Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins – Jester Lavorre

Hmmm.

This is an original comic book about the Mighty Nein of Critical Role. The Mighty Nein was their second campaign which went on for about 3 years.

As the book title indicates, this is a story about Jester Lavorre before she ends up joining the Mighty Nein.

Now, I’ve paid 24 CAD for this book, and I was expecting more than what I got. I will elaborate more later but I am not liking where Critical Role is heading.

First of all, the front cover art is brilliant. CR is releasing origins comic books for all of their main characters, and Jester’s book is the first one to be released. I was planning to get them all, but my experience with this book has altered my plan.

You see, aside from fancy book cover, there isn’t really any substance in this book. In fact, the content is so little that I cannot cover it without spoiling the whole thing. It is about 40 pages and covers a tiny event with Jester.

Granted, the art is nice, and quality wise, it is indeed premium stuff.

CR fans may love it. I am a CR fan as well but I am not a diehard fan enough not to see the bullshit they are pulling over these origins comic books. They are basically milking the fan base with these.
Given such a tiny content, they should have released just one book, containing origins for all characters. Instead, they are releasing things individually while charging premium prices for all of them.

I did say I am not liking where Critical Role is heading. Allow me to explain further.

Ever since their deal with Amazon Prime to animated their first campaign, Vox Machina, they’ve been becoming progressively more corporate-like. They’ve begun focusing clearly more on profits rather than letting fun fly. They’ve killed off fun little programs like Talk Machina, Everything-is-content, and other entertainment shows. Currently, all of their side projects are either dead or on hiatus.

CR also used to do special holiday-themed one-shots as well, but I am not hearing anything like that this year. Right now, they only do their 3rd campaign and that only, nothing else.

I think I know why. There are several reasons.

One, Covid. It has effectively killed off many shows where there are more than two people in close proximity. Yes, there are vaccines but it is still not encouraged. Given that they are already doing the 3rd campaign in close proximity, I think this is a non-issue at this point.

Two, no sponsors. Those side shows were quite entertaining to watch but there have been little to zero sponsors for them. So, why do those when there is no money? Understandable although sad. The old Critical role I used to know did things for fun, not for profit. Yes, they have a company now and need to think about the wallet, but nothing stops them from doing fun stuff once in a while. Regardless, they no longer do fun stuff. They do only sponsored stuff nowadays.

Three, being afraid. As Critical Role is becoming bigger and more mainstream, I believe they are becoming increasingly more afraid of upsetting someone or some entity by doing those side shows. I mean, they were wild. There were sex jokes and worse. Alcohol discussion was common.
CR has always said that their contents are for adults. Even then, kids are going to watch, and their parents might lodge complaints.

All in all, Critical Role I once loved is slowly fading away, I believe. Well, all good things come to an end eventually.

Either way, I am not going to purchase the other books.