Jubilee (comics)

Jubilee (full name Jubilation Lee) is a Marvel Comics superhero, associated with the X-Men. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Marc Silvestri, she first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #244 (August 1989).

A mutant, Jubilee possessed the power to generate explosive energy sparks. A teenaged "mall rat," she was the X-Men's youngest member in the early 1990s, often playing sidekick to Wolverine. She eventually joined the junior team Generation X.

She was a prominent character in the 1990s-era X-Men animated series.

Character history

Jubilation Lee is a Chinese American girl, and was born in Beverly Hills, California, where she lived with her wealthy immigrant parents. An immensely talented gymnast, she was believed to have the potential to participate in the Olympic Games. However, her life was destroyed when her parents were murdered by the hitmen Reno and Molokai.

Jubilee was sent to an orphanage, but she ran away and hid in a Hollywood shopping mall, stealing food to survive. She first discovered her mutant power to generate blinding and explosive energy "fireworks" while running away from mall security. The stress of running away from the security guards caused Jubilee to emit a large light energy blast while in a back alley. This completely disoriented the men and allowed the frightened young girl to escape. Upon learning about her mutant ability to create fireworks, she realized she could earn money by using her powers to entertain customers in the mall.

Frustrated with the young girl's rebellious nature and powerful lightshows, the mall security hired mutant hunters known as the M-Squad to capture her. Jubilee held her own by blasting the M-Squad's energy tractor beams, but she was eventually caught by them. She was rescued by X-Men members Dazzler, Psylocke, Rogue, and Storm, who happened to be shopping at the mall. Curious, she tracked them for a while and later followed them into a portal.

She found herself in the X-Men's temporary base, deep in the Australian outback. She stayed in hiding until the X-Men had abandoned the base, and their enemies the Reavers had captured Wolverine. While living in the underground base, the mutant known as Gateway, who created the portal to the Hollywood mall, was the only being aware of Jubilee's existence. During her stay in the base she stole food and borrowed clothes from several of the X-Men to create a makeshift costume for herself. She was also attacked by a cybernetic dog, and was forced to use her powers in self defense by blowing up the beast. This was the first time Jubilee knew her powers could do real damage, although a later retcon had her first manifestation causing destruction on a similar scale.

While sneaking around the caverns in the outback base, Jubilee was startled to find Wolverine hung up on a cross and near death. Jubilee helped Wolverine get down from the cross, and nursed him back to health. Afterward, she teamed with Wolverine on several of his missions throughout the world. During this time she held her own against the Hand and blew up a section of the Mandarin's castle with her powers when she, Wolverine, and Psylocke were the supervillain's prisoners.

Wolverine and the X-Men

Jubilee and Wolverine grew a close father-daughter relationship with one another. Jubilee needed the guidance of a parent, while Wolverine needed the peace and joy of a child. Due to this relationship, Jubilee is referred to as Wolverine's unofficial sidekick. The duo teamed up to take down Sentinels, fight Omega Red, Sabertooth, and Sauron, and even seek revenge on Reno and Molokai for the murder of her parents.

Wolverine brought Jubilee to Professor Xavier, who welcomed the girl with open arms. Jubilee found a home with the X-Men, and even joined the X-Men Blue Team. She aided her fellow mutants in battles against Mondo, The Shi'Ar Empire, and the Brood, among others. She grew close bonds with many of the team members, including Beast, Professor Xavier (whom she took rollerblading when he briefly had the use of his legs) and Illyana Rasputin. Jubilee mourned the loss of Illyana with the rest of the X-Men, especially Jean Grey.

Generation X

Feeling that she needed a rest from the stresses at the mansion, Jubilee volunteered to join a new group of teenage mutants known as Generation X. The team was led by both Banshee and Emma Frost, and was composed mainly of Jubilee, Husk, Synch, M, Chamber, Skin, and Penance.

Both Banshee and Emma Frost educated the teenagers in school subjects as well as combat and field skills. Jubilee and the other mutant teens honed their unique abilities and occasionally battled minions such as the Juggernaut, Omega Red, and their arch-rival Emplate. Time after time, Jubilee used her experience with the X-Men to help her teammates outsmart their enemies. On more than one occasion, Jubilee was solely responsible for the defeat of Emplate. She used her sarcasm when Emplate siphoned her powers so that he would become enraged enough to not have control over them, causing him to blast himself with Jubilee's energy blasts. During the team's last encounter with Emplate, Jubilee blew up Proudstar Hall in order to defeat him. Her teammates survived the massive explosion, because Iceman covered them with an ice shield.

