'Critical Role Vox Machina: Origins Volume 1' – Matthew Mercer, Matthew Colville, Olivia Samson, Chris Northrop (Dark Horse)


I always felt like I came along too late to get into Critical Role, I'm rubbish at catching up with stuff and there's loads of it to catch up on so as cool as it sounded, I left it. And then 'The Legend of Vox Machina' came along and (I think) I was able to get caught up really quickly, at least for Season 1. I would go on about how much I enjoyed the show but if you haven't read the posts already, you can read the whole lot over Here ;o)

Since then, I've been waiting for word of Season 2 and getting all impatient, as you do ;o) Until some idle searching turned up 'Origins' comic books on Amazon and I was excited all over again. It will be a little longer until I find out 'what happened next' but until then, I get to find out what happened before Season 1. And it's all good, a little confusing but all good.

The band of adventurers known as Vox Machina will save the world. Eventually. But even they have to start somewhere. Six would-be heroes on seemingly different jobs find their paths intertwined as they investigate shady business in the swamp town of Stilben. They'll need to put their heads - and weapons - together to figure out what's going on... and keep from being killed in the process. Even then, whether or not they can overcome what truly lurks at the bottom of the towns travails remains to be seen! Collects Critical Role Vox Machina: Origins comics issues #1-6.

So... A little confusing but cool. It has been one of those weeks so I suspect most of the confusion is on me rather than the book. What I will say is that the way they frame each segment is very cool but only once you get your head round it. It would work better on TV, lets put it that way. Once you get onto the story itself though, things pick up.

Everything has to start somewhere and sometimes, that 'somewhere' isn't what you thought it was going to be. 'Origins Volume 1' keeps things very low key which makes sense I guess. If various characters are just starting out then they're not going to be going straight into some world shattering event. Low level characters need a 'low level quest' to get their teeth into and a spate of deaths, in Stiben, is as good a mystery as any to throw our heroes at. I'm still not 100% sure what the motiviations behind it all were but that's almost besides the point really. The whole thing about keeping the 'quest' fairly low key is that it shifts the focus where it needs to go, namely 'getting the gang together' and watching the sparks fly as this happens.

This isn't the group of adventurers that you'll know from 'The Legend of Vox Machina' (although longer term fans will know what's what I'm sure), there are a few people missing and I like Tiberius but he was new as well. The bond that (eventually) holds them together is the same though; that happy go lucky mix of gold, alcohol, a sprinkling of lechery and somewhere underneath it all, a little admission that sometimes, the right thing is the only thing to do. Sure, there's a hell of a lot of fighting but watching that common bond flicker into life is the real reason we're all here, Mercer and Colville really bring it to life in the best way. Samson and Northrop do more than their fair share of bringing us these moment. Samson in particular really captures that sense of barely controlled chaos that I love this group for. Whether they're fighting or getting drunk, you just know who you're hanging out with and I love that too.

'Origins Volume 1' isn't the story that it looks like it's going to be but then you realise where it's going and you end up wondering how you could have thought it would be anything else. Onto Volume 2 I think...

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