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Star Wars: Shadow Of Maul (2026) #3
BETRAYAL ON JANIX! LAWSON is hunted by an assassin and an officer from his own department! Help comes from an unlikely ally - a crime lord named VARIO, who has his own hidden agenda. And MAUL begins his preparation for a job in Janix by kidnapping a member of the police force!
- GenresStar Wars
Kindle Edition
Published May 13, 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 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 26, 2026
Since this is Shadow of Maul's midway point, it ups the anty.
First, the issue closes with Maul making preliminary moves for larger actions we saw him take in Shadow Lord. As usual though, he is on the periphery rather than center stage. But will he eventually take a more central role? Based on what happens in #3, and moves he will make in 'Chapter 4' of Shadow Lord, I think that's likely.
For now, though, this is Brander Lawson's story. In Shadow Lord, although he still hadn't sorted out his issues with overworking, Lawson was on more solid ground at work. He could rely not just on Two-Boot but also on Chief Klyce and there was no need to check whether his subordinates were turncloaks working for the syndicates. In Shadow of Maul, Lawson is a one-man crusade (+ one eccentric droid), unsure who to trust and which of his partners might try to kill him. If that wasn't bad enough, Internal Affairs are also after him. So, what exactly happened between then and now? In Issue #1, Lawson uncovered a mole in the police force. In #2, he prevented the crime syndicates from collecting a stack of Imperial credits by playing them off against each other. In #3, the limits and risks of his one-man crusade reveal themselves. IA sees him as a rogue agent, less interested in what he's actually doing than that he didn't follow 'procedure' to do it. The crime syndicates themselves have taken note of his actions. In the first episode of Shadow Lord, we were introduced to the crime boss Looti Vario. When he first sees Lawson in that episode, he says that he 'never thought they would be on the same side'. This line first suggested that Lawson and Vario had quite the past. #3 spins that idea even further as it features the first meeting between Lawson and Vario, and it wasn't what I expected. Shadow of Maul has made Lawson very similar to Giovanni Falcone, the Italian judge whose actions broke the back of the Sicilian Mafia in the late 1980s and early 90s. It's hard today to comprehend just how widespread and integrated in the political and justice systm the Mafia was, or the scale of what Falcone and his fellow judges in the Antimafia Pool faced to bring them down. Not only the target of assassinations attempts (including the one that took his life in 1992), Falcone also faced significant procedural and juristictional hurdles, as the Mafia's judicial allies did everything they could, down to 'exiling him' to a remote location to keep him away from Palermo and charging all his expenses to him rather than the state, to try and break him. Lawson faces similar hurdles, from the continued threat from his coworkers, the IA investigation and newfound interest from the syndicates. This is the first issue where Lawson makes no moves of his own, instead facing the unimaginable relentless pressures that come with being the only honest man in a corrupt city, determined to push back the tide with both hands tied behind his back.
With two issues remaining, and Lawson now even more fully aware of the risks he is taking, I'm sure we'll see how he overcame them and got at least the police force free of corruption as we found it in the first episode of Shadow Lord. And will Maul, who was targetting the syndicates themselves and eventually offered Lawson an alliance in 'Chapter 4', be responsible for propping Lawson up from the shadows rather than just cameoing at the end of each issue as he has so far?
Shadow of Maul continues to be an excellent run and Benjamin Percy joins the likes of Marc Guggenheim and Alex Segura as authors I want to see more of in Star Wars comics.
First, the issue closes with Maul making preliminary moves for larger actions we saw him take in Shadow Lord. As usual though, he is on the periphery rather than center stage. But will he eventually take a more central role? Based on what happens in #3, and moves he will make in 'Chapter 4' of Shadow Lord, I think that's likely.
For now, though, this is Brander Lawson's story. In Shadow Lord, although he still hadn't sorted out his issues with overworking, Lawson was on more solid ground at work. He could rely not just on Two-Boot but also on Chief Klyce and there was no need to check whether his subordinates were turncloaks working for the syndicates. In Shadow of Maul, Lawson is a one-man crusade (+ one eccentric droid), unsure who to trust and which of his partners might try to kill him. If that wasn't bad enough, Internal Affairs are also after him. So, what exactly happened between then and now? In Issue #1, Lawson uncovered a mole in the police force. In #2, he prevented the crime syndicates from collecting a stack of Imperial credits by playing them off against each other. In #3, the limits and risks of his one-man crusade reveal themselves. IA sees him as a rogue agent, less interested in what he's actually doing than that he didn't follow 'procedure' to do it. The crime syndicates themselves have taken note of his actions. In the first episode of Shadow Lord, we were introduced to the crime boss Looti Vario. When he first sees Lawson in that episode, he says that he 'never thought they would be on the same side'. This line first suggested that Lawson and Vario had quite the past. #3 spins that idea even further as it features the first meeting between Lawson and Vario, and it wasn't what I expected. Shadow of Maul has made Lawson very similar to Giovanni Falcone, the Italian judge whose actions broke the back of the Sicilian Mafia in the late 1980s and early 90s. It's hard today to comprehend just how widespread and integrated in the political and justice systm the Mafia was, or the scale of what Falcone and his fellow judges in the Antimafia Pool faced to bring them down. Not only the target of assassinations attempts (including the one that took his life in 1992), Falcone also faced significant procedural and juristictional hurdles, as the Mafia's judicial allies did everything they could, down to 'exiling him' to a remote location to keep him away from Palermo and charging all his expenses to him rather than the state, to try and break him. Lawson faces similar hurdles, from the continued threat from his coworkers, the IA investigation and newfound interest from the syndicates. This is the first issue where Lawson makes no moves of his own, instead facing the unimaginable relentless pressures that come with being the only honest man in a corrupt city, determined to push back the tide with both hands tied behind his back.
With two issues remaining, and Lawson now even more fully aware of the risks he is taking, I'm sure we'll see how he overcame them and got at least the police force free of corruption as we found it in the first episode of Shadow Lord. And will Maul, who was targetting the syndicates themselves and eventually offered Lawson an alliance in 'Chapter 4', be responsible for propping Lawson up from the shadows rather than just cameoing at the end of each issue as he has so far?
Shadow of Maul continues to be an excellent run and Benjamin Percy joins the likes of Marc Guggenheim and Alex Segura as authors I want to see more of in Star Wars comics.
May 17, 2026
Oh, fantastic! I'm starting to like Lawson and Vario, more than i thought i would.
May 26, 2026
Kind of mixed on Vario's mech suit. Feels like the show, though.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews