Star Wars: The Last Jedi – DJ: Most Wanted Review

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – DJ: Most Wanted
Writers: Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
Penciler: Kevin Walker
Inker: Mark Deering
Colorist: Java Tartaglia
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Cover Artist: Jeff Dekal
Publisher: Marvel

Review by Cory Webber

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – DJ: Most Wanted (that’s a mouthful!) tells the story of DJ, the code breaker played brilliantly by Benicio del Toro, and the day leading up to him being where we find him in the movie.

DJ: Most Wanted does a great job of giving this mysterious character a solid background in this over-sized issue (31 pages). After seeing the movie, he was one of the characters I wanted more of, and this book delivers at delving deeper into his psyche. Writers Acker and Blacker deftly craft a story that explains how someone so crafty would be locked up in a jail that he can so easily break out of, and the setup to it does not disappoint.

We first meet DJ at a gambling table in a casino in Canto Bight. Right away we are shown what kind of seemingly careless, yet secretly devious, kind of character he is. I don’t want to delve too much into the plot, since it’s a self-contained, one plotline story, as most movie tie-in one-shots tend to be. I really liked this character in the movie, and I couldn’t help but read his dialogue in del Toro’s voice, stutters and all. He is a complex, self-motivated character and I would love to see him get his own series.

The art in this series does enough to keep you interested, but not enough to make you stop and stare. Any medium or long wide shots lose a lot of detail, like blank faces or blank backgrounds. The close up shots were much more detailed. Also, I kind of wanted DJ to more closely resemble his movie counterpart, like the way Poe Dameron looks remarkably close to Oscar Isaac in his comic book. Walker’s pencils were great, similar to his work on Doctor Aphra‘s book. The art helped the story move at a fluid pace, it just seemed a bit rushed in some panels. There are some nice pops of bright neon colors…I just would have expected a little more given the setting.

Verdict:
Buy it! You never know how these movie tie-in issues will be, and I was skeptical at first, but I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know DJ and Canto Bight a little more.