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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.
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