Note: This review contains spoilers.

In a story set six months before the events of Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul sets out to prevent Black Sun from interfering with the planned blockade and invasion of Naboo. His objective in sight, Maul approaches a confrontation with the highest echelon of Black Sun's leadership on Ralltiir.

Duursema's illustrations continue to be the real attraction in this series; but without a robust story to drive them, even they are becoming repetitive, and bland. There's nothing that compares with the atmospherics of the first issue's scenes in the Sith sanctuary. Where last issue we were introduced to Vigo Darnada and his immediate associates, who were visually interesting if nothing else; this issue we're treated to a group of Black Sun Vigos about as engaging as mug shots. Page eight, in fact, is quite reminiscent of a page of mug shots: divided into nine panels of identical size, each featuring a different crime boss. Maul's portraits still stand out, the first, and best, in which Maul appears with a halo-like light about his head, appearing on page 2, but it's pretty much all downhill from there. What remains is the combat, and that's where the repetitiveness really shows. In fact, it's downright derivative, repeating chunks of action directly from The Phantom Menace.

A certain measure of derivativeness is inevitable in a Star Wars comic, but this is ridiculous. It's a very plain resequencing of action from The Phantom Menace. Maul's Tatooine confrontation with Qui-Gon Jinn provides the Sith Probe Droids and Maul riding into battle on the Sith Speeder, right down to his initial precipitate maneuver. Just inside the Black Sun fortress, we are treated to a scene lifted from the Theed Generator Duel, a long-shot of Maul fighting superior numbers at the intersection of two catwalks amidst glowing columns of light.

Coming to one of only two portals in the fortress anyone has thought to close during this assault, Maul even uses the lightsaber-latchkey technique Qui-Gon used on the Federation Battleship. The Vigos' henchmen Maul finds on the far side of that door even manage to recall the battle droids Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan cut their way through leaving the Neimoidians' conference room. (The Original Trilogy does not go unmined, either: Maul dispatches a lone gunman with his successor's signature Force Trick, the hands-off choke hold, right out of ESB and ROTJ.)

The left-eye motif in previous issues of Darth Maul seems to have been all but abandoned. Only Maul's right eye makes it onto the third issue cover, and within, the Order of the Left Eye is represented by a single new one-(left)-eyed character, the Rodian Vigo, Dardo, wearing an eye-patch. Perhaps this is a Duursema trademark: It's worth noting that Quinlan Vos, whose first adventure (Twilight, in Star Wars #19-22) was illustrated by Duursema, has facial markings that include a mark over the left eye.

If the left eyes were conspicuous in the last issue, then at least as conspicuous in this issue is the number of bared teeth on any given page. We are confronted by a lot of teeth. I mean a lot. Not only Sith teeth (you'd think the Sith would have a better dental plan), but Iktotchi teeth, Twi'lek teeth, Gamorrean teeth, Barabel teeth, even human teeth.

Struzan's cover seems a little ... weak. Maul's no longer starry-eyed, unless the star is still in the left eye, which is out-of-frame. No more than a wee gleam touches the right eye. A considerable light-source does appear behind the small Maul on the Sith Speeder, nested within the same irregular spiral brush strokes used in the first two cover paintings, but what it means, if anything, is a mystery. Maul on the Speeder looks a little laid-back, subdued, even bored ... as if Ray Park had been caught out of character, lounging between takes. Speeder Maul seems out of character especially compared to the snarling Maul in the background. I think the limitations of this series may have even hampered Mr. Struzan's efforts this time.

The Story:

Reading this comic, the reader is bound to get a sinking feeling of deja vu: Been there, done that. Maul I.D.s his target; Maul attacks his target; Maul finely dices target. There's a Black Sun strategy-cum-recap scene in the midst of this, but it doesn't amount to much, though it, too, like the later saber-work, seems all too familiar, with Black Sun's Master even uttering some Famous Last Words (on page 11): "My fortress is nigh unbreachable. A legion of Black Sun's finest stands watch." Had the Dark Eye probes been present at the time, you'd have to wonder if Palpatine hadn't been combing their telemetry looking for cool evil overlord lines: the dialogue, and even the trap set for Maul, has the smell of Endor and the Second Death Star about it.

The bottom line is, we're into reruns here. So far, this series is a series of fights -- quite similar fights that, where they differ, differ in which film fights they borrow from; fights that look cool, but don't really amount to much. They do not enlighten or otherwise engage the reader beyond the fine drawings. Maul even reverts to his taciturn habits from the first issue, having in this issue fewer lines of dialogue than in the first, only six.

While revisiting well-traveled territory, this issue does answer questions about Asa Naga and about the "Master" Naga refers to at the end of Issue #2. Naga, it turns out, wasn't just a goon, he was an "enforcer." Very impressive, but it still doesn't explain why a lieutenant would be acting as a common goon collecting delinquent gambling debts owed Darnada. And the master turns out to be none other than the master of Black Sun, who isn't. Very impressive, that is. Something else he isn't is Falleen: this fella goes by the name of Master Lex, and is human, to all appearances. He must either be a predecessor of Xizor's, or a predecessor of Guri, the "human replica droid" who served as the "public face" of Black Sun.

It also suggests a resolution of the questions about how Maul will handle the remainder of his mission. Alas, there's no innovation here: It's brute Force and saber-work all the way. Marz and Duursema might yet surprise us with a display of the non-combat skills and sophistication one would expect from a disciple of Darth Sidious in Issue #4, but it now looks very much as if it will be Maul the Saber-Swinger straight through to the end.

Another question presents itself in the course of this installment. Darth Sidious told Maul at the outset that he didn't want Black Sun destroyed; it might be useful in the future. To disrupt it would suffice. But now Maul has been sent to the very top, under orders that the Sith's existence not be revealed, which Maul understands to mean total extermination of his targets, an understanding Darth Sidious does not correct when he has a chance prior to Maul's assault on the Master's fortress. But how can the organization be preserved if its upper echelon has been eradicated? Surely the whole would fall to pieces, Black Sun itself would cease to exist. Yet the Vigos and their associates must die, because they've been informed of Maul's exploits by Asa Naga, and those exploits are more than enough to lead to identification of Maul as a Sith. How can these two objectives, preservation of Black Sun and of Sith secrecy, be achieved? I don't really expect a resolution of this conflict in the final issue, but it's still worth pondering.

The Prospects:

Well, it looks like it will be Fore-Fu Master Maul right down to the end, and it looks as if that end will be another epic blood-letting. But it might not be without its points of interest ... if Master Lex's bodyguard, Mighella, figures in it. Who is this mystery chick? Better yet, what is she? Strange facial markings, deathly pallor, claw-like nails, a katana-like blade and awareness of the Force ... not a Jedi, it would seem; certainly not a Sith; perhaps she's a witch from Dathomir? (I'd say she was a Sith Witch -- she certainly resembles Iain McCaig's Sith Witch concept art -- if Lucas hadn't discarded the idea of female Sith.)

Will we discover the truth about Mighella? Will we indeed get to see Maul go against another Force sensitive opponent? If we do, it might well redeem the final issue of the series. Whatever the answer, it's the last chance for something truly interesting, because -- and of this we can be certain -- the series ends with Issue #4.

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(Dexter's passion for Star Wars, still undiminished nearly a quarter-century later, began in May 1977, when a late-night showing of A New Hope set his young imagination ablaze. An avid action figure collector, he has been known to lurk about local toy shops at ungodly hours, in hopes of beating the competition to the latest wave of Hasbro goodies. When not tracking down the latest resculpt of Darth Maul or Qui-Gon Jinn, he devotes his free time to pondering the most efficient use of his dwindling free storage space. His other passions include his library, and writing.)