A Brief Guide to Canon Maul Comics

Looking for some light reading in between episodes of Maul - Shadow Lord? We've got you covered! Here is your Maul reading list full of appropriately dark stories, with some relevance and thematic parallels to his brand new show.

Maul: Son of Dathomir

Long known as some absolutely essential Maul reading, Son of Dathomir is one of the oldest comics in Star Wars canon. Adapting unused scripts from The Clone Wars, Son of Dathomir bridges the gap between Maul's capture at the hands of Darth Sidious in season 5 to his rule of Mandalore in season 7. It gives some great background for Maul's revenge quest in Shadow Lord against the criminal syndicates he once controlled, and introduced us to his right hand in Shadow Lord, Rook Kast. It's a pretty short read with only four issues and well worth it, especially if you're a lover of The Clone Wars and want something that captures the feeling of watching that show.

Darth Maul (2017)

Darth Maul (2017) is series that, despite focusing on entirely unrelated characters (aside from Maul, of course) to the show, feels surprisingly relevant to Shadow Lord. Despite taking place prior to The Phantom Menace and Maul's eventual creation of the Shadow Collective, we do get to see him navigate the criminal underworld with some early familiarity. I think this run might be my favorite of Maul's comic series so I don't want to give too much away about it, but I will say readers of this comic may find some intriguing parallels to one aspect of his story in the show so far...

Darth Maul: Black, White and Red

One of Maul's most recent appearances (before the show, of course) is Darth Maul: Black, White and Red. Featuring gorgeous, stylized art with (as the title suggests) only the colors black, white and red, this series is a collection of pre-The Phantom Menace stories about Maul, granting us a lot of insight into his apprenticeship under Palpatine. This is one of those stories that gets a little weird and fun with the Force, and is better for it. I find it to be pretty similar in tone to Maul - Shadow Lord, really selling exactly how terrifying an encounter with Maul can be.

Shadow of Maul

And of course, we have Maul - Shadow Lord's very on tie-in comic: Shadow of Maul. Shadow of Maul is a currently ongoing series, with four issues set to release and two of them already out now. While not as solely Maul-focused as the rest of the comics here, the prequel to the show gives us more insight into characters like Brander Lawson and the seedy world of Janix. If you wanted to know more about the backdrop and some of the longstanding criminal beef between characters that the show hints at, you will find it here!

What do you think of Maul - Shadow Lord? Have you read any of these comics? Let us know here or on social media!