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X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #1-4
X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back
When Pixie's mother shows up on Utopia demanding to see her daughter, readers learn of Pixie's family history and the identity of her father--one of the most dangerous X-Villains ever! Original.
122 pages, Paperback
First published July 27, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
May 17, 2012
I'll be honest, I'm a fan of the classic X-Men, so I know very little about the new class of mutants. The whole reason I picked up this volume is because 1) I'm interested in seeing how female characters are written in comics and graphic novels, 2) I'm always game for reading comics and graphic novels that heavily feature female protagonists, and 3) Pixie's real name is the same as mine, and you don't see a lot of Megans in comics.
As an introduction to Pixie, this four comic anthology may not have been the place to start. Although you learn a bit about her backstory, including the fact that her real father is a classic, well-known mutant, the story itself is so incoherent at times that I found myself stopping every so often to make sure I understood what I was reading. While that incoherence does have it's point in the overall plot, it was poorly executed. Regardless, as someone who collects comics and graphic novels, I am glad to have this on my shelf, if not just for the fact that it brings variety to the standard X-Men fare that we're all used to (i.e. the Wolverine, Storm, Jean Grey, etc. show). I'd recommend X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back to other comic completionists, as well as to people who may be looking for a fun and quick read for their comic-obsessed daughter (or son).
As an introduction to Pixie, this four comic anthology may not have been the place to start. Although you learn a bit about her backstory, including the fact that her real father is a classic, well-known mutant, the story itself is so incoherent at times that I found myself stopping every so often to make sure I understood what I was reading. While that incoherence does have it's point in the overall plot, it was poorly executed. Regardless, as someone who collects comics and graphic novels, I am glad to have this on my shelf, if not just for the fact that it brings variety to the standard X-Men fare that we're all used to (i.e. the Wolverine, Storm, Jean Grey, etc. show). I'd recommend X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back to other comic completionists, as well as to people who may be looking for a fun and quick read for their comic-obsessed daughter (or son).
June 14, 2018
The title for this mini-series advertises it to be something where Pixie is fending for herself when instead she more accurately fits the damsel in distress role, which leads me to unfortunately feel a little cheated.
From a story aspect I can't tell if the comic is weird and confusing only since I haven't read much with these characters previously, or because the writing was just poor. I'm gonna go with the former and try to give it another chance later on but my current opinion is that it's... yikes.
Like the rest of this volume the ending is odd since the final panels give no closure or sense of security, which left me feeling unsatisfied upon finishing it. Unless you really like Pixie or the series happens to be a part of a more important event I don't see much of a point in bothering to read each issue at all.
From a story aspect I can't tell if the comic is weird and confusing only since I haven't read much with these characters previously, or because the writing was just poor. I'm gonna go with the former and try to give it another chance later on but my current opinion is that it's... yikes.
Like the rest of this volume the ending is odd since the final panels give no closure or sense of security, which left me feeling unsatisfied upon finishing it. Unless you really like Pixie or the series happens to be a part of a more important event I don't see much of a point in bothering to read each issue at all.
May 9, 2015
This seemed put together to get young females to read X-Men. Not a bad idea. It felt off to me in certain parts though it was good see focuses on minor or new characters.
OVERALL GRADE: C plus to B minus.
OVERALL GRADE: C plus to B minus.
August 4, 2013
Who are all these characters? Why is there an X-Men collection consisting of a bunch of tween girls making catty comments, and how did this pink-haired pixie become the star of her own miniseries?
This is what comes up of picking up graphic novels from a series I haven't been following for years. My X-Men will always be the 80s Claremont version.
So yeah, I'm aware that Emma Frost, the White Queen, is now the head of Xavier's school, and I'm vaguely aware that X-23 is some kind of Wolverine-clone in a 13-year-old girl's body, but most of these characters are completely new to me.
Apparently Pixie is half-faerie, half-mutant. She and three other teen mutant girls are trapped in some kind of hellish illusory high school nightmare, which turns out to be the machinations of a demon called Saturnine who, I guess was a minion previously in the series and is now aspiring to Big Bad status? Pixie creates "pixie dust" which causes illusions. Her friends eventually get free and try to rescue Pixie, while Pixie's mother shows up to start a fight with the adult X-Men because of her daughter being missing. Which brings everyone together for the big battle.
Apparently the point of this miniseries is that Pixie's real father is revealed. Now frankly, I always thought he was kind of a grade-B villain, though I remember a few stories where he did a real number on the X-Men. Still not really Magneto-calibre, if you know what I mean. But we can't all have one of Marvel's A-listers as a villainous father, right?
So Pixie finds out who her father was, and she also learns that she has two bimbo half-sisters whose sartorial choices make the White Queen seem Amish, because apparently Dad was leaving spawn all over the place. And then Mom gives her a hug and a kiss and takes off.
She's not the only X-brat who's going to need some serious therapy.
I know, I'm judging this story with the eyes of a fan remembering the series as it was 25 years ago. I don't mind new characters I don't recognize. But I found the plot confusing, the artwork didn't help clarify much of the action, and the dialog mostly failed to be clever or funny. Pixie (and most of her friends) are just emo girls. Emma Frost is an annoying Miss Snarkypanties, and Nightcrawler and Psylocke were just kind of there.
Not really something I'd recommend picking up for an old school X-Men fan, and it doesn't do much to introduce the universe to new fans. 2.5 stars.
This is what comes up of picking up graphic novels from a series I haven't been following for years. My X-Men will always be the 80s Claremont version.
So yeah, I'm aware that Emma Frost, the White Queen, is now the head of Xavier's school, and I'm vaguely aware that X-23 is some kind of Wolverine-clone in a 13-year-old girl's body, but most of these characters are completely new to me.
Apparently Pixie is half-faerie, half-mutant. She and three other teen mutant girls are trapped in some kind of hellish illusory high school nightmare, which turns out to be the machinations of a demon called Saturnine who, I guess was a minion previously in the series and is now aspiring to Big Bad status? Pixie creates "pixie dust" which causes illusions. Her friends eventually get free and try to rescue Pixie, while Pixie's mother shows up to start a fight with the adult X-Men because of her daughter being missing. Which brings everyone together for the big battle.
Apparently the point of this miniseries is that Pixie's real father is revealed. Now frankly, I always thought he was kind of a grade-B villain, though I remember a few stories where he did a real number on the X-Men. Still not really Magneto-calibre, if you know what I mean. But we can't all have one of Marvel's A-listers as a villainous father, right?
So Pixie finds out who her father was, and she also learns that she has two bimbo half-sisters whose sartorial choices make the White Queen seem Amish, because apparently Dad was leaving spawn all over the place. And then Mom gives her a hug and a kiss and takes off.
She's not the only X-brat who's going to need some serious therapy.
I know, I'm judging this story with the eyes of a fan remembering the series as it was 25 years ago. I don't mind new characters I don't recognize. But I found the plot confusing, the artwork didn't help clarify much of the action, and the dialog mostly failed to be clever or funny. Pixie (and most of her friends) are just emo girls. Emma Frost is an annoying Miss Snarkypanties, and Nightcrawler and Psylocke were just kind of there.
Not really something I'd recommend picking up for an old school X-Men fan, and it doesn't do much to introduce the universe to new fans. 2.5 stars.
July 25, 2012
Uhhh it was fine? The style felt weirdly derivative of Scott Pilgrim somehow, even though Scott Pilgrim's whole deal is paying homage to comics/video games? But the style of the text boxes reminded me of that. The whole plot of this was whatever. I was mostly in it for Laura Kinney and she's barely in it. Also why is Kurt suddenly like... drunk or mentally incapacitated?? What?
October 14, 2017
I don't know if this comic is part of some bigger plot, but I didn't understand anything that happened. The story was confusing and it felt like there was no time to explain anything, which left me feeling very disappointed. It just made no sense to me. The art was nice at times, but most of the time it was just as confusing as the plot.
May 21, 2025
So many British women
May 10, 2013
Pixie is one of those new era X-characters that actually is enjoyable. She is likable and along the same teen mutants from the past as Kitty Pryde, Jubilee, and Magik. I really like her. All of that being said, this book was a train wreck. The storyline was difficult to follow because the art was so dark. Sara Pichelli's art, who I normally like, is very dark here. Characters don't stand out. Possibly its a new inker but its too dark. The inclusion of Pixie's parentage is an interesting idea with a ridiculous outcome. The villains are a joke and the X-Men actually act out of character. Overall, the book is pretty pointless and unappealing.
November 29, 2012
Really wanted to like this! Didn't hate it, but I found it pretty disappointing that the ass-kicking quartet of female mutants spent the entirety of the anthology knocked out on drugs while the big strong men &/or mean adult women came in to save the day at the end. If you are looking for grrrl power, keep looking. This comic had a great premise. Sorry to see it turn out this way. Still, I like fairies & I have a mommy complex, so... *shrug*
April 12, 2011
First and foremost this was fun. Second it has an emotional undercurrent that's often missing from male-authored comics. I can't claim this is going to upend the entire Marvel Universe or anything, but I'm not sad I read it. This was a nice piece of candy (with some sinister female characters) that counters much of the awfully dark stuff coming from other angles of the X-verse.
August 20, 2010
I got tricked into reading this because of the X-Men tag in the title. Does Pixie really need her own mini-series? I don't even know who that is. What the aitch, Kathryn and Stuart Immonen? I know you can do really good work (Moving Pictures), so why you submitted this garbage is beyond me.
January 14, 2011
What a snooze! The art was weak and the story was worse. Not exactly linear and all the girls were written as ditzes. I didn't make it halfway through I was so bored.
December 2, 2022
Pixie is trapped in a hallucination that is due to her own pixie dust. Apparently some demon wants to... I don't know, take her over or something? So he traps her and her friends (X-23, Armor, and Mercury) along with her, so they're all experiencing the same hallucinations about high school and things like that. Throw in Pixie's birth mother, who is some kind of witch, and half sisters (the new masterminds of the Hellfire club) that are after her as well, and you have quite the adventure for Pixie!
...except that this is kind of a mess. I mean, there's a lot going on and it's not really explained too well. The pacing is really stilted, which doesn't help the story telling at all. I think Kathryn Immonen had an interesting premise, but the execution didn't pan out as succinctly as it could have.
One stand out is the art by Sarah Pichelli. It's not her style that she has now, but you can see a lot of promise in it. Her facial expressions and body movement/posing is really inventive and a treat to see. It's always interesting seeing early work of some of my favorite artists, and seeing how they evolved.
Ultimately, I'd say unless you are a X Men completionist, you can skip this one without missing out on vital story points.
...except that this is kind of a mess. I mean, there's a lot going on and it's not really explained too well. The pacing is really stilted, which doesn't help the story telling at all. I think Kathryn Immonen had an interesting premise, but the execution didn't pan out as succinctly as it could have.
One stand out is the art by Sarah Pichelli. It's not her style that she has now, but you can see a lot of promise in it. Her facial expressions and body movement/posing is really inventive and a treat to see. It's always interesting seeing early work of some of my favorite artists, and seeing how they evolved.
Ultimately, I'd say unless you are a X Men completionist, you can skip this one without missing out on vital story points.
January 29, 2019
This book wasn't too great, it was ok but really pretty boring through most of it. I was just confused for the first part of the book until I realized I was seeing the character's hallucinations or what ever you would call them. All the characters were just acting really weird and nothing made any sense. However it got a little bet toward the end. If the writers were trying to go for any sense of suspense in the reveal of who Pixie's father was, they failed. It was just revealed so casually, even printed on the back of the book in the description. Maybe I'm over reacting, but it seems like such a major plot point for Pixie should have been treated with a little more suspense and finesse. The main reason I wanted to read this book was because I liked this set of characters; Pixie, blindfold, and x-23. I knew a little bit about the shield girl that hangs out with Wolverine who's name I can't remember, but nothing about mercury. This book is also has a lot of annoying x-men teenager talk. If you are a fan of Pixie and want to learn more about her character, you should read this but for every one else I don't think you'll gain much from this book.
July 22, 2018
Continuing the great x-read of 2017/18...
The chronology that I am using for this great x-endeavor didn't list this volume so I am reading it quite a bit later than it exists in continuity...
It is an enjoyable tale (I love the characters from the dead-too-soon New X-Men series and I miss having stories of theirs to read) that slides a little too far into comics cliché at times. There are some interesting revelations about Pixie that (as of yet) have not been mentioned or gone anywhere outside of this mini-series (which is always a possibility/probability with solo limited series...)
Worth a read if you really like these characters, but skippable as far as continuity or major character development goes.
The chronology that I am using for this great x-endeavor didn't list this volume so I am reading it quite a bit later than it exists in continuity...
It is an enjoyable tale (I love the characters from the dead-too-soon New X-Men series and I miss having stories of theirs to read) that slides a little too far into comics cliché at times. There are some interesting revelations about Pixie that (as of yet) have not been mentioned or gone anywhere outside of this mini-series (which is always a possibility/probability with solo limited series...)
Worth a read if you really like these characters, but skippable as far as continuity or major character development goes.
October 18, 2021
As much as I love Kathryn Immonen's teen girl banter, there is just way too much going on in this four-issue miniseries. There's five different factions, a dream world with rules that seem to vary from page to page, and art that doesn't do a great job of distinguishing characters' facial structure even before the overly aggressive inks and big swatches of color. Claremont could pull off this kind of intricate series of subplots and character reveals, because there's like 200 words per page and the art is just as compressed as the words. This stuff just doesn't work with modern decompressed comics and its splash pages, in medias res intros, etc.
July 8, 2018
So I was 4 stars committed right to the end when I lost the plot and didn't really understand the resolution at all. But I'm still giving it 4 stars because the whole way I was intrigued by what was going on and wasn't able to figure it out ahead of time. So much writing in superhero books is sub-par these days, so this was refreshing. And it's not gotten a lot of love in the comments despite its also excellent art! Pichelli's faces are wonderfully expressive and made me linger longer than I usually do.
February 7, 2024
I mostly read this because it was something I was sure I hadn't read already. This is a pretty old book, but I have a fair bit of familiarity with the time period and most of the characters. I guess this made some changes to Pixie's backstory, but since I didn't really know it to begin with (she just sort of appeared in what I have read), it wasn't a big shock. It did start out in a very confusing way, and since I only had the title page, I started to think maybe this was a book from an alternate reality, since there are a few of those, but eventually, it sorted itself out as kind of a kidnapping story with lots of illusions. It was a fairly enjoyable shorter story involving a mash up of mutants and magic, and while it didn't reinvent the wheel, I didn't feel like it had wasted my time when I had finished reading.
August 29, 2017
Pixie is a light and fun character who is totally miscast in whatever this book is supposed to be. The story is dark and catty with plenty of bathroom humor. The art is nice and where the tone of the story it lifted from the movie Heathers, it is entertaining enough, but the overall plot stretches half a comic worth of content to four issues.
Swing and a miss.
Swing and a miss.
December 17, 2020
Unbelievably disappointing. This is one of the worst comic books that I've ever read and again, it's written by Kathryn Immonen. I don't think I'll ever read anything else from her, it's always garbage.
August 12, 2018
Someone really hates bananas.
November 20, 2018
Some funny one-liners but really, I didn't get it at all.
July 23, 2021
pixie is so cute i love her
September 27, 2022
I love all these characters so I hate that this story was bizarre and hard to follow.
December 20, 2023
Spent half of my time wondering what was going on.
May 23, 2025
Cool designs, confusing plot lol
January 15, 2025
Rounded up from 3.5 ⭐️
This was cute, but I feel like the whole cast was under-utilized. I understand that this is a Pixie title, but if you’re going to have her working with a team, you should still fully flesh out that team. The arc also started out really strong, but then started to read as quite clunky as it went on. Not my favorite, but it did make me interested to read more Pixie stuff in the future!
This was cute, but I feel like the whole cast was under-utilized. I understand that this is a Pixie title, but if you’re going to have her working with a team, you should still fully flesh out that team. The arc also started out really strong, but then started to read as quite clunky as it went on. Not my favorite, but it did make me interested to read more Pixie stuff in the future!
March 19, 2023
this was a bit silly, but i still enjoyed it
November 13, 2016
And another pointless miniseries finished. What little character development could have been there was completely pointless, what we had about Pixie's background is partially contradictory within this series and could have been covered in one issue. Not to mention that we had the whole soulsword thing several times already, so who cares?
Sadly, this making no sense started pretty early already. That joke with Rockslide not knowing that this is the girl's room simply does not work, because on an asteroid the size of this, there are too many people on it that they could have bathrooms without signs.
If the "reveal" is there already for the characters it was sad because for the readers it was spoiled pages ago. So unless this red demon here is some known X-men foe, his reveal was completely pointless.
Actually I had a problem with the whole specialness of Pixie "running" towards her "mutant deformity" as she is basically a human sized pixie, with pink color, butterfly wings, pointed ears and even pixie dust. Why would that something you "run way" from? Also if she is able to restructure the illusion now, her behavior lets her come along like a jerk. Plus they have been in this illusion for 10 hours and no one noticed?
Over time the story is now just throwing things at you and I really cannot care about the characters or the story. I think this story moves way too fast and so characterization suffers from it and then the writers try to be funny by adding things into the boxes like "the demons are coming to the end of their contract. And maybe I would consider the joke about German trolls not being as ugly as the Mastermind sisters funny if German folklore actually had trolls. And surprise, it does not. You are more likely to find vampires there than trolls.
And why does this comic have Cecily falsely claim that an octopus has no brain? And why is it that cultural and biological inaccuracies are the only noteworthy elements about this story? It was pretty pointless, no character development and Pixie's parentage could have been cleared in a one-liner.
And since unlike the other comics I read, here I could read the English original and German translation I can say this:
Native speakers usually do not speak about peculiarities of their own language because they consider it normal. And according to the world Guinness book of world records there is no longer word in the German language than "Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän". Also I never heard of it since compound words are used sparingly in German and this is out of use since 1991. Where do they get this stuff from? And just to show how idiotically they use the German language. In this Mrs. Gwynn told Nightcrawler "don't you Fraulein me" and that his "teutonic charms" won't work on her. In the German translation however she tells him to spare her his anachronism and that such pre-War charm will not work. And here in Germany "pre-War" means pre-WWII. And considered that this comic came out in 2010. You could argue that Nightcrawler is about 74 years out of date… these writers are that bad.
Furthermore, this has him say "Mama wants her Liebling." "Liebling" either means darling, favorite, honey (when referred to a spouse or so) or a priced and famous person. And considered that neither Kurt nor Betsy have ever seen Mrs. Gwynn, Kurt has no reason to belief Pixie is her favorite or anything. What do the writers think "Liebling" means? And I see they still haven't figured out how "Ach" is used.
However, for apparently the very first time these idiots managed to use "Fräulein" realistically, as a way to talk down to a woman... at least I hope they did. And I have my doubts since they spell "a" instead of "ä", and say "der little sparkles"... which is really dumb as "sparkles" is clearly plural so the correct article is "die." And while I can understand why the usage of German articles can be difficult since there are no rules mostly as to what word has which gender, the usage of "die" is pretty clear so that is not a mistake they should have made.
Sadly, this making no sense started pretty early already. That joke with Rockslide not knowing that this is the girl's room simply does not work, because on an asteroid the size of this, there are too many people on it that they could have bathrooms without signs.
If the "reveal" is there already for the characters it was sad because for the readers it was spoiled pages ago. So unless this red demon here is some known X-men foe, his reveal was completely pointless.
Actually I had a problem with the whole specialness of Pixie "running" towards her "mutant deformity" as she is basically a human sized pixie, with pink color, butterfly wings, pointed ears and even pixie dust. Why would that something you "run way" from? Also if she is able to restructure the illusion now, her behavior lets her come along like a jerk. Plus they have been in this illusion for 10 hours and no one noticed?
Over time the story is now just throwing things at you and I really cannot care about the characters or the story. I think this story moves way too fast and so characterization suffers from it and then the writers try to be funny by adding things into the boxes like "the demons are coming to the end of their contract. And maybe I would consider the joke about German trolls not being as ugly as the Mastermind sisters funny if German folklore actually had trolls. And surprise, it does not. You are more likely to find vampires there than trolls.
And why does this comic have Cecily falsely claim that an octopus has no brain? And why is it that cultural and biological inaccuracies are the only noteworthy elements about this story? It was pretty pointless, no character development and Pixie's parentage could have been cleared in a one-liner.
And since unlike the other comics I read, here I could read the English original and German translation I can say this:
Native speakers usually do not speak about peculiarities of their own language because they consider it normal. And according to the world Guinness book of world records there is no longer word in the German language than "Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän". Also I never heard of it since compound words are used sparingly in German and this is out of use since 1991. Where do they get this stuff from? And just to show how idiotically they use the German language. In this Mrs. Gwynn told Nightcrawler "don't you Fraulein me" and that his "teutonic charms" won't work on her. In the German translation however she tells him to spare her his anachronism and that such pre-War charm will not work. And here in Germany "pre-War" means pre-WWII. And considered that this comic came out in 2010. You could argue that Nightcrawler is about 74 years out of date… these writers are that bad.
Furthermore, this has him say "Mama wants her Liebling." "Liebling" either means darling, favorite, honey (when referred to a spouse or so) or a priced and famous person. And considered that neither Kurt nor Betsy have ever seen Mrs. Gwynn, Kurt has no reason to belief Pixie is her favorite or anything. What do the writers think "Liebling" means? And I see they still haven't figured out how "Ach" is used.
However, for apparently the very first time these idiots managed to use "Fräulein" realistically, as a way to talk down to a woman... at least I hope they did. And I have my doubts since they spell "a" instead of "ä", and say "der little sparkles"... which is really dumb as "sparkles" is clearly plural so the correct article is "die." And while I can understand why the usage of German articles can be difficult since there are no rules mostly as to what word has which gender, the usage of "die" is pretty clear so that is not a mistake they should have made.
August 10, 2023
I'm absolutely missing some backstory into Pixie and the rest of the team that's involved, but this was still a nicely contained story. Honestly, I think this particular run would've benefited from more issues (maybe an 8 issue run instead of 4 issues). Otherwise, this was fun and entices me to want to learn more about the other characters that I was introduced to.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews