History: The daughter of two prosperous Chinese immigrants, Jubilation Lee was born and raised in Beverly Hills, California -- where tourists travel in packs, on the prowl for the famous and soon-to-be-famous, and juice comes in close to a hundred flavors. Jubilee attended an exclusive high school, blossoming into a talented gymnast. However, her parents' stock-market woes sparked a rapid fall from grace that ended abruptly when two hitmen murdered Dr. and Mrs. Lee after mistaking them for their neighbors.
Orphaned and impoverished, Jubilee was sent to Los Angeles County Juvenile Hall. There, she learned to defend herself and became defiant toward authority. Her newfound rebelliousness prompted officials to arrange for her transfer to another orphanage. Fearing that the state would grant custody to her only living relatives in Communist China, Jubilee fled.
Seeking shelter at the Hollywood Mall, she survived as a petty thief. However, her shoplifting success was short-lived. Cornered by mall security, a panicked Jubilee manifested her mutant powers. Globules of energy shot from her hands, exploding in front of the police and enabling her to escape.
From then on, Jubilee led a lonely life. Her outwardly cynical attitude masked a deeper fear and general mistrust. She earned a living by creating "fireworks" displays for curious shoppers. Meanwhile, Jubilee continued to play cat and mouse with mall security. Having failed to capture the young squatter yet again, the rent-a-cops contacted the novice mutant hunters known as the M Squad. Coincidentally, several female members of the outlaw team of mutant heroes called the X-Men were shopping at the mall -- including the disco Dazzler, the telekinetic ninja Psylocke, the power-pilfering Rogue and the weather witch Storm. The X-women foiled the M Squad's attempt to capture Jubilee.
Fascinated by her unlikely saviors, Jubilee followed them through a teleportation portal back to the small town in the Australian outback where the X-Men had established a base. Initially distrustful, Jubilee joined the team after rescuing the feral mutant known as Wolverine from the clutches of the cyborg Reavers. During the months that followed, the teenager accompanied Logan on his travels through Asia; he became like a second father to her.
Jubilee finally met Professor Charles Xavier, the founder of the X-Men, when the alien Warskrulls captured both mutants. She became a full-fledged X-Man after the team reunited under Xavier's leadership, although she continued to accompany Wolverine on solo missions.
When the X-Men defeated the techno-organic Phalanx race, Xavier elected to establish a second school where the teenage mutants abducted by the aliens could be trained to use their powers. The Professor also assigned Jubilee to Generation X, because she was the same age as most of the new squad's members. Although at first viewing her reassignment as a demotion, she quickly became the team player with Generation X she had been as a member of the X-Men. Despite her characteristically cynical remarks, Jubilee came to love and trust her new teammates as if they were family. |
