Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Darth Maul: Black, White, and Red #2

Darth Maul’s new “Sith Meditation” scene flips his iconic Star Wars duel in The Phantom Menace. As seen in Marvel’s Darth Maul: Black, White, and Red anthology series, the newly released second issue depicts a brutal mission before the events of the Skywalker saga when Maul was still training and apprenticed under Darth Sidious. To that end, Darth Maul takes a moment at the issue’s start to center himself within the dark side of the Force.

As seen in Darth Maul: Black, White and Red #2 by Mark Russell and Carlos Nieto, the titular Dark Lord of the Sith has been tasked by his master to take control of the remote Moonbender Colony, a remote settlement on the outskirts of Republic space protected by a group of former bounty hunters and mercenaries known as the Remainders. To that end, the beginning of the issue sees Maul sitting down and meditating on the dark side’s power before unleashing his brutal skills on Moonbender.

Once the Remainders choose to fight this strange outside sitting at the doors of their fortress-like facility, Maul’s Sith mediation comes to a dark end as the Sith apprentice prepares to bring every one of these fighters to their deaths.

Darth Maul’s Mediation Was The Opposite Of Qui-Gon’s

Sith Meditation Builds Rage And Hate, Increasing Power In The Dark Side

In The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn takes advantage of the brief delay during his and Obi-Wan’s duel with Darth Maul to meditate. This was due to the Jedi Master and Sith apprentice being temporarily separated by an energy force field. Kneeling and closing his eyes, Qui-Gon centered himself on the light side of the Force, seeking to restore his fatigue and gain greater focus while Maul simply stalked back and forth, impatiently waiting for the field to drop so the duel could continue.

Conversely, this new issue shows that Maul was indeed trained in the far darker art of Sith meditation. Drawing upon the darkest of emotions such as hatred, fear, and/or anger, a Sith Lord can focus that energy into a greater source of focused power in the dark side. They become stronger and far more ruthless, rather than finding peace and restoration as seen with Jedi meditation. As such, the same is true with Maul unleashing all his rage and fury in this new issue the moment his dark meditation is interrupted by the Remainders and their horrible decision to stay on Moonbender and fight him.

Darth Maul Unleashed Pure Fury On Moonbender Colony

A Sith Trial Designed By His Master, Darth Sidious

Despite being outgunned and outmanned, Maul systemically executes each member of the Remainders as he works his way through the facility, beginning with a magnetically sealed tunnel the Remainders hoped would have ended the Sith Lord following repeated waves of ricocheting blaster fire. Instead, Maul’s power was on full display, cutting down all of his opponents before learning that this entire mission was a Sith trial designed by his master to test Maul’s skills against a variety of different combatants. Regardless, it’s impressive to see Darth Maul meditating through the power of the dark side, a Sith technique rarely seen in the canonical galaxy far, far away.