Critical Role – Vox Machina

Critical Role – Vox Machina: Origins by Matthew Mercer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As much as I love the idea of Dungeons and Dragons, I have never watched an episode of Critical Role before. It was just such a daunting prospect to undertake, hundreds of hours of storytelling, drama, and video to commit yourself to, unlike Titansgrave (which I watched and loved.) When I saw this graphic novel on Hoopla, I immediately checked it out. The art and story were so engaging that I fell in love and it reignited my desire to watch Critical Role.

Since I’ve never watched the show before, I can say that this is an incredibly appealing graphic novel that will engage readers that are both familiar with Critical Role’s storyline and those that have never even seen Dungeons and Dragons being played (or played themselves.) The art was incredibly well done and fit the characters, which helped to bring the story to life.

The plot might be a little confusing at first, since there are a number of different groups entering the story at the same time – meant to help with explaining the main characters’ backstories. Eventually they fall away and we are left with the core group (give or take a character), so their tales are easier to follow. If you’ve watched Vox Machina, then I suspect it will be familiar to you. I still fell in love with the characters, especially the druid (which inspired me to create my own druid for the one shot campaign I hosted at my library).

I honestly loved this and could not wait to read the second one in the series. Art – amazing. Storyline – interesting. Characters – hilarious. Overall – must read.

View all my reviews