A new character from the Star Wars: Crimson Reign comic series was inspired by early Darth Maul concept art, and they’re terrifying.
Warning: The following contains spoilers from the opening of Star Wars: Crimson Reign #1, which is set to go on sale from Marvel Comics on December 1.
The cinematic side of Star Wars is at a crossroads after the news of Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron move being indefinitely postponed. However, the various Star Wars comics are suffering no such inconvenience, and have a clear course in mind. Marvel’s highly regarded Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters crossover has just concluded, and it leads directly into a brand-new miniseries called Crimson Reign (by Charles Soule and Steven Cummings).
War of the Bounty Hunters showed that the leader of Crimson Dawn, Qi’ra, wants to destroy the Empire, and has specifically targeted both Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, the Sith overlords ruling the galaxy. In Crimson Reign Qi’ra’s organization rallies their many secret allies against the Empire. One of Crimson Dawn’s operatives is a mysterious character who strongly resembles early versions of the well-known Sith warrior Darth Maul, who is called the Archivist.
War of the Bounty Hunters was set directly after the events of The Empire Strikes Back and follows Boba Fett on his tumultuous journey to deliver the carbonite frozen body of Han Solo to the Palace of Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine. Helmed by Qi’ra – Solo’s former lover and Darth Maul’s former protégé – the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn made its resurgence and stole the body, inciting chaos in the process as bounty hunters from across the galaxy battled for possession of the highly-valued smuggler before Fett eventually stole Solo back and completed his delivery.
Throughout the series, many were revealed to be secretly allied with Crimson Dawn. Bokku the Hutt and Ochi of Bestoon were two big-name players who betrayed their allies to follow Qi’ra, but they were only the beginning. The opening pages of Crimson Reign showed Qi’ra gathering her followers who now also include the Knights of Ren, Chanath Cha and the Orphans, Deathstick, Margo and Trinia. The leader of Crimson Dawn explained to her followers that the Sith were bad for the power structure of the galaxy and expressed their united purpose of overthrowing Sidious and the Empire.
The most interesting character introduced in the preview is a Force-sensitive character called the Archivist. She was present during Qi’ra’s speech, but as a narrative framing device, the Archivist is recounting the events of Crimson Reign from the holocron where she recorded the events that she experienced. Other than her nickname, nothing is known about her other than her sensitivity to the Force and her radical belief that there is no difference between the light and dark sides of the Force.
The Archivist’s design appears to be inspired by Iain McCaig’s early concept art for Darth Maul. The colors are different, but the hair-like tendrils clearly echo the early design. It’s an intriguing connection given Maul’s history with Crimson Dawn and his being discarded as the apprentice of Darth Sidious. How the Archivist will be involved in Crimson Reign is anybody’s guess, but she could turn out to be a very interesting character, given her design and her affinity to both the light and dark sides of the Force.
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