Jubilee's History
Jubilation 'Jubilee' Lee was born and raised in Beverly Hills as the daughter of two prosperous Chinese immigrants, Dr. and Mrs. Lee. She attended an exclusive Beverly Hills school where she became an extremely talented gymnast. One weekend her parents lost their money in the stock market. That same weekend two hit men mistook Dr. and Mrs. Lee for their neighbors, also named the Lees, and killed them. Orphaned and impoverished, with nowhere to live, Jubilee was sent to the Los Angeles County Juvenile Hall. There she learned how to defend herself and became rebellious towards authority. The Juvenile Hall authorities arranged to send her to another orphanage. Fearing that she might eventually be sent to live with her only living relatives, who were in Communist China, Jubilee ran away to the Hollywood Mall. At first she survived as a petty thief, stealing whatever she needed. But one day, trapped by mall security police in a dead end, in her fear and panic she unwittingly activated her superhuman powers for the first time. Globules of energy, which she would later call 'fireworks,' shot from her hands, exploding in front of the police, enabling her to make her escape. From then on Jubilee led a lonely life, her outwardly cynical attitude hiding her deeper fear that she could not trust anyone. She earned a living by creating 'fireworks' displays for the mall customers with her newly emerged abilities. Then one day, mall security, having failed to capture her yet again, contacted the novice mutant hunters known as the M Squad. Luckily, several female members of the X-Men--Dazzler, Psylocke, Rogue, and Storm--happened to be shopping at the Hollywood Mall that day. They foiled the M Squad's attempt to capture Jubilee. Fascinated by these women, Jubilee followed them until they exited via a teleportation portal provided by the mutant aborigine Gateway back to the small town in the Australian outback, where the X-Men were then based. Before the portal closed, however, Jubilee jumped in. She emerged in front of Gateway moments after the female X-Men had left the scene. Gateway verbally welcomed Jubilee, although he had never spoken to any of the X-Men, led her to a tunnel, and pushed her down into it. She landed in the vast underground cavern that stored the bounty of the Reavers, the criminal cyborgs who had previously been the town's sole residents. Jubilee created a living space for herself within the cavern. Although part of her wanted to connect with the X-Men, she did not trust anyone yet, mutant or otherwise. So she kept her presence a secret, watching the X-Men from her hiding place. She became a scrounger, taking food and clothing from the X-Men while they were busy elsewhere. She finally emerged from hiding after most of the X-Men had abandoned their Australian base and the returning Reavers had captured and crucified the X-Man Wolverine. After Wolverine succeeded in freeing himself, she helped him escape to safety. Over the following months Jubilee accompanied Wolverine in 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 they were both captured by the alien Warskrulls. Subsequently, when the X-Men reunited under Xavier's leadership, she became a full member of the team. She continued to accompany Wolverine frequently on his solo missions. After the X-Men defeated the techno-organic Phalanx race, Xavier decided to found a new school where the various teenage mutants whom the Phalanx had captured would be trained in the uses of their superhuman powers. Hence, Husk, M, Skin, and Synch became members of a new mutant team, Generation X. Xavier assigned Jubilee to join this new team as well, since she was in their age group. She was not happy, seeing her reassignment as a demotion. However, Jubilee quickly became the team player in Generation X that she had been with the X-Men. Despite her characteristically cynical remarks, Jubilee came to love and trust the members of her new team as if they were her new family.
