As good as X-Men ’97 may be, there’s a major problem with its portrayal of Jubilee. I grew up with the X-Men, and I’ve always believed Jubilee was one of their most underrated members. One of Marvel’s many Wolverine sidekicks in the comics, Jubilee has always been so much more than her powers; she’s streetwise and savvy, a skilled fighter who’s actually more than a little afraid of her powers. That’s because she can technically split the atom.
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You’d think, then, that I’d be pleased with X-Men ’97 Season 2, episode 2, which finally gave Jubilee the Gambit treatment and showed just what she’s capable of. The story saw Jubilee join Cable’s new X-Force unit, and she wound up captured by X-Factor. Unsurprisingly, she quickly talked Polaris into letting her go, and she cut loose to spectacular effect. It was Jubilee’s finest moment in animation… but there’s just one problem.
X-Men ’97 Has Combined Jubilee With Another Superhero
Let me introduce you to Tabitha Smith. A streetwise skater girl noted for wearing shades, she possesses the power to generate powerful plasma explosives. She’s run through a lot of different codenames and costumes over the years, once sharing Jubilee’s yellow and red colorscheme, but she’s best known as Boom Boom. Tabitha is a member of Cable’s original X-Force team in the comics, someone who Cable could be confident of because he’d trained her personally. Oh, and at one point she also dated Sunspot.
You may be beginning to see my problem here. The comic book version of Jubilee has nothing at all to do with X-Force, was never trained by Cable, and never dated Sunspot. The writers of X-Men ’97 gave Jubilee her best episode to date, by basically copy-pasting her onto a completely different character. Even some of the snark felt like Boom Boom to me. As much as I enjoyed seeing Jubilee taken seriously for once, it was more than a little odd knowing Marvel pulled it off by turning her into someone else. As cool as this episode is, X-Men ’97 subtly gets Jubilee wrong.
X-Men ’97 Still Gets So Much of Jubilee Right
What makes this even more annoying, though, is the fact X-Men ’97 gets so much right about Jubilee. The original animated series used her as an audience surrogate; a new mutant who met the X-Men as soon as her powers triggered (albeit after a Sentinel attack). We discovered the X-Men’s world through her eyes. And that’s the approach Marvel take in X-Men ’97 Season 2, because Jubilee is the lens through which we understand this post-X-Men world. She’s the lens.
One particular scene stood out; Jubilee objecting as Cable and Archangel kill one of Apocalypse’s Horsemen, War. This is Jubilee at her best, an ordinary human being reminding Cable of what is right – and his decision to ignore her, to have Archangel execute War anyway, says exactly what kind of team he’s really running. When Jubilee rescues X-Factor’s prisoners, she’s doing so as an audience surrogate, showing the priorities we as viewers would want to have. It was wonderful.
I found myself reminded a little of Scott Lobdell and Joe Bennett’s Generation X #26, one of my favorite issues from the ’90s. Part of the build-up to the “Operation: Zero Tolerance” event, this saw Jubilee breaking free from Bastion’s prison. She demonstrated tremendous skill, breaking out with a minimum of effort, but she took her enemies by surprise; she chose to hold back, saving a guard’s life even though it meant she would be recaptured. In so doing, she planted the seeds of doubt in Bastion’s allies – not because of her power or skill, but because of her compassion.
Jubilee’s Role in X-Men ’97 Shows the Part She Has to Play
I do have hope that X-Men ’97 will move Jubilee into something a little closer to her traditional role, hopefully lessening the Boom Boom copycat approach. That’s because of the rescue she committed Cable to – specifically, to one child she rescued. The mutant child named “Maggie” is lifted from Alex Ross’ unforgettable Marvels series, which retold the first years of the Marvel Universe through the eyes of an everyday journalist. Maggie was a symbolic character, representing the innocence of childhood, and it’s wonderful to see Jubilee engineer her rescue.
Cable fights against Apocalypse. Jubilee isn’t with him because she wants to beat En Sabah Nur, though; she wants to protect the vulnerable, which drives her rescue. Maggie in particular stands as a symbol of everything Jubilee wants to defend, the innocence of childhood and the right of children to live unafraid despite their differences. Ultimately, X-Men ’97 will need to showcase Jubilee by revealing she’s far more than a skilled warrior trained by Cable; she’s a direct challenge to him, because she hasn’t lost herself in the fog of war.
The first three episodes of X-Men ’97 are streaming now on Disney+, and new episodes will be released weekly. Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
