You may remember last month when I wrote an article explaining how I had done a deep dive into books that, allegedly, featured my favorite comic book heroine, Jubilation Lee of the X-Men.

Its ended up being a mixed bag of an affair. Some of the comics I bought featured her heavily, others barely utilized her at all. But hey: at least I got some books to read out of the experiment!

Well, as predicted a month ago, I am back. I’ve done even more Jubilee-based shopping in the last week or so, having gone to a whole new comic shop in the process (New Dimensions Comics in Cranberry Township, PA) to help supplement my collection after I got all that I could from my local shop (New Dimension Comics in Homestead, PA).

Luckily the new shop is just minutes away from where I play trivia on Tuesday nights, so it was an easy and convenient travel to get there. But what all did I end up getting and how did they work out? Well, let’s see…

Uncanny X-Men #25

Writer and Artist: Gail Simone, David Marquez, and Luciano Vecchio

Notes: This is part 3 of the recent Uncanny X-Men story where the Louisiana-based team is attacked by Marvel’s versions of monster characters. I bought parts 1 and 2 and reviewed them last article. I’ve been keeping up with Simone’s run on Uncanny only on-and-off from the start, because it does occasionally do the thing I hate when X-books do: massive, multi-title crossovers.

Jubilee?: Yeah, she’s here, but this arc really promised more of her presence based around the idea that she would be tempted/threatened with being turned into a vampire again. Instead, it went more like this: Morbius: “Do you want to be a vampire again?”; Jubilee: “No.” *blasts him*. Rogue and the new characters Simone created for the X-Men to babysit are clearly her favorite children in this run.

Story: It’s revealed that Lady Darkhold–the former Agatha Timly–is behind everything and controlling the actions of the monster characters who are usually more heroic/neutral in their affairs. The dragon that Gambit got the Left Eye Of Agamotto from makes a return. The good guys win out.

Uncanny X-Men volume 1 #423-424

Writer and Artist: Chuck Austen, Ron Garney, and a slew of inkers.

Notes: The first book, #423, has a special promotional cover price of 25 cents, but as a back issue, my comic shop was selling it for an extravagant $4.50!

Jubilee?: She is in #423, but not #424. She’s mostly reduced to playing a victim AGAIN, but it focuses on her relationship with Wolverine, which is always nice to see.

Story: After several young mutants–including Ms. Lee–are attacked and crucified by a religious hate group, the X-Men gather for a revenge mission in this two-parter! Jubilee and most of the other kids recover, but this is notable for seeing the death of Angelo Espinosa, the Generation X hero known as Skin. His power was always awkward, anyway. Hey, did he ever come back from the dead? Let’s look… He did! He was revived on Krakoa when EVERYONE could be brought back from the dead! I wonder how he felt knowing YEARS passed since he was killed? Anyway, the X-Men fight the baddies and win the day.

X-Men volume 1 #157

Writer and Artist: Chuck Austen, Salvador Larroca, and Danny Miki

Notes: It’s offhandedly mentioned here that Juggernaut–currently an X-Man during this run–has never killed anyone. And… really? Like he may not have ever punched anyone to death on-panel, but you’re telling me none of his rampages ever incidentally killed anyone? I don’t buy it.

Jubilee?: I mean, she is in one panel, AND she has a line of dialogue. So it’s something. I was told by the Marvel Fandom page that this was the issue where Jubes is re-assigned away from the teams due to the stress she was under, but that’s not what happens. Maybe they had the issue number wrong?

Story: This is a downtime issue between crises for the mutant heroes, and it’s about the school recruiting new mutants and getting ready for Cyclops to shuffle up the team rosters. There’s a funny line from Wolverine where everyone is complaining about the new rosters, and he says “I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I can’t be on every team!”.

X-Men Unlimited #34

Writer and Artist: Several, but primarily Ken Siu-Chong, Christina Chen, and Jo Chen

Notes: Hoo boy! Well on the positive side of things, this is a Jubilee story written and drawn by AAPI talent, which I really dig. If I’M not writing Jubes, I guess it’s the best we can hope for. One down side, it’s got some dialogue that might not fly today, as Jubilee is in Hollywood cast as a prostitute in a role, and Skin rants at her that she is playing “a slut!”. Don’t slut-shame, Angelo! Also, sex workers aren’t sluts just because of their profession.

Jubilee?: Yes! She gets her own short story here AND the cover feature! Even if that’s the strangest looking Jubilee I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s still her.

Story: Well, there are three. One focuses on Emma Frost, one on Sunfire, and one on Jubilation. The Jubilee story is about her and Skin moving to Hollywood so Jubilee could focus on a post-Generation X career in acting. She has an agent and everything. She keeps blowing off hanging out with Skin for her acting roles, even as she is only being cast in stereotypical Asian performances. She and Angelo have a big blow-up when she is cast as a prostitute, and… can we talk for a second, X-Men Unlimited #34? Jubilee was 15 years old during the Generation X run, which directly preceded this. She was 17 when she was turned into a vampire, which was a ways after this. So let’s be GENEROUS and say she is 16 here. They are casting a 16 year old as a sex worker? That seems unethical. Anyway, Jubes grows uncomfortable with the role, then her agent comes on to her. So she blasts him in the face. Then she goes home and makes up with Skin.

Nation X #2

Writer and Artist: Again, several, but for our purposes, they are CB Cebulski, Jim McCann, Mike Choi, and Sonia Oback.

Notes: I’m pretty sure that this was the last Jubilee story written before the infamous one that would see her turned into a vampire.

Jubilee?: Yes! And she’s on the cover again! Nation X is mini-series which was another series of short stories, each dedicated to one X-character or another. Again, Jubes gets the opening tale.

Story: A de-powered, post-M-Day Jubilee greets a gathering of younger mutants outside of Utopia, and they all bond for a bit. Someone called Nori–I don’t know who she is–shows up and antagonizes Jubilee about not being a mutant anymore. Then Jubes gives a speech and lets everyone head home. She struggles throughout the issue in the back of her mind writing a letter to Logan before eventually finalizing it and sending it off to him in Utopia.

New Warriors volume 4, #14-20

Writer and Artist: Kevin Gevioux writes all of these, and there are several different artists across the run: Koi Turnbull, Reilly Brown, and Casey Jones.

Notes: This stretch of New Warriors ends with confirmation that Jubilee and the others all got to keep their armor and weapons from this run. So she still has her Wondra gear somewhere! Why wouldn’t she keep wearing it? You can make explosions AND be super-strong, Jubes! This is why I should be writing Marvel Comics. Also, I have issues #1-13 of this run in TPB already.

Jubilee?: Yes, as she is the second most important character of this iteration of the New Warriors, behind Night Thrasher.

Story: Taking place during and after Marvel’s Civil War, this title saw Night Thrasher’s younger brother Donyell take up his mantle and lead a team opposed to Tony Stark’s pro-registration side of things. Jubilee and Jonothon Starsmore are part of this group, both de-powered since M-Day, and Jubes is second-in-command. Despite this, she spends the entire series wildly distrustful of Thrasher. These issues wrap up the tale where the heroes fight some Secret Invasion skulls, then get blasted to the future where Tony Stark has seemingly set up a fascist utopia.

Ultimate Spider-Man collection volume #13

Writer and Artist: Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley

Notes: As of buying this trade, I am one trade away (#19) from owning the entire Ultimate Spider-Man run up through Ultimate Peter’s death. It’s one of my absolute favorite runs in comics history.

Jubilee?: Nope! But none is promised, either. I just bought this because, as I said in the Notes, I’m so close to owning this entire stretch.

Story: Harry Osborn returns to cause dysfunction and mayhem in Peter’s life. It’s quickly revealed that Harry is super fucking crazy, seeing people that aren’t there, and able to transform into a goblin monster like his father against his will. Through all of this, Pete breaks up with Mary Jane because he’s living in dire fear that her inability to be careful will get her killed.

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You know, between comics and trades that I currently own, previously owned, or have on digital format, I’ve really got just about the entirety of Jubilee’s catalogue at this point. There’s precious little else for me to go out there and collect anymore. I feel like I’ve accomplished a goal.

And now I have… just… so many comics I need to put away and organize. Not just the ones from these two articles, but others I’ve been holding onto for a while. I’m… not looking forward to having to do this.

But that’s my problem, and I’ll sort it out!

Until next time… take care!