I’m continuing to read through these Winx Club comics, and I’m reading them super fast because they’re quite short and easy to pick up for breaks throughout the day. These 6 are the final 6 for what is classed as Season 1 and fits within the same time of the TV show’s 1st season too. I’ve liked how it covers the end of the season, but also then gives more context to the aftermath and how the people react before we jump into the next big adventure.
Dragon’s Flame
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Dragon’s Flame goes across many of the episodes of the show. It has Bloom describe what happened to her on Earth in Season 1, Episode 18 “The Font of Dragon Fire”, but then it has the Domino/Battle episodes of Season 1 Epsidoes 19, 20 and 21 “The Army of Decay”, “Mission to Domino” and “The Crown of Dreams”.
It expands a bit on Stella at the beginning, where a rejection feels more personal to her than the others. She’s a good friend really, and goes to help Bloom as soon as she knows she may be in danger, but her remarks show that her childhood and parents have given her some trauma to work through.
The Domino scenes are beautifully drawn, and the snow-filled artwork actually made me feel cold (although it helps that it’s currently freezing here anyway!).
Overall it felt like it was a keeping up to date/ omnibus kind of story along with the next comic to round out the TV season.
This goes alongside Season 1, Episode 22 “Storming Cloudtower” and acts as an end to the previous comic.
The girls revert back to calling Brandon Sky and Sky Brandon, showing they’re still confused by the switch or the writers forgot. But then about halfway through they do use the corect names, so it’s probably just general confusion.
This story oddly introduces Aisha and the Pixies who help guide Bloom in secret before Season 2. I’m not sure how much this added to the story to be honest, and if Aisha was there why did she not help the other fairies or Magix? I thought it was probably just a hitn as I assume S2 trailers were out around this time.
The ending of this comic are I think almost identical to the show, so if you’re looking for extra content it may not be for you.
Magic Battle
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Moonlight
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So Moonlight is after the end of Season 1 and differs from the series in a few different ways. First up is they have a celebration where they joke about Sky being merry after too much to drink. Obviously in Italy this is more in-line with their drinking age, but I’m sure Americans will be very confused.
The Season 1 DVD is shown as canon in the comics educational material at Alfea. With Palladium’s machine they have simulated and recorded it, which is a fun fourth wall break which I’m sure acted as an add in the magazine.
Task of harvesting moonlight is interesting, and shows that there’s more to magic than powers. Werewolves are an odd additiion to the lore, and to give Flora a love interest which is very different to the show (although he’s never brought up again).
This story also kind of touches on how women have to be “understanding” that men are stand-offish which is irritating. This is an old comic, from a different country originally but I’m still unsure how I feel about this in general. However, Riven and Musa as a whole are a bad couple so I think it’s just meant to re-iterate this even more.
Alone Against Everybody has a different artstyle which feels a bit more realistic and like it’s been done by a new team. This style worked well for some of the earlier frames but gradually gets worse throughout the comic.
This brings Mitril back into the story, and focuses on Musa and Riven again. I feel like the comics focus on these two a lot more than the other couples, and it doesn’t add more depth but just more conflict between them. It makes it harder to root for them even with the series in mind.
Mirta is introduced for the first time in the comics and we’re shown her part time job. I like the continued showing of the girls having to get jobs alongside studying as it feels more real. I also love Mirta as a character, so I’m happy she makes a helpful appearance.
This comic also shows that the witches and fairies go to the same places and aren’t as separated as you’d think (although they are petty to each other!). They act more like rival schools than pure enemies which is sometimes insinuated in the show.
Alone Against Everybody
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Dragon’s Land
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I always love stories which make adversaries a bit more sympathic and Dragon’s Land brings this out a lot. Diaspro at first is an annoying character, and whilst by the end she’s still an antagonist to Bloom you do feel sorry for her too. She genuinely loves Sky, and doesn’t really care for the crown which is shown throughout this comic.
I like that her storylines usually bring Sky and his background into the story. He get’s a lot more depth as his relationships with Diaspro, Bloom, his family and his kingdom are all explored.
Speaking of exploration, we get to go to a place called the dragon’s land which has dragons (of course) and creatures called chamalions too. It’s a bit more fantasy feeling than other areas we explore in the series, and more like what Bloom expected from her first time in Magix too.
This is overall a quick story, but a nice one to round out the Diaspro arc that we see in the show.
Musa has finally organised all the books that were found underground for her job in library. I loved that this was a continuable plotline and that the “normal” jobs they get also bring magical stories too.
On top of their jobs, the girls use the library and also ask their professors to find the answers they need. I enjoyed seeing them acting proactively to find the answers instead of already knowing them or being told it by Faragonda or Daphne.
As with many other things in the Winx Club universe, music is magical itself and you can be transported somewhere else when it’s played. I’d love to see more and learn more about magic like this and whether it’s fully transported, a mind/soul transported or a in your head kind of dream state transported? Who knows.
On top of music magic we have King Nobody who can become anyone in other to talk to and manipulate others based on people’s desires. I loved the concept, but I do wish he was a full antagonist instead of a reformed king who thinks he’s being nice by changing.
Some of the frames throughout King Nobody have gorgeous portrait art. I’m always interested to see comics which have a great quality of art throughout and as the last of Season 1, I’m glad this lives up to expectations.
King Nobody
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Overall I understand why the final few aren’t in print anymore, and why they weren’t included in the omnibus bind ups. There’s a lot of extra content which mostly centres around relationship drama, of which some is toxic. It’s not the best for young girls, who the target audience is, and so I’m glad it wasn’t all in the show as well. There are good things within them too though, I loved the King Nobody character and the introduction to pure moonlight harvesting and werewolves.
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