Anyone see Jubilation Lee?

Written by GL

The Marvel Comics world is big. Bigger than most of us can imagine. Characters appear here and there all the time, and frequently manage to switch between different superhero teams in almost the blink of an eye. There are characters that even seem to go mostly un-noticed by the more general fans of superhero worship. Jubilation Lee is one of them.

If you don't recognize her name, perhaps you'd recognize her if I referred to her by her codename: Jubilee.

Jubilee is not an old character; in fact, she was only created in 1989. Ironically enough, up until the early 90's, Jubilee was also considered the youngest member of the X-men team.

Jubilee has the gift of emitting pyrotechnic plasma projectiles, concussive blasts and (in some instances) the ability to avoid telepathic detection. It’s been mentioned by Emma Frost that Jubilee might have even been able to use her powers at an almost atomic / nuclear level – but this idea was never developed.

Jubilee is a Chinese American, born on the wealthy streets of Beverly Hills. Her parents were stinking rich. But after their tragic murder, Jubilee was placed in an orphanage. She began her fall from grace after she escaped and lived a life of stealing for survival in a Hollywood shopping mall. It was while living in this shopping mall that she discovered her pyrotechnic abilities, whilst being chased by security guards.

Jubilee’s life took a turn for the exciting after she was rescued by the X-Men. She was so curious about the group of mutants that she tracked them through a portal and found herself in the X-Men’s Australian outback base. Stuck in the base, she stole food and clothes from various X-Men, and fashion her first personal uniform.

Everything was going as usual until she’d found the X-Men had abandoned the base to a nasty group, known as the Reavers.

Jubilee discovered that the Reavers had captured a mutant known as Wolverine. She found Wolverine strapped to a torture device and decided to aid in his escape, and after their hasty retreat, the X-Men introduced Jubilee to the great Professor Xavier, who, of course, welcomed the young girl into the mansion.

It was many missions later that Jubilee got stressed with life in mansion and decided to take a break by volunteering for the Generation-X team, headed by Banshee and Emma Frost. Jubilee, in the Generation-X team, proved to be one of their strongest members, winning mission after mission almost single-handedly.

When Generation-X disbanded, Jubilee moved to L.A. to pursue an unsuccessful acting career, and once again joined another band of superheroes, the X-Corp. She was also an outstanding member of the X-Corp, and after this brief stint, returned to the mansion to continue work with the team. It was finally decided by Cyclops, as leader of the X-Men, that Jubilee take a mental break from all the missions for a while.

Sadly enough, Jubilee left the mansion one more time, only to have her powers taken away from her by the Scarlet Witch. And to this day, her character has remained powerless and continues to live life as a normal civilian – or so say the comic company editors.

Throughout much of her comic life, Jubilee has been closely linked as a mini-sidekick to the ever-grumpy Wolverine. Their relationship is one of almost father-to-daughter, and it is a theme has been well maintained throughout past comic issues and features.

Although first penned and colored by the very cool Marc Silvestri, the best known representation of Jubilee in the past (and the one that I remember the best) had been in the 1992 X-Men animated television series where she was a frequently recurring character, appearing in almost every episode.

However, the character of Jubilee, whilst popular enough to appear in all three of the X-Men movies, only made small cameo performances with practically no lines at all.

Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, has stated that Jubilee will be re-appearing in comics in the near, un-told future, but she will also remain powerless for as long as until writers can find something to do with her.

When creators were asked why Jubilee appeared in the X-Men Legends game but not in the sequel, they said, ‘It’s not that we don’t like her, it’s just that we don’t need her’.

Yes, the Marvel Comic world is big. Perhaps, too big for characters as small as little Jubilation Lee.