During her stay in the Massachusetts Academy, Jubilee was kidnapped and held hostage by Bastion during Operation: Zero Tolerance. She managed to resist his mental probes for a good amount of time, hiding valuable information on the X-Men. Jubilee staged an escape early on after being kidnapped, literally knocking several armed soldiers unconscious with a large plasma volley. Her innocence and morals led to her capture once more, as she decided to give CPR to one of the guards she injured. She eventually escaped with the help of Bastion's assistant Daria. While wandering the desert after her getaway, she was attacked by a Prime Sentinel and held her own by blasting his vision receptors. She was saved at the last minute by Wolverine, who took her back to the X-Men until she was comfortable enough to return to Generation X.

One of the most important details about her stay in Generation X was when she discovered the true killer of her parents, Hunter Brawn. She staged a solo operation, using all of her powers, skills, and abilities to track down Brawn. With the help of her friends and teammates, she managed to take him down. Enraged at how he had destroyed her family, her powers flared to a massive level. Instead of killing the man, she took out her aggression and blew up his warehouse, leaving him to be arrested by local authorities.

After Generation X

After Generation X disbanded, Jubilee moved to L.A. with former teammate Skin to pursue an acting career. She was unfortunately cast in stereotypical Asian roles, and after her agent tried to seduce her, she blasted him with a powerful plasma blast.

Around this time she was offered a position on Banshee's militaristic X-Corps team, alongside former teammates Husk and M. The three young women hesitantly joined Banshee in order to keep an eye on him. During her run with the X-Corps, Jubilee held off an uprising in Paris by blinding hostile enemies. Jubilee and Husk, with the help of Stacy X, also managed to take down the Blob and rescue Banshee from Mystique.

Jubilee returned to L.A. with Skin, but the two of them (along with Magma and other mutants) were kidnapped and crucified on the front lawn of the X-Mansion by the Church of Humanity. Jubilee and Magma recovered from the attack, because of Angel's healing blood, but Skin and the others weren't so fortunate. Jubilee became slightly depressed due to the loss of her friend Skin (Angelo Espinosa) and reunited with her friend Husk (Paige Guthrie). The two of them, along with Angel, attended Skin's funeral. Since the grave keeper wouldn't allow a mutant to be buried in his cemetery, he had Skin cremated and unemotionally handed Jubilee Skin's ashes. From then on, Jubilee went on a few missions with Nightcrawler and Havok's Uncanny team, but was taken off of the active roster when Cyclops decided Jubilee needed a mental break.

L.A. and Aunt Hope

Jubilee was contacted by a long lost relative, her Aunt Hope. Hope decided to adopt Jubilee and take her into her home in Los Angeles, which gave Jubilation a much needed break from mansion life. Jubilee attended Payton Noble High School and became a peer advisor. She got into a few fights in school, and was reprimanded because of her power display. She also befriended a mutant named Shane Shooter, and helped him take down a gang leader. Unfortunately for Jubilee, her Aunt was caught in a crime ring, as she was an assassin. While Wolverine was visiting Jubilee, the two of them along with her Aunt (and her butler Brad) got into a battle with Hope's old boss. Hope was caught in a violent explosion and seemingly died, causing a distraught Jubilee to move back to the mansion with Wolverine.

In the recent House of M series, Jubilee who had yet again left Xaviers for LA was one of the massive number of mutants who lost their powers due to the magics of the Scarlet Witch.

The recent mini-series Generation M caused a minor continuity problem by stating that Jubilee was involved in liberal movement groups while she lived in New York. However, she has never lived in New York City or been a political activist before.

Jubilee teamed up with Wolverine and Cable in Marvel Team Up #19 (April 2006). The story was set in 1991, several years prior to House of M.

Jubilee will be guest starring along with Omega Red in the upcoming 'Savior' arc in Wolverine:Origins.

Continuity Errors

A notable continuity error is that she was 15 years old when she first appeared, and only 13 and a half when she joined Generation X. However, as this was never stated in the comic and only intended by Claremont, it is not a strict continuity error or retcon. Jubilee has also been de-aged and her powers have been watered down on several other occasions depending on her writer.

MC2

In MC2,Jubilee is the leader of a team of mutant heroes called the X-People.She was also part of A-Next.

Powers and abilities

None - she is presently depowered as a result of the Decimation of mutantkind.

Jubilee once had the mutant power to generate bright bursts of energy from her fingertips. She referred to these globules as fireworks. The globules obeyed her mental control, travelling where she directed them, arranging themselves in balls, streamers, and other shapes, and exploding when she wished. The strength of the energy could range from a multitude of colorful sparkles capable of temporarily blinding a person to a powerful detonation capable of smashing objects and destroying property, or a precision burst inside a human's brain simulating the effects of a massive stroke. Jubilee could absorb the fireworks back into her own body without harm.

A point of interest about Jubilee's powers is that she often refers to them as Pafs. Considering that the word 'Paf' appears in many instances as an fx sound when drawn with her powers, it is believed to be the sound that her energy bursts create... much like Nightcrawler's Bamf noise.

As referenced by Emma Frost while training in Generation X, Jubilee has the untapped potential to detonate matter at a sub-atomic level which in theory is the equivalent of a fusion bomb. Her moral stance on taking a life was observed by Emma during the Phalanx Covenant when Jubilee explained her fear of killing someone should her powers ever flare up again as they did during the Acts Of Vengeance storyline in Uncanny X-Men.

In her early appearances Jubilee also displayed an apparent immunity to telepathy, but this was soon forgotten. She has on occasion used this ability to hide herself from psychic scans and probes from sentinels. Whether or not she knows of this ability has yet to be determined, and seeing as she is currently powerless, it could possibly never be resolved.

Jubilee is a talented gymnast, and while living rough she used her skills to evade capture while stealing to survive, first from the various shops in the mall and later in the X-Men's Australian base. She has also displayed above average hand-to-hand combat skills, sufficient to survive combat with the Hand.

In one issue of Wolverine's comic, it was stated that Jubilee suffers from dyscalculacy. Given her status as an academic underachiever, this assessment can probably be assumed to have some degree of accuracy.

Appearances in other media

In the 1992 X-Men animated television series, Jubilee was voiced by Alyson Court. Jubilee was a main character of the original animated series, and starred in several episodes throughout the many seasons it aired. She also retained her surrogate daughter/father relationship with Logan, AKA: Wolverine, who was still shown to dote on her in his own gruff way and, in one episode, Logan was even shown teaching Jubilee how to drive.
In the 1996 television film Generation X, the character was portrayed by Heather McComb, who is Caucasian, not Chinese. Jubilee's character in the Generation X movie had several power scenes and was one of the main characters.
In the 2001 Evolution animated television series, she appeared infrequently as one of the New Mutants, and was voiced by Chiara Zanni.
Jubilee appears in all three X-Men films, though in X-Men she was portrayed by Katrina Florece and in X2 she was played by Kea Wong (who also plays Jubilee in X3). In the first film, Jubilee is limited to a few cameo scenes in both Professor Xavier and Storm's classrooms. She is featured in a deleted scene, in which she talks to both Storm and Rogue. In X-Men 2, Jubilee appears in a deleted version of the museum scene which gives a brief introduction to her powers. She also appears in the final classroom scene and briefly talks to Professor Xavier. The size of her role in X-Men 3 is limited. She appears within the first ten minutes of the film, and can be seen sitting in the classroom. She has no talking parts within X3, contrary to earlier rumours she displays none of her powers within the film.
Jubilee is a playable character in the video game X-Men Legends, and is voiced by Danica McKellar from the Wonder Years. In X-Men Legends, Jubilee is unlocked early on in the game by talking to her at the X-Mansion. The character's back story and personality in the game is very true to her comic counterpart. Her moves are represented fairly well, except for a taunt ability that was thrown in, and a basic set of melee strikes that doesn't incorporate her gymnastic abilities whatsoever. She did not appear in the sequel.
She is also a selectable helper character in Marvel vs Capcom, in which she throws several fireworks at her enemies (again voiced by Alyson Court.)
Jubilee is also a cameo helper character in the Wolverine game for the NES, in which she gives Wolverine a device to breathe underwater for a longer period of time.
Rumor has it that the X-Men Arcade game had several hacked versions back in the 90's at local arcades, in which Jubilee, Gambit, and Psylocke were playable characters that replaced Dazzler, Colossus, and Nightcrawler.
Jubilee was also supposed to be a playable character in two other X-Men games in the past, but these games were cancelled before being released world-wide. One of the games was called X-Women for Sega Genesis, and featured Storm, Rogue, Jean, and Jubilee as playable characters. The other game was a PC title, in which Jubilee was dressed in her Generation X gear.

External links

Jubilee - Marvel Database Project
Jubilee at X-Peoples Central
UncannyXmen.net, Spotlight feature on Jubilee
Wolverine & Jubilee Fansite for Jubilee and Wolverine run by Marjorie M. Liu.
Prismatic Flare Jubilee fansite with a large collection of history, pictures, and video clips.

Jubilé (comics) | Jubileu (banda desenhada)

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