apachefirecat

Jubilee was another first for me in a lot of ways, and although she's since been pushed considerably further down my ladders of favorites, she will always have a special spot in my heart. :) She was the first fan site I created, the second character I RPed as, and really my window into the X-Men. Much as Kitty was a window for younger readers during the '80s, Jubilee was the young character in the cartoon with whom many of us young girls could relate. We might want to BE Storm, or Rogue, or (God forbid!) even Jean, but we could RELATE to Jubilee.





That really came home when I started reading the comics, with the Phalanx Covenant being what ended up getting me permanently hooked instead of just reading some things I didn't quite fully comprehend yet desperately looking for more of these characters I either already loved from the cartoon, was trying to RP as in (I can now see although I could not at the time) an equally desperate bid to connect with people who shared my interests, or had come across and just thought were freaking fantastic (Nightcrawler). I was not really hooked until the Phalanx Covenant, where Emma, Jubilee, Sean, and yes, even Victor Creed blew me away. Of the four of them, I can remember thinking that I would love to BE more like any of the three adults, but even in the Phalanx Covenant, the only one I could truly see myself as was Jubie.






The Generation X movie hooked even more, and hooked me on pairing her with Skin. I also adored her brief romance with Robin (Tim Drake) in DC versus Marvel, and admittedly it was part of what led me to that fiasco with that certain Brazilian (first "husband"). I did something then that I really wish I hadn't, but then I can no more undo those wasted years than I can undo the wasted years with the second "husband"/my molester and abuser. But again, this isn't about me. It's about the character. :) As I said, Jubilee was a window into the X-Men for the '90s kids, myself included.






It actually took me some years before I realized that she is Chinese American, and when I did, I thought that was another ultra cool aspect of her character. I still use one of her most reknowned quotes to this day, "I'm shocked, capital 'SH'." I ADORED her relationship with Wolverine, and wish that they'd bring that into the comics again (hopefully, they will soon with them being part of the same team again in the current Uncanny X-Men series), and of those characters I'd most like to see resurrected is definitely Angelo Espinosa. I would LOVE to see more of her relationship with Skin, and No One, absolutely NO ONE, can convince me that romance did not happen between them when they were living in LA after Generation X's disbandment.

Speaking of, this girl has been through some SERIOUS TRAGEDY and has become another very strong female leader in her own right. (For those who may have missed it, and/or are just now getting to know the character, she did lead her own team back in the X-Men series of around 2013 or so -- it was another subscription Daddy got for me -- that was comprised entirely of female X-Men. Bobby did join them later on, but at first, the whole book was intended to be just about the X-Women. This was during the time that Jubilee had lost her powers, and right after she got Shogo. She also became a Vampire at some point around this same time, before she got her powers back. I hated the fact that she'd had her powers stripped (do NOT get me started on that whole M Day fiasco!), but I quickly grew to love her character again in both this series and the later, second run of Generation X. Again, like Kitty, Jubilee has definitely become a leader in her own right.





But back to the tragedy -- She lost her parents at an early age, saw them gunned down, at, like, thirteen. (Although I HAVE always wanted a chance to be a mall rat -- and have never had the fortune to live close enough to one, and now those days are admittedly primarily gone -- because of her!) She lived in the mall for a while, both fending for herself and helping other homeless kids. She followed the X-Men through a portal in that same mall, and found Wolverine left for dead hanging on a cross by the Reavers. Then, later, she loses Angelo in much the same one, she and he both being among a number of mutants who were kidnapped by the FOH and hung as martyrs on the Xavier's lawn. She also lost her first serious crush, Everett Thomas aka Synch, whom she first bonded during the Phalanx Covenant at the hands of a teacher. It's no wonder, with all her experiences, she has become such a strong and tough leader and has such a close bond with Wolverine.





And it's no wonder I've become such a strong woman myself, in large thanks to Jubilee and the other X-Women. :)





Please note that the following is VERY image-filled (heavy loading) and still under construction! This text will disappear once this post is "finished", but I'm probably going to return to it at later dates to add stuff. :)

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