Just before he’s sent on assignment, Darth Sidious presents Darth Maul with the Sith Infiltrator, a state-of-the-art spaceship complete with hyperdrive, cloaking device, and speederbike stored aboard. Maul is sent to cripple the Black Sun criminal organization, which Sidious warns is a powerful and dangerous operation that stands in the way of his larger designs. Maul proposes annihilating its master and nine vigos, but Sidious disagrees, as Black Sun may prove useful in the future.

The word “vigo,” which Darth Sidious uses to describe Black Sun’s lieutenants (issue 1), is incongruous in the Star Wars universe. “Vigo” conjures images of men in suits with guns, not a number of alien species wielding just as many different weapons. Further, Sidious calls Maul his “tool” (issue 1), and that’s exactly what his apprentice is in this story arc—merely a killing tool, presumably so Sidious doesn’t have to get his own hands dirty.

But despite Sidious’s description of Black Sun as dangerous, composed of one master, nine lieutenants, their bodyguards and other soldiers, as well as his express order not to destroy the entire organization, that’s what Maul does. There are, however, a couple of opponents Maul fights that are surprising in a good way, particularly the Black Sun master and his bodyguard.

The most impressive part of the 4-issue series is the artwork. Well, admittedly, Jan Duursema is my favorite Star Wars comic book artist, so no surprise there.