''Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins'' is a

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

series, published by

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...

, based on the American ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' actual play series ''

Critical Role ''Critical Role'' is an American web series in which a group of professional voice actors play ''Dungeons & Dragons''. The show started streaming partway through the cast's first campaign in March 2015. Campaign one ended in October 2017 aft ...

''. The series acts as a

prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term ...

story for ''Critical Role'' second campaign. Each book explores a

backstory A backstory, background story, background, or legend is a set of events invented for a plot, preceding and leading up to that plot. In acting, it is the history of the character before the drama begins, and is created during the actor's prepara ...

before the

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to Theoph ...

s became the adventuring party known as The Mighty Nein. Eight volumes were published between 2021 and 2024. Additionally,

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'', a ...

issues were released for

Free Comic Book Day Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) is an annual promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to attract new readers to independent comic book stores. It usually takes place on the first Saturday of May and has historically been cross ...

in 2021 and 2025.

Premise

Each volume in the ''Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins''

series explores an individual

of a

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional Character (arts), character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters tha ...

from ''Critical Role'' second campaign before they became the adventuring party known as The Mighty Nein. These characters are: Jester Lavorre (created by

Laura Bailey Laura Bailey (born May 28, 1981) is an American voice actress. She made her voice acting debut as Trunks (Dragon Ball), Kid Trunks in the Funimation dub of ''Dragon Ball Z'' and has since voiced List of Gunslinger Girl characters#First Generati ...

), Caleb Widogast (created by

Liam O'Brien Liam Christopher O'Brien (born May 28, 1976) is an American voice actor, writer, and director. He is a regular cast member of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' actual play series '' Critical Role,'' playing Vax'ildan ("Vax"), Caleb Widogast, and Orym. ...

), Yasha Nydoorin (created by

Ashley Johnson Ashley Suzanne Johnson (born 1983) is an American actress. She became known as a child actor for her role as Chrissy Seaver on the sitcom ''Growing Pains'' (1990–1992). As an adult, her television roles include Amber Ahmed on '' The Killing' ...

), Nott the Brave (created by

Sam Riegel Samuel Brent Oscar Riegel (born October 9, 1976) is an American voice actor. He is best known for his voice roles as Donatello (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Donatello in the 2003 ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 TV series), Teenage Mutant ...

), Mollymauk Tealeaf (created by

Taliesin Jaffe Taliesin Jaffe ( ) is an American voice actor, voice director, and screenwriter. He has worked on English-dubbing roles for anime and video games. He is a cast member on ''Critical Role'', a web series in which he plays ''Dungeons & Dragons'' wit ...

), Beauregard Lionett (created by

Marisha Ray Marisha Ray Huber is an American voice actress, host, producer, and creative director. She is best known for portraying herself and characters Keyleth, Beauregard, and Laudna on the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' web series ''Critical Role''. Her video ...

), Fjord Stone (created by

Travis Willingham Travis Willingham is an American voice actor known for his character portrayals in video games and English anime Dubbing, dubs. His notable roles include Roy Mustang in the ''Fullmetal Alchemist'' franchise, Cleo in ''Glass Fleet'', Ginko in ''L ...

) and Caduceus Clay (created by Jaffe).

Publication history

Creative origins

''Critical Role'' began as a private ''

'' game with

Matthew Mercer Matthew Christopher Miller, known professionally as Matthew Mercer or Matt Mercer, is an American voice actor, game designer and gamemaster. He has been an active voice-over artist in video games and animation since 2002. Notable animation cre ...

as the Dungeon Master and creator of the

Exandria The flexibility of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') game rules means that Dungeon Masters (DM) are free to create their own fantasy campaign settings. For those who wanted a pre-packaged setting in which to play, TSR, Inc., TSR, Wizards of ...

setting. Each cast member created their own character to play in the campaign. In 2015,

Geek & Sundry Geek & Sundry, Inc. is a commercial YouTube and Twitch (service), Twitch channel and multimedia production company. It was launched on April 2, 2012, by actress Felicia Day with Kim Evey and Sheri Bryant as part of YouTube's YouTube Original Chan ...

moved "the group's existing home game into its studio" as a weekly web series; the first campaign focused on the story of

Vox Machina The first campaign of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' web series ''Critical Role'' premiered on March 12, 2015; it consisted of 115 episodes and concluded on October 12, 2017. It followed Vox Machina, a party of seven to eight adventurers, in th ...

. ''Critical Role'' started their second campaign, with new characters, in 2018; this campaign focused on The Mighty Nein adventuring party.

2020–present

In November 2020, Critical Role announced that a graphic novel series exploring the backstories of The Mighty Nein main characters would be published by

. Each book has a different creative team and was released as a

hardcover A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as casebound (At p. 247.)) book is one bookbinding, bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other clo ...

. ''Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins – Home'' was released in August 2021 for

. In December 2021, Dark Horse announced that many of the titles in the series would have a delayed release date due to a mixture of circumstances. An

omnibus Omnibus may refer to: Film and television * ''Omnibus'' (film), a 1992 French short comedy film * Omnibus (broadcast), a compilation of Radio or TV episodes * ''Omnibus'' (British TV programme), an arts-based documentary programme * ''Omnibu ...

– titled ''Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins Library Edition Volume 1'' – collecting the Jester Lavorre, Caleb Widogast, Yasha Nydoorin, and Nott the Brave stories was released in October 2023. The second library edition volume, collecting the Mollymauk Tealeaf, Beauregard Lionett, Fjord Stone and Caduceus Clay stories, was released in December 2024. ''Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins – Acquired Taste'' was released in May 2025 for Free Comic Book Day; the issue focuses on Beau and Caleb in Bassuras waiting to meet a contact at a

dinner theater Dinner theater (sometimes called dinner and a show) is a form of entertainment that combines a restaurant meal with a staged play or musical. In the case of a theatrical performance, sometimes the play is incidental entertainment, secondary to th ...

show themed around Vox Machina. A boxed set collecting the eight hardcover volumes is scheduled to be released in November 2025. ''The Mighty Nein Origins'' is also scheduled to be adapted for the digital vertical scroll format on

Webtoon Webtoons () are a type of episodic digital comics that originated in South Korea usually meant to be read on smartphones A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allo ...

Reception

In ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

's'' "Best-selling Books Week Ending February 18, 2022", ''Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins–Caleb Widogast'' was 14th in "Hardcover Frontline Fiction". In ''USA Today'''s "Top 150 Weekly Best Sellers", ''Caleb Widogast'' debuted at #144 on February 17, 2022. Brian Hibbs, in '' The Beat'''s analysis of 2022 comics sales, highlighted that ''Caleb Widogast'' was one of eight Dark Horse titles in the "Top 750" and that it was Dark Horse's 4th best selling title with 15,000 copies sold. In ''Publishers Weekly's'' "Best-selling Books Week Ending February 10, 2023", ''Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins–Nott the Brave'' was 18th in "Hardcover Frontline Fiction".

Colorist In comics, a colorist is responsible for adding color to black-and-white line art. For most of the 20th century this was done using brushes and dyes which were then used as guides to produce the printing plates. Since the late 20th century it is ...

Diana Sousa was nominated for the 2023

Eisner Award The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are awards for creative achievement in American comic books. They are regarded as the most prestigious and significant awards in the comic industry and often referred ...

in " Best Coloring" for her work on ''Critical Role: Vox Machina Origins'', ''The Mighty Nein Origins: Yasha Nydoorin'', ''The Mighty Nein Origins: Fjord Stone'', and ''The Mighty Nein Origins: Caleb Widogast''. Corey Patterson of '' CBR'' opined that the "success" of ''Critical Role'' comic series '' Vox Machina Origins'' and ''The Mighty Nein Origins'' "highlights why the comic book medium may be the best way to tell ''Critical Role'' stories" and "it could be argued that comic book illustrations are better at unpacking ''Critical Role'' immersive world, especially when it comes to the campaign events retold in ''The Mighty Nein Origins''". Patterson noted that unlike the ''Vox Machina Origins'' series, ''The Mighty Nein Origins'' "series specifically structures each volume around a specific character from the party". He commented that the latter series "does a brilliant job of homing in on each party member's backstory and unique experiences" as each volume "pinpoints the stages that created their characters and eventually led to them crossing paths with the adventuring party".

Books

Collected editions

References

{{Dungeons & Dragons franchise media 2021 graphic novels 2022 graphic novels 2023 graphic novels 2024 graphic novels Critical Role Dark Horse Comics titles Fantasy comics Works based on Dungeons & Dragons