Darth Maul Just Officially Matched Darth Vader's Most Unbelievable Feat

Summary Darth Maul's latest adventure showcases his decisive actions against a powerful cult, displaying his strength and survival skills.

The comparison between Darth Maul and Darth Vader is further reinforced through their remarkable feats of survival after falling from orbit.

Both Sith Lords, Darth Maul and Darth Vader, demonstrate their mastery of the Force in surviving seemingly fatal situations, solidifying their iconic status in the Star Wars universe.

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Star Wars: Darth Maul - Black, White & Red #1! Ever since making his Star Wars debut in The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul has been compared to Darth Vader - and for good reason. Maul was revealed to be the apprentice of Palpatine (the only apprentice fans knew of before Vader at that time), he had an upgraded dual-bladed lightsaber, and his character design was utterly badass. Darth Maul was the coolest thing since Darth Vader in Star Wars, and his latest adventure further closes the gap between them in more ways than just fan reception.

In Star Wars: Darth Maul - Black, White & Red #1 by Benjamin Percy and Stefano Raffaele (which takes place before the events of The Phantom Menace), Darth Sidious sends Darth Maul on a mission to intercept a vessel carrying three inmates to a prison planet. These prisoners are the leaders of a Star Wars cult called the Final Occultation, and Palpatine is interested in them due to the otherworldly power that they possess - and that he wants for himself.

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When Darth Maul sees these horrific powers for himself once aboard the transport vessel, he realizes no one in the galaxy should have access to such cosmic madness. The Final Occultation was pulling energy from another dimension called the Netherworld, effectively wielding the Anti-Force that acted as the perfect opposite to the Force: Anti-Force was ‘chaos’ to the Force’s ‘order’. So, rather than bring these cultists to Sidious, he crash-landed the entire ship onto a barren ice planet, seemingly killing them all.

Darth Maul defeating the Final Occultation single-handedly was impressive, but his comparison to Darth Vader lies with how he survived the crash-landing.

Related Darth Maul's Lore Has Officially Changed, Giving Him The Perfect Second Origin as a Sith The introduction of Darth Maul is one of the most significant moments in Star Wars lore, and now, his origin has been given even deeper meaning.

Darth Maul Survived a Fall from Orbit in a Manner Nearly Identical to Darth Vader

Star Wars: Darth Vader #17 by Greg Pak and Raffaele Ienco

When Darth Vader found himself in conflict with the Hutt Clan after using them to get to Luke, he murdered one of the Hutts for daring to challenge him. Vader was aboard a spaceship at the time, which was orbiting a nearby planet. Moments before the Hutt died, he initiated the ship’s self-destruct sequence. The vessel explodes in outer space with Vader still inside, the rubble crashing down onto the planet below. This would be fatal for nearly anyone else in the galaxy, Force-wielder or otherwise, but not for Vader.

Darth Vader used the Force to wrap himself in a sphere of metal as he burned through orbit on his descent toward the planet’s surface. Vader crashed into mountains, rolled down hills, and eventually came to a screeching halt in a relatively safe clearing. He then cut himself out of the metal sphere with his red lightsaber, revealing that he was totally unharmed by a fall that should have killed him.

Darth Maul’s Descent from Space was Arguably More Impressive Than Darth Vader’s

While Darth Vader using the Force to craft a containment for safety was ingenious, it wasn’t as impressive as Darth Maul’s descent. Maul didn’t wrap himself in metal to survive the impact of his fall from orbit. Instead, Maul used the Force to soften his landing, nothing more. Granted, Maul was closer to the surface than Vader when he jumped, but when considering a fall from the exosphere, both falls should have been equally fatal, and the fact that Maul’s wasn’t - even without the protection of a metal shell - arguably makes his feat more impressive than Vader’s.

Though the nature of how they survived their respective falls from space is a bit different (with Maul’s perhaps being on the more impressive end of that particular spectrum), the important thing is the simple fact that both Darth Vader and Darth Maul survived. In other words, all that time comparing Darth Maul to Darth Vader back when Maul was first introduced in Star Wars just got an all-new payoff, as Darth Maul just officially matched Darth Vader’s most unbelievable feat.

Star Wars: Darth Maul - Black, White & Red #1 by Marvel Comics is available now.