DJ: Most Wanted #1 Review

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Since The Last Jedi debuted this past December, many fans have clamored for more details about the mysterious slicer. Marvel delivered DJ: Most Wanted, a story that says precious little new about DJ, but in doing so, tells readers quite a bit.

This review includes plot points from DJ: Most Wanted #1.

DJ: Most Wanted #1

Writers: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker | Penciler: Kevin Walker | Inker: Marc Deering | Colorist: Java Tartagalia | Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles | Cover: Jeff Dekal | Assistant Editor: Heather Antos | Editor: Jordan D. White

One of the most enigmatic characters in Star Wars debuted in The Last Jedi. Rose and Finn discovered DJ in a jail cell in the luxury casino city of Canto Bight. A slicer with extraordinary skills, DJ assisted Finn and Rose in getting aboard Supreme Leader Snoke’s flagship, the Supremacy, before ultimately betraying them. Since The Last Jedi debuted this past December, many fans have clamored for more details about the mysterious slicer. Marvel delivered DJ: Most Wanted, a story that says precious little new about DJ, but in doing so, tells readers quite a bit.

A Vindictive Droid and a Trail of Heists

DJ, the secretive slicer, is living it up in his own fashion on Canto Bight. However, clues in a couple of thefts lead the authorities to DJ while in search of a known associate name Denel Strench. However, that is a false identity DJ constructed some time in the past, and he is at a loss to figure out how it surfaced in recent matters. Regardless, the emergence of the link to Denel Strench has criminal types, casino bosses, and the authorities looking to DJ for answers. In the end, DJ finds the best protection in the custody of the authorities. At it turns out, a vindictive droid became infected by the Denel Strench file DJ created to aid his slicing activities and got DJ into hot water. By the end of the issue, DJ is looking for an out as Rose and Finn’s shuttle from The Last Jedi approaches Canto Bight.

DJ the Rogue

It would have been easy for Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, the writers of the other Marvel The Last Jedi tie-in comic, The Storms of Crait, to make DJ a rogue with a heart of gold. However, but doing so would make DJ just another version of Han Solo. Instead, DJ sticks to his guns. There is no light side or dark side in slicing. There is just one side. Your own, and DJ is loyal to his own side. Why? DJ has no faith in anyone. He sees the sinner in everyone, including the “saint” that had her credits stolen at the beginning of the issue. Therefore, he has no qualms about stealing from anyone should the need arise. Furthermore, he woudn’t blame you if you stole from him. He ends the issue remarking that he only “burn[s] the terrible people. ‘Course, there ain’t any other kind. Nobody’s a saint…Closest you got is me. At least I’m honest. Except when I’m lying.” It is a spectacular conclusion to this issue.

DJ offered very little about his past in this issue, and whatever he did offer, it can’t be counted on. Acker and Blacker even tease DJ’s true identity. He notes that this entire situation is impossible because he created Strench, and he currently isn’t using that identity. He notes Strench was an anagram of his real name. And just when readers might get excited about a clue as to DJ’s identity, and Star Wars fans do love to speculate about such things, he pulls it all back by saying, “or no, not an anagram. What’s the thing where I made up the name and identity entirely?” But, before you can write off Denel Strench as a clue entirely, he pulls back again by remarking “it’s one of those.”

Canto Bight

DJ: Most Wanted #1 shines a brighter light on the city of Canto Bight. Although Rose did quite well in describing the “lousy, beautiful city” in The Last Jedi, it was DJ that truly exposed its seedy underbelly. Once he and BB-8 stole a weapon dealer’s ship, DJ exposed Finn to the truth. This weapon dealer not only supplied the First Order, but he sold to the Resistance as well. Naturally, for DJ, this was the proof of the sins committed by the saints (the Resistance). In addition, it demonstrated just how much the war itself contributed to the very misery the Resistance was fighting.

This issue magnified the grime hidden under the shiny veneer of the bright lights and glamor of wealth. The city is run by the casinos, and the casinos in turn are influenced by organized crime. It isn’t too difficult to imagine replacing the aliens with Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Robert De Niro for a Godfather or Casino style story. Obi-Wan might have warned that Mos Eisley was the most wretched hive of scum and villainy in the galaxy, but that is only because Canto Bight camouflages their criminal element behind high stakes gambling and decadent entertainment.

Concluding Thoughts on DJ: Most Wanted #1

DJ: Most Wanted #1 is an incredible supplement to The Last Jedi. In the movie, the audience largely must take Rose’s word for it that the planet and its patrons are corrupt. Beyond the fathiers and their handlers, this precious little else describing the depraved decadence of the planet and the corrupt beings it attracts. In fact, from a distance, the Canto Bight really looks a lot like Las Vegas with little to suggest its active night life and decadent lifestyle are fueled by anything seedy.

Enter DJ: Most Wanted #1. In about thirty pages, Acker and Blacker expose the criminal element and dark side of the gambling world of Star Wars. Furthermore, in a quick line at the end of the issue, DJ exposes the dark side of the saints of the galaxy. DJ: Most Wanted #1 presents a missed opportunity for The Last Jedi in creating an underworld establishment and spaceport that rivaled Mos Eisley. Maz Kanata’s palace was far too respectable a place in The Force Awakens and only truly rivaled the cantina due to the diversity of aliens. DJ: Most Wanted #1 is exactly the type of comic Star Wars needs right new and offers a breath of fresh desert air to the galaxy from a long time ago, far, far away.