Wingbearer by Marjorie Liu

Rating at a Glance

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I came across this book while browsing the ARC shelves after work one day- usually I just sort of skim over the YA section out of curiosity more than interest, but when I noticed Marjorie Liu’s name I might have screamed a little in excitement. Everything I’ve read by her (Monstress volumes 1-5 and her short stories) is beautiful and poignant, so of course I jumped at the chance to read this!

It’s very much a work in progress (especially the art), but I’m already invested in this story and it’s characters, and I can’t wait to pick it up again once the book is complete! I laughed, I cried, I got excited for the story and where it’s going, and it even presented some fun twists and turns along the way!

Comic Review: Critical Role: Vox Machina, Origins

 

Story: Matthew Colville & Matthew Mercer
Script: Matthew Colville
Art: Olivia Samson
Layout: Chris Kawagawa
Colors & Lettering: Chris Northrop
Color Assistants: Travis Ames & Cassie Anderson

Nnnngh…

I loved it.

If you’ve been paying attention, you probably caught me mentioning Dungeons and Dragons and/or Critical Role. I was a huge fan of the original campaign, so when I heard there would be a (beautiful) graphic novel released that recounts the original adventures of the group that will become Vox Machina, I was thrilled.

A quick (or maybe not) overview for those who somehow missed me talking about it, or someone else talking about, or those huge billboards that were up in Los Angeles (maybe still up) and it’s a strange world we live in when “a bunch of nerdy ass voice actors” live streaming their D&D campaign gets advertised like that. Umm… what was I talking about? Oh, right, Critical Role is Matthew Mercer, Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Sam Riegel, Travis Willingham, Liam O’ Brian , Marisha Ray, and Ashley Johnson. Matthew is their Dungeon Master, and he’s that particular brand of unassuming evil that only nonthreatening, finely boned people can pull off. It’s all fun and games until it’s not, then you’re failing your saving throws and your life is over. The rest of them are (respectively) a ranger, gunslinger, bard, barbarian, rogue, druid and paladin. You might not think you know the above list of names, but just click through and you may very well be surprised. Liam even does commercials for cat food and he’s Illidan Stormrage in World of Warcraft (You know, “You are not prepared! I’ve got Gul’dan’s skull! Why did you come here anyway?”)

Oooops, getting distracted.

Much of the early campaign took place off camera, so we missed out on how this group of strange, poorly adjusted, angst-ridden adventurers met, which is a shame because Vax was even more stabby back then.

And you thought that wasn’t possible…