Jubilee (comics) - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

Jubilation Lee is a Chinese American girl 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 the Hollywood 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, and their own inability to catch her, the mall security hires mutant hunters known as the M-Squad to capture her. Jubilee initially holds her own by blasting the M-Squad's energy tractor beams, but she is eventually caught by them. She is rescued by X-Men members Dazzler, Psylocke, Rogue, and Storm, who happened to be shopping at the mall. Curious about the women, she tracks them for a while and later follows them into a portal.

On the other side of the portal, Jubilee finds herself in the X-Men's temporary base, deep in the Australian outback. She uses her wits to stay in hiding in the base while the X-Men remain unaware of her. While she is living in the underground base, the mutant known as Gateway, who created the portal to the Hollywood Mall, is the only being aware of Jubilee's existence. During her stay in the base, she steals food and borrows clothes from several of the X-Men to create a makeshift costume for herself. Peter Rasputin notices evidence of her food gathering but is distracted by the attack of Nanny. Jubilee personally battles Nanny, and finds that her energy powers neutralize the brainwashing power-manifestations Nanny emits. She is also attacked by a cybernetic dog, and is forced to use her powers in self-defense by blowing up the beast. This is the first time Jubilee learns her powers can do real damage, although a later retcon has her first manifestation causing destruction on a similar scale. She stays in hiding until the X-Men have abandoned the base, and their enemies the Reavers have captured Wolverine.

While sneaking around the caverns in the outback base, Jubilee is startled and horrified to find Wolverine tied to an X-shaped cross, being tortured by the Reavers. The Reavers eventually cut the torture session short to seek shelter from a coming storm, leaving only Wolverine and the hiding Jubilee outside. Jubilee is torn between her desire to help Wolverine and her fear of what the Reavers might do to her if they catch her doing so. Thus Jubilee watches as, after the storm hits, Wolverine flies into one of his berserker rages and summons enough strength to tear his arms (which had been nailed to the cross while he was being tortured) free before collapsing to the ground. Jubilee finally makes the decision to risk helping Wolverine, and helps him back to her hiding spot in the complex, where she does her best to nurse him back to health (after being brutalized repeatedly by the Reavers, days of exposure to the harsh elements of the outback, and deprivation of food and water, Wolverine's healing factor had been taxed to its limit and thus was not able to quickly repair his body the way it normally would). Before Wolverine has completely recovered, he and Jubilee are forced to abandon their sanctuary when the Reavers locate them and attempt to capture them. The pair manage to escape and make their way to Madripoor. They battle the Mandarin and Matsu'o Tsurayaba's Hand. Jubilee holds her own against the Hand, and blows up a section of the Mandarin's castle with her powers when she, Wolverine, and Psylocke are the supervillain's prisoners.

Afterward, Jubilee teams up with Wolverine on several of his missions throughout the world. She does not handle the travel well, as she desires American food and luxuries. She helps Wolverine in battle when he becomes involved with well-intentioned but violent mercenaries.

Alongside Wolverine and Psylocke, Jubilee battles Hardcase and the Harriers. She also meets the Black Widow and goes to Genosha for the first time. After meeting the X-Men, she travels with them to the Shi'ar Empire, but is captured by the Warskrulls. There, she first meets Professor Xavier. She also briefly falls under the control of the Shadow King, along with the X-Men and numerous others.