Dropping back into the universe on July 25th is Star Wars: Darth Maul--Death Sentence #1. We sat down with writer Tom Taylor to talk about Darth Maul and what he brings to the Galaxy Far Far Away

Darth Maul never died.

After seeing The Phantom Menace, I felt cheated. I wasn’t alone. One of the single best-looking big bads in the entire Star Wars universe went and got chopped in half, and fell down a hole. A hole! The same thing happened to Boba Fett. Great-looking man of mystery—unceremoniously dumped in a hole.

Now, there’s a cliché in comics and film, and story in general, that people don’t stay dead. But I’ll tell you this: if no one cares about the character, they don’t come back. You don’t see Greedo getting back up from where he slumped in that cantina and starring in his own series. Because, let’s face it, if Greedo did shoot first, then he missed from all of about two feet. You don’t see a lot of people clamoring for more of that kind of thing.

Most average characters do die, and they stay in their literary coffins and decay along with our memories of them.

But there are characters who demand to exist. They’re too important to be confined to history.

Darth Maul is one of these. He never left us. More than ten years after Obi-Wan bisected him, he’s still on posters and toys and T-shirts, screaming, “You can’t forget me—I’m still with you!”

Maul was kept alive by hate and rage and the need for revenge. He was also kept alive by the fans, people like me and hopefully people like you. People who bought the plastic red double lightsaber, went into their backyard at nighttime, and waved that thing around in defiance (and because it looked cool).

Maul is now back. Death and history couldn’t contain him. He’s clawed his way out of the TV series The Clone Wars and into his own adult series. And he’s back alongside his brother, Savage Opress.

In Darth Maul: Death Sentence, illustrated by the brilliant Bruno Redondo, the brothers have cut a murderous path across the galaxy. Along the way, a mining magnate has put a price on their heads after deciding they’re bad for business.

Maul knows there will be no price on their heads if there’s no one left alive to pay it. So, travel to a planet, kill the guy, get on with their carnage. Sounds easy.

And it would be…if it were that simple.

But there’s a strange prophecy, and a group of Jedi, and a massive private security force, and Maul’s army, and Obi-Wan, and an oppressed native population, and a much larger threat rising which could wipe out everything.

Darth Maul never died.

He may have had his legs cut off, but he’s still about to kick ass.