's character arc. The detective we met in #1 was jaded, displeased that he was alone (save the ever-faithful and delightful Two-Boots) in fighting the crime syndicates, but too idealistic to throw in the towel completely. The detective we meet in Shadow Lord seems to be on much surer footing than the one we let a month ago and, as Chapter 2 shows, is also willing to deal with the underworld himself if it'll help him in the wider fight. Lawson, in #2, is probably at his most satisfied as he finally makes that conclusion. If the Janix Civilian Defense Force won't back him up, he'll play the game his way. And the easiest way to keep criminals in check isn't strong policing: it's to ensure they police themselves. The analogy of his son's favourite Botekin player was a neat piece of writing from Benjamin Percy and the smirk Lawson allows himself when he realises his ploy worked reminded me of the episode 'The Smile' from Homeland, a focus on a single character trait that reveals everything needed about a specific character. This was a side of Lawson we have already in Shadow Lord, but his reaction to it is unprecedented and reveals a lot more about the character than I ever expected.
#2 also seems to reinforce something else that I hadn't expected would be a staple of the series: Maul appears in each issue, but never until the end. Why? 'Chapter 1: The Dark Revenge' established that, while Maul had been on Janix for some time, he hadn't yet come to the attention of the JCDF. Shadow of Maul establishes the players Maul will be up against or working with in Shadow Lord and revealing how the former Darth secretly prepared himself for making a move to take them out. I can get behind that because what it boils down to is that Shadow of Maul is exactly what it's meant to be: a tie-in, an expansion of what we have or will see on screen. Not something better where most people will be wondering: 'oh, why was this excellent material used for the tie-in and not the main series'. Star Wars has often fallen into this trap in recent years, so it's nice to see where Shadow of Maul and Shadow Lord are concerned, they've struck the right balance.
Last issue, we were introduced to Captain Brandon Lawson, his droid Two-Boots, and their uphill battle to take on the crime syndicates that dominate Janix the same way Gotham was in Batman or Italy by the Mafia. In #2, we get introduced to Nico Deemis for the first time (or rather second, after Chapter 1 of Shadow Lord). The MacGuffin in #2 is a stolen shipment of 20 million Imperial credits, a fortune even the crime lords of Janix are chopping at the bit to get their hands on. And Lawson is desperate to keep it out of their hands to avoid allowing one to become more powerful than the other, and to keep the Empire from coming to Janix. We get some nice policing tropes in this issue, like the stakeout, tailing and the chase scene, as well as the familiar criminal gang confrontation at the end. But this is also Star Wars, so we also have an interesting new droid, and some thrilling droid vs. droid action. Action is something comics struggle to do at the best of time, but recent Star Wars comics (particularly the sadly-ended Jedi Knights) have made me care about the action on the page, not just the dynamics between characters.
The only slight issue I have with #2 is that some of the endgame was a little unclear. Hopefully, this will be rectified in #3. Regardless, I love what this does for Lawson's character arc. The detective we met in #1 was jaded, displeased that he was alone (save the ever-faithful and delightful Two-Boots) in fighting the crime syndicates, but too idealistic to throw in the towel completely. The detective we meet in Shadow Lord seems to be on much surer footing than the one we let a month ago and, as Chapter 2 shows, is also willing to deal with the underworld himself if it'll help him in the wider fight. Lawson, in #2, is probably at his most satisfied as he finally makes that conclusion. If the Janix Civilian Defense Force won't back him up, he'll play the game his way. And the easiest way to keep criminals in check isn't strong policing: it's to ensure they police themselves. The analogy of his son's favourite Botekin player was a neat piece of writing from Benjamin Percy and the smirk Lawson allows himself when he realises his ploy worked reminded me of the episode 'The Smile' from Homeland, a focus on a single character trait that reveals everything needed about a specific character. This was a side of Lawson we have already in Shadow Lord, but his reaction to it is unprecedented and reveals a lot more about the character than I ever expected.
#2 also seems to reinforce something else that I hadn't expected would be a staple of the series: Maul appears in each issue, but never until the end. Why? 'Chapter 1: The Dark Revenge' established that, while Maul had been on Janix for some time, he hadn't yet come to the attention of the JCDF. Shadow of Maul establishes the players Maul will be up against or working with in Shadow Lord and revealing how the former Darth secretly prepared himself for making a move to take them out. I can get behind that because what it boils down to is that Shadow of Maul is exactly what it's meant to be: a tie-in, an expansion of what we have or will see on screen. Not something better where most people will be wondering: 'oh, why was this excellent material used for the tie-in and not the main series'. Star Wars has often fallen into this trap in recent years, so it's nice to see where Shadow of Maul and Shadow Lord are concerned, they've struck the right balance.
April 13, 2026
I liked this issue better. The droid action was pretty good. This fits with the world of the TV show pretty well.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews