The mysterious slicer from Star Wars: The Last Jedi has got his own comic, and now Star Wars fans will have a chance to learn about the character played by Benicio Del Toro.
Fans know that the galaxy is in trouble, falling apart at the seams, and only a small band of rebels are challenging the First Order. The rich ignore the plight and indulge on Canto Bight. With this setup, in walks DJ to challenge the rich and do it with so little care for anyone.
In Star Wars: The Last Jedi-DJ: Most Wanted #1 the main character, DJ, spends most of the time preaching about the actions of others. DJ is not innocent and steals from who he deems to be worthy of stealing from. He doesn’t care because DJ knows that there is no good in the galaxy. Death merchants, gangsters, and even the police are only out for themselves
DJ is playing all sides, and after crossing gangsters, the police, and two casino bosses, he finds refuge in the police station, where we see the comic end with Finn and Rose’s ship arriving, connecting this comic with Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
My Opinion
The DJ character would be forgettable were it not for Del Toro playing the part in the movie. After seeing the movie twice, I never cared to learn more about the character. I was interested in learning the backstory to the planet Crait, and Star Wars: The Storms of Crait #1 gave me a great story.
DJ is the jaded unhappy person who only sees the bad, and rather than trying to do something productive, he only cares about himself and justifies his actions because the galaxy is such a bad place. Throughout the comic, we constantly see DJ’s thinking and are reminded that no one is to be trusted and that DJ is the only genuine person in the galaxy.
The problem that I have with DJ is that he doesn’t do anything with his skills. Sure, he steals from crooks, but he blows all his money at the casino, which is run by bad people, so why would DJ spend his stolen gains, which he has taken from awful people, and end up giving it to other bad people?
Why should I care about this guy? He’s so morose, and grey in his galactic view, that given the opportunity, I would almost want to endure Jar Jar Binks, then listen to the Debbie Downer, that DJ appears to be. Then I started thinking about why issue 1 of this comic would start this way, and I have a few theories.
Writers Ben Blacker and Ben Acker, have captured the setting of the present Star Wars universe with the detail in the text, but they are also giving us an outsider’s perspective as to how the First Order could rise to power, and send the rebels on the run. DJ sees no light or darkness in the galaxy, because to him, those that can make a buck off the situation do, and don’t care how. Why should he care, because to DJ no one really does?
This is where the craftiness of the writers has come in. I don’t like the character, and would never have thought DJ would have got his own comic line, but now after reading issue 1, I’m going to read more because I want to know his story. Being a huge Star Wars fan, except for the Christmas Special and Jar Jar Binks, I’ve never been let down. I am intrigued to see the development of DJ and learn his backstory.
We get Luke, Leia, Rey, Finn, and Poe’s story in the movies, but DJ is representative of everyone else. This is what Star Wars fans must accept. Sometimes the answers are found not on the silver screen but the pages of a comic.
Congrats to writers Acker and Blacker. Your well-written story has made me want to know more about DJ, and I didn’t feel that way when I started the comic.