X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back Miniseries Comic Book Review

Comic book reviews for Marvel Comics’ X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #1, X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #2, X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #3, and X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #4 by Kathryn Immonen

X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #1 by Kathryn Immonen

I’ve been so looking forward to this miniseries, and Immonen and Pichelli don’t disappoint. I love that while clearly Pixie and company under some spell against their will, essentially the “normal” high school experience is what so many of the young mutants really want in their lives.

There’s a lot of interesting set-up for the mystery of what’s going on. Blindfold being able to contact the girls is certainly interesting. As is Rockslide and Anole trying to find them.

Pixie’s background is going to get a lot more interesting. Will this mean she’s not really a mutant? Or will she be like Nightcrawler — half “demon” and half mutant? Her mother definitely seems to be someone not to trifled with. Nightcrawler and Psylocke better watch out.

Also, this might be Pixie’s siblings who pulled her into this underworld.

X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #2 by Kathryn Immonen

First, I love this cover. The high school graphic flier feel of it works so well. With the amateur bold drop-shadows under the letter of the flier in sharp contrast to the more professional ones under the title. Both Pixie and the demon look perfectly high school excited to be there. But what puts the touch on the flier and bring the cover together is the water stain on the right side. Perfect.

Overall, I didn’t think the writing was as tight on this issue. I know there was a lot of set-up for the next issue so there’d be some mystery elements. What I think I found the most jarring was the transitions between the flashbacks to Pixie and her posse arriving, their current situation, Anole and Rockslide alerting Emma, and Pixie’s mother.

Immonen probably writes my favorite Emma Frost out of everyone who’s currently writing her. Emma does have better concerns than teenagers/young adults who’ve only been missing for a couple hours, and how she immediately ignores the children in order to listen to Nightcrawler’s report is brilliant. (Drama queen comment for the win.) Also Emma so does not approve of messy, gross dorms. The White Queen does not live in squalor. But deep down, she is actually worried and does care about them. I think it was perfect to have Anole and Rockslide a little scared of her. What I don’t understand is why Emma didn’t just read Blindfold’s mind. Maybe she can’t given Blindfold’s precognitive abilities or it wouldn’t make any more sense.

I love Pixie being drawn in by the promise of a free Dazzler concert. However, given she’s made friends with Dazzler and played on stage with her in Uncanny X-Men, I’m not sure why Pixie wasn’t more suspicious of the invite. This seems like the story should be set way back when the X-Men first came to San Fransisco, not currently when they’ve just moved to Utopia.

In the prom hallucination, I loved that Pixie started altering the false-reality the demons created for her. Her earlier comment about never using her dust on herself before worked nicely into this. One of things I love about Pixie as a character is her positive body image. It comes shining through when she starts, albeit meanly, accusing Cessily (Mercury), Hisako (Armor), and Laura (X-23) of not showing their true faces.

X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #3 by Kathryn Immonen

I rather love all the strong women in Pixie’s life coming to save her. Or at least trying.

Pixie’s mother is awesome. I love her being bored with (her step-daughters?) Regan and Martinique Wyngarde and their illusions. “Oh look. Space! And yet somehow I’m still breathing.” is a great line. (She’s “transported” into space during an illusion.)

I really hope that Mercury, Armor, and X-23 rejoin the battle and are instrumental into rescuing Pixie. Seems like since they came with her and are her best friends, they need to be there too. Plus, they need to forgive her.

Immonen also does a wonderful job at working in Pixie’s personality and history into her hallucinations. Just great.

I’m really a convert to Pichelli’s art. I wasn’t sure I liked it at first. But it’s really grown on me, especially in a book about young adults. Though I do appreciate her depictions of both Emma Frost and Pixie’s mother.

X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #4 by Kathryn Immonen

I felt this was a rather apt ending to the story. Well thought out and well played, giving up more history on Pixie’s background.

The one part was disappointed in was Pichelli’s art. I really love her art. However, on this last issue, I felt she was rushed to finish, and the art didn’t get the detail the other issues had. What did really stand out in this issue — perhaps because it was all taking place outside verses underground — was Christina Strain’s coloring. In particular, I loved the sparkle of Pixie’s hair.

While the X-Men take out a good percentage of Saturnine’s demon army, it is really Pixie who ends of saving herself. She does get out of the spell of her own dust. (And hopefully, other X-Men writers will see this is Pixie learning a lesson about her powers and not have her trapped in her own dust again.) Pixie also learns some of the faerie craft of her mother’s. She causes Saturnine to stab himself — thinking he’s now master of the soulsword — and thus ends the battle.

I thought the entire ending, post-Saturnine’s death, was perfect. Meghan’s scene with Emma was touching, but still rang true to both characters. I liked that it was Emma’s forgiveness and Emma bringing the X-Men to save Pixie which brought tears to Pixie’s eyes. I also loved Pixie’s scene with her mother and the reveal that her actual father is Mastermind. Which conveniently still makes Pixie part mutant. Her mother definitely thinks Pixie’s better off in the human world and better off with the X-Men. And I love Pixie assuming her mother came to take her back to the Faerie world. But instead her mother leaves and Pixie must deal with learning that her parents aren’t perfect. A lesson that usually marks the end of childhood.

This was a great mini-series about messing up, growing up, and becoming an adult